HEILONGJIANG CHINESE FOLK DANCERS CHARM KENTUCKIANS

by Winny Lin, president of Owensboro/Evansville Chapter

Have you herd the new saying, “The world has become flat!”?  That is definitely true, when it came to Chinese New Year celebration in Owensboro, Kentucky.  A group of Chinese folk dancers came all the way from Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province to help the Kentuckians celebrate the Year of the Dog.  They brought their beautiful art form, charmed their American friends, and bridged geographic distances.

            On the Chinese New Year’s Day, Jan. 29, Sunday, four dancers from Heilongjiang School of Performing Arts arrived in Owensboro, and performed an hour of 8 different ethnic dances to a sold out audience at First Presbyterian Church.  Many people drove from the neighboring cities, Evansville, Henderson, and Newburgh, to experience the joyful cultural event.  Among 200 guests, many were American families with their adopted Chinese girls.  All the children present that night received a red lucky envelope with one Chinese RMB from Owensboro Mayor Tom Watson and First Presbyterian Church pastor, Rev. Jonathan Carroll.  A traditional Chinese dinner was catered by a local Chinese restaurant, House of Canton. As the mayor presented the key to the city, the group also opened the hearts of Kentuckians!

            The next two days, Jan. 30, and Jan. 31, the dance  troupe visited 8 different schools in Owensboro and Lewisport, Kentucky, which included Audubon, , East View, Sorgho, Tamarack, North Hancock Elementary Schools, Burns Middle School,  Daviess County Middle School, and Daviess County High School. Over 5000 students have been introduced to the Chinese folk dances and fell in love with the slim and beautiful dancers, their lively music, exquisite colorful costumes, and the  intriguing dance steps.

            Heilongjiang School of Performing Arts is located in Harbin, home of the world renowned Ice Sculpture Festival. The school offers classes of Beijing opera performance, Chinese traditional dance performance, international standard dance, wind band and keyboard instrument performance, and painting. It has 156 teachers and 2285 students.  During their Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) break, Cal Jin-zheng, president of the performing arts school and the choreographer, Qiao Liang, accompanied four dance students, 3 female and 1 male, to visit Kentucky.  Their friend from their hometown, Hong Shao, event coordinator of University of Kentucky Singletary Performing Center, brought them to Owensboro at the invitation of USCPFA Owensboro/Evansville Chapter.

            The dance troupe presented a captivating performance of a collection of dances from China.  The repertoire consists of   dances representing several people and geographic location of 56 Chinese ethnic races.           

            The first dance, “Shao Duo Li”, represents Dai minority people who live in the southwest part of China.  The title of this traditional Dai folk dance means “young girl” in the Dai language. The tight skirts the dancers wear are a traditional costume. In spite of the tight skirts, these dancers were extraordinarily lively—making animated and exaggerated eye movements, various jumps, hops and bends and engaging smiles.  With their props—a red flower and a long stick, three gorgeous Chinese teenage dancers opened their performance with a bang.

            “A Ga Mu” is a traditional Yi folk dance.  Yi minority people live in the mountains in southwest China.  They have their unique culture, traditions, especially costumes and dances.  The Yi people worship fire.  The colorful skirt and the head decoration are particular characteristics of the Yi people.  The pleasurable music, the brisk rhythm, and the happy Yi girl dancing with her bright skirt deliver a cheerful emotion and bright visualization.

            The only male dancer in the group presented “A Lovely Rose” which represents the Kazakhs people in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.  The people are famous for their fierce love of freedom, skillful horse riding, and singing and dancing.  Their dance usually employs techniques such as “shoulder movements” and “horse steps” with strong rhythm.  In this piece, a young man dances while playing the Kazakhs traditional music instrument, Dongbula,  to express his love.

            Other dances included Korean Fan Dance, Bowl Dance, Danquing and Fan Dance, and Dance of a Mongolian Girl. The finale is award-winning “Spring Festival” which is a special dance for Chinese New Year celebration.  The performers in bright yellow, green, red costumes tossed, twirled their color-matching handkerchiefs to create waves, flowers, butterflies and other forms for a fantastic display. Last, they threw their handkerchiefs like rapid flying saucers to the screaming audience, and gave Chinese souvenirs when the lucky ones return their handkerchiefs.  The lively dance gave quite a stir and excitement before they concluded their thrilling performance.

            The performers consisted of three 17-yr-old female dance students and one 20-yr-old male dancer.  During their 3-day stay in Owensboro, they have made friends with the teenagers in their American host family, watched a high school dance team performing at a basketball game, and tasted a variety of American foods.  Ice cream and salads were among their favorites.  They also enjoyed communicating with American teenagers through sign language and a talking dictionary.

On the flipping side of the coin, the Americans were amazed by the variety of Chinese folk dances and learned that China is as multicultural as the United States of America. 

            What a good cultural experience!

All children present at dinner time received a red envelope with lucky money. Owensboro RiverPark Center Diversity Committee gave out Chinese currency ten, five, two, and one RMBs. All 150 red packets were given away.

After the dinner program, the world famous Chinese Golden Dragon Acrobats performed an extraordinary show to an almost full-house audience. The RiverPark Center can host up to 1,500 people in its concert hall. On a school night, children and adults alike were still wooing and ahing after 9:00pm over the unbelievable acrobats. That was amazing! The whole Owensboro community has learned to celebrate Chinese New Year, and in a grand style!

Winny

When it was first established, Winny Lin, president of Owensboro/Evansville chapter of USCPFA, called around and started with 12 students that included the adopted Chinese girls and American children in the church congregation who would study Chinese as a second language. She also asked church youth to serve as helpers and mentors since these children were as young as 2 years old.

Through the past two years, some children left but more have joined. Now the class has average 25 to 30 students. There were still these adopted Chinese girls, but children from local Chinese immigrants, American children and adults who are interested in Chinese language and culture, and couples who are getting ready to adopt all came and joined for an hour of fun activities every other Saturday. Not only that, we have become an extended family that have had many happy social events together such as picnic, Christmas party, baby shower, Moon Festival, Chinese New Year celebration, Multi-cultural Festival, Charity Ball etc.

Winny Lin, teacher of the class, has been teaching at Tamarack Elementary School of Daviess County Public Schools for 28 years. Her own children have also studied Suzuki violin. Now she has applied what she learned in teaching Chinese language and culture to her class. She made cassette tapes for each student, so they can listen to the tape at night, in the car, when they have nothing to distract them. Parents are encouraged to stay with their children during class since the youngest is only a little over one year old. The class is multi-aged from 1 to adults. Therefore, Mrs. Lin tries to differentiate requirements for different groups. The younger kids will emphasize the language part, while the older students learn more handwriting.

Right now, the class is following Biao Zhun Zhong Wen Book I and using pinyin.

11:00am

1. qi li, jin li, and zuo xia(That is Chinese custom to have students stand up, bow to the teacher, and then sit down.)

2. Mrs. Lin calls the roll, everybody counts in Chinese how many students present. When students hear their name, they practice saying present in Chinese.

3. Five minutes of practice on conversational Chinese phrases,

4. Chinese songs or games.

5. Lesson I Read the lesson many times, practice sentence pattern, apply in conversation with a partner.

6. Writing Practice writing characters.

7. culture We talked about the origin of Dragon Boat Festival , ate tzungtzu, a special kind of sticky rice dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves, did The Story of White Snake skit, watched a video of dragon boat race.

In the last few minutes of class time, we always have parents bring snack and drink for the students. On June 1, 2002, a parent brought Chinese noodles and ice cream cake for her son s birthday, so everybody enjoyed a delicious lunch and dessert. Picture I shows Mrs. Lin teaches the class, and picture 2 indicates that students were enjoying their food. Food always brings people together and makes us happy!

8. The teacher dismisses the class. Everybody stands up, bows, and says, good-by in Chinese.

After class, it is social time for the students and parents. Children play together, while the parents connect, exchange ideas, or just talk. This lasts about an hour before the last ones leave.