Dancers performing a traditional dance with fans. Photo by Kristy Yang.
The Lunar New Year festival took place on Jan. 30, 2016 in the Jenkins Auditorium. The festival started at 1 p.m. and went on until 5 p.m. Many people in the Malden community came to the show, including Mayor Gary Christenson.
The first performance was the Lion Dance which was said to scare “Nian,” a monster from Chinese mythology. Group dances included “Ballet of Spring,” performed by the Winchester Chinese School Dance as well as CCC’s art performance troupe dancing to the songs “Song of Liu Yang River” and “Beautiful North River.” Members from the Malden Senior Center danced to the song “Moonlight on the Lotus Pond,” and MHS students Chon Huynh, Sally Zhang, and Derick Yu performed modern dances to Korean songs. In addition, MHS’s dance group Airbound made an appearance followed by Chinese folk dances such as“The Last Emperor” and “Blue Fan” danced by the students of Chu Ling Dance Academy.
Solos included an erhu solo which is a two-stringed bowed musical instrument that was performed by the Boston Erhu Ensemble student Wu Fei Ge as well as Amy Li, an eleven year old who has won many prizes, singing a solo song called “I Am A Little Bird.” A guzheng, a plucked string instrument, was played by Rachel Huo who is a member of the Boston Chinese Musicians Association. Adding on, there was a solo dance by MHS student Teresa Shi who danced to the song “Kaoru Wada- Affection Touching Across Time II,” a solo that included longhorn, mantra chanting, a flute solo performed by Penpa Tsering, and Yang Liu who sang “Heavenly Road” and “Happy Mountain Song.”
Among the choral performances were the Newton Chinese School Singing Group that sang “Wusuli Chantey” and “Mother,” Malden Senior Center singing the songs “Best Wishes” and “Family Harmony Brings Happiness,” Students of Little Dragon from the Beebe School singing “Chinese New Year,” and CCC’s arts performance troupe singing “The Beautiful Prairie, My Lovely Home” and “Happy Chinese New Year.” There was a united feeling as they sing together in harmony.
There was a kung fu show performed by Wah Lum Kung Fu and Tai Chi Academy and a Tai Chi Sword
demonstration performed by the Malden Senior Center. Following these acts was a violin performance by the Students of Little Dragon at Beebe performing the songs “Two Tigers”, “Happy New Year” and “When We Are Together.” Zhi Min Zhao Chinese Music School had an instrumental show to the song “happiness” and “Whipping the Horse to Go Faster.” After this there was a Beijing opera performing a section of “Red Lantern” and “The Way to be” by Cici Cao. Last but not least, there were two fashion shows, one by the Sunset Fashion Group and one by MHS students.
The Lunar New Year Festival was an overall success as it displayed captivating performances for all of the audience to enjoy.
