China Night to Celebrate the Chinese New Year

Contact:
Gwen O’Brien
Director of Media Relations
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, Ind.
(574) 284-4579

January 13, 2012 (Notre Dame, Ind.)—Saint Mary’s College will hold its annual China Night at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, January 28 in O’Laughlin Auditorium. The event, which is free and open to the public, celebrates the Chinese New Year (also known as the Spring Festival), the most significant traditional Chinese holiday. This year the Chinese New Year is January 23. It is the year of the dragon, the symbol of success and happiness. China Night is hosted by the College’s Center for Women’s Intercultural Leadership (CWIL) and three student clubs: The Chinese Cultural Club, the Around the World Club, and the Student Diversity Board. Click for a campus map.

Alice Siqin Yang, CWIL’s assistant director for global education, says the event is a global learning experience for Saint Mary’s students and an opportunity to celebrate the Chinese culture with the South Bend community. “The main purpose of the event is to share and promote Chinese culture on campus, helping students to learn Chinese culture, language, and arts and to improve cultural understanding,” Yang said. “It is becoming more and more important to learn the Chinese language and culture in the interdependent global society that we live in today. China Night is one of our events and efforts for campus internationalization.”

Members of the local Chinese/Chinese-American community help put on China Night. This year, performers include:

• The Granger Chinese Dance Company, which will perform several dances
• Clay High School and Penn High School Mandarin Chinese class students who will dance
• The Lily Dance Troupe, a Chinese community women’s group, who will perform a kung fu fan dance
• A University of Notre Dame student who will do a kung fu stick demonstration
• Saint Mary’s students enrolled in a Mandarin language course and a teaching assistant from China (Fulbright scholar) who will sing
• Chinese international students from Saint Mary's College and the University of Notre Dame who will perform Chinese music with traditional instruments. 

All children and students in attendance will receive a red envelope as a traditional Chinese New Year gift at the event. The evening will also feature information on Saint Mary’s new semester-long opportunity to study abroad in Shanghai and Nanjing and the China Summer Program.

Yang hopes the event will pique young people’s interest in getting more involved with the travel aspect of the Chinese culture. “Saint Mary’s has strengthened its international exchange relations with China. We hope this event will get people interested in Chinese language and culture and that more students will consider the opportunity to study abroad in China – a calling from the American government’s 100K Strong Initative.”

About Saint Mary’s College: Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Ind., is a four-year, Catholic, women’s institution offering five bachelor’s degrees and more than 30 major areas of study. Saint Mary’s College has six nationally accredited academic programs: social work, art, music, teacher education, chemistry and nursing. Saint Mary’s College ranks among the top 100 “Best National Liberal Arts Colleges” for 2012 published by U.S.News and World Report. Founded in 1844, Saint Mary’s is a pioneer in the education of women, and is sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Cross.