CNY@HCI

On the 27th of February, my school, Hwa Chong Institution organized a Chinese New Year celebration specially for scholars. This event allows foreign scholars who did not have the chance to return home during Chinese New Year to gather together and celebrate the Lunar New Year. Although I went back to Malaysia during Chinese New Year, I still participated in this event as I had to perform in two performances. They are the singing of two Chinese New Year songs, "大地回春" and "恭喜恭喜".

Before the event, the teachers had organized several practice sessions for us. My friends and I worked very hard to memorize the lyrics of the songs and to sing harmoniously. After going through all the practice sessions, we were all very glad with our performance and awaited the day of the event with much excitement.

On that day, I woke up 7:45 a.m. in the morning, brushed my teeth, changed into bright coloured clothes, and rushed to the high school drama centre which is just conveniently seated next to my boarding school. After having a final rehearsal, the event started at 10:00 a.m. There were lots of performances, such as plays, dances, soloists, Chinese riddles, game sessions and many more. Although all of this were of high standard, I was certainly most fascinated by the wushu performance by our school's award winning wushu team. There were three of them, each using different weapons. First up was the swordsman. He displayed wonderful poise and balance as he performed several heart-pounding tricks in the air. Next up was the senior holding an old Chinese favourite, the long spear. He was also brilliant in his performance and was exceptionally quick. The speed at which he moved his spear was so quick that I believe he could simultaneously take down numerous opponents in a matter of seconds, truly amazing and spectacular! The last performer relied barely on both his fists and feet. He was very flexible and displayed several high-standard gymnastic stunts. In all, they were simply exquisite.

After the performance ended at 12 noon, everybody who attended the event was treated to lunch. Before we started to eat, we first had the traditional Chinese New Year dish that simply cannot be left out of any celebrations, the prosperous dish - ‘鱼生’. This is a dish that contains lots of ingredients mixed together such as, carrot and reddish strips, crispy crumbs and some sliced fish. A variety of sauces is then added to the dish and everything is mixed together. We then use chopsticks to toss the ‘鱼生’ high up in the air. This is done so as Chinese believe that the higher the ‘鱼生’ is tossed, the more prosperity you will get in that year. Putting aside religious beliefs, it was also very tasty as the perfect combination of everything simply made it irresistible.

The lunch was not half bad, with a variety of dishes. The fact that we were able to gather together with our friends in such a soothing environment and have lunch with them just makes me feel joy and happiness, while helping me set aside the loneliness felt being away from my family.

Overall, I feel that this year's CNY@HCI was a major success and I hope to see more of such events in the future.

Well, this is all I have to share about the party. Hope you have enjoyed this post and please feel free to comment. Goodbye for now and stay on the lookout for further updates.