To commemorate the 2021 Lunar New Year, UCI held a virtual celebration for both staff and students on Feb. 8. The three-hour event hosted four unique virtual events and a virtual exhibition that showcased different aspects of the university, including UCI’s Alumni Association and Humanities Center.
Multiple other departments of UCI participated in the virtual exhibition. Some of the exhibitions that were included were UCI’s Long U.S.-China Institute, UCI Chinese Alumni Chapter and UCI’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts 2021 Lunar New Year Dance Exhibition.
The first event of the evening was a webinar about the history of Chinese medicine in the U.S. Author of “Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace” Tamara Venit-Shelton and UCI professor of modern Chinese history Emily Baum were the main speakers of the presentation.
There was also a small segment with UCI anthropology professor Mei Zhan, who praised Venit-Shelton’s book and gave her own comments about how well Venit-Shelton wrote about the history of Chinese medicine in America.
“There are many wonderful things about this book … Tamara [Venit-Shelton] doesn’t pitch Chinese medicine against western medicine … [Venit-Shelton] makes a detailed and vivid account of the lives of these Chinese practitioners and doctors,” Zhan said about Venit-Shelton.
After Zhan’s comments, the webinar moved into a Q&A session where Venit-Shelton and Baum answered any questions the audience asked.
Following the webinar was UCI’s official Lunar New Year celebration of 2021, which showcased the New Year traditions of the dragon dance and the feeding of the lions. Both of these traditions include costumes of the animals they are associated with; the dragon dance has multiple performers instructing a dragon prop to appear as if it was dancing while the feeding of the lions includes two performers who wear a lion costume and strut around the area. The way one is supposed to “feed” the lions is by placing money into a red envelope and inserting it into the costume’s mouth.
Dean of the School of Social Sciences Bill Maurer opened the event with the history of the Lunar New Year festival on campus as well as some advice to inspire students for 2021.
“Although it’s not the same as wandering the stalls, smelling and eating the delicious food, watching dances and other performances … I hope that what we prepared for you this afternoon can help rekindle that spirit of positivity … and help us trudge forward collectively together for this holiday and this new year,” Maurer said.
One of the first performances of the event was a duet from Grammy Award-winning artist Abigail Washburn and world-famous guzheng musician Wu Fei, who shared a collaborative performance that mixed both of their Appalachian and Chinese cultures.
“We hope that with all of our hearts that in the near future we’ll be able to be back in person to share our music with you again,” Washburn said.
After the performance, the event was turned over to the Dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts Stephen Barker, who discussed the East Meets West international dance and music festival with dance professors Tong Wang and Lisa Naugle, in which UCI students alongside other universities in China took the stage to celebrate the Lunar New Year.
“We’ve developed many important friendships and it’s been a fantastic opportunity for the students and facility … [now] we can share the events with all of you,” Naugle said.
Continuing the dancing fever, UCI students from the Konnect K-pop Aspiring Performers (KKAP) danced to popular songs from the K-pop band, Red Velvet.
After the dancing, the attention was turned to Director of Travel Trade Development Brian Chuan, who showcased South Coast Plaza’s Lunar New Year decorations. Finally, the celebration closed with a showing of traditional firecrackers and fireworks lighting a night sky.
“Happy New Year from all of us at the School of Social Sciences and UC Irvine and thank you so much for joining us for our virtual celebration this year,” Maurer said.
The third event to kick off the Lunar New Year season was a segment of the Anteater Test Kitchen, where chef Jessica VanRoo taught the viewers how to make proper Chinese dumplings and potstickers. She talked about the history of how dumplings were made, where they originated from and what the ingredients consisted of — both in the past and present.
“Here is your childhood in two different ways … have a great year, happy Chinese new year,” VanRoo said after she showed off her freshly made potstickers.
The last event of the celebration was a presentation by Reed College professor of Chinese and humanities Hyong Rhew, who showcased a virtual version of the world’s oldest oracle, “I-Ching.” “I-Ching,” also known as “Yi Jing,” is a book of “Chinese wisdom” that allows “spiritual guidance and inspirational insight,” UCI’s university librarian Lorelei Tanji, who spoke on behalf of the UCI Libraries to showcase “I-Ching” in the East Asian collection, said.
Rhew discussed the importance of ancient Chinese divination and showed a ritual of “I Ching” divination. Chinese divination is a religious aspect of Chinese culture in which one is able to see and understand the future. The ancient method of achieving divination is to go through a process of sorting 50 stalks of a plant, which Rhew showed step-by-step so that the audience members of the event could do the ritual at home.
Rhew went on to explain the premises of early readings of the “I Ching.” Afterwards, there was a short Q&A session where Rhew answered any questions he was asked over the course of the presentation.
“Join me in a final thank you to our speaker, professor Hyong Rhew … thank you all for coming and have a nice evening,” Tanji said at the end of the webinar.
Kealani Quijano is a Campus News Intern for the Winter 2021 quarter. She can be reached at kaquijan@uci.edu
