HOUGHTON - The Year of the Dragon will be celebrated Friday at Michigan Technological University and the public is invited to join.
"Chinese Night: Year of the Dragon" will be hosted by the Chinese Students and Scholars Association with a performance at 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts.
"We've held this event for five years now," said Zhi Zhang, a student who is working with the event. "It's open to the public."
"Chinese Night: Year of the Dragon" celebrates the Chinese Spring Festival, the most important festival when family members get together. The event falls on the first day of the first lunar month, often two months later than the Gregorian calendar, Zhang said.
"It's just like Christmas in the West," he said.
Zhang described the performance "rich and varied," consisting of 15 programs. CSSA is part of a three month process to assemble 24 American universities and 500 people to produce a "Happy New Year" video to welcome the New Year.
"We have designed a fashionable Kung Fu Show which will have LED nunchakus show and Shaolin Temple's Tiger fist position performance," he said.
The event will feature a humorous talk show by the Chinese Language and Culture Club at Michigan Tech and Chinese dances will be featured, as dances are used in Chinese tradition.
"We are going to have two Chinese dances, one of which will be followed by an old, but well-known story, Chinese "Butterfly Lovers," Zhang said. "We'll have one dance, which includes about eight Americans and others are traditional Chinese dances. We want to share our culture."
Chinese Night will also feature five singing performances and a chorus with more than 20 people. There will be two bands and two programs featuring singing and piano accompaniment, he said.
"As a large organization, Chinese Students and Scholars Association, we are continuing to meticulously produce our annual biggest event, Chinese New Year Gala for the Year of the Dragon," Zhang said. "We have already prepared this fantastic performance about three months and it will be rich and unforgettable."
Zhang said a dinner will be held before the event at Ming's Asian Bistro in Houghton. To take part in the dinner, Zhang asked that participants bring the performance ticket to Ming's Asian Bistro all day before 6 p.m. Friday. Participants will only need to pay an additional fee to enjoy the 10 special festival dishes in the buffet dinner.
Tickets can be purchased by calling 487-2073, visiting rozsa.tickets.mtu.edu or visiting the Ticketing Operations at the Student Development Complex.