UCI Chinese Students Association CSSA Hosts 2019 Spring Festival Gala on campus

by admin · Published February 3, 2019 · Updated February 5, 2019

CSSA-UCI president Chenghao Zhuang (Left 4) with his team welcome guests

UC Irvine Chinese students celebrated Lunar New Year on February 3rd evening on campus with the annual Spring Festival Gala, hosted by the UCI Chinese Student and Scholar Association (CSSA). The event featured with bands and rappers in Chinese, as well as modern dance and traditional Chinese music instruments playing.

The Spring Festival Gala has grown over the years, incorporating more performances and drawing more people. This year the event was held in Bren Event Center and about 1200 people attended. CSSA-UCI invited Chinese student’s associations’ leaders from all over the southern California area to join in the celebration.

The only invited music group led by Andy Yang, Bay Area Based Hip Hop Artist, is one of the most excited part in the Gala. Andy Yang won the Champion of :China Has Hip-Hop” north America. He rocked the gala.

As guests entered the theater, they received a raffle ticket, a red pocket with local business coupons.

According to CSSA-UCI president Chenghao Zhuang (senior ECON student from China Guangdong) said: We are international students here. Our parents are in China, and we basically study abroad here alone. It’s a good time to gather people together, hope the gala bring the joy and family feel to all the students at UCI. “The Spring Festival Gala is a show to recall our memory for our country,” Zhuang said. “We are very thankful for all Chinese students who prepare for this show. Everyone is great in this show, actors, actresses, even the audience. I think it’s great.”

First year accounting graduate student Huihua Mi said, haven’t been with family for spring festival from undergraduate years till now, the spring gala really bring us not the entertainment but the homesick relief, celebrating Chinese New Year this way gives the feeling of being back at home.

A local student told us: The combine cultures at the Gala by dancing to rap and traditional Chinse free styles helped to bridge the cultural gap and give American students the opportunity to learn about real Chinese culture.

Chinese Students and Scholars Association at UCI (CSSA-UCI) was founded 26 years ago. Not only the largest international students body on the campus but one of the largest Chinese community on Orange County with more than 8000 members now.

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Per Reader request: “An earlier version of this news miswrote ‘rapper’. We apologize for the influence to the rappers listed below: Yicheng Chi, Chen106, Daiwei Chen, Sumiao Chen, Franklin Xie.”

Director: Xianyi He

Hosts Shunjie Jia, Xiayue Pan, Jiaxiang Wang, Yue Zhang

Gala director: Xianyi He

Band Playing by: Jay, Ivan, CK, Annalise, Richard, Alice, ZG

Modern Dance: “In Motion”

From Past to Present – Instruments in the Modern Era by Chinese Zither, Chinese Lute, Violin, Chinese Violin (Erhu), Performers: Zhaoli Yin, Lola Zhang, Lucia Liu, William Huang, Aidan dong.