Thursday, February 15, 2007 Older Editions

Bringing cultures together in celebration

By Michelle Wiener
What's Up contributor

The Chinese New Year will be celebrated this year in Andover by people of different cultures and races.

At Andover High School, the Asian-American Culture Club is selling lucky bamboos as gifts this week.

Co-president and sophomore Katherine Lu explains that luck plays a big role in many Asian cultures, and that bamboo is a common good luck symbol.

Andover High students are involved in the annual Chinese New Year event is taking place tonight, Thursday, at Old Town Hall.

The night will feature pieces performed by children involved in the Chinese Cultural Exchange. Chinese music will played using traditional Chinese instruments and there will be piano pieces of Chinese folk songs as well folk dances by two AHS students.

There will also be a Chinese food buffet dinner for seniors.

Both events bring together Asians and non-Asians in the celebration of the Chinese New Year.

During the first academic semester at AHS, another opportunity allowed interested students to learn more about Chinese culture. The school's first, introductory Chinese language course was taught by Mei Lynn.

This year was a pilot program, and only one class was offered for 29 students on a first-come-first-serve basis, said Lynn. Beginning in the 2007-08 school year, Chinese will become a regular part of the foreign language program at Andover High, and a second-year Chinese language class will be offered.

This year's class brought together students of all races and skill levels, said Lynn. Some students already spoke some Chinese before beginning the class, but many had never studied the language before.

Lynn said she focused on pronunciation and learning to write Chinese characters stroke by stroke. Chinese is a practical language, but she believes students should enjoy learning it.

"You really have to work every day," she says of learning Chinese, but she believes "every language should be fun to learn."

"I think they have fun with me," she joked. "So when they have fun they forget how much time they spend."

Andover High school junior Vicki Chang took the Chinese class last semester to learn the simplified style of Chinese, after studying the traditional style for 10 years.

"The school's starting to see how important it is," she said of Chinese language and culture, which she notes are becoming an even larger part of the global economy.

Chang said many students wanted to take the Chinese class. In both the AHS course and in Chinese bilingual classes at her Chinese school, she saw a mix of Asians and non-Asians interested in learning the language.