Chinese community presents gala talent show

If you lived in Shanghai or Chongqing, or virtually anywhere in China, you would celebrate the arrival of the new year and of the spring season by displaying your skill as a singer, dancer, puppeteer or anything else in a talent show.

That tradition is alive and well at UW–Madison. Members of the campus Chinese community will offer just such a talent show on Sunday, Jan. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater, 800 Langdon St.

Organized by UW–Madison’s Chinese Student and Scholar Association, the festival will illuminate the culture, according to CSSA director Fangjun Tang.

“Whether celebrated in China or Madison, our new year’s talent show demonstrates our culture, which dates back more than 2,000 years,” says Tang, a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience.

According to the Chinese calendar, 2004 will be a year of the monkey, which symbolizes vitality, energy and … mischief. The new year, 4701, will begin on Thursday, Jan. 22. Families usually spend the first two days visiting, and most people return to work on the fourth day. Activities wrap on the 15th day, the Lantern Festival, which coincides with the first full moon of the new year.