A Strange Night ....

Last night our family went to the rescheduled Chinese New Year's celebration over at the University of DE. Now, I'm all for exposing my kids to culture, but I'll admit the reason for this venture was because Daniel's Kung Fu school would be participating, and Daniel would be on stage with the group showing off their prowess with their "Arrowhand Set". The festivities were kicked off with a fantastic Lion Dance (like a Chinese Dragon), complete with big drums and all, performed by some of the higher-ups at Daniel's school.
After that, things slowed to a droning halt when the MCs went through a long list of who-all they wanted to thank and recognize for the evening's events. Including Ping and his twin brother Ming. They ended by saying, "Unfortunately, we cannot thank everyone individually ..."
Honestly, I think we were the only ones there not thanked.

They went on to showcase some dancers and musical performers that were at times incredible, at times .... really strange. Including an older woman who seemed like a VIP and was simply God-awful first on the violin and then with her torturing performance on the mandolin when she played Turkey in the Straw. You know, the culturally relevant number Turkey in the Straw.

One of the funniest parts of the evening was when the Mayor of Newark took the stage to make some remarks. Dressed like an 80s preppy with a navy blazer and whales on his pants and looking very distinguished with his silver locks, he opened his mouth to reveal his terribly strong Philly accent, hon. He had a gift for the president of the sponsoring society and he pulled it out of a run-down looking red shopping bag. He went on to say that he was going to bring a white bag but his wife told him he'd better be politically correct and bring the red bag. He then thanked the Chinese people for naming their New Year after his cat, Tiger. He finally commented on just how nice the Chinese students were and how glad he was to have them in hs community. Said he sees them around town, "Riding their bicycles, walking ... just really ... nice".

As probably the only white people in the audience, we did feel a bit left out of the loop when the MCs would banter with each other in Chinese and the audience would just laugh and laugh.

But it was .... interesting. And fun. And we shared a lot of laughs on the car ride out to get Dairy Queen afterwards.

To Daniel: great job on yours and your school's performance last night.
To the Chinese people: a happy and prosperous year of the tiger.
To my family: thanks for allowing me to expose you to a little culture without threatening mutiny.