During my Sophomore year in high school, I sat down with my beloved Chinese Culture Club adviser to begin planning one of the most significant events our school club has ever held: a townwide Lunar New Year celebration.
I am now a junior at Natick High School, and have been president of the Chinese Culture Club since my sophomore year. In the town of Natick, an unremarkable little suburb a fifth the size of Boston, town-wide holiday recognition only really extends to the big five: Valentine’s Day, Easter, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah and Christmas. Growing up, I was the only Chinese student at my elementary school of 200 students, and even now remain one of the few at my high school. Indeed, with only 7% of the population Asian, cultural representation was, and can still be, hard to come by.
Ironically, the spark that started our festival effort began with a petition for the school board to make the Lunar New Year a school holiday. It failed. Disappointed but undeterred, my adviser and I began thinking of other ways we could teach our community more about the Chinese culture that meant so much to us. Many other towns have had Lunar New Year festivals, we thought, and so came the courage to decide it was time for a proper celebration. Of course, the anticipation and excitement we had didn’t make it any less work, and my adviser and I had pretty big dreams.
Anyone familiar with the televised national New Year’s Gala Program on CCTV, or “Chun Wan,” as it is referred to in China, knows that it is the biggest event of the year. Hundreds of millions of people tune in to watch each year, and enjoy cultural performances, song, dance, opera, poetry, cross-talk, and short dramas. And we were not about to do it any disrespect if we could help it.
The next couple of months, we focused on getting in touch with different groups in the area. We were originally unsure whether we would be able to get the exposure and support needed to pull off the festival. Yet, as we pitched the idea to our community and communities beyond, more and more people became inspired by the idea of a Lunar New Years Gala that was long overdue. First, we contacted, and were contacted by, many Chinese-American households, some immigrants, others multi-generational diaspora. More and more families decided that this was an occasion worth their effort. Without the help of so many determined families, I can easily promise, the gala would not have been as successful as it was.
We wanted the entertainment to be unparalleled in quality: family friendly, engaging, and nostalgic. While kids delighted in the craft stations our hired artisans ran, adults enjoyed the familiarity of traditional Chinese performances. Families had children eager to present their own skills in the Chinese arts, including many that practiced those skills at a Chinese school a couple towns over. Students from our very own Chinese Culture Club also took pride in performing traditional music in groups of band and choir.
Initially reading down the program, I was delighted yet equally surprised at the many events that were scheduled. Opera singing, traditional dance, and poetry — all arts I rarely saw performed in the community and had rendered lost in translation. Finally, it seemed, our performers found an outlet and opportunity to present their skills to an audience that could truly appreciate the tradition and culture that fueled their passion. As professionals and children performed one after another, I felt a heartwarming sensation that, even in such a tiny suburb as Natick, Chinese culture had found a way to flourish and grow from generation to generation.
By far, the most stressful part of running the festival was food logistics, despite that a local Chinese restaurant provided delicious food. The biggest problem was we had no idea how many people to expect and when to expect them. By the time we were two weeks before launch day, we had sold approximately 200 tickets. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, 100 more orders piled in. The day of the festival, we had hoards of people buying tickets at the door. All of this made it difficult to estimate the amount of food we needed, and we cut it so close so that there was only one extra serving of food left by the time everyone had gotten their plate. One!
Naturally, the festival had the extra flair such that a New Year’s festival in suburban Massachusetts inevitably invites. We had stand up comedians, cracking jokes in Mandarin and English that had the crowd roaring with laughter. A street dance group from Boston University, volunteers who had asked to be included, jammed to Chinese songs that the high schoolers in attendance gladly sang along to.
It was a dream come true.
Filling each seat in the cafeteria, the fateful spot we were able to reserve from the school, were over 350 people, eating, laughing, and talking excitedly in many languages. Young children, dressed in all different shades of red, used clumsy fingers to shape clay figurines at the direction of talented artisans. Girls and boys in traditional clothing practiced the lines of the songs they were going to perform, while others adjusted their clothes for dance. Older performers chatted amongst themselves, exchanging anecdotes and experiences. Others conversed with younger performers of the same art, offering advice and encouragement.
The excitement in the room was palpable, and so was the pride. Surrounded by the unmistakable red of Lunar New Year decorations, the smell of good food, and a familiar language in our ears, hundreds of people had found a place to feel proud for being who we are.
Decidedly, it felt like home.
The 2025 New Year’s Gala is Feb. 8 at Natick High School. For more info, please email yzhu@natickps.org.
This story, which appears in the Lunar New Year Issue of Sampan, is part of a collection of stories on various types of activism. If you would like to suggest a person to profile, please email asmith@sampan.org.
