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Friday, March 29, 2024

Gainesville celebrates the Chinese New Year

<p>Xuan Ooi, an 18-year-old UF freshman, peers through the mouth of her lion costume as she performs a lion dance to the sound of the drum outside Bento Cafe on Archer Road on Thursday. Jia-Uei Chen, also an 18-year-​old UF freshman, sets the beat for the dance, which celebrates Chinese New Year.</p><p><em>Correction: Jia-Uei Chen's name was originally misspelled.</em></p>

Xuan Ooi, an 18-year-old UF freshman, peers through the mouth of her lion costume as she performs a lion dance to the sound of the drum outside Bento Cafe on Archer Road on Thursday. Jia-Uei Chen, also an 18-year-​old UF freshman, sets the beat for the dance, which celebrates Chinese New Year.

Correction: Jia-Uei Chen's name was originally misspelled.

Two pairs of black sneakers stuck out from underneath the golden lion’s legs Thursday evening.

They belonged to Xuan Ooi and Yvonne Yeung, two UF students who gave life to 7 feet of fabric, gold sequins and cotton frills. Ooi wore the giant lion head, flapping its mouth and eyelashes to the beat of a drum, while Yeung controlled its tail. Draped in the traditional Chinese costume, the duo performed at Bento Cafe on Archer Road to ring in the Chinese New Year.

About 15 spectators huddled together in the finger-numbing cold to watch the five-minute routine.

Bento general manager Johnny Tung, 34, said the Asian eatery partnered with UF’s Chinese American Student Association to celebrate the holiday for the first time. He plans on continuing the tradition from here on out.

Ooi said this was her sixth year leading a lion dance.

“It’s one of my favorite things to do,” said Ooi, an exploratory engineering freshman. “It’s not only having fun, but it’s also bringing the aspect of Chinese culture to other people.”

Yeung, however, was a first-timer. The 18-year-old engineering freshman said she was nervous about getting lost in the dance but found comfort in the tail.

“I can just follow (Ooi’s) feet,” Yeung said, who completed both performances successfully.

The duo jumped up and down and moved side to side, sending rippling waves through the lion’s sequined fabric. Diners helf up their phone cameras when the lion trotted through the restaurant.

“I feel culturally initiated,” said Jonathan Patterson, a 19-year-old UF microbiology sophomore.

Each show ended with the lion spitting out shredded lettuce. It symbolized the spread of prosperity, Ooi said.

Student organizations also put on events to celebrate the Year of the Goat.

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The Chinese American Student Association and the Vietnamese Student Organization held their celebrations earlier this month, but the Chinese Student Association’s Chinese New Year Gala is on Saturday.

The doors to the free gala will open at 6 p.m. at the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. There will be traditional Chinese dancers from local schools, magic shows, hip-hop performances from campus organizations and dances from campus Indian dance groups, said Yue Rong, vice president of the organization.

Rong, a 24-year-old UF agricultural and biological engineering sophomore, said this is the biggest event the association holds for Chinese New Year.

Planning for the Chinese New Year Gala began at the end of October, said Lu Luo, the president of the association. He said the group’s roughly 800 members help organize it every year.

About 1,000 guests are expected to attend, said Luo, a 25-year-old UF environmental engineering sciences graduate student.

Rong said traditional Chinese cookies and soup will be handed out after the event for guests to take home.

“It’s a good opportunity for all Chinese international students to celebrate the Spring Festival together,” he said.

[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 2/20/2015 under the headline “A new year in Gainesville"]

Although they’re not with their families, some UF students keep up Chinese New Year traditions at school.

Maria Pitt, a 20-year-old graphic design junior, was raised by her Chinese mother. She said her family celebrates by wearing red and eating sweet dumplings and noodles, all signs of a promising new year.

Pitt, the former vice president of education for the Asian American Student Union, said it’s common for family members to give loved ones red envelopes filled with money or gifts as a sign of prosperity.

Other common celebrations include eating peaches and oranges for longevity, cleaning before the New Year and not using scissors for fear of cutting success. 

To celebrate, Pitt cut her hair two weeks ago, knowing she couldn’t do so for the 15 days of the holiday. She also bought dumplings from the Eastern Market on Northwest 23rd Avenue.

“The point of celebrating the New Year is keeping the tradition alive,” she said.

Xuan Ooi, an 18-year-old UF freshman, peers through the mouth of her lion costume as she performs a lion dance to the sound of the drum outside Bento Cafe on Archer Road on Thursday. Jia-Uei Chen, also an 18-year-​old UF freshman, sets the beat for the dance, which celebrates Chinese New Year.

Correction: Jia-Uei Chen's name was originally misspelled.

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