The Friendship Association of Chinese Students and Scholars celebrated the Chinese New Year on Sunday in Jesse Hall with music, dance and fashion.

China Night 2011 was the fifth annual event organized by FACSS to celebrate the Chinese New Year with the Columbia Community.

The bilingual celebration featured traditional and contemporary costumes and dances, student-composed music, many musical ensembles, including a guzheng or zither performance, a Tai Chi demonstration and a fashion show that represented clothing styles from many of China’s minority groups. There was also a video chat with hosts from a local news station in China.

“In China, we used to have a huge show,” volunteer Zhenhuan Li said. “Right now we are in America, so we need to have a show too.”

The Chinese New Year is the most significant holiday in Chinese culture.

“It is something like Christmas day in America,” volunteer Xiaoyu Wang said. “It’s the same importance.”

Emcee Edward Watson, who lived in China for four years and is now completing his second bachelor’s degree, explained what this holiday means to him and to the people of China.

“The Chinese New Year means family and friendship and new life, and hopefully luck and success,” Watson said.

Vice President for International Programs Wen Ouyang explained that it is important to have China Night for the 565 Chinese students at Mizzou, and also for local Chinese residents in Columbia.

Ouyang said China Night is a good opportunity to educate people in Columbia.

“It helps people in Columbia and in our neighboring cities to understand more about Chinese people, about their culture,” Ouyang said.

Ouyang said she has encountered some confusion from people about Chinese culture, on topics like poverty and freedom of speech. She hopes events such as China Night will correct these preconceived notions.

“Sometimes people do have some misunderstandings of the culture which is different from theirs,” Ouyang said in an e-mail. “China Night can help people cross the cultural boundary. Now they see these Chinese performers on the stage and they will find these young Chinese students do not have very many differences from Americans.”

Director Liangyu Li said a goal of China Night was to spread knowledge about Chinese culture.

“We recognized that we still need this kind of a show to introduce Chinese culture and make friends with (Americans),” Liangyu Li said. “We also want to spread our culture out and globalize.”

At the event, Ouyang announced MU will open the Confucius Institute on April 8.

The Confucius Institute is a non-profit organization founded by the Chinese government that focuses on education. It sends government-funded teachers from China to teach Chinese around the world. The program is an exchange, so MU will also send teachers to China to teach English.

Ouyang said this exchange will benefit Columbia and China because it creates jobs and promotes the already strong relationship between MU and China.

Ouyang said familiarity with different cultures can help create cross-cultural union.

“If you understand the culture you can build a more trusting relationship,” Ouyang said.