The Chinese Cultural Club (CCC) hosted their second meeting of the quarter Wednesday night with a calligraphy workshop on lucky phrases in preparation for the Chinese New Year.
The ASI-sponsored CCC club is new to Cal Poly with its initiation beginning this school year. They hold meetings every other Thursday. The club formerly existed and died out, and the new club keeps the same name with a different mission, Maggie Lau, club president and biochemistry junior, said.
“To promote diversity at Cal Poly and teach the Chinese language as well as Mandarin and Cantonese,” Lau said. “We are trying to promote the Chinese culture, but anyone is welcome.”
The club is affiliated with the modern languages and literatures department at Cal Poly, as well as the Multicultural Center (MCC).
Lau grew up in Hong Kong and came to the United States in 2001 when she was 13 years old. When Lau first came to Cal Poly she felt out of place.
“I’m so used to speaking in Cantonese or Mandarin that I felt very lonely and shy,” Lau said. “I decided to gather everyone and promote the culture.”
The theme of the quarter is Chinese New Year Scroll.
The club practiced writing calligraphy in the form of a Chinese New Year Scroll. Club leaders directed attendees to hold the brush as you would hold chopsticks. The idea is to write lucky phrases about topics like happiness or longevity on red paper to hang outside of doors and windows, a tradition that has long been celebrated by the culture. Other traditions for the New Year include the Lion Dance, where the dancer mimics the lion’s movements in a costume made of paper-mâché, and reciting myths such as the story of the Zodiac.
The officers also covered current events including the world’s smallest tiger sculpture at 1 mm tall. So small it can pass through a needle, the sculpture is trying to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. Ruoxuan Lim, vice president of the CCC and biomedical engineering junior, explains why the club covers current events.
“We do the current events to keep people updated with not only Asia, but internationally (as well) to keep people informed,” Lim said.
Lau explains how the club is a place for people to share and learn from one another. For those that don’t know much about their history, students of similar backgrounds can share a different point of view, she said. The club has academic-based activities as well as social activities.
“You get to learn a language for free,” Lau said. “We are a fun club. There are a lot of stereotypes about our culture, but most of them aren’t true and aren’t reflective of how we actually live.”
The club has set up fundraising events and plans to do a lot more community service throughout the year.
They plan to be a part of the 30 hour famine, an international youth movement to fight hunger. The idea is to starve for 30 hours to feed children in Third World countries.
They are also planning a Recycle for Haiti Challenge where members compete to raise as much money from recycling bottles through My Coke Rewards, a lid and point system for donating to the Red Cross Haiti Relief sponsored by Coke.
The CCC will be hosting a Chinese New Year party on Feb. 18 to celebrate the year of the tiger. The party will be held in Engineering West room 105 at 6:30 with a $5 entrance fee.They will have calligraphy, paper-cutting, food from a local Chinese restaurant, a Lion Dance, Martial Arts, skits performed by members and a surprise performance by one of their board members.