On Thursday February 8th UL Global, University of Limerick hosted a cultural celebratory Event in the Foyer of the University Concert Hall to mark Lunar New Year 2024.
The entire campus community joined together to mark and celebrate The Year of the Dragon which represents power, nobleness, honour, luck, and success.
The event opened with a welcome address in Mandarin from Ms. Michelle Daly, AHSS Lecturer and in Irish from Zhaoyin Zhang, PhD candidate followed by an introduction to Year of the Dragon by Dr Li Chen, visiting scholar from Shandong University of Technology, China.
Hosts Aubrey Chenhuiyan Yan (BA Arts) & Chris Lexuan Huang (BEng. Elec and Comp Engineering) introduced an outstanding array of traditional and cultural performances including singing from Shiguang Chai (BEng), Chenhiuyan Yan (BA Arts), Zhi Zheng (MSc Software Eng), Gan Xiao (PhD candidate) and Feiyang Li (MSc AI & Machine Learning), Traditional Dance from Shijie Dai, (BA Contemporary Dance), Gu Qin performance Three Variations on the Plum Blossom by Tongtong Hu, (BA Arts), a performance of The Tramp with Christian Nieber ( MSc in Computer Sciences). This was followed by a mesmerising Taichi demonstration given by Jingyu Sun, Yinding Wan, Yuchen Yin, Chenghao Sun, Jianping Duan, Shijie Dai and Yue Xu.
As well as magnificent performances, the campus community was given the opportunity to learn about and make traditional Lunar New Year decorations such as Chinese lanterns, paper cutting, Chinese knots and calligraphy thanks to Liuyuan Li, Zhongyu Wang and UL Nursing Students, Shaung Li, Yi Wei, Wenjing Zou, Yanan Li and The Hunt Museum.
Throughout the Event red envelopes decorated with beautiful Chinese calligraphy and symbols were distributed to guests, a Lunar New Year tradition, believed to bestow more happiness and blessings on the receivers. UL Global would like to acknowledge and thank all our Chinese Students for their wonderful contribution to the event, Ms. Yi Bao, China Director, the staff of the University Concert Hall, The Hunt Museum and the entire campus community for making 2024 Lunar New Year Celebration such a memorable event.
View the video done by Ollie Phillips below: