On Makeshift Dragons & Chinese Culture: CNY Celebrations in VJC
By Solace A. Dolot (23S41)
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It is the Year of the Dragon, and various groups in VJC (Victoria Junior College) were gearing up for its official CNY (Chinese New Year) celebrations on 9 February.
Pre-event booths dotted the Concourse on 5 February. Set up by the Chinese Society and the CNY Ad-hoc, Victorians could engage in traditional Chinese calligraphy, DIY (Do-It-Yourself) crafts such as lantern-making and paper-cutting, or simply take a picture with their friends at the photobooth.
The Concourse pre-event booths. Photographed by Author.
Crafts were also a focus for the J2s’ CNY activity.
A week before, the CNY Ad-hoc announced during assembly that the J2s were to participate in a dragon-making competition. Each class had to come up with one wearable dragon costume consisting of a head and a trailing body/tail. Theming the dragon to their house colour was also encouraged.
This was because on the day of CNY celebrations itself, the representative(s) of the class would don the dragon and participate in a runway show according to their respective houses. Students and staff would then vote on the houses and classes with the best dragons.
The pressure was on to deliver something presentable. On the morning of 9 February—the day of CNY celebrations—J2s could be seen gathering scissors and scotch tape as they spruced up their dragons before the start of the concert.
Final assembly. Photographed by Author.
The J1s were not left out in the activities however. While the J2s added the final touches to their costumes, the J1s participated in a college Treasure Hunt.
As a class, they were given a clue. After solving, they had to travel to the respective location on campus for their next clue, repeating until they had discovered all the locations, finishing the Treasure Hunt.
J1s in the Courtyard. Photographed by Author.
One of the Treasure Hunt locations was the Concourse. Inside, another booth was set up for the day, this time by the Interact Club.
This was Interact’s annual CNY Food Drive. Having publicised themselves over the past week, this year they were collecting Halal non-perishable food items for The Food Bank Singapore.
“Most people donate canned food,” one of the booth attendees said. He added that they were hoping for more staples such as “rice and noodles”.
Nonetheless, they appeared quite satisfied with the turnout, saying that “about a hundred people donated”, even without a proper count of the piles of boxes behind them.
The Interact booth. Photographed by Author.
As the class activities came to an end, the Concourse had transformed. In addition to the canteen, it was the site for VJC’s annual Lo Hei tradition, where students and staff ushered in prosperity by engaging in the CNY tradition together.
Most of the J1 classes were located in the Concourse. Though, a few of them were with the J2s in the canteen. In both areas, each class was designated a table, covered in thematic red lining with the Lo Hei platter in the middle.
Students were in high spirits, with a few classes competing on who could sing ‘Happy Birthday’ the loudest, and one class doing the Makan cheer.
At 9 a.m., Muhammad “Adi” Adiputra bin Abdul Halim (23S34) made a brief announcement on the tradition of Lo Hei and its history, before signalling the start of the event. The college was filled with cheers of “Huat Ah!” as students tossed the Lo Hei as high as they could.
Various Victorians tossing the Lo Hei. Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
The enthusiasm continued as Victorians filed into the Hall for the concert segment, murmuring excitedly as they got seated. Then, at 9.35 a.m., principal, Mr. Jeffrey Low entered.
Mr. Low's grand entrance. Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
Dressed as the God of Fortune, he and his entourage of House Captains threw candy into the crowd as they walked down the middle aisle from the back to the stage. At the stage, he gave a brief yet festive well-wish speech about CNY before handing the time over to the day’s emcees: Adi and Calise Kwan Jiaxin (23A11).
The CNY concert emcees. Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
Adi and Calise Kwan introduced the first performance of the day: Chinese Orchestra.
The orchestra played 2 pieces, the first of which was quite novel from them. Only 5 percussionists came onstage to perform the piece. Some members of the crowd were confused by the small group. Though, once they began, the hall still enjoyed the piece. In particular, the unexpected yet fun use of the slapstick sprinkled throughout the piece.
The second piece however returned to form. At the end of the first piece, the curtains behind the performers unfurled, revealing the full orchestra. They played a medley of popular CNY songs ‘Hè Xīn Nián (贺新年)’ and ‘Bài Nián (拜年)’ to the delight of the audience.
Chinese Orchestra. Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
With a segue highlighting the Dragon Year from the emcees, the concert transitioned into the costume runway segment. After briefing the Hall about the project and the voting procedure, Adi and Kwan invited the dragons in house by house, each house led by one of their House Captains waving the house colours.
Some standout dragons included a class from Ursa that rode in on a human chariot and 23S62, who walked in as a group of people under a white sheet, the person in front holding up the class plushie.
The J2 dragon-making runway. Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
23S53 was even publicised on the official VJC Instagram page through their story, highlighting their creativity with their dragon body of buckets.
Left: 23S53 posing with their creative dragon made out of buckets they found at the back of the hall. Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
Right: 23S53’s dragon in action. Taken from a story on the official VJC Instagram page (@victoriajc_official).
All the dragons gathered on stage for a group picture before slipping out to welcome in the next performance.
The dragons roaring for a group picture. Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
Clad in red and gold ethnic wear, the Malay Cultural Society (MCS) performed a traditional Malay dance to ‘Kurik Kundi’ by the famed Malaysian singer, Siti Nurhaliza.
Muhammad Nur Hadi bin Aziz (23A13), who was one of the dancers, admitted that it was a bit “strange” that the Concert Committee from the CNY Ad-hoc asked MCS to perform. However, wanting to put MCS out there, they took up the request.
Since this dance was based on their Open House performance, “a challenge was the bigger stage… We had to know how to move and [such].” This was especially so with their smaller team of 6 members.
Hadi detailed how they “watched the [reference] videos to see where they moved, et cetera” for inspiration on stage use and presence, which helped them translate the dance onto the larger Hall stage.
Hadi (left) with the MCS performers (right). Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
Wushu then took the stage in their highly-anticipated act. Their pair dance segment again was outstanding to the crowd, especially for the J1s who were new to VJC Wushu.
This time, they also debuted a segment with a new weapon, the shéng biāo (绳镖) or rope dart, which consisted of a metal dart attached to a chain. The flinging and acrobatics with the shéng biāo surprised the audience, and Wushu bowed out to resounding applause.
Wushu’s thrilling performance. Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
Mr. Jeffrey Low returned to the stage to announce the winners for the various activities, including those for the J1 Treasure Hunt.
Unsurprisingly, 23S61 from Pegasus won the best class dragon with their purple dragon on actual poles. The class cheered loudly, proud that their effort paid off, before one of them rushed to the stage to collect the prize.
The respective winners and 23S61’s dragon. Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
After receiving the prizes, the tutors in-charge and members of the Chinese society took the stage for the concert finale, delivering a very passionate performance of classic CNY songs, ‘Hè Xīn Nián (贺新年)’ and ‘Gōng Xǐ Gōng Xǐ (恭喜恭喜)’.
The concert finale. Photographed by Lee SeungWon (23S32) from the VJC Photography Society.
Though, CNY is not a single-day celebration.
About 2 weeks later, the Chinese Society put up a small booth in the Concourse with a few activities, both to celebrate the last few days of CNY and to advertise the CCA. These were a game where students had to use chopsticks to transfer a set of ping pong balls, and a trial of Chinese tea and various snacks.
Chan Wng Ean, Carys (23S64) guided visitors through Chinese tea traditions as she prepared the loose leaf on their Chinese tea set.
Chan at the main section of the Chinese Society booth. Photographed by Author.
“The small one is for smelling and the big one is for [drinking].” She pointed to the set of tall and bowl-like cups. Carys Chan first poured the steeped tea from the teapot into the taller cup, offering it to visitors, before transferring the contents to the broader one for drinking.
Chan also described aspects of her CCA, as depicted on the many photographs pinned up on the notice boards. They participated in many Chinese media competitions across different mediums, ranging from poetry, to storytelling, and even videography. The boards also pictured their involvement in college events, such as Mother Tongue Fortnight.
“I was inspired to join [the] Chinese Society because… I started watching C-dramas (Chinese dramas).” She said she was fascinated by the clothing and setting, and wanted to know more.
“At home, we don’t really practise Chinese culture.” So, Chan noted that her CCA was part of reconnecting with her cultural roots.
From her description, the CCA was more casual, where members chose topics of Chinese culture to dive into. She said that they do “talk in Chinese a lot” but said that if a prospective member only spoke English, “it’s also okay”.
“We’ve had some people quit,” she said sadly, explaining that some would rather spend more time on their other commitments.
“I hope more people join our CCA.”
Chan posing with Chinese Society events. Photographed by Author.
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