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UCSI's CHINESE NEW YEAR EXTRAVAGANZA....
Kuala Lumpur, 15 February 2008 - On this date, the UCSI Chinese Cultural Society (CCS) held its Chinese New Year Extravaganza on campus. The event highlighted Chinese traditions practiced during Chinese New Year and various cultural activities. The event was launched by Dato' Ong Tee Keat, the then Deputy Minister of Higher Education of Malaysia by the striking of the Chinese traditional drum 9 times to signify the 9th day of the lunar year celebrations.
The Deputy Minister had commended UCSI students for taking the initiative to organise and manage the event. He said that this experience imparts the necessary soft skills to students and would give them the edge in management when they join the workforce.
Group President and Vice Chancellor of UCSI, Peter T.S.Ng said that, "UCSI's corporate philosophy is for the UCSI community to be responsible citizens. This project complements this philosophy as it seeks to open up opportunities to increase our participation in the community."
Fantastic performances were lined up by the organising committee from CCS, starting with a brilliant Lion Dance performance by the Chin Woo Association. This was followed by a Chinese Orchestra performance by students from Sekolah Menengah Taman Connaught, while the Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) Branch of Bandar Tun Razak performed Chinese New Year Songs, a Chinese opera piece as well as a "Bollywood" Dance.
UCSI CCS students staged a drama that featured Chinese New Year traditions and beliefs which drew plentiful of laughter and applause. Their New Year songs invoked a festive mood throughout the audience. The instrumental pieces performances by UCSI School of Music were very well received.
A calligraphy competition held earlier in the day that had categorised participants into various categories; the open category, non-Chinese category and secondary schools category saw many talents. The non-Chinese category saw Year 2 Bachelor of Science (Hons.) Business Information System student from India, Sundaresan Sriram clinched first place.
The event was a resounding success as evidenced by good testimonials from two students from the Middle East. Mohammad Sharill from Iraq and Muhammad S. Neyma from Jordan, both pursuing the Foundation Arts progamme course at UCSI found the event very interesting and said that they had learnt a lot about Chinese New Year from this event alone.
The night ended with a lucky draw and at its peak, drew an audience of around 1,000 people.
Video coverage of the event can be viewed on the UCSI web TV website:
Book Launch: Changing the Mind-Set
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Education Township in Bandar Springhill, Negeri Sembilan
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Special Column: Culture Shock