Chinese New Year celebrations in Edmonton normally gets bigger and better every year but the past two years have definitely shown a decline. At its peak, the celebration was held at the Northlands Agricom, packed with vendors, performers and people. Last year, it was held at the Air Musuem, a smaller but still respectable size venue. But this year, the celebrations were held in the gymnasium of the Multi-Cultural center, a place that is no bigger than a high school gymnasium. Seems to me the planning committee needs to be a little more ambitious.
I've also been performing a lot less at these Chinese New Year events (compared to 2-3 years ago) and probably wouldn't have at all this year if not for the Mandarin Gala 2006 held just this past saturday at Victoria High School. The Mandarin Gala is a joint program featuring students and alumni from Meyonohk, Ottewell and McNally to showcase and promote the Mandarin program through speeches, dances, and musical performances. The event was well planned and also attended by Norman Kwong, Alberta's Lieutenant governor, and Errol Johnson who was my McNally math teacher.
I've posted some
pictures from the event here though most were taken from this
forum my mom found. As well, I've posted the
video (8 mb) of our performance.
The video is cut off by a few seconds in the beginning and unfortunately, my back was facing the audience due to the odd location of the piano but nevertheless, the performance went pretty well!. Enjoy!
mandarin McNally Chinese New Year