The lovely Polaris dancing.
Hot performances, free Chinese food, and an enthusiastic audience made the 2013 Baruch Moon Festival an enjoyable experience. Co-sponsored by many clubs, such as Fusion and Alpha Kappa Psi, it was the biggest and most ambitious project that UCLA, United Chinese Language Association, ever embarked on. And it was a success. From the moment I walked in, I was greeted by Guy and was given an admissions ticket, which later became a raffle ticket. Rows of tables were crammed with Chinese food, all completely free. I picked up a plate of fried rice with suckling pig and stirred fried noodles. Upon entering the multipurpose room, I was overwhelmed by the cacophony of sounds, glamorous music blasting from the speakers competed with the cheering and loud conversations of the audience. I couldn’t find a seat, so I stood in the back, chowing down on my food. The food was phenomenal. I went back out for seconds. In the dark, I regretted swallowing a jalapeno pepper. Although it was a minor nuisance, the hot tingling sensation numbed my throat and distracted me from the opening act.
The performances were exceptional. The performances ranged from break dancing to classical Chinese music. UCLA paid tribute to their Chinese heritage by having a Chinese band play their ancient Chinese instruments. I enjoyed it for the historical experience, but the instruments sounded out of tune. The sounds were out of place and weren’t in unison. Next, there was a singing performance by a Hong Kong TVB star. His singing was impressive. In his performance, the audience took out their cellphones and turned on their flashlights and started waving them, back and forth, in the air, a common practice in China. As i took out my cellphone to follow the crowd, I felt closer to my relatives in China. Next was Austin Luu’s performance, one of my favorites. His love song set off a sad and optimistic vibe. The singing was really intense and gave me goosebumps. The next performance was Polaris, my new favorite dance crew. Polaris is split into a girls and boys section. The male performance was nothing special. I approve of the female Polaris performance. The ladies looked lovely in their extravagant costumes. Their moves were original and matched the music very well. There was a fair amount of twerking and lap dances. I really liked it. Later, the host introduced us to some games. The amount of effort and preparation inputted was questionable. The games didn’t go smoothly and was time consuming. The hosts didn’t even have enough supplies to start the games. However, the show was redeemed when the contestants made fools of themselves. It was very fun to watch. Besides games, there was also a history lesson– how the moon festival came to be. The “show” was basically just a YouTube video and some live voice overs. The voice actors were too slow and couldn’t keep up the pace. After the video, there was a Q&A session. The hosts distributed free Made-in-China merchandise for correct answers. I really liked to ending, where they handed out moon cakes and prizes.
Overall it was a wonderful experience and I hope to attend the event again next year.
Photo, by author, taken from a video, shot by Ricky Chan of LC07.
