The Ohio State community celebrated the Year of the Dog with traditional Chinese dances, cuisine, music and more. The event was put together by multiple Ohio State Chinese student organizations and was sponsored by the East Asian Studies Center and National East Asian Languages Resource Center.

Galal Walker, director of the National East Asian Languages Resource Center, emphasized that celebrating the Chinese New Year is important because it calls to mind the growing importance of the Chinese community in central Ohio. He also said that the event creates awareness of cultural celebrations happening halfway around the world.

“Chinese New Year is, in terms of maybe number of celebrants, the biggest celebration on the planet,” Walker said. “[Cultural events] like this help us understand that people from East Asia are our neighbors and they join in on our celebrations, and it’s not bad to participate in theirs.”

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Chinese calligraphy has served as an important art form in Chinese culture for centuries. The Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures offers an introductory level class to all Ohio State students.

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Professor Wu Xinhua from Wuhan University in China performs a Taiji routine. Taiji is a Chinese martial art based on the importance of balance, or yin and yang.

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Peter Hsu, a third-year neuroscience major, and Takashi Ohkura, a fourth-year finance major, perform a traditional Lion Dance. Both are members of Asian-American cultural fraternity Pi Delta Psi. “Chinese Lion Dance is said to bring in good fortune in the new year, so we really wanted to share that with the Ohio State community and make sure there’s an Asian-American presence here as well,” Ohkura said.

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Members of Ohio State’s Chinese Folk Music Orchestra play pipas, a four-stringed Chinese instrument, during a performance at the 2018 Chinese New Year celebration.