On Saturday Nov. 10, Geneseo Chinese Culture Club hosted China Night 2012: “The Butterfly Lovers” in the College Union Ballroom in joint celebration of Chinese heritage and the 50-year anniversary of the department of languages and literatures. According to the show’s program, the idea for the name and theme came from an old Chinese legend “The Butterfly Lovers.” The legend, which is known to be the Chinese version of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” tells the love story of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.
The pair encounters countless difficulties throughout their relationship, which ends when Shanbo dies and Yingtai commits suicide due to a broken heart. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, however, the pair is reunited once more when they are reborn as butterflies “never to be separated again.”
GCCC prepared various entrees and side dishes to celebrate Chinese culture. Dinner started with appetizers of shrimp chips and deep-fried noodles with duck sauce. The main course consisted of sesame chicken, spareribs with plum sauce and pineapple, mushroom and bean curd, vegetable lo mein, stir-fried cabbage with szechuan peppers, hot and sour soup, fried rice and white snow rice.
For dessert, the club offered fortune cookies, Chinese candy and almond Jell-O with fruit cocktail and Chinese tea. After dinner, GCCC opened the show. It told the story of “The Butterfly Lovers,” with different acts interspersed throughout, allowing the audience to experience many aspects of Chinese culture.
According to senior Sydney Liaw, a member of GCCC, the organization reached out to performers outside the Geneseo community to assist in putting on this year’s performance.
“There’s a lot of things going on. [China Night is] a really exciting atmosphere,” Liaw said.
Throughout the show, the group performed traditional dances including the Lion Dance. It also featured a yo-yo performance and a fashion show.
Alongside the traditional Chinese performances, there were modern dances and modern bands.
GCCC shared Chinese culture through different performances, food and a love story, combining a new perspective with old traditions.
“I think they did a good job of incorporating comedy into the show,” freshman Kimberly Giacalone said.