With all of the events happening next week, no student on Eastern Michigan University’s campus should complain they’re bored. The American Chinese Student Association has loads of activities to participate in during their Chinese Week, a series of events intended to expose the student body to Chinese culture.

From Feb 7- 14, students will be able to attend stage seminars, film presentations and a number of special exhibitions during EMU’s first ever Chinese Week, all of which are open to the public.

“This year we are presenting the Chinese week into the entire community,” said Yen-ling von Meister, the Mandarin instructor at EMU.

For the last two years, von Meister has put together a Chinese Week, but not until this year was it opened to the community. But this year, the committee members were able to get more people on and off campus involved in
its planning.

“For the gala, we have many members in the community purchasing by tables to attend our celebration,” von Meister said. “It’s very exciting.”

All the action kicks off Sunday, Feb. 7 at the Chinese Spring Festival Gala where guests can play a variety of Chinese games, divulge in a buffet-style dinner and watch a local band perform a Chinese line dance. A planning committee of 10 students and two professors got together to brainstorm ideas for the events.

“We have lots of performances planned for it,” said Ezelyn Beauchen, a committee member.

“[Committee members] contacted their friends that they knew were performers and invited them to come and we looked at people in the Chinese community as well,” Beauchen said.

In addition to the many performances at the Gala, there will also be many informative discussions during the week. One consists of a panel discussion on women in the 21st century, which takes place in the Halle Library on Monday, Feb. 8 from 1 to 3 p.m. Another discussion, to be held in the library on Wednesday, Feb. 10 is on what’s it’s like to live in China.

“I’m excited seeing the entire thing after months and months of planning,” freshman Eramb Sanvordenker said. “We’ve done 3 or 4 months of planning at this point.”

The committee members urge students to participate in a number of activities during the week to experience something new at EMU.

“You should try to expand your horizons if you’ve never had any experience with the community before,” Sanvordenker said.

Von Meister was also able to collaborate with the College of Business in order to bring a professor from Lawrence University to EMU, and to plan a panel discussion on doing business in China on Jan. Friday, Jan 13.

“It’s a humble experience myself to realize the overwhelming support from people all over,” von Meister said.

For more information on all of the events during Chinese Week, visit http://acs-association.blogspot.com.