Inside the Albany High School auditorium, a group of students are performing a Chinese song called, "Gong Xi Gong Xi." It’s played during the Lunar New Year in countries across East Asia and signifies the start of a new year.
The students, who are part of Albany High’s Chinese Club, are wearing traditional East Asian clothing like qipaos and singing in Mandarin as another group of students raise a paper dragon around the auditorium.
Hannah Gardner, a 9th grader, has been learning Chinese for the last three years. She says she encountered the language by chance when she was put in a Chinese language class in middle school.
“Originally, Chinese was my, I think second option like, French was my first,” said Gardner. “I ended up getting put in Mandarin class and I ended up falling in love with the culture, the language, like everything about it.”
Over the years, New York State has added to the number of cultural events it officially celebrates. This year marked the inaugural Muslim American Heritage month in the state. And it was 2023 when Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation marking Lunar New Year as an official public-school holiday. Albany’s Common Council also introduced a resolution this year to celebrate and recognize Lunar New Year.
For Hua Lin, a Chinese language teacher at Albany High, increased awareness of the Lunar New Year has also meant more active participation and interest in Chinese culture amongst her students.
“They’re very excited actually. In the past, I was not able to get them to actually perform but this is the first year, I have some great leaders, they are really, really excited to do their performance,” said Lin. “They have been practicing in class and you see the excitement today.”
Zion Morley, a sophomore, has been studying Chinese for the two years. He enjoys learning about a new culture.
“The culture’s so different from American new year,” said Morley. “Because well, it’s not on January 1st and it has its own part and history where it’s its own thing and I really like that.”
The Lunar New Year festival begins February 17th.
