Hundreds gather to celebrate the start of Chinese New Year

January 30, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

Chinese New Year

POLAND

When he was a child, Xu Shougjiang taught himself to play the two-string fiddle after having heard it on the radio, and more than 60 years later, he used his talents to delight an audience of about 200 already in a celebratory mood.

“When I was a child, I said, ‘Stop, I don’t want to listen!’” Shougjiang’s daughter, Lili Wightman of Cortland, recalled with laughter. “But I thought he was really cool.”

The 81-year-old Shougjiang, who lives in Xining City, China, and is visiting Wightman and her husband, William Wightman, played the high-pitched instrument as part of a festive gathering Sunday evening at Poland United Methodist Church, 1940 Boardman-Poland Road, to celebrate the start of the Chinese New Year.

Sponsoring the two-hour gala were the church and the Chinese Association of the Greater Youngstown Area.

Also during his stay, Shougjiang is to perform as part of the Youngstown Symphony Society’s “Chinese New Year Festival,” set for Feb. 11 at the DeYor Performing Arts Center in downtown Youngstown, noted Florence Wang, chairwoman of the society’s board of directors.

For Sunday’s celebration, the Youngstown Symphony donated two season tickets as the grand prize in a raffle. Also donated were six tickets to the Feb. 11 performance, Wang added.

The event featured a children’s choir, a youth dance, skits and children’s gymnastics. In addition, attendees such as Min He of Cortland enjoyed partaking of a smorgasbord of Chinese dishes that included broccoli with garlic, saut ed rice noodles, roasted duck, fried dumplings, pepper-and-salt shrimp and fried fish with pineapple.

The gathering’s overarching purposes were to serve the community largely by spreading the love of God and encourage greater connectivity among those in the Chinese community, noted the Rev. May Yeh of Poland United Methodist.

Also, plans are underway to reopen a school March 12 in the church mainly for children age 6 to 12, though adults are welcome to attend, she said. The school will focus largely on teaching Chinese language, customs and culture, as well as the teachings of God, the Rev. Ms. Yeh continued.

Some in the audience took part in a game of charades, in which Barry Xu of Youngstown wrote phrases on paper plates. The idea was for participants to use pantomimed movements to guess the phrases, said Xu, a Poland United Methodist Church member who also owns a business.

The evening wrapped up with a Lion Dance by Mark Lee Pringle, a local martial-arts instructor, and others.