Benjamin Snell
Staff writer
Updated Feb. 26 with information gathered after the event.
Due to the power outages and damage done to the city of Salem last week, many students experienced hardships both on campus and off. Some students in need of a brief escape attended the Chinese & Taiwanese Cultural Association’s (CTCA) Lunar New Year event this Sunday, Feb. 21.
The event was divided into two parts: a food takeout portion and a Netflix Party portion. The food was catered by Bon Appetit, and included chicken and rice bowls and pork dishes. The takeout portion of the event garnered around 40 people coming in total, more than Hickman anticipated and more than that of last semester’s mid-autumn festival with around 30 people.
Hickman also mentioned that, as a result of COVID, certain portions of the event had to be cut. She added that “instead of doing like, live performances and stuff like that, we’ve just transitioned to distributing food like we normally would,” adding that she felt this had a great deal of significance to the event as a whole.
The movie that was shown via Netflix Party is Over the Moon, a family movie that sheds light on the sense of community within Chinese culture, focusing specifically on the Moon Festival. The plot revolved around a Chinese girl and her journey to the moon to prove the existence of a mythical goddess. The Over the Moon viewing party included 4 people.
Coordinator of the event Tara Hickman (‘21) emphasized the value that should be placed on Asian culture on campus, and in Salem in general. In an interview, she said that the event was planning on being much more low-key and small scale this semester in comparison to previous years, saying that “a big theme for this semester and last semester was just making sure we still have that community that surrounds a lot of these big events… because that’s really a focus in a lot of Asian events.”
Overall, the event was still relatively small scale but was able to provide a space for relaxation to some during a more stressful period.