Mandarin students to mark new year

Chinese New Year is almost here, and the Year of the Tiger is just around the corner. Black Butte Ranch is celebrating the Chinese New Year on February 20, with a fundraising event for Sisters Mandarin language students' trip to China this summer.

There will be a dragon dance, music on an Erhu, a traditional Chinese three-stringed instrument, and dinner.

New Year's festivities begin at the lodge at 6 p.m., followed by a three-course dinner at 7 p.m., served in The Lodge Restaurant.

Guests will receive a special gift designed to ward off evil spirits.

Two of the Mandarin language students will greet guests at the door, banging a gong and announcing guests' names in Chinese.

Hong Chi Zhang, who has donated his time to other fundraisers for the students, will be creating Chinese calligraphy. For a donation of $3 he will write your name in Chinese.

Hui Juan Tan will demonstrate how to make Chinese dumplings, which are traditionally served around midnight after the evening's meal.

A quilt and photographs will be part of a silent auction, as well as a jade necklace. Jade is considered the imperial gem of China. David and Paula Perkins will be auctioning the use of their house at BBR while they are in China. Paula Perkins is donating interior design consulting, Sisters Movie House has donated movie tickets and a handyman is donating a day of backhoe services.

The students will be performing the traditional dragon dance to celebrate the New Year. The dragon was made about three years ago by Camp Sherman's Black Butte School students and has been donated for the event.

First-year Mandarin student Hannah King drew the Tiger for The Nugget newspaper ad. While she is not going to China this year, all the Mandarin students are excited about the event and doing all they can to contribute.

Diners at the New Year's festivities will learn the proper way to use chopsticks from the students and will receive bios of the students with their dinner menu.

A screen in the lodge will be playing a presentation about the route and activities the students will enjoy on their trip.

During their trip, the Mandarin students will be staying in the foreign students' dorm at a school started in 1953 by a teacher of Mao Tse-Tung.

While they will have the opportunity to see the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square, that is not the focus of their trip.

"Nine students, all second-year Mandarin students, are attending this trip," Perkins stated. "I haven't invited or included any first-year students. They have to have completed the first year so they have enough Mandarin under their belt to converse with people.

"My hope is that this trip will significantly change their lives and give them a significant knowledge of the Chinese culture and the lives of people there."

The Sisters youths are not tourists.

"The students are visiting an orphanage in the country, so they will experience a rural setting in China," Perkins said. "And they are visiting a shoe factory, the manufacturing part of China, which is a huge part of life there. We are also partnering with a high school there to see how the Chinese students go to class, what they do, and how they are disciplined compared to students in this country.

"Sightseeing is just a couple days," Perkins stated. "They will eat Chinese food, mostly. The purpose is not to visit a Chinese McDonald's, but to see and experience the Chinese culture and the people."

David Perkins and his wife are uniquely qualified to take students on this trip. They lived in Taiwan for 21 years and Hong Kong for five, and have only recently returned to America.