jhuTASA celebrates Taiwanese Year of the Goat

The Taiwanese American Students Association (jhuTASA) rang in the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated by many Asian cultures, at its first general body meeting of the semester on Thursday night in the AMR I Multipurpose Room.

The event was open to all members of the Hopkins undergraduate community.

“It’s all about celebrating our culture,” jhuTASA co-president Lisa Ni said. “We welcome anyone who wants to learn more about our culture, who wants to enjoy our culture,”

The celebration of the Lunar New Year is an annual event for jhuTASA and, according to Ni, the event drew a larger crowd this year than in past years.

This year’s celebration was also unique in that there is discrepancy between cultures over which animal zodiac represents 2015, or 2129, according to the Chinese calendar. jhuTASA advertised it as the Year of the Goat on their flyers and Facebook page for the event.

The Chinese Students Association (CSA), which will host a Lunar New Year on Feb. 27, refers to it as the Year of the Sheep on their Facebook event page.

According to jhuTASA co-president Eric Ong, the discrepancy stems from an issue with the translation of the Chinese word for this year’s animal zodiac.

“I think in Chinese [the word] ‘yang’ could literally mean goat or sheep, so that’s why there’s this confusion,” Ong said.

Ni said that she believes either translation is acceptable.

“You’ll hear it both ways, and I don’t think there’s a right or wrong way,” Ni said.

Despite the discrepancy, jhuTASA will participate in CSA’s Lunar New Year celebration, which will be held in the Glass Pavilion.

According to Ong, though Taiwan and China have had a historically tense relationship, jhuTASA and CSA share no such animosity and frequently collaborate to plan events.

“We [jhuTASA] don’t try to touch upon political subjects because we know that’s a very sensitive issue,” Ong said. “So since we’re a culture group, we’re not a political awareness group. Our main purpose is to try to raise awareness for the Taiwanese culture... We always work with CSA... They collaborate on our Night Market. We invite one another to all of our events.”

jhuTASA served traditional Taiwanese dishes to celebrate the New Year, such as sesame buns, red bean paste buns and fried sticky cakes or nian gao. The cakes were made by jhuTASA members.

They also served a dish called fruit cocktail shaved ice. Attendees received a bowl of shaved ice, into which they could mix peach slices and condensed milk.

“We do [shaved ice] for all of our general body meetings,” Ong said. “It’s [a] very popular Taiwanese dessert.”

The meeting began with Ong giving a brief introduction to the club for any new members.

“We are food lovers and fun lovers,” Ong said. “Our purpose is to try to promote the Taiwanese culture around Hopkins and the state of Maryland, and remember you don’t have to be Taiwanese to be part of jhuTASA... There’s always a place for you to join jhuTASA.”

Sophomore Alissa Chiang, who is a jhuTASA junior officer, believes that holding these events effectively brings the Taiwanese culture to people who are unfamiliar with it.

“[When] promoting culture, you have to find a way that engages everyone, even people who don’t understand or don’t know the culture,” Chiang said. “And I think jhuTASA does that really well, especially with our food events because they’re usually the more popular ones.”

Ni also discussed the group’s annual Night Market, which will be held on April 11.

“It’s our biggest event of the year,” Ni said. “It’s where a lot of on-campus groups get together and collaborate. And we provide food, performances [and] activities.”

Ni said that the proceeds from last year’s event benefited the Loshasa Charity in Taiwan. She also encouraged anyone interested in helping plan the event this year to contact jhuTASA.

Annette Wang, chair of jhuTASA’s membership committee, discussed the group’s family system in which underclassmen are paired upperclassmen to form “families.”

“Every month, we have a family task,” Wang said. “I think this month, it’s go to a museum with your family and take a photo.”

The meeting ended with a presentation about the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association (ITASA), a national organization that is affiliated with jhuTASA.

According to jhuTASA member Austin Ko, ITASA holds regional leadership retreats all over the country, as well as more local events and mixers. It also hosts college workshops for high schools students as well.

Ko discussed an upcoming scholarship program for both high school and college students.

“We [will] allow Taiwanese-American high school and college students to showcase their artistic talent and creative side... for financial scholarship,” Ko said.

Freshman Julia Wargo attended even though she is not Taiwanese.

“I came because I’m practically Asian by association,” Wargo said. “I have a lot of friends who are Taiwanese or some other type of Asian.”