Hong Kong Night 2010

Leah C.

April 14, 2010 - 6:00 PM

As we finished the last chorus of the committee song. I couldn't help but smile. Two terms of planning and hard work finally came to an end. We had nearly 300+ guests, family members, friends and the public all there to witness our accomplishment.

As we finished our song, a committee member called all the performers and volunteers on stage, and we all gave our last farewell and bowed. It was both a huge relief and sadness for a lot of us. There were a lot of ups and downs during the planning process, but we definitely had a lot of fun overall.

I was really stressed Sunday morning. We had so much decorations and setup to do and not enough volunteers to help. While I was picking up on all the volunteer work, I had an 30 minute slide show that still needed to be completed. I ended up getting the slide show done 15 minutes before the doors opened followed by a few technical difficulties in hooking up my computer to the projector. I Incorporated all the photos I took of all the volunteer and performers, and together I produced a 400 photo slide show to play before the show started.

Everything before the culture show was all a blur. People kept calling my name, asking me if this balloon arch should go here, or how should the table setup look like, etc. I was running up and down from the office to the ballroom, non stop until I had to change into my formal wear for the show. I took 5 minutes to clear my mind and breathed before heading back to the ballroom to spot check the tables and touch base with all the performers and food people.

I really couldn't have done it without the help of everyone. Karen the other CO-President did so much for me. Without her, I cannot dream how the night would've turn out. She took care of all the meetings and paper work to host the event, stuff that I would have no idea where to start. Together we made the night a success and with the help of our committee members and the support of our volunteers. Our attendance was more than last year. All the tables were filled except for a few in the very back. We had people that came last year who were not even part of the U of O campus which was really great! A father who brought his kids even sported a Hk Night 2009 T-shirt which made me really happy! I would never had thought people would be so interested in our culture show. We always give it our 110% and this just proves how much of an impact we make to our audience.

This years culture show was by far the best I've seen, at least during my years at the University of Oregon. We spent a lot of time in planning a live skit, inviting performers such as LDT, the UO Wushu team, and a Shaolin Martial artist who chopped cabbage on his chest. A lot of our improvement where based on what we have learned last year. Such as the shortage of food, organization, practice, etc. Such difference can be seen in the HKSA member dance, ( it was put together much earlier), and the transitions in between each show were much smoother and interesting. I must say there were a few mistakes that we will address for next year. We had a few technical difficulties with the mikes, and props and equipment were misplaced. By looking at these flaws we can plan ahead and prevent them from occurring next year.

Apart from the minor flaws, this year was a huge success. Many people that I had talked to said it was a lot of fun, and their was plenty of food. Last year we started out with a few committee members with no experience in running the show. This year we had the help of our dedicated members as well as an experienced team. I can't wait for next year's culture show, April 10th 2011. HKSA is growing and I am so thankful to be apart of this family.

*Special thanks to the ASUO and the UO Chinese Department for helping us fund the night.