Wellesley celebrates Year of the Dog

By Laura Drinan

Hometown Weekly Reporter

Loyalty. Compatibility. Kindness.

These are character traits of the dog, the eleventh position of the Chinese zodiac. Chinese communities around the world will be celebrating the Year of the Dog for Chinese New Year, their most important holiday.

Because the Chinese calendar is lunisolar, the date for Chinese New Year changes each year. Although the 2018 Chinese New Year was set to begin on February 16, Wellesley decided to celebrate early.

On February 10, members of Wellesley’s Chinese community invited the public to witness the most celebrated time in the Chinese calendar. Organized completely by volunteers – mostly from the Wellesley Chinese Language School and the Wellesley Chinese American Network – the Year of the Dog gala included a potluck dinner, performances from locals, and raffles.

Wellesley residents Jianmei Kochling and Shengli Li gave the audience a heartfelt welcome to the celebration to kick off the evening’s performances. Local dance troupes, singers, and actors took to the stage to provide hours of entertainment.

Many of the performances included young children from the Wellesley Chinese Language School. The children sang Chinese nursery rhymes and performed a skit on how to make stone soup.

The most amazing thing about the children’s performances, however, was their grasp on the language. At such a young age, the children spoke nearly flawlessly, demonstrating their fluency in both English and Chinese.

Parents made appearances on stage, too, with performances from the Wellesley Parent Dance Troupe and the Wellesley Parent Choir.

Students from Wellesley Middle School’s seventh and eighth grade Chinese classes joined the celebration to perform New Year’s songs in Chinese.

The evening welcomed members of the Chinese community to celebrate their heritage and identity. Many guests, even those who were not performing, attended in qipao dresses and blouses and changshan tunics – traditional Chinese outfits. The rest of the community also enjoyed the opportunity to be immersed in Chinese culture.

With so many neighbors stopping in to participate in the festivities, the Wellesley community rang in the Year of the Dog with pride and splendor.