International Night, is held on Mar. 27, showed the diversity in this school, displaying different cultures from around the world.
The night was filled with entertainment by the students who provided posters, food and dances. “I wanted to explore the different cultures that are celebrated here at our school,” sophomore Yerin Han said.
The Belgium table attracted a lot of people. Their poster showed different sports like football, tennis and cycling, the climate and location, the religion, population and language. The other part of their poster had the history of their flag, government, and economy, where the name “Belgium” came from and facts about trading and the currency. Besides the poster, the students brought in homemade fruit tarts and chocolates. “I really like the food at the Belguim table, but all the booths had really good food,” freshman Emily Shao said.
The French Honor Society made a poster about French-speaking countries, where they had interesting information about each country along with where they were located on the map.
China’s booth had homemade Chinese food like pancakes and dumplings. The poster had different Chinese opera costumes that were presented by DCBBO, the DC Beauty of Beijing Opera. The other side of the poster described what Chinese opera is and about the performers and music. Each performer is classified to four types, where “Sheng” is for male, “Dan” is for female, “Jing” is for male painted face and “Chou” is for clown. The four classified types of performer taught me about Chinese opera, so I will understand what’s happening during a Chinese opera performance,” sophomore Jenny Kien said.
India’s booth had different pictures of clothes they wore, and students brought in different accessories, like necklaces, bracelets, purses and hats. The students who made the booth wore traditional Indian clothes and did Henna for free. Henna is art, usually drawn on hands, that stays for about two to four weeks. Henna refers to the dye prepared from the plant and the temporary body art. The students also performed a Bollywood dance. “The Bollywood dance was fascinating because of its upbeat music and smiling dancers,” Han said.
Besides the Bollywood dance, a qipao model show to represent the handmade designs on a qipao. A qipao is a Chinese traditional women’s dress. Most of the dresses were made of silk, and embroidered with thick laces trimmed at the collar, sleeves and edges. There were five students who participated in the model show. “I liked being able to promote my heritage, and even though it was a bit awkward standing in front of everyone, I had fun,” Shao said.
Joyce Yang
Staff Writer
