Arts & Entertainment
John Bruce/Daily Nebraskan
Parades launch 4687
New Year’s celebration
begins today for China
By Micki Haller
Senior Editor
Dragons rise and tigers leap into
the first day of 4687 today.
Xiao Chun Chen from Shanghai,
China, and Sor Hoon Yu from
Kclantan, Malaysia, said they
probably won’t celebrate the New
Year yet since today isaschoolday.
The New Year is celebrated for
15 days, but only the first four arc
working holidays.
At home, Sor said. New Year is
often celebrated with a parade, fire
crackers, visiting relatives and eat
ing.
“We have a lot of food, lood
food. Eat, cat, cat!” she said.
Xiao said the parade is custom
ary only in villages.
“In the city, we don’t have this,”
Xiao said.
Red is the lucky color for a new
year because it brings fortune and
good luck, they said.
People can expect both good and
bad things from the Chinese year of
the dragon, Sor said. People like to
have children during the dragon
year, she said, “because the children
become very wealthy.”
“This is what old people be
lieve,” she said.
Old people don’t like children to
wear black and white during this
new year because these are the
colors of death, she said.
Sweeping the floor and throw ing
out garbage is forbidden on New
Year’s Day, Sor said.
“They believe you can sweep out
the luck,” she said.
Children arc given money in an
envelope called “angpow.” Usually
the older, married people hand out
the cash.
“Every young child wears the
new clothes,” Xiao said.
In fact, all the clothes and food
must be especially bought for New
Year, Sor said.
“Just like Christmas shopping,”
she said.
Xiao said the first day’s break
fast is “tangyuan,” a soup with rice
dumplings stuffed with red beans.
Melon seeds, walnuts and ju
jubes also arc important holiday
foods.
“Especially the old people, they
like this,” Sor said.
Sor said the ninth day of New
Year is a special day for the
Hokkicn people. On that day, they
pray, and bamboo, pigs and fruits
play an important part.
Xiao said many Chinese people
live in Malaysia. Sor said one-third
of the population is Chinese. Their
ancestors went there to work in the
15th century, she said.
In China and Malaysia, there are
special New Year programs on TV
with singing and other entertain
ment, they said.
Mardi Gras celebrated with poetry
By Mick Dyer
Senior Reporter
A Mardi Gras poetry reading, part
of the Engl ish department’s on-going
distinguished speakers scries, was
given Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. in An
drews 228. The reading featured
faculty poets Hilda Raz and Marcia
Southwick.
Both arc well-known women
writers.
Hilda Raz, editor of “Prairie
Schooner,” has two books of poetry,
“The Bone Dish,” (State Street Press,
New York), and “What is Good,”
(Thomtrcc Press, Chicago), forth
coming in 1988.
Her poems have been published in
“North American Review,” “Denver
Quarterly,” “Poetry Miscellany,”
and “The Pennsylvania Review,”
and the anthologies: “Alternatives:
An American Poetry Anthology,”
(Best Cellar Press), and “All My
Grandmothers Could Sing,” (Free
Rein Press).
Raz is vice-president of the board
of directors of Associated Writing
Programs and chair of its publication
committee. A recent scholar at Bread
Loaf Writer’s Conference, she has
earned a fellowship there for this
summer.
Marcia Southwick, creative writ
ing instructor and faculty advisor for
the undergraduate literary magazine,
“Laurus,” is the author of “The Night
Won’t Save Anyone,” (University of
Georgia Press). She has recently fin
ished a volume of poetry, “Why the
River Disappears,” and is awaiting
publication of “Her Six Difficulties
and His Small Mistakes,”(Labyrinth
Editions).
Ra/ started today’s reading. She
writes poems from a variety of deeply
personal experiences. Her attention
to details, ranging from the obvious
to the sublime, creates a mood that
the content of the poem can build on.
Raz said that she is interested in
capturing the sound of human voices.
She read a poem, “Shame, the Com
puter Uses of Natural Language,”
which she described as an exercise in
both diction and lying.
She also read several “confes
sional” poems, poems written in the
first person, but not necessarily about
herself. These were “Father,” a poem
from the Alternatives anthology,
about impressions of a strong and
Ward Williams/Dally Nebraskan
Southwick
loving lather, and “Dishes,” a poem
about being pregnant, eating lobster,
and doing dishes. Raz said that tone
and diction is what confessional
poems arc all about.
Southwick writes poetry that can
be described as meditative. Her abil
ity to express the vivid imagery lurk
ing in her imagination draws the
reader into the poem, into her soul.
From there the reader can look out at
the world through new eyes.
Southwick said that she writes
“voice” poems. These poems utilize
a strong, compelling voice to make
an emotional impact on the reader.
Examples are “What the Sun In
vents,” a poem from her book “The
Night Won’t Save Anyone,” and
“The Rain’s Marriage,” based on an1
African myth.
Southwick also writes poetry
from the point-of-view of objects,
such as in “The Sun Speaks.” She is
extremely adept at “persona” poems,
where she writes from the point-of
view of other people, such as “The
Widower’s Song,” and “The Liar.”
The distinguished speaker series
continues for the rest of February
with Bruce Erlich and Bill
Klocfkom.
Erlich, a UNL English professor,
will speak about narrative and world
order on Feb. 24th, and Klocfkom,
Nebraska State Poet, will give a
poetry reading on the 26th.
Both presentations will be held in
Andrews 228 at 3:30 p.m. and will be
open to the public free of charge.
Sheldon art film series !
continues this weekend
“Four Artists,” showing in
Sheldon’s Films on the Arts series
Friday, Saturday and Sunday is, as
the name implies, a collective por
trait of four artists — Robert Ryman,
Eva Hesse, Bruce Nauman and Susan
Rothenberg. It is also, in a sense, a
documentary portrait of a time, from
the 1960s to present.
Screenings of “Four Artists,” a 60
minute film released in November
1987 by director Michael Black
wood, are at noon Friday, 11 a.m. on
Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Admis
sion is $2 ($1 for senior citizens,
children under 12 and members of the
Friends of the Sheldon Film theater). ;
Ryman isolates painting’s essen
tials. His white paint on square sur
faces and serial variations are mini
mal in structure, yet always reveal
the hand of their maker.
Hesse’s organic abstractions —
methodical, obsessively repetitive,
monochrome sculptures — are
loaded with psychological and emo
tional content.
Nauman, using media as new as
performance, installation, videotape
and neon, and with traditional draw
ings and cast sculptures, combines
conceptual rigor with a fierce and at
times frustrating sense of humanity.
Rothenberg, initially limiting her
palette to a lew almost non-color
colors, began to refigurc on a mini
mal field simplified, immediately
recognizable images. 1
February 17,1988 is the Deadline!
All applications for the Student Health and Accident
Insurance must be received by February 17, 1988.
Brochures and information are available at:
UNIVERSITY HEALTH CENTER
or call 472-7437
Check these points:
• Am I still eligible for coverage under my parent’s plan?
A. Is there an age limit? Most policies limit the age for
dependent coverage to age 23.
B. Are you thinking of marriage? Most policies exclude a
dependent after he becomes married.
• Have I declared financial independence from my
parents by receiving financial aid, and no longer
eligible as a dependent under their plan?
• Would a medical emergency deplete funds set
set aside for my education?
