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| Chair Terry Wykowsky (first from left in front row) of Houston Oxford Society, Director General Louis M. Huang (second from left) of TECO, and Director Sophie Chou of the Education Division of TECO in Houston (first from right) posing for a photo |
On
the morning of Saturday February 13, 2016, at the Qin Dynasty Restaurant in
Houston, local people clad in oriental-style outfits poured into the restaurant
lobby for a Lunar New Year’s celebration luncheon. It might not be strange for an
alumni association to get together to share nostalgic moments from their time
in school, but participating in a reunion to learn about different cultures has
become a unique tradition for members of the Houston Oxford Society (HOS).
Last
year, the Co-chair of HOS, Ms. Wykowsky, and her fellow members had a great
reunion that was co-organized with the Education Division of the Taipei
Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in Houston. The meeting featured a
presentation on the traditions and customs that lots of Asian countries
practice during the Lunar New Year and demonstrations of Chinese calligraphic
characters being scribed on strips of red paper that are used for warding off
evil spirits. These meetings have been such a great success that celebrating the
Lunar New Year together has become a tradition for HOS members. This year, to cheer
the arrival of the Year of the Monkey, Ms. Wykowsky invited the Education
Division to co-host the occasion as it had done last year.
The
celebration luncheon kicked off on the weekend before the Lunar New Year festivities
ended. To introduce the old members to some new things about traditional
customs this year, the presentation focused on the cultural differences between
Western and Eastern countries, starting with a juxtaposition of soy sauce and
ketchup images, which immediately filled up the restaurant’s private room with
thunderous laughter. In addition to the presentation and calligraphy inscriptions,
the Education Division designed a greeting card incorporating this year’s
Chinese zodiac, the Monkey, with a New Taiwan Dollar note to insert in red
envelopes for every attendee. The tradition of giving red envelopes was explained
during their distribution which took place after the meal in order to bless the
recipients and ensure a very prosperous new year.
Louis
M. Huang, the Director General of TECO, and several officers who have
connections with Oxford University were also invited to join the celebration. During
Ms. Wykowsky’s welcome speech, to express her heartfelt concern over a recent
incident that occurred in Tainan Taiwan, she requested that every attendee join
her for a moment of silence for those who suffered from the catastrophic
earthquake that happened two days before the Lunar New Year.
By ISABELLE CHEN Feb. 26, 2016