Volume 124 Issue 80
Monday, January 23, 2012
kansan.com
ASHLEIGH LEE/KANSAN
Dancers perform an umbrella dance at the 2012 Greater Kansas Chinese Dragon Year Gala Sunday night at the Lied Center. The umbrella dance is beloved for its grace, expressiveness and unique costumes.
KELSEY CIPOLLA
kcipolla@kansan.com
Audience members didn't need to share a common language or culture to enjoy last night's Greater Kansas Chinese Dragon Year Gala at the Lied Center.
The KU Chinese Student and Scholar Friendship Association worked with several other Kansas area student groups and organizations to put together the Chinese New Year celebration which featured more than 200 performers. Performances included traditional dances,
music and martial arts numbers as well as acts that combined Chinese and American culture, like the KU Concert Choir performing a Chinese song, accompanied by a traditional ensemble. Kansas Lieutenant Governor, Jeff Colyer, attended the gala and reminded the audience that this week marked the Kansas's first Chinese New Year Week.
Shenji Pan, a junior from Changshu, Jiangsu, China, and president of the KUCSSFA said the group wanted the show to promote China's culture, cultivate a friendship between the U.S. and China as well as
provide Kansans an opportunity to learn more about China.
"You can see this influx of Chinese students, which also brings about this interaction between U.S. and China's younger generations," Pan said. "There's no one culture better than the other. It's all about interacting with each other and finding this harmony."
Jiayu Ma, a sophomore from Wuxi, China, and the KUCSSA member responsible for marketing the show was excited to be bringing her culture to such a large audience.
"Chinese New Year is a very big
celebration for us Chinese people," Ma said. "And this is the dragon year, the most important year."
Ma said the year of the dragon is significant because the dragon is associated with luck and power in Chinese culture.
"If you're born in the year of the dragon, which is a 12 year cycle, you're suppose to wear red underwear for the whole year," Pan said. "That means good luck for the year."
Like Christmas, the holiday comes with plenty of unique traditions. For Ma, the show was
the pay-off for six months of time and effort she put into promoting the gala, but for other Chinese students forced to spend their most significant holiday away from family, the night's performances provided much needed comfort.
"Every spring festival is after the semester has started, so we cannot go back to China," said Le Wei, a senior from Henan, Zhengzhou, China. "It's been five years for me with my family. For an American, it would be like not celebrating Christmas."
eats dumplings at their New Year's celebration. Giving money to children is also traditional and is thought to bring good luck for the year, Ma said.
Franziska Buchler, a graduate student from Munich, Germany, came to the gala to enjoy the performances and learn more about a different culture. She even researched the year of the dragon before the event.
Wei said that his family always
"I think for Kansas people it's really nice to learn more about it," Buchler said.
Edited by Tanvi Nimkar
CAMPUS
Cold temperatures keep political graffiti alive
LUKE RANKER
lranker@kansan.com
In the first week of the semester, graffiti appeared on three campus buildings.
Watson Library, Twente Hall, Fraser Hall and sidewalks between them were all sprayed with red paint. The incoherent and misspelled messages referenced Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.
CJ Jernberg, an employee in the Paint and Sign Shop of Facilities Operations, said typically the department would have cleaned the graffiti off within 24 hours, but because they use a water and silica sand power washer employees have to wait for temperatures to be above freezing. He said he hoped that temperatures would be high enough to start cleaning buildings by the afternoon on Monday Jan. 23.
buildings without damaging stone and mortar. He said ideally a soda power washer would be used for graffiti, but the silica sand washer can be used for a variety of other cleaning needs.
Jernberg said the silica sand washer is the safest way to clean
Jernberg said the most common areas for graffiti are in the tunnel between Eaton and Lindley Halls, the Art and Design building and the outside stairwells of Wescoe Hall. He said commonly graffiti appears on buildings, sidewalks and campus signs.
"Sometimes it's political, sometimes it's someone's art and sometimes it's down right disgusting," Jernberg said.
He said last spring the University cleaned graffiti off buildings at least once a month, but there has been other times when campus has been graffiti free for several months.
Graffiti about Republican Candidate Ron Paul was spray painted on the wall outside of Twente Hall, Thursday afternoon.
Members of University Relations and the Public Safety Office were unavailable for comment on Friday.
CHRIS NEAI/KANSAN
Graffiti spray painted on the sidewalk outside of Watson Library against Republican Candidate Ron Paul, Thursday afternoon.
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN
Other news organizations waited for the Associated Press to confirm, but started disputing the reports citing Paterno family spokesman, Dan McGinn, who said the reports were false.
Then the organizations originally reporting the false stories retracted or edited their reports. CBS Sports pushed the blame to Onward State by adding its attribution to the original story.
Index
After the Onward State report, CBS Sports published an obituary on its website, but did not attribute the breaking news to Onward State. MSNBC's Breaking News, The Huffington Post and Poynter also published the story.
In a letter to readers, Onward State managing editor Devon Edwards an apology to anyone mis lead by the report. He also wrote that he would step down from his position.
ndex CLASSIFIEDS 8B CRYPTOQUIPS 4A SPORTS 1B CROSSWORD 4A OPINION 5A SUDOKU 4A
The college's radio station, BWH-FM 94.5,
echoed the statement 20 minutes later, but
did not name a source.
According to a time line report by Jeff Sonderman from The Poynter Institute, Onward State, a student-run website for Penn State, first mis-reported Paterno's death at 8:45 p.m. EST in a tweet stating "Our sources can now confirm: Joseph Vincent Paterno has passed away tonight at the age of 85." Its source said an email was sent to football players about Paterno's death.
A student editor resigned and professional news organizations were embarrassed Saturday after a false report about former Pennsylvania State University football coach Joe Paterno's death 12 hours before he actually died.
"I take full responsibility for the events that transpired tonight, and for the black mark upon the organization that I have caused."
MEDIA
Reports of Paterno's death lead to editor's resignation
All contents, unless stated otherwise, © 2012 The University Daily Kansan
Don't forget
Today's Weather
Vikaas Shanker
The poster sale starts today in the Kansas Union on the fourth floor from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Forecasts done by University students. For a more detailed forecast, see page 24.
HI: 48
LO: 18
Not quite short sleeve weather
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