A final night to remember

The Daily Mining Gazette - Published: Saturday, March 31, 2007

CAPTION: Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette

Above, Malaysian Student Association members at Michigan Tech University do a traditional ribbon and fan dance during Malaysian night events on Friday.

By Garrett Neese, DMG Writer

HOUGHTON — Michigan Tech University’s Malaysian Night went out with a bang Friday night.

Malaysian students celebrated their heritage with a night of food and performances. The event, now in its eighth year, is put on by Tech’s Malaysian Student Association.

The night began with a dinner at Wadsworth hall, where MSA students dished up traditional fare such as chicken and vegetarian plates.

Yoke Khin Yap, associate professor in the Department of Physics and advisor for MSA, said the dinner had, as usual, gone over well.

“They’re all having enough,” Yap said. “Everybody had two plates.”

Following the dinner, a series of 12 performances took place at the Rozsa Center — not just recognizing Malaysia, but from cultures the Malaysians drew upon, including Chinese, Indian, Malay, Iban and Kadazan.

One annual highlight, Yap said, is the “lion dance,” which is reputed to have originated as a way to repel a monster that was ravaging the Chinese mainland.

“It’s the only one on the Upper Peninsula,” he said.

Another Chinese import came through the ribbon and fan dance, where a group of pink-clad fan dancers weaved in and out of a group twirling long red ribbons in unison.

One dance was taken from the Iban and Kadazan, Malaysia’s equivalent to Australian Aborigines or Native Americans. The crowd was asked to remain silent for a dancer carrying two branches and wearing traditional garb of black with sparkling white and blue swirls.

More MSA members put on a pageant of Malaysian history. The country, desired for its land and strategic location, was owned by Portugal, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Japan and the United Kingdom again. The British finally gave Malaysia its independence in August 1957.

The night may be the last one the MSA puts on. Thirteen of the 25 students graduate in December.

Whether the MSA can continue putting on the night will depend largely upon whether more Malaysians come to Tech. Even this year’s event would have been iffy. But students decided to persevere to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Malaysia’s independence from Great Britain.

“Hopefully, over the next few years, we will get more students and come back here,” Yap said.

There’ll probably be a willing audience. Yap said the typical crowd of 200 to 300 had doubled this year.

Garrett Neese can be reached at gneese@mininggazette.com