By Chelsea Merta

The Chinese Language Program at IU hosted its annual Chinese Performance Festival beginning at 1:30 p.m. Sunday at Monroe County Public Library auditorium.

The family-friendly festival featured live plays and skits performed by students, as well as student-made video clips.
 "I believe that language learning goes beyond the classroom," said Jennifer Liu, president of the Chinese Language Teachers Association and associate professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures.  "We encourage our students to practice with native speakers and encourage the local Chinese to be involved with the community.  It's a real encouragement if native speakers can understand the students."

Liu, who is also the Chinese language Program coordinator at IU, said she began planning this event almost six months ago.
"During the festival, we award students (who participate in the festival) with prizes that our teachers have brought back from China." Liu said.  "Some of these prizes can be Chinese books, movies, comic books, paintings or calligraphy sets."

Judges of awards are faculty members, who rank the top three or four performances in the categories of performance and video. The festival is run mostly by students who are learning Chinese at all levels, first through fourth year, Liu said.

"I've had a long-time obsession with Chinese culture and language," said Dittman, a first-year Chinese student and freshman."  And now that culture is being lost through the takeover of communism and now capitalism."

Although she will spend most of her time at the festival watching her classmates perform their plays and skits, Dittman will also play a role in a project.  She described her group's presentation as an ancient Chinese hero tale with a modern twist.

"The Monkey King is one of the most famous heroes in Chinese culture," Dittman said, referring to the main character of a famous Chinese epic.  "Our skit is like the Monkey King meets 'Monty Python,' only they aren't searching for the holy grail."

Following the performances will be a banquet at 3:30 p.m. held at the library, featuring food donated from Chow Bar, China Buffet and Dragon Express.  The event is free.