Commemorating the beginning of the Year of the Horse, West High welcomed the community to Arganbright Auditorium for the inaugural Lunar New Year Gala Feb. 15. The evening featured cultural performances by West students and members of Asian organizations in Iowa City. The event was primarily managed by Asian Student Union co-leader Emma Lai ’28, who reached out to organizations across Iowa City and organized the program, rehearsals and other details.
Additionally, the gala was enabled by a host of volunteers and performers, as well as ASU leaders Konnon Chen ’28, Alisa Zhou ’27, Shannon Chen ’27, Ethan Ding ’28 and Thora Schimmel ’28.
West opened the gala with a traditional Chinese dragon dance followed by Lai’s vocal rendition of “Reflection” from “Mulan,” accompanied by pianist Sean Kearney ‘26. West High’s K-pop dance club — Kpoppies — then took the stage, dancing to “Shut Down” by BLACKPINK, “GO!” by CORTIS and KATSEYE’s “Gabriela.” Next, a local children’s choir sang “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” in Chinese and a group of martial artists demonstrated taekwondo moves. West High and Northwest Middle School students Zhou, Rosanna Yang ’31 and Ashley Wang ’31 then performed a cultural sword dance. Lovella Varner ’27 and Thaniel Rent ’28 sang “Free” from the 2025 film “KPop Demon Hunters.”
Senior Thomas Tong performed “Horse Racing” on the saxophone, a Chinese folk piece traditionally performed on the Chinese erhu. Professional singer Jiarui Mao followed with a soprano solo. Then, Maggie Nguyen ’28, Momo Shinozaki ’27, Alexander Moss ’28 and Sonya Zhu ’28 formed a string quartet to play “Golden” from “KPop Demon Hunters.” The evening concluded with four students from West and Clear Creek Amana presenting a traditional Chinese lion dance.
Ultimately, Lai seeks to make the Lunar New Year Gala an annual fixture at West. “I hope to continue it in the future, because I think it’s a great tradition to have at West,” Lai said. “And I also want to integrate more of West’s choir and orchestra into the event, so that it can just be more publicized and have more recognition in our community.”
