Chinese Center to Hold a Dual Celebration

The Sun Yat Sen Chinese Institute will hold a dual celebration Saturday to mark the language and cultural center’s 15th anniversary and usher in the Year of the Tiger.

The new year celebration will include Chinese folk dances, songs and plays--all performed by children who study Mandarin and Cantonese at the center’s Saturday classes, said Principal Lena Lee.

“They are not professionals but they have been practicing for two months to show their culture through these performances,” she said.

The school, which is a branch of the larger Sun Yat Sen Institute in Monterey Park, also offers classes in Chinese painting and tai chi chuan, a slow-movement exercise regimen practiced in China for centuries, Lee said.

In addition to learning about their cultural heritage, Lee said, high school students who enroll in the institute’s language classes can earn up to 10 credits per year at their schools.

In honor of the Chinese New Year, which falls on Wednesday this year, children attending the celebration will receive traditional “lucky red envelopes,” which Lee said contain money.

The celebration, which is open to the public, will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the gymnasium at John Sutter Junior High School, 7330 Winnetka Ave., in Canoga Park.

Admission is $2. For more information, call (818) 340-8950.