Singaporean students celebrate new year

Exuberance and jubilation filled the air Friday night at the Chrysler Center where more than 60 Singaporean students gathered to celebrate the Chinese New Year with their friends and family back home through the use of video teleconferencing.

The event, sponsored by Contact Singapore, an organization devoted to providing services for Singaporeans working and learning abroad, gave members of the Singaporean Student's Association the opportunity to see and speak with their friends and family with a video link-up.

Wai-Hoong Fock, an LSA junior and president of the SSA, said the event was significant to each of its participants.

JESSICA JOHNSON/Daily LSA sophomores Deborah and Catherine Org and LSA junior Yee Wei Chai wave to their parents in Singapore on Friday night from the Chrysler Center. They were able to see their parents through use of video teleconferencing.

"We are the first University to do this with Singapore. Getting to meet with our families through the use of technology is a wonderful opportunity," Fock said.

The affair began with the Singaporean families, who were standing by at the National University of Singapore, viewing a video montage displaying a number of the experiences had by their children abroad.

Shortly thereafter, Singapore's Minister of State for Home Affairs Ho Peng Kee expressed words of praise and confidence to the students in Ann Arbor.

"Stay together. Encourage each other," Kee said. "Make your parents proud. Make Singapore proud."

Following the guest speaker, students had the opportunity to visit individually with their parents. Chair of the event's organizing committee and LSA junior Chai Yee Wei talked about what the Chinese New Year, as well as this opportunity, meant to him.

"The Chinese New Year is a festival of reunion, where families and friends get together. It is similar to Thanksgiving for Americans," Wei said. "Thanks to the technology and Contact Singapore, we are able to celebrate with our families back home."

Contact Singapore Center Director Lee Sar Tan said she could see the importance of the experience on the faces of the many students in the North Campus building.

"You can see from the expressions that this is an emotional experience, especially for the freshmen. Being away from home is very difficult, and that is why Contact Singapore is running this event for them," she said.

Since few Singaporean students will have to opportunity to return home for the upcoming spring break, this event provided them with their only opportunity to see their families until after the completion of the school year.

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