Several Baton Rouge organizations want to let people know about the depth and diversity of Chinese culture. WRKF's Tegan Wendland spoke with Guiyuan Wang, President of the Yang Guang Chinese Dance Troupe, about the 2011 Chinese Culture night on April 30.

Listen to the interview  

Guiyuan Wang Yang Guang Dance Troupe

WENDLAND: What would you say some of the highlights of the event are going to be this year?

WANG: Oh, you will see very beautiful costumes from all kinds of ethnic groups - minority and majority ethnic groups - from China. And you will hear beautiful masterpieces of music from China too, and also, martial arts. It's very, very wonderful.

WENDLAND: What do you hope to accomplish with the event?

WANG: First of all, I think people are learning about China and Chinese culture more and more. Of course our first purpose is to let people know who we are - and who Chinese people are because China is so big and people usually think about Chinese restaurants or something like that. But there's so much more we want to let people know and at the same time we make so many friends doing this and we learn from other cultures all over the world and it is amazing how many cultures we have here in Baton Rouge, it is really a good thing.

WENDLAND: How does this event allow you to learn about other cultures though? Don't people just come and sit and watch and just enjoy your presentation?

WANG: For this cultural night, of course, but if we are invited to come and do performances for the international cultural events, like the Heritage Expo every year in Baton Rouge, we do make a lot of friends with other cultures.

WENDLAND: What would you say the importance of Chinese culture in Baton Rouge is?

Guiyuan Wang

WANG: Before I came here I didn't know that the Chinese population here is actually quite big and especially after Katrina I think some of the Chinese people moved from New Orleans to here. So the community has grown very fast. At the same time LSU is trying to make itself more and more international so we now have more Chinese students and scholars, the number is growing every year. I think those are the two mains reasons why the Chinese community is getting bigger and bigger here.

WENDLAND: Do you think the Chinese culture in Baton Rouge has changed over the past few years as you've seen the population expand over the past few years? Like, are there new events, or Chinese cultural hubs, new churches, restaurants, anything like that that you've seen really expand?

WANG: I think there are more Chinese restaurants, and also the restaurants are getting more and more authentic if you know what I mean. And there has been a Chinese church already, for many years as I understand. Other than that, I can't think of anything else.

WENDLAND: Okay, if you could choose one thing for the audience to take away from the experience this weekend, what would that thing be?

WANG: I think that would be how colorful Chinese culture is. Because, I think most people know that red is the Chinese color, and of course it is, and of course people know some things about Chinese culture, but mainly they know about the culture of the majority Han Chinese, because that's the major culture, the mainstream culture. But actually Chinese culture is so wonderfully diverse that you will go "Oh wow! Their costumes look like that, and their music sounds like that." So, I think that's the best part.

WENDLAND: So you'd like them to take away the fact that there's much diversity.

WANG: Yeah.

WENDLAND: Probably a lot of people have generalizations about what it means to be American, too.

WANG: That's right, that is very right. You know, I'm amazed at how Louisiana is different from other parts of the United States and I learn a lot of things here, too. And the food here is so much closer to Chinese food, to me, than the food in other parts of the United States.

WENDLAND: That's really interesting. What makes you say that?

WANG: Jambalaya!

Guiyuan Wang is president of Yang Guang Chinese Dance Troupe of Baton Rouge. On Saturday they'll be performing at the 2011 Chinese Culture night, sponsored by the LSU Chinese Student and Scholar Association.