News Release

Northern Illinois Chinese Association Plans Celebration for Year of The Rooster

The year of the monkey is departing while the year of the rooster is approaching. The Northern Illinois Chinese Association (NCA) is planning to welcome the rooster with a New Year celebration banquet at Lisle’s Windham Hotel on Saturday, January 22, 2005 with many fantastic performances.

Monkey, the traditional symbol of intelligence, has brought us a year full of wisdom. The year is now coming to an end. Replacing it is the rooster that symbolizes diligence since it announces the starting of a workday every morning. Taking up the spirit of the rooster, the Northern Illinois Chinese Association New Year celebration planning committee has been working diligently to prepare for another wonderful banquet program filled with great performances.

The Northern Illinois Chinese Association was founded by several Chinese American families in Naperville area in 1975 to cultivate friendship among the members and extend participation and services to the local communities. Some of the activities organized by NCA are community services, candidate forums, educational and professional seminars, summer picnic and the New Year banquet.

There are many Chinese schools in the area. In addition to Chinese language education, these schools also have many cultural programs. The NCA Chinese New Year celebration provides opportunities for the students to present their accomplishments of the year. This year’s performance will have Chinese ethnic music and dances, martial arts, and acrobats. The participating schools are Naperville Chinese School, Ray Chinese School, Cooperative Chinese School, Good Deeds Chinese School, and Xilin Chinese School.

In addition to the Chinese schools, Naperville Chinese Chorus, Pao Ling Ling Dance Troupe, renown Chicago land Chinese Singer Mai Lo-Ming, and the Rivers Dancesport group will also perform at the banquet. In the spirit of cultural exchange, their performances will consist of not only Chinese music and dance but also the American and Latin music and dances.

In past years, the Chinese New Year Banquet has been attended by dignitaries such as Congressmen, State Senators, and various Mayors. These dignitaries also participated in some of the performances. At last year’s Banquet, the Mayors of Naperville and Lisle both donned the regalia of historical Chinese officials. The NCA banquet committee is planning an encore of the dignitary performances.

The evening of celebration will end with ballroom dance with live vocals by Mr. Mai Lo-Ming.

The prices of tickets are: $50 for VIP tables, $35 for adult and $15 for children (ages 6 to 12.) To purchase the banquet tickets, please contact Annie Liu (630) 717-0537, Grace Hsu (630) 983-9568 or Joseph Kung (630) 858-6358.