Sixty-four-year-old Irvine Auditorium played host to an event 5,000 years in the making Saturday night. More than 200 people watched "Descendants of the Dragon," a celebration of the ancient Chinese culture presented by the Chinese Students Association. "The main goal of the show is to introduce Chinese culture to the Penn community," said Engineering and Wharton junior Wei Cao, co-chairperson of CSA's cultural committee. "CSA was founded over 80 years ago originally as a cultural organization." The fourth annual CSA culture show featured entertainment from members of the University community and guest artists from New York City. Performances ranged from Chinese pop music to modern and traditional dances and the skillful manipulation of the Chinese yo-yo. But attendance was lower than expected, with most of Irvine's 2,000 seats remaining empty throughout the performance. Organizers attributed the disappointing turnout to the lack of publicity and the decision to charge admission for the first time since CSA began staging the show. "This is a cultural event. From our heart, we don't want to charge people," Cao said. "The last three cultural shows, we didn't charge an entrance fee. But this year the cost is too much and we've run into some financial problems." Organizers had to cancel appearances by some performers and, at one point, almost called the show off due to lack of funding. Cao also said the low turnout might be attributed to lingering resentment over the CSA's cultural show last spring at the Annenberg Center. Because the auditorium was full that night, many hoping to attend were turned away by the center's staff, who, some complained, behaved rudely. "Last year, lots of people got upset. We apologized for that," Cao said. "[The center] apologized, too, but it was too late." The overflow at the center last spring influenced CSA's decision to hold Saturday's show at Irvine with its much larger seating capacity. For those attending, the event proved worthwhile. However, some audience members were not responsive to one act, featuring a Chinese opera singer. But Engineering and Wharton sophomore Stephanie Hsu said the opera performance was precisely what made the CSA show so rewarding. "I think one of the reasons that the show was really good was that they exposed you to a lot of different parts of Chinese culture, especially when the lady sang Beijing opera," said Hsu, who also attended the CSA's spring show. Hsu said that while she understood why the audience was "less attentive" during the performance of a piece from the Beijing opera "The Tale of Madam White-Snake," she had learned about its value. Many of the show's other acts were more conventional. "I really enjoyed the fashion show most of all," Engineering and Wharton sophomore Ernie Chu said. "It covered a wide range of history and told the stories behind the costumes." As the curtain came down on the performance, organizers seemed content with the result of nine months of work. "We'll do it again next year," Cao said after the show. "There wasn't the amount of people that I expected. But the people who came here did show a lot of interest."
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