Last Saturday in the Campus Center Gym, the Student Activities Board (SAB) hosted Crimson Affair, one of two annual dances that SAB organizes. Crimson Affair functions as a replacement for homecoming, as Transy does not have a football team to commemorate.

“If I get to dress up and dance, I am there,” said sophomore Marissa Price, a member of SAB.

Eleven students are elected for Crimson Court, and the night of the event two seniors are voted to be the Pioneer Royalty, which is the equivalent to a homecoming king and queen, though the Crimson Court winners are not confined to a specific gender. This year, seniors Erin Alexander and Nanhao Chen were crowned the Pioneer Royallty.

Chen’s friend Josh Porter, a fellow Studio Art major, created a geofilter on Snapchat for Chen with the phrase “Nanhao for Queen” which was not a simple advertisement for his election on Crimson Court.  

“While the filter itself addressed my goal bluntly, it was also meant to be a sarcastic comment that addresses the gender stereotypes of it has to be a ‘King and Queen’ for an occasion as such,” said Chen. “Although it must be noted that SAB did a fantastic job of providing gender neutral crowns and never actually implied that it has to be a King and Queen for the final winners. I checked this information with Michelle Thompson, the supervisor of SAB, beforehand, and she told me very clearly that the winner will be [the] top two regardless their genders.”

“Besides addressing the gender stereotypes, it is also a critique towards the essential pillar of Crimson Affair, or any other sorts of similar activities, which is a savage popularity test in order to accumulate attention on a certain group of people. Therefore, if this event is already about attention show, then why shouldn’t I add a little bit more spice to make this show more fun? You can say that this filter is not only for me being extra, but it is also an art statement from me,” said Chen.

Chen does not require a crown to be a Queen, however. He exhibits the qualities of royalty naturally, in self-loving fashion.

“I would say I am already Queen regardless if I win or not that night. The weight of the crown is in my heart everyday to hold me up to a high standard so that I can be a positive person and live a positive life. Thus, even if the filter did influence my winning of the crown, the filter can never change the fact that I’m a Queen regardless,” Chen said.

Crimson Affair was interrupted by leaks on the third floor of Forrer and abrupt fire alarms. Everyone in Forrer and those attending Crimson Affair shuffled out into the cold for a brief moment and quickly returned to the Campus Center, though First-Years in Forrer could not return to their rooms for nearly an hour and a half.

“It’s a very unreliable building,” said first-year Sarah Offutt.

“The fire alarm went off in Forrer, and there was a leak. They told us we had to leave and that it would be another 30-45 minutes, so we all came in our slippers to Crimson Affair,” said first-year Brianna Loaiza. “They should probably tear it down; it’s not normal that we have so many fire drills. There were some gas leaks earlier in the week; it smelled awful in the hall.”

Unexpectedly, Forrer’s water leaks and fire alarms brought more traction to the event. Students gathered outside of the Campus Center Gym to escape the harsh cold outside, and though still annoyed by the leaks and alarm, they enjoyed what they saw of Crimson Affair.

“I wasn’t originally going to come to Crimson Affair until a little bit later. Now I know what to expect, and I really wanna go ahead and get on in there, but I feel like an outsider at the moment. I am under-dressed, and I don’t have shoes that have my toes enclosed,” said Offutt.

Regardless of leaks or fire alarms, Crimson Affair still collected a large group of enthusiastic dancers and lip-syncers. Even students shy of dancing attended for the diverse food, ranging from Cane’s chicken to Chinese spring rolls. Overall, the dance united the campus community.

“Crimson Affair is something that a lot of people look forward to just because it’s an opportunity for all of our campus to get together. SAB provides programming that is open to everyone, and Crimson Affair is our signature social event that is meant to be a night for everyone to have fun as a campus community,” said Alexander

“[The] Transylvania community will not be complete without the help of Crimson Affair. Although this occasion might have less impact over upperclassmen and Greek members, no one can deny the value of this occasion in terms of its influence towards freshmen and independent students. This is a platform that every student can interact with each other with no barriers, and it is exactly because of this kind of campus-wide event that hold us together as a community,” said Chen.

Last week’s Academic Affairs presentation was given by Dr. Qian Gao, associate professor of Chinese. Gao discussed the origins and history of the Chinese written language in an effort to emphasize the relationship between Chinese heritage and written characters.  

“I had presented before at Academic Affairs, so I feel a lot calmer this time than the last time. And it is also because the content I presented on the Chinese written language is really fascinating in its own right,” said Gao. Before presenting, Gao opened up about her fear of being impolite: “I don’t know all my colleagues’ names,” said Gao. “I will just point and say ‘you!’”

Gao’s colleagues made up a majority of the audience, which could be counted on two sets of hands. The small crowd allowed for more interaction between Gao and her audience, who were involved by guessing the meanings of characters and even speaking Chinese. Several spectators greeted Gao with “你好 (Nǐ hǎo),” or hello in Chinese. The welcome was shocking, “People already know Chinese, should I be gone?” said Gao.

The presentation also explained the inspiration behind Gao’s current project of creating a phonetic Chinese dictionary called “Read Chinese Happily Ever After.” “I have always been quite passionate about teaching; I love my students,” said Gao. “This [memorizing characters] is one of the biggest pains for them.”

Gao hopes to relieve this pain by building on the common radicals found in groups of characters so that students can derive the meaning from reasoning. “I have researched on both the US and Chinese book market; there is no such dictionary [to] exist so far. I am very excited about this project,” said Gao. “They [characters] are not difficult for the sake of being difficult.”

“Chinese character recognition and memorization do demand some time and energy from learners, although Chinese grammar and pronunciation system are both very simple and straightforward. To help students tackle the hardest part in character learning, my new research project will be focused on the creation of a dictionary aimed to analyze and categorize phonetic-compound characters, which are the majority of the Chinese characters,” said Gao.

Gao added, “This dictionary will group these characters in clusters while deciphering their inter-relations and connections through their commonly-shared radicals and each different semantic component. This dictionary will help students to master Chinese characters a lot faster and also help them to expand their characters exponentially.”

Gao is also working on a proposal for a Chinese minor to be added to Transy’s course catalog. “Students have been requesting for a Chinese Minor for the past several years. I am right now in the process of writing up [a] proposal, which will be submitted to CPC (Committee for Program and Curriculum) for approval by the end of this semester. If it is approved, we should have the Chinese Minor officially on Transy’s catalog for the fall of 2018,” said Gao.

The proposal is necessary for students studying Chinese, according to Gao. “All foreign languages are important for students to learn in today’s world. In recent years, the Chinese language has become one of the most important ones to learn because of China’s strong economic power, being just second to the US now,” said Gao.

“In all spheres of international relations and interactions, including cultural exchange, political communications and economical activities, China has become an important player, competitor and partner. For several years already, Chinese has been on the top of the Five Strategic Foreign Languages for American students to learn. Equipped with Chinese language skills and knowledge of China studies will help to open more doors for students when they go on to the future job market. It will lend students more competitive power and enhance their potential for success,” said Gao.