By Abby Paras '24
Photo Courtesy of W&M CSO (Chinese Student Organization)
On Saturday, October 2, the Chinese Student Organization (CSO) at the College of William and Mary celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival by putting on a performance entitled “Yue and the Immortality Elixir”. The play, written by the members of CSO, was a mix between the plot of the show Avatar: The Last Airbender and the traditional Chinese myth of Chang’e (嫦娥), which is normally celebrated during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The show also included two dances, also performed by student volunteers from CSO. One was a traditional Chinese fan dance while the other was a modern dance.
For a little background, the myth of Chang’e serves as an explanation for the Mid-Autumn festival. According to the myth, there used to be ten suns, which made the earth unbearably hot. The archer Hou Yi (后羿) shot nine of them down, and to thank him, the goddess Xiwangmu (西王母) gave him an immortality elixir. He decided not to use it out of love for his wife, Chang’e, who drank it instead, and turned into the moon. Huo Yi missed his wife and began leaving out offerings like fruits and desserts for her. This practice continued over the centuries as part of the Mid-Autumn festival.
For those who missed it, here’s a quick recap of the show: Aang, Katara, Sokka, Appa, and Momo all travel to the Northern Water Tribe so Aang can learn water-bending. The story follows the same plot as the show in that Sokka eventually falls in love with the princess of the tribe, Yue. To prove that he should be allowed to marry her, he undertakes a quest to retrieve items from the Chief of the Tribe’s many siblings. After a humorous adventure that also involved several other beloved Avatar: The Last Airbender characters, Sokka completes the task and receives the immortality elixir, which he entrusts to Yue. The characters all engage in a battle with the Fire Nation that leads to Yue drinking the elixir and turning into the moon. The show ended with Sokka wailing that his first girlfriend turned into the moon, with Zuko chiming in with “that’s rough, buddy.”
Sophia Kruk, ‘23, the stage manager and narrator of the performance, explained the process behind the creation of the play. She said that the “two culture chairs [...] wrote the script” but wanted to add “a modern twist”, so they incorporated plot points from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
She explained that “the script was in the works through the beginning of the year” and rehearsals began about three weeks prior to the show. All of the actors and dancers were volunteers, and the choreographers were members of CSO.
After the show, dinner was provided by a local Chinese restaurant, Peter Chang’s. According to Sophia, it is a CSO tradition to work with Peter Chang’s throughout the year; not only for the Mid-Autumn festival, but also for Lunar New Year and other events for the club. All students who attended the show were presented with a variety of options from the restaurant.
Sophia also stated that the show was the first in-person event that CSO had held in over a year due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Normally, CSO puts on two big performances throughout the year: one for the Mid-Autumn festival and one for the Lunar New Year. Despite the long hiatus, Sophia affirmed that all of the students who participated were very excited to share their performance with the rest of the student body.
The audience responded very positively to the show, even clapping enthusiastically during several references to the original show. Although they only had a short time to prepare, all of the student actors were charming in their roles and several of them had excellent comedic timing. The dancers were also excellent, and both the fan dance and the modern dance were wonderful to watch onstage.
Overall, “Yue and the Immortality Elixir” was a success, in both educating people on the traditional myth of the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese culture as well as providing an entertaining performance with plenty of callbacks to a beloved TV show.
Note: The article was republished due to technical errors. The original publication date is October 30, 2021.
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