The annual Chinese New Year Festival -- marking Chinese calendar's Year of the Pig, which starts Feb. 18 featured martial arts demonstrations, singing, dancing, authentic cuisine, arts and crafts and a silent auction benefiting the school. 

Students who study at the Chinese Language School of Connecticut's Riverside branch, stood under flashing lights as Asian hip-hop blared from massive speakers at the Arch Street teen center yesterday afternoon. Also Featured in World Journal

Parents take language class into their own hands to prepare their children for a global future and give them a competitive advantage for jobs as adults. From The New York Times

Susan Serven, president of the Chinese Language School of Connecticut, has a dream. She hopes the lure of Chinese pop and hip-hop will interest local youngsters in learning the Chinese language..." From TheStamfordTimes.com

While families packed into the school's auditorium to watch a live performance of "Little Red Riding Hood: the Chinese Opera," others sat down to plates of lo mein, fried rice and dumplings, ..." Read the Times' coverage of our fourth annual Chinese New Year celebration in 2006 .

  We made the evening news! "What could possibly pack the classrooms on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in tony Greenwich, Connecticut?"

Out of the mouths of babes comes the answer, reports CBS News Correspondent Richard Schlesinger. See CBS web site (video is on right side of text

The smell of lo mein, fried rice and dumplings wafted along crowded hallways in which parents bid on silent auction items donated by Greenwich businesses, bought books and artwork, and let their kids dig into activities such as paper-cutting and book-making.  Read the Times' coverage of our Celebration of the Year of the Rooster.

For a few hours yesterday, it seemed as if a Riverside school had given birth to its own Chinatown. Narrow aisles were decorated with paper lanterns and filled with hawkers on one side and a steady stream of potential customers on the other. Read how we brought the magic of the Monkey King to celebrate New Year 2004.

Between silk ribbon and sword dancers, Chinese opera singers, Wu Kong acrobatics, a lion parade and a dim sum reception, the Year of the Ram was launched in a most traditional fashion. Read how we celebrated the Year of the Ram.

Chinese residents are celebrating the start of the Chinese New Year, a time for starting fresh and dining on symbolic fare.

"It's the major holiday of the year," said Hans Hsu of Riverside, chairman of the Chinese Language School of Connecticut, which is based at the International School at Dundee.Read the Advocate's coverage of our 2003 New Year Celebration.