Charger Girls ring in Chinese New Year

Jen Rojas
Chargers.com
Mar 12, 2010

Photos: Charger Girls in Hong Kong>>

The start of the Chinese New Year marks a time of grand celebrations throughout China. To help launch the Year of the Golden Tiger, the Charger Girls were invited by the Hong Kong Board of Tourism on a six-day trip to Hong Kong last month to partake in the festivities.

“It was a huge honor to represent the USA in the centuries-old tradition in China,” Charger Girls Director Lisa Simmons said. “I think it says a lot about our Charger Girls program to be the only performers chosen from the USA to travel to Hong Kong and be a part of this special occasion.”

The Hong Kong Board of Tourism chose the Charger Girls because of their extraordinary performance ability as well as their strong image and reputation.

The Chinese New Year is the longest and most treasured tradition on the Chinese calendar. According to the Chinese Zodiac, the year 2010 is the Year of a Golden Tiger, which begins February 14, 2010 and ends on February 2, 2011.

For one Charger Girl, the visit to China had even more of a special meaning as it reunited her with her family.

“Chinese New Year is the biggest holiday in our culture,” said Charger Girl Tiffany, who was born in Taiwan and has much of her family still living there. “It’s bigger than Christmas for us. It’s bigger than New Year’s Day in the States. It meant so much to me to actually be on that side of the world and celebrate with my family.”

To commemorate the New Year, the Hong Kong Board of Tourism invited performers from around the world to participate in community events around the city. Aside from the Charger Girls, performers from France, Sweden, Italy, Korea and Japan were just some of the nations also invited. Each country sent performers, but not all were dancers; some were acrobats and singers.

“It was a great experience for the Charger Girls to be in a show with all of the various countries’ artists,” said Simmons. “You can learn new movements from different cultures and enhance your own performances.”

With performances at the International Chinese New Year Night Parade, the Telford Shopping Mall and Hong Kong Jockey Club, the Girls didn’t get much time to be tourists. They ended up with only a half-day to sight-see where they were able to visit a couple scenic points, catch a boat tour and have lunch at the famed Jumbo Kingdom floating restaurant.

After watching too many episodes of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel, some of the Girls were a bit hesitant to try some of the local food.

“A lot of dishes were ones they hadn’t seen before,” said Tiffany, who speaks fluent Mandarin and helped translate the menus. “They went with these perceived notions about strange foods served here when in fact it was all pretty normal like noodles and shrimp…just traditional Chinese food.”

The trip to China adds to the growing list of countries visited by the Charger Girls, who have traveled extensively. Their past trips have been to Sydney, Australia; Tokyo, Japan; and Berlin, Germany.

Charger Girl auditions for the 2010 season will be held on April 11. To help prepare the women for the audition process, a pre-audition workshop will be held on March 14 from 2-5 pm in the Jenny Craig Pavilion at the University of San Diego. Girls may sign up through Chargers.com.