Charming East: HSE University Hosts Anniversary Oriental Crazy Day 2024
At the end of May, HSE University hosted the traditional Oriental Crazy Day. This year the holiday was held for the tenth time. For students, this is an opportunity to show their talents on stage, take part in fortune-telling with the Book of Changes, and learn more about the diversity of Asian cultures as well as the bachelor’s programme ‘Asian and African Studies.’
The main theme of this year’s Oriental Crazy Day was cyberpunk. On the day of the event the atrium of HSE University building on Pokrovsky Bulvar turned into both an oriental bazaar and k-pop dance floor.
‘People Always Want to Know Their Future’
As usual on Oriental Crazy Day, participants of various HSE international student clubs put up booths with activities to present their cultures to the guests of the festival. Fortune-telling using the Chinese Book of Changes became one of the most popular activities, as well as during many other events organised by the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs. For several years now, Nikita Grigoriev, student of the bachelor’s programme ‘Asian and African Studies,’ has helped festival guests to discover their fortune.
‘We always have the longest queues, as people always want to know their future,’ he shares. ‘The guests flip coins, and we use magical methods to name the number and value of hexagrams (a combination of lines). The hexagram defines how a person should act in a given situation.’
The HSE Turkish Club prepared a quiz: they challenged festival guests to guess actors from famous Turkish TV series and photographed the guests with a portrait of one of them.
Anna Zhikhareva, Deputy Dean for Admissions and Alumni Relations of the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs and the main organiser of Oriental Crazy Day, admitted that she expected nothing but positive emotions from the event: everyone who came to the festival was invited to learn more about Asian cultures, taste traditional sweets, receive full information about the programme, and, of course, enjoy the concert.
In addition to oriental sweets, the guests were offered pies with herring, meat, and mushrooms. Those interested could receive a lottery ticket number and take their chance in winning shopping bags, notebooks, and mugs. The HSE Vietnamese Culture Club and the HSE Indian Club presented their activities. Calligraphy was offered at the tables of Japan, China, Korea, and countries of West Asia and North Africa, while the HSE Chinese Club invited guests to make red paper lanterns.
Members of the Arab Palmyra Club invited guests to receive a prediction from the Koran. ‘We have sweets, Arabic literature, and everything for calligraphy,’ said Oleg Dzhagopirov, second-year student of the ‘Asian and African Studies’ programme. ‘You can also take part in fortune-telling using the Koran. I hope many people will become interested in Arabic studies.’
The Japanese Musubi Club offered everyone to take part in an origami masterclass. The Hanryang Korean Club organised a workshop on making norigae (a Korean pendant used in the national hanbok costume). Nearby, students danced to the rhythms of k-pop (Korean pop).
‘We have been organising and developing this holiday for 10 years,’ says Svetlana Subbotina, head of the study office of the ‘Asian and African Studies’ programme. ‘We have a huge number of applicants who already know about our holiday, about our clubs, and activities. This year is our anniversary celebration, everyone is so excited.’
In a separate space, visitors lounged on comfortable beanbags while playing a fighting game (a game simulating hand-to-hand combat) on the Japanese Nintendo Switch console.
‘Today I want to have fun, relax, and just admire everything. I want to learn something new. I’m expecting a day full of surprises. They wouldn’t even let me go to the concert rehearsal,’ said Ulyana Strizhak, Academic Supervisor of the ‘Asian and African Studies’ programme.
‘Go East with Your Heart Open’
The Oriental Crazy Day concert was held in the Great Hall of the HSE Cultural Centre. While welcoming guests and participants, Dean of Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs Anastasia Likhacheva noted, ‘Our students take the holiday seriously, the quality and number of concert performances are growing each year. However, today we plan to deceive our guests a little. Everyone who deals with Asian studies understands what a difficult path it is, but we hope that today our guests will think that it’s easy, and in the end Asian cultures will fascinate them. Remember this feeling, especially when the going gets tough. You should go East with your heart wide open. It may be hard, but when moving forward with an open heart, it’ll also be interesting.’
The HSE Orchestra performed Merry Go Round of Life from Hayao Miyazaki's famous full-length anime Howl’s Moving Castle. It was followed by the Yin and Yang dance performed by first and second year HSE students. First-year student Radmir Salimov demonstrated the art of swordsmanship. HSE students also performed dances to popular k-pop songs.
The dance programme was complemented by a lyrical performance: Valery Aldyukhov presented a song about unrequited love of his own composition in Japanese, Alexander Raush sang Hallelujah from the Shrek cartoon in Chinese, Alina Bashkirova and Matvey Semin sang the High Green Mountain Chinese song, and Renata Gumerova—Tomboy by Hyukoh. Fyodor Glotov supported last year's trend and performed Chinese rap on stage.
The Turkish club held a flash mob where the audience was invited to the stage to learn and perform the traditional Turkish Zeybek dance. The HSE Vietnamese Culture Club demonstrated the walking dragon and Thaing (Myanmar martial art). The number of professional Indian dance performers amazed the audience with their charming movements and bright costumes.
Traditionally, HSE Kabuki Theatre performed at the end of the concert. This year, the actors performed Kurama-tengu entirely in Japanese.
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