<\/p>\n
OnApril 6, the Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies<\/a> debuted the final stage of their female dragon sculpture project<\/a> at Hill Auditorium in collaboration with feminist artist Zhen Guo<\/a>. Guo, alongside University of Michigan professors and students, built the dragon\u2019s body, composed music for the performance and learned to dance the dragon. The dragon was built out of upcycled T-shirts and combines traditional Chinese crafting techniques with modern flair.\u00a0<\/p>\n In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LRCC Outreach Coordinator Carol Stepanchuk said planning started in 2024, the Year of the Dragon<\/a>. She said the project was originally intended as a smaller collaboration with the Detroit Institute of Arts<\/a>, but has since grown significantly.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were thinking about building the head and then the body,\u201d Stepanchuk said. \u201cBut then once you build it, you want to dance it \u2014 and that requires music, and that requires getting faculty and students involved on that end and then performing it, to find dancers, to recruit dancers, to dance the dragon at various public art sites.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Stepanchuk said Guo was chosen to lead the artistic vision for the dragon because of her unique background in traditional crafts \u2014 which she developed during the Cultural Revolution<\/a> \u2014 and her willingness to experiment with those techniques.\u00a0<\/p>\n