Monroe. Orange County Chinese Association hosts ‘the Voice of OCCA’ to celebrate the new year

The celebration of the new year in the Orange County Chinese Association was not hindered by COVID-19.

The Chinese community celebrated with a new event that spread just as much joy from home than in person: the Voice of OCCA on the New Year’s eve.

The Voice of OCCA was a singing competition across the Orange County Chinese Community, as well as to make way for the new year from the safety of home.

The OCCA Youth Planning Team for this event consisted of high school students Stephanie Peng, Angela Qiu, Andy Wang, Sunny Shi, Jeffery Shi, Emily Wang and Mason Du. These members pieced this event together alongside the president of OCCA, Kangjian Wu, as well as Qian He and Juan Li.

From children to adults, community members joined the event through Zoom to sing and clap their way into 2021 on the evening of Dec. 31.

As each contestant sang their numbers, community members cheered on from the sidelines and decided who they would vote for later in the event.

Three categories were determined for voting through Google Forms:

Audience Favorite;

Rising Star; and

Livelist Performance.

After every performer had sung, the results of the vote were announced and everyone celebrated the three winners of the lively New Year’s event, full of smiles, laughter and small “thank you” speeches.

Through the Voice of OCCA, everyone from the Orange County Chinese Community learned that the joy of New Year’s can be celebrated from home just as much as it can be in person. With COVID-19 present, hope can still be spread around the community through events just like this one.

The OCCA Youth Planning Team is determined to make more events like these to help unite the OCCA during trying times like those present during the pandemic.