06 Farewell Party (by Karl Leung)

Last Saturday’s (19 Jan 08) Farewell Party was the culmination of 18 months of long nights debating in discussion rooms, partying, sleepless nights, club events, tons of homework and readings, and hangovers. The event, as planned by its highly energetic organizers (under the main leadership of Ivy Wang and Alana Shi), started on time with, as usual, a warm and lively introduction from the famous Nick Conti and CNN personality Rachel Zhang.

 The first event of the evening was the Catwalk. It was a perfect start to warm up the evening. Over a dozen beautiful women with their handsome partners strut their way on the red carpet into the midst of the crowd, parading their fashionable clothes and most important of all showing their moves and poses that took grueling hours of hard practice. This was on top of the basic training they had from Mary Song’s professional model friend who meticulously corrected their motion and stance in the few hours prior to the start of the Farewell Party. I witnessed this first hand since I too was one of those who patiently learned how to walk like a model. I never knew that there was such rigor and science to what these professional models do. Whew!!! And I thought MBA was hard.

 Immediately after the Catwalk, the school Dean gave his Farewell remarks and blessings for our life ahead. It was a good thing this did not take too long since most of the participants (except the Spaniards of course) started feeling very hungry since it was way past dinner time. It was around 6:40 by then! In the midst of the meal and in between the many other events planned for the evening, special “fun” awards were given out. I did not expect this part of the show to be that entertaining until I saw the graphics and pictures projected on the big screen. Here were the awards given out and their corresponding winners ? let’s all give them a hand!

Most inquisitive in mind	Jefferson Li
The sexiest character	Annie Wang
Biggest party animal	Alex Wang
Best persuasive talker award	Warrior Bai
Best partners award	Edward Zhang & Linda Shi
Most popular male MBA	Karl Leung
Most popular female MBA	Alana Shi
Best investor	Jacky Xu
The biggest appetite	Vincent Wen
Most popular club president	Alana Shi
Most popular professor	Xu Dingbo

 The Farewell Party would not be a real CEIBS event without some singing and dancing. Several of our classmates sang their favorite Chinese songs (the ones they perfected singing in the 18 months they have been frequenting Haoledi 好乐迪 in Big Thumb Square 大拇指官场). Then came Professor Zhao Zhinge’s much awaited Peking Opera Piece. Man could he sing. I have heard his voice countless times before. He has taught us Management Accounting, Investments, and Mutual Funds and Portfolio Management and thus most of us are very familiar with his voice but we never imagined his voice could go ultrasonic. 

 On top of the song and dance number was a poem and reflection segment, which was written by Alana Shi and Mick McCannon and delivered by Simon Chikosh and Ena Hewitt. The poem was very touching and written in lots of style. For those of you who missed this segment, I suggest you get a copy of the poem and read it. The poem and reflections segment was immediately followed by a PPT presentation of the most memorable and touching pictures taken by different classmates over the 18 months here in CEIBS, including the many babies that were sired since the start of the school year. Let’s go CEIBS, push harder!!! Then came the Drama. To be honest, I did not quite get the plot of the story but that did not matter since it was entertaining nonetheless.

I am confident that most of you who went to last Saturday’s 06 Farewell Party would agree with me that the highlight of the event was the MBAtrix. The moment I saw Sanford’s face, I could not stop laughing; I knew that the clip would be entertaining all the way until the end. But more than that, the fact that the film’s masterminds were Alex and Jim made me impatient with anticipation as to what was to be shown. What they have is just pure talent, coupled of course with lots of booze and sleepless nights.

Nevertheless, the 06 Farewell Party or our life as MBA 06 students in general cannot be just about Sanford, and Jim and Alex’s movie. The movie was but a glimpse, a trailer, if you like, of what had transpired in our short stay here in CEIBS. I doubt if the rest of the movie will ever be filmed and shown so don’t wait for it. The permutation of great people, talent and events in the 18 months that just passed cannot in any way be replicated by a movie, pictures, drama, duets, catwalk, Peking opera, or a poem. In the end, that is all a Farewell Party is ? an approximation, a glimpse, a remembrance.

It will be up to each of us to interpret how we lived our lives here in CEIBS through the different lenses that we looked through. Freedom of imagination is a great gift. Take advantage of it. One day, when we are all older, with 2 or 3 children or maybe even grand kids, we can show them snippets of how our lives as MBA students transpired. They may laugh, ask questions, or have no reaction at all but I doubt if they will have the same joy, sorrow, sadness, excitement, happiness as we will have looking through the same pictures, poems, movies, and articles.

Here’s my advice to you all: Gather and collect everything that you can that will make you remember your short stint here in CEIBS. In the future, when you are all very successful entrepreneurs, CEOs, investors, bankers, artists, housebands or housewives, all the success and money in the world will not be as meaningful as it is without remembering and reflecting on what we went through.

Behind all that fun and excitement during the Farwell Dinner were sweat, tears, and hardship. You can ask Ivy and Alana and they will attest to this fact. There are no words to express how much we, the student body and the rest of the CEIBS community, want to thank you guys for making the Farewell Dinner an event to remember. I don’t have a list of all those who contributed to the event but you guys know who you are and I hope you do not feel offended if you do not see your name here. All of us, in one way or another, contributed to Our Farewell Party. Let’s be proud of ourselves and give ourselves a hand.

The After Party……….. (by Michael McCannon)

True to form the party kept going into the wee hours of Sunday morning as Mejor Tapas opened its doors to China’s Future Business Leaders. Lessons on social business etiquette were given at the bar as the music was turned up and the drinks flowed. The old were mixed with the new as 2007, 2006 and even a few 2005 students turned up as well as the dean and some faculty. Unfortunately our alcohol consumption projection was underestimated so the beer and margaritas ran out after one hour but by that stage nobody seemed to care.

Two business simulations were set-up as risk management, people skills, decision analysis and strategy were all tested to the limit. I’m sure all the training will pay dividends during our final test. The dance club, main sponsors of the party, would have been proud of the performances on show. As the more sober crowd moved onto PuXi our gold and silver party animals didn’t let us down either and were escorted out by some devilishly handsome security guards. When the dust settled, the toilet fixed and the empties cleared away we all agreed: It was the party to end all parties.

Thanks to the Dance Club, Kelly and Mejor Tapas and all the negotiators and organizers. You know who you are…..24-hr Party People.