Chinese embassy celebrates immersive experience of Chinese New Year

Nearly 300 cultural experience enthusiasts immersed themselves in all aspects of the grandest of Chinese traditional festivals in custom, art, performance and food at a Chinese New Year-themed open house at the Chinese embassy in Washington.

In partnership with the local organization "Things to Do DC", the Chinese embassy hosted "Evening at the Chinese Embassy–Year of the Dragon Celebration" cultural event Thursday.

Embassy Minister Jing Quan welcomed guests and conveyed Chinese New Year greetings in his opening remarks.

Jing said that one could learn a lot about Chinese culture through the Spring Festival. "In this special festival, we write blessing characters, paste New Year pictures and make paper-cuts and clay figurines. All these are traditional Chinese customs," said Jing. "We reunite with families and friends, sing and dance, and mingle together, showcasing the beauty of harmony in our own way."

Jing said the Spring Festival was listed as a UN floating holiday in December, turning the "Chinese New Year" into the "World's New Year".

"Tonight, we have friends from different regions and cultures coming to celebrate the Spring Festival. This once again proves that culture goes beyond national borders, and the world can rejoice at the very same things and at the same time," he said.

Jing encouraged the culture lovers to visit China. He mentioned that last November, at the meeting in San Francisco between President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden, the two sides agreed to promote people-to-people exchanges jointly. According to Jing's introduction, the Chinese embassy has been acting for some time to facilitate travel between the two countries with walk-in visa application services, an optimized visa policy and simplified application requirements for travelers from the United States. "These will make cross-border travel much easier," he said.

When Greg Bland, CEO of Things To Do, asked in his remarks, "Who wants to go to China in the future?", almost everybody raised their hand.

Bland told China Daily that he is glad "to finally got the chance" to celebrate the Spring Festival at the Chinese embassy, "one of the most beautiful embassies in Washington". "People want to experience China," he said. "You have centuries of splendid culture and there will be centuries of culture going forward."

During the performance session, the Washington Chinese Traditional Orchestra played both Chinese and American songs with flute, erhu, dulcimer, guzheng, and pipa, all of which are Chinese traditional instruments. The Chinese song, Golden Dragon Dance, expressed best wishes for the upcoming Year of the Dragon, and the American folk song, Take Me Home, Country Roads, aroused strong resonance among the guests. Artists from the Hong Dance School presented the classic Peking Opera excerpt Heavenly Maid Scattering Blossoms. Guests not only immersed themselves in the graceful figures and colorful silk dances but also went on the stage to try the water sleeves and feel the charm of Peking Opera. The Chinatown lion dancers' performance went from stage to the audience and interacted closely with the guests, arousing laughter and applause from the audience.

Before and after the performance, the guests experienced Chinese folk customs and traditional culture at booths of calligraphy, New Year pictures, paper-cutting, clay figurines and Hanfu. They learned how to write their names and blessing characters in Chinese, created pictures with dragon and door-god patterns, made various Chinese paper-cuts and clay figurines, tried on different kinds of Hanfu, and took photos with the panda mascot. They also tasted special Chinese delicacies such as Peking duck, glutinous rice rolls stuffed with red bean paste and osmanthus glutinous rice balls. The "lucky" guests born in the year of the Dragon walked onto the stage and took a group photo.

The event lasted nearly three hours. Melissa Gaitan told China Daily that she enjoyed "each and every part" of it. "I will go to China, definitely," she said. "I am making a plan once I get home."

"I have found some similarities with my culture. You know, we are all Asians. We have amazing cultures," Ellen Yanamaria Pilapil Villegas told China Daily. "It is a blessing for me to come here and taste China and the year of dragon tonight."

yifanxu@chinadailyusa.com