Bid farewell to the old, welcome the new, and celebrate Chinese festivals with international friends. With the traditional Chinese Spring Festival approaching, the event named “Celebrating Chinese Festivals with International Friends: Sharing the Culture of Spring Festival and Enjoying the Get-together in Liaoning” was recently held in Shenyang, in order to allow the foreign friends working and studying in Liaoning Province to have immersive experience of Chinese New Year’s connotation and atmosphere.
More than 20 foreign friends, working in Shenyang, from Belarus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Czech Republic, Germany, Pakistan, Russia, Tanzania, Turkmenistan, the United States, Vietnam, Yemen and other countries and regions were invited to the event to experience splendid traditional Chinese culture, taste traditional Liaoning cuisines, and perceive the charm of Chinese Spring Festival. They were engineers, entrepreneurs, researchers, overseas students, foreign “Internet celebrities”, who had a deep affection for Chinese culture and looked forward to enjoying a special Spring Festival in Liaoning Province.
In Liaoning Intangible Cultural Heritage Industry Base, the foreign friends had close interactions with inheritors of intangible cultural heritage of Liaoning Province, who not only presented the unique skills of pyrograph, paper pleating, sugar painting, writing brush making in Hu Kuizhang’s style, but also wrote the character Fu (meaning happiness in Chinese) as greetings for their foreign friends.
These activities offered the foreign friends with opportunities to experience the unique charm of Liaoning’s culture and the following theatrical performances brought an audiovisual feast of Chinese art to them. Spectacular shows including Chinese Peking Opera, Chinese zither ensemble, ethnic dance and more were highly praised by the foreign audience. The suona horn solo Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix and acrobatic show Puppet Show as well as other performances all won a big round of applause. When the beautiful melody of Auld Lang Syne came out, the foreign friends sang along with the performers, pushing the whole show to its climax.
After experiencing skills of intangible cultural heritage and watching the theatrical performances, the foreign friends gathered in the Laobian Dumpling Restaurant located in Middle Street of Shenyang. While enjoying the food, they were also learning about the processes of making special dumplings including Centenary Stir-fried Stuffed Dumplings, Pan-fried Dumplings with Wings. They even started to play traditional Chinese games like giving set phrases and tongue twisters with the Character Tu (meaning rabbit in Chinese). Hardy from Pakistan, a young man working in international trade in Shenyang, had already spent 8 Spring Festivals in China and regarded having dumplings as the happiest.
The foreign friends were captivated by the traditional culture of Chinese New Year and expressed their love for Liaoning’s culture and New Year blessings at the end of the event. “Today’s event was so meaningful that allowed me to experience the intangible cultural heritage, taste delicious food, and learn new knowledge. How charming the traditional Chinese culture is!” said Wang Xiaohua, an international student from Vietnam.
“Celebrating the Chinese New Year with people in Liaoning strengthened our sense of belonging. I hope I can enjoy more opportunities to learn Liaoning’s culture and Chinese culture, and convey Liaoning’s voice and tell Chinese stories to the world in my own way.” said Wang Anna, an international student from Russia.
