2023 Happy Chinese New Year celebrations launched with concert

Kathmandu, 2023 January 17, Monday

Launched in 2001 by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Happy Chinese New Year is the ministry’s annual brand activity to celebrate the Spring Festival with global festivities held in more than 100 countries to share Chinese culture with worldwide audiences.

For the 2023 Chinese New Year celebrations, a mascot, a cute Rabbit character, was first created to increase brand awareness for the global event. In addition, various online and offline events will be held both at home and abroad, including concerts, temple fairs, screenings, and a bicycle decoration competition themed on the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

The launch ceremony of the 2023 “Happy Chinese New Year” celebrations kicked off with a globally live-streamed concert on Saturday at the Henan Art Center in Zhengzhou.

Sponsored by China’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the event was co-hosted by the China International Culture Association and the Henan Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism.

Hu Heping, minister of culture and tourism, and Wang Kai, governor of Henan province, attended and addressed the event.

“Over the past 22 years, the ‘Happy Chinese New Year’ event has gradually become a cultural carnival for global celebration and sharing, a bridge to help people connect and enhance exchanges, and a window for Chinese culture to go global and for people around the world to understand China,” said the minister in his speech, declaring the launch of the 2023 global “Happy Chinese New Year” festivities to usher in the Year of the Rabbit.

“We look forward to taking the event as an opportunity to further deepen and expand cultural and tourism exchanges and cooperation between China and foreign countries, and to build a broad platform for cultural exchanges and mutual learning,” Hu added.

Themed on Harmony and Shared Future, the concert features a star-studded lineup including conductor Chen Xieyang, pipa player Zhao Cong, soprano Wu Bixia and pianist Lang Lang, who serves as this year’s “Happy Chinese New Year” culture ambassador, as well as China National Traditional Orchestra and Suzhou Symphony Orchestra.

The concert opened with The Spring Festival Overture, which then wove the concert’s four chapters-Heaven, Earth, Human, and Harmony, together like a thread. At the concert, Chinese musicians and foreign musicians joined hands to create a musical feast highlighting the harmonious fusion of tradition and modernity, East and West, and tangible and intangible.

In addition, the concert was peppered with a potpourri of Chinese and western cultural elements such as Taiji (or tai chi), paper-cutting, oracle bone inscriptions, landscape painting, ballet, and hip-hop dance. Powered by extended reality (XR) technology, Chinese cultural relics, historical sites, and intangible cultural heritage came alive and meshed well with all performances.

For example, in Divine Bird, pipa diva Zhao Cong embarked on a journey to search for the divine bird in Sanxingdui, a world-renowned Bronze Age site in Southwest China’s Sichuan province. She chanced upon a group of mysterious men covered in gold masks who were holding a New Year sacrificial rite. The bronze bird at the center of the altar awakened and flew to China’s central plains area to seek its roots. To the mesmerizing sound of the pipa, a four-stringed plucked instrument, the bird slowly turned into a songstress played by digital idol Luo Tianyi, clad in a flowing bronze-green dress.

InTaiji Capriccio, piano virtuoso Lang Lang played along with guzheng player Cheng Haoru and guqin player Yang Zhijian, in virtual settings that recall ancient Chinese ink landscapes and modern cityscapes. Halfway through the piece, the pianist, seemingly lost in the music, was surprised to find a man identical to him playing next to him. The piece was accompanied by the performances of a Taiji master and hip-hop dancers, highlighting the harmonious unification of opposites advocated by Taiji, a UNESCO-listed intangible heritage. China Culture Center