Encouraging a festival atmosphere

The 2023 Happy Chinese New Year news conference was held in Beijing on Dec 26, announcing a series of celebratory events that will be guided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and hosted by the China International Culture Association.

Gao Zheng, director-general of the Bureau of International Exchanges and Cooperation at the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, noted that the Happy Chinese New Year brand has become an important platform to share Chinese culture with a global audience in recent years.

This year's festivities will include various online and offline events taking place both at home and abroad, including temple fairs, screenings, parades and a bicycle decoration competition themed on the animals of the Chinese zodiac.

Major events include a concert titled Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems on Jan 6 at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center and Jan 7 at New York's Lincoln Center, performed by 15 young vocalists from 10 countries in collaboration with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

"The performers will sing poems from the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in Chinese, celebrate the resonance of Western music and Chinese literary classics, and present a dialogue of music and poetry," Gao said.

Another key concert, Harmony, will be broadcast to a global audience on Jan 14. Produced by the China National Traditional Orchestra and the Suzhou Symphony Orchestra, the concert will present modern and traditional music from both the East and the West.

Zhao Cong, head of the China National Traditional Orchestra, said that the concert is rooted in China's rich musical heritage and threaded by the Spring Festival Overture, a well-known orchestral work composed by Li Huanzhi, the first-ever head of the orchestra.

"Apart from the prelude and the coda, the concert comprises four main sections — 'heaven, earth, humankind and unity'. The 11 pieces celebrate, and present to the world, Chinese civilization in the new era, Eastern aesthetics, the spirit of the Chinese people and the ancient value of harmony and peace," Zhao says.

Digital technology will also be employed, including stage designs using augmented reality and a performance featuring a collaboration between a pipa (a four-stringed plucked instrument) player and virtual idol Luo Tianyi.

Internationally renowned pianist Lang Lang was announced as the cultural ambassador of 2023 Happy Chinese New Year.

"From my own observation, I can see that Spring Festival is increasingly popular across the globe and it is an excellent opportunity and time for us to promote our music, culture, art and spirit to the world," Lang says.

"The celebrations often last for nearly two weeks from the Lunar New Year to the 15th day of the first lunar month, which is plenty of time for many activities, including a concert tour, an exhibition or a spring camp. It's such an opportune moment that symbolizes a good start for everything."

In celebration of the upcoming Year of the Rabbit, the event's organizing committee called upon designers for their ideas for this year's mascot and merchandise. More than 1,000 designers from some 60 design colleges and companies submitted 5,918 entries. The winning mascot is a cute rabbit character, and the merchandise piece is a shoulder purse inspired by Spring Festival gift bags. Both were designed by the Central Academy of Fine Arts and aim to merge cultural heritage with modern fashion, and ritual with practicality.

The China International Culture Association also opened up a social media account to present videos about the events and act as an online cultural exchange for global viewers. Social media influencers are invited to promote traditional Spring Festival products and showcase modern Chinese lifestyles, and an online campaign will be launched to collect stories, pictures and videos about the reunion dinner on Lunar New Year's Eve.

"We will continue to uphold a cultural viewpoint of equality, mutual learning, dialogue and cultural inclusiveness, and share China's major festivities and Chinese cultural symbols with the world," Gao said.

"By offering more quality public cultural products to the world, we hope to replace estrangement with exchange, clashes with mutual learning, and superiority with coexistence, as well as continuously contribute to a community with a shared future."