The jade rabbit is gone, and the auspicious dragon is showing a new chapter.
From envoys from various countries to experience making dumplings and writing blessing characters at the United Nations, to hanging red lanterns at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, from the dazzling dragon lanterns on the "Spring to the Riverside" in Singapore, to more than 100 teenagers ......dancing in Malacca, MalaysiaThe world is in the same spring, and the blessings of the Year of the Dragon are coming from all directions.
The Spring Festival is both Chinese and global. The gentle breeze of the Chinese New Year brings the unique charm of Chinese culture to all parts of the world. People from all over the world felt the Chinese civilization's yearning for a better future in the laughter and laughter of the Spring Festival couplets and the lion dance, and felt the open and inclusive world feelings of the Chinese civilization and the value pursuit of beauty and beauty in the personal experience of Chinese culture.
Celebrate together.
At the beginning of this year, China resumed diplomatic relations with the Pacific island nation of Nauru. On a hill next to the coastal road in the southeast of Nauru Island, Daniel, the owner of the inn "Aqualiri", clasped his hands into fists and said "Wishing you prosperity" in Cantonese, sincerely expressing his New Year wishes to Chinese friends.
On February 2, at the "Aqualiri" inn in the southeast of Nauru Island, the innkeeper Daniel greeted reporters. Hair (photo by Hu Jingchen).
The Spring Festival has been designated as a United Nations holiday and has been listed as a statutory holiday in nearly 20 countries, about one-fifth of the world's population celebrates the Lunar New Year in different forms, and Spring Festival folk activities have entered nearly 200 countries and regions. Over the past few days, Chinese New Year celebrations around the world have been full of colour and excitement. "Chinese New Year" is becoming a global cultural event.
On February 3, New Zealand Prime Minister Laxon (front left) attended the "Chinese New Year Flower Market Fun Day" in Auckland, welcoming the Year of the Dragon with thousands of local Chinese. This is the first time that Laxon has participated in a large-scale event in the local Chinese community since he became prime minister in November last year. Photo by reporter Guo Lei.
In New York, a giant poster of Chinese dragon-shaped cultural relics was unveiled in Times Square to present Chinese New Year greetings to people around the world. In New Zealand, Prime Minister Alexon Laxon attended the "Chinese New Year Flower Market Fun Day" in Auckland to welcome the Chinese New Year with local Chinese. In Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, the country's Deputy Prime Minister Husnu and everyone beat gongs and drums to jointly launch the "Happy New Year" float parade. On the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France, a long dragon dance flew up and down under the guidance of the dragon balls, winning bursts of applause. Tourist Jean Baptiste says Chinese New Year is celebrated all over the world because the joy it brings "contags everyone".
Mauritius Deputy Prime Minister Husnu (left) participates in a parade of floats in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, on February 3. (Photo courtesy of the Chinese Embassy in Mauritius).
Red is a symbol of auspiciousness and festivity in Chinese culture. On the occasion of the Spring Festival, landmark buildings in many parts of the world are dressed in red to welcome this joyful festival. The spire of the Empire State Building in New York flashes red, lit up with Chinese New Year-themed lights; The giant Ferris wheel "London Eye" in London, England, is lit up with red and gold lights, symbolizing happiness and auspiciousness; In the center of St. Petersburg, Russia, "Chinese red" makes the Holy Trinity Bridge appear more quiet and beautiful; In Tokyo, Japan, Tokyo Tower also changed into a red outfit to send blessings for the Year of the Dragon.
On February 8, in London, England, pedestrians walked past the "London Eye", which was lit up in red. Photo by reporter Li Ying.
The dragon is associated with many good wishes in Chinese culture, such as the dragon soaring and the tiger leaping, the fish leaping over the dragon gate, and so on. The blessings of the Year of the Dragon from all over the world are coming. "Happy Chinese New Year and the Year of the Dragon! Pakistani ** Arif Alvi said in Chinese in an interview with reporters. Fiji** Katonivere expressed his wishes to the Chinese people at the Chinese Lunar Year of the Dragon Zodiac Stamp and First Day Cover Issuance Ceremony held in the country: "Happy Chinese New Year bula (Fijian for 'hello'). Thai Prime Minister Saita delivered a speech on social **, wishing that the new year will be a prosperous and prosperous year, and that Thailand and China are as close as brothers and as a family, and hope that the friendship between the two countries will go further. Serbian Prime Minister Brnabic sent New Year greetings to the Chinese people when attending the Spring Festival celebrations, hoping that the "iron" friendship between Serbia and China can be further deepened in the new year. When attending the Spring Festival reception of the Chinese Embassy in Kiribati, Kiribati ** Mamao extended New Year greetings to the Chinese people, and hoped that the two countries would work together to create a prosperous and beautiful future.
On February 7, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Alvi, Pakistan, was interviewed by other Chinese people. Hair (Photo by Ahmed Kamal).
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in his New Year message that the dragon symbolizes vitality, wisdom, protection and good luck, which are exactly the qualities needed to address today's global challenges. "Together, we can achieve a sustainable, just and peaceful future. ”
This screenshot provided by the United Nations on February 6 shows UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivering a Lunar New Year message for the Year of the Dragon at the United Nations headquarters in New York. (Photo courtesy of the United Nations**).
The dragon symbolizes strength, a good world and a good life. "The world today needs this positive force more than ever, said Reveka Greenspan, Secretary-General of the United Nations ** and the Development Conference.
Appreciate and get to know each other.
In the past few days, many foreign friends have come to the Parisian Style Garden, which has a history of more than 100 years, to admire the "Chinese Dragon" with different images and full of charm.
2024 is the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France and the Year of Sino-French Culture and Tourism. 60 large-scale lantern groups and more than 2,000 lanterns are brilliant, adding a strong oriental color to the Paris Style Garden. Especially in the "Mountains and Seas" exhibition area, "dragons" have become the protagonists here, and colorful lanterns such as flying dragons, coiling dragons, and double dragons playing with pearls are vivid.
This festival of lights is not simple, it reflects Chinese culture and Chinese civilization behind it, and people can discover the beauty of China when they come here. Marc Antoine Jamé, director of the Paris Style Garden, said.
On February 4, people performed a dragon and lion dance on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, France. Photo by reporter Gao Jing.
The Spring Festival has been the most important festival of the Chinese nation since ancient times, and it is a festive day for family reunion, farewell to the old and welcome the new. Nowadays, the Spring Festival is going global, and people from all over the world feel the charm of Chinese culture and enhance their understanding of China in the stronger flavor of the New Year every year. As the famous Russian sinologist Alexei Maslov said, the Spring Festival is becoming a cultural business card handed by China to the world.
On the evening of February 8, the Empire State Building in New York, USA, was lit up with Chinese New Year-themed lights. Photo by reporter Li Rui.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has carefully arranged a special exhibition full of dragon elements in the "Auspicious Year of the Dragon" to show the importance of dragons in Chinese culture, and also arranged a traditional Chinese woodblock New Year painting making experience. Grace, a 12-year-old girl, excitedly said that the woodblock prints were "particularly cool" as she held up her work. "I am very interested in Chinese culture and hope to go to China one day. ”
In Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland, as the finale of the "Spring Festival Cultural Week", the special performance of Zhejiang Wu Opera won a full house. The brilliant colors of the costumes and the flexible figures of the actors enchanted the audience. Anna, a local resident, said that this is a new art experience and looks forward to more such cultural events in the future.
On February 9, the Holy Trinity Bridge in the center of St. Petersburg, Russia, was lit up with "Chinese Red" to celebrate the Chinese New Year of the Dragon. Hair (photo by Mo Jingna).
The Spring Festival is also a day to look back on the past and look forward to the future. In the past Year of the Rabbit, Chinese culture has frequently set off a global boom. Chinese young people who love traditional culture wore Hanfu, Tang costumes, horse-faced skirts, and even large flower jackets from Northeast China, and made a stunning appearance on the streets of foreign countries, gaining the world's recognition and praise for Chinese culture in their amazement. "Thirty Thousand Miles of Chang'an" and other traditional cultural films have gone abroad, allowing foreign audiences to get a glimpse of the magnificence of traditional Chinese culture through the medium of modern technology. Recently, the online celebrity dance "Subject 3", which was originally created by Chinese young people, has become popular on overseas social networks**, showing the strong attraction of Chinese contemporary pop culture. In the future, the world expects more excitement from Chinese culture.
The Japanese writer and translator Masaharu Ikegami, author of The World of Dragons, has searched for the history of dragons in museums across China, the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, and the presence of dragons in classics such as The Analects and Lisao. In Ikegami's view, the dragon fully embodies the charm of China and makes him feel the power of China.
On the evening of February 9, Tokyo Tower, a landmark building in Tokyo, Japan, was lit up with "China Red" to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Photo by reporter Yue Chenxing.
According to Stephen Alley, a well-known American scholar of Chinese culture who is over 70 years old, China has changed dramatically in the past few decades, but culturally, "China has always been China". "To some extent, the basic core principles that ancient Chinese philosophers advocated will always be there. ”
Brazilian sinologist Giorgio Sinedino said that Chinese culture is a window for the world to understand China, Chinese society and Chinese, allowing the world to know how to deal with Chinese, discover common values, and promote mutual trust and friendship.
Resonance and blending.
Some people say that "Spring Festival Overture" is a melody "imprinted in the DNA of Chinese". The high music sounded, and the flavor of the New Year was enough. Around the Spring Festival this year, the cheerful "Spring Festival Overture" sounded in many places around the world, playing a movement of civilization blending and resonance.
In the Belarusian State Hall, the first Chinese and Belarusian families jointly performed the "Spring Festival Overture" and "Kurian Concerto"; At the Royal Opéra at the Palace of Versailles in Paris, the "Spring Festival Overture" and "Carmen Overture" won bursts of applause; At the Spring Festival of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the repertoire includes Western operas, as well as Eastern classics such as "Spring Festival Overture" and "Jasmine"; In the Berlin Philharmoniker Hall in Germany, the third movement of Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 4, the elegant and beautiful Spring River Flower Moonlight Night and the Spring Festival Overture make the Berliner Philharmoniker's "Happy New Year" lunchtime will become an artistic feast of Eastern and Western cultures.
This year's Chinese New Year coincides with the Brazilian Carnival. For days, in a workshop in Belo Horizonte, in the southeastern part of the country, workers have been busy making costumes and props for the "City Garden" samba school to use in carnival performances. This year, the school participated in a total of 15 actors' phalanxes and 5 floats, one of which was a dancing "Chinese dragon" and the other was a Forbidden City. Mauro, the tailor in charge of the actors' costumes, said it took imagination to combine the Bahian women's costumes, with their huge skirts, with the red walls and golden tiles of the Forbidden City. "We used bright red cloth to represent the red wall, gold ribbons outlined the golden roof, and black decorations in the middle to enrich the color, reflecting the joy of the carnival and the majesty of the Forbidden City. ”
At the Chinese New Year Cultural Festival held in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, Chinese and Mexican performing artists gathered to celebrate the Year of the Dragon with the local people. Accompanied by the melodious sound of the guqin, a Mexican guy named Gu Pinhong in Chinese sat around with the local people, and he skillfully put the tea leaves into the purple clay pot, and after a while, the house was filled with the aroma of tea. "The word tea is grass on top, people in the middle, and wood on the bottom. Mexico also has a long history of using herbal medicines, and the two countries share the idea of living in harmony with nature. He said.
Traditional Chinese shadow puppet art has also found a "bosom friend" in Mexico across the ocean. Nezha, who is stepping on Hot Wheels, and the blue and red colored dogs chase after me behind the white curtain. Armed with sticks and thin threads, Han Bing, a Beijing-based shadow puppet bearer, and Mexican shadow puppet artist Diego. "When I first arrived in Mexico City, it felt like an 'overturned palette', but I didn't expect to see such a bold color scheme in the shadow puppetry," Han Bing said with emotion while showing the various puppets brought by Diego to reporters, "Intangible cultural heritage has not only gone abroad, but also achieved integration and innovation with local culture." ”
Visitors enjoy the lanterns at the Spring Festival celebration at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore on 8 February. Hair (photo by Deng Zhiwei).
The beauty of harmony lies in the combination of differences. Since ancient times, Chinese civilization has always adhered to an eclectic and broad mind, and has continuously injected living water into the development of civilization. Today, the world is standing at a crossroads, and the light of wisdom emanating from Chinese civilization can guide people to explore the way of harmonious coexistence among different civilizations along the path of inclusiveness, openness, and common beauty.
On February 1, a dragon dance team composed of more than 100 teenagers from Malaysia and China danced a nearly 200-meter "long dragon" on Jonker Street in Malacca, Malaysia. This is the "long line" at the event site. Photo by reporter Cheng Yiheng.
According to an article published by the BNN News Network in the United States, the rich and diverse Spring Festival celebrations around the world fully reflect the joyful sharing and mutual appreciation in cultural exchanges. This is an important lesson: instead of being an obstacle to solidarity, differences help to showcase the beauty of cultural diversity.