9 February 2019
Sponsored by the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the Kingdom of Belgium and organized by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism and the Chinese Culture Centre in Brussels, the "Charming Chinese New Year, A Worldwide Celebration – 2019 Spring Festival Performance Tour” kicked off in Belgium. A performance delegation from the Shanghai Theatre Academy (STA) was invited to participate in the performance tour.
The 27-member performance delegation from STA brought Chinese traditional cultural programs including dance, Peking Opera, folk music and puppet etc to the event. On 1 February local time, the delegation arrived in Brussels, the capital of Belgium.
The Belgium leg of the tour mainly consisted of three performances, featuring fold dances “Girls and Rain of the Dai Nationality”, "Tide", "Beautiful Ayi Khan", "A Ren Chao Ke" and "Flying Dragon and Dancing Phoenix", Peking Opera "A Night Escaping of Lin Chong", "Water Sleeve Dance" and "Heavenly Maiden Scattering Flowers", flute and Guzheng performance "Spring in Xiang River", and puppet show "Fighting the Tiger", all of which showed the characteristics of Chinese traditional culture and art. The delegation selected different programs to suit the technical parameters of the performance venues.
On 2 February, before the performance formally began, Lou Wei, Party Secretary of STA, who was on a business trip in Belgium, came to the theatre to visit the performers and staff members. On the evening of the performance, the Elizabeth Concert Hall, with a seating capacity of 1500 people, was full. Ambassador Cao of the Chinese Embassy in Belgium attended the event and delivered a speech. After the performance, the enthusiastic audience stood up and applauded for a long time. Xiang Shihai, Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Belgium, also gave high praise to the performance.
On the evening of 4 February local time, which was the eve of the Chinese New Year, the cultural series on the theme of “Celebrating Spring on Chinese New Year” created by the Chinese Culture Center in Brussels especially for the Chinese New Year was formally launched. Xiang Shihai, Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Belgium, and Ge Yiyou, Director of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Belgium, gathered happily with more than 150 participants from all walks of life including overseas Chinese in Belgium and other European countries to see the new year in and the old year out and celebrate the coming of the Year of the Pig together.
At the opening ceremony, Xiang Shihai, Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Belgium expressed the New Year greetings to the audience and cordially invited Chinese and European guests to celebrate the turn of the Chinese lunar year at the Centre. Due to the constraints of the performance venue at the Center, the STA performance delegation adjusted some programs to ensure the quality of the performance, and the performance won warm applause from the audience.
On 5 February, the performance delegation went to Liege Art Center, the third performance venue in Belgium. The theatre with a seating capacity of 300 people was full again. Ambassador Cao of the Chinese Embassy delivered a speech before the performance. Xiang Shihai, Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy, and Ge Yiyou, Director of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Brussels, attended the performance. A post-performance cocktail was held.
On 6 February, the STA performance delegation traveled to London embarking on the performance tour in Britain.
