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Hundreds of people celebrated the Lunar New Year at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).
The free event, which greeted the year of the snake, was held on Preston’s campus.
Schoolchildren, university students, staff and members of the public were able to watch a variety of traditional dance, music and martial arts performances.
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Run by UCLan’s Confucius Institute, a programme to promote Chinese culture, the event included lion dancing, Chinese and samba drumming, a Tai Chi Fan with Kung Fu and a traditional costume catwalk show.
Year four and five pupils from the English Martyrs’ Primary School and the Preston’s People’s Choir also joined forces to sing songs in Chinese, with performers aged from eight to 80 years old.
Sunny Liu, UCLan’s Confucius Institute Director, said: “Our Lunar New Year celebration was a fantastic showcase of cultural exchange and tradition, bringing the community together to have shared hope for a prosperous new year.
“It was wonderful to see so many people of all ages come along and really embrace all aspects of the occasion.”
The Mayor of Preston, Councillor Phil Crowe, and Professor Graham Baldwin, Vice-Chancellor of the university, gave welcome and New Year speeches.
Below you can see pictures of the colourful event.
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This story was made possible by you, our readers, and a host of organisations in the city, through our Crowdfund Lancashire appeal, which unlocked support from the Lancashire Culture and Sport Fund provided by Lancashire County Council. You can see all our coverage and, if you know of an arts project or event in the city we should be covering, you can submit it for our event listings and/or send details to [email protected] for us to cover it as a story on the Blog.
