Together 2012
The 12th Chinese New Year celebration in Brighton & Hove was held on 22nd, January 2012. The event was co-organized by CIBL (Confucius Institute for Business London) and CEDP Chinese Centre. More than 2,000 people participated in this event. Ms. Anne Meadows，the Mayor of Brighton and Hove; Mr. Guolong Zhang, Consul and First Secretary of the Chinese Embassy in the UK; Dr. Hong Lu, Chairman of Chinese Education Development Project(CEDP) Chinese Centre and Coordinator of Confucius Institute for Business London (CIBL), were all invited to give a speech at the event. With the support from Heritage Lottery Fund this year, people also learned more about the history of Chinese New Year and the popular Chinese folk dances.
The celebration has related closely with the year of Dragon and its theme of "Togetherness". The event was full of dragon elements and attendees had a hands on experience of Chinese calligraphy, painting, dragon/lantern making and other activities. As well as the fabulous celebration activities, many people also enjoyed the free Chinese taster lesson. In addition, CIBL had its own stall for promoting the Chinese programmes, courses, and on-line programmes of Confucius Institute for Business.
The most exciting event was the stage performance for New Year, which included Chinese songs, folk dance, traditional musical instruments, and Kung Fu performance. During the performance, there were several raffle rounds so that the audience could really participate and the atmosphere was very lively. At last, the performance was ended by the volunteers' awards ceremony，which was awarded by Mayor Anne Meadows. (CIBL Mengjie Zhao Chen Shu)