“Great! Beautiful! Marvelous!” exclaimed the crowds when a Chinese Guzheng player in black was performing at the stage. Her wrist flowed up and down freely and fingers were dancing swiftly over the strings.
The music appeared to be short to slow as the twists and turns in the story of Warlord of the Chu Kingdom were fully presented, wining long-lasting applause of the audience.
In order to celebrate the 70th anniversaries of the founding of New China and the establishment of diplomatic relation between China and Russia, the celebrations of “Chinese Cultural Festival” were unveiled on September 14th at the All-Russian Exhibition Center.
“The events including Chinese Cultural Festival have served as a window for Russian people to have a close encounter with Chinese culture.” said Luzyanin, director of the Far Eastern Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Though a decline in temperature and chilly wind, Russian residents showed no signs of abating in passion, At noon, the stage were surrounded by audience who tiptoed and poked their heads with smiling faces. Some of them held high the cellphones and cameras in case that they may miss any wonderful moments. At the same time, some traditional Chinese performances, such as Peking Opera, martial of arts and dragon dance, hit the spot,
“People want know more about traditional Chinese culture featuring many funny elements,” said Serguei who is from Moscow. “I felt touched when Chinese people were playing famous Russian songs with their ethic instruments and Russian people were performing Chinese kungfu as well. Theses performances connect two peoples naturally” he added.
Gong Jiajia, cultural counselor of Chinese Embassy to Russia, said that a series of popular cultural activities will be launched during the festival to help Russia people have a better understanding of Chinese culture, experience Chinese people’s good faith and friendship to Russia as well as cement the foundation of civil exchanges.
Near the stage sit a food court where the stands of Chinese food including noodles, dumpling and Kebabs were crowded with people. Moreover, the exhibition center also set up more than ten zones for lantern, panda, hand-making craft and Chinese universities.
There were still some special activities for Children, such as Peking Opera makeup-drawing, panda sugar-making and performance of A Journey to the West, to enable them to know Chinese culture happily.
“Little did foreign audience understand Chinese historical music, but they were truly involved in Chinese culture.” said Guzheng player Jiang Niao, noting that music is a truly language shared by all.