Dragon and lion dance teams celebrate the upcoming Spring Festival with a competition in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, on Saturday. Seven teams from Beijing, East China’s Jiangsu Province and South China’s Guangdong Province, participated the event. File photo: cnsphoto
 

 

Hundreds of Chinese and South Africans of all ages from different backgrounds gathered together at Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg on Sunday to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year.

A number of performers based both in China and South Africa entertained the attendees with music and dance. They presented Kung Fu show, acrobatics, Sichuan opera mask-changing and Chinese tea art show which won applause from the surrounding audience.

"I've seen several groups performing and it's very interesting," Nelly Msomi from Johannesburg told Xinhua.

"Today, I feel that I've been exposed to music and dance and other cultural performance that I was not aware of," said Tania Singaphi.

Lin Songtian, Chinese ambassador to South Africa, said the ceremony was important in terms of building relations between Chinese and South African people, it also provides the Chinese community in Johannesburg to enjoy the New Year.

Bradley Brouwer, head of global trade at South African Tourism, said the celebration was significant.

"The relations between Chinese and South Africans was growing. Chinese New Year is very important, the year of the rat as the ambassador said is phenomenal," he said.