The forthcoming Chinese Spring Festival Gala to be held in Kigali will be an avenue for cultural exchange, an embassy official has said.

The two-day event will run from January 19-20, jointly organised by the Ministry of Culture and Sports (MINISPOC) and the embassy.

In an interview with The New Times on Tuesday, Zhang Wenping, the director of political section at Chinese embassy in Kigali, affirmed that while China and Rwanda are far away from each other, they have a lot in common with potential to cooperate in various aspects, including culture.

"Rwandan people and Chinese people are like-minded, the event will also be people-to-people interaction,” Wenping said.

According to Wenping, on the first day ordinary Rwandans and officials, members of the diplomatic corps, students are expected to attend while the last day of the event will be specifically for Chinese community in Rwanda.

"All Chinese community abroad will celebrate the Spring Festival. This is the most important traditional festival which means reunion of the whole family for them,” Wenping said.

He added that a Chinese artistic delegation has been invited by the embassy, expected to give an astonishing performance at the event.

"Every year artistic delegations from different provinces are invited. Last year, Liaoning Province sent a delegation which gave a performance typically north-east style. While this year, the delegation is from Xinjiang autonomous region which holds a long tradition for dancing and singing and this is known to everyone in China,” she added.

Marking of Spring Festival Gala started in 1983.

It is a significant element of Chinese New Year Culture, and plays an important role in modern Chinese life.

"Since the Xinjiang autonomous region is in the Norith-West part of China, where minorities reside, this performance will give visitors quite different impression from what they usually have in mind about Chinese people,” Hen Yusu, Secretary to Chinese ambassador to Rwanda said.

Spring Festival Gala covers various art forms of Chinese characteristics, such as comic dialogues, short plays, pop music, traditional opera, dancing, acrobatic show, and Wushu show among others.

"This is also the second time for our embassy to be working together with MINISPOC, and this year, Urukerereza, the artistic treasure of Rwanda, will join us in celebrating the Spring Festival,” Hen Yusu said.

Urukerereza is a Rwandan dance troupe created in 1974.

Their shows feature traditional Rwandan songs, drums and dance.

They regularly take part in dance festivals and perform abroad.

In 2000, the group made its first visit to North America and performed at the Seattle International Children’s Festival.

About 1000 visitors are expected to participate in the event.

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