The Minister for Sports and Culture Julienne Uwacu has expressed confidence that the Rwanda-China cultural exchanges are growing from strength to strength.

She was speaking in an interview with the media at the Chinese Spring Festival on Thursday night at Serena Hotel in Kigali. The event was organised to mark the Chinese New Year.

"We appreciate the embassy of China in Rwanda for having organised such a wonderful event. Cultural exchanges between Rwanda and China will continue. They (Chinese) will also be inviting our artistes to go and perform in China showcasing our culture there,” she said.

Chinese New Year, known in modern China as the "Spring Festival,” is the most important Chinese festival celebrated at the turn of the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. The first day of the New Year falls on the new moon between January 21 and February 20.

The celebrations were mainly in form of performances from an artistic delegation from the Xinjiang autonomous region which holds a long tradition for dancing and singing in China.

The Xinjiang autonomous region is in the North-West part of China where minorities reside.

According to information from the Chinese embassy, the performances meant to give Rwandans quite different impression from what they usually have in mind about Chinese people.

This is the second time for a Chinese artistic delegation invited by the Embassy of China in Rwanda to perform here. The first time was last year in January during a similar event.

Rwandans also performed at the event with cultural troupe "Urukerereza” presenting to the guests Rwandan cultural dances.

In her speech, Minister Uwacu also said that the festival does not only mean celebrating cultural ties but also strengthening of the friendship between the people of both countries.

CAO Zhimin, the Charge d’Affaires at the Chinese embassy in Kigali said that the event presented an opportunity to Rwandan people to see the diversity of the Chinese culture as he wished a happy new year to Rwandans.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw