China's top museum presents cultural program in New York to celebrate Spring Festival

A guest stamps a design during the 2025 Spring Festival reception at the Chinese Consulate General in New York, on Jan. 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan)

NEW YORK, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Prince Kung's Palace Museum, one of the top-level museums and tourist sites in China, Thursday kicked off a series of activities to showcase Chinese treasures of traditional culture on the occasion of the Spring Festival next week.

A team from the museum presented immersive workshops on lacquer fan painting and making, Chinese calligraphy, paper cutting, rubbing of character "Fu" (Fortune), knotting craftsmanship and herbal sachet at the 2025 Spring Festival reception by the Chinese Consulate General in New York.

Hundreds of guests from all walks of life had the chance to make their own handcrafts with curiosity and excitement.

People also could take pictures at a kiosk to automatically fit themselves in traditional Chinese costumes.

Moreover, the museum will present similar events at the headquarters of United Nations in New York, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, China Institute in America, and New Jersey Symphony in the coming days in cooperation with the Chinese Consulate General in New York.

Dubbed as "Fortune's Arrival", the series of activities will also feature lion dancing, folk music, demonstration of traditional costumes and tenon-and-mortise technique, shadow puppet making as well as creation of facial makeup in operas.

China's Consul General in New York Chen Li noted that this year is the Year of the Snake and snakes symbolize agility, wisdom, and transformation.

Chen said the Spring Festival, as a bridge, not only links Chinese people together, but also conveys best wishes between Chinese and Western cultures.

Both China and the United States are going to have really important roles in the future of the planet and this is the reality, said James B. Heimowitz, former president of China Institute in America, a U.S. nonprofit organization dedicated to deepening the world's understanding of China through programs in art, business, culinary, culture, and education.

If people can form some kind of better understanding of "who they are and who we are as people" using culture, education, language and the things that people do on their day-to-day basis, "I believe, at the bottom of my heart, that the people of China and the people of the United States are not meant to be pulled apart," Heimowitz told Xinhua on the sidelines of the reception.

Also known as Lunar New Year, the Spring Festival of 2025 falls on Jan. 29 with various activities scheduled in a span of two to three weeks around the day. ■

China's Consul General in New York Chen Li speaks during the 2025 Spring Festival reception at the Chinese Consulate General in New York, on Jan. 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan)

Artists play folk music during the 2025 Spring Festival reception at the Chinese Consulate General in New York, on Jan. 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan)

A guest demonstrates her calligraphy work of "Fu" during the 2025 Spring Festival reception at the Chinese Consulate General in New York, on Jan. 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan)

A guest tries rubbing the character "Fu" during the 2025 Spring Festival reception at the Chinese Consulate General in New York, on Jan. 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan)

Artists play folk music during the 2025 Spring Festival reception at the Chinese Consulate General in New York, on Jan. 23, 2025. (Xinhua/Liu Yanan)