Chinese New Year celebrations held in Malta

VALLETTA, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Confucius Institute at the University of Malta on Wednesday night held celebrations for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, featuring Chinese folk music, dance, singing and martial arts performance.

About 100 attendees gathered at the university to celebrate the Year of the Dragon, which begins on Feb. 10. The audience offered warm applause to the captivating performances. The gala ended with a group rendition of the Chinese song "Descendants of the Dragon."

During the event, two teens from the Malta School of Wushu-Longgui mesmerized the audience with their martial arts displays.

Expressing satisfaction with the event's success, Dennis Mizzi, the foreign director of the Confucius Institute, hailed it as the institute's largest endeavor to mark the Chinese New Year to date.

Mizzi proudly remarked on the proficiency of his students in speaking Chinese, emphasizing the importance of language as a vehicle for fostering cooperation between nations.

"Performances, dances, and music can also be another kind of bridge between our two cultures. We can learn and discover about one another and appreciate our similarities, our differences," he added. Looking forward, he expressed his expectation for an increase in the number of students learning Chinese.

On Monday, around 400 teachers and students attended a Chinese New Year celebration event at St Ignatius College Handaq Middle School in Hal Qormi in southern Malta.