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Celebrate the arrival of the Chinese lunar year in Madrid
28January
News

Celebrate the arrival of the Chinese lunar year in Madrid

For the fourth consecutive year, Madrid joins the celebration of the Chinese New Year with an extensive program of activities for all tastes and ages, organized in collaboration with the embassy of the People's Republic of China, together with associations, artistic collectives, neighbors and neighbors of the Usera neighborhood, the Confucius Institute and Casa Asia.

The Chinese New Year of the Pig begins on February 5 and is the year 4717 of the traditional Chinese calendar. Dance, cinema, gastronomy, music, sports or literature are some of the ingredients that will welcome the Chinese Year of the Pig, with a program consisting of a hundred cultural events where more traditional proposals, such as the exhibition of ancient martial arts or the parade of giant dragons and lions, mixed with the performances of alternative rock bands, literary installations or talks with millennials that are giving a lot of talk on social networks and that demonstrate the vitality of the Chinese community in Madrid.

The program designed by the Department of Culture and Sports of the City of Madrid will start next February 5 with a live ephemeral painting show to the sound of the Pipa, a traditional Chinese instrument. From that moment, the activities will be happening and will live its moment of greatest intensity on the weekend of February 8 to 10 in the Usera neighborhood, where the bulk of programming for all audiences is concentrated.

The programming of the Chinese New Year, which mostly takes place in Usera but also includes proposals in other districts, bets again to carry out inclusion measures so that people with disabilities also enjoy these holidays to which each year Thousands of people come

Vibration backpacks and magnetic loop for concerts, audio description for blind people, interpretation in sign language or reserved spaces for people with reduced mobility will be some of the measures that are included again in this party in Madrid.

In addition, the Chinese New Year will have an Information Point that will offer information and attention on the programming of the festivities and on the municipal campaign Barrios por los Buenos Tratos. The people hired to offer the information at this point are women survivors of gender violence, following the commitment to work integration of this group that just one year ago in this new edition of the Chinese New Year.

Spring Market and the Year of the Pig scenario

From the afternoon of Friday the 8th until Saturday the 9th of February, in the square located in front of the Municipal Board of the District of Usera, epicenter of most of the activities of the New Year, a Spring Market will be installed, where it will be possible to Buy, taste and visit stands with crafts and a variety of Chinese products.

In the same square there will be a tent where the stage of the Year of the Pig will be located. There will be more than 50 shows for all audiences, from concerts by Spanish Chinese bands, such as Tigers'n Flies, which will perform versions of famous Chinese songs from the 80s and 90s, remastered with their particular style, to Flamenco's performance sin fronteras, a trio formed by a Spanish palmero, the Chinese dancer Karina Yao and the guitarist Can Wang, known as 'the gypsy of Beijing'. The public can also enjoy martial arts exhibitions or costume parades brought from China.

This eclectic program also includes spaces for dialogue in which attendees can interact with millennials of Chinese origin who were born and raised in Madrid and who are generating great impact on social networks. This proposal will have the special collaboration of the popular multidisciplinary artist Chenta Tsai, whose songs are giving a lot to talk about, and the Andalusian Quan Zhou, author of two graphic novels.

Zhou will also be in the square illustrating the most important events of the celebration of the Chinese New Year live and in large format so that the public can see it and take pictures or videos in front of the mural while listening to the anecdotes full of humor of this artist, who introduces a focus on gender, migration, identity and youth in his work.

Grand Parade and ceremony of light

One of the most anticipated moments for neighbors and visitors celebrating the Chinese New Year is the multicultural Grand Parade that runs through the main streets of Usera. It will be on Sunday, February 10 from 11 am and will feature the participation of 1,200 artists who will fill the neighborhood with magic, costumes brought from China, dragons and giant lions, iconographic elements of this country, lanterns made by children and live music. A boat in the shape of a ship with Chinese-themed decoration, full of rhythm and energy, will open the way for this parade, whose retinue will be made up of people of different ages and backgrounds, including volunteers from Chinese Usera associations, dancers and other groups. community. The parade will also involve girls and boys from the different public schools of Usera that during these weeks will participate in workshops to create Chinese dragons with which they will defile during the parade.

At the end of the parade, the Animathor company will bid farewell to the celebration of the New Year with a great show of juggling, magic, contortion and aerial numbers.

On Saturday 9, at 6 pm, there will be the traditional ceremony of light, a show of lights, music and colors. From the square in front of the Municipal Board of Usera, participants will be guided to Pradolongo Park, where Dj Zaiquan will play oriental and western fusion music. The lake will be illuminated with hundreds of floating lanterns that will be distributed to children and adults and that will drop in the water while asking for good wishes for the New Year of the Pig.

For the little ones

For children, spaces have been designed to learn and enjoy stories, legends and Chinese classics with Children's Tales that come from China, or the literary installation Stories in movement, where to enjoy Chinese literature through image, sound, the game and the creation.

For the children, but also for the adult, about 15 workshops have been organized by specialists in Chinese culture and encompassed under the title 'Learning with the New Year', in which people of all backgrounds, ages and identities can approach to martial arts, traditional Chinese games, the Chinese language or the secrets of decorations made with cut paper, a very common pastime during the Spring Festival, or traditional Chinese painting.

Documentary film and tours of the neighborhood

Lovers of documentary films will have the opportunity to get to know the reality of Chinese young and old immigrants in Spain and to speak with the directors themselves in the cycle Double Session and Colloquium, in which the short film Wan Xia, the last light of sunset by Silvia Rey, nominated for the Goya Awards 2019 as Best Documentary Short Film stands out.

There will also be fiction films, which include comedies and action films and adventures directed by Chinese filmmakers.

Those who want to discover the most traditional and contemporary China traveling through the streets of Usera will have the opportunity to do so through tours in which they will know the most significant restaurants and establishments in the neighborhood, the stories behind these shops and the secrets of the Chinese culture.