Chinese New Year performance by Xiao Hong Hua
On Wednesday 09 February 2011 the Confucius Institute at The University of Manchester hosted a special celebration performance from the Xiao Hong Hua (Little Red Flower) Arts Troupe from Nanjing, China to mark the advent of the Year of the Rabbit.
The free performance was held in the theatre of the prestigious Royal Northern College of Music where we were pleased to welcome over 580 schoolchildren aged between 5 and 16 from 16 schools across the greater Manchester area. Also in attendance were the Chinese Consul General, Mr Ni Jian and his guests, a representative from Manchester City Council and members of the University, as well as photographers and members of the local press.
Coaches of schoolchildren began to arrive at the theatre half an hour in advance of the 2pm performance time, until the main foyer of the college was filled with excited children who we taught to make the sign for the Chinese Year of the Rabbit while they waited for the performance to start.
Year 5 pupils from Hollins Grundy Primary School in Bury, Greater Manchester make ‘rabbit ears’ for the camera
The children and guests took their seats and were welcomed by two students of Chinese, taught by a member of the Confucius Institute, who acted as Masters of Ceremony throughout. The show began with the first dance, called Happy Rabbit Year; in their brightly-coloured rabbit costumes, the children danced to celebrate the coming of the New Year, wishing everyone luck and happiness. They delighted the audience and set the mood for the rest of the hour.
Xiao Hong Hua perform Happy Rabbit Year
The performance continued with a programme of traditional Chinese folk songs, beautifully choreographed dances such as Dancing Butterfly, Children from the Mountain and Girls in the Opera School and instrumental solos on traditional Chinese musical instruments such as the Erhu and the Zhongruan. While the dancing, acrobatics and gorgeous costumes all got a wonderful response, the audience was particularly delighted with the Erhu solo, performed by a young boy whose talent and technique was astonishing, and prompted the most deafening applause of the afternoon. One Year 3 pupil from Chorlton C of E Primary wrote to us afterwards to say ‘I would love to see all of it again especially the Erhu solo. He was so brave to come out all by himself!’
The programme concluded with another hugely popular dance called Little Calligraphers and Painters, in which the children showed off their calligraphy and painting skills while dancing and singing. They closed the show with the epilogue We Are Little Red Flowers and took their bows to overwhelming applause from the audience.
The Little Red Flower performance was the first in a series of events marking the advent of Chinese New Year of the Rabbit. These also included a sold out screening of the Chinese language film Aftershock at Manchester’s leading independent cinema Cornerhouse, as part of the Chinese Film Forum UK programme; and a party for students of Chinese at Manchester University that included a performance programme of music, dance, theatre, poetry and Chinese games.
You can read a version of this article on the Hanban website here
