ISLAMABAD: Various online and offline activities, including concerts, temple fairs and parades, will be organised all over the world as the Cultural Office of the Embassy of China and China Cultural Centre in Pakistan announced Chinese New Year festivities on Tuesday.

The 2023 Chinese New Year press conference was held in Beijing and aired live at the Embassy of China in Islamabad.

Gao Zheng, director general of the International Exchange and Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China, vice-president and secretary-general of the China International Culture Association, Zhao Cong, head of China National Traditional Orchestra and well-known pianist Lang Lang introduced the 2023 Chinese New Year activities.

Gao Zheng said the Chinese New Year was held to celebrate Spring and was an important platform for China to share its culture with people all over the world.

The 2023 Happy Chinese New Year would be guided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China and hosted by China International Culture Association.

The press conference also released the mascot of 2023 Happy Chinese New Year. As the coming Chinese New Year was the Year of the Rabbit, the mascot, designed by Central Academy of Fine Arts, was a rabbit with long ears based on the shape of a lucky bag.

Journalists were informed that China would be celebrating the Chinese New Year, generally known as Chinese Spring Festival on Sunday (Jan 22, 2023) and activities related to it would go on till Feb 9, 2023. It was one of the most important and biggest festivals in the traditional Chinese culture, and one of the longest holidays, lasting up to seven days.

Chinese New year was being celebrated in neighbouring countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea and all around the world where there were Chinese communities. In Pakistan, there were thousands of Chinese people who had lived here for various periods of time.

“They will also be celebrating the festival in its full cultural and traditional spirit. Many similarities exist between Chinese New Year and Pakistan’s traditional Eid festival. Both are based on the lunar calendar and are one of the most important and biggest festivals in their societies and both are family-centric festivals,” the organisers said.

Xing Lijun, the second secretary, Cultural Office of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Pakistan informed journalists about the 2023 Happy Chinese New Year and upcoming events in connection with celebration of Chinese Spring Festival.

He also highlighted the Pak-China Cultural exchange programmes with the Pakistani journalist community. Xing Lijun said cultural bonds existing between the two nations were strong enough to support everlasting friendship.

All resources would be utilised in the future to showcase Chinese history, culture and tourism, he added.

Climate-induced disaster management

Chinese Ambassador Nong Rong on Tuesday called for strong Sino-Pak collaboration in the sphere of climate-induced disaster management and stressed on further expansion of the existing working relation with Pakistan.

The Chinese ambassador, who called on National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) Chairman Lt Gen Inam Haider Malik, suggested chalking out of a comprehensive bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the NDMA and Ministry of Emergency Management of China (MEM) for remodeling of the national preparedness and response regime complemented with technology and information sharing, establishment of an early warning system and weather prediction analysis.

He further stressed on enhancing bilateral communication between the NDMA and MEM.

Both sides discussed various aspects of mutual collaboration and proactive approach of disaster management in Pakistan.

The NDMA chairman thanked the overwhelming support by the Chinese government in rescue and relief operations during the floods.

He also acknowledged continued assistance from China for the rehabilitation phase in flood-affected areas.

He shared details of transformation plan of the futuristic and technology-driven National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) which will be the interface of integrated emergency response with all government stakeholders, humanitarian agencies and international donors.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2022