Chinese New Year global gala night staged online in New Zealand

A man holds a red lantern in his hands during a cultural event to celebrate the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, in Auckland, New Zealand on Jan. 21, 2023. (Photo by Zhao Gang/Xinhua)

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese New Year global gala night was staged online on Saturday to celebrate the festive occasion.

This year's Chinese New Year global gala night was the third of its kind, organized by the Culture Bridge, a cultural exchange organization based in New Zealand, to celebrate and promote Chinese culture globally.

"The Chinese New Year is an important occasion for overseas Chinese to celebrate and showcase our culture. We also bear the responsibility to preserve and promote Chinese culture," said Jie Min, director of the Culture Bridge.

"The Chinese New Year global gala night itself served as a platform for artistic and cultural exchange too, with artists and performers from different countries and ethnicities," said Jie Min.

The three-hour Chinese New Year global gala night featured famous and classic Chinese songs and performances such as the wushu performance, Chinese crosstalk, traditional music instrument performances and Peking opera.

About 8,000 artists and performers from over 50 countries participated in the Chinese New Year global gala night, with the theme song of the event, We Are Family, featuring more than 100 overseas Chinese youth performers across the globe.

The first gala night organized by the Culture Bridge debuted in early 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown when a group of overseas Chinese students joined a global rally to sing for COVID-19 frontline health workers. The gala night events have since been joined by more and more global artists and performers, according to its organizer.