Weeks of celebrations are underway in Norfolk as people welcome the start of the Chinese New Year today.
The Year of the Monkey is being celebrated throughout February and March with events across Norwich including a lantern festival, Chinese art workshops and an exhibition at The Forum.
The newly formed Norwich Chinese Community Centre (NCCC) are running a number of events with the culmination being a lantern festival and celebration performance of Chinese dance and music at the Merge restaurant on Dereham Road in Norwich on February 19.
Cindy Meng has organised the performance and hopes it will bring closer ties with the Chinese community in East Anglia.
'The two-hour celebration is being attended by many important people in the Chinese community including the Lord Mayor of Bury St Edmunds Patrick Chung and the Chinese Embassy's business councillor,' she said. 'We hope it will help bring closer ties between Chinese business and the people of Norfolk.'
The NCCC are also working with Confucius Riddlesworth Hall School near Thetford to read traditional Chinese literature to people at the Children's Library at The Forum from on March 13.
The school are part of the Confucius International Education Group, a group of schools chaired by a descendent the renowned Chinese philosopher and educationalist, Confucius.
Other events organised by the NCCC are a Chinese exhibition at The Forum called 'Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow' which runs until the end of February, a badminton competition at the end of March and a Chinese arts workshop in The Forum Library on February 20.
In King's Lynn, the West Norfolk and District Chinese Association hosted an annual party to mark the start of Chinese New Year last weekend.
Young and old were treated to traditional entertainment including a lion dance and sleeping lion dance, drumming, martial art, belly dancing and Tai Chi Fan.
Kwai Li, who organised the celebration at King's Lynn Town Hall, said: 'The main aim of the event is getting the two communities together to help with a good cause. The other aim is to achieve a cultural exchange with local people, which is very important in modern days especially to help children learn.'
Other events to mark the Year of the Monkey include the annual civic Chinese New Year celebrations in Norwich, which are hosted by the Lord Mayor and Sheriff at the Riverbank Chinese restaurant on February 15th.
•For more information about events organised by the Norwich Chinese Community Centre contact Cindy Meng on 01603 623182.
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