LONDON, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- A show for the celebration of the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival was staged in London Chinatown on Sunday afternoon, impressing many with performances featuring Chinese culture and art.
Kicking off with a lion dance, the show captivated a huge crowd in the bustling area with a variety of programs, including Chinese-style dances, instrumental performances, songs, puppet dancing, and acrobatics.
The annual Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival, is usually celebrated with family reunions and mooncake sharing on the 15th day of August on the Chinese lunar calendar when the moon is the fullest and brightest. It falls on Sept. 29 this year.
"The full moon during the Mid-Autumn Festival not only means completeness and reunion, but also symbolizes the Chinese people's vision for the peaceful and harmonious coexistence of all communities across the world," Ping Huang, secretary-general of London Chinatown Chinese Association, said in the opening speech.
The excitement in the audience reached a crescendo as artists from south China's Guangdong Province performed acrobatics, traditional Cantonese opera, contemporary dance, and a rod-puppet dance with long silk.
The crowd burst into a round of applause and cheers when acrobats from Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong, displayed extreme physical flexibility and balance. Many people took out their phones to capture the moment when a female acrobat went on pointe atop her male counterpart's shoulder in a performance combining Chinese acrobatics with Ballet.
"I feel like the Chinese culture gives importance to all sorts of small things that we do not consider, so it's very beautiful," Francesca Olivieri from Italy told Xinhua during the show.
Olivieri went on stage to learn several Chinese dance moves with one of the performers. She was impressed by the "so elegant" Chinese-style dances she saw during the show.
Along with Olivieri on the stage learning dance moves was Giselle Hinz from Germany. She said it was very good that different people could gather together in Chinatown, a popular place for many in a city where diverse cultures can be found.
