Romanian former President Emil Constantinescu (1st L), Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall (C) and Chinese Ambassador to Romania Xu Feihong (1st R) attend an event celebrating the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year at the Romanian Atheneum in Bucharest, capital of Romania, Feb. 10, 2018. (Xinhua/Cristian Cristel)
BUCHAREST, Feb. 10 (Xinhua) -- A performance featuring special grassland culture was given by a group of artists from north China's Inner Mongolia region in the Romanian capital of Bucharest on Saturday night to celebrate the upcoming Chinese Spring Festival.
The event was jointly organized by the Chinese Embassy to Romania and the Romanian-Chinese House, a non-profit private association aiming to enhance dialogue and cooperation between the two countries and peoples.
The performance exhibited music and choreography of the Nair ethnic group in China, containing many cultural components, such as the hilarity for the first snow in a year, the life in the steppe and the celebration of the upcoming spring season, which were all expressed on the basis of traditional Mongolian songs and dances.
The show involves a section of Khoomei singing, a special type of Mongolian overtone singing in the Altai mountains, especially in Inner Mongolia, which has been listed as an intangible cultural heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2009.
Romanian Vice Prime Minister Ana Birchall also attended the event and said the Romanian government will enhance bilateral relations with China, and that the friendship between the two sides dating from 1949 has been making progress year by year.
Chinese Ambassador to Romania Xu Feihong said the Chinese Spring Festival, as a paramount cultural symbol, connotes the arrival of spring, family reunion, harmony and happiness.
Deeply moved by the live performance, former Romanian Ambassador to China Romulus Budura recalled another important day dating back to 1955, saying "At that moment, China's Marshal Zhu De came to this hall of the athenaeum and stood on that stage where the artists were performing, and I also attended that event."
"Words alone cannot properly describe my feeling. The audience is very enthusiastic in Romania, and we have a good time here," Enhe, one of the Chinese artists who did not give his full name, told Xinhua.