Year of the Pig Celebrations – Chinese/Lunar New Year

The Cultural Calendar’s biggest event to date is here: the Year of the Pig, Spring Festival and Chinese Lunar New Year. We’ve got performances, concerts, workshops, VR experiences, food offers, a mountain of fortune cookies, and traditional, red new year gift envelopes to hand out across campus. Old Joe will also turn red to mark the occasion! Here’s our comprehensive guide to the celebration:

To kick-start the Lunar New Year celebrations, the University’s China Institute will be hosting its prestigious annual concert featuring performances from Di Xiao, Jiaxin Lloyd Webber, Dennis Kwong Thye Lee and Lauren Zhang, winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year award. The concert will take place on Thursday January 31st at 6:30pm in the Bramall and while tickets are presently sold-out, there is a waiting list for the concert here. You can also follow the China Institute on Twitter (@UOBChina) for more information and further updates throughout the year.

The celebrations will continue week commencing the 4th of February with a range of organised events taking place across all five colleges including traditional New Year red envelope hand-outs, paper lantern making, a VR360 Lion Dance and an Instameet photo competition. Details of activities  at each location are as follows:

• On Monday the 4th, festivities begin in the Medical School Building (B1) (Rooms: CM02 and CM03) from midday until 2pm. There will be opportunities to participate in a calligraphy workshop (12-1pm) as well as other activities.
• On Tuesday the 5th, the College of Social Sciences will host an event in the Alan Walters Building (R29) from 12 till 2pm with a second chance to take part in a calligraphy workshop (in case you missed the first one or if you just fancy another go!).
• On Wednesday the 6th we move to the College of Arts and Law in the Arts Building Foyer (R16) (12-2pm). There will also be an interactive Tai Chi demonstration here between 12 and 1pm.
• Thursday the 7th is a special day as we will be celebrating in both the EPS Engineering Lounge (Y3) (10am-12pm), and The Link in Life and Environmental Sciences, 52 Pritchatts Road, on the 1st floor (G9) from 12 to 2pm.
• Closing festivities will take place throughout the day at the Guild on Friday the 8th of February. Expect a range of stalls and activities hosted by cultural societies, performances, a Lantern and Calligraphy exhibition, and a Lion Dance!

The week’s events will also be supported by UoB’s Wok Fresh, who will be ensuring that participants don’t go hungry. Make sure you look out for these fantastic food offers throughout the Chinese/Lunar New Year Celebrations.

• Infusion at Shackleton Hall will have an Oriental themed menu on the evening of the 5th of February.
• The Med Café at the Medical School will have an Oriental Dish of the Day on main hot counter all week. They will also offer a Free Vegetable Spring Roll for every Wok dish purchased, as well as a free fortune cookie with every purchased Chai Latte.
• Gisbert Kapp (Café 52) will give out free fortune cookies with any purchased noodle soup, all week.
• The Business School Café will offer a  10% discount on any oriental take away meals all week. Any purchased Venti “We Proudly Serve” Starbucks hot drink will come with a free fortune cookie all week.
• Wok Fresh will offer 20% off every Jasmine Green Tea purchases all week. They will also give away a free sweet steamed bun or a bag of prawn crackers with any large main meal purchased all week. An offer of 15% off will be applied when purchasing a large meat or vegetable Chow Mein and a Large Vegetable Spring Roll together, all week.

There will be further giveaways taking place across campus throughout the week with some fantastic prizes for those taking part in the Cultural Calendar Blog and Chinese New Year Instameet Photo competitions. Look out for one of our Cultural Calendar Ambassadors carrying the Instagram Photo Frame or snap your own pics and upload them here.

And just in case you manage to miss any of the above, you can still attend a second concert at Birmingham’s Town Hall Symphony Hall (THSH) on Tuesday the 12th of March! THSH have kindly collaborated with the Cultural Calendar as well as the China Institute to offer a £5 discount on all tickets booked online, at the Box Office over the phone, or in person when using the promotional code Piano5!

And that’s about everything! Make sure you stay up to date with events by checking in regularly on our Facebook page and if you’d like to write about your experiences of the Lunar/Chinese New Year on campus, please get in touch/send-drafts to n.f.gallen@bham.ac.uk. We would love to share your experiences on our Blog, don’t forget all uploaded submissions will be entered into our prize draw! For further advice/guidelines on submissions follow this link. Also, we’d love for you tag our instagram (@uobculturalcalendar) in your photos of Old Joe when it is red, with your envelopes, or just of your experiences of the day!

We look forward to seeing you all on the day, and wish you all a great Year of the Pig!

Cultural Calendar Project Team.