Festival gala Cultures of China wows London

The Lycium Theatre in the heart of London's Theatre district is no foreigner to good houses but having a sell-out mass waiting outside for the doors to open is a little strange even for them. Yet this is what happened Monday night when the Cultures of China, Event of Spring gala event for the Chinese New Year was held

.The audience was greeted with speeches by Ms Li Haifeng from the Foreign Affairs Office in Beijing, Liu Xiaoming, China’s Ambassador to the UK and Li Wenxing, Chairman of the show’s arranging committee. The diversity of performances began with a show of customary Mongolian dancing, followed by other dance acts, including the customary military dance.

Then came solo singing by the well-known singers: Song Zuying, Yan Weiwen, Cai Guoqing and Solangwangmu.Mrs Liu Xiuirong returned to enchant the throng with Pingju Opera, even conversing with the hostess Liu Xiaona in operatic style.

Mr Yan Weiwen conventional the biggest ovation of the evening, not just for his singing but because he proved himself a complete expert: when the music stopped, he didn't, the second time in the midst of an impressively complicated vocal line in the song "Mother". All the singers had complexity evasion the stage, having to give more than one encore each.