Lunar New Year celebrated with big concert organized by Chinese students

The event was held yesterday in anticipation of Chunjie (Spring Festival), which takes place on 22 January this year.

The celebration was visited by Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Kazan Xiang Bo and Vice-Rector for International Affairs Timirkhan Alishev.

The Consul addressed the audience, “In a few days, we will be meeting the Chinese New Year. This evening is the first big celebratory offline event in the three years since the start of the pandemic. Our goal is to evoke the feeling of the new year and the care of your homeland. Although there is still cold winter outside, we feel the joy, the coziness, and the spirit of spring. The Association of Chinese Students of Kazan and Kazan Federal University have done a great job, and I thank everyone for the effort.”

Vice-Rector Alishev noted that the number of Chinese students has reached 1,600 this year and is still growing, “This shows their interest in Kazan and Russia as a whole. Chinese young people learn Russian, and they will return home and become teachers of Russian. We are very pleased that such warm partnership is being built both between our two nations’ leaders and among common people.”

As of now, KFU also has 15 Chinese employees. In the last five years, KFU researchers have authored 523 papers with Chinese colleagues.

Director of the Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication Radif Zamaletdinov, who spoke Tatar language during the ceremony, noted that among the Institute’s 5,000 students there are 700 Chinese nationals.

The concert included vocals, dance numbers. and instrumental performances, including some from Chinese students of Kazan State Conservatory.