2018年CRI Washington starts celebrations of Year of Dog

 

As the Chinese New Year approaches, celebrations of this important festival are also embraced in different parts of the world.

As our Washington Correspondent Liu Kun reports, festivities have already started in the US capital.

It was rainy over the past weekend in Washington, but that didn't stop the line of people in front of the Smithsonian American Art Museum from getting any longer. These people were queuing up to participate in the Chinese New Year Family Festival in the Museum.

The fifth of its kind, the Festival was jointly¹ held by the Chinese Embassy in Washington and the Museum.

Artists from Sichuan province and local artists in Washington joined hands and brought on site many forms of traditional Chinese art: the face-changing art of Sichuan Opera, folk dances, acrobatics², paper-cutting, Chinese calligraphy³ and so on.

Waves of applause and laughter mixed with the sound of music filled the Gallery.

The climax⁴ happened when kids and parents applauded and screamed at the batman face showed by Sichuan Opera face-changing artists.

Donald Langhorne is a US federal government officer. He brought his wife and four kids with him to the festival. His two daughters study at Washington Yu Ying Public Charter School, the first public primary school in Washington that provides a Chinese immersion⁵ education.

Langhorne said he had a good time at the festival and hopes that there will be more of this kind in Washington so that his children will have more opportunities to learn about China.

"The kids seem to be very engaged and they seem to be enjoying themselves as well. I think next week there will be the parade, the New Year parade. So we are looking forward to participating in the parade this year. We are looking forward to it."

Jessie Austen, a junior studying political science at the University of New Hampshire, is now interning⁶ for a US federal agency in Washington.

He said he has always been interested in the Chinese Lunar New Year. He was excited to have discovered an online advertisement for the event in the American Art Museum and decided⁷ to check it out.

He spent some time in the calligraphy section at the event and had his Chinese name written by calligraphy artists with Chinese writing brushes, ink and red paper.

"It's really awesome⁸. I unfortunately never got to learn to do Chinese but someone got to show me to do my name. It's very intricate and I love it. It's just so much detail gets put into it. That's just why I appreciate it so much. And I have always been really intrigued⁹ by the lunar new year festival because I feel like it's so much energy and everyone is just really excited. I love everything it stands for, welcoming in the new year, all the blessings¹⁰ and good wishes for friends and family."

The Chinese Embassy in Washington, together with local theaters and cultural centers, has already set up a series of programs to bring Chinese puppet shows, folk music concerts and other cultural forms to residents in D.C., all of which will unfold in the coming week.

In that sense, the Chinese New Year family festival in American Art Museum is just a beginning of celebrations of the Year of the Dog in the US capital.

For CRI, this is Liu Kun reporting from Washington.

1 jointly   

ad.联合地，共同地

参考例句：

• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。
• She owns the house jointly with her husband. 她和丈夫共同拥有这所房子。

2 acrobatics   

n.杂技

参考例句：

• Acrobatics is hard to learn but beautiful to watch.杂技不好学，但很好看。
• We watched a performance which included a puppet show and acrobatics.我们观看了一场演出，内容有木偶和杂技。

3 calligraphy   

n.书法

参考例句：

• At the calligraphy competition,people asked him to write a few characters.书法比赛会上，人们请他留字。
• His calligraphy is vigorous and forceful.他的书法苍劲有力。

4 climax   

n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点

参考例句：

• The fifth scene was the climax of the play.第五场是全剧的高潮。
• His quarrel with his father brought matters to a climax.他与他父亲的争吵使得事态发展到了顶点。

5 immersion   

n.沉浸；专心

参考例句：

• The dirt on the bottom of the bath didn't encourage total immersion.浴缸底有污垢，不宜全身浸泡于其中。
• The wood had become swollen from prolonged immersion.因长时间浸泡，木头发胀了。

6 interning   

v.拘留，关押( intern的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• I will spend the summer interning at a software company in Bombay. 夏季我将会在孟买的一家软件公司里实习。 来自互联网
• The young doctor is interning at the Medical Center this year. 这名年轻医生今年在医疗中心做实习医生。 来自互联网

7 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

8 awesome   

adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的

参考例句：

• The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
• That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

9 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

10 blessings   

n.（上帝的）祝福( blessing的名词复数 )；好事；福分；因祸得福

参考例句：

• Afflictions are sometimes blessings in disguise. 塞翁失马，焉知非福。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We don't rely on blessings from Heaven. 我们不靠老天保佑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》