Spring Festival Celebrating Chinese New Year
SPbU Exhibition Hall will host a Spring Festival to celebrate Chinese New Year. The event will feature exhibitions, lectures, and workshops, all open to the public.
Programme
- 1 pm: Festival begins
- 1.10 pm: Opening of the exhibitions “The Image of the Snake in Eastern Culture” and “Gongbi Painting”
- 1.30 pm: Lecture “The Image of the Snake in Chinese Culture” by Dmitry Mayatsky, Associate Professor of Chinese Philology
- 2 pm: Lecture “Snake Stories, or the Literary Serpentarium” by Milana Azarkina, Head of the Oriental Studies Department at the M. Gorky Scientific Library of SPbU
- 2.30 pm – 4 pm: Workshop on traditional Chinese Gongbi painting “Welcoming Chinese Spring”
Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, Spring Festival, or Chunjie, is the most important and longest-celebrated holiday in China and many other Asian countries. Rooted in ancient Eastern myths, this festival has a history spanning thousands of years.
Event Highlights
Exhibitions
“The Image of the Snake in Eastern Culture”: This exhibition showcases books and visual materials exploring how snakes have been perceived in different eras by the people of China, India, Nepal, and other Asian and African countries. It also highlights the role of snakes in the cultures of these nations today. Visitors will also learn about the traditional Chinese art of paper cutting (jianzhi).
“Gongbi Painting”: A special exhibition dedicated to the intricate and detailed Gongbi style of traditional Chinese painting.
Workshop
“Welcoming Chinese Spring”: This workshop, led by Tu Jun, a master of traditional Chinese Gongbi painting and a lecturer at the Faculty of Arts at SPbGU, will introduce participants to the tools, materials, and techniques used in Chinese painting. Attendees will have the opportunity to paint a peony, a symbol of prosperity and beauty.
Lectures
Milana Azarkina and Dmitry Mayatsky will deliver lectures on topics such as:
- The depiction of the Chinese goddess Nüwa.
- Mythological serpent-like creatures from ancient Chinese texts like “The Classic of Mountains and Seas” and the Indian epic “Mahabharata”.
- Chinese and Indian legends and stories related to snakes, including “The Legend of the White Snake”, tales by Pu Songling, “The Three Disciples of the Wise Elder”, and “The Exploits of Astika”.