As the clock struck nine o’clock p.m., crowds gathered in the theatre to watch the Chinese New Year show of 2024. This year seemed like a very special year, as the school invited a group of professional Chinese artists and performers based in London to give the performance. It proved to be paid off, though, when international and local students from different year groups packed almost the entire ground floor of the theatre.

One of the factors that made the show enjoyable to watch was the variety of its performances, including Chinese dance, traditional Chinese instruments like erhu, and Dragon dance for celebrating the Dragon Year of 2024. But what was probably considered the most interesting performance among all was the Chinese martial art performance. With the stirring music, the performers gently and slowly moved in their positions, but showing power and confidence in every move. Interestingly enough, local students seemed to be intrigued by this performance even more than the internationals. “I’ve never seen anything like this before”, exclaimed Aris, one of the local UK students, in full excitement, “the music and the movements are just so powerful.”

The show came to a peak when the Tai Chi group performed the funny, viral dance “Ke Mu San” that recently pervaded Chinese social media such as Tiktok and Xiao Hong Shu. It was quite a scene when the Chinese students in the room reacted with gasps, laughs, and screams almost immediately when the “brainwashing” music was turned on. It was so humourous that some even started taking videos of them.

There was no wonder that the students all enjoyed the show and had a fun time celebrating Chinese New Year. The school has been very successful at giving a great experience for Chinese students and local students at Christ’s Hospital during this special festival, and we believe that there is always more to come.