On February 5th and 7th (local time), Giftland, the biggest shopping mall in Guyana was imbued with the flavor of the Chinese New Year by Chinese red lanterns, knotting, paper cutting, and spring couplets. Teachers from CIUG provided two cultural activities. The festive and lively New Year's atmosphere was enjoyed by all. Guyana Times and Guyana Chronicle made front-page headlines to report it, as well as on the website of Giftland.
The activities were exceptionally pleasing and fun. For entertainment, the organizers specifically chose traditional Chinese cultural activities suitable for families, and especially ones in which children could actively participate. Teachers from CIUG took up their brushes and wrote the Chinese names of audience members or New Year's greetings; Monkey mask exhibition was packed with children learning how to draw monkey figures; authentic folk costumes were provided for the audience to try on and take pictures in; there were chopsticks competition to play with; and more.
For most people, this was the first time they had taken part in the New Year's activities, and they were much more fun than they expected. Though someone knows no Chinese characters, they asked to have children's or lovers’ names written down in Chinese characters to display at home, and some people said that he or she was considering starting learning Chinese next year.
Translated by Connie Zhao