07 Feb 08

Up to 700 students, academics and local people celebrated Chinese New Year at a special gala in Oxford University’s Sheldonian Theatre. The Oxford Chinese Students and Scholars Association host the Chinese New Year Gala every year.

This year, one of the highlights was a dance troupe from Beijing – from the Affiliated High School to Ren Min University – who with painted faces and full traditional costume, spun and jumped, unfurling their colourful scarves for the opening performance entitled ‘ Chinese Spring Festival’.

There were 50 performers, in total, from Oxford and Cambridge universities and St Clare’s international school, Oxford. Performances included ‘face-changing’, a traditional Chinese art from Sichuan opera where dancers wear differently coloured masks that they can change in a fraction of a second. There was also the ‘The Dragon Boat Tune’, a famous Chinese folk song, which involves audience participation.

The Association’s guest of honour at the Sheldonian Theatre was the Deputy Lord Mayor of Oxford, Councillor Stephen Tall, who in his address spoke of his ‘privilege in witnessing the kaleidoscope of cultures in Oxford’. One of the gala hosts (a chemistry student at St Catherine’s College), Yueyang Hou, talked about the mythical origins of Chinese New Year: it is said that many years ago in China, people displayed red colours and set off fireworks to scare off the legendary man-eating beast from the mountains who came out once a year.

Before the gala, there was a special welcoming reception at the University’s Ashmolean Museum, attended by the Lord Mayor of Oxford, Councillor John Tanner, heads of colleges, and academics. Oxford's Director of International Strategy Dr Heather Bell, who welcomed guests on behalf of the university, commented afterwards: ‘Our relationship with China as a university is longstanding, wide-ranging, and deepening all the time. It’s inspiring to see distinct cultures meet: how terrific to be able to sit in the Sheldonian Theatre, at the centre of this historic British university, and celebrate Chinese New Year with our Chinese students.'

China and Hong Kong have become the largest source for international undergraduate students at Oxford University and the second largest, after the United States, for total students at the University  – rising from 89 in 1996-97 to 699 in 2006-07. Oxford is one of the leading centres for the study of China in the world.

The Oxford Chinese Students and Scholars Association is an independent, non-profit student-run organisation, which has about 4,000 registered members in Oxford. Nearly 1,200 of these are students and scholars at the University of Oxford; about 1,700 are from Oxford Brookes University; while the rest are in a variety of colleges, high schools, language schools and vocational and professional institutions. The OXCSSA is one of the largest associations in Oxford. While the majority of members are from China, the association also welcomes members of backgrounds interested in Chinese language and culture.