Countdown starts to Chinese New Year in Leeds

Leeds’s annual festival will be held on Sunday February 18 but in line with tradition – the celebrations are starting early.

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To see in the Year of the Dog, The Leeds Chinese Community School will get the party started on Monday night with a little help from some friends who are making the journey from China to Leeds especially for the event.

Sixty youngsters from Guangzhou, a city north west of Hong Kong, form the Chinese Traditional Music Orchestra and will play a concert at Leeds Town Hall starting at 7pm.

There is a chance to meet with and learn from the musicians on Sunday though as they take part in workshops to celebrate the diversity of Chinese and Western music.

Fiona Kit is a volunteer committee member at the school, and said: “They are coming just for three days and bringing instruments you can’t normally see in the UK.”

Monday night’s event is also a fundraiser for the school which is a community run, not-for-profit Chinese supplementary school.

It was set up in 1966 to serve what was an increasing Chinese community in Leeds.

Ms Kit’s father, originally from Hong Kong, came to Leeds back in 1963 as a 17-year-old and started working at a restaurant on Vicar Lane.

There was a developing oriental community in Leeds and now there are more than 5,000 Chinese residents living in the city, with numbers being boosted by students.

Ms Kit attended the school as a child and now her seven-year-old son also attends along with British and Spanish pupils as the attendance has become much more mixed.

She added: “It is much more diverse now. We were taking part in 2023 and trying to be more cultured but promoting the culture itself, it has changed so much in the last 20 years.”

The same applies to the main annual Chinese New Year event which is a colourful, vibrant and welcoming celebration of China, its traditions and history and its place in Leeds today.

In an extravaganza on Sunday February 18 there will be a Lion Dance, which is the traditional way to start the festival and other spectacles such as Tibetan dancing, piano solos, taekwondo, calligraphy, martial arts and a Chinese umbrella dance.

The event, expected to attract 1,000 spectators, will be at Leeds Town Hall from 11am-3pm and there will be authentic food from Chinese restaurants from around the city.

Judy Pease is the woman behind it all and has been involved since the Leeds Chinese Community Association started in 1995.

It is the umbrella for six other organisations, as well as the Community School, which are, Leeds Wah Kwong Chinese Association, Leeds Chinese Mandarin Community School, Leeds Chinese Women’s Group, Leeds Chinese Christian Church, Leeds Chinese Students & Scholars Association and, Yuk Ming Hin Operatic Society.

Volunteer Karl Pease added: “Judy tries to make an event that is inclusive of everybody that is interested in the culture, arts and the tradition. It is colourful, musical and inspiring.”

Tickets for Monday are available from the Town Hall.