A Mid-Autumn Festival cultural gala was staged in Colombo on Thursday, on the eve of the traditional Chinese festival, which falls on Friday this year.
Artists from China’s Zhejiang Performing Arts Group presented vocal music, dance and traditional Chinese folk music, along with face-changing acrobatics — the Sichuan opera technique known as bian lian, in which performers switch painted masks in an instant. The programme wove in elements of Sri Lankan culture, Xinhua reported.
‘Harmony and shared beauty’
Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka Wei Huaxiang told the event that the Mid-Autumn Festival carries the Chinese cultural spirit of harmony and shared beauty, and said he hoped the gala would further deepen cultural exchange and people-to-people connections between the two countries.
Pradeep Saputhanthri, secretary to the Sri Lankan Prime Minister, said the values of harmony and reunion embodied in the festival transcend borders and barriers of culture and language. In a world becoming increasingly interconnected and diverse, he added, such values are particularly meaningful.
A busy diplomatic calendar
The gala is the third China-related cultural or diplomatic event in Colombo this week. The Sri Lanka China Society marked its 45th anniversary on Wednesday at the BMICH, also held ahead of the festival, and Ambassador Wei used the 77th anniversary of the People’s Republic to set out bilateral milestones for 2027.
The Mid-Autumn Festival, observed on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, is among the most significant dates in the Chinese calendar and is traditionally associated with family reunion and the harvest moon.
Not reported
Xinhua does not name the venue, give an attendance figure, say which Sri Lankan performers or art forms featured in the programme, or identify the co-organisers of the event.
