Nina Park Spring Festival Fun Fair

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Owned and managed by Chinachem Group, Nina Park, home to over hundreds of wood fossils dating back millions of years, will host the Spring Festival Fun Fair on 18 and 19 January, in a bid to celebrate the nearing Year of the Snake and the recent addition of Spring Festival to the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List. The Fair will feature seven thematic experiential booths and cultural games showcasing traditional Chinese arts, including lion dancing, Peking opera (jingju), bamboo lanterns, calligraphy and more, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the charm of Chinese culture in the festive ambience. Admission is free.

Live Lion Dance Performances to Boost Festive Spirit

Live lion dance performances, accompanied by vibrant drumming, will take place at the Amphitheatre of Nina Park, adding even more festive spirits. Visitors will not only be able to watch the performances but also sign up for the lion dance experience classes, where they will learn basic skills under professional guidance, incorporating the lion’s movements into the dance.

“Edutainment” Experience Through Chinese Arts Workshops

An intangible cultural heritage, Chinese calligraphy, is very often seen in Spring Festival couplets. Visitors will be able to redeem hand-written couplets freshly created by calligraphy artists at the Fun Fair. They can also participate in a couplets calligraphy workshop to pen their New Year blessings for the Year of the Snake, which can be taken home or sent as festive gifts to friends and family.

Online registration is available for the lion dance experience classes and couplets calligraphy workshops, please visit Nina Park’s Events page for more details. Several sessions are reserved exclusively for CCG Hearts members, who can log into the app for registration.

Peking opera, also an intangible cultural heritage recognised by UNESCO, features unique facial masks that exhibit distinct character traits with the use of patterns and colours. At the Peking opera ornaments DIY and mask painting workshops, experts will walk participants through the history of Peking opera, the characters, and the origins, styles, and symbolic meanings of the masks. Participants will be given the opportunity to unleash their creativity by designing their one-and-only Peking opera ornaments or artistic masks.

Small seal script (xiaozhuan) is commonly used in Chinese calligraphy, and visitors will be able to take part in a quiz where they can win prizes by solving riddles written in small seal script, allowing them to learn about the unique characteristics and evolution of small seal script while also having fun. Additionally, visitors can play a game on oracle bone script (jiaguwen) to understand the origins and development of Chinese characters through this ancient writing system.

Lanterns symbolise brightness and hope in traditional Chinese culture. Bamboo lantern workshops at the Fun Fair will be led by professional instructors, who will introduce the history of bamboo weaving, allowing participants to explore the essence of bamboo art by crafting their own lanterns, which are perfect decorations to add Chinese festive atmosphere.

Nina Park is the first and only museum-grade wood fossil park in Hong Kong. It is conveniently located in Tsuen Wan West, taking about 6 minutes to walk from Exit C3 of the Tsuen Wan West MTR Station. The indoor and outdoor areas of the Park boast approximately 70,000 square feet, showcasing over a hundred pieces of wood fossil with an engaging “edutainment” concept in the hopes to inspire people to reflect on conservation, history, and time. Visitors can observe and even touch these millions-year-old wood fossils and sign up for guided tours led by professional docents for a journey through time.