Chinese spring festival is celebrated countrywide – Envoy

What is the Chinese Spring Festival all about?Spring festival is a very important Chinese traditional festival and it marks the beginning of a New Year in the Chinese lunar calendar. We are a country with a rich history and I think the most ancient civilized in the world for many years and which has bestowed […]

What is the Chinese Spring Festival all about?
Spring festival is a very important Chinese traditional festival and it marks the beginning of a New Year in the Chinese lunar calendar. We are a country with a rich history and I think the most ancient civilized in the world for many years and which has bestowed on us a very rich cultural heritage. Of course each country has its own calendar or customs. Every year a New Year’s Day shifts. So next year, the first day would be today (19th of February 2015). Spring festival is the most important event for China and its people. This is an occasion for people to get together, family reunion and our people who are working away from home come/stay at home for this celebration. On new year’s eve, people would go back to their ancestral home to join their families and friends. It’s actually a long holiday with several days declared for it, almost a week.
One thing I will like to mention specifically is that because China is a country with the biggest population in the world of about 1.3 billion people, during this period, there is a lot of movement; hundreds of people, about 700 million, taken trains and flights to various places because this period is very spectacular to the Chinese.
What is the significance of this festival to the Chinese people?    
There are four seasons in China normally; we have spring, summer, winter and autumn. Normally, beginning of the year is the end of winter and the start of spring and that is why we call it spring festival. Spring also symbolizes vitality and our people are excited because spring is a period for agriculture production. It is a special kind of celebration to shower offerings to our ancestors. There are all kinds of rituals in all parts of rural areas to show respect to ancestors and ceremonies to offer good wishes to families and friends leading to the New Year’s Eve when they have feasts, wine and dine together.   It is a unique day to our people. Young ones will have to give money to older people to say ‘happy New Year’ which we called lucky money in a red envelop. The celebration continues until the 15th of that month when the formal celebration winds up and people will go back to their work places.
Apart from the spring festival, is there any other festival that is widely celebrated in China and are there any group or tribe in your country that are not in support of this festival?  
China as I said earlier is a country of 1.3 billion people. Officially, we have 56 ethnic or national groups, also the Chinese society is very diversified.  We have non-religious people, Christians and Muslims all over China because some of the communities are concentrated in particular areas, like we have Muslims in northern China. Spring festival is celebrated all over the country by all the people and of course there are some ethnic groups that have their own calendars as well as culture and tradition but the spring festival is very popular and it is celebrated countrywide.
What do think Nigeria can learn from China culturally and religiously?
It is a two way thing and mutual. China is a country that is rich culturally.  Nigeria is very diversified in terms of ethnic groups, religions, localities and cultural heritage, so that makes things very diverse because we like to see a diverse world.
On a country-to-country basis, I think there are a lot of things we can do or learn together. First, we can start with the cultural exchanges because the major tool for the relationship between the two countries is the people-to-people contact and mutual understanding between them. We can compare what is unique and interesting in our culture with that of Nigeria. I think we can really learn a lot from each other.
Also, what I would like to mention is that Nigeria is the first African country to set up a cultural centre in Beijing, China in 2012. This I can say is very conducive to the mutual understanding between Chinese people in Nigeria and Africa being the biggest country in the continent.
How has Nigeria/China relationship fared?  Can you describe how you met it, what you have been able to achieve in the last one year and where you hope to take it to?  
Since I came last year April as Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, it has been exciting and interesting; most of my diplomatic career has been in Africa and I am excited to be in Nigeria. China and Nigeria have already had an excellent diplomatic relationship. I am very happy to be here because China-Nigeria relation has a very good start. Since I came, one of the most important things I was able to do is having the honour to accompany my Prime Minister who was paying an official visit to this country.
Also, he proposed that China should cooperate with African countries including Nigeria to construct the three networks of railway, highway and regional aviation. Actually, this is a positive response to the exploration of the African people. Before he came here, he was in Addis Ababa and during his meeting with African leaders, the chairperson mentioned that African people have the dream to link up all the capital cities through railways. Already, in the sub-region, many African countries are undertaking these infrastructural projects and our Premier said the Chinese people will help Africa to realize this dream, so he proposed the three networks to be constructed with the help of China. During the visit of our Prime minister, the two governments signed some agreements and reached consensus to further the cooperation between China and Nigeria. After that, my government and our embassy have been in close touch with ministries here to implement the agreement. Things are real and are going positively.
What products do you buy from Nigeria and what do you bring in return?        
Some of the products to export to Nigeria are equipment, machinery, electrical appliances and most of the automobile parts, chemicals, building materials which shows that Nigeria need us in its process of industrial revolution and from Nigeria we import agricultural products and also a bit of crude oil. Given the mix of the products, we don’t have a lot to import other than this crude oil and agricultural products. We would have imported more of finish products like industrial products but right now, we don’t have much choice.