Chinese New Year Celebration

Swing into the Chinese New Year to celebrate the Year of the Monkey—and learn more about how the Lunar New Year is celebrated throughout Asia—at this annual, daylong extravaganza. The whole family can enjoy traditional music and dance, tai chi and tangram workshops, a Shaolin-style Kung Fu demonstration, family gallery tours, storytelling, crafts and much more. Activities are held in the China Gallery, which houses one of the finest collections of monumental Chinese art in the country, and throughout the international galleries of Museum. The day ends with a drum roll, a roar, and the popular Grand Finale Lion Dance Parade. A special red envelope of surprises awaits every family who attends the festivities! Free with Museum admission.

Schedule

11:00 am – 11:30 am Monkey Image Painting Workshop*, Classroom 2, 1st floor
Join this drop-in painting workshop to teach basic stroke techniques of monkey images.

12:30 pm – 1:00 pm “Primates in the Galleries” Family Tour*, Meets in Human Evolution, 2nd floor
Wind through the Museum to find monkeys and primates, exploring how they were valued in other cultures.

12:30 pm – 12:50 pm Chinese Music Demonstration with Kurt Jung and Qin Qian, Pepper Hall, 3rd floor 
Local musicians perform traditional and modern melodies on the erhu and the yangchin.

1:00 pm – 1:30 pm Family Storytime: Journey to the West (Monkey)*, Egypt (Mummies), 3rd floor
Students from the Penn Chinese Language Program lead a family storytime featuring a novel considered one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm Tai Chi Workshop, Egypt (Sphinx), 1st floor 
Sifu John Chen and his students from the Ba'z Tai Chi and Kung Fu Studio offer an interactive workshop on this martial art applied with internal power.

2:00 pm – 2:20 pm Chinese Music Demonstration with Kurt Jung and Qin Qian, Pepper Hall, 3rd floor 
Local musicians perform traditional and modern melodies on the erhu and the yangchin.

2:00 pm – 3:15 pm Tangram Workshop*, Classroom 2, 1st floor 
Onlei Annie Jung explains the seven tans of the tangram, an ancient Chinese puzzle game believed to have been invented in China during the Song Dynasty.

2:15pm – 3:00 pm Little Mulan Dance Troupe Performance, Harrison Auditorium, 2nd floor 
The award-winning Great Wall Chinese School Little Mulan Dance Troupe performs a selection of traditional and folk dances from China.

2:30 pm – 2:50 pm Falun Gong Demonstration, Egypt (Sphinx), 1st floor 
Join practitioners from the Greater Philadelphia Falun Dafa Association for relaxing exercises.

2:45 pm – 3:15 pm “Primates in the Galleries” Family Tour*, Meets in Human Evolution, 2nd floor
Wind through the Museum to find monkeys and primates, exploring how they were valued in other cultures.

3:00 pm – 3:45 pm Kung Fu Demonstration, Harrison Auditorium, 2nd floor 
Join Cheung's Hung Gar Kung Fu Academy offer a dynamic, Shaolin-style Kung Fu demonstration.

3:45 pm Grand Finale Lion Dance, Harrison Auditorium / Warden Garden, 2nd floor 
Don’t miss the sharp footwork and pulsating drums of this spectacular finale to chase away evil and usher in good luck for the year.

For more informantion, see the Penn Museum Calendar.