The China Cultural Centre and St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, both in Valletta, will be celebrating the Chinese New Year, this year being the Year of the Rooster, this weekend.
Visitors to St James will be able to enjoy a Chinese "market" offering authentic Chinese arts and crafts, demonstrations of Tai-Chi, martial arts, sword play, Chinese massage and Chinese cooking.
Cooking will be held at the China Cultural Centre which will also host an exhibition on how the Chinese Spring Festival is celebrated in China. The exhibition will explain the Chinese Zodiac.
A number of specialised events are being offered to children, parents and teachers, including a shadow puppet play. Following the successful exhibition of Chinese shadow puppets, audiences will have the chance to enjoy a performance of this fascinating rural art form.
Dating back to prehistoric times when people realised they could tell stories by making figures with their hands and casting their shadows, with the help of their campfires, onto the wall of caves, the form has since developed into a complex, beautiful entertainment which weaves ancient legends and stories with graceful magic movements, song and music. For more than 1,000 years, shadow plays have been one of China's most popular traditional art forms. The shadows of pierced, painted and jointed leather puppets, cast onto lamp-lit screens, tell many types of stories.
Although other forms of Chinese drama have undergone changes, or even died out, shadow plays are as popular as ever, perhaps because they have remained so simple and accessible to millions of Chinese masses.
The shadow puppeteers are being brought over especially from the province of Shaanxi.
The puppeteers will be presenting the shadow plays and special performances every day between today and Friday for school children. These are now fully booked.
Two evening performances will be given on Saturday and Sunday at 7 30 p.m. at St James Cavalier. Tickets are Lm3 for adults and Lm1.50 for children.
Booking by e-mail - boxoffice@sjcav.org, via tel: 2122 3200 or in person between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. (including Saturday and Sunday).