While it doesn’t actually happen until February 5th, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art celebrated the Chinese New Year in a sumptuous fete featuring costumes, dueling dragons, music, dance, and lots of delicious food. This has become an annual tradition in Kansas City and members of the Chinese-American community were on board giving demonstrations of China’s rich cultural past. 

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Dragons danced everywhere throughout the Gallery.

Performances were running almost continuously throughout the morning and afternoon. Local favorite Bo-Lings provided plenty of food. Since this is the year of the Pig, many of the items featured varieties of cooked pork, but some vegetarian options were available as well.

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Those who were not fans of cooked pork had some delicious vegetarian options such as pickled salad shown here.

 

The gallery was festooned with lanterns, dragons, and banners. Everywhere you looked there were decorations. The museum really did an extensive effort in decorating the galleries.

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The “Big Buddha” is serenaded with some soothing Chinese folk music.
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Stages were set up throughout the museum area and featured ballet, folk dancing, Tai Chi, and Martial Arts demonstrations.

 

One of my favorite things to see was the colorful period costumes. many of them were silk and looked very comfortable.

 

Given the Nelson-Atkins Museum’s extensive collection of Asian Art, the Chinese New Year’s Celebration seems to be the perfect fit. It is certainly popular with the people of Kansas City given the near-capacity crowd. The event is free and while there is a fee for the food the prices are very reasonable. I would recommend getting there early as the crowds can be almost overwhelming.

 

 

6 Replies to “Chinese New Year in Kansas City”

  1. Hi Globetrotting Grandpa,

    Thank you for reporting so enthusiastically about Chinese New Year, this time being the Year of the Pig. I would like to reciprocate yours and wish you a Happy Chinese New Year, which lasts for 15 days with various activities, as explained in a special post of mine at https://soundeagle.wordpress.com/2013/02/10/soundeagle-in-chinese-new-year-celebration-spring-festival-lion-dance-traditional-culture-and-architecture/

    Please enjoy and experience the celebration to your heart’s content!

      1. You are very welcome! I look forward to your visiting my said post and giving me your feedback there.

        Please be informed that you might need to use a desktop or laptop computer with a large screen to view the rich multimedia contents available for heightening your multisensory enjoyment at my websites, some of which could be too powerful and feature-rich for iPad, iPhone, tablet or other portable devices to handle properly or adequately. A fast broadband connection is also helpful. 🙂

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