A crowd at Brooklyn Borough Hall celebrated Lunar New Year with performances and festivities in an event co-hosted by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams and the Sino America New York Brooklyn Archway Association on February 22.
Performances at the event included the Lion Dance by the Eastern Cultural Exchange Association, and a dance to welcome the Year of the Dog by the Circle Dance & Arts Studio.
Adams presented certificates and citations to a group of Chinese-American Brooklynites who had contributed to the community and local Chinese-American culture. Qiu Jian, deputy consul general of the People’s Republic of China in New York, was also on hand to give remarks.
The celebration closed out a series of festivities sponsored by the borough president for Lunar New Year, including a Lantern Flower Market and a cultural exchange program through which 80 students studying Chinese language and culture at Medgar Evers College Preparatory School in Crown Heights met with 40 students from across China.
The event was also an opportunity to celebrate the new archway that will span Eighth Avenue between 60th and 61st streets in Sunset Park, sourced from Beijing’s Chaoyang District, which became a sister city to Brooklyn under Adams.
Adams has also set up friendship agreements with the Chinese cities of Yiwu, Fuzhou’s Gulou District and Shanghai’s Putuo District. These agreements have led to exchanges between schools and small businesses in Brooklyn and China, said Stefan Ringel, communications director for Adams.
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