To present the Chinese Culture Days festival this weekend, it'll take a troupe of Chinese acrobats, 800 volunteers and a healthy supply of tea.
The two-day event at the Missouri Botanical Garden, co-produced with Chesterfield's Chinese Culture and Education Service, will celebrate its 30th year. About 10,000 people typically attend, according to organizers.
Performers this year will include the acrobats of the Grand Shanghai Circus; musician Hong Wang, who will collaborate with members of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra to highlight Chinese music in film, and practitioners of Chinese square dance and street dance.
While the annual festival is a much-anticipated event for many Chinese Americans in St. Louis, it's rooted in a desire to foster cultural exchange.
"It's not so much that we want to build another Chinatown here in St Louis. It's really more about building understanding and making known the Chinese culture in our society," said Matthew Yu, president of the Chinese Culture and Education Service's board of directors. "That's how our society can come together, through understanding and to appreciate each other's culture and existence."
Attendees will have many opportunities to participate in festival activities. Seven craft activities for kids and adults will include opportunities to make window decorations for Chinese New Year and see an overview of Chinese crafts. An arts and crafts program for children will offer the chance to practice calligraphy, to make Chinese fans and to try on traditional Chinese clothing.
Experts will also demonstrate calligraphy and painting, Chinese cooking and the proper way to prepare and serve Chinese tea.
Master paper-cutter Zhang Yueying and sixth-generation sugar figurine blower Jiang Zisheng will demonstrate their expertise.
"Those skills take a lifetime to learn. They're aspects of China's intangible cultural heritage," said Jessika Eidson, MoBot's public information officer, referring to cultural practices that are handed down from person to person.
Dragon dancers, who fluidly handle a large dragon puppet, and practitioners of lion dance — a combination of martial arts and costumed performance — will perform as well.
"Performing is something that's really sacred to me, and performing with my team and people that I consider a second family is something that's even more important," said Kelly Bian, a senior at Ladue High School who has been lion dancing for five years and is a Chinese Cultural Days veteran.
Lion dancing originated in southern China, where Bian's mother grew up.
"I really love spreading part of my culture to people who have probably never seen lion dancing. To be able to share what we practice and share that part of my culture – of our culture – is just the icing on the cake," Bian added.
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