HK welcomes touring Spring Festival show

A global performance tour featuring Chinese acrobatics, songs and dances received a warm welcome and applause from audience members in Hong Kong after a performance in the city's Convention and Exhibition Center Sunday night.

More than 30 artists, including popular Chinese singers Dong Wenhua and Yan Weiwen, performed a selection of classic Chinese songs and dances to a packed audience of roughly 8,000, including Tung Chee-hwa, first chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The grand show, titled Culture of China, Festival of Spring, is part of a global tour launched in 2009 by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of China's State Council to entertain overseas Chinese during the Chinese New Year season.

This season, 11 performance troupes will visit 57 cities around the world with large overseas Chinese populations.

The annual show has taken the stage in Hong Kong since 2011 and has grown in popularity and influence, according to Yu Guochun, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Overseas Chinese Associations.

"In 2011, the event was mainly known within the overseas Chinese community," said Yu. "This year, we've received support from 157 institutions and organizations."

The global tour will move on to cities like Auckland, Sydney and Los Angeles before it ends in Macao in March.