The Confucius Institute at the University of Malta on Wednesday held celebrations for the upcoming Chinese Lunar New Year, featuring Chinese folk music, dance, singing and martial arts performances.

About 100 attendees gathered at the university in the evening to celebrate the Year of the Dragon, which begins on February 10. The audience warmly applauded the captivating performances. The gala ended with a group rendition of the Chinese song "Descendants of the Dragon."

During the event, two teens from the Malta School of Wushu-Longgui mesmerized the audience with their martial arts displays.

Expressing satisfaction with the event's success, Dennis Mizzi, the foreign director of the Confucius Institute, hailed it as the institute's largest endeavor to mark the Chinese New Year to date, remarking on his students' Chinese language proficiency and emphasizing the importance of language as a vehicle for fostering cooperation between nations.

"Performances, dances, and music can also be another kind of bridge between our two cultures," he said. "We can learn and discover about one another and appreciate our similarities, our differences."

He also shared his expectation that more students will study Chinese in the future.

On Monday, around 400 teachers and students attended a Chinese New Year celebration event at St. Ignatius College Handaq Middle School in Hal Qormi in southern Malta.

(With input from Xinhua)