Spring Festival, celebrated across China as the nation's biggest annual holiday, is being embraced by more countries as an occasion to participate in Chinese festivities and as a unique way to experience Chinese culture in general.

On January 5, Pakistani students of Chinese cuisine prepared laba porridge and jiaozi with their Chinese teachers, and a series of exhibitions including Chinese animation films and Chinese children's books were unveiled in Singapore - kicking off a massive official program known as "Happy Chinese New Year". One month later, the program is still going strong around the world.

The 2,000-event program, organized by the Ministry of Culture, covers about 400 cities in 130 countries. In Africa alone, Chinese performing arts troupes have been traveling along six routes to cover as wide an area as possible.