On Sunday, Sir Alok Sharma, the Member of Parliament for Reading West, celebrated Chinese New Year. The Chinese New Year Celebration event was organised by the Reading Chinese School and took place at Reading Town Hall.

Marking the Lunar New Year is a Reading Chinese School tradition, celebrating the most important day of the year for Chinese communities and also providing an opportunity to promote Chinese culture to the wider public. Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Reading Chinese School was not able to hold its annual celebration for the past 3 years. However, this year, the Reading Chinese School was able to throw a big celebration for its teachers, parents, children and the community.

The celebrations included a lion dance as well as different Chinese culture workshops open to the public. There were also fantastic performances from the Reading Chinese School’s children, teachers and parents and Alok was delighted to give a speech at the celebration.

Sir Alok said:

“I very much enjoyed the wonderful New Year event organised by the Reading Chinese School. There were great performances from the students, and I offer my congratulations to the school for their 45th birthday this year.”

Dr Gang Zhang, Deputy Head of the Reading Chinese School said: 

“It is always a tradition for the Chinese communities gathering together to celebrate lunar Chinese New Year. This year is especially the case since we were not able to do so during the past 3 years due to Covid-19 restrictions. It was so lovely to see our children, teachers, parents and communities have a great time. Special thanks to our VIP guest MP Alok Sharma for his continuous support to Reading Chinese School and his wonderful speech. Much appreciated!”

Photos: Sir Alok and his wife celebrating at the Reading Chinese School celebrations at Reading Town Hall