Chinese New Year brings a visual treat for diners (From Swindon Advertiser)

Chinese New Year brings a visual treat for diners

1:30pm Monday 11th February 2013 in News

CUSTOMERS at an Oriental restaurant were treated to a traditional lion dance to celebrate Chinese New Year yesterday.

More than 1.3billion people in China and millions of others in Chinese communities around the world marked the festival, which ushers in the Year of the Snake.

And the Hongxin Oriental Buffet Restaurant, in Peatmoor, which was fully booked for the big date, organised a traditional lion dance, where performers in costume, forming a giant lion, move around to a beat.

The performers were all staff members: Anthony Ng, the floor manager, Tony Jiang, a director, and waiters Ryan Li and Rudra Thapa.

Manager James Young said: “It’s a very traditional Chinese way to celebrate the Chinese New Year all over the world.

“The big Chinatowns – such as in London and New York – will have performances like this on a much larger scale.

“Here in Swindon we have a lot of Chinese people, mainly working in industry like Honda or other companies in Swindon. On Saturday, we had a Mandarin Chinese party which more than 100 people attended.”

Jennifer and James Cherry, of Haydonleigh, came especially to see the lion dance show with their children Samuel, three, and Evie, five.

Jennifer said: “We were going to go to another Chinese restaurant in Swindon but I looked online this morning and saw they were doing this so we came here. My daughter is only five and she was especially fascinated by the lion dance.”