The evening featured Chinese cultural performances including dancing, singing and playing traditional Chinese instruments in front of more than 100 people.

The Year of the Dragon began last Monday, and Ken Dirkin, head of operations at the Confucius Institute, said most Chinese ring it in with a bang.

“It’s a three-week long festival where nobody works,” he said. “We don’t have anything like that in the U.S., but it’s a great concept.”

Angelica Kim, marketing manager for the Confucius Institute, said learning about new cultures shouldn’t cost money.

“It’s free to the community, whereas a lot of cultural performances like this would have a ticket price,” she said. “To us, it’s important to get the word out and get as many people as we can here.”

Each performance brought a new set of ornamented costumes to the stage. During Recite the Spring Rain, dancers wore green costumes with long pieces of fabric attached to their arms and imitated the movements of the blossoming flowers of spring.

Graduate student Youngjin Park hosted the event and said the intricate costumes brought something extra to the performances.

“They’re very colorful — very traditional and beautiful,” she said.

During the event, the performers invited members of the audience to join in activities. A flood of children rushed to the stage to learn how to create a Chinese pinwheel, which represents the talisman of the four seasons, and picked out their own colorful Chinese knot, which is a form of hand-knitted folk art.

Kim said one of her main goals was to bring families out to the event and engage children in aspects of the Chinese heritage.

“I think the kids had fun,” she said. “They get a little bit of the culture, and maybe that plants the seed of curiosity so they can investigate on their own.”

Park said as one of the main individuals coordinating the event, it was difficult working overseas and communicating with coordinators for the event.

“It was challenging to make everything clear,” she said. “But it went pretty well today — I’m proud of it.”

Lansing resident and MSU alumnus Michael Quinton said he enjoys learning about new cultures whenever he has the chance. Looking around the room, he said he was happy to see a large crowd at the Spring Festival show.

“It’s good Lansing has a venue like this to invite people out here,” he said. “It’s nice to see a mixture of people enjoying themselves and having fun.”