The Chinese Spring Festival, the most important holiday in China’s cultural calendar, was celebrated in Kenya with a renewed focus on cultural diplomacy, shared heritage, and expanding bilateral cooperation.
Speaking during Chinese New Year celebrations in Nairobi, Chinese Ambassador to Kenya Guo Haiyan and Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Culture, Ummi Bashir, highlighted the festival as a civilizational cornerstone for China and an increasingly global cultural platform that strengthens China-Kenya relations.
Ambassador Guo characterized the Spring Festival as a central pillar of China’s traditional observances, along with the Lantern Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival. She noted that, despite regional variations across China’s vast geography and diverse ethnic makeup, the themes of family reunions, welcoming the new year, and wishing for good fortune remain at the heart of the celebration.
She noted the scale of annual migration during the festive season as evidence of its socio-cultural significance.
“It is estimated that the cross-regional passenger trips will reach 9.5 billion throughout this Spring Festival. Population movement of such large scale speaks volumes of the importance of the Spring Festival to the Chinese people,” she stated.
Analysts often refer to the Spring Festival travel rush as the largest recurring human migration worldwide, reflecting both China’s internal mobility infrastructure and the cultural emphasis placed on reunion.
In an interview with KBC on the sidelines of the ceremony to mark the conclusion of the 2025 China-Kenya Cultural and Tourism Season, Ambassador Guo stressed that the Spring Festival has transcended national borders, citing its official recognition as a United Nations floating holiday in 2023 and its inscription on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
“With the deepening of globalization, the Spring Festival has increasingly become a global cultural carnival as well as the shared cultural and ethical treasure of humanity,” she observed.
In Nairobi, celebrations featured a Chinese New Year Gala, a reception, and performances by an art troupe from China for both the overseas Chinese community and Kenyan audiences. Ambassador Guo invited Kenyans from all sectors to participate in events honoring the Year of the Horse, symbolizing “vigor, enterprise, and transcendence in Chinese culture.”
The cultural festivities coincided with the designation of 2026 as the “China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges,” marking 70 years of diplomatic relations between China and African countries. Ambassador Guo noted that the initiative was jointly announced by Chinese President Xi Jinping and African leaders and was formally launched during a recent visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
Approximately 600 exchange activities are planned, focusing on youth engagement, culture, media, and governance.
“The China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges is not only a festival to Chinese and African people, but also the showcase of fruitful China-Africa cooperation,” she said, adding that the program aims to enhance African people’s sense of fulfillment and recognition of the China-Africa friendship.
She also indicated that Beijing intends to utilize this initiative to promote mutual learning between civilizations, deepen governance experience-sharing, and strengthen solidarity within the Global South to address global challenges.
Kenya’s Principal Secretary for Culture, Ummi Bashir, described the Spring Festival as a reaffirmation of enduring bilateral ties.
“Kenya and China go way back, more than 70 years in diplomatic relations. It is the best time to remind China that they have a friend in Africa and a friend in the world,” she stated.
Extending New Year wishes to the Chinese people, Bashir said, “We wish the Chinese people a happy new year, the year of the horse, and a prosperous and blessed year.”
She highlighted that the annual celebrations have become a staple in Kenya’s cultural calendar, reinforcing cross-cultural familiarity and institutional partnerships.
The Nairobi Chinese New Year celebrations reflect the growing importance of cultural events in shaping diplomatic narratives. As China expands its engagement across Africa through infrastructure, trade, and educational partnerships, platforms like the Spring Festival serve not just as seasonal festivities but as opportunities to reinforce ties. The festival now acts as a diplomatic stage, emphasizing shared history, growing cultural interdependence, and a vision for a closer China-Africa community.
