Feature: Local Chinese hold fast to roots, share culture in Argentina

With still several months to go before the next Chinese New Year, 57-year-old Chen Jing, a local Chinese entrepreneur, has already eagerly started to prepare for a show to be staged here on the eve of the festival.

Previous performances of her show, "Chinese Street," have attracted large audience every year in the Argentine capital and become a key cultural event, but not only for locals. "It's like a dream that comes true," Chen said.

Chen came to Argentina with her daughter 23 years ago and started her own business by selling silk handicrafts and souvenirs she made herself. Her products were well received by local customers, and her business kept growing.

"In a country so far away from our homeland, the traditional Chinese culture, deeply rooted in our hearts, still helps us to succeed and win respect," Chen said, adding that promoting Chinese culture in Argentina had always been her dream.

In 2011, the "Chinese Street" show directed by Chen made its debut in Buenos Aires on the eve of the Chinese New Year. The performance that includes martial arts, a dragon dance and traditional Chinese music soon became a new cultural magnet for the city.

The show, now an annual event, attracts around 300,000 people from all over the world each year. The municipal government of Buenos Aires is considering making Chinese Spring Festival a public holiday there.

The success of "Chinese Street" has become an inspiration for a growing number of Chinese people living in Argentina -- just like Chen, they started to engage in various forms of cultural activities including TV shows to promote the Chinese culture.

In April 2014, the first Chinese cultural TV program "Basic Mandarin Talk Show," funded and produced by Chen's team, went on the air. Through interactions between the host and guests, the show introduced interesting topics and trivia about the Chinese culture and soon became a hit with local audiences.

Since the 1960s, more and more Chinese came to South America. Statistics show that about 120,000 Chinese immigrants live in Argentina and around 2,000 babies of Chinese descent are born here every year.

"One of the important reasons for promoting and teaching Chinese culture here is to help our children to keep their cultural roots and to carry the traditional culture forward," said Liu Fangyong, principal of the Argentine Qiaolian Chinese Language School.

The school, established in 1973, is one of the oldest Chinese-language schools in South America and now has more than 300 students. Liu's three children all go to the school to learn Mandarin every week.

In 2014, the school was chosen as a model for overseas Chinese-language education by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of China's State Council.

"It's difficult to run a school here, but for our children and the expectations of their parents, we stick with it," Liu said. Endi