Where to celebrate Chinese New Year 2020 in London

Cheer on the Chinese New Year parade

Far from being a low-key affair, Chinese New Year celebrations in London’s West End are the biggest outside Asia. Falling on Sunday 26 January this year, the day after the official Chinese New Year, festivities begin with the Chinese New Year parade, a colourful whirlwind of dragon and lion dances that makes its way from Charing Cross Road into Chinatown.

Crowds can then make their way down to Trafalgar Square where a thanksgiving ceremony, followed by firecrackers, speeches and the Lions’ Eye-Dotting Ceremony is held. Celebrations for the Year of the Rat then continue into the afternoon with more dragon and lion dances, acrobatics, interactive dance sessions and performances of Chinese music. All the while, stalls serving Chinese street food line the square, refuelling peckish revellers. Those who stick around for the finale will see Trafalgar Square lit up by a pyrotechnic display.

Embrace exotic tastes at this hottest new fusion restaurant

Chinatown sizzles with enticing restaurants, many brandishing steaming baos, glazed ducks or lucky cats waving in the windows. If you’re wondering how to navigate the area, take a look at our guide to the best Chinese restaurants in London. But, if you’re after a singular recommendation – and ideally one that’s a little bit different – let us point you in the direction of relatively new fusion restaurant Fatt Pundit in Soho. Here, the cuisine showcases the rarely-celebrated dishes of Kolkata’s Hakka Chinese immigrants.

This Indo-Chinese joint boasts the hip vibes, cool beats and minimalist decor fit to suit its trendy surroundings, while serving the sort of original and exquisite cuisine that makes it more than worthy of its place on a road chocka with world-class restaurants. Seriously, between the kid goat momos (warm dumplings stuffed with juicy, fragrant balls of meat); spicy lollipop chicken (served in a sumptuous, sticky Szechuan chutney); and crackling spinach (crisp shreds of greenery served with a sweet yogurt, sticky date and plum sauce, and a peppering of pomegranates), this is a meal you’ll find yourself thinking about every time lunchtime hunger strikes for the rest of the week.

On the evening of Chinese New Year, Fatt Pundit is serving up a very special menu featuring Szechuan momos along with all the usual favourites. Happy feasting.

Immerse yourself in a digital tour of Chinatown

Chinese Arts Now is an organisation that celebrates British-Chinese stories through a myriad of art forms. Its annual festival, Chinese Arts Now Festival, falls directly after Chinese New Year: taking place from 3-22 February. Experimental theatre, dance performances, comedy scratch nights and art installations are all encompassed by the festival, but a returning highlight has to be Augmented Chinatown (13 February), a tour through the streets of Chinatown led by artist Donald Shek.

Through combining video installation and digital sculptures with facts and anecdotes, Shek explains the history of the area, exploring themes of identity, cultural symbolism and myth. Spanning the creation of its buildings with Chinese mythology in mind, to its role in the Chinese community today, Augmented Chinatown is a thorough exploration of the area’s past, present and future. The tour is available via the iPhone app.

Learn about the culture through Chinese cinema

Head to BFI Southbank where Chinese Visual Festival (CVF) is showcasing some of the highlights of recent Chinese-language cinema. The films being screened have been chosen for their breadth, spanning a range of subject matter – from Clifton Ko's beloved comedy All's Well Ends Well (pictured) to Law Wing-Cheong's heart-warming drama Little Q.

The festival is spreading its wings, offering screenings in other London venues, too. Over at King's College London, film buffs can catch a screening of contemporary Chinese thriller Wrath of Silence, about a mute man's search for his missing son. While at Regent Street Cinema, Diao Yinan's 2019 crime drama The Wild Goose is getting the big-screen treatment.

Celebrate the Year of the Rat in Greenwich

Over in Greenwich, the National Maritime Museum has organised a full day of free events for Chinese New Year on 25 January, from colourful craft-making workshops to family-friendly performances. Make your own origami rodent in honour of it being the Year of the Rat, then let it be your mascot as you explore the action taking place in other pockets of the museum. Listen in on a storytelling session, have a go at playing China’s famous tile-based game, mahjong, and learn about the history of the tea trade between Britain and China. And if you do only one thing? Be sure to catch traditional song and dance performances by Step Out Arts, the Guizhou Song and Dance Ensemble.

If you can’t make the celebrations at the National Maritime Museum, or if you enjoy them so much you want to do it all again, you can! Greenwich’s famed tea clipper Cutty Sark is hosting its own Chinese New Year celebrations the following weekend, 1 and 2 February. Here, visitors can take part in an art workshop inspired by the ship’s voyages to China. You’ll have the chance to create your own original pattern on a fan, which can be taken home as a keepsake after the session.

Photo: National Maritime Museum