Bring the holiday to your property — designed, cast and delivered from China
Chinese New Year is the largest travel week on earth. For a resort competing for those guests, the holiday is not decoration — it is a reason to choose one property over another, and a reason to come back.
ING Entertainment designs and delivers Chinese cultural programming for international hotels and resorts. We have done it in the Maldives, and we do it across China every year.
A PROGRAMME, NOT A PERFORMANCE
The instinct is to book a gala night. The better answer is usually a week.
Chinese New Year is not a single evening — it runs across the holiday period, and guests arrive and depart throughout. A programme that places cultural moments across the property, over several days, reaches every guest and gives your channels something new to post each day. The gala then lands as a culmination rather than the whole offer.
That is how we structured it at Velaa Private Island: a week of programming across the resort, ending in a gala show.
→ Read the Velaa Private Island case study
WHAT WE CAN BRING
Acts are chosen for where they will sit — a lobby at check-in works differently from a beach at night. These are the ones that travel well and read to an international audience.
Arrival and ceremony
- Lion Dance 舞狮 — the traditional blessing and the most recognisable image of the holiday. Drums, colour, movement through public space.
- Drum Dance 鼓壮山河 — performed on a large carved Chinese drum. Ceremonial, photogenic, works as an opener.
- God of Wealth 财神 — a walkabout character greeting guests and handing out red envelopes.
Evening gala
- Bian Lian 川剧变脸 — Sichuan opera face-changing. Masks change in a fraction of a second, in full view. No act gets a bigger reaction from an audience seeing it for the first time.
- Tang Palace Banquet 唐宫夜宴 — a costumed ensemble piece recreating a Tang dynasty banquet. One of the most-shared cultural performances in China in recent years.
- A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains 只此青绿 — poetic dance drawn from a Song dynasty landscape painting. Slow, restrained, unmistakably premium.
- Eighteen Bronze Men 十八铜人 — Shaolin martial arts and dance combined.
- Shaolin Battle Flag 少林战旗 — large flags, martial choreography, built for a finale.
- Acrobatics 杂技 — contortion, chair stacking, foot juggling, diabolo. Chinese acrobatics is a national art form and reads without translation.
Dining and lounge
- Guzheng 古筝 and Pipa 琵琶 — solo classical instruments. Ideal for arrival drinks, dinner service and lounge hours where a full show would overwhelm.
- Tea Art 茶艺 — a tea master hosting guests. Quiet, hands-on, and a natural fit for a bar or terrace.
Guest-facing and interactive
- Sugar Painting 糖画 — an artist draws figures in molten sugar, made to order. Recognised as intangible cultural heritage in China. Children stand and watch it for a long time.
- Calligraphy 书法 — guests’ names written in brush and ink, to keep.
- Shadow Puppetry 皮影戏 — narrative performance behind a lit screen. Works for a small audience and travels light.
- String Puppetry 提线木偶 and Clown Interaction 小丑互动 — for family programming and children’s clubs.
Outdoor, after dark
- Iron Fireworks 打铁花 — molten iron struck into the air to fall as a curtain of sparks. Over a thousand years old, and the single most spectacular thing on this list. Needs open outdoor space and safety clearance.
- Fire Pot 火壶 and Wind-Fire Rings 飞火流星 — fire spun on chains, performed at night.
- Bamboo Stilts 空中竹语 — acrobatics on a six-metre bamboo pole.
Not every act suits every property. Fire work needs space and clearance; some acts need rigging; others need only a corner of a lobby. We will tell you plainly which is which.
HOW IT WORKS
We design the programme around your property. Spaces, dayparts, guest mix and the shape of your holiday week — not a fixed package.
We cast it. Performers, ensemble sizes and act combinations chosen against the brief, from our own troupe and long-standing partners.
We bring what the show needs. Costumes, props and instruments travel with the company. On an island there is no local rental market and no second attempt — redundancy is packed, not sourced.
We deliver on site. Rehearsal, staging, show calling and the daily running of the programme across the week.
We plan for your content team. Held moments for photography, angles that work vertically, and material your channels can post through the week rather than once at the end.
WHEN TO START
Chinese New Year falls between late January and mid-February, and the date moves each year.
Begin four to five months out. Performers commit to their season early — the strongest heritage acts are spoken for well in advance — and costume, travel and documentation all take time. Enquiries that arrive in December can usually still be served, but from a smaller pool.
PROOF
ING Entertainment produced Chinese New Year programming for Velaa Private Island in the Maldives — a week of cultural programming across the resort, ending in a gala. The resort published it across its own channels, and brought us back.
→ Read the Velaa Private Island case study
Planning Chinese New Year at your property?
Tell us your dates, your spaces and the guests you are expecting. We will come back with a programme built for it.
→ Start a conversation
More from ING
- Our Work → Velaa Private Island, Maldives
- Services → Talent Casting & Performance
- Services → Creative Development & Show Direction