A young girl watches a puppet during a temple fair at the China Cultural Center in Valletta, Malta, on Feb. 8, 2025. The temple fair celebrating the traditional Chinese Spring Festival was held here on Saturday, drawing around 300 attendees eager to experience the richness of Chinese culture and intangible cultural heritage. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

Visitors to the temple fair celebrating the Chinese Spring Festival enjoyed various traditional activities, including sugar painting, rice sculptures, puppetry, shadow puppetry, and woodblock printing.

A festive temple fair celebrating the traditional Chinese Spring Festival was held at the China Cultural Center in Malta on Saturday, drawing around 300 attendees eager to experience the richness of Chinese culture and intangible cultural heritage.

Visitors were greeted at the entrance with a lively lion dance performance. Inside the exhibition hall, the air was filled with the aroma of tea as attendees explored displays of national and Zhejiang provincial intangible cultural heritage, including sugar painting, rice sculptures, puppetry, shadow puppetry, and woodblock printing.

Guests taste Chinese tea during a temple fair at the China Cultural Center in Valletta, Malta, on Feb. 8, 2025. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

While watching a puppet performance by Chinese artists, guests also had the opportunity to try their hand at creating sugar paintings and woodblock prints.

"The Spring Festival is not only a celebration for the Chinese people but also a UNESCO-recognized cultural heritage and a festival for the world," Charmaine St. John, mayor of Santa Lucija, told Xinhua. "Just like the Spring Festival temple fair, we can share happiness through Chinese traditions, culture, and art."

Guests observe the creation of a sugar painting during a temple fair at the China Cultural Center in Valletta, Malta, on Feb. 8, 2025. The temple fair celebrating the traditional Chinese Spring Festival was held here on Saturday, drawing around 300 attendees eager to experience the richness of Chinese culture and intangible cultural heritage. (Photo by Jonathan Borg/Xinhua)

Dawson Camilleri, a longtime member of the China Cultural Center, attended the event with friends. They experimented with woodblock printing and were fascinated by the technique. "It's amazing how vivid images appear on paper with simple smearing," he told Xinhua, emphasizing the significance of printing in cultural transmission.