Qi Baishi, “Two Rabbits,” hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, twentieth century (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, in memory of La Ferne Hatfield Ellsworth, 1986)
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Ave. at 82nd St.
February 4-6, most events free with recommended admission of $20 adults (children under twelve free)
212-570-3828
www.metmuseum.org
The celebration of the Year of the Rabbit heads uptown for the Met’s three-day Lunar New Year Festival, beginning tonight at 6:00 with “The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Its Survival and Conservation,” a lecture by Henry Tzu Ng held in conjunction with the exhibition “The Emperor’s Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden City.” At 8:00, David Rakoff hosts “Gilded Ink: Write like an Emperor,” an evening of prizewinning short stories by college students, preceded by a tour of “The Emperor’s Private Paradise” at 6:30. Tomorrow the Year of the Rabbit hops all over the museum, with a Sesame Street puppet show at 11:00, Storytime in Nolen Library at 11:45, a lion dance procession at 12:15, a fan and ribbon dance, calligraphy and face painting, a costume demonstration, and a drawing workshop at 1:00, a youth orchestra concert at 1:30, a tea ceremony at 2:15, and Peking Opera performances of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD at 3:00 (one hour children’s show, $15) and 7:00 (full concert with acrobatics, live music and dance, martial arts, and more, $30). The festivities conclude on Sunday with a special look at “The Emperor’s Private Paradise,” featuring a series of lectures beginning at 2:00, including Maxwell K. Hearn’s “Art, Artifice, and Identity—The World of the Qianlong Emperor,” Nancy Berliner’s “A Chinese Garden in Space and over Time,” and Ben Wang’s “The Musicality of Chinese Poetry and Calligraphy in the World of the Qianlong Emperor.”