Dancing for the full moon

With a reason to dance, University of Otago Chinese Students’ Association dancers perform a piece titled No Time to Lose, as association member Carly Wu takes centre stage in a gravity-defying pose at Saturday’s Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival, at Kavanagh College in Dunedin.

Ms Wu said the music to the performance was from a popular Chinese TV drama, but the five-person dance was a traditional Chinese classical piece, with an accompanying fan interpretation. She hoped it would reflect the "classical beauty of China".

Consul-general Madame He Ying came from Christchurch to attend the event, which coincided with 50 years of diplomatic relations between China and New Zealand.

Secretary of the Dunedin Chinese Association Racee Ngiam said the mid-autumn festival was a time to celebrate the full moon legend and a time for reunion.

"It’s a time for everyone to come together and give thanks," she said.

Many traditions surround the story of the goddess Chang’e.

It is said she was poisoned by her husband’s rival, after which she ascended to the heavens and took the moon as her home, where she can still be seen.