A big celebration for ethnic groups from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan is to be held in Beijing at the Chinese Nationalities Museum on the evening of September 20 to mark the Mid-autumn Festival.

The event is expected to be China's largest gathering of ethnicgroups, according to the State Ethnic Affairs Commission (SEAC) officials.

Well-known actors and actresses from ethnic groups in Beijing and their Taiwanese counterparts will perform at the party. About 2,000 people will attend and CCTV, China's national TV station, will live broadcast it.

Preparations are now underway for the event, hosted by the Nationalities Unity and Progress Association of China (NUPAC) under SEAC. The evening's theme is family reunion and China's reunification, a concept dear to people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits.

The party will be the highlight of a series of activities promoting China's reunification due in the latter half of September in Beijing and Hebei Province, north China. Taiwanese ethnic groups, entrepreneurs and actors and actresses will be invited to Beijing and Hebei to take part in activities which include parties, symposiums and sight-seeing.

Niu Xiaofeng, NUPAC vice secretary-general, said the desire to reunify China brought mainland and Taiwanese people together to celebrate the traditional family reunion festival, which falls on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month of the year.

(Xinhua News Agency September 9, 2002)