On Sept. 24, spectators crowded the Chinatown Gate, catching the last of the live performances at the Experience Chinatown Arts Festival.

The Pao Arts Center, an organization that celebrates Asian culture through the arts, holds the Experience Chinatown Arts Festival until Oct. 28. The center hosts this event annually to showcase Asian artists and to celebrate the culture of Chinatown. This year’s festival featured performances by musical groups and a kung fu academy, as well as exhibits from dozens of local artists.

Sophia Chen, a communications and development manager at Pao Arts Center, has been going to the center since she moved to Boston in 2018. 

“I was really moved by all the things that I saw at the Pao Arts Center, so that’s what drew me to apply to work there,” Chen said. “Experience Chinatown is one of Pao Art Center’s signature events ever since we opened. The goal is really to celebrate the arts, culture and vibrancy of that within Chinatown, especially as a neighborhood that has been deprived of so many resources for so long.”

Chinatown is a neighborhood that was created from societal exclusion, Chen said. The festival shines light on the beauty of Chinatown, she said, and highlights the importance of the cultures from which it was built. 

“People come to Chinatown for the restaurants, but the neighborhood is more than just what people consume,” Chen said. “It’s humanity that is here. So the Pao Arts Center is really important for allowing people to exercise creative parts of themselves and connect with other people.”

Lexi Stadelmann and Aimie Zarate, both second-year students at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, stumbled upon the festival while exploring Chinatown.

“We were actually on our way to get boba,” Stadelmann said. “Then we saw the festival and decided to check it out.”

With dancing lions and children performing kung fu throughout the neighborhood, Stadelmann and Zarate couldn’t ignore the festival around them. The pair joined the crowd gathered around a lion dance performed by students at the Wah Lum Kung Fu & Tai Chi Academy.

During the performance, students in the lion costumes threw mandarin oranges and shredded lettuce into the crowds, signifying good luck for those who caught the produce. Afterwards, the academy’s students performed multiple demonstrations of traditional kung fu, and the performance ended with an interactive kung fu session with the audience.

“That performance was really interesting,” Zarate said. “I think it’s super cool to see the culture as a part of an interactive performance.”

Heading into the second month of the festival’s visual art showcase, Chen said she feels that the festival has been a great success in sharing the culture of Chinatown to everyone who has attended, no matter their background. 

“There are residents here from across all neighborhoods,” Chen said. “That’s really beautiful for me to see.”