THE most ancient festival in China is the Spring Festival, better known in the West as Chinese New Year. Traditionally it celebrates the Earth waking from its winter slumber; and in the arts it signals a fertile crop of events around the country.

The Chinese Arts Centre celebrates its first New Year in its impressive flagship building with a group exhibition themed around the concept of “home”. Home features the work of five lens-based artists, including Liu Xiao Xian, whose Home-London (pictured) is a touchingly DIY piece of provocation (Chinese Arts Centre, Manchester, 0161- 832 7271. Ends Feb 22). On Sunday a programme of traditional events includes a Tea Ceremony and Lion Dance, rounding off with a jazz/fusion concert by BBC Philharmonic players and traditional Chinese instrumentalists.

The BBC Philharmonic is also taking part in Heaven Above, Earth Below, a weekend of concerts, workshops and events (Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 0161-907 9000. Fri to Mon). The weekend’s centrepiece is the first UK performance of the Chinese Myths Cantata by the composer Chen Yi. Featuring a symphony orchestra and Chinese instrumentalists, the piece draws on Yi’s experiences during the Cultural Revolution, when she was sent to work in the countryside.

“Classical music was forbidden,” she recalls, “but I tried hard to keep playing, even when I worked for twelve hours a day . . . carrying hundred-pound loads of rocks and mud for irrigation walls.”

The Cantata features in an eclectic programme alongside Ravel’s Bolero and The Chairman Dances from John Adams’s epic satirical opera Nixon in China. Adams said of the piece: “The topic of Richard Nixon, Mao Zedong, capitalism and communism . . . Was this not something . . . that only grand opera could treat?” (Saturday, 7.30pm).

In London, Red Mansion Foundation (W1, 020-7323 3700), has organised an equally challenging programme of events. Here the spotlight is on a new generation of artists who, compared with their Nineties counterparts, are enjoying a relative freedom of expression — as well as benefitting from China’s leading role in producing new digital technologies.

The acclaimed young video artist Yang Fudong typifies this new confidence. Atmospheric and experimental, his videos juxtapose classical stereotypes with modern-day experiences of life in China (Sketch, W1. 0870-770 6515). Zhao Bandi takes a more light-hearted approach. His digitally enhanced images centre around placing toy pandas in everyday situations (InsideSpace, W1. 020-7299 6680). Liu Jianhua uses more traditional material, but her porcelain sculptures are equally subversive — headless female figures recline in sensual poses to unsettling effect (Hamiltons Gallery, W1. 020-7499 9494. From Wed to Feb 21).

This weekend, a two-day film festival focuses on two leading figures of China’s fiercely independent Sixth Wave movement. Jia Zhangke’s gritty comments on contemporary life recall Ken Loach; while Yang Maoyuan owes more to Derek Jarman. The sculptor’s first foray into film is a wry punk commentary on Ming Dynasty burial places (The Horse Hospital, WC1, 020-7833 3644. Sat and Sun).

Finally, in Glasgow, Electric Shadows opens on Friday. Taking its title from the literal translation of the word for cinema in Chinese, the film festival features premieres, screenings and events all over the city (www.dimsum.co.uk From Fri to Feb 5).

It opens with Robinson’s Crusoe (GFT, 9pm. 0141-332 8128). A hit at Cannes last year, Lin Cheng-Sheng’s sixth film is a bittersweet story of an estate agent’s bid to escape emotional and material obligations. And on Sunday you can catch Wong Kar Wai’s unmissable tale of adultery and despair, In the Mood for Love (CCA, 3pm. 0141-352 4900).