The Year of the Ox is just around the corner, The Works team would like to wish everyone an early Happy Lunar New Year. Sadly though, for many, the celebrations this year could be a little less festive with Covid-19 still on the horizon. But The Works is here all the same, ready to help you celebrate. First, we look at some not so traditional handicrafts centred on the holiday. After that, three groups of musicians are joining us on the show to bring you festive music in a new style.

TroVessional is a five-piece band formed by graduates of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts. They play Cantonese music or music of Guangdong, which consists of folk music styles. Members of TroVessional play mainly string instruments such as the gaohu, yehu, yangqin, zhongruan and the Chinese flute. Here they are with a Cantonese medley.

Zheng player Bou Kwan-ying does not just confine her repertoire to the zheng, or traditional Chinese zither. She has also worked in multimedia and collaborated with various musicians. She is here with her friends, guitarist Au Tsz-Wang, bass guitarist James Wu and drummer, Tsang Wai-chung, to play us two festive tunes.

When it comes to welcoming in the Lunar New Year with music, drums are among the most featured instruments. A number of new year traditions use drums to greet the gods and dispel evil. Drummer Anna Fan has appeared on The Works before, and is with us again, this time with a group of friends.