On 11 February 2026, the Chinese Spring Festival reception and concert was held at the VEF Culture Palace. The event was organised by the Chinese Embassy in Latvia together with the China Cultural Centre. Our association was represented by the secretariat.

We came without an agenda

This time there were no negotiations about contracts or deliveries. There was a concert, a celebration and respect. That is exactly why we came.

Business and culture are often treated as two separate things. We disagree. To work seriously with a country, you first need to understand it. How it thinks. What it respects. How it celebrates the new year and what family and tradition mean to it.

Behind every sweater there are a thousand years

The Spring Festival, known in the West as Chinese New Year, is the most important holiday in China. It is about returning home, new beginnings and respect for ancestors.

For us, it is more than a celebration. It is a reminder of who we are talking with. China is not only the world’s largest textile exporter today. Behind it lie thousands of years of silk, weaving and dyeing tradition. The ancient Silk Road, along which Chinese fabrics travelled to Europe, is older than most European countries.

When we sit at the table with China, we are not talking with a new competitor but with one of the oldest textile cultures in the world. Understanding that changes the tone. It is no longer a haggling match. It is the meeting of two traditions.

In China, relationships come before deals

There is another reason we attend events like this. In Chinese business culture, relationships often matter more than contracts. First people get to know each other and start to trust. Only then do they talk about business. Hurry and coldness do not work here.

That is something a Latvian understands. We also do not trust the first person who shows up promising mountains of gold. Trust has to be earned. So a shared evening at a concert is often more valuable than ten cold emails.

Patience is a strategy

We are building our relationship with China consistently. Event after event. Without rush and without empty promises. Big things do not happen here in one evening, and we know that.

But they also do not happen for those who never show up. Presence is a choice. We make it on purpose.

If you care where Latvian textile stands in the world, and you understand that serious things take time, let’s get to know each other. We are working so that a small country’s voice can be heard even in places where tradition is measured in millennia.