The light show at the Empire State Building in New York City, Feb 17, 2015. [Photo/art.china.cn]

The Lunar New Year celebration in New York started Tuesday with a special lighting event at the Empire State Building and a spectacular evening fireworks show.

The light display, titled Splendid China and choreographed by the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), China's top fine arts institution, ran in a 60-second rotating display of five themes. The color schemes included red, yellow, white and blue, colors of the national flags of China and the United States.

"The Empire State Building is probably the most recognized, iconic building in New York and in the United States," said Zhang Qiyue, the Chinese consul general in New York. "It witnesses the development and social changes of this great city."

Since 2001, the Big Apple icon has held special lighting events for the Lunar New Year.

"There has been special lighting on the Empire State Building every year," said Yu Ding, professor at CAFA, who is in charge of CAFA's serial celebration events in New York. "There used to be only red and yellow. Now, we add variations, including Chinese elements."

CAFA also choreographed a 20-minute fireworks show in cooperation with Grucci, a Long Island, New York-based company that produced the 2008 Beijing Olympics fireworks show. The show, which was the first fireworks show of such scale to celebrate the Lunar New Year in New York history, started at 7:30 pm on Tuesday on three barges in the Hudson River.

Zhang said she "cannot not think of a better way" to bring in the New Year, and the show indicated that the Lunar New Year is not only celebrated by the Chinese but also appreciated by people all over the world.