The celebration of the Chinese new year will be centred around the new Chinatown market in Smithfield Square, Dublin, where Shusong Chen is manager. Before we get too excited it should be said that the Chinatown market is in a shabby industrial building. "To western people Chinatown should have an entrance with an arch and stone lions, " says Dr Katherine Chan Mullen, who has lived in Ireland for more than 20 years and is president of the Chinese Information Centre. "But that's not the modern style of a Chinatown anymore. That was 50 to 100 years ago. The new idea of Chinatown is more of a China mall."

The decoration stall is manned by Andrew Huang, in full traditional Chinese costume, complete with a kuh (pigtail) attached to his hat. Huang agrees that the costume is a useful marketing device. He wears it most days. Huang is from north China, the Shenyang province. He lives in Coolock with his wife and baby and wants to stay in Ireland for at least another 10 years.

"Before Chinese people were only in catering and supermarkets, " says Chan Mullen.

"Now they're in IT, computers and clothing. We have loads of graduates in Ireland. So the market happened naturally.

We have 10 to 20 business people established there now and we hope for more to set up there."

According to Shusong Chen, business has improved steadily since the Chinatown market opened at the end of November.

It is open until 6pm from Monday to Wednesday and until 8pm from Thursday to Sunday.

The biggest draw here for young, fashion-conscious Chinese women, according to Shusong Chen, are the handbags.

Unlike most of the Chinese population in Ireland - which Chan Mullen estimates to be about 100,000 - Shusong Chen is from the south of China, from Fujian. Like the majority of the Chinese population, however, he isyoung.

"Well, I am nearly 27, " he says. He hasn't seen his family, who are still in China, for four years. "I miss them, " he says. Now he lives in Capel Street. "I like Ireland, " he says, as we look out on a grey February morning. "The economy is not like China, where there is lots of competition.

Here it is better, there is more protection of the individual and the economy is stable."

For Katherine Chan Mullen, who has lived in Ireland for 28 years, the Chinatown market is the fulfilment of a long-held ambition. "I love to see Chinese people and Irish people integrate together, " she says.

So far it has been a great success.

"Local people like us because we are very quiet, " she says.

Next Sunday the festivities start in Smithfield at 1pm and continue until 4pm. There will be a martial-arts group, a calligrapher and people demonstrating the traditional Chinese crafts of making silk flowers and paper cutting.

There will also be a Lion Dance.

"Not a Dragon Dance, " says Chan Mullen. "For a Dragon Dance you need 20 people. For the Lion Dance you need four or six."