Jigs, reels, pints and parades as world becomes Irish for a day

THE crowd is happy, the music is swirling, and two men jump up, pints of Guinness in hand, for a quick jig.

It could be any Irish pub on St Patrick’s Day, except that the musicians are Chinese and the pub is in Beijing.

“Years ago, I saw the movie Titanic, and I was really taken by the scene when they were all dancing below deck,” said Cheng Yafei, a burly coal mining machine salesman by day and blues guitarist by night.