Lunar New Year a reminder of contribution of Chinese to Australia

Carl Benjaminsen China Plus Published: 2018-02-23 18:34:29
Comment
Share
Share this with Close
Messenger Messenger Pinterest LinkedIn

By Carl Benjaminsen

You need look no further than the Chinese Lunar New Year celebrations to get a sense of the contribution of Chinese people and culture to Australian society.

Sydney is hosting the largest celebration of the Lunar New Year outside Asia. The iconic Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up red during New Year firework celebrations and 1.4 million people are expected to attend more than 80 events across the city to celebrate Spring Festival.

Meanwhile, visitors to the main museum in Melbourne had the opportunity to see a traditional dragon dance performance with Sun Loong, a 100-meter long imperial dragon. The nearly 50 year old icon from rural Victoria, believed to be the longest in the world, is elaborately decorated with 6,000 silk scales containing 90,000 hand-cut mirrors. And more than 300 dancers gathered to countdown and celebrate the coming of the New Year. These performances are just two of the many events in and around Melbourne to celebrate Spring Festival.

Folk artists operate the Sun Loong, the longest imperial dragon of its kind outside China, during a parade to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on February 16, in Melbourne, Australia, February 11 2018. The 48-year-old Sun Loong measures approximately 100 metres and takes more than 120 people to operate. [Photo: IC]

Folk artists operate the Sun Loong, the longest imperial dragon of its kind outside China, during a parade to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year, which falls on February 16, in Melbourne, Australia, February 11 2018. The 48-year-old Sun Loong measures approximately 100 metres and takes more than 120 people to operate. [Photo: IC]

It should come as no surprise that Chinese New Year is an increasingly important part of Australia’s cultural events calendar. Australia’s statistics bureau figures show that half a million people living in Australia in 2017 were born in China, a number that grew by one-third over the last five years.

In 2016 more than 1.2 million people in Australia have Chinese ancestry, and around two-thirds of them speak Mandarin or Cantonese at home.

A large number of young Chinese come to Australia to study. China is the largest contributor of international students to Australia’s universities. Around 1 in 5 Chinese-born people living in Australia are students. These young people are a major reason why 1 in 4 people living in central Melbourne speak Mandarin or Cantonese at home. 

More than a quarter of a million Chinese students studied in the state of Victoria in the five years up to 2017 – accounting for one-third of Victoria’s total enrolments and a major contributor to the success of the state’s $6.5 billion international education industry. Across the country about one-third of the revenue into the $30.9 billion international education sector in 2017 came from Chinese students.

From the Chinese miners on the goldfields in the 1800s, to the migrants who came in the 1970s with the end of the White Australia Policy as Australia reached out to Asia, to the students and entrepreneurs riding the wave of reform as China opened to the world over the last 30 years, Chinese people and their diverse culture have been a part of life in Australia. The enthusiasm with which Chinese New Year and Spring Festival were celebrated is a sign that the relationship between the people of these two countries will continue to grow and strengthen into the future.

(Carl Benjaminsen is a copy editor and reporter at China Radio International. After working in the NGO and local government sectors in Australia, he decided to pursue his passion for learning about China and moved to Beijing, where he now lives.)

Related stories

Share this story on

Columnists

LU Xiankun Professor LU Xiankun is Managing Director of LEDECO Geneva and Associate Partner of IDEAS Centre Geneva. He is Emeritus Professor of China Institute for WTO Studies of the University of International Business and Economics (UIBE) and Wuhan University (WHU) of China and visiting professor or senior research fellow of some other universities and think tanks in China and Europe. He also sits in management of some international business associations and companies, including as Senior Vice President of Shenzhen UEB Technology LTD., a leading e-commerce company of China. Previously, Mr. LU was senior official of Chinese Ministry of Commerce and senior diplomat posted in Europe, including in Geneva as Counsellor and Head of Division of the Permanent Mission of China to the WTO and in Brussels as Commercial Secretary of the Permanent Mission of China to the EU. Benjamin Cavender Benjamin Cavender is a Shanghai based consultant with more than 11 years of experience helping companies understand consumer behavior and develop go to market strategies for China. He is a frequent speaker on economic and consumer trends in China and is often featured on CNBC, Bloomberg, and Channel News Asia. Sara Hsu Sara Hsu is an associate professor from the State University of New York at New Paltz. She is a regular commentator on Chinese economy. Xu Qinduo Xu Qinduo is CRI's former chief correspondent to Washington DC, the United States. He works as the producer, host and commentator for TODAY, a flagship talk show on current affairs. Mr. Xu contributes regularly to English-language newspapers including Shenzhen Daily and Global Times as well as Chinese-language radio and TV services. Lin Shaowen A radio person, Mr. Lin Shaowen is strongly interested in international relations and Chinese politics. As China is quite often misunderstood in the rest of the world, he feels the need to better present the true picture of the country, the policies and meanings. So he talks a lot and is often seen debating. Then friends find a critical Lin Shaowen criticizing and criticized. George N. Tzogopoulos Dr George N. Tzogopoulos is an expert in media and politics/international relations as well as Chinese affairs. He is Senior Research Fellow at the Centre International de Européenne (CIFE) and Visiting Lecturer at the European Institute affiliated with it and is teaching international relations at the Department of Law of the Democritus University of Thrace. George is the author of two books: US Foreign Policy in the European Media: Framing the Rise and Fall of Neoconservatism (IB TAURIS) and The Greek Crisis in the Media: Stereotyping in the International Press (Ashgate) as well as the founder of chinaandgreece.com, an institutional partner of CRI Greek. David Morris David Morris is the Pacific Islands Trade and Investment Commissioner in China, a former Australian diplomat and senior political adviser. Harvey Dzodin After a distinguished career in the US government and American media Dr. Harvey Dzodin is now a Beijing-based freelance columnist for several media outlets. While living in Beijing, he has published over 200 columns with an emphasis on arts, culture and the Belt & Road initiative. He is also a sought-after speaker and advisor in China and abroad. He currently serves as Nonresident Research Fellow of the think tank Center for China and Globalization and Senior Advisor of Tsinghua University National Image Research Center specializing in city branding. Dr. Dzodin was a political appointee of President Jimmy Carter and served as lawyer to a presidential commission. Upon the nomination of the White House and the US State Department he served at the United Nations Office in Vienna, Austria. He was Director and Vice President of the ABC Television in New York for more than two decades.