Chinese New Year

Happy New Year. I wish you all a successful, peaceful and fulfilled year of the TIGER.

I live in Chatswood, a suburb in the inner north of Sydney, about 20 minutes away from the city by train. Chatswood is dominated by two large malls and some shopping streets in between these malls. Outside of the shopping area, apartments and houses are home to a very large community of inhabitants of Asian origins.

Whereas ethnic Chinese from the Mainland, Malaysia and Singapore dominate, there is also an impressive presence of Koreans and a growing number of Indian residents.

This weekend, Chinese New Year celebrations were held in Chatswood. There were a few stalls in the main shopping street advertising Chinese property businesses, Chinese culture clubs and theatres, Australian quarantine rules (Chinese travellers do have a reputation of not complying with the strict quarantine rules) and other businesses.

In the middle of it all, a stage was set up and Chinese music from different parts of China was played.

A group of boys in costumes, some with dragon masks and were also going about the streets and entering most shops amid loud metallic noise coming from their cymbals. It was astonishing to see that the group didn't discriminate between Chinese and non-Chinese shops to enter and wish the shopkeepers a successful new year.

Although most of the public watching the spectacle was of Chinese origin, a large minority was either from other Asian origins or Caucasian Australians. The interest was considerable and most people, regardless of their origin stopped for some time.

Perhaps it would be going too far to claim that such cultural festivals have an integrative effect on the wider community. However, it seems apparent that since people from such a variety of backgrounds attended the Chinese New Year festivities, cultural events not only broaden the mind of the community but also demonstrate the cultural openness of the population in general.