hkskyline
February 13th, 2005, 08:21 PM
Sydney wants a slice of our celebrations
The city that claims the biggest Lunar New Year festival outside Asia sends an envoy to soak up ideas
Hazel Parry
13 February 2005
South China Morning Post
Sydney wants to import a slice of Hong Kong to spice up its Lunar New Year celebrations.
Australia's biggest city - which claims to stage the largest New Year celebrations outside Asia - sent a top official to see how Hong Kong ushered in the Year of the Rooster.
City of Sydney senior events organiser Gillian Minervini spent five days soaking up the atmosphere, picking up ideas and scouting for performers to take back with her.
She said she believed Sydney's New Year celebrations could get even better and that Hong Kong could point the way forward.
"I think it was very important to see how it is done first-hand and to experience the ambience. Hong Kong was the place to see it.
"It has been fantastic. The parade in particular was quite an amazing experience both in terms of the money spent on it and the level of participation. There were people of all ages and lots of children taking part.
"It made me realise how important the New Year is in Chinese culture, more so than the western New Year. It is steeped in so much tradition."
Sydney's own three-week calendar of events kicked off on February 3 with dragon dancers and firecrackers.
The planned events, expected to attract about 400,000 people, also include a Chinatown parade today, an imperial banquet and dragon boat races next weekend.
Ms Minervini said the event had been growing every year in size and sponsorship.
"Most of the events are organised by an advisory committee made up of Chinese community groups. This guarantees their authenticity and means they are connected to the community which we see as being important.
"The city council takes care of the logistics.
"It's a case of us empowering the groups. It's quite a good arrangement."
She said she was hoping to set up cultural exchanges between Sydney and Hong Kong and was now looking into the possibility of getting an Australian contingent to take part in next year's parade.
She had also been looking at ways to make Sydney's events more contemporary and relevant to the younger Chinese community to ensure the culture did not become diluted.
"In the past, I think we have been sitting back and waiting for people to come to us. I think we need to be commissioning people and getting youth groups involved.
"I loved the hundreds of children dressed as roosters on roller skates in the Hong Kong parade. That level of involvement creates a sense of belonging to the culture. It is something I want to encourage in our own events."
Ms Minervini said recent market research showed that around 70 per cent of people who attended the celebration in Sydney were not Asian.
"This demonstrates the curiosity there is for Chinese culture. The Chinese New Year is a fascinating celebration that is so different to our Christmas."
The city that claims the biggest Lunar New Year festival outside Asia sends an envoy to soak up ideas
Hazel Parry
13 February 2005
South China Morning Post
Sydney wants to import a slice of Hong Kong to spice up its Lunar New Year celebrations.
Australia's biggest city - which claims to stage the largest New Year celebrations outside Asia - sent a top official to see how Hong Kong ushered in the Year of the Rooster.
City of Sydney senior events organiser Gillian Minervini spent five days soaking up the atmosphere, picking up ideas and scouting for performers to take back with her.
She said she believed Sydney's New Year celebrations could get even better and that Hong Kong could point the way forward.
"I think it was very important to see how it is done first-hand and to experience the ambience. Hong Kong was the place to see it.
"It has been fantastic. The parade in particular was quite an amazing experience both in terms of the money spent on it and the level of participation. There were people of all ages and lots of children taking part.
"It made me realise how important the New Year is in Chinese culture, more so than the western New Year. It is steeped in so much tradition."
Sydney's own three-week calendar of events kicked off on February 3 with dragon dancers and firecrackers.
The planned events, expected to attract about 400,000 people, also include a Chinatown parade today, an imperial banquet and dragon boat races next weekend.
Ms Minervini said the event had been growing every year in size and sponsorship.
"Most of the events are organised by an advisory committee made up of Chinese community groups. This guarantees their authenticity and means they are connected to the community which we see as being important.
"The city council takes care of the logistics.
"It's a case of us empowering the groups. It's quite a good arrangement."
She said she was hoping to set up cultural exchanges between Sydney and Hong Kong and was now looking into the possibility of getting an Australian contingent to take part in next year's parade.
She had also been looking at ways to make Sydney's events more contemporary and relevant to the younger Chinese community to ensure the culture did not become diluted.
"In the past, I think we have been sitting back and waiting for people to come to us. I think we need to be commissioning people and getting youth groups involved.
"I loved the hundreds of children dressed as roosters on roller skates in the Hong Kong parade. That level of involvement creates a sense of belonging to the culture. It is something I want to encourage in our own events."
Ms Minervini said recent market research showed that around 70 per cent of people who attended the celebration in Sydney were not Asian.
"This demonstrates the curiosity there is for Chinese culture. The Chinese New Year is a fascinating celebration that is so different to our Christmas."