Chinese celebrate New Year

KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

[email protected]

One Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty is call­ing for greater na­tion­al recog­ni­tion of its con­tri­bu­tion to T&T.

The ap­peal came from the Sun Wai As­so­ci­a­tion as it marked the New Year at a cul­tur­al cel­e­bra­tion in Point-a-Pierre yes­ter­day. The as­so­ci­a­tion host­ed its an­nu­al Chi­nese New Year and Spring Fes­ti­val event at St Pe­ter’s Pri­vate Pri­ma­ry School, where mem­bers said the coun­try’s Chi­nese her­itage de­served wider vis­i­bil­i­ty and of­fi­cial ac­knowl­edge­ment.

As­so­ci­a­tion com­mit­tee mem­ber Can­dice Lee-Ha said the group was work­ing to broad­en pub­lic un­der­stand­ing of Chi­nese cul­ture be­yond food and com­mer­cial stereo­types.

“We are try­ing to see if we can get some lantern fes­ti­vals and in­te­grate oth­er Chi­nese events, and we have had some con­ver­sa­tions about that,” Lee-Ha told Guardian Me­dia.

She added that el­e­ments of tra­di­tion­al Chi­nese cul­ture had fad­ed from pub­lic life in T&T and need­ed to be rein­tro­duced through ed­u­ca­tion and com­mu­ni­ty events.

Al­though Chi­nese Ar­rival Day is of­fi­cial­ly recog­nised in T&T, it is not a pub­lic hol­i­day. The ob­ser­vance takes place an­nu­al­ly on Oc­to­ber 12 and com­mem­o­rates the ar­rival of the first Chi­nese mi­grants in 1806. Sun Wai As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent David Lee said this sta­tus showed the Chi­nese con­tri­bu­tion to the coun­try could be bet­ter.

“A cer­tain recog­ni­tion. If it is not a hol­i­day, then maybe a Sun­day or some­thing, with a lit­tle in­volve­ment from the gov­ern­ment of T&T, so there will be bet­ter recog­ni­tion of our con­tri­bu­tion to the coun­try,” Lee said.

Lee-Ha echoed that view, not­ing that the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty had be­come deeply root­ed in na­tion­al life.

“We do not re­al­ly have an of­fi­cial hol­i­day, and we are part of the cul­ture and part of the fi­nan­cial sta­bil­i­ty of T&T,” she said.

Lee said the as­so­ci­a­tion was found­ed by de­scen­dants of mi­grants from Xin­hua Dis­trict in Chi­na’s Guang­dong Province. While many re­turned to Chi­na in re­tire­ment, oth­ers fell in love with the coun­try and set­tled per­ma­nent­ly, build­ing fam­i­lies and busi­ness­es in T&T.

He said the Xin­huinese first es­tab­lished com­mu­ni­ties in vil­lages such as Ma­yaro and Moru­ga be­fore grad­u­al­ly mov­ing in­to ur­ban ar­eas. Among their ear­ly con­tri­bu­tions, Lee cit­ed busi­ness­man John Lee Lum, who iden­ti­fied oil seep­ages in Guayagua­yare, lead­ing to what was re­port­ed as Trinidad’s first oil field, as well as busi­ness­man and Hall of Fame in­ductee William Hen­ry Scott.

To­day, he said, Chi­nese de­scen­dants in T&T are rep­re­sent­ed across re­tail, bank­ing, pol­i­tics, com­merce and busi­ness.

Al­so ad­dress­ing the cel­e­bra­tion was Par­lia­men­tary Sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Cul­ture and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Dr Naren­dra Roop­nar­ine, who de­scribed the Spring Fes­ti­val as a time of uni­ty, re­new­al and good­will.

“Chi­nese New Year, al­so known as the Spring Fes­ti­val, is more than the turn­ing of a cal­en­dar. It is a sa­cred time of re­new­al, of ho­n­our­ing an­ces­tors, of strength­en­ing fa­mil­ial bonds and of set­ting in­ten­tions for the year ahead,” Roop­nar­ine said.

He said the fes­ti­val re­flect­ed the wider mul­ti­cul­tur­al fab­ric of the na­tion.

“Trinidad and To­ba­go is tru­ly blessed. Ours is a na­tion where cul­tures do not mere­ly co­ex­ist; they flour­ish side by side. From Di­vali to Eid, from Christ­mas to Eman­ci­pa­tion. From Car­ni­val to the Chi­nese New Year. We cel­e­brate the rich di­ver­si­ty of tra­di­tions that de­fine who and what we are.”

Roop­nar­ine said the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty had played a vi­tal role in na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment for gen­er­a­tions through com­merce, ed­u­ca­tion, cui­sine, cul­ture and com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice.

He added that the coun­try’s mul­ti­cul­tur­al har­mo­ny was built de­lib­er­ate­ly through mu­tu­al re­spect and shared na­tion­al val­ues.

“When we cel­e­brate the Chi­nese New Year, we are not cel­e­brat­ing one com­mu­ni­ty alone. We are cel­e­brat­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go.”