Chinese community celebrates cultural connections

Enny Leong’s family tree extends from Marlborough to China by way of Malaysia. She immigrated 16 years ago, a year before the birth of her daughter, and joined the Marlborough Chinese Community group in 2021.

In 2022, with her daughter’s generation firmly in mind, Enny worked toward an inaugural event in Blenheim celebrating New Zealand Chinese Language Week. That tradition continues on Saturday (4 July) with a festival she describes as “similar but a little bit different” compared to its predecessors.

The afternoon gathering at St Christopher’s Anglican Church offers cultural performances; food and tea tastings; medicinal and healing practices; arts and crafts; plus, of course, spoken and written demonstrations of language.

Enny, organising children’s elements of the festival, says young participants “gain confidence at the front of the audience, to know that they are Chinese and do not be ashamed of who they are.

“In a diverse environment like New Zealand, it’s multicultural. You just need to me confident in who you are.”

Hope

China and Chinese language are also, in a way, multicultural. Dialects number in the hundreds – approaching 1000 when counting local variations. Linguists consider Chinese as a collection of language groups rather than a singular tongue.
Mandarin, spoken most commonly, will predominate Saturday’s celebration, though attendees also can appreciate the second-leading dialect when Louis Baker reads a poem in Cantonese.

This year’s theme is hope – xī wàng. Fittingly, one of the dance groups, performing for the first time, is called Phoenix based on the mythical bird symbolising renewal.

“We like to bridge the connections and link people together in harmony,” Enny explained. “Our thing is hope, and we hope that our friendship is a big factor in our current world situation being better.”