Cultural exchange caps Chinese Language Week

The Marlborough Chinese Community, as an organisation and a collection of people, built a “bridge” between cultures during an annual festival which it hosted on Saturday at St Christopher’s Anglican Church.

Blenheim’s celebration of Chinese Language Week offered seven stalls to explore and performances to watch. This year’s theme was xī wàng, meaning hope.

Over the course of the afternoon, guests found Chinese cuisine, the opportunity for a picture in traditional Chinese clothing, lacquer fan making, traditional Chinese medicine, arts & crafts, tea tasting and calligraphy, alongside a fundraiser for the Chinese Melody Choir.

“This is our fifth year running,” event manager Enny Leong said on Saturday, explaining that the celebration aims “to bridge communication between the community [and] to share Chinese language and culture with Marlborough”.

The free event opened with a ceremony with speeches from Chinese Deputy Consul-General Xu Haiyuan and from Margaret Western, representing the Marlborough Multicultural Centre.

The lineup of performances consisted of a mix of traditional dances, poetry, music and demonstrations performed by different groups within the Chinese community.

Former Marlborough Councillor Matt Flight, running for Parliament in the Kaikōura Electorate, attended the festival for the first time. He called it “a really good occasion, a good chance to get out and meet more of our diverse community”.

He continued: “We have a very diverse community here, and having the ability to get amongst it is something we don’t get to do throughout most of New Zealand; most of these communities aren’t as open or prevalent.”