City of Monash welcomes Year of the Rabbit

Posted to Your News, Waverley Leder on 17/2/2011 at 10:57 PM

City of Monash welcomes Year of the Rabbit

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/your-news/story/city-of-monash-welcomes-year-of-the-rabbit/

City of Monash celebrated the year of Rabbit with another successful, colourful, eventful, foodful (a new word) and playful celebration at Kings Way on Sunday 13/2/2011.

In fact, it was a day full of noise and smoke - yup, the rhythm of the drums and gongs that the dragons and lions danced to, and the noise of the firecrackers which was supposedly for driving away any evil spirits from the City of Monash. Unfortunately, the smoke from the firecrackers, deep-frying and barbequing in the open air was not very green for the environment.

There were activities keeping the kids entertained from castle jumping which I don’t think was very Chinese at all, to lantern painting. It was really great to see so many non-Chinese performing cultural dances on stage, and participating as the dragon legs.

The aroma from the fried crumbed calamari would wet anyone’s appetite. There were also the popular satays stalls, and rice cake cut into cubes that pan-fried with eggs.

Stalls selling DVDs were doing booming business. There were at least three tents and two carts offering DVDs at bargain basement price.

The highlight of the day was the lion dance performance. It was awesome that the lions hopped around so playfully or shall I say mischievously on the long steel columns, as though they were just dancing on level ground.

It’s another year, another celebration! Well done and thanks to the organisers, City of Monash and sponsors. I enjoyed it thoroughly!

$45,000 bill for Monash women-only pool sessions (Post 1 of 2)

Posted to Waverley Leader (14/2/11) on 15/2/2011 at 12:50 PM
Commenting on "$45,000 bill for Monash women-only pool sessions"
http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/comments/your-view-45-000-bill-for-monash-women-only-pool-sessions/

I have written in various papers including this about my views on segregation, whether it is on businesses in Kingsway or the use of swimming pool.

Multiculturalism is not a one-way traffic. Australians are asked to be patient, tolerant, and acceptant with other’s cultures, and expected to learn about them, and yet many immigrants do not reciprocate. Unless there is a common unifying force to bind them together, the Australian social fabric will be torn.

To find out more about my other comments, follow the links
http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=114&m=49118&ps=50&dm=2, published 27/8/2009
http://www2b.abc.net.au/guestbookcentral/list.asp?numtoview=&GuestbookID=156&start=&sort=&filter1=Name&filter1val=CHAN, Sin Fong&filter2=Subject&filter2val=Speak English and Respect the Laws&filter3Remark=&filter3val=Tower of Babel&view=&advanced=&Action=&pagestart=, published 19/9/2006
http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/comments/women-only-pool-float-for-monash/, published 19/10/2010
http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/your-news/story/better-business-mix-in-kingsway/, published 7/1/2011
http://www.monashweekly.com.au/content/letterstotheeditor/, published 7/1/2011, 3/12/2010, 20/10/2010

Better business mix in Kingsway

Posted to Your News, Waverley Leader (4/1/2011) on 7/1/2011 at 12:01 AM
Title: "Better business mix in Kingsway"
http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/no-support-for-glen-waverley-karaoke/

There are more concerning issues regarding this proposed development:

• Over concentration of restaurants / food premises will cannibalise existing businesses
  
• A lot more late-night alcohol-fuelled violence will be in the precinct
  
• More demand on Police and Council resources to ensure Monash residents peace and quiet enjoyment of their properties at night
  
• Possible organised gangs will be attracted and infiltrated to this area with early morning licence
  
• Non-existing by-laws to ensure balanced mix of business
  

Although I’m a Chinese by descent, I definitely do not like to see the Kingsway turned into a Chinatown like Box Hill, Springvale, Richmond in Melbourne, or Eastwood, Chatswood and Cabramatta in Sydney - almost filled with Asian restaurants or businesses. Only a balanced mix of businesses and ethnicity in the City of Monash will ensure racial harmony in the near and long-term future.

Karaoke out of tune

Posted to Waverley Leader (4/1/2011) on 7/1/2011 at 11:51 AM
Commenting on "Karaoke out of tune"
http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/news/story/no-support-for-glen-waverley-karaoke/

There are more concerning issues regarding this proposed development:

• Over concentration of restaurants / food premises will cannibalise existing businesses
  
• A lot more late-night alcohol-fuelled violence will be in the precinct
  
• More demand on Police and Council resources to ensure Monash residents peace and quiet enjoyment of their properties at night
  
• Possible organised gangs will be attracted and infiltrated to this area with early morning licence
  
• Non-existing by-laws to ensure balanced mix of business
  

Although I’m a Chinese by descent, I definitely do not like to see the Kingsway turned into a Chinatown like Box Hill, Springvale, Richmond in Melbourne, or Eastwood, Chatswood and Cabramatta in Sydney - almost filled with Asian restaurants or businesses.

Only a balanced mix of businesses and ethnicity in the City of Monash will ensure racial harmony in the near and long-term future.

A Special Report on the Glen Waverley Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival

Posted to Waverley Leader on 9/2/2009

A Special Report on the Glen Waverley Chinese New Year and Lantern Festival

http://waverley-leader.whereilive.com.au/your-news/story/a-special-report-on-the-glen-waverley-chinese-new-year-lantern-festival/ (has been removed)

Glen Waverley Chinese New Year & Lantern Festival held on Sunday 8 Feb 2009 at Kingsway, Glen Waverley is the best suburban Chinese New Year celebration I have ever attended. I was at the festival from the start to the end. A few drops of precious rain came down momentarily and lasted for less than 5 minutes. This token drizzle was more of a symbolic cleansing ritual prior to the real swing of things. It definitely did not dampen the spirit of the enthusiastic festival goers, and the crowd soon built up around 1:30 pm.

The rhythms of the drums and gongs went on continuously after the Mayor declared the opening of the festival. The rhythm for the lion dance was different from that for the dragon dance. Besides entertaining the crowd, the lions and dragons also blessed some of the businesses – the formal shops and the street stalls. There were 2 golden and 2 silver lions. Whether they danced on the street, or on steel columns of various heights, their performance is awesome!

In addition to the lions, there were 5 “large” dragons, and a baby dragon. Comparing these dragons with “Dai Loong” – the Big Dragon which performs in Melbourne City festivities, they looked more like large King Prawns! By the way, the Chinese dragons do not resemble the Western dragons, in that they don’t blow fire, and have no wings. However, they do have many legs like millipedes.

The atmosphere was electric, and everybody of all ages just loves the performances of these legendary animals.

Chinese throughout the world are well known for their passion for food. Since there is a good mix of Chinese from different parts Asia residing in the City, there was no surprise that a good variety of barbequed skewed meat and tasty bite-size food items on sale. For quenching the thirst, ice kacang – flavoured ice shavings, was a fantastic alternative to canned soft drinks.

It was a program-pack and fun-fill day - cooking demonstration, cultural dances, karaoke, Ma Jiang, Chinese chess game, chopstick game, etc. There was also an air castle for the kids to jump about. Local residents from City of Monash as well as from other suburbs came for a good time - and they were not disappointed. Despite the doom and gloom news about the global financial crisis and meltdown, there was no sign of recession in the street. The surrounding shops and restaurants and the food stalls enjoyed good turnover. The success of the festival, however, had a negative impact on the food stalls inside The Glen Shopping Centre. Being held on Sunday, a normally busy trading day, the stall-holders would have experienced a fall in takings.

City of Monash, festival organising committee and all other bodies involved in this festival, I salute you for a job well done.