SEPTEMBER 2014

2013/14 CWS OFFICE HOLDERS AND COMMITTEE

Mr Richard (Dick) Griffiths Patron

Mr Adam Lowe Vice-Patron

Mr Alfred On OAM Vice-Patron

Mr Austin Chin President

Mr Daryl Chin Vice President

Ms Tiffany Chin Rinaldi General Secretary

Mr Roland Chin Treasurer

Mr Daniel Chow

Chinese Secretary

Committee Members Andrew Chin David Quan Dennis Low

Desmond Yuen Jade Schembri Jonathan Quan

Mervyn Chin Natasha Yuen Nathan Tam Quen Foo

Randall Chin Roger Lowe

Shaun Pearson Stephen Pearson

Temple Officer Mervyn Chin

Temple Caretaker Paul Ho

Public Officer Roland Chin

Newsletter Editor

Jade Schembri

Auditor Mr John Hetherington

INAUGURAL HISTORY AND CULTURAL DAY FOR SENIORS A SUCCESS “The Chinese Museum’s inaugural History and Cultural Day for Seniors was an unqualified success” according to organiser and Museum Co-ordinator, Adam Lowe. The event was held on Saturday 23 August and was attended by over 100 local and interstate senior citizens. It was the Chung Wah Society’s first event subsidised under the NT Government’s Seniors Month Grants Program with a grant of $1,000. This was matched in cash and in kind by the CWS.

The event was opened by the President Mr Austin Chin, followed by a speech by the Minister for Senior Territorians, the Hon Peter Styles MLA.

The feature event of the program was a presentation entitled “The Dragon Descends on Darwin” by local historians, Peter and Sheila Forrest. They spoke about importance of the Chinese contribution to the early settlement and development of the Northern Territory from the 1870s.

The Forrests made specific mention of the fact that the 5th August 2014 was the 140th Anniversary of the arrival of the SS Vidar which brought the first boatload of Chinese labourers to the Northern Territory. They suggested that the Chinese community should prepare for the 150th anniversary in 2024 and plan for some form of commemoration and celebration of that historic event.

Continued on next page

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING Sunday 26th October 2014, 10.30 am Chung Wah Hall All members, past and present are invited to attend. New members are especially welcome. For further information, check the Chung Wah Society Website under subheading Annual General Meeting or contact 8941 0898

Following a tour of the Society’s Museum, Temple and Centenary Gate and Wall, guests were served a light lunch prepared by the Ming Court Restaurant. After lunch, lucky door prizes donated by the Lord Mayor, Katrina Fong Lim (a basket full of chocolates) and 10 Fifty Dollar Alfred’s Gift Shop Gift Vouchers (8 were donated by the Society’s 3 Patrons, and 2 by Alfred’s themselves), were drawn by various dignitaries. To finish off the day’s events, both the CWS Lion Dance Troupe and the Jade Dragons Dance Team gave stirring performances to an appreciative audience. Many guests commented very favourably about the event as a whole. A good number were visiting the Temple and Museum for the very first time. Each guest was presented with a carry bag with promotional and information material as a souvenir of their visit. A big thanks goes to all the volunteers from the Management Committee, the CWS Seniors Group, the Museum Group, the Lion Dance Troupe, the Jade Dragons Dance Team, as well as parents and general members who all contributed heavily to making the event such a success. And, lastly but most importantly, to the members of Darwin’s senior citizens for their overwhelming and enthusiastic response to our first Seniors’ Month event.

SPORTS NEWS

In April this year Ryan and Nathan Mu were selected to compete in the inaugural 2014 Australia Post U15’s AFL All Nations Cup held in Coffs Harbour. The Australia Post All Nations Cup is a feature event of the year for the Australia Post AFL Multicultural program and all teams competing featured players from multicultural backgrounds. The boys represented their Chinese/Timorese nationality. The junior stars from this event had the opportunity to be selected by AFL talent managers to play in the World Team at the NAB U16 AFL Championships which was held in the Gold Coast in July. Both boys played well. Ryan won the ‘Most Valuable Player for NT’ award and was selected to play in the World Team. The World Team squad of 25 players consisted of the best upcoming AFL multicultural players from across the nation, as well as several talented international youngsters from South Africa.

Carlton Champion and Hall of Fame legend, Anthony Koutoufides was head coach of the World Team and David Rodan assistant coach. The players received elite training under the guidance of these two coaches and also had the opportunity to train with the Gold Coast Suns players. In July Ryan and Nathan were also selected to represent the NT in the U15 School Sports Australia AFL Championships which was held in Sydney. Their younger brother, Kieran was selected to play in the U12 School Sports Australia AFL team.

The boys had a lot of fun, made many new friendships and climbed the Sydney Harbour Bridge. They attended the GWS and Geelong game at Spotless Stadium and were invited to make a guard of honour with the U12’s AFL schoolboys for GWS. At every U15 Championship an All Australian Team is selected to identify the gifted and talented players. Congratulations to Ryan for being the only player from the NT to be selected in the U15 AFL All Australian team.

THE YOUNGEST LION Over the last few months on a Tuesday, one of our youngest Lions has been meeting and greeting visitors to the Chinese Museum. Cacey Lee Small (pictured) has done solo Lion Dance performances for visitors to the Museum after pre-school. His grand mother, Lyn Lee, says Cacey is so dedicated to his work that he became upset on one Tuesday when his mother, Kerri, forgot to pack his Lion Dance uniform into his school bag. Nonetheless, Cacey still performed in his school uniform for the visitors to the Museum that day so they wouldn’t miss out. The only problem with Cacey’s obvious love and dedication to Lion Dancing is, who will replace him next year when he starts full time school? Any takers anyone? The photo of Cacey was taken by a tourist who was kind enough to send a copy to Cacey.

CHUNG WAH CAR BOOT SALE

On a crisp Saturday morning Chung Wah held its Car Boot Sale fundraiser for the CWS Jade Dragons. The sun had barely risen as over 20 stallholders rolled into the Chung Wah grounds to set up their stalls, which ranged from the literal car boot, to more elaborate set ups from some obviously experienced campaigners.

The smell of the barbeque was soon drifting towards Cavenagh Street, helping to attract passers-by, as a brisk early morning trade got under way and the early-birds chased the worm. Homewares, fishing gear and brand new clothes were particularly popular. Inside the Hall kids were busy creating their lanterns in preparation for the Moon Festival function. Buyers and sellers refuelled throughout the day thanks to a range of delicious cupcakes, slices and sweets that were prepared by the parents, families and friends of the Jade Dragons and served by the girls. The girls also kept the public stocked up with sausage sandwiches and the last few world-renowned CWS sartees for this year.

Over the course of the day, around $1300 was raised for the Jade Dragons, which will go towards costumes and props for the girls.

A special thank you to: the boot-sellers for their enthusiasm and spirit on the day, the Jade Dragons girls for running the food stall and helping the

day run smoothly, those who donated their time and pantry to bake some yummy treats,

the Committee for helping set up and pack up, and Auntie Nen Chin (below right) and Nenelle Demos, who ‘sold the

family silver’ on the day and donated the proceeds to the Jade Dragons.

to our regular sponsor, Alfreds, for donating preserved plums at the bake sale.

Des Yuen receives the Best Presented Stall award from CWS President Austin Chin (left)

By Jason Robertson

Unidentified woman outraged at the price of cakes these days! (above)

GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN! This year marks the fourth birthday for the Jade Dragons (JDs) dance group. The JDs formed in 2010 and have grown into a tight unit of 17 girls. Over the past year the girls have performed at a number of Parliament House functions, the Harmony Day Soiree, Palmerston Festival, for the Dalai Lama and of course our very own Chung Wah functions. As you have seen on many occasions, the JDs’ repertoire includes the fan, ribbon, lantern, umbrella and lotus dances. These dances have been inspired by traditional Chinese dance as well as contemporary moves from martial arts, yoga, calisthenics and ballet. One of the highlights this year has been the initiative taken by two of our senior girls (Georgia and Madeleine Chin) to choreograph the handkerchief dance which was showcased at Chung Wah’s Chinese New Year Banquet.

The past year has seen a transition as several junior girls joined the group, while we said goodbye to some of the senior girls who ventured interstate for university. The senior girls that remain have put in a great effort to help the new members learn the dances. The JDs are also supported by the girls’ parents, friends and families who help out behind the scenes by ironing costumes, preparing the girls hair and driving the girls to and from training.

The JDs celebrated their fourth birthday with a ‘girls night in’ at the Hall. The night was spent pampering ourselves with manicures and pedicures. The girls even managed to fit in some face scrubs and peels which generated a few scared looks from parents when aliens appeared at first!!! It was a great night, complete with lots of singing, gossip, junk food (aka sugar!) and of course some girly movies. While we may have felt a bit dizzy from the fumes of the nail polish, we did leave the Hall with baby smooth skin and beautiful nails! Happy Birthday to the JDs!!! By Natasha Yuen

The Chung Wah Society would like to thank our

sponsors for their generous donation

to the Jade Dragons Fundraising

Raffle:

The Honourable Michael Gunner MLA

The Right Worshipful the Lord Mayor of Darwin Ms Katrina Fong Lim

MING COURT Chinese Restaurant &

Take Away

The Honourable Peter Styles MLA

The CWS is supported by

www.chungwahnt.asn.au admin@chungwahnt.asn.au

newsletter@chungwahnt.asn.au

We would love to receive photographs and stories from more of our members. Don’t worry about deadlines, just email

newsletter@chungwahnt.asn.au and look out for it in the next newsletter

DARWIN CHINESE TEMPLE

THE CHINESE YEAR OF THE HORSE – 2014 FESTIVALS at the TEMPLE Sunday 12th October Kwan Yin Official services at 0800 hours Tuesday 21st October Wah Kwong Official services at 0800 hours Other Festivals Observed Dragon Boat Festival No Official service at Temple Moon Festival No Official service at Temple Doong Festival No Official service at Temple

On Saturday 16th August Rosemary Wong celebrated her 77th birthday at Chung

Wah Hall. The presence of her seven children and twelve of her nineteen

grandchildren made the party a joyful occasion for Rosemary.

The 150 guests were

entertained by the

Friday Seniors Choir,

led by Sister Mary. The

evening ended with the

cutting of the birthday

cake and an array of

tempting desserts. It

was a fantastic evening

for Rosemary, her

family and friends.