With Chinese faces and culture an ever-increasing part of Sydney's multicultural melting pot, what better place to celebrate Chinese New Year in Australia than at one of the earliest sites of Sydney's Chinatown, the Capitol Theatre.
With sell-out performances in Brisbane, Canberra, and Melbourne under its belt, New Tang Dynasty Television's Chinese New Year Spectacular held its debut in the Capitol Theatre on Thursday night, bringing the beauty and grandeur of China's traditional culture to Sydney audience members.
"I think it was wonderful, great – really bright and colourful," said Cathy Gurney, who had come with her husband Martin.
"It is really nice because it is quite diversified. It actually shows other culture, the Chinese meaning of life and the way of living. Each individual culture has their own meaning and I do think the Chinese one is quite deep."
Martin agreed, "It was very colourful and very informative.
"I think it is very important that it comes to Australia because I think it's important for all people to know where their roots are and their culture. It is important that [Chinese people] hold onto that culture. Just because we live in different cultures doesn't mean we shouldn't hold onto that."
Chinese presence in Australia goes back as far as the 19th century, with Chinese men arriving in large numbers during the gold rush in the 1880s. However, at that time their reception was not always warm, with racially-driven violence against Chinese miners common on the gold fields. This discrimination soon extended to an official level, with restrictions placed on Chinese immigration culminating in the White Australia policy passed in 1901.
Surviving under such restrictions, Sydney's Chinese community was centred around parts of Surry Hills and The Rocks. According to King Fong's book A White Australia to a multicultural society, Campbell Street and the area around Sydney's Capitol Theatre was Sydney's Chinatown from the 1920s.
Of course Australian society has changed markedly in recent years, and in 1980 joint efforts between Sydney City Council and business owners led to the building of archways and stone lions and the official declaration of Chinatown on Dixon Street. Nonetheless, some audience members of the Spectacular felt that music and dance could bring further intercultural understanding.
"Many of the shows are new to the Australians; they are used to the modern dance, the fast beat and all that. So this kind of presentation is something they don't often see," said Joseph, who was born in Shanghai.
"And I think the way that [the show] presented the culture and the tradition, the culture of the Chinese myths and legends, it's really fantastic, it's something that I think it would go a long way to integrate cultures."
David Wang, who was also born in China, said the show could help Australians understand more about China's history and dynasties.
"Maybe [the audience is] half Western people and half Chinese, which is more than I thought. I thought it would be maybe 80 per cent Chinese.
"But so many Western people, they want to see Chinese performance, and understand it, so I think that's a very good thing."
The Epoch Times is proud to join with New Tang Dynasty TV and Sound of Hope Radio in co-sponsoring NTDTV's Chinese New Year Spectacular ( http://shows.ntdtv.com. )
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