Chinese in Manchester celebrated 59th Chinese National Day and Success of Beijing Olympics
300 guests attended a gala dinner for the celebration of the 59th Chinese National Day and the proud success of the Beijing Olympics at the Glamorous Chinese Restaurant held by the Federation of Chinese Associations of Manchester (FCAM). Amongst the guests were the newly arrived Mr and Mrs Jian Ni, Consul-General of the People's Republic of Manchester, Mr Shutong Wang, Vice-Consul General of PRC of Manchester, the Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester and Cllr Shoab Akhtar, the Mayor of Oldham, the Chairman of the Equal Opportunity Commission and several councillors from the Manchester City Council.The traditional Chinese Lion Dance performed by the Master Chu's Martial Arts School kick-started the evening's events followed by acknowledgements from Mr Stewart Yip, President of the FCAM; Mr Jian Ni, the new Chinese Consul-General and Cllr Mavis Smitheman, the Lord Mayor of the City of Manchester. In their speeches they all paid tribute to the fact that China had proven to the international communities its ability as one of the world's superpowers. The spectacular delivery of the Olympic Games in Beijing amid criticisms from the attention seeking media, politically motivated pressure groups and conflicting interest nations and the efficient and effective relief of the major snowstorm and earthquake disasters that shocked the country on the eve of the Big Games showed the World that when China commits China delivers. Overseas Chinese are proud of China's achievement today. Chinese people have shown the World as a nation their proud culture, focused resolve, individual wisdom and above all selfless unity. This is a superpower that loves peace, shows tolerance but at the same time have the ability to compete and excel.
Entertainments during the dinner saw the Chinese top acrobat, Miss Yin Yu. Her amazing multi-plate spinning stunned everyone present. Her second act of juggling turned five umbrellas and two woollen blankets into lively cute bouncing playthings under her magic spell. Equally engaging were Kung Fu Masters Deqing Chen and Liang Yang who in succession performed Tai Chi, Shaolin Boxing and Chinese swordsmanship. The lightning streaks and biting airbrushes created by the swordplay awed and captivated the audiences. Kiu Luen Sharr Chinese School complemented the spectacular acrobatics and martial arts with a graceful Mongolian Folk Dance. The pre-teen dancers dressed in ethnic Mongolian outfit and with their exotic dance movements were so cute and lovely that many guests had already exhausted the memory cards of their digital cameras during the dancers' rehearsal earlier on.
In celebration of the proud success of Beijing Olympics Manchester Chinese Christian Church, Imagine, choreographed and performed a Hip Hop Dance routine simulating the Olympic events and centering on the mascots. There were also three innovative and meaningful party games to engage the guests; a team building game inviting each table of guests to participate as a team to write in the fastest time on a board the title of the celebration, a co-operation game inviting teams of threes to simulate the 3-styled swimming relay on stage, and lastly karaoke competition. The panel of judges was headed by the Mayor of Oldham with three other judges Mrs Li, Mr Chui, MBE JP DL and Councillor Tony Burns. Winners of each game were awarded Gold medals and runners-up silver and bronze medals. In the karaoke competition Mr Lee won gold with a Cantonese golden oldie, Mr Sandy Yip silver with a Mandarin song and Mrs Ann Chow bronze with her meaningful ‘If we hold on together' repertoire.
The wonderful ambience of the evening prompted Mr Geremy Philips, Honorary Secretary of the Manchester City Council to run on stage and sing his favourite 'New York, New York' to the welcoming audience and on whose insistence Geremy encored with 'My Way'. Another guest Ms Liu Chui who was too late to enter the karaoke competition blessed everybody with a Chinese song 'Blessed are the nice people'.
The evening ended amid great compliments from many guests who claimed that this was one of the best parties they had ever attended. Mr Stewart Yip, President of FCAM, would like to express his sincerest thanks to the generous sponsors of this event, Wing Yip, Wing Fat and No. 1 Buffet. And he also thanks Dr Kaihung Lee, Mr Michael Li, Tiger Beer and YW Travel for their donations to the raffle prizes. And, a special thanks to the staff of Glamorous Chinese Restaurant, the sound engineer Mr Gary Cheung, all the volunteers on and off stage, all FCAM member associations and to all the punters who bought the dinner tickets.
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