Chinese New Year Dinner

Organizer: Church of the Holy Family Kajang; My Role: Program Director

I was serving at the Chinese Language Apostolate Commission of the Holy Family Church. Every year, our group organizes two cultural festivals that bring people from the community together during Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival. It was my distinct pleasure to serve as the Program Director for these events that promote unity.

Chinese New Year is an important festival on the first day of the Chinese Lunar calendar where Chinese people are reunited together with their families. Our group envisions our community as a big spiritual family, and organizing a Chinese New Year dinner in this community provides an opportunity for our members to integrate.

It is worth highlighting that although this annual event is Chinese-culture oriented, it has been consistently welcoming many non-Chinese people from our community to attend. Our group greatly values diversity, and we are proud of our strength to integrate people of different cultures and languages to celebrate this festival together.

The tables of the Chinese New Year dinner with about 800 attendees with different languages and races

A group photo with some committee members, volunteers and performers at the stage after the event

The indigenous people from East Malaysia were invited to attend the event and perform their traditional dance

The committee expressed gratitude to all attendees and volunteers; chinese new year songs then sung to close the event

The Event Program

This event offers delicious Chinese food at a very affordable price of RM 40 - 60 (USD 9 - 15). Thanks to our committee who is highly experienced in financial management, i.e. obtaining sponsors, expenses optimization, etc. Sometimes, our group is able to offer the meal at no cost with a pot-luck style dinner to allow more low-income families to join the celebration.

While serving delicious Chinese food, there were various programs to entertain the crowd such as cultural dance, song performance, and instrumental shows. I particularly like to arrange instrumental performances where western modern instruments and eastern traditional instruments are played together to symbolize diversity and integration. As the program director, it was also one of my goals to explore different talents in my community and create performance opportunities for them in such a wonderful event. Besides working on talent acquisition for front stage performers, I also discovered those who were more comfortable to work behind the scenes such as audio-visual support, decoration, food supply etc. In other words, this celebration does not just provide an opportunity for reunion, integration and entertainment, it also creates platforms for many people to discover, strengthen and utilize their talents.

Chinese traditional dance

Hakka cultural dance

Indigenous dance from East Malaysia

An instrumental show that synchronizes the guitar (modern instrument) and Er Hu (chinese traditional instrument)

An instrumental show that synchronizes the harmonica (western instrument) and Er Hu (chinese traditional instrument)

Coordinating with audio visual team to ensure a smooth event flow

A modern band performance presented by a youth group

An instrumental show with the harmonica and guitar