By Holly Tancredi, Journalist, Council Magazine
On the 22nd of January the City of Glen Eira held a Lunar New Year festival – the first public event since a smaller Chinese community event was held in 2021 – marking the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit and bringing together Council’s diverse community for a joyful celebration that fostered connection and belonging.
Located in south-east Melbourne, the Glen Eira LGA is a flourishing multicultural community. Council has a strong connection to its community, backed by a keen understanding of, and respect for, the diverse cultures that make up its population.
Glen Eira Councillor, Li Zhang, former Deputy Mayor of the City of Glen Eira and the driving force behind the event, explains the importance of the Lunar New Year celebration. “We are proudly a diverse community that reflects the diversity of our state. More than one-third of our residents were born overseas,” Cr Zhang said.
“Mandarin is now the most common language spoken at home other than English in Glen Eira – about 5.6 per cent.” Lunar New Year is a pivotal event for Chinese and other eastern and south-east Asian cultures, with each year being represented by one of twelve zodiac animals – 2023 being the Year of the Rabbit.
Council held this cultural event at Glen Eira Town Hall and featured many traditional Chinese and Asian performances, including Double Lucky Lion Dance, traditional live music by Serena Chang, a beautiful ‘lantern’ art installation by local artist Jenny Zhe Chang, as well as a runway show featuring the art and history of traditional Chinese fashion presented by Melbourne Hanfu Association.
A community celebration
Cr Zhang brought Council officers together to meet members of the Chinese community and organise performances to ensure the celebrations were accurately represented and inclusive of the community, “I did connect our Council officers to some artists such as the traditional Chinese Fashion Association,” Cr Zhang said.
“This association has many university students with Chinese backgrounds, so they have a passion for traditional Chinese fashion – Hanfu, Qipao. So they practised themselves and raised funds to buy those costumes from China, and now they perform for many different types of events.”
Artist on show, Jenny Zhe Chang, was also responsible for decorating the main Gallery space with traditional Chinese lanterns, a symbol of good fortune, suspended from the ceiling. Ms Chang’s exhibition and installation, Light with hope — Sharing, used Chinese lanterns as well as traditional bamboo steamer sculptures to symbolise the sharing of dishes – or ‘dim sum’ – during Yum Cha, supporting ideas of resilience, hope, and well-being.
Multicultural melting pot
Multicultural festivities have an important impact on communities, providing a space to unite people from different backgrounds, and connect them through shared cultural and social experiences.
These important traits contribute to community acceptance and are an important reason as to why Council has such a focus on supporting its cultural groups. Cr Zhang is not just a councillor but also part of the Council’s largest advisory committee, the Multicultural Advisory Committee, which was formed in 2022. The group promotes engagement and communication within the region’s Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities.
“At Council, we are really committed to developing strong ties to all parts of our community,” Cr Zhang said. “We have about 20 to 30 community representatives sitting in the Multicultural Advisory Committee. They are from different community groups, including all the different culture groups, so they can represent very diverse voices.
“It’s very important for us as councillors to make our decisions based on diverse voices. We want to get advice, feedback from diverse communities for all our policies, projects, and all the other important decisions. “We actively promote multiculturalism and social cohesion through our events, strategies and this committee, so we can make sure that everyone in our city feels safe, feels like they belong, and are enjoying their lives here.”
Bringing back cultural practises
The public celebrations held in January 2023 benefited from a longer planning schedule, and had over 500 attendees including both Asian and non-Asian residents, with feedback from the community cited as highly positive.
Council is highly aware of the benefits cultural events bring, not only to the communities that are part of that culture themselves, but also to the wider community and its understanding of different cultures.
“The Asian community value the opportunity to celebrate their traditional festival,” Cr Zhang said. “We treat Lunar New Year as the most important festival for not only the Chinese community, but also many other Asian communities including Korean and Vietnamese. They appreciated that Council hosted this event for them.”
An important aspect of the Lunar New Year event was also the opportunity for the non-Asian community to connect with the other cultures that form their region, with Cr Zhang stating it was a “multicultural night for everyone”. “Another benefit of hosting the festival was Council’s ability to connect to its hard-to-reach communities, such as those with a language or cultural barrier,” Cr Zhang said.
“For example, we have lots of surveys or consultation with the community – but we don’t really hear a lot from the Chinese community, as well as some others.” Speaking as both a Chinese person, and as a councillor, Cr Zhang explained how the festival fostered a feeling of belonging between her culture, community, and Council.
“Through this event, we built an emotional connection with the Council. We feel we belong, we feel part of Glen Eira and we feel safe.
We can discuss, we can connect, we can talk to Council. “I think this is also a very good result for Council. It’s not just for the community.” City of Glen Eira’s celebration of Lunar New Year is a great example of how connecting diverse cultures, celebrating differences, and bringing together a community can have significant impacts on social cohesion and belonging.
