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| January 2001: Director's Column: Magic of the Chinese
Archway |
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| Magic of the Chinatown
Arch |
| Liverpool as a city had experienced the decline of population
in the 80's. With the exception of Grant National at Aintree and the
home games of Liverpool and Everton football clubs, few events can
attract big crowds into the city. There was another exception though
this year. On Sunday 28th January, more than 20,000 people packed
into Liverpool central streets in a single afternoon and the event
that attracted the rivers of people is the Chinese New Year celebration
under the Chinatown archway. |
| Many Chinese traditional practices like acupuncture,
herbal medicine, and Fengshui are nowadays as popular with the mainstream
British population as they have been with the ethnic Chinese, if not
more so. However, it is the celebration of Chinese New Year in the
form of firework, lion and dragon dances, and other street celebrations
that seemed to have fascinated tens of thousands. The celebration
in Liverpool Chinatown always attracted big crowds each year. The
completion of the new traditional arch at the heart of Chinatown last
March is obviously the magnet for the bigger-than-usual visitor crowds
this year. |
| The deputy Lord Mayor of Liverpool said
at the Chinese New Year celebration that despite the numbers of magnificent
architecture buildings in Liverpool, none is comparable with the newly
built Chinese archway.The erection of the arch, designed and built
by Liverpool sister city Shanghai, is not only signalling a new dawn
for the long-establish ethnic Chinese community, but also creating
another landmark in city centre. More importantly the arch, financed
by English Partnership through the Ropewalks Partnership, is a symbol
of recognition from the city to the Chinese community for their contribution
to the local culture, society and economic development. Until recently
successive development schemes in the past have over-looked or by-passed
the community, regarded as close-knitted and able to be self-sufficient.
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© 2001
ChinaLink |
| However, the rundown of Chinatown in the 80's following
the out-migrating of many Chinese to other UK cities taught us a lesson
that even the most hard working & industrious Chinese entrepreneurs
required the support of good business environment, let alone the fact
that the catering industry in which many Chinese community businesses
operate is affected by the changing numbers of local population.Time
has come for the authorities of Liverpool and the surrounding areas
to maximise the impact created by the new arch and to encourage more
Chinese businesses to move into the area stimulate the development
in Chinatown, incorporate the already biggest Chinese New Year celebration
in the country into part of the city 's tourism strategy. With the
twinning of Liverpool & Shanghai, Liverpool is already a prime city
in the China-UK relation. The fast development of ChinaLink at the
Liverpool Chamber of Commerce & Industry has created a centre of excellence
in the city for trade and investment services for China trade.in this
country. There is no reason why Liverpool Chinatown can not regain
its historical glory as the most prosperous Chinese economic in Europe.
I hope the magic of the arch will provide a dynamic start of a new
economic re-vitalisation of the Chinese Community. |
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