Cultural Development and Activities Subcommittee Chung Wah Associations cultural activities consist of the: Lion and Dragon Dance Troupe, Chinese Cultural Dance Group, Chinese Orchestra, Beijing Opera Group, Cantonese Opera Group, Line Dancing Group and New Vogue Group. Our Cultural Groups continue to complement the work of the Association in promoting Chinese culture to the wider community. Chinese New Year is always a busy time, one of the highlights being the highly successful multicultural concert of the Perth Chinese New Year Fair. The Lion and Dragon dance troupe is progressing very well under the leadership of Ben Lim. We have introduced a leadership team and stabilised the team with the same 20 members for the past three years. We have enhanced our training by inviting a Malaysian coach twice in the past year, to Perth to assist the group. Chung Wah Lion and Dragon Dance Troupe are already taking performance bookings for 2019 Chinese New Year. Two major clients, Lobster Shack in Cervantes and Fremantle Festival have already forwarded their performance requests since July this year. Yudy Kodratjaya from Westindo Group is sponsoring the team jackets and uniforms for 2019. The team is currently preparing to compete for a traditional lion dance competition overseas in April/May 2019.
The Chinese Cultural Dance group 'Chung Wah Dance' continues under the direction of Jen Nie Chong, with Min Zhu as the dance teacher/choreographer. There are ten dancers who train every Saturday afternoon. Notable performances were for Ausdance Dance Day, Swan Festival of Lights, Southlands Boulevarde Shopping Centre Lunar New Year Event, City of Canning Mid Week Eats, and Corymbia Multicultural Festival, City of Cockburn China Pop Up and Coogee Live, where we danced together with an Aboriginal Dance group and didgeridoo live music. Since Zhi Chen left the Chung Wah Chinese Orchestra at the end of 2017, Teresa Tan has taken over the
Jen Nie CHONG Chair, Chung Wah Cultural Development and Activities
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| The Chung Wah Association Inc. - Annual Report 2017 -2018
leadership role since 1/1/2018. The orchestra has attended ten performances in 2018 so far. Teresa has also organised an annual concert on the 23/9/18 for family and friends and for introducing Chinese instruments to the local community. Member numbers have increased from 14 in Term One to 26 in Term Three. Teresa has organised one professional erhu instructor to teach every second week, one student dizi instructor and one student lute instructor to teach every week. She also bought a set of PA system in order to provide more desirable outcomes for their performances. Teresa has also set the purpose for the orchestra as “Promote traditional Chinese music, Preserve cultural heritage”（宏扬华乐.继承传统）,to promote and inherit Chinese music to everyone in Perth.
The Chung Wah Line Dancing Group have been very active throughout the year, dancing every Saturday and Sunday. Introducing a beginners’ session on Saturdays attracted a lot more dancers to the Saturday regular line dancing class. Due to the popularity of the line dancing held weekly at Balcatta Chung Wah Cultural Centre, it was able to contribute $11,000 towards the new stage curtains, as well as towards the general maintenance of the Cultural Centre. The Group also partially sponsored the Chung Wah Lion Dance Troupe performance uniforms. The Chung Wah New Vogue Group had been dancing for many years every Sunday at the Balcatta Chung Wah Cultural Centre.The members enjoy the dancing as well the friendship of many years dancing together. Our Beijing Opera and Cantonese Opera groups train every week and are starting to receive more performance requests.
I would like to thank all the Chung Wah Cultural groups’ members for all their hard work over the past year.
