Fo Guang Shan attended NZ Parliament CNY celebration
Although the Traditional Chinese Lantern Festival has passed, to shows the importance of Chinese New Year Celebration, New Zealand Minister for Ethnic Affairs held a “Chinese New Year Celebration Night” in Wellington at the parliament Beehive on 8th February, Fo Guang Shan (FGS) New Zealand Venerable Abbess Manshin, Temple Supervisor Venerable Manwang and Venerable Jue Xi, Venerable Rulian have been invited to attend. Honored guest such as Minister for Ethnic Affairs, Parliament members Melissa Lee, Nicky Wagner, Raymond Huo, New Zealand Royal Police Superintendent Wallace Haumaha, Police Strategy Advisor Rakesh Naidoo, the secretary of New Zealand and Chinese Trade Development department Mr. Zhu Ke Feng, and various Chinese Societies and more than 200 guests attended. A short video showed the important moment of Minister for Ethic Affair in the past year, the aid of Buddha Light International Association (BLIA) member for Christchurch Earthquake have become one of the highlight.
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key were accompanied by Minister of Ethnic Affairs Hon Judith Collins and the Ambassador of People republic of China Mr. Xu Jian Guo arrived, the Prime Minister shows his appreciation and concern to Chinese immigrants and business partners, which is helping the growth of New Zealand’s economy and enriching New Zealand’s multi-cultural content and colour as well, promising in this new coming year that New Zealand and China will have a chance of co-development. Minister of Ethnic Affair Judith Collins and China’s Ambassador Mr. Xu Jian Guo both shared the successful result of the co-development relationship between New Zealand and the Chinese Government.
There were several Chinese traditional performances on the night, including former BLIA Youth Adult Division Member Ruby Chan being invited to perform the “Dun Huang” dance for the honoured guests, her professional performance winning a round of applause. Calligraphy master Cheng Kang Wei drew a gold dragon to present to the Prime Minister. Venerable Abbess Manshin met with the Minister of Ethnic Affair Judith Collins, Vice Minister Melissa Lee, and various Parliament members and invited them to attend the April’s Buddha Birthday Celebration. Tonight’s celebration successfully finished at 8pm, the public having positive attitude by welcoming the future and also witnessing the bonding relationship of New Zealand and the Chinese government, this shows the pride and glory of Chinese that live in New Zealand.