Richmond Hill announces 2016 Asian Heritage Month celebration event to be held on May 8, Sunday
Richmond Hill -- In partner with Catholic community Service of York Region and Federation of Chinese Canadians in York Region, Richmond Hill will be holding it's 4th annual Asian Heritage Month Celebration on May 8, 2016. The event chairs, York Region District School Board Trustee Carol Chan, ward 3 Councillor Castro Liu and ward 6 Councillor Godwin Chan, together with CCSYR director Stephen Lam and FCCYR Chairman Dr. Ken Ng, made the announcement at today’s press conference at Town of Richmond Hill.
“We encourage everybody to join us on May 8 and celebrate Asia culture here in Richmond Hill. Richmond Hill is a diverse community, over 50% population are Asians, we initiated this event 4 years ago to recognize many Asians’ contribution to the community and their hard works”, Councillor Liu said. “May is official ‘Asian Heritage Month’, people from across Canada will celebrate Asian Heritage in different ways. We are proud to be part of Asian Heritage month celebration across Canada, we are proud to be Canadian that allow us to be able to celebrate different cultures. embrace diversity, experience culture and celebrate heritage are the main purposes why we are holding this event every year. Councillor Chan continued.
FCCYR is bringing experiences from their signature award winning event “Taste of Asia” to join Richmond Hill Asian Heritage Month celebration 4 years in a row. Dr Ken Ng, chairman of FCCYR emphasized, it’s very hard for Asian kids to truly understand their culture while they don’t live in it. We wanted to help our next generation to truly understand their own culture, experience and gain the feeling one step a time. That will help their self identity, be proud of themselves, better adapt themselves to a diverse community.”
Asian Heritage Month has been celebrated in the United States since 1979. Over the past decade, many Asians in Canada have begun to celebrate their heritage during the month of May. In December 2001, the Senate adopted a motion proposed by Senator Vivienne Poy to officially designate May as Asian Heritage Month in Canada. In May 2002, the Government of Canada signed an official declaration to designate May as Asian Heritage Month.
Trustee Carol Chan introduced the program on May 8. People will be expecting Asian food sampling, diverse costumes, performances such as Chinese, Japanese, Philippine, Indians and more. There will be booths to showcase different Asian cultures. May 8 will be mother’s day, the organizers encourage families to bring their moms to join and give their moms a special mother’s day, immerse themselves to a diverse Asian culture and share with parents of theirAsian culture. The event will be on May 8, from 3p.m. to 4:30p.m. at Langstaff community Centre, GYM A, 155 Red Maple, Richmond Hill, L4B 4P9.