Tapping into generous spirit of Box Hill Chinese New Year festival to support bushfire appeal

Box Hill’s celebrations for Chinese New Year will have a special difference this year, with the organisers intent on getting Asian communities behind the bushfire victims.

A leading Whitehorse businessman wants to harness the generosity of the area’s large Chinese population to provide much-needed support for the victims of the bushfires.

And he plans to use Box Hill’s Chinese New Year to tap into the giving nature of the migrant population.

Asian Business Association of Whitehorse president Tom Zheng and his son Steven said Chinese people were typically very generous with the Chinese New Year tradition of giving red pockets filled with money to their children, nephews and nieces, and friends’ children.

“We’re trying to encourage that instead of giving to people they know, they give to people in need,” Steven Zhang said.

He said while younger people were on Facebook and could donate to bushfire relief through websites like gofundme, a lot of the older migrants weren’t as active online, so the association wanted to make it easier for them to donate.

The association volunteers began fundraising in Box Hill on January 21 and were joined by Box Hill state Labor MP Paul Hamer.

ABAW has a stall in Box Hill ahead of the festival.

The not-for-profit association has already helped raise more than $20,000 for the Red Cross Disaster Recovery Relief and Recovery fund and is planning to further fundraise at its Chinese New Year Festival in Box Hill on February 1.

Steven Zheng said the association wanted to use the Chinese New Year tradition of giving to encourage attendees to support the Australians doing it tough.

The association raised more than $20,000 at a dinner it held on Thursday, January 16.

There will be several stations at the festival where association volunteers will be collecting for the Red Cross.

Tom Zheng is also determined to educate the Chinese community about Australia’s bushfire crisis, and has created a video with Chinese subtitles which will be played at the event.

The association has been running stall on the corner of Market and Main streets in Box Hill’s centre since January 21.

Steven Zheng said the stall was already proving successful, with the owner of a Box Hill development company having already visited and verbally committed to donating $20,000.

He said said the association planned to be at the stall everyday in the lead-up to the festival.

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The business association also held a fundraising dinner at Doncaster restaurant Wealth Kitchen on Thursday, January 16, where more than $20,000 was raised for the Red Cross Disaster Recovery Relief and Recovery fund.

Chisholm federal Liberal MP Gladys Liu and Box Hill state Labor MP Paul Hamer attended the event along with about 130 business association members.

Steven Zheng said the association was thrilled small business owners had contributed so much money at an event organised on short notice.

Asian Business Association of Whitehorse’s Chinese New Year Festival will be held in the centre of Box Hill CBD from 11am to 1pm on Saturday, February 1.

In previous years it has been attended by up to 80,000 people.