The con­tri­bu­tion of the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty to T&T “goes be­yond just cui­sine and cul­tur­al drag­on dancers”, Min­is­ter of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment, Cul­ture and the Arts Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly not­ed yes­ter­day when she took part in cel­e­bra­tions to mark the 100th an­niver­sary of the Fui Toong On As­so­ci­a­tion.

“It al­so en­com­pass­es ad­min­is­tra­tion, sports, in­dus­try, en­ter­tain­ment, med­i­cine, and cul­ture and as you may know, over the years we have had many cul­tur­al ex­changes be­tween Chi­na and Trinidad and To­ba­go.

“The Min­istry of Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment has worked close­ly with the Em­bassy of the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na and we look for­ward to the re­la­tion­ship con­tin­u­ing. I could think of many who have in­spired gen­er­a­tions of de­sign­ers and artists, peo­ple like Carlisle Chang and many more,” she said.

“From dig­ni­taries to artistes, from priests to ed­u­ca­tors, to some of our coun­try’s most en­ter­pris­ing en­tre­pre­neurs, the Chi­nese have con­tin­ued to ef­fect a re­mark­able in­flu­ence on the kalei­do­scope of our cul­ture and have made ac­tive par­tic­i­pants in the build­ing of this na­tion and its es­tab­lish­ment as a force to be reck­on with­in the de­vel­op­ing world.”

She spoke about the long his­to­ry of the Chi­nese in T&T.

Al­so speak­ing at the cen­ten­ni­al cel­e­bra­tions held at the Em­per­or Gar­dens’ Restau­rant, Long Cir­cu­lar Mall, was Am­bas­sador of the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na Song Yu­min, who hailed the 45 years of diplo­mat­ic ties be­tween the two coun­tries.

“Build­ing on 45 years of achieve­ments, both coun­tries stand ready to bring the com­pre­hen­sive part­ner­ship fea­tur­ing mu­tu­al re­spect, equal­i­ty, mu­tu­al ben­e­fit and com­mon de­vel­op­ment to new heights so as to bring more tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits to our peo­ples,” he said.

Not­ing that this year al­so marks the 70th an­niver­sary of the Peo­ple’s Re­pub­lic of Chi­na, the am­bas­sador said that coun­try has made “his­tor­i­cal strides in de­vel­op­ment” and will con­tin­ue to make its con­tri­bu­tion to the world.

He said the 100th an­niver­sary of the Fui Toong On As­so­ci­a­tion should be used to re­flect on “past glo­ry”, as well as to look in­to the fu­ture.

“The as­so­ci­a­tion has grown from strength to strength from its orig­i­nal pur­pose of the de­vel­op­ment of its mem­bers and that of the lo­cal Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty. The as­so­ci­a­tion has made its con­tri­bu­tion to the mul­ti­cul­tur­al land­scape of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said.

The Fui Toong On As­so­ci­a­tion was es­tab­lished in 1919 by mem­bers of the Hak­ka Com­mu­ni­ty who were part of the Chi­nese mi­gra­tion to T&T.