Chinese association celebrate National Day

THE ASSOCIATION of Chinese Enterprises in Jamaica (ACEJ) began a month-long celebration of its 70th National Day with a dazzling array of foods and wines and a basketball event staged recently at the Jamaica North South Highway Company Limited Basketball Court in Linstead, St Catherine.

“The inclusion of the ancient Chinese custom, the mid-autumn family dinner, which is staged during the full moon is very important to us. We Chinese have a very special emotion with the moon, so when it is full moon during our commemorative period to celebrate the founding of the Republic, we get together with family members and eat the moon cake, made from a combination of eggs, meat, red peas, and peanuts, along with other foods, as our main highlight,” said Yafen Chen, secretary of the association

Chen added: “Given the fact that we are away from family members, we got together with our colleagues and observed this custom, which is an important part of the Chinese culture. Since this is a period of celebration and friendly competition with our member companies and friends, we hosted this basketball match, attended by representatives of member companies of the association and the Chinese Embassy.”

The ACEJ, formalised on June 16, 2017, is a non-profit Jamaican social group of Chinese companies and enterprises engaged in construction, production, sales, import, and export trade, and other business activities, together with local Chinese companies and enterprises.

The celebrations will continue into October here in Jamaica and across the world where Chinese nationals are located.