About us
The ‘Duanwu - Friendship Through Sport’ event for 2025 is dedicated to promoting closer relations between China and Australia through sport. Our organisation was formed to address the sense of disenfranchisement that Chinese-Australians were feeling in Australia in recent years.
The organisation was established over 3 years ago, and the inaugural Duanwu game was successfully staged in June 2023 between the Sydney Swans and the West Coast Eagles, followed by the 2024 match against Geelong Cats. Traditionally coinciding with the Dragon Boat Festival, the 2025 event will be held on Saturday, May 31, as the Sydney Swans take on the Adelaide Crows in a highly anticipated game.
A Celebration
Duanwu is one of the most important traditional Chinese holidays (known in English as the Dragon Boat Festival).
It occurs on the 5th day of the 5th month of the Chinese calendar. In 2025 it falls on Saturday, 31st May.
The holiday commemorates Qu Yuan who was a beloved statesman and poet of the Southern Chinese state of Chu during the Warring States Period which occurred between 600 BC to 200 BC.
In September 2009 UNESCO officially approved the holiday’s inclusion in the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The first such Chinese holiday to be selected.
The story that is universally embraced is that Qu Yuan (340- 237BC) was banished for opposing the King. In despair Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning. Legend says that people raced out in their boats to save him or retrieve his body which became the origin of dragon boat races.
When his body could not be found, they dropped balls of sticky rice into the river so the fish would eat them rather than Qu Yuan’s body. This is said to be the origin of zongzi (the traditional sticky rice dumplings eaten on this holiday).
The festival has long been celebrated in China, has become in modern times a public holiday and is also observed globally by the Chinese diaspora, including in Australia.
A Friendship
The Duanwu event is inspired to encourage friendship between Chinese and Australian peoples, in many ways like the Chinese Garden of Friendship.
The garden is situated at the south-western end of Sydney’s CBD. It is modelled after the classic gardens of the Ming Dynasty. The garden offers a wonderful insight into Chinese
heritage and culture.
The gardens were added to the NSW State Heritage Register in October 2018.
The Chinese Garden of Friendship was designed by Sydney’s Chinese sister city Guangzhou. Its proximity to Sydney’s Chinatown, complements the area’s rich Chinese heritage and culture. Mr Henry Tsang OAM is a leading figure in Sydney’s Chinese community. He was the Deputy Lord Mayor of Sydney (1991-1999) and a Labor Member of the NSW Legislative Council (1999-2009).
He was a leading advocate for the establishment of the Chinese Gardens.
The gardens also highlight the sister province relationship between Guangdong and NSW. Guangdong designed the garden and provided the building materials, furniture and
artworks which are intrinsic to the garden’s unique style.
NSW’s role was to manage and fund the construction of the garden and oversee its ongoing maintenance.
Background
In 2018, Richard Colless AM from MA Financial and Helen Sawczak from the Australia China Business Council (ACBC) proposed an event to address the sense of disengagement that local Chinese Australians were feeling.
It was designed to convey to Chinese Australians that they were a fundamental part of the broader community. Because of the uncertainty surrounding Covid however, that it wasn’t until 2023 that the inaugural event was held.
Such was its success that it was replicated in 2024 and will be staged again in 2025. The event was held prior to a game of Australia’s largest professional and only indigenous sport, Australian football (AFL).
In 2023 the event was preceded by a cocktail party on the evening prior to launch a book entitled “Celestial Footy” which chronicled the little known role the Chinese had played in the development of the early stages of AFL from the late 1850s onwards. The event held the next day at the SCG preceded an official game between the Sydney Swans and West Coast Eagles from Perth.
Keynote speakers at that event included:
– The Hon. Chris Bowen, Senior Australian Government Minister
– The Hon. Chris Minns, Premier of New South Wales
– His Excellency Mr Xiao Qian, Chinese Ambassador to Australia
There were also speakers representing the AFL, MA Financial, the home team the Sydney Swans, and representatives from Penfolds Wines.
The 2024 event was eagerly anticipated and approximately 400 guests were locked in before the date was confirmed.
The event was held prior to the game between the Sydney Swans and Geelong Cats.
Keynote speakers on the day included:
– The Hon. Richard Marles, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia
– Ms Pru Bennett, Chair of the National Foundation for Australia China Relations
– The Hon. Stephen Kamper, NSW Minister for Sport and Multiculturalism
– Mr Xiao Xiayong, the Culture Minister from the Chinese Embassy
Representatives of the Sydney Swans, AFL, Penfolds, MA Financial and ACBC also spoke. The event has grown organically to include many leading Australian and Chinese Government Agencies, corporates with strong China connections, multiple Chinese community organisations and a broad coalition of business,community and civic groups.
A Unique Connection
As mentioned in the preceding Section the Chinese played a significant role in the development of Australian football. It’s fascinating that the first wave of Chinese migrants and the creation and development of Australian football occurred virtually simultaneously.
During the 1850s Central Victoria experienced a major goldrush with the largest city Ballarat becoming a thriving Chinese colony. Many of whom were successful veterans of
the great Californian goldrush. By the early 1860s there were c25K Chinese men in the region. And at the end of the 19th century large Chinese populations remained in towns such as Ballarat and Bendigo.
Many of these men as a means of integrating themselves into the community became Australian footballers. One of the least known football matches was staged in August 1892
in Ballarat when two teams made up entirely of Chinese players - the Miners and the Gardeners - were pitted against one another. The day after the match the Ballarat newspaper The Evening Star described the game as a “brilliant success” with about 5K spectators. This was the first in a series of matches that would become known as the Chinese Football Premiership.
For a “golden decade” charity fundraising Australian football matches continued between the Chinese regional communities across Central Victoria through to Geelong
and even Beechworth (where the Shanghai Reds played the Foochow Greens in 1896).
Ultimately teams associated with organisations such as the Chinese Progress Association and Young Chinese League became part of the AFL landscape and all senior competitions across the country comprised along with a multicultural mix of players including those of Chinese ethnicity.