Nicholas Craig column

Jan 27 2006 By Nicholas Craig, The Journal

This is the Year of the Dog. It will be celebrated this Sunday in Newcastle during Chinese New Year festivities. As a frequent traveller to China, this is a favourite time of year for me. The New Year is a family affair for Chinese, a time of reunion and thanksgiving. Everyone who can do so goes back home, even if it means a gruelling 30-hour train journey.

The festivities of this year's Chinese New Year, and the fantastic colours, parades and noise that hallmark the event, represent family values that have been the backbone of a strong society for hundreds of years.

There are more than 3,000 Chinese residents in Newcastle, 50 years ago there were only 30. The region now has 28 Chinese companies, as well as a thriving community of Chinese restaurants, shops and suppliers. The China Business Association was set up a year or so ago to build commercial bridges at all levels between this region and the fastest growing economy in the world. Our younger Chinese community also provides a bridge between our region and China. The growing popularity of traditional events such as Chinese New Year illustrates the strength of the new dimension created by our vibrant local Chinese society.

In China, young adults are already moving away from their families' businesses and getting into professional work. They have a sophisticated global outlook on life, achieving well at universities in this country, while keeping up links with their parents' roots in east Asia.

China is growing in importance in the world economy, with massive changes taking place to alter the cityscapes and the culture of the country before the Olympics takes place. Entrepreneurship is being nurtured in the country, with dramatic results.

2006 augurs well for the country, and, according to the Chinese, to those born in the Year of the Dog.

Chinese children born this year will grow up in a country rigorously reinventing itself as a world power to compete with the most powerful.

The traditions upheld at the New Year - family, honour and order - are revered remnants of another age.

The old values are being replaced by harder-edged commercial creeds.