ABC News: Sydney's Moon Festival, 1979

SUBJECTS:  History

YEARS:  9–10

Discover the activities that take place during the Moon Festival and why it is considered to be one of the most important festivals in the Chinese calendar.

In this clip from 1979, ABC reporter Neil Ross attends the Moon Festival in and around Dixon Street and Hay Street, in the heart of Sydney's Chinatown.

Things to think about

1. 1.How important are festivals in shaping and expressing the identity of people and their culture? When Chinese people arrived in Australia during the gold rushes of the 1850s, they encountered suspicion and intolerance. It took well over a century for a significant change in attitudes to occur. The 1979 Sydney Moon Festival is evidence of this change.
2. 2.What does the ABC reporter mean when he refers to the Moon Festival as 'the Chinese equivalent of Mothers', Fathers' and Saint Valentine's Day all wrapped into one'? How many people watched this Moon Festival celebration in Sydney's Chinatown? List the kinds of exhibitions and activities that take place and suggest why this celebration might have appealed to the wider Australia community.
3. 3.What do you notice about the faces in the crowd at the Moon Festival? Are non-Chinese cultures represented? Discuss what this might reveal about changing attitudes towards immigration and the contributions made by the Chinese community to Australian identity in the late 20th century.
4. 4.Select several kinds of questions that you would use to conduct an inquiry into the history of another festival that was introduced to Australia after World War II. Consider who you will direct the questions to and how you can verify the accuracy of the responses. Discuss your questions to evaluate and enhance them so that they form a sound framework for such an investigation.

Date of broadcast: 1979

Copyright

^{Metadata © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia Ltd 2012 (except where otherwise indicated). Digital content © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). Video © Australian Broadcasting Corporation (except where otherwise indicated). All images copyright their respective owners. Text © Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Education Services Australia is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA 4.0).}