| The Pearl Awards |
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| What\'s On | |
The 2005 Pearl Awards that celebrate the achievements of the Chinese community are soon approaching. Sarah Yeh caught up with the founder William Ong to see what is in store at this years award ceremony. Can you tell me briefly about the Pearl awards?
The Pearl Awards is an annual event to recognise and celebrate Chinese achievements in multicultural Britain. This is the only event of its kind in the UK and the first, inaugural event was in September, 2004. What was your incentive for setting them up? In the past we were shortlisted for various awards for our magazine - Chinatown The Magazine and noticed that besides ourselves, there were hardly any significant Chinese presence at these awards events even though we know that there are very talented UK Chinese individuals and organisations in the UK, such as Dim Sum Online. As such we decided to start The Pearl Awards and the first inaugural event was held in 2004 and generated tremendous media exposure both in the UK, China and Hong Kong. The incentive, if that's the word to use, was to give a platform for the UK Chinese community to be heard and to 'shout' about their work, which we believe we are starting to build the foundation for and hopefully create a lasting legacy for the community. The other incentive would be to dispel the myths and prejudices that unfortunately, in this day and age, still does exist. Not all Chinese are kung fu experts, own or work in a takeaway or restaurant! The Chinese community are totally absorbed into British mainstream society and are working in professional occupations in the media, business, finance, law, medicine, etc. How do you feel that this benefits a diverse Chinese community? If you look at the other ethnic minorities - the Blacks and the Asians - they too are very diverse, yet speak with one voice. We hope that with our work, the younger generation of British born Chinese will be able to come together and work together for the good and benefit of the community. From my experience, I believe that the Chinese community is at a stage where the Blacks and the Asians were, 10-15 years ago. The Chinese community is beginning to become more vocal about our achievements and wrong-doings and there are many individuals and organisations who are standing up to be heard and wanting to make an impact on society. How have you noticed this? From my meetings and conversations with young British Chinese from all over the UK and working in different fields. From keeping an ear to the grass roots and listening to others. There is a lot of pride within the Chinese community that China is finally opening up its doors and progressing at an incredible rate. And with the forthcoming Beijing Olympics, the whole world's eyes will be on China and the Chinese. What an incredible opportunity for the Chinese the world over and in the UK to highlight our talents and expertise. What impact has this award ceremony had on the wider British community? The wider British community are sitting up and recognising the enormous talent and expertise within the Chinese community. For example, at the 2004 awards we had very talented, young British Chinese classical musicians performing at the event. One of them was a 9 year old girl. After the event I had so many British guests coming up to me and asking where did we find these talented musicians! They have been with us all the time but without mainstream media coverage or interest, no one will know about them. We hope that our Pearl Awards will rectify this and we aim to do so. It also has had an impact on the Chinese community too. It sent a message to the Chinese community that with the right people and expertise, we can produce and put on a quality event that gives the Chinese community a better profile in the market and not settle for second best. What are your hopes for this years Pearl awards? Last year we had 6 awards and 180 guests attended. This year, we had 9 awards and 270 guests attending - an increase of 50%! The first event in 2004 was to introduce the event and the concept. This year, the event will reinforce and strengthen our aims and objectives as above. We know that it will again be very successful and look forward to an enjoyable night of celebration and recognising the diverse talents within our community. Is there anything else you would like to add? I would like to stress that the quality of the nominations for this year has been extremely high and it was a very, very tough job for The Pearl Foundation to select the 3 finalists in each category and ultimately, the winner in each category. And finally, that The Pearl Awards will go from strength to strength and we welcome the Chinese and other communities to embrace our aims and objectives and to spread the word to all their friends, colleagues, business associates, families, etc. We also welcome help, assistance, advice and suggestions, so do email us at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or visit our website www.thepearlawards.org.uk |
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