Mandy, it sounds to me like your friends and other interviewees are celebrating Australia Day just like everyone else, enjoying a holiday if they have one, working if they haven't. A lot of Chinese people I know will go for a picnic or a drive in the country.

I am not sure I have ever worried myself over how I'd celebrate Australia Day, and I don't know any relatives or friends who do either. I'm not sure it's important, but I am a fourth generation Australian with British ancestry, and grew up in a country town. I can't say Australia Day means anything special, we just have one because other countries have them. I think many migrants have a distorted impression of Australia Day via the citizenship celebrations.

So part of the problem, if there is one, is the way Australia Day is celebrated in our community as a whole. Other countries have days that were shaped by focused historical events that shape their identity. A moment of territorial discovery and claim like our day is not historically momentous in quite the same way.

Chinese New Year is more interesting, by far, just like Christmas really. Family, tradition, customs, food, decorations.

Well said, cardigan.

I was a bit perplexed by this article, but enjoyed it. It's rare that we find a piece that is reflective but not argumentative - one that notices a difference but doesn't claim superiority, discrimination or anything like that. It's refreshing, really.

I think you hit the nail on the head, too - if I interpreted you correctly. The French have their Bastille Day, the Americans have their Independence Day, other nations have national days that celebrate great achievements and watershed moments. Ours celebrates something that was, by comparison, a historical whimper. After a long time at sea, settlers (most of them unwilling) arrived - just as planned - and established a colony. It had its ups and its downs, and many of those who had been sentenced to a fate worse than death established lives they couldn't have dreamed of back in Britain. This achievement can't be pinned down to a single moment, event or person: it was a pattern, a trend.

Some (including people in this forum) often call for the reallocation of our national holiday to the first of January, when we became a nation. Perhaps they're right - apparently we were the first nation to peacefully vote ourselves into existence, so that's pretty special. I don't think that's necessary. If we take away the attempt to pin our holiday on the date of a historically significant event, we're left with a day when we can simply celebrate being Australian. And the best way to do that may be to do it without fanfare - take the day off work, spend it with family and friends and celebrate Australia by simply being Australian.

Multiculturlaits think that the instant a new migrant sticks their big toe on Australian soil, they instantly become "Australians" and their loyalty is to Queen and country.

Let's examine that.

Firtly, Chinese always for communities which are separate and apart from the host societies. There are "chinatowns" in New York, London, LA, Paris and Sydney. Even within Sydney, there are separate "chinatowns" within large suburbs, reinforcing the concept that the Chinese are insular people who's loyalty is to China and their own people exclusively.

Next there was the book "The Year the Dragon Came" by a Chinese journalist, which wrote of the experiences of Chinese migrants in Australia. This book was noted for the very racist attitudes which the chinese migrants in the book openly expressed toward white Australians.

Then there was the little incident when the Chinese Premier first visited Canberra , to be met at the airport by thousands of cheering local Chinese, each enthusiastically waving their little red PRC flags. Their loyalty to China and its government was openly on display.

Lastly, there is the little matter of the three defections of "Chinese/Americans" scientists to China, each taking with them super secret information on US balistic missiles, nuclear submarines, and stealth technology.

Do I trust the Chinese living in Australia? Not as far as I can toss a Ming vase.

I agree. chinese are incredibly racist and anti Australian and use the slightest pretext to sling off at us while claiming to be the victims of racism. The sight of thousands of cheering chinese at Canberra airport waving red flags absolutely disgusted me. If they are so patriotic to china and not Australia then they should bloody well go back there, and take their ethnic hatred and money loving ways with them. We do NOT need it. How dare they call us 'foreign devils' in our own country, as 'The Year The Dragon Came' quotes? Ill mannered, invasive and incredibly rude. As the author of the article herself says, one of her sources actually returned to china for two of her Australia Days, so what does that tell us about chinese 'disconnection'? Multiculturalism - I would not use it for toilet paper.