Chinese Heritage Society Donations

A huge thank you to the Ararat Chinese Heritage Society for their  generous donations to Gum San. They have donated two large Chinese drums, three brass gongs, a pair of brass cymbals - all used for Lion Dancing, some pictures and scrolls. The scrolls need to mounted and images of them will be added later.

Drums, cymbals, gongs and drumsticks

A large Chinese drum and cymbals

Cymbals & gongs

Water colour painting

Wheat straw pictures

Journalist Visits Gum San

David Gilchrist an independent journalist from Queensland, writing for the Tiger Airways in-flight magazine visited Gum San as part of his story of visiting the Grampians region.

He thought that Gum San would fit into the landscape of any capital city and was a credit to Ararat.

China Immersion Program

When we developed the China Immersion Program it was done with school kids in mind. The idea was to totally immerse kids in all things Chinese for a few hours. They would have a tour of Gum San including writing in Chinese character,  learning a little bit of language from our computers, panning for gold and playing traditional Chinese games as well as learning of our Chinese history. This is followed by a Chinese meal [eaten with chopsticks of course] and then participate in Chinese craft. We have made all sorts of things in the craft sessions including scrolls, sometimes with the child's name translated into Chinese - the pinyin, phonetic version, fans, lanterns, Chinese conical hats and many more craft ideas. We had never really thought of this as an adult program but we have been forced to change our minds.
Last year we had a group of "Nashos" who wanted some fun so offered them the program. Their craft consisted of making jumping frogs and then kites. It is a very funny site to see 70+ year old men running around flying their kites! They had fun but we thought that this would be a one-off occasion until we were contacted by the Stawell Ladies Probus Club. The ladies wanted to have a full day's outing so we offered them China Immersion.

Stawell Ladies Probus arriving at Gum San

 The ladies started with a tour of Gum San.
 Then on to lunch in the Great Hall.

Chopsticks were a challenge

Sharing a traditional Chinese meal

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Craft followed with the ladies attempting to write their names in Chinese amidst much laughter followed by making jumping frogs, lucky stars [not so lucky for some who found them a little too small for arthritic fingers] and lotus flowers.

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Paper folding needs intense concentration -  and sometimes some help

I think it has been a long time since these ladies had put up their hand for help from the teacher

The pleasure of getting a result !

Showing off a "perfect" lotus flower !

Of course everyone was able to take home their efforts to show off to their family and friends


The ladies [and one gentleman] commented that they had lots of fun and thoroughly enjoyed their day. Many want to come back to have more time to look at some of the magnificent artefacts, particularly the embroideries.


If you think this kind of thing would suit your group contact Heather

New Acquisitions for Gum San

Catherine Wong, from Sydney, phoned a couple of weeks ago to ask if we were interested in acquiring some kitchen ware from her ancestral village in China. She had visited Kwong Mei Village in Kaiping City one of the four See Yup counties, from where the majority of Victorian Chinese came during the gold rush period. This was her father's ancestral village and Cathy was able to visit her ancestral home in this village. Her late father, Yip Choy (1911-1996), always referred to Australia as 'Gum San' so she thought our Gum San was the best place for these things that she had brought so carefully home from China.

Cathy checked that she could easily reach Ararat from Melbourne by public transport and could make it to Gum San from the train station and arrived here last week with her cousin Jocelyn Yip. She had brought back plates cups, a bowl and two spoons that had been used by her Chinese relations since the early days of the Peoples Republic. These pieces are typical examples of 'post revolution domestic ware' - no frills china for everyone. Some pieces have Chinese characters on them that have been translated by Yawen, a member of Ararat Rural City Council staff.

Diane, Cathy and Heather examine the china from Kwong Mei Village

Post revolution domestic ware from Kaiping

Diane & Heather examine new acquisitions

This is a traditional poem which means

 "From the top of the hill you can see for ever"

A communist slogan meaning

"To aim to succeed your superior" within the communist ideals

Communist slogan meaning "Red sky in the east"

This reads "Thank you Heather, Catherine Wong 25/5/11"

Visitor satisfaction

This was printed in Ararat Rural City Focus in the Ararat Advertiser and the Weekly Advertiser

Gum San staff and volunteers are really excited by this success.

It has made us think of different ways to improve the visitor experience.

Any suggestions?

China Today - an exhibition of contemporary Chinese ceramics

The Great Hall at Gum San is a fabulous venue to show a stunning collection like this one

Gum San Chinese Heritage Centre hosted the amazing China Today contemporary ceramics exhibition over Easter from April 12 until May 7. This show has been traveling around the world since 1997. The Embassy of the Peoples' Republic of China in Canberra brought the collection to Australia as part of the 'Year of China in Australia'. It came to us from the Museum of Chinese Australian History, 22 Cohen Place, Melbourne and was very well received by our visitors who were staggered by the variety of the ceramics on show ranging from the ultra-modern to the very conventional.

Organisation is the key to a good exhibition

Marg unpacks some of the exhibits

The stunning 'Far Away' by Huang Huanyi

Avant-garde piece 'In the Woods' by Dai Shufeng

Pots anyone would be happy to own

'Post Terra-cotta Soldiers' by Liang Gang - everyone is different just like the terra-cotta warriors in Xian

Chinese tea ware

Bathing has never been so good

Even the vegies are ceramic

Gum San's 10th Birthday

Guests mingled before dinner

April 10 saw us celebrate Gum San's 10th birthday with a Gala Dinner. Guests included the Chinese Consul General of Melbourne, Mr Shi Weiqiang, Chinese Consul Mr Chen, Mr David Koch MLC, Mr Joe Helper MLA, the Mayor Of Ararat Rural City Council Cr Andrea Marian and  Councillors Gwenda Allgood,  Anne Marshall and Murray Woods. The architect of the Centre, Mr Patrick Yeung attended as well as many others who played  significant roles in the establishment and running of Gum San.

Cr Marian introduced David Koch MLC to the Consul General

Prior to dinner guests enjoyed a tour of the Gum San Chinese Heritage Centre with Centre Co-ordinator Heather Ahpee.

Guests viewing Gum San artifacts

Heather Ahpee teaches Shi Weiqiang and David Koch how to find gold