Migrant workers get emotional surprise at Chinese New Year dinner
Mr Hou Qingcun, a construction worker with Katong Builder, was not expecting to see his granddaughter – thousands of miles away in China – appear on a screen during a Chinese New Year dinner on Jan 26.
Watching the playful video of the nine-year-old wishing him a happy new year moved him to tears.
“Grandpa, when are you back? When you’re back, don’t forget to bring my favourite chocolate,” said the girl in Mandarin to cheers from the audience.
Mr Hou, 51, has been working in Singapore since 2004. He was among 150 migrant workers from China, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar and Thailand at the Chinese New Year dinner.
Despite his granddaughter’s wishes, Mr Hou will not be heading home for the holidays, having visited his family in August and November 2024.
But he plans to ring in Chinese New Year over celebratory drinks with friends in Chinatown, he told The Straits Times.
Also surprised at the dinner was Mr Zhang Xiaoliang, a carpenter with Long River Construction, who has been working in Singapore for the past 17 years.
In a video, his son, daughter-in-law and young grandson sent wishes for “work to go well for me and my friends here in Singapore, and for my health to be good”, he said with a smile.
“When I heard their words, I really missed my family,” added Mr Zhang, who said he usually calls his family in China during Chinese New Year, and visits his favourite spots in Sembawang and East Coast Park.
He plans to visit home during the Mid-Autumn Festival in September. Both he and Mr Hou are from Shandong.
Speaking at the dinner, Dr Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Manpower, said many Singaporeans had grandparents who made the same journey as Singapore’s manual workers to work as labourers in the country.
“Yet, the day when we became independent, many of them made the choice and the conviction to stay and to build this country to what it is today through their contributions.
“So we must continue to remain an open society to welcome those who are prepared to make the choice to be here, to have the conviction to strive for a better Singapore, and to make the contributions to keep Singapore a shining red dot.”
The event was organised by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) to foster inclusivity and a deeper understanding of one another’s cultures.
Workers enjoyed a mass lohei and buffet dinner at the event, which was held at the Huang Clan Association ballroom in Geylang, and was also attended by 50 volunteers from the association, The Salvation Army and River Valley High School.
The event was part of a slew of Chinese New Year activities lined up for migrant workers, including lion dance shows, carnivals, and concerts with performances by Bangladeshi, Chinese and Indian artistes at eight migrant worker recreation centres on the first two days of Chinese New Year.
In the past weeks, workers also enjoyed cultural tours conducted by students in Chinatown and the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre.
Mr Stanley Ng, the association’s secretary-general of youth, said giving the workers an opportunity to experience lohei was a cross-cultural exchange that helped those of different nationalities better understand one another.
He had earlier hosted Mr Hou and Mr Zhang, along with two other Chinese migrant workers, for a meal of home-cooked chicken rice, roast pork and beer at his home on Jan 12.
“I had deep conversations with them, understood where they came from, how they felt about being away from their families for such a long time,” said Mr Ng, 39.
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