THE KING AND QUEEN WILL HOST A RECEPTION AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE TO CELEBRATE BRITISH EAST AND SOUTH-EAST ASIAN COMMUNITIES IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
Wednesday 1st February 2023
The King and Queen will host a reception at Buckingham Palace on 1 February to celebrate British East and South-East Asian communities. The Earl of Wessex, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Kent, the Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Alexandra will be present.
The guests will include representatives of the Armed Forces, the arts, media, fashion, business, government, finance, healthcare, faith organisations, charities and more.
This reception is taking place shortly after Lunar New Year, also called the Spring Festival, which is celebrated by Chinese, South Korean, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Singaporean, Lao, Thai, Mongolian, Bruneian, Indonesian, Japanese, Cambodian, Filipino and East Timorese communities around the world. The holiday began as a time for feasting and to honour household and heavenly deities, as well as ancestors. This year, Lunar New Year fell on 22nd January 2023.
In February 2022, Their Majesties, when they were Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall, visited Chinatown in London to mark Lunar New Year. Welcomed by a display of dancing lions, they visited local shops, organisations and communities, and the then Prince of Wales joined a conversation about hate crime towards the Chinese and wider East and South-East Asian Communities.
Meanwhile, the Duchess of Cornwall visited the Chinese Information and Advice Centre where she met police officers, immigration case workers and clients.
