Sto­ry and Pho­tos by

Edi­son Boodoos­ingh

Oc­to­ber 10 and Oc­to­ber 12 are aus­pi­cious days for the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty in this coun­try.

Oc­to­ber 10, 2026, marks the 20th An­nu­al Chi­nese Ar­rival Drag­on Boat Fes­ti­val along­side Dou­ble Ten Day (Chi­nese Ten Ten Fes­ti­val), which is recog­nised lo­cal­ly in con­nec­tion with Chi­nese her­itage.

Oc­to­ber 12 is Chi­nese Ar­rival Day in Trinidad and To­ba­go. In 2006, this coun­try cel­e­brat­ed 200 years since the ar­rival of the first Chi­nese im­mi­grants. This year marks the 220th an­niver­sary of the ar­rival of the first group of Chi­nese to T&T, with 192 mi­grants aboard the For­ti­tude in 1806.

In cel­e­bra­tion of the rich her­itage and cul­tur­al im­pact of the Chi­nese com­mu­ni­ty, the Na­tion­al Trust of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NTTT), in col­lab­o­ra­tion with The Chi­nese Bi­cen­ten­ni­al Lim­it­ed of Trinidad and To­ba­go, pre­sent­ed From Chi­na to T&T—Our Her­itage Sto­ry at Mille Fleurs on Sep­tem­ber 19.

The day fea­tured a range of ac­tiv­i­ties show­cas­ing Chi­nese cul­ture and tra­di­tions, in­clud­ing Tai Chi and Chi­nese mar­tial arts ex­hi­bi­tions and class­es and work­shops by the Wushu As­so­ci­a­tion, Rah­man Khabir and Jian Wu Mar­tial Arts As­so­ci­a­tion.

Par­tic­i­pants were al­so taught the use of chop­sticks, while the Chi­nese Art and Cul­ture Stud­ies So­ci­ety con­duct­ed drum class­es and pre­sent­ed li­on and drag­on dances.

The pro­gramme al­so in­clud­ed cal­lig­ra­phy by the Con­fu­cius In­sti­tute of UWI, per­for­mances by the T&T Chi­nese Steel En­sem­ble and Joshua Re­grel­lo, and dances by stu­dents of He­len Lee’s Chi­nese Art and Cul­ture Stud­ies So­ci­ety.

The cel­e­bra­tions al­so fea­tured ca­lyp­so­ni­ans Crazy, Rex West and Rex East, vo­cal­ist John Thomas and Dy­lan the Chi­nese Moko Jumbie.

To­geth­er, the ac­tiv­i­ties high­light­ed the en­dur­ing pres­ence of Chi­nese cul­ture and her­itage in Trinidad and To­ba­go and the con­tri­bu­tion of gen­er­a­tions of Chi­nese mi­grants and their de­scen­dants to the coun­try’s cul­tur­al fab­ric.