Sir, – It was very nice to see your photograph highlighting the rich cultural diversity celebrated by Dublin’s Lunar New Year event programme (Home News, Dara Mac Dónaill, January 11th).
What is often labelled exclusively as “Chinese New Year” is in truth Lunar New Year, as also celebrated by Korean, Malaysian, Vietnamese and several other ethnicities.
This reminds me of the frustration I feel, as a Korean-Irish lady, when asked to fill in a background questionnaire here. The choice offered, from current census categorisation, is between “Asian Chinese” and “Asian Other”. Why here are the Chinese accorded special treatment? How would many people here feel if they had to choose between “Irish Dublin” and “Irish Other”?
For this a simple “Asian” would suffice – or the geographic breakdown. Even-handed inclusivity is the way forward! – Yours, etc,
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SEJIN LIM,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.