How to build a dragon

How to build a dragon, ABC News,

Earlier this year, two of Bendigo’s golden dragons were damaged. In the wake of the heartbreak, we tell the remarkable story of how the third dragon came to be.

In May, Bendigo’s Chinese community, in fact, the entire regional Victorian city, was rocked by an act of violence against two of its oldest citizens.

Loong and Sun Loong — some of the world’s oldest and longest Golden Dragons, who have collectively paraded at Bendigo’s Easter Fair from 1901 until just a few years ago — were vandalised.

Though the matter is before the courts, it’s hard not to see the actions of the alleged attackers — who prosecutors alleged in court also damaged additional cultural artefacts at Bendigo’s Golden Dragon Museum, Buddhist monument the Great Stupa and the local cemetery — as racially motivated.

And the community is still reeling.

Hugo Leschen, CEO of the museum, described the damage as “both a slap in the face and a punch in the guts”.

He says he had both an emotional and intellectual response.

“The emotional response is: How can somebody not feel the way I feel about these objects? Perhaps not everyone has to love them, but at least there is a measure of respect and wonderment and awe. How could someone come to this place and purposefully and consciously do what they did?

“And the intellectual response is: What does that actually say about the broader community?”

Top: Anita Jack with Dai Gum Loong in 2019. Supplied: Anita Jack. Lower left: Anita Jack with Loong. Supplied: Anita Jack/Matt Oliver. Lower right: Anita Jack with Sun Loong, when she was a child. Supplied: Anita Jack.

It’s far from the first time Bendigo and its Chinese community have overcome adversity to ensure these precious artefacts live on.

Nothing encapsulates that fight more than how their latest dragon — Dai Gum Loong who, fortunately, was not damaged — came into existence.

This is the story of Anita Jack, the woman determined to fortify the connection between Bendigo’s Chinese roots and the wider community, and how she built a dragon.

Read/view more