China team celebrates SATRA centenary

Reporting on an impressive event held in Dongguan to mark SATRA’s centenary.

SATRA formally recognised its centenary in May of this year when His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester visited SATRA in Kettering to unveil a specially-commissioned sculpture designed to represent 100 years of research and testing. To recognise the important work SATRA does with member companies in Asia, a second centenary event was held in China on 28th November 2019.

The China centenary day began with a business meeting for the China Advisory Board (CAB), which was conducted in the meeting rooms at the Dongguan office. To commemorate this noteworthy day, chief executive John Hooker was presented with a painting on behalf of Khoi Toan – SATRA’s Vietnam-based agent for test equipment.

A well-attended evening ceremony was held at the Pullman Dongguan Forum Hotel close to the China office. The entire China office team were present, along with the CAB, guests from around 100 SATRA member companies, and Mr Hooker, Christine Powley-Williams and Peter Allen from the UK.

Making a mark

Guests were invited to sign a welcome board on arriving, after which they passed through to a cocktail reception where a 2.4m high timeline display presented SATRA’s significant achievements from the last 100 years.

Once everyone had taken their seats, the evening’s entertainment commenced with a colourful and energetic performance by a Chinese drum troupe. This was followed by speeches from China office manager Anthony Mak, John Hooker and CAB member Robert Tsai, who gave a glowing tribute to SATRA while describing how his company, General Shoes, had benefited tremendously from its SATRA membership during the past 27 years.

The guests were then entertained with a traditional Chinese lion dance, which started as soon as the costumes’ left eyes had been painted by the hosts. When the lions had completed their performance, the hosts and dignitaries were invited back to the stage to officially recognise the centenary by triggering an impressive burst of colourful confetti.

The banquet that followed consisted of several courses of excellent Chinese food. During the meal, guests were entertained by a magician who somehow had the ability to change his mask at will. He was soon among the tables, demonstrating his sleight of hand up close. After the meal, John Hooker and Anthony Mak visited every table to personally celebrate SATRA’s achievement of 100 years of service with the guests.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 14 of the January 2020 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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