The King and Queen attended a reception at Buckingham Palace this week to celebrate the Asian community living and working in the United Kingdom.
Their Majesties were joined at the palace by the Princess Royal, the Earl of Wessex, the Duke of Kent, the Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Alexandra, who were also keen to celebrate the occasion.
Guests arrived at the Palace on Thursday, 2 February, most dressed in their country’s traditional clothes. All guests are residents of the UK who work in healthcare, fashion, media, government, faith organisations and charities.
The invited people comprised members of the Eastern and South-Eastern Asian communities that are represented in the United Kingdom, including the South Korean, Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Filipino communities.
Notable guests included models Alexa Chung, who came accompanied by her brother Dominic, fashion designer John Rocha, and YouTube stars Josh Carrott, Ollie Kendal and Gabie Kook.
The latter is of Korean descent and has been sharing recipes on her YouTube channel for more than a decade, while her husband, Mr Carrott, has been managing the Korean Englishman YouTube channel since 2013 with his best friend, Ollie Kendal.
The channel was created as a way of “linking British and Korean culture”, mainly through food. Mr Carrott later revealed to PA that he had asked King Charles if he enjoys Korean food and that His Majesty replied that he “loves it, unless it’s a bit too spicy,” demonstrating that he shares an aversion for spicy food with his elder son, Prince William.
Ms Chung told reporters that she had “a lovely time” at the reception, while Mr Rocha, who is of Irish and Chinese descent and was born in Hong Kong, said that he felt “very proud” to be there. He also recalled the conversation he had with the then-Prince of Wales when he awarded him his CBE in 2002.
Other guests included some members of the Chinatown community that the King and Queen had met last year when they visited the area to celebrate the Lunar New Year. A tweet from Buckingham Palace acknowledged: “It was wonderful to see some familiar faces from Their Majesties’ visit to Chinatown in London last year to mark Lunar New Year!”
The celebration was spread between the White Drawing Room, the Blue Drawing Room and the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace and was held close to Lunar New Year, one of the biggest festivals in the Asian community, which in 2023 fell on 22 January.
