APACC’s ‘Blood of the Dragon’ Event Brings Businesses Together

The Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce’s annual Blood of the Dragon event featured cultural performances from groups such as the Hula for Fun dancers.

The 2025 Blood of the Dragon hosted every year by the Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce may have come at a pretty good time.

With the chaotic nature of U.S. trade policy wreaking havoc on small businesses in terms of planning, hiring and costs, a culture-infused business networking event, offering guests access to corporate executives, entrepreneurs, community leaders, decision-makers, partners, and diverse businesses, may have been just what the doctor ordered.

And with a crowd of nearly 200 people taking advantage, the timing was good.

“I think that there are a lot of small businesses that are struggling this year,” said Duc Abrahamson, the chamber’s executive director. “I just want to make sure our programs and our resources are going to be available … It brings business leaders together, and this event introduces a cultural aspect. If we expose enough people to it, it doesn’t become a novelty anymore. And it just becomes a part of a conversation.”

In addition to promoting APACC programs, the Blood of the Dragon event served as the launching point for the chamber’s new multilingual resource guide. Available in English, simplified Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese, the guide is designed to help new businesses get started in Michigan.

The guide contains information regarding what entrepreneurs or businesses coming into the state need to think about as they get started and what resources are available in Michigan.

“We wanted to make sure that all of the resources that we had were accessible to everybody, and especially for businesses that might not be familiar with what happens in Michigan or what you need to do to start a business in Michigan,” Abrahamson said. “Especially after working with so many small businesses, there are things that’ll come up and they’re like, ‘oh, I didn’t know I had to do that. I didn’t know that that was something that I had to do.’”


State Sen. Stephanie Chang (center) presents a tribute for APACC’s 25 years of service to executive director Duc Abrahamson and APACC board member Cheng Lu, who chaired the Blood of the Dragon event.

The event also served as an opportunity for state Sen. Stephanie Chang to present a tribute to Abrahamson and APACC board member Cheng Lu, who chaires the event, for the chamber’s 25 years of service.

The chamber presents  a level of service and programming that Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist believes is important to highlight. A regular attendee of the Blood of the Dragon event, Gilchrist said it’s “important to show” how many different communities play a “really important role” in the state’s economy.

“The Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce is a point of organizing for so much economic activity, so many businesses … so many jobs created,” Gilchrist said. “I come here to show gratitude and also show excitement to let these folks know they have support from me, that their businesses have support from Michigan.

“Events like this help (the business climate) a lot,” Gilchrist added. “At a time when the climate around the country is so chaotic … you have these on-again, off-again tariffs … it’s a complete mess. Folks want stability at the state level, and that’s what they’re going to get.”

At its core, of course, the event presented a prime opportunity for business networking, a benefit that wasn’t lost on attorney Rona Lum. “This is my favorite event,” said Lum, who heads her own firm, the Law Offices of Rona Lum. “I like that it’s informal. It encourages people to really interact and network, as opposed to a formal gala where you’re at an assigned table. You never know where new business is going to come from, and you get to interact with people from different companies, different industries … and (the event) always have something cultural. I just think it’s the whole package.”