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HAMILTON BRANCH NEWSLETTER JUNE 2011

Branch Committee elected AGM 23 February 2011. 

President:  Jenevere Foreman Ph 850 1312

Vice-presidents: Stan Boyle Ph 847 4514, Meryl Lanting Ph 843 5260, Peter Vautier, Howard Zheng, Harry van den Berg

Meryl and Diane Lanting

Secretary: Meryl Lanting

Treasurer: Diane Lanting

Newsletter Editor: Ian Howat Ph 855 9431

Committee members: Stella Turner, Linda Tai, Muriel Adams, Miao Fan                         

Welcome to new members:

Chris Ryan, and Nic Foreman

Pot-luck luncheon Sunday 19 June

At Parent’s Centre, 87 Boundary Road at 11.30 am. As there is only a microwave available to us, it is suggested that finger food requiring little heating would be most appropriate. Our guest speaker following the luncheon is Su Ellis. Su, her partner Chris and their children lived in China from 1998 to early 2008. Their four children were aged 2 – 12 when they left New Zealand. Su and Chris initially lived in Hubei province in Jingmen, Zhongxiang and Wenquan/Xianning – all relatively small cities. They then moved to Tianjin for a few years, and finally to Tianshui in Gansu Province. Their eldest son is still in China, studying Law at Wuhan University. Chris and Su taught English at numerous schools and universities. In some cases they were the first foreign teachers in the school (and once, in the city). Su and Chris also ran an educational organisation, originally called “Kiwis in China” and later “One World Development Consultancy”, through which they introduced over 100 international teachers to Chinese schools and universities, training both international and Chinese teachers, and ran regular provincial professional development conferences. They returned to New Zealand due to health problems. China is in their blood, and their children have a great affinity for China and are likely to return when they can. The middle son attended a local Chinese school through to middle school and plans to return to China for university study. Sue continues to serve the Chinese community in New Zealand by teaching English to recent immigrants. As you can see Su will be able to give a perspective of family life in China. Guaranteed to be a very interesting Sunday afternoon. Bring a friend and something to share for lunch.

Annual Conference in Wellington 27 – 29 May

This was attended by our Branch President Jenevere Foreman (elected National Executive Committee Member), Peter Vautier (our branch delegate to the AGM), Stan Boyle, Meryl Lanting, Diane Lanting, Muriel Adams, and Ian Howat. About 80 people, including our special guests Qing Boming, Xu Fenghua, Linda Wang, and Ye Zi from the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries in Beijing attended the Conference held in the Wellington City Council Chambers. This year all our branches had representatives attending. The theme of the conference was “China and New Zealand: The next decade.” and we were provided with some excellent speakers on a number of interesting subjects on Saturday with a very good dinner at Dragons Restaurant that evening, and the National AGM all Sunday morning. It was a very well organised, friendly, and successful conference, and a great opportunity to catch up with old friends, and meet some new ones. Details and photos should soon be available on the Society website.

GUZHENG CD available

Members who attended our NZFS Conference in Hamilton last year will recall Yao’s performing several items at the conference.  For those who did not hear and see him perform live you can view Yao playing in the video “NZCFS Conference 2010 Hamilton part 1″from Minutes 3.53 to 9.40.  You can find this video in the website Video Gallery by clicking on “More Videos” in the Home Page sidebar.  CHEN Xiyao (Yao) completed his Masters Degree at WINTEC earlier this year. As part of his degree requirements, Yao had to prepare and produce a CD of his playing the Guzheng. Ian has some copies of the CD available at $20-00 – plus ($4-60) postage cost. Please contact Ian if you are interested in purchasing one of these CDs.

“China through the Ages

– from Confucius to Deng (from legend and mythology to 2008) in two volumes. Volume 1 up to the 1911 revolution and Volume 2  from 1921 to 2008. These two books, compiled by Xie Chuntao, were presented to our Branch by the Chinese Embassy at our National Conference in Wellington. Please ask Ian or San if you would like to borrow.

Lend-a-book or Swap-a-book.

Some of us have books and novels on or about China. If you provide brief details of the book we can publish this in our newsletter – another member can then contact you to borrow the book. If we have sufficient interest we could include swap-a-book or lend-a-book as part of our monthly meeting. We would also love to have someone give a spoken précis of any interesting book on or about China that they have read. We also welcome any book reviews for publishing in our newsletter.

Book Review:

“The Man Who Loved China” by Simon Winchester, published by Harper Perennial. Described as “The Fantastic Story of the Eccentric Scientist who unlocked the Mysteries of the Middle Kingdom”. The scientist is Joseph Needham of Cambridge, UK, who after falling in love with a Chinese woman and learning her language, took it upon himself to travel to China to try and unlock the discoveries of Chinese science. His journey started in 1943 when China was in the middle of the Japanese War as were the communists and nationalists. He subsequently wrote “Science and Civilization in China” which so far has 24 volumes. There is an interesting account of the time that Joseph Needham and Rewi Alley travelled together to Shandan. Joseph later went to America to give talks to raise funds for the Baillie School in Shandan. This is an absorbing story of travel adventures, history and romance. Reviewed by Jenevere Foreman.

Branch Fundraising and Membership Promotion Luncheon.

We are planning a Yum Cha lunch at a Hamilton Chinese Restaurant in July (probably 17th) to provide support for those of our Society members in Christchurch in need. We are asking members to bring along one or two friends who may be interested in becoming a branch member and/or would like to support our fundraising. Our branch will cover the cost of the lunch for our members and their invited guests, but such branch members and guests would be expected to bring along appropriate Countdown or Pak’n Save vouchers which we would collect and then send down to Christchurch Branch for distribution to those of their members in need. Members or guests donating coupons can provide their name and address or email, or remain anonymous.

 

Shanxi Delegation.

A delegation of four from the Shanxi University College will be visiting Hamilton in June hosted by University of Waikato (Contact is Miao FAN).

Items for newsletter.

Articles, book or film review, reports, photos etc are welcome for publication in our newsletter – could these be forwarded to Ian [email protected]  (or posted to 37 Orchard Avenue, Enderley, Hamilton 3214) before the end of the first week of the month so that material can be to hand for preparation and publishing of our newsletter in the second week..