Projects Tour 2010
Kathy Beatson
“How a little goes a long way”
The NZCFS Projects Tours were instigated a couple of years ago by Projects Committee member, and now North Island Vice President, Dave Bromwich, as a way of showing Society members how their fundraising endeavours were being used in China.
With our projects often concentrated in areas that had an historical link to New Zealanders through Rewi Alley or Kathleen Hall, tour members would learn more about life in these isolated, rural communities and have a chance to see for themselves how much difference our small but important contribution can make.
Imagine going to Beijing but not going to the Great Wall or the Forbidden City, or going to Xi’an and not going to see the Terracotta Warriors? Well, that’s what Projects Tours do – skip the usual tourist attractions and spend more time out in the countryside with the farmers in their villages.
Kathy Beatson, our Nelson Branch Projects Officer, joined last year’s group as they travelled from Beijing to Shanghai via Baoding, Xi’an, Lanzhou, Shandan, Guilin and Nanning, met all three of the He Ming Qing Scholars and visited Society earthquake and co-operative projects in Shuangshipu, Shandan, Nanning and Pingguo County.
As usual, Branch business will be dealt with prior to our Chinese meal costing $12. Our speaker will begin immediately after the meal. Friends and visitors are welcome but please notify Barbara when you ring so that we have accurate numbers for the meal.
Friday 25 June .. Hearing House .. 5:30 pm
To arrange catering please ring:
Barbara Markland Ph. 544 4712 by Tuesday 22 June.
LAST MEETING: Philippa Reynolds, Rewi Alley’s niece, spoke to us about her time in Beijing last December when she represented the Alley Family at a very special ceremony in the Great Hall of the People. On behalf of the family, she received a prestigious Award which recognised Rewi Alley as one of “The Top 10 Foreign Friends of China” over the last sixty years. Philippa’s intimate knowledge of Rewi’s life in New Zealand and China added another dimension to our understanding of this great New Zealander and his extensive work in China.
NELSON DELEGATES ENJOY THEIR FIRST NATIONAL CONFERENCE AND AGM: Bruce and Christine Ward were in Hamilton as the Nelson delegates for National Conference 2010, May 21-23. As Branch President, Christine also attended two National Executive meetings where she had been co-opted to act as Minute Secretary. Additional Nelson perspective was, of course, provided by National Treasurer, Royden.
As first-time attendees, Christine and Bruce were excited to meet with a delightful range of new people and ideas. We were also grateful to reconnect with Christchurch folk and Rewi Alley relatives. We share some personal highlights:
Exec Meetings: Christine was impressed by the tremendous amount of work done at the Executive meetings with financial, constitutional and future planning issues flying around the table and being assigned for on-going attention. As Chairman, Eric Livingstone kept everything to schedule and the personal commitment of portfolio-holders to their special responsibilities was both informative and inspiring.
AGM: A huge agenda was efficiently processed as a new Executive was elected, a range of reports were presented and serious concerns debated. A particular worry is the potential withdrawal of the 1:4 foreign aid ‘Koha’ subsidy which has, in the past, meant a handsome increase in the value of our financial contributions to Chinese aid projects. Branches are being asked to lobby influential people about the consequences of such a policy change.
National Treasurer Royden was congratulated on his financial management, which saw a big reduction in the Society’s projected deficit, and drew support for his recommendation to keep capitation the same for 2011/12.
NZCFS Projects: These are a major focus of the work of the society and we were enormously impressed by the project reports and future perspectives. Dave Bromwich, elected North Island Vice President, is highly active in promoting and delivering assistance for provincial co-operatives. Dave is planning more Projects Tours to develop and extend awareness. He is urging Branches to develop a relationship with one of our projects and to seek more funds from their local communities in addition to their own membership.
Diana Madgin’s passion for the He Ming Qing Scholarship is also very obvious. She keeps in touch with the Scholars who are selected from country villages and are required to return to assist in their local communities after their training. The most recent Scholar, Shi Hongli from Zhangye, has sent a very impressive tapestry, which she made herself, to the Society as an appreciation. Diana hopes that the scholarship concept can be extended to encompass some related activities such as exchanges of medical students.
Building Bridges – Conference Day: The Hamilton committee organised a programme which focused more on the Chinese population in New Zealand than has been the case in the past. Musical items, expertly and delightfully performed by Chinese students, were a highlight of the afternoon. An astounding performance on the Guzheng by a Waikato University student earned prolonged applause, and an encore. There were talks by Chinese Hamiltonians about their New Zealand experiences, their own family histories, and their efforts to maintain their own cultural heritage while also appreciating their New Zealand lifestyle. On this day, it was these connections with local Chinese which seemed to strongly reinforce concepts of friendship.
There were also official visitors from the Consulate in Auckland and the Embassy in Wellington, and two representatives from Youxie, Xu Fenghua and Wang Hongqiang.
National Secretary Alistair Shaw joined the conference by way of a video presentation on ‘Changing Images of China’. This related to his recently completed PhD thesis which traces people-to-people relationships between Chinese and New Zealanders, and the changing perceptions of China here.
Bill Willmott presented his usual erudite and fascinating perspective on NZ/China relationships. His illustrated lecture, “Kiwi Dragon – The Chinese in Aotearoa/New Zealand: History, Hope, Culture”, provided us with much food for thought and has been published as a book. These sold out quickly but can be obtained by from Quaker Booksales: [email protected].
Richard Bedford (Auckland Institute of Technology) discussed ‘The Demographics of Chinese Migration’. He had left his notes at home, but nevertheless managed to fascinate with many relevant statistics about the Chinese diaspora and its longer-term consequences.
Saturday Evening Banquet: As usual for these events there was lots of food and lots of toasts and, fortunately, not too many speeches. A highlight of the evening was seeing the excellent “Jasmine” music video produced by George Andrews and some young Chinese from Auckland Branch. This was the Society’s contribution to the 60th Anniversary celebration of the PRC. It has achieved great fame, being shown every 20 minutes (between May 1st and October 31st) outside the New Zealand pavilion at the Shanghai Expo. Auckland’s amazing video was a worthy winner of the Branch Achievement Award for 2010!
Congratulations Hamilton! All those great ideas and the hard work really paid off. It was a memorable conference in a pleasant venue and the rain did not matter. Now we look forward to Wellington in May, 2011.
SISTER CITY LIFE MEMBERSHIP FOR PAT JONES: A recent Sister City Committee meeting held in the Nelson City Council Chamber was attended by the President of Sister Cities New Zealand, Bill Woods. Chaired by Marilyn Gibbs, the Nelson Sister City Co-ordinator, the meeting was attended by the Nelson Mayor, Kerry Marshall, previous Nelson Mayor, Paul Matheson, three Nelson City Councillors, representatives of Nelson’s three Sister Cities – Miyazu, Huangshi and Eureka, and Pat’s two daughters.
Bill spoke of his belief in Sister City connections and, although more councils throughout New Zealand were now looking for economic values in their Sister City relationships, he felt that without the foundations of friendship, and people-to-people contact, further development would not be successful. He believes that Sister City relationships form a peace movement for greater understanding among nations on a personal level.
However, the real purpose of the meeting was to present a very surprised Pat Jones with an Award of Life Membership of Sister Cities New Zealand for her work over twenty years, beginning with the first visit from Miyazu to Nelson in 1987 and continuing as the Nelson Sister City Co-ordinator from 1996-2007. Pat, through her love of all nationalities, keen interest, commitment and passion, represented what Sister Cities are truly about. An amazed Pat thanked all those who had been involved with her during all those years. The afternoon concluded with afternoon tea and Sister City reminiscences.
NATIONAL TOURS: A reminder that your Tours Committee are planning tours for 2011 and invite expressions of interest in a Tour to Tibet (end of May beginning of June), and a Tour to Shanxi and Henan Provinces (September).
1. Tibet: two weeks in May/June 2011
Beijing (2-3 days)
Fly to Xining in Qinghai Province and visit Qinghai Lake and ethnic minorities (2-3 days)
Train to Lhasa, Tibet and surrounding areas (5 days)
Fly to Chengdu and visit the Panda sanctuary (3-4 days)
Some fitness requirement may be necessary.
2. Shanxi and Henan Provinces: two weeks in September, 2011
Including Pingyao and Zhenzhou cities
Travel to Xian to see the Terracotta Warriors and the start of the Silk Road
Takes you to places not normally travelled by other commercial tours.
For further information, and to register your interest, please contact National Tours Committee member, Royden (ph 547-6608 or [email protected]) or Andrew Kemp at Kemp House of Travel: phone: 0800 80 80 25 or email: [email protected]
A couple of interesting excerpts from the Wellington Branch newsletter:
CHINESE CONSIDER SCHEME FOR WORLD’S BIGGEST DAM IN TIBET: Chinese lobbyists are calling for construction of the world’s biggest dam on the upper reaches of the Brahmaputra River as part of a huge expansion of hydropower in the Himalayas. A 38 Gigawatt plant is being considered, more than half as big again as the Three Gorges Dam. Given the huge expense, technical difficulties and political sensitivities of the scheme, it is far from certain of final approval. But Chinese hydro-engineers see it as the ultimate goal in a race with India to develop water resources in one of the planet’s last remote regions. (from “The Guardian Weekly” of 28.05.10)
SHOULD CHINA’S ONE-CHILD POLICY CONTINUE? China currently faces sharply decreasing input into its labour force, a rapidly growing aging population and an imbalance in male and female births. At recent sessions of the National People’s Congress (NPC) and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), proposals were put forward to change the current one-child policy to a policy of “encouraging the birth of one child, allowing two children and forbidding three children.” This proposal is widely supported by the public.
NPC Deputy He Youlin submitted a proposal during the NPC session to allow a couple to have two children, saying, “It’s high time to change the current family planning policy” due to the occurrence of a number of new population-related problems such as accelerated growth of the aging population, mounting pension payments, and the recently appearing “shortage of migrant workers”. All of the problems are partly related to the one-child policy and, in the long term, these factors may affect economic growth, the deputy argued. (Beijing Review 15.4.10)
RECOMMENDED READING – “Oracle Bones” by Peter Hessler: Peter’s latest book, “Country Driving”, was recommended in the last newsletter. “River Town” was his first book on China which related his experiences as a Peace Corps volunteer and English teacher in a town on the Yangtze. “Oracle Bones” covers his subsequent experiences as a freelance journalist based in Beijing and includes many fascinating stories of what happened to some of his English students when they graduated and moved to other cities as teachers or factory workers.
As in his other books, Peter gives thoughtful insight into the lives of ordinary Chinese and those living on the margins – from a Uighur middleman based in Beijing to new factory workers in the industrial area of the new economic zone in Shenzhen. Highly recommended and available from the Nelson Library.
You can view a PDF of the Nelson Branch Newsletter – June 2010.
