GENERAL MEETING
WEDNESDAY JULY 22nd 2009
Note change of day
Venue: Waikato Migrant Centre Boundary Road Fairfield
Speaker: Sid Lim
Topic: Searching For a Better Life; beginning in the early fifties
Sid Poon Lim will be giving a brief outline of his family’s journey from China to New Zealand; the early hard life, new friends & schooling in Ohakune; moving up to Te Awamutu to work for his Grandfather Mr Lim Yot; eventually owning his own business; Of note is his involvement with Chinese Association and the Youth Club; retirement from retail/wholesale business; involvement with Rotary Club of Te Awamutu; becoming a successful Real Estate Agent. Then retirement again and life as it is today!
EDITOR’S COMMENTS
We have changed the day of our meetings from the fourth Thursday of the month to the fourth Wednesday and provided our changed room is always available on this night, it will be Wednesday for the remainder of the year. The change has been necessary because the nature of the activity in the next room makes it difficult for our guest speakers to be heard. No alternative room is available on Thursdays.
Although our numbers were less than expected, our Pot Luck dinner at our last meeting saw a delicious variety of food. The hot soup was especially welcome on a winter’s night. Our thanks go too, to Lisa our speaker for a most interesting perspective on her year spent in Suzhou and her activities as a lecturer in China. The talk itself stimulated many questions and capped off a very pleasant meeting.
AGM and Annual Conference. 2010
Planning for the Conference in May next year is well under way. The venue, has been confirmed ( the Hamilton City Council rooms as for the last Conference held here ) and necessary security arrangements are being finalised. Peter Vautier has been working hard and has produced a first draft Conference programme covering the Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. This is currently being reviewed and discussed by the conference committee. .
News about Jenevere
Jenevere has now completed her years teaching at Changsha University and is currently touring in China. She has been to Wuxi and is currently in Beijing where she has caught up with friends, including Lu Wan Ru. Jenevere travels next to Chengde, and then on, so as you can see is making every day of her remaining time a source of fascinating experience. She returns to Changsha for one day before she takes off for home in the last week of August
I have recived a request from my friend Liu bin in the Changsha Foreign Ofiice who has been approached by Colleges in Changsha looking for two teachers, I have asked her to give me the e mail addresses and contact people so that if anyone is interested they can make direct contact and find out about accommodation and conditions of employment. I will put the details in the next newsletter.
Book Review ‘When the Earth Turns to Silver’ Alison Wong
Set from the late nineteenth century to the 1920s, from Kwangtung, China to Wellington and Dunedin and the battlefields of the Western Front — this is the story of two families.
Yung faces a new land that does not welcome the Chinese. Alone, Katherine struggles to raise her children and find her place in the world.
In a climate of hostility towards the foreign newcomers, Katherine and Yung embark on the love affair mentioned above.
Geoff Walker, Publishing Director of Penguin Group (NZ), clearly delighted to be publishing this first novel had this to say:
“This is one of those very special first novels that comes along only every now and then. We predict that this will be one of the big New Zealand novels of the year. It is written with a poet’s eye for language and is simply a delight to read. This is rich, rewarding fiction of the highest quality.
“It is also about a subject virtually untouched in New Zealand fiction, the plight of the tiny Chinese immigrant community in New Zealand in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
“Alison has spent many years researching her subject, producing a novel which is quite unique. And it is also a beautifully told love story, which reaches across the racial divide in fascinating ways.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Raised in Hawke’s Bay and a resident of Titahi Bay, Porirua, Alison Wong is a graduate of Bill Manhire’s Original Composition class at Victoria University and a past recipient of the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. She is a published poet — Alison’s collection of poetry Cup was shortlisted for the Best First Book for Poetry at the 2007 Montana NZ Book Awards — and this is her first published book of fiction.
International rights and some foreign language editions have already been sold to the UK, Australia, France and parts of Asia. The list of countries that As The Earth Turns Silver will be published in continuously grows as Alison’s London agent Toby Eady gathers great interest in the book from around the world. Eady says: “When the manuscript for As The Earth Turns Silver first came in to my office, I knew I had to go to New Zealand and meet its author. It was one of those special moments when one hears a confident new voice speaking from the very first sentence. Alison has written a truly beautiful book about the sadness of racism and why we allow ourselves to be hurt by love. I have been lucky enough to work with some great writers exploring Chinese culture around the world — Alison Wong is one of those.”
I agree with both the publisher and the literary agent, this is a major piece of wonderfully researched fiction, in Alison Wong we have a major new writer emerging.
I cannot recommend this new book warmly enough. It is a stunner!
And I must not close without applauding the cover design, back and front, by Keely O’Shannessy.Truly impressive.
Published by Penguin Group (NZ) on 29 June 2009; $37.00
Posted by Bookman Beattie
A REMINDER.
Don’t forget the Fund Raising Dinner at the HongKong Canton this Sunday
The Folk Finder
It takes a special person to devote himself to the preservation of folk songs and stories of China At 72, Xu Shaohua has spent two decades dedicated to the collection of such songs and stories to ensure they’re not lost to history. With love and passion Xu began to collect folk songs in 1987. At that time, he was living in Shanghai where he organized and performed Yangzhou Opera shows at a small local theater. His work was encouraged by the Ministry of Culture, which established the “Three Collections” project, with the aim of reviving folk art by collecting folk songs, folk stories and adages around the country. Xu began a storytelling section in the theater he usually performed, where people could come and share their folk songs and stories – and they came in droves.
In just five months, Xu collected over 160 folk songs and more than 100 stories which were compiled for the book, “China Folk Literature Collection – Shanghai Chapter.” Reading these scores and verses is like traveling down a time tunnel.
