Next Meeting Saturday 29th November
At 1 pm in the ETC Learning Center, Level 2, 14 Broadway Ave (above Bean Café),
Palmerston North. There will be a pot luck lunch at 1.30pm following the video.
End of Year Lunch and Video
Inside Red China
By Rudell and Ramai Hayward
This historic 1958 film was made by the pioneer New Zealand film makers Rudel and Ramai Hayward who visited China 8 years after liberation together with the famous NZ poet R.A.K. Mason. It was one of the first films made about post-liberation China and contains scenes in which Ramai presented Mao Zedong with a maori cloak. The cloak has recently been returned to New Zealand and currently resides at Te Papa museum in Wellington. The film has been recently re-mastered by George Andrews.
Our Last Meeting – Discover China Day
This very successful event was held in the Palmerston North City Library on Saturday September 13th and was organised to celebrate the first national Chinese Language week http://nzchinasociety.org.nz/16542/nz-chinese-language-week-is-launched/. A team of seven people from the Confucius Institute at Victoria University visited Palmerston North and provided workshops in Chinese language, calligraphy, painting and martial arts in the city library. The team was led by Mr Yaru Liu, director of Chinese language at the Institute and the workshops were run by Ms Lanhui Ying (Chinese language) Mr Stan Chan (Calligraphy and painting) and Mr Meng Fanxiao (Martial arts).
In opening the event, Branch President Maurice Alley noted that the language of our largest trading partner is still not officially taught in any of Palmerston North Schools although Palmerston North Girls High does provide some extra-curricular classes. Fortunately, Chinese language is taught at Massey University and Ucol, and weekly classes have recently been provided by the Confucius Institute and the Manawatu Chinese Association. On the other hand, Japanese language is taught at four Palmerston North High Schools.
The first workshop was on the nature and derivation of chinese language and characters demonstrated by Ms Lanhui Ying. She gave a fascinating account of the evolution and development of this ancient language over many centuries. She encouraged the audience to learn Chinese characters pointing out that it requires knowledge of only 580 characters to read a newspaper whereas more that 2000 words are need to read an English newspaper.
The art of Chinese calligrapy and the essence of chinese painting were skillfully demonstrated by Chinese artist Mr Stan Chan. Both young and old had the opportunity to practice their calligraphy technique and learned how to create a classical Chinese painting using a few simple brush strokes.
The last workshop was by Mr Meng Fanxiao who demonstrated various forms of Chinese martial arts using the body as well as “soft” and hard weapons. Many forms of the discipline are based on “qigong” which is a system of breathing and balancing exercises that develops body strength, energy and mental concentration. Meng has practiced martial arts since the age of five and gave an exciting demonstration of the use of the broad sword, a weighty weapon that can be thrown off the body in many directions at different angles. Meng demonstrated and lead the audience in a series of qigong exercises.
The Discover China Day was organised by Kate Ngai from the Manawatu Branch of the NZ/China Friendship Society in collaboration with Yaru Liu from the Confucius Institute at Victoria University.
Maurice Alley
22nd Novemeber 2014
