Mandarin Teaching & Learning in Nelson

~ Next meeting ~

The full pdf version of this newsletter is available at: NZCFSNelsonAprilMay14.pdf

At the National Conference in May 2013, the NZCFS Strategic Goals were revised and branches encouraged to use them to guide their activities. A ‘key activity’ in the list is:

• Give proactive support for Chinese culture and language education in New Zealand.

In Nelson, this goal has been given increased emphasis in recent months with some new ventures being added to existing language courses. At our next meeting, you will have a unique opportunity to hear how Chinese language and culture education is being promoted in Nelson.

Our range of speakers includes those from night-class and after-school programmes, the Nelson Chinese Association Mandarin programme for children, those involved with correspondence courses, and the new outreach integrating NMIT and the Confucius Institute – an interesting line-up of dedicated Mandarin trainers who are developing essential skills for the future of friendship and cooperation.

Our picture shows some of the calligraphy output from the young enthusiasts at January’s Children’s Chinese Culture Camp. We are planning another programme in the July holidays as part of our promotion of Chinese culture and language for young people in Nelson.

Mandarin Language Assistant at NMIT

Yuanyuan Yang, is pictured here on her first day at St Joseph’s School, along with Dr Adam Lam and Dr Hong Hu from the Confucius Institute. She is from Hubei province, and will work with Nisa Rose at NMIT on outreach to Nelson schools this year. Our branch executive hosted them to dinner on Yuanyuan’s first day in Nelson as a Mandarin Language Assistant and warmly welcomed her to Nelson.

As usual, we will begin at 5.30 p.m. and then enjoy our buffet meal (cost $12), at 6 o’clock. Our speakers’ presentation will begin about 7 o’clock. Friends and visitors are most welcome but please notify Barbara when you contact her so that we have accurate numbers for the meal.

Friday 2 May .. Hearing House .. 5:30 pm

To arrange catering, please ring:

Barbara Markland ph. 544 4712 by Tuesday 29 April

text: 021 447 180 e-mail: [email protected]

LAST MEETING: More than forty members thoroughly enjoyed being transported to Huangshi with last October’s Sister City friendship delegation, led by Barbara Markland. Those who have been there in the past were interested in the renewing of previous relationships, especially with Xu Zugui, and there were wonderful new connections to report.

The delegation visited the Hubei Social Welfare Institute and enjoyed a delightful performance by the young people in the special needs unit. A visit to the ‘Old Age University’ provided a surprising insight into how China’s education system is providing extension programmes for the older folks. Mr Zhang, the Huangshi calligrapher who came here to do the calligraphy for our Chinese Garden, was delighted to show off his New Zealand friends to his elderly calligraphy students.

Judging from the many photographs there was a lot of eating and drinking, but also plenty of the serious business of cementing the twenty-year relationship between the people and institutions of the two cities.

SISTER-CITY STATUS: Concern was expressed at the March meeting about the apparent anomaly between the way Huangshi was represented as a “Friendly City” on the Nelson City Council website compared to Nelson’s other sister cities in Japan and USA. A motion to write to the Council about this was passed and our secretary received a very prompt and positive response from the Mayor. The front page of the Sister City section of the NCC website has been corrected so that Huangshi is, once again, rightfully listed as a sister city and the Mayor has invited representatives of our Branch to meet with her soon.

http://nelson.govt.nz/council/council-structure/council-organisations-2/sister-and-friendly-cities

2014 SUBSCRIPTIONS DUE: Thanks very much to those who have already paid their 2014 subscription – this is much appreciated. If this hasn’t quite made it to the top of your to-do list, reminders will be emailed and/or posted and payment can be made at our next meeting, by a cheque in the mail, or via internet banking. Details are on the subscription form (Page 4). Please make sure you let us know if any of your details have changed when you return the form so that we can keep our records up to date.

2014 BRANCH MEETINGS and EVENTS: For those wonderful people who have marked their calendar with all our meeting dates for 2014, the 5 December meeting has been amended to 28 November.

SHANDAN TEACHER BLOG ON THE NZCFS WEBSITE: Natalie Bowie, our new teacher at Shandan Bailie School, has been writing a fascinating blog on her time in Shandan, summarised on our website at: https://nzchinasociety.org.nz/16019/natalie-bowies-diary-from-shandan-contd-march-2014

The full blog, which is well worth reading, has some great photos and can be found at: http://natsbowie.com
If you register on the blog, you can make sure you receive the latest entries by email.

MEMBER NEWS:

• Our grateful thanks go to Mark Soper who donated several packets of his special cooling Chinese tea recipe – Nelson Summer Tea – with all funds raised from their sale going to the He Ming Qing Fund. Most of these were snapped up at the last meeting but the rest will be available on 2 May.

TWO EXTRAORDINARY EXHIBITIONS from the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF CHINA:

The NZCFS is proud to support two stunning exhibitions at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa, Wellington, from 22 March – 22 June, 2014. The exhibitions are very different, but complementary, and come directly from the National Museum of China, Beijing. Each includes material never before seen outside of China.

“Throne of Emperors” presents a broad sweep of 2,000 years of Chinese history. Focusing on seven fascinating emperors and their dynasties, it explores China’s political, cultural, and social development – from a newly unified country under Emperor Qin Shihuang (259–210 BCE) to a highly cultured civilisation under the Qianlong Emperor (1711–99).

The exhibition showcases a stunning selection of rare cultural treasures, including two thousand year-old silks and precious gold vessels and will not be seen anywhere else in the world.

“Shi Lu: A Revolution in Paint” introduces to New Zealand one of the masters of modern Chinese art.

Shi Lu (1919–82) faced the immense challenge of balancing aesthetics with politics through a period of constantly shifting expectations, particularly during the Cultural Revolution. But he never lost his unique artistic vision. At a time when the status of traditional Chinese painting was fiercely debated, he revitalised it for a modern age. He wrote of his ambition: ‘One of my hands stretches into tradition, the other stretches into life’.

With assistance from the Simon Deng Li Fund, NZCFS are facilitating free, educator-led programmes for school groups to these exhibitions.

Two exhibitions not to be missed – what an opportunity!
https://nzchinasociety.org.nz/15938/two-extraordinary-exhibitions-from-the-national-museum-of-china

EXCITING NEW NZCFS ARTS TOUR: The NZCFS NE China Tour departs on 28 May with a full complement of 16 tour members, including Beverley Brown and Royden Smith. The tour will be led by new Dunedin Branch President Paul Fawcett who has lived and worked in that area.

Look out for more news on the next exciting development in our NZCFS tours – a comprehensive, high-quality Arts Tour, with a focus on painting but also including elements of calligraphy, folk art, architecture, Bejing Opera and a glimpse at garden design. It will include lectures, demonstrations, participatory workshops, plus visits to classic tour sights. A detailed itinerary of this 15-day tour in October, 2014, will be available on the tours section of the Society’s website soon.
https://nzchinasociety.org.nz/news/tours-to-china

HE MING QING SCHOLARS – President Dave Bromwich reported on our current scholars:

Wang Shuizhen, from Fengxian (Shuangshipu) of Baoji city is now in her final year of study at NW Minorities University in Lanzhou. This year her studies concentrate on work experience in a hospital. She is very content, and starting to think about her return home to Shaanxi to find a job. She hopes she can find a good job in Fengxian when she graduates.

Shi Hongli has graduated and is now working in Xinjiang. She stays in touch with Wang Shuizhen. She is quite happy, and enjoying her job and gaining good experience.

The two He Ming Qing scholars in Nanchang, Zhu Caixia and Wang Xuejun, are both from Shandan. They both graduated from the Shandan Bailie School nursing course, and were very pleased to be able to continue their nursing studies. The college where they study is considered to be reasonably high level, so they had to get good marks to enter and they have both achieved an average of 90% across all subjects.

They are in their second year, and are enjoying their studies. They are both at Jiangxi Science and Technology College and while in different classes, they share the same dormitory room with two other students. They are the best of friends, and because of the distance Zhu Caixia and Wang Xuejun can only return to Shandan at most twice a year. It is a total of 40 hours train travel on hard seats to get home.

Their compulsory classes are nursing studies (how to care for patients), physiology, gynaecology, pharmacology and pathology. Both enjoy the nursing studies the best. As well, they can choose elective subjects, not necessarily related to nursing. They have read the material they received about Kathleen Hall, and are moved by this story of compassion and hardship.

While from different villages in Shandan county, both of their parents are working away from home, three in Xinjiang, and one in Shandan itself. The fees at this college are higher than for our previous HMQ students, at 12,000 RMB each year. Their dormitory accommodation is just 1,200 RMB per year, and it costs approximately 1,000 RMB per month for food and other expenses. While their scholarships from NZCFS are only 6,000 RMB each year, they are grateful that this is a great help for their families to support them through college. They occasionally get casual work serving in a canteen off-campus at 45 RMB per day, but they consider they have enough time to study.