2011summer newsletter
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Summer 2011
CHINESE CULTURAL
GROUP, MERTON
Inside this issue:
Antiques Road Show
2
Christmas Party 2
The 18 Tai Chi Shibashi
2
Spring Rolls dem-onstration
2
The Mid Autumn Festival
3
The World’s Long-est Sea Bridge
3
2 Great Chinese Writers
4
CHAIRMAN’S REPORT—Eugene Byrne
On 11th July, five of us visited the Museum of Asian Music at Acton
to see the exhibition.
The journey from Wimbledon included one easy train change and
walking through beautiful Acton Park. It was a glorious, warm day.
We found the museum after getting lost twice. The museum is little
known but modern and well equipped. There are no guides, but the
displays are well illustrated. They feature all of the six components of
the Chinese opera wardrobe: long garments, separates, armour,
head-dress, footwear and accessories. The garments are brought
Chinese proverbs
(ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING on the 21 June 2011)
The Group has completed a busy year in the eight months since our inaugural meeting. We have 37 paid-up members but the average attendance at our meetings has currently dropped
to about 11 to 14. I would thank the hard core of members who attend so regularly. But we
would like to hear the ideas of members as to how this decline could be reversed, and also about what contributions they may be able to make to any of the activities mentioned below.
For the regular meetings the basic format has continued. The taichi appears to be the most
popular of the different activities and we are grateful to Maggie Woo, Alex Roney and Lee Monczakowski for taking turns in leading the exercises. Maggie‟s recent trial of DVDs that can
be followed seems to be the way forward. Thanks also to Maggie for her hard work on
traditional festival celebrations and the New Year dinner. The Confucius Restaurant has also
been generous.
The newsletter produced by Lee Monczakowski is a vital communication tool that is also useful
in public relations promotion. I thank her most sincerely for her hard work on this very attractive production and I would urge members to come forward with any contributions that
they can provide.
We have worked on PR promotion in various directions. The London South West Chinese
Community Association, a large and active body meeting in the Acasia Intergenerational Centre, Eastfields, with its Chairman Patrick Lauson, has promoted a friendly social
collaboration with us which has been mutually beneficial. I hope to develop a similar contact with an active group in Kingston, and to have our name included on local activity websites. For
the past two years we have sponsored talks in the Wimbledon Bookfest which have been very
successful and have produced a few new members. This October we hope to sponsor a
showing of the new type of Chinese documentary films, with an introduction by Prof Chris Berry who is perhaps the leading UK expert on Chinese cinema, but the Bookfest
arrangements for this remain to be confirmed.
Finally, the Committee. Sadly, other commitments have forced Gregory and Soot Yee Liaw to
leave us but we hope to have them back one day. We are very glad that Lee Monczakowski
has been able to rejoin. The Guild has been supportive as always and Helen Marti who had to
resign some time ago still works there part-time and has been very helpful. I-Chen Tsai has worked hard but has had to be away recently. We are badly in need of an assistant secretary
since at the moment much of that work is falling on other committee members. But
fortunately for me, my colleagues‟ attitude is gong he (pronounced “goong her”, work
together) a slogan which, although it was devised by the Communist Party, in my view reflects an ancient cultural characteristic. So feichang ganxie, heartfelt thanks, to each of them.
By EUGENE BYRNE
Programme Jul to Dec 11
4
The Beijing Opera Costumes Exhibition
A Poem by Bao Zhao
4 (continued page 3)
If you are patient in a moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow. If you wish to know the mind of a man, listen to his words. To know the road ahead, ask those coming back. If you want to know your past - look into y o u r p r e s e n t conditions. If you want to know your future - look into your present actions.
Page 2
Tuesday, 20th December 2011
Believe it or not, we are already planning for Christmas!
Those of you who came to the Christmas party for the
last two years participated in singing carols and other
songs in Mandarin Chinese. This year, you will be
accompanied by 4 recorders, a guitar, and a mandolin. The
recorder players have enlisted the help of two virtuoso
string players who will make their guest appearance for
the first time at Wimbledon Guild House.
We aim to give you a good selection of carols, and
t r a d i t i ona l a nd m od ern
international pieces for your
delight. With Christmas cakes,
mince pies and much more being
the order of the day, do not
forget to keep the date in your
diary to come and take part in
the festivities. Friends are very
welcome, but please let us known
numbers for catering and seating
purposes.
By Maggie Woo
GENERAL NEWS
(Tuesday, 1st November 2011)
We have dubbed this session after the popular BBC
TV programme of the same title, putting a slant on
what you might expect
to find. Many of our
members are owners of
Chinese curios, arte-
facts, and even antiques
which they have col-
lected along the way,
and would be very
proud to share their
aesthetics with fellow
members.
Please come and join in the fun by bringing along
your own pieces of pride and joy. There will not be
anyone qualified to evaluate them, but we could
learn from each other.
Chinese snacks and China tea will be served during
the afternoon. It promises to be an enjoyable ex-
perience.
By Maggie Woo
Christmas Party Antiques Road Show
The members who weren't
able to attend the meeting on
5th July missed a real treat
when Rosetta Chak gave us a
demonstration of making
Spring Rolls.
We all "had a go" at carefully
peeling apart the square pastry
cases and doing our best to
copy Rosetta's example of
filling just the right amount of
her previously prepared
mixture, then folding and
sealing with the "glue" made
with flour and water. A
plentiful supply of somewhat
mixed shapes were then fried
and enjoyed by all. It‟s
delicious! Many thanks
Rosetta.
By Ivy Salvage
How about a Spring Rolls demonstration?
1. Opening v Raising the arms
2. Opening the Chest
3. Dancing with Rainbow
4. Gathering Qi & Separating the Clouds
5. Changing Palms & Rolling Arms
6. Rowing The Boat
7. Lifting the Ball
8. Carrying the Moon
9. Pushing Palms
10. Playing with Clouds
11. Scooping the Sea & Searching the Sky
12. Pushing the Waves
13. Spreading your Wings
14. Punching
15. Flying like a Goose
16. Turning the Wheel / Spinning Wheels
17. Bouncing a Ball
18. Balancing the Qi + Final Closing
The 18 Tai Chi Qigong Sequence
Page 3
alive by the stories they tell, and the characters they fit.
A DVD presentation on face make- up for both male and female characters was most
informative, and fascinating. The face make-up, colours and pattern together tell the
audience the personality and status of the character. It is obviously a laborious task,
over an average of two hours, making up a „dan‟ (a part as a young, beautiful and
vivacious lady). We guess it takes just as long for her to disrobe after the performance.
We had a good two and half hours at the exhibition, but it was most enjoyable, and
time well spent. The exhibition runs from 22nd June to 31st July. It is a pity it has not
been well publicised, and the venue is a little difficult to find.
By Maggie Woo
Worlds Longest Sea Bridge—The Jiaozhou Bay bridge
Continuation from page 1—Visit to the Beijiing Opera Costumes Exhibition
The Mid-Autumn Festival
The Mid-Autumn Festival
(Zongqiujie), determined under
the lunar calendar, will fall on 12
September this year but we will
be celebrating it early, at our 6
September meeting, when Lee
Monczakowski and Rosetta
Chak have kindly agreed to
organise it. It is sometimes
called the Lantern Festival or Mooncake Festival
(in Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines). Families
and friends gather to admire the harvest moon,
drink tea with moon cakes and pomelos.
Classical poetry is strong on poems often about
wives gazing at the same moon that is shining on
their loved ones far from home. The mandarin
class who ran the country locally and wrote much
of the poetry were always posted away from their
home district. A woman academic once cynically
pointed out to me that it was a woman missing her
husband because these poems were written by men.
Perhaps on 6 September, weather permitting we
could gather outside and recite in Mandarin and
English almost the most famous classical poem, by
the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bo (701 – 762).
By EUGENE BYRNE
Li Bai: Night Thoughts 李白: 夜思
The bright moon shone before my bed,
I wondered – was it frost upon the ground?
I raised my head to gaze at the clear moon,
Bowed my head, remembering my old home.
床前明月光 疑是地上霜
擧頭望明月 低頭思故鄕.
China has opened the world's
longest cross-sea bridge - which
stretches five miles further than
the distance between Dover and
Calais.
The Jiaozhou Bay bridge is 26.4
miles long and links China's eastern
port city of Qingdao to the off-
shore island Huangdao.
The road bridge, which is 110ft
wide and is the longest of its kind,
cost nearly £1billion to build. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009748/That-bridge-far-Worlds-longest-sea-bridge-opens-traffic-China--hold-title-
years.html#ixzz1QmHCMD32
Mona at the Exhibition
For further information, please contact Eugene
Byrne on 020 8947 1346
Next Quarterly
Newsletter
Please email Lee if
you have any
interesting article to
be considered.
surreylee@gmail.com
It‟s a sad fact that Chinese literature, whether classical or
modern, can boast no author of world renown, no
Tolstoy, Chekhov, Dostoevsky or Solzhenitsyn. The two
leading modern writers are insufficiently known outside
China, so we hope to feature both of them in our 2012
programme.
LU XUN 鲁迅 (1881 – 1936) was born in Shaoxing
(where a well-known wine comes from) south of
Shanghai and Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. The leading
modern Chinese writer, he was a leading left-wing author
and polemicist but produced only short stories, notably
Ah Q (see below) and Diary of a Madman: as far as we
know, none of them became films. Visit:
www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/jun/12/rereading-julia-
lovell-lu-xun. Read:
The Real Story of Ah
Q and other Tales of
C h i n a : P e n g u i n
Classics
LAO SHE 老舍 (1899
– 1966) was a Beijing-
born Manchu and best
known as an author
and playwright of the post-May Fourth generation, mainly
but not wholly of comedy. He was a teacher, learnt
English and taught Chinese at the School of Oriental &
African Studies in London in the twenties. He was a
victim of the Cultural Revolution, during which he
committed suicide. He was influenced by the novels of
Charles Dickens and his two best-known novels are
Chaguan (The Teahouse) and Luotuo Xiangzi (Camel
Shangzi), both of which were made into films: we hope to
show one of them next year.
By EUGENE BYRNE
TWO GREAT CHINESE WRITERS
Prepared for the Chinese Cultural Group Mer-
ton
Our social group programme: Meetings are at the Guild House, 30 – 32 Worple
Road SW19, on Tuesdays and begin at 3.30 p.m. with
40 minutes of Tai Chi Qi Gong Shibashi exercises. The
items shown below commence at 4.30 p.m. and end by
5.30 p.m.
19th Jul Social
(I-Chen Tsai)
AUGUST NO MEETINGS
6th Sep Mid-Autumn Festival
(Lee Monczakowski & Rosetta Chak)
20th Sep
Buddhism in Thailand
(Russell Humphreys, Chief Executive Officer,
Wimbledon Guild)
4th Oct
Talk “Looking at classical Chinese
calligraphy” (Eugene Byrne; preparation for BL
visit)
18th Oct
Visit to the British Library—meet there at
5.00 p.m. N.B. “BOOKINGS ONLY”
(Eugene Byrne)
1st Nov Chinese Antiques Road Show
(Ivy Salvage and Maggie Woo)
15th Nov Quiz
(Alex Roney and Maggie Woo)
6th Dec Talk “The Encounter with the West” (Eugene
Byrne)
20th Dec Christmas Party & Carols
(Maggie Woo et al)
Page 4
Why mope, why sigh, why sit and grieve?
Just pour some wine to bring you cheer
Toast your health and sing some songs
The human heart is not of stone
And yet my voice is quiet, alone
My sorrow will escape, I fear."
Shared by Alex Roney
A Poem by Bao Zhao 鲍照
Northern Wei Dynasty
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