On 12 May I finally made it to one of their first meetings since they started. Location: Bo Coffee, where they can use a private room. Very near the subway station Wudaokou, but nearly one hour by subway from gongti.

The new club is doing very well with new and dynamic members.
We are looking forward to organize a Gala with the two clubs (East and West), probably in Conrad Hotel on 25 June, details to be confirmed.

On 9 May a different location to do the elections of the new board for Rotaract East (Sanlitun): The Tree in Sanlitun, a well-known Belgian bar and restaurant.
The new team was elected, different nationalities, different faces. They will start their Rotaract year 1 July.
We were happily surprised by the invasion from many members of the Rotaract West (Wudaokou) who joined us for a pretty intense party.

Indeed our Birthday Boy Frederik paid us all a drink and they then switched to Tequila at some point. Somehow all Rotaractors made it home safely, if not the same evening…

Sometimes words are not needed. This year’s Art Jam was again a blast as the pictures tell the story.Seems we have hidden artists among us!

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Location was again at the Crossroads Centre in Da Shiqiao Hutong. Proceeds (over RMB 1,500) went to support the 4th Edition of China Women’s Film Festival.
Great job by Jade and all the others!

A quiet lunch this time, just after the (short) 1 May holidays, no speaker.
Sven H., one more new German member of our club was inducted.

Gilbert received his new Paul Harris Foundation pin, the PHF+7, see his collection, PHF+7 (2016) and PHF+6 (2016), plus the first one and all others together! Received for his work with Rotaract.

Rtn Daniel R. also got a PHF pin and brought the banner and news of the new Rotary Club of Tianjin.
Daniel Ralph, who runs URBRAU (König Ludwig Beer!) kindly gave free tickets for a beer festival in Shanghai.

We had a French visitor from the loverly region of Monaco, Rtn Yann G. from the Rotary Club of Beausoleil.
Rtn Jens H. tried a new role as Sergeant-at-Arms!

During our weekly lunch we had as speaker Ms. Jocelyn Ford, a documentary director and journalist.
She is a Beijing-based award-winning public radio  journalist and filmmaker who has reported from Asia for three decades, including 15 in China. Her audio work can be heard on Marketplace, Radio Lab, The World and other U.S. public radio programs.
Director of the award-winning documentary “Nowhere To Call Home: A Tibetan in Beijing” Jocelyn Ford spoke about her work, and how her ground-breaking film paved a path to cross-cultural education and workshops for students headed abroad.
Her documentary on Tibetan views has been translated into 11 languages and won awards worldwide.
“Nowhere To Call Home: A Tibetan in Beijing” tells the story of Zanta, a widowed Tibetan migrant in Beijing whose life dream is to send her young son to school. When Jocelyn started filming Zanta and her seven-year-old son’s lives in Beijing, she assumed she’d never be able to show the documentary in China.

She tells the story of a Tibetan lady in Beijing, her struggle against plain racism in the capital (like being refused to rent an apartment), her views on her home town, her transformation into the jewelry business. While the topic seems controversial Jocelyn succeeded to show the movie in China. The movie makes us discover a world that most ignore or tend to ignore.
China never ceases to surprise. First came invitations to present her film at Xinhua News Service, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and various universities.  Following an enthusiastic response to screenings at high schools affiliated with the People’s University and Peking University, the Beijing-based journalist realized she’d stumbled on a way to have groundbreaking conversations on tolerance and inclusion with PRC teens.

The discussions on cultural sensitivity, diversity, tolerance and social justice were a catalyst for Jocelyn to develop full-fledged workshops and short films that help prepare PRC students bound for college overseas to integrate into diverse societies. She is now considering developing similar workshops for companies sending personnel abroad, and welcomes ideas.

So, we can say she covered a number of interesting topics, starting with her rather unexpected transformation from a radio reporter into a film maker. And the story of the Tibetan lady.

She has also worked on showing the challenges Chinese students face while studying abroad, the culture clash, the impulse to cheat, the lack of personal engagement and creativity.
See more here: CollegeSurvivalWorkshopb.pdf

Thanks Jocelyn for the talk!
Our big next event is on 22 May, see the flyer!