Old China Hands 6 October

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Last day of holidays

We had our Old China Hands 6 October 2023 lunch in Morel’s Restaurant with a more modest attendance of 24. Reasons: holiday travel, some COVID cases, some with injuries, unplanned other meeting and yes Matthew who forgot to set his alarm (again). But he was kind enough to leave a big tip to the staff as compensation. Thank you!

Renaat finally put the frame up of our Anniversary event!

Again all loved the food and the lively chat. One of the dishes is from my hometown, “Waterzooi of fish, Ghent’s way”. See more about waterzooi here.

Our stars of the month

Kevin is a part of the “Brian & Kevin DUO”, along with following of bears. They have been performing in several locations in Beijing.
I personally love their songs, most I (try to) sing in the KTV.

Brian is a US citizen, currently self employed as a communications consultant with a primary focus on enhancing public speaking skills, international communications, and brand recognition; married to a Chinese lady.
Brian has been entertaining crowds with his music in the USA for more than 20 years. He continues his musical journey here in China and loves connecting with many musicians from around the world. Playing as a duo with Kevin has been one of those great connections and pleasures. Styles of music include – Rock, Country, Jazz, Blues, R & B, and much more.

Kevin Paul is also US citizen with a Chinese wife. He is a German-trained Master Piano maker (Klavierbaumeister) by profession, and has been working as a consultant in this field the past several years. Previously, he lived and worked for many years in both Germany and Denmark, and is fluent in both languages. He can also speak and read Chinese on a basic level.
Kevin studied music composition and guitar in his younger years, and played in numerous bands in America , Germany, and Denmark. He came to Beijing in 2014, working as a master piano maker. He has been working together with Brian, complimenting Brian’s stage presence with solid musical underpinnings.

MAHA Beijing Mid-Autumn Party

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

MAHA

We were invited for the “2023 MAHA Beijing Mid-Autumn Party” in MAHA Beijing Park on 28 September 2023 by the general manager Ms. May Fu, all through Ms. Lydia Long (Moldova wines and more). I was invited to promote the Art Exhibition in the Louvre, the UWEE-WFP initiative.
Hong Kong-listed Hopson Development Holdings Ltd. created the brand MAHA in Beijing, in a 400,000 square meters of native forest (originally part of Chaoyang Park). MAHA Residential Park in 8 Xiaoyun Road won the 2022 Architizer A+ Popular Choice Award in the Private Garden category.
There are several serviced apartment blocks with units of 450m²; rent is in the range of ¥220,000 /month (up to about US$ 30,000), among other. There is also the Hopson Club with the Man Fu Yan Restaurant where Elon Musk had dinner on 30 May 2023 after he arrived in Beijing on his private jet.

I had the pleasure of meeting the general manager and the lady ambassador of the Bahamas, as well as the well-known influencer Chen Wei.
There was also a market with a stand of the Belgian chocolate Pierre Marcolini.
Some nice performances and disk jockeys – music through individual headphones.
Some 400 guests enjoyed a nice lamb dinner.
I did my speech about our painting exhibition in the Louvre, see below, after showing the promotion video of the Exhibition.
Clip supplied by MAHA with my small clips added about the Launching Ceremony of MAHA a Flow Club in the MAHA Park on 28 September 2023, including my speech. (needs VPN)

5th consecutive annual exhibition in the Louvre

Every January, UWEE collaborates with the World Food Program to organize an international art exhibition at the Louvre Museum. This coming January will mark our 5th consecutive annual exhibition. I am currently the Chairman of the Exhibition.
This year more than 10,000 works were exhibited on the online exhibition platform. About 870 children’s works from 36 countries were exhibited in the Louvre.

Our art exhibition serves multiple purposes.
Firstly, we celebrate artworks created by talented young artists from across the globe.
Secondly, it is a charitable endeavor. Every penny goes to World Food Program “School Meals Feed Futures”, a noble cause.
Finally, we aim to create a community of global citizens through the exhibition. Our motto, “One World, One Future”, is a vision that aspires to bring people together in this world.

Background of the Art Exhibition

Based on The State of School Feeding Worldwide 2022 from the UNWFP, 345 million people worldwide, including 153 million children and young people face starvation. Presently, 87 countries have joined the School Meals Coalition, to ensure that, by 2030, every child receives a healthy, nutritious daily meal in school. School meal programs have benefitted 420 million children worldwide and become the world’s most extensive safety net.
Since 2018, WFP China has implemented the Preschool Nutrition Improvement Program in Xiangxi (Hunan Province), Jingxi (Guangxi Province), Linxia (Gansu Province), and Wangcang (Sichuan Province), by providing nutritious school meals, conducting nutrition and health advocacy and education, upgrading kitchen facilities, and empowering smallholder farmers.
In 2023, the Union of Western and Eastern Education (UWEE) is joining forces with the UN WFP China Office to gather artwork from school-age children benefiting from the national nutrition improvement program and young art enthusiasts worldwide.
Noteworthy submissions will have the opportunity to be showcased at the prestigious Louvre Museum. Through these initiatives, we hope to raise awareness about child nutrition improvement and invest in the future of children.

Belgian media dubious tricks

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Trends and Knack

I receive daily newsletters from Trends and Knack, discovering their Belgian media dubious tricks. Dubious but also misleading the least to say.
It’s sad because they were supposed to be reputable media.
So, what’s the problem? In the emailed newsletters the articles intended for paying subscribers are supposed to be marked with a lock or + sign. The other ones are supposed to be accessible to everybody.
I am a registered user but not a subscriber.

See above some examples:

– Flashen voor gratis drank: no lock – but no access
– KBC-baas: no + – but no access
– Chinese groeimodel: no lock – but no access
– Jonathan Holslag: no lock – but no access

Their explanation

I contacted the two several times. First they answered their technical team would look into it. Finally they admitted it was a trick to convince readers to subscribe: you click thinking it’s free, damn, it’s not. I should subscribe. Should I?
A Dutch friend commented that this practice in The Netherlands could be deemed against the consumer law and one could file a complaint.
In Belgium, I don’t see this possibility.

Other media do it correctly.

See Gazet Van Antwerpen:

As far as I can see they do it correctly.
In conclusion, I would rather subscribe to GVA than to Knack-Trends. It’s a matter of honesty. And the newsletter of GVA is clear and well done.

Old China Hands 1 September

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Good numbers

Yes, we are back to good attendance with the lunch of Old China Hands 1 September. We were 30! I wonder when we could have again around 40…
I was happy to welcome old friends from Australia visiting China, William from Xian, and of course the usual regular members.
Greg organized a surprise cake with a speech and a song for his Chinese friend who is leaving for London to study. She was really impressed and emotional. And we all had two deserts this time!

For once I am in the pictures! Food was great as usual, thanks Renaat Morel and his team.
Next lunch planned for Friday 6 October.

Our “famous OCH of the month”

Dr. David Feng or as we known him “Mr. Railways”.
David is Chinese by birth, Swiss by passport, and has spent many years in London, as well as in many other cities, notably those with developed public transport.
With over 530,000 kilometers by rail, metro, tram, monorail, and other forms rail transport across Europe, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas, he is, we can say, “well-travelled”. He is particularly knowledgeable about the rail systems in China, Switzerland, and the UK.
He has been to over 2,500 rail, metro, and tram stations, including every single station on the world’s busiest and (by route) longest metro network (the Beijing Subway), and the oldest such network, the London Underground.
He acts like the journalist-on-the train, taking notes, pictures, shooting video clips and talking on his podcasts and other media.
His travels made him a detail-oriented specialist in concepts of railway station design, operations, and usability. He is a famous rail media personality, through many years of social media postings about the railways of China.
He helped the rail network in the UK translate signs from English to Chinese. He firmly remains in this field, as through his published book, the “Everyday Rail English” series by the China Railway Publishing House. Many signs were improved with his active participation. He has also trained thousands of Beijing Subway staff with similar bilingual publications and talks.

He is regularly featured on Chinese and worldwide media. I collected some of the latest articles, see here:

 

2300 years old silk robe

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The story

Full details of the 2300 years old silk robe can be found in the following articles:
China Daily 1 August 2007 – Chinese Archaeologists Make Ground-breaking Textile Discovery
and
China.org 31 July 2007 – 2,500-year-old Textiles Discovered by Chinese Archaeologists

The 2300 years old silk robe was discovered in a tomb in 1982.
Chinese archaeologists have found textiles in a mysterious tomb dating back nearly 2,500 years in eastern Jiangxi Province, the oldest to be discovered in China’s history.
The textiles, which are well-preserved and feature stunning dyeing and weaving technologies, will rewrite the history of China’s textile industry, says Wang Yarong, an archaeologist who has been following the findings in the textile sector for more than three decades.
Wang and her colleagues found more than 20 pieces of fine silk, flax and cotton cloth in 22 of a total 47 coffins unearthed from the tomb in Lijia village of Jing’an county.
“Most of them are fine fabrics and the largest piece is 130 cm long, 52 cm wide and woven with complicated techniques,” said Wang, a researcher with the textiles preservation center of the Beijing-based Capital Museum.
The tomb, 16 meters long, 11.5 meters wide and three meters deep, contained the largest group of coffins ever discovered in a single tomb and its excavation was dubbed “the most important archeological project of the year” by cultural experts and the Chinese media.
Experts had unearthed more than 200 heritage pieces from the tomb, including copperware, jade, gold and handicrafts made from bamboo: a well-preserved fan 37 cm long and 25 cm wide and a bamboo mat 180 cm long and 80 cm wide.
Seven of the coffins contained human skeletons, four of which were identified as healthy females aged around 20, said Wei Dong, an archaeologist from northeast China’s Jilin University. Wei and other members of the research team assumed the four young women were maids who had been buried alive in sacrifice alongside a dead aristocrat, as was a centuries-old custom in ancient China.

Read the full article!

At the house of our friend Mike

We welcomed Ms. Wang Yarong at the house of Mike, along with Rene and others on 28 July 2022. The CCTV crew did the shooting of the documentary.

We had the chance to look at the copy of the original silk robe, done by Ms. Wang Yarong and her team. Ms. Wang gave a detailed insight into the art work and we also looked at the 3D computer images.

The documentary

Came out in August 2023.
The movie is best seen on mobile, it needs the app.

《走遍中国》20230803焕新·千年霓裳

See some screenshots from my mobile.