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Double Ninth Day

An Autumnal Chrysanthemum

This Friday, 27th October, all of the students in my school in Beijing with all of their teachers and the company of some parents will make a 20 minute bus journey to the outskirts of Beijing and climb a mountain. For those of you who don’t know Beijing, it is a city in a bowl of mountains. One of the joys of my apartment is that I can see the mountains very clearly from the windows.

But why are we climbing the mountain together on Friday? In the UK this might be an outdoors activity, designed to promote healthy lifestyles and to re-connect the students with nature. And it is both of those things here in Beijing. But it is also part of the cultural celebration of an event called ‘Double Ninth Day’ or to give its more formal title ‘重阳节’ or ‘Chongyang Jie’.

So let me introduce you to Double Ninth Day. First of all let’s try to understand the name. You’re probably aware that numbers have all sorts of cultural meanings in China. According to records from the mysterious book the ‘I Ching’ or ‘Book of Changes’《易经》the number 6 belonged to the Yin character of the famous Taoist ‘yinyang’ symbol while the number 9 was thought to be of the Yang character. So, on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month, both day and month are Yang characters. Therefore, the festival was named the Double Ninth Festival.

Is there a traditional story to explain Chongyang? Of course there is, there’s a fabulous legend attached to every festival. For this legend we have to go back to the Eastern Han era in Chinese history ( 25-220 AD). The story tells of a plague demon who lived in the River Ru. Once the demon emerged from his watery lair and killed the parents of a young man called Hengjing. Determined to take revenge, Hengjing, became the follower of a Taoist immortal teacher in order to learn the magic skills needed to defeat the demon. Through his patient study, Hengjing acquired a bag of an evil smelling herb called dogweed and a flask of chrysanthemum wine. Back at the village he gave each villager a leaf of the herb and a bowl of the wine and led them into the mountains for safety. Sure enough the next time the villainous demon crept out of the river to kill a villager or two, the good people disoriented him with the fumes of the weed and the wine. And while the demon staggered around on the mountainside, the courageous Hengjing finished him off with a few blows of his sword.

So, on Friday we will take our children on to the mountain to fight and defeat plague demons! Of course not. But as with all Chinese customs and traditions there are thoroughly sensible reasons for the beliefs, that almost always relate to health. We all know that mountain air will be fresh and clean. In the days before modern medicine it probably made perfect sense to leave a city or town being consumed by disease and retreat to the mountains.

As for the chrysanthemums, autumn is the time when these flowers are at their best in China. Since they flower when the weather starts to grow colder, they are seen as symbols of strength and vitality. Furthermore an infusion of Chrysanthemum tea has antibacterial, antifungal, and anti-inflammatory characteristics. It is a herbal medicine. Therefore drinking this health giving brew when moving from the warmth of early autumn to the cold of late autumn and approaching winter would be a very sensible health precaution. And why not go out and climb a mountain to enjoy the spiritual uplift of the mountain views before winter snow and ice makes them inaccessible until Spring?

Since 1989, a new meaning had been added to ‘Double Ninth Day’. As nine is pronounced ‘jiu’ / “久” meaning long in Chinese, so people endow the word ‘jiu’ with the meaning of longevity in a person’s life. In the year 1989, Double Ninth Festival was designated as ‘Senior’s Day’ – a day to respect the elderly and to let them enjoy themselves. Many companies organise groups where retired people can go out to climb mountains or on other outings. Members of a family also accompany their elders to have a relaxing day in a natural setting while wishing health and happiness upon them.

On our way up the mountain we can look forward to meeting families with senior members also making the climb and I am certain my students will share courteous and respectful ‘double ninth’ greetings with them.

Seniors enjoying a Double Ninth Day outing
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A Journey Through Civilisations

SACU members Iris Yau, Richard Poxton, Ros Wong (membership secretary), Zoe Reed (former Chair) and Frances Wood at the ‘Journey through Civilisations’ event.

SACU is very proud to have been one of the sponsors of a recent event in London hosted by the China Media Group. The event was held to mark the launch of a new on-line exhibition. Through immersive and digital technological innovations overseas audiences can immerse themselves in a digital scroll of time spanning ancient and modern times. This allows the audience a virtual experience of the early stages of Chinese civilisation and an appreciation of the source of China’s 5,000 years of history.

The event was jointly organised by SACU, CGTN Europe, China Media Group Europe and the Cambridge Asian Culture Association. The event is part of a global roadshow which was launched at the United Nations in June this year. The UN venue was chosen to represent China’s strong support for cultural diversity and the UN’s work.

A number of influential guests spoke at the event. Yang Xiaoguang, China’s Charge d’Affaires, told the audience that ‘China is willing to strengthen  exchanges and mutual learning among civilisations with other countries in the world to promote common development.’

CMG’s president Shen Haixiong told the audience in a video speech that he saw the mission of the broadcasting group as communicating the values of Chinese civilisation internationally “to encourage people from across the world to understand each other and build a shared future.”

There was a panel discussion hosted by Jamie Owen of CGTN. During the discussion John Hobson, Professor of International Relations at Sheffield University and author of ‘The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation’, reminded the audience that industrialisation in the West could never have happened without building on Chinese innovations, for example in metallurgy.  His message of course builds on the pioneering work of SACU founder Professor Joseph Needham in ‘Science and Civilisation in China’.

The event was attended by a modern generation of SACU bridge-builders to China, former chair Zoe Reed, Frances Wood, Iris Yau, Ros Wong and Richard  Poxton.  SACU is working towards a future where deeper understandings of China and her people are an everyday reality across Britain.

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A Belt and Road Initiative White paper for Green Development

Belt and Road Railway track in Kenya, July 28, 2022.

If in Britain we think about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) at all, we probably think of it as a policy China is using to increase trade and improve its economy. Well we certainly can’t fault that – it’s exactly what British politicians told us would happen with Brexit!

However as a forthcoming White Paper called ‘A Global Community of Shared Future: China’s Proposals and Actions’ explains, China sees the BRI as much more than a set of trade routes. Just as the ancient Silk Roads carried ideas and technologies between Asia and Europe, so the BRI equivalents are about a much wider regeneration.

One essential component of the strategy is a commitment to the transition to a sustainable future. China has always been a firm supporter of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals which call on the whole world to make progress on 17 actions which will mitigate the threats of the climate emergency tipping points. China and her partners in the BRI are putting goals such as ‘Clean Energy’, ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ and ‘Sustainable Communities’ into action through infrastructure projects.

China has already made significant progress towards sustainability domestically.  In the past 10 years, China has managed to fuel an average annual economic growth of 6 percent, with an average annual energy consumption growth of 3 percent. China’s carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP dropped by around 35 percent, which is equivalent to cutting about 3.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. In 2022, the installed capacity for renewable energy in China reached 1.2 billion kilowatts, overtaking that for coal-fired power for the first time.

Now let’s look at a few of the green projects making a difference to the global climate situation outside of China.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Chinese company, the Power Corporation of China, has just completed construction of a major wind-power project.  The four wind farms will generate a combined total of 117.5 megawatts of electricity.  Moreover the development is a showcase for wind turbine technology which will be used by the UAE government to initiate further sustainable solutions. The UAE government has committed to a 31% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and projects like this will make a significant contribution to achieving this target.

In Pakistan, China has partnered in the construction of the Karot hydro-power project.With an annual generating capacity of 3.2 billion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity, the project is expected to save about 1.4 million tonnes of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3.5 million tonnes each year, according to Pakistani officials.

In Argentina Chinese partnership has been instrumental in the completion of the Nestor Kirchner-Jorge Cepernic Hydroelectric Power Plant.  Work on this began in 2013, with the aim of improving the country’s energy infrastructure and satisfying the electricity needs of more than one million families. Once the project is completed, the installed power capacity in Argentina will grow by approximately 6.5 percent.

In Kazakhstan a Chinese-funded wind farm is being installed which contains 30 generating units with a generation capacity of 150 megawatts.  The first phase was connected to the grid at the end of December last year. Once fully completed, it is expected to provide about 600 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity to the local grid every year, equivalent to saving 190,000 tonnes of standard coal and reducing 480,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

In Uganda there is the Karuma Hydro Power Plant which is in its final stage of construction, and will be the largest power-generating installation in the east African country when completed with a capacity of 600,000 kilowatts. The plant is 85 percent financed by the Export-Import Bank of China, and 15 percent financed by the Ugandan government. It is expected to generate 4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually and provide over $200 million in revenue to local government, close to 1 percent of Uganda’s current GDP.

Sustainability on the Chinese model is about far more than just building infrastructure.  While travelling in Gansu Province on a local train, I once met a large party of engineers from Jamaica.  Amazed to find them in such a remote area of China I got talking to them.  It turned out a Chinese company had purchased their engineering business in Jamaica and was in the process of updating the whole enterprise around sustainable technology and design.  While the plant was being renovated, the whole workforce had been brought to China to study advanced engineering ideas, including sustainability.  They had been given jobs for life if they wanted to be part of the modernisation project. China understands that the long term contribution of projects such as these depends on creating supportive infrastructures around them through the employment and education of a local workforce.

The Belt and Road Initiative is extending lessons learned in China about how social stability and economic development can be fostered through policies aimed at securing common prosperity.  Under BRI green thinking this common prosperity includes the protection of natural environments and the security of eco-systems under environmental protection.

 

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Understanding Chinese Thinking:

The 24 Solar Terms

Today is the ninth of October. The Chinese international school where I work has just put a message on its social media to remind all employees that today is the day of ‘Cold Dew’ which in Chinese is 寒露. ‘Cold Dew’ is a day that marks the changing seasons, specifically telling us to expect colder weather as we approach the end of Autumn.

So what is ‘Cold Dew’ and why is this reminder important to my colleagues?

Cold Dew is one of the 24 solar terms. Broadly the seasons in China follow the same pattern as in England. However the Chinese further subdivide the four seasons into smaller, more finely tuned passages of time using these 24 terms. For example Autumn starts with ‘End of Heat’ and moves through ‘White Dew’, ‘Autumn Equinox’, ‘Cold Dew’ and ‘Frost Descent’ to ‘Start of Winter’.

Each solar term represents a set of changes in the weather. The origin of the terms in the agricultural year can be seen by the fact that each solar term is accompanied by information for farmers about what they should do at each turning point to ensure a good harvest or the health of livestock.

I’m certain that in Britain before industrialisation the same set of ideas were also common knowledge. For Cold dew it tells me that, ‘ At this time, temperatures are much lower than during White Dew in most areas of China. The dew is greater and colder and there will be less rain. Autumn crops will be ripe.’

But why would this information be of interest to my colleagues? They work in education and are very unlikely to even have a garden, because private gardens are rare in Beijing, although communal allotments are popular. The enduring meaning of these solar terms is that they also come with a set of information about how we can ensure health and well-being as we adapt to the changing seasons.

For example, during the current period of Cold Dew the advice is to eat the now ripening hawthorn berries. And this is not just folklore. Scientific study has shown that the antioxidants in the berries support good cardiovascular health. In terms of wellbeing the advice is that Cold Dew is a good time to go hiking. Again we can see this is more than superstition. Not only is late autumn visually inspirational, it’s also the last chance to get in some healthy exercise before the icy grip of winter drives everyone indoors.

So these 24 solar terms are intensely practical. You could say that they are the equivalent of the sort of public health announcements we have in the UK, where for example, we are all being reminded to get our flu jabs for the coming winter.

However I think their real function in society goes deeper than this. First of all they maintain the idea of community formed in agricultural societies. It’s like having the village elders still looking after you, gently reminding you, ‘you need to start wearing an extra layer you know, it’s getting colder now’. I think we all know that all Chinese people cherish the idea of their ‘老家’, their ‘laojia’ or ‘hometown’. And these solar terms are a cultural way of preserving that connection.

Even if you lead a modern, busy lifestyle in cosmopolitan Shanghai, remembering the 24 solar terms takes you back, if only fleetingly, to your roots. Some might say it’s all just superstition, but I can see that it is another part of the wider stability of Chinese society, a stability that is an important platform for change.

And I think there is another layer, even deeper than community. Sociologists often say that modern, urban life is ‘deracinated’, which simply means we have ‘lost our roots in nature’. Of course no-one would welcome back the poverty and lack of opportunity of being entirely tied to agricultural lifestyles, but in my mind there is no doubt that our lives are unbalanced if our wellbeing loses harmony with the rhythms of nature.

As soon as I say something like this your scientific brain says, ‘superstitious nonsense’ which is precisely why the cultural observance of things like the 24 solar terms is so important. Quietly, unobtrusively it re-connects my Chinese colleagues to the enduring benefits of community and following the cycles of nature.

(If you are interested in these 24 Solar Terms and would like to follow them through the changing year, you can find interesting and beautifully illustrated articles for each term on the CGTN news website or App)

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From China, ketchup for your chips!

The China~Europe railway,
a bridge for trade and cultural understanding

These days of course we are increasingly used to the idea of buying manufactured goods from China. But here’s an astonishing fact that will change the way you see the interdependence between China and the world. Fully one quarter of the tomato ketchup now consumed in the world is grown and produced in China – yes, one in every four bottles!

What are the facts behind this remarkable story?

The first part of the puzzle is that the growing of tomatoes has become a significant part of Chinese agriculture. In 2021 China processed 4.8 million tonnes of tomatoes, 12% of the global volume. In 2021 it is estimated that altogether about 38.9 million tons of tomatoes were grown in China.

One of the main tomato growing regions in China is western Xinjiang Province, which has always been famous for the quality of its fruit and vegetables. The climate and soil quality in Xinjiang contribute to the exceptional flavour of its tomatoes. In fact a total of nearly 80% of all China’s tomatoes are grown in Xinjiang and September is the traditional time for tomato harvesting.

This fact is all the more remarkable when we remember that tomatoes are not indigenous to China. In fact all tomatoes owe their origins to a plant growing in Central and South America. One of the Chinese names for the tomato ‘xihongshi’ literally means the ‘red, western fruit’. Tomatoes were probably introduced into China in the Ming Dynasty, in the late 16 or early 17th centuries.

In fact until the early 20th century tomatoes played a very small role in Chinese cuisine. The breakthrough for the humble tomato came with the development in the 1930’s of 西红柿炒鸡蛋 – xihong-shi chao-jidan’ – scrambled egg and tomato , which is now a staple all over China. It’s simple and deceptively delicious.

The second fact is the dramatic reduction in transportation times for tomatoes and tomato products from China to Europe. A critical part of the Belt and Road project for economic development around China, has been investment in the China-Europe railway. In the decade that Britain failed to complete HS2, 10,694 kilometres of track now connect Chengdu in China to Milan in Italy. On the way it connects 92 cities in 21 countries. The transportation time for products by sea between Europe and China used to be 25 days. The railway has cut this to something between 12 and 15 days.

This connectivity has revolutionised the flow of tomato sauces and pastes from China to the restaurants and dining tables of Britain and Europe. On its way west the intercontinental railway passes through Urumqi, the capital city of Xinjiang, transforming it into an economically dynamic hub between China, Central Asia and Europe and returning it to the status and wealth it enjoyed in the historical Silk Road era.

One more fact for you to consider the next time you reach for a bottle of tomato ketchup. Have you ever thought what an unusual word ‘ketchup’ itself is. That’s because the origins of both the name and the product are in Asia. The word can be traced back to its use in the Malay language and a fish sauce called ‘kichap’, which in itself may have been influenced by a Chinese product called ‘koechiap’, or fish brine.

Of course trade between south-east Asia and Europe developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and ‘ketchup’ was just one of the many new tastes and flavours introduced to brighten up the limited western palate. In 1711 we find a book called ‘An Account of Trade in India’ which states ‘Soy comes in Tubs from Jappan, and the best Ketchup from Tonqueen [Vietnam]; yet goods of both sorts, are made and sold very cheap in China.’

So as you squeeze a bottle of tomato ketchup to bring some flavour to your plate of chips remember that either literally or etymologically you’re adding the flavour of Asia to your meal!

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月 霜 ~ Frost Moon

Autumn’s moon cries, her ice tear of Jade,

of harvest, opens this ringed nocturnal door

to worlds lost within you, on night’s forest floor,

animal eyes reflecting fire, reflecting flood.

 

Your fragrant face, grace of a distant moon

in black osmanthus scented skies, a bloom

of lunar love, so slender, so luminescent,

a crack in the dark, kept open just this instant

 

of night, moon-faced, yes, rounded and clear

whose webs of light guide me here, so confused,

to beams of love which shine, which disappear

in the ripening darkness: I lose, I’m renewed.

 

Entwined alone, our dances of difficult dreams

are finger~threads of tender moon~frost gleams.

 

(李白 ~ Li Bai  静夜思 ~ Thoughts on a Tranquil Night

‘ 疑是地上霜。Can it be hoar-frost on the ground?’)

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Building Bridges Through Dance

14 AUGUST 2023 | Chris Nash

At SACU we are looking for innovative ways to grow our mission of better understanding between China and the UK. We are interested in ‘bridge builders’, people who can bring the two cultures together in ways which promote mutual understanding. Recently it was my honour to meet and talk with Zhou Hangyu, who is passionate about introducing her specialist medium, Chinese dance, to audiences here in the UK and across the world.

Hangyu ( English name Joanna) started by her telling me her fascinating back story. She is originally from the north-eastern Liaoning province which makes her in Chinese terms ‘Dong bei Ren’ – a north-easterner. Hangyu got her first taste for dance when she trained with the People’s Liberation Army Art Academy. Her talent was quickly noticed and encouraged. Wanting to add to her dance repertoire and range of skills, she then enrolled in the Beijing Academy of Dance. It was here that she started to learn both dances from the various ethnic minority communities in China, but also to be able to study western dance moves for the first time.

But even Beijing was not enough to satisfy Hangyu’s dancing ambitions. Even though she had never learned to speak English she was driven to study for a Master’s degree in an English university. Eventually she obtained a place at Roehampton University, but little did she know that taking up a place to study there would change her life. When she was started her studies there she was impressed by two things. The first was the level of ignorance about Chinese dance amongst western students on her course. The second was the enthusiasm that they had for learning Chinese dance moves once they saw her performing. It was common for students to assume that her dance came from Japan, because they didn’t know the history of how Japan had imported all aspects of traditional Chinese culture from the T’ang Dynasty in the eighth century.

The curiosity of other students about her dance, planted the seed in Hangyu’s mind that there was a wider job to be done sharing Chinese dance culture with any who wanted to learn. She found two paths opened up for her. The first was to teach and give demonstrations in various UK universities following networks established by her dance teachers at Roehampton. The second was to offer dance classes to students studying at various Chinese language schools in London. She found young people, both English and Chinese, were fascinated to see something new and different to go alongside their hip hop moves. Her adult dance classes too attracted people of a range of ages ( her eldest student is in her 70’s!) and across a range of cultures. She has even taught a French student to sing in Chinese, using the pinyin method!

By 2019, Hangyu found that she had a devoted collection of both adult and junior students. The next stage she realised was to give the students an opportunity to share their new found skills with audiences here in the UK. To give her ambitions a platform, she formed her own company called the UK China Performing Arts Company and set about creating a festival of dance to showcase the achievements of her students. In August 2019 this enterprise resulted in the first ever ‘Silk Road Dance Festival’ given at the artsdepot theatre, Nether Street, in North London. For the years of the pandemic, performances moved online, but this year in 2023, she made a triumphant return to live performance with the second ‘Silk Road Dance Festival’ this time in a bigger theatre in Stratford and with the support of the Chinese embassy in the UK.

Why Silk Roads? Hangyu explained that it’s not just about teaching the mechanics of dance movements to her students but also helping them to understand the history and culture driving the dance. In the Tang period ( 628 to 907) the silk roads which spun out from the Tang capital city in Xi’an were the cultural centre of interweaving worlds. Costumes and dances and music from across Central Asia were all the rage, so much so that the court started to dress in the fashions of the steppes, and equally Chinese influences spread west to the edges of Europe. Now through the ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiatives, a confident China is once again sharing dynamic art and culture with the world. Hangyu’s performances are opening up these deep Chinese traditions to British audiences for the first time. And as Hangyu poetically explained, the stream of silk ribbon which is the symbol for her organisation, flutters beautifully into the shape of the River Thames, a true representation of Anglo-Chinese understanding.

I am sure all SACU members will want to support Hangyu Zhou and her UK China Performing Arts project. If you’d like to see some of her work immediately there are examples on YouTube, if you search under the company name. As I left her, I promised I would stay in touch and explore other ways in which SACU can appreciate and support her initiatives in dance education.

(Image description: Zhou Hangyu in a red dress smiling at the camera)

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Bridges over Troubled Waters

7 AUGUST 2023 | Chris Nash

樊迟问仁子曰爱人问知子曰知人

“ Fan Chi asked about Goodness. The Master replied, “Care for others.”

He then asked about wisdom.The Master replied, “Know others.”

It’s so important in our development of people to people understanding between China and the UK that we share stories of the common humanitarianism that binds communities together despite all of the barriers that try to build walls rather than bridges. Events like the recent heavy flooding across northern China remind us that solidarity between people is a core value in every society.

The typhoon and the subsequent flooding has seen citizens across China stretching out a helping hand to the vulnerable and to the victims. One of the hardest hit provinces has been the northern area of Hebei. 1.2 million people in this region have had to be relocated in safe districts away from the flood waters. No less than 4,700 rescue teams have been formed with more than 100,000 individuals to organise the protection of every possible life. Civilians from outside of Hebei have volunteered to support these rescue teams – providing vital resources such as fuel for rescue boats, materials to repair damaged rescue boats and food for the rescue teams do that they can maximise their rescue efforts. Chinese social media are full of encouragement and praise for these teams along with inspirational stories of individual rescues.

This kind of social solidarity cannot be created out of nothing, it has to be part of the deep well springs of a peoples’ culture. I saw the same spirit during the three difficult years of the COVID pandemic when my experiences in Beijing showed me the strength of social solidarity and common purpose in Chinese society. We all queued together, day after day, whatever the conditions, patiently waiting for a COVID test to ensure the health not just of ourselves as individuals but of our families, our friends, our schools and our communities. I saw no impatience or complaining. In school none of the students had to be coaxed or persuaded to do the right thing. Masks were willingly worn by all, to protect each other, even by teachers in the classroom when it was clearly uncomfortable to do so.

What’s the source of this ability of a society to come together so organically? One part of the answer are the 社会主义核心价值观 – the ‘shehui zhǔyì héxīn jiàzhíguān’ or ‘twelve core values of socialism’ promoted by the Chinese Government. The national values include ‘civility’ and ‘harmony’. The individual values include ‘friendship’ and ‘dedication’. To me it seems this statement of guiding principles is in stark contrast to the West where we seem to have given up on the idea that governments should have any say in the thoughts or actions of their citizens. And this is not just a modern idea. The Kangxi Emperor of the Qing Dynasty in 1670 set out something called ‘The Sacred Edict’, sixteen lines of guidance on how to be a good citizen, regularly read out in every town and village. And of course as far back as 500 BCE, Master Kong (Confucius in the west) set out 人 – ‘ren’ , for which our best translation is ‘humanity’ as the guiding principle for a good and harmonious society. Analects xii.22 says ” Fan Chi asked about humaneness. The Master said it is loving people. Fan Chi asked about wisdom. The Master said it is knowing people”.

These are not distant or abstract ideals in China. Nor are they aspirations which are given lip service, but little else. Education both within a Chinese family and in schools help to turn these principles into the actions and behaviours of young people as they grow up. Let me share a simple but powerful example from my experiences. Let’s imagine we’re in an assembly or class and a child has been asked to go to the front and make a presentation. The student gets confused and loses her or his way. In too many English classrooms I’ve seen that lead to ridicule or even humiliation directed at the individual failure of that child, who then scurries back to her or his desk, confidence dented, head down, intent only on avoiding being the butt of jokes for the rest of the day. Instead in China, time after time on occasions like this, I’ve seen the other children respectfully clap their colleague at the front, giving her or him time to think and encouraging her or him to stay with the problem until it’s solved. Nine times out of ten, with this degree of team support, the student at the front sees the problem through. And when it all goes wrong and she or he has to give up, I have only ever seen praise for the fact that they tried for so long to get it right.

This collective sense of value and social solidarity is also the basis for international friendship. Chinese media at the moment is full of praise for international companies who have rallied round and done their bit to contribute to the flood relief efforts. Coca-Cola China has activated its Clean Water 24 relief mechanism and mobilised bottled water from nearby channels to send safe drinking water to rainfall-affected regions. The Beijing Starbucks Foundation pledged to donate 1 million yuan ($139,000) to flood-stricken areas in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei province. Food and beverage company Danone has donated about 30,000 bottles of Mizone, a functional drink, and 2,400 cans of formula milk to cater to the safe drinking water and nutrition needs of relief workers and families affected by the heavy rainfall.

The global climate emergencies of this summer demonstrate that humanity has now joined its fellow species in an increasingly precarious existence on a warming planet. From examples such as these in China and elsewhere around the planet, we should learn that core humanistic values are needed now more then ever, if we are to look after each other and our brother and sister species who share this one planetary home with us.

(Image credit: CGTN)

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Reflections on the Lee Kai Hung Chinese Culture Gallery

31 July 2023 | Chris Nash

Firstly I’d like to thank SACU members,  Lead Curator Bryan Sitch and Project Assistant Dr Fang Zong on behalf of all SACU members for  their hospitality in giving me a guided tour of the Gallery on a recent visit to Manchester. Secondly I would urge all SACU members to not only visit the Chinese Culture Gallery themselves but to recommend it to family and friends. As someone who has lived and travelled in China for the last ten years I would say that a visit to the Gallery took me back to places, people and ideas that I have treasured from my experiences. From the very start where you come face to face with photographs of ordinary Chinese people  in real and natural settings and flow under the Moon Gate ( as I have done countless times in China), inscribed with the inspirational words of Dr. Lee Kai Hung, you are in the safe hands of a talented team of curators who share their love of China through the exhibits.

I think the Gallery is absolutely right to focus on two key themes. The first is sustainability and the environment. I was overjoyed to meet the artisanal bamboo products in the first case. This took me right back to my experiences among the various ethnic minority groups in the south west of China – the Miao, the Dai, the Hani and the Yi. It was my great privilege to live with these groups for short periods and to experience something of their sustainable life styles, all in harmony with the local landscapes which they care for and which care for them. There is so much practical skill and Earth wisdom that we can learn from them. We should never forget that these ethnic minorities are full and important members of China where their home areas are given autonomous status, giving them full identity within the country as a whole. In Yunnan I listened enthralled as two local people told me how local and national politicians had worked together to build a ‘Tea University’ where all the traditional knowledge and skills of local communities could be taught to future generations and the wider world. The Chinese government is working across the whole nation towards a 生态 文明 – a shengtai wenming or ‘ecological civilisation’.

The second key theme is what I would call ‘the local and the global’. One of the biggest barriers to improved understanding between our two great cultures is that too many of us still think of China as far off and far away, unreachable behind both real and ideological ‘walls’ in our minds. And of course limited thinking like this exactly suits the self interest and power grabs of a certain type of politics. In their own contribution to breaking down these barriers, the Chinese Culture Gallery uses every opportunity to present a much more important narrative, stories of connections and continuities.  There are cases called ‘Experiencing China and Anglo-Chinese Friendships’. These are embodiments of the work of SACU because they document bridges of friendship between Manchester people and people from China. Like SACU, the exhibition does not hide from the political dimension to the task of growing mutual understanding between China and Britain, but deals with the subject objectively and in a respectful manner that invites visitors to think for themselves and hopefully leave preconceptions at the door.

In our SACU Articles of Association the first stated objective is :

1/ To promote and advance the education of the public in all aspects of China and the Chinese people.

Our colleagues Dr Fang Zong and Bryan Sitch (supported by co-lead Andrea Winn) deserve enormous credit for the light the Chinese Culture Gallery has shone on this  goal. I know they would want me to recognise the inspiration of Dr Lee Kai Hung behind their achievement and so I’ll close by echoing again his words which embody the spirit of this wonderful place :

‘‘If there is no dialogue, there is no understanding

If there is no understanding, there is no trust

If there is no trust, there is no harmony

If there is no harmony, there is no peace”.