Zhōngqiū ānkāng

Wishing you a Healthy and Tranquil Mid-Autumn Festival! This year the Mid-Autumn or Moon Festival will take place on Tuesday 17th September. The day of the festival changes every year because like many Asian events it follows a lunar calendar. In this article I’ll talk about some interesting aspects of this festival. Let’s start with a poem: ‘ rēn yǒu bēi huān lí hé yuè yǒu yīn qíng yuán quē cǐ shì gǔ nān quān 人 有 悲 欢 离 合, 月 有 阴 晴 圆 缺,此 事 古 难 全。 People may have sorrows and joys, partings and reunions, […]

The Sound of Nature

In this Blog I’m privileged to be able to bring you a report on the Gala Concert presented by the UK Chinese Music organisation on the evening of Friday 26th July at the Holy Sepulchre in London’s Holborn. In Chinese there is an expression 沁人心脾 qìnrénxīnpí, which in English we can translate as stirring the heart and the soul. Each performer throughout the concert really flowed through her or his instrument to express the profoundest emotions and transcend any narrow ideas of ‘west’ or ‘east’. For me the music evoked a natural world, a world without borders where people and […]

Dragon Boats from China to the World – Duānwǔjié!

I’m sure you’ve all noticed that Dragon Boat festival has arrived. We can look forward to the spectacle of exciting and colourful dragon boat races across the globe! Since 2008 this festival has been a public holiday in China. In 2009 it was added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity’. UNESCO states, ‘”Dragon Boat Festival strengthens bonds within families and establishes a harmonious relationship between humanity and nature. It also encourages the expression of imagination and creativity, of contributing to a vivid sense of cultural identity.’ In this article, let’s see if we can get […]

China and Me

I have lived and worked in China since 2013, during which time I’ve led the start up and development of an innovative Chinese international school in Beijing. I spend ten months out of every twelve in China. I live in a district of Changping in north Beijing where I am the only foreigner. I work every day in the friendly company of my Chinese colleagues. In the UK I live in a southern town called Southbourne. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the approximate 5000 miles in between, I could walk down Bellevue Road in Southbourne and turn the corner into […]

The Evolution of Chinese Characters

In this Chair’s Blog I want to encourage you if at all possible to visit an exhibition being held from the 20th to 30th April at the Royal Mint Court called, ‘The Evolution of Chinese Characters’. The event opened on World Chinese Language Day, April 20th and the opening ceremony featured a speech by our very own Frances Wood, a speech you can read in full below. Chinese characters are simultaneously a wonder and a mystery to most westerners. You might wonder how people like me can live in China on a day to day basis without learning the characters. […]

Spring Festival Reflections

In the past three weeks I have taken advantage of the Spring Festival holiday period to travel extensively in China. Starting from Beijing I first of all travelled 2,087 kilometres to the city of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province in south-west China. I then went on a further 350 kilometres to my first base, the city of Dali. Then another 300 kilometres south from Dali to the border city of Tengchong which is very close to the border with Myanmar. After a return journey to Kunming I then cross-crossed central China, travelling to the city of Hangzhou, close to […]

新年快乐 – xīnniánkuàilè

Happy New Year! Author – 周尚, Zhou Shang The scenery outside the window swept by, and some unmelted snow lay lazily in the shade of the trees. The wind also took off a few withered yellow leaves and ran away by itself. The friction between the wheels and the rails gradually subsided. Standing on the platform, even the air was full of joy. At this time, there will always be unspeakable emotions pushing tears out, half thinking about finally returning to my hometown, and half thinking that the four seasons have finally finished changing shifts and have started a new […]

Chinese New Year 2 -Wanderlust

As I write this, it’s a day in China called 立春, Li Chun, the beginning of spring. Let’s first of all take a moment to appreciate a culture that has a celebration day for not just the 4 seasons but for 24 different seasonal days during the agrarian year. This ‘Li Chun’ I’m in an ancient town in Yunnan province called Heshun, near the city of Tengchong. On this particular morning the Yunnan sun is shining, the Yunnan birds are chirruping and the excited hum of tourist chatter is in every corner of the town. Quite rightly Heshun is on […]

An Introduction to the Chinese New Year Festival

The Chinese New Year or Lunar Festival or Spring Festival is one of the largest cultural events in the world. It is estimated that over two billion people will be involved in celebrations of one form or another. There will be public holidays not just in China but also across Asia. Of course there will be festival activities across the globe, including events for us to join in most major British cities. Already many signs of the imminent festival are in place here in Beijing, especially the ever present lanterns, shining splendid and scarlet from buildings and lamp posts, golden […]

Laba Festival

Here in Beijing there are the earliest signs of Spring. The extreme cold weather of the last month seems to be leaving us at last. The frozen snow and ice which has lingered since the snowfalls are retreating to smaller and smaller corners of the streets. And if you look carefully enough the trembling first buds of regrowth are braving the chill air along the bare boughs. Human faces are becoming visible again as we start to peel away some of the layers of winter protection. We have come through! And here to greet us today, the 18th of January […]