Old China Hands lunch 5 January

Our members are travelling (or sick)

Our Old China Hands lunch 5 January saw a turnout of 28, not bad as many were still on holiday travel, USA, Europe, Philippines… And three were sick. Yeah I am still stuck in Beijing. Happy 2024 to all!
We had a guest of honor, our (new) Belgian ambassador who finally made it.

Together with Allan I informed our friends about the unfortunate situation of Peter Hogg who had a very bad fall and is still in intensive care. We hope he can recover, his family has arrived in Beijing to take care of him.
All pretty happy with the great lunch, well except one who shocked others with his negative comments… Oh well.
The dessert was “île flotante”, a very classic French dessert. A floating island or île flottante consists of meringue floating on crème anglaise (a vanilla custard). The meringue used is baked in a bain-marie. It may be served at room temperature or chilled.

Mr. Trains is now also Mr. Chinglish

David Feng continues with his train reporting and has started a Substack Newsletter about trains.
He has recently joined a team of experts in Beijing tasked with standardizing foreign-language (especially English) signage and drafting and implementing translation norms, as well as getting rid of Chinglish — a committee he calls tongue-in-cheek the “Chinglish committee”.
This committee of experts, part of City Hall’s Foreign Affairs office, deliberates and approves guidelines and norms regarding translation in standardized signage, and acts as a higher authority to determining “what’s right” versus “what’s wrong” when it comes to translations. The panel of experts drafted China’s first local norms on bilingual (English and Chinese) signage in 2006, and has just completed a review of these norms, updating and refining standards.
Now being transformed as a “think tank” of top language experts in Beijing, membership is exclusive to, and consists of, the best-in-class of language professionals. Well-known Mark Levine and Michael Crook are also members.
David records 20+ years of commitment to identifying and rooting out Chinglish (e.g. his Everyday Rail English campaign) and is kind of a real polyglot.

The organization: Experts from the Beijing Municipal Government’s Foreign Affairs Office’s Translation Review Expert Database. In Chinese called 北京市政府外办重点语种译审专家库专家.

Next lunch

Our next lunch is planned for 2 February, ahead of Chinese New Year. Renaat will make “Galette des Rois”. The Belgian Embassy already celebrated Galette des Rois.
Morel’s will be closed from 5 to 12 February, opening on Valentine Day 14 February.

Official holidays are from 10 to 17 February. CNY is on 10 February, starting the Year of the Dragon.

China National Opera House

Concert in the new Opera House

On 10 December 2023 I visited for the first time the China National Opera House, located near my home near Worker’s Gymnasium. The address: 115 Dongzhong Street, just south of Fuhua Building near the Second Ring Road.
The concert was performed by the Beijing China Philharmonic Orchestra (北京华夏爱乐乐团) and featured the themes of famous movies, my favorite being the James Bond theme. See the program in Chinese with an online translation.

The opera house is impressive, great architecture, modern and super clean. The acoustics are simply astonishing.
See the inside.
At first it seemed a bit empty but later many spectators filled the house and they were enthusiastic listeners. I was the only foreigner …
See part of the performance with the enthusiastic public.

China National Opera House background

The China National Opera House is affiliated with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. It was founded in 1952 and was formerly known as the Yan’an Central Orchestra and the Luyi Art Troupe.
On April 20, 2022, a press conference was held at the newly built Opera House. The total construction area of the theater is 41,000 sqm.
On May 1, 2022, the National Opera House officially opened to the public.
On the evening of July 6, 2022, the opening concert of the National Opera House Theater was performed.
See some screenshots of the online articles about the House, in Chinese.
See also Wikipedia.
If you are in China, some of the links above need a backdoor…

Belgian conductors in China

Peter Ritzen

Belgian conductors in China are lately in the news. I have mentioned several times my friend Peter Ritzen. You can search for him in this website, see this post among others.
Peter also performed in Suzhou on 22 November 2023, see the announcement and the introduction in Chinese. In November he had one more TV interview, on CCTV4.
He has concluded his contract in Chongqing and is now relocating to Beijing but he will perform in Chongqing and Chengdu in January 2024.
He also plans to perform at the Belgian embassy during the visit of the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, in January 2024.
I am also happy to congratulate Peter for his nomination as Foreign member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.

Kris Stroobants

Other conductor is Kris Stroobants who is also well-known. He headed the Royal Belgian Philharmonic Orchestra during a tour in China in December 2023, a large group of 60 who performed in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Tianjin, Yantai, Zibo, Suzhou, Zhengzhou, Jiaxing and other cities. The tour was successful until most caught a cold and performance in Shijiazhuang (I think) had to be canceled… Details of the tour remained a bit confusing. The Belgian embassy had no idea about it all.

Royal Belgian Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Belgian Philharmonic Orchestra was founded in 1740. Its predecessor was the Cracow Royal Vatican Music Ceremony Choir in Rome. After Belgium became independent, the orchestra became the only European-level national court philharmonic orchestra in the Kingdom of Belgium with a history of more than 400 years in Europe. At the same time, it is also the only large-scale symphony orchestra designated by the Pope to professionally perform the music of the Royal Holy See, and the only symphony orchestra in the Kingdom of Belgium selected as the EU-level royal orchestra!
As a representative of the Belgian royal music, the Royal Belgian Philharmonic Orchestra serves the Belgian royal family in national projects such as visits, receptions, and banquets, and participates in various artistic diplomacy of European royal families.

Old China Hands lunch 1 December

Nice crowd
Our Old China Hands lunch 1 December saw a nice turnout of 34 despite the last minute cancellation of some busy members.
Nothing special to report except that all were having a great time to chat and enjoy the food of Morel’s Restaurant. Renaat always prepares a special menu for our group.

It is the last lunch of 2023 and the next one is planned for 5 January 2024.
We wish all of our members great and happy Holiday season, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!
Looking forward to see all of you in the next year.

UGent and Sinterklaas events

UGent

In two days our Belgian embassy hosted UGent and Sinterklaas events.
On 1 December 2023 we had the reception of CPAF 2023, the Closing Ceremony to celebrate the 3rd China Partners Academic Forum by Ghent University in the Residence of Belgian Ambassador.
Moderator was Chi Zhang, Representative of Ghent University.

H.E. Mr. Bruno Angelet, Ambassador of Belgium gave the Opening Speech.
Other speeches by Mr. Baoyi Yu, Representative of Beijing Alumni Chapter and by executive members of Beijing Alumni Chapter,  Mr. Gilbert Van Kerckhove (that’s me),  Prof. Jun Zhang (Tsinghua University) and Prof. Mingmei Yu (University of Chinese Academy of Social sciences).
After the group picture there was networking with walking dinner and Belgian beer. Catering was by a specialized Chinese company, nicely done.
I had to leave a bit early as I was expected at the German Christmas Charity Bazaar…

Sinterklaas

On the afternoon of 2 December Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) and his helpers visited the residence of the Belgian ambassador to meet with many Belgian children. Sinterklaas called one by one the children to comment on their recent behavior and give a present. None of the children was hurt. For privacy reasons no closeups of the children.

Snacks provided by Morel’s Restaurant, drinks by the embassy and Morel’s, sweets by the embassy.
I was on duty to serve the drinks (as usual).
See here the official article by the embassy: A Joyful Weekend with Saint-Nicholas.

Cuberdons – neuzekes

One of the sweets provide by the embassy were the famous cuberdons from Ghent.
A cuberdon is a cone-shaped Belgian candy and a popular local delicacy in Ghent. In Dutch it is also known as a neus (“nose”), Gentse neus (“Ghent nose”), or neuzeke (“little nose”) for its likeness to a human nose. In French, cuberdons are also called chapeau-de-curé and chapeau-de-prêtre (priest’s hat).

Cuberdons are traditionally made with gum arabic candy crust with a soft, raspberry-flavored filling. Their color is mostly purple.
The outside is relatively hard, whereas the inside is gelatinous.
There are two hypotheses about its origins:

  1. A clergy member living in the city of Bruges created it — which might explain other names in use for the cuberdon such as “cleric’s cap” (bonnet de curé) and “young nun’s belly-button”
  2. In 1873, pharmacist De Vynck in the city of Ghent discovered the recipe of the cuberdon by chance. In order to increase the shelf life of drugs at the time, many were packaged in the form of syrup. When the pharmacist examined a failed preparation after a few days, he found that it had formed a crust, while the core was still liquid. From this discovery came the idea to use such a technique to manufacture candy.

Source: Wikipedia

Other post about the Cuberdon of Gentse neus, see here.
While the origin 2 above seems to be the overall winner, TEMMERMAN, a household name since 1904 has a different view of the shape.
Temmerman has a rich tradition spanning over a century. The first store in Ghent opened in 1904 and since then, has become known as the grandmother of sweet shops. Today, the fifth Temmerman generation continues the legacy with a passion for confectionery, gingerbread, chocolate, and tea.
Their cuberdons have a different shape, with a face. They claim it is the “original cuberdon shape”. But generally the shape is said to be cone-shaped.
Other sweet shop I had the chance to taste is Geldhof. They simply claim “De énige échte neuzekes –  Sinds 1954 – Onbetwiste marktleider – Vlaams streekproduct”.
Never mind the sweet polemic, let’s simply enjoy!