Rotary special New Year dinner on 13 January

On Tuesday evening 13 January, a special dinner in Kempinski, to celebrate New Year, to say thanks to wonderful Benno (who is leaving Beijing) and to say welcome to three new members to the Rotary Club of Beijing, one being sponsored by me, Lucy. Welcome to all!

(pics provided by Lucy, Celine and others)
We had also the Phoenix Quartet, with four nationalities: Montenegro, Poland, Australia and Germany. Nice performance.
For once, a large turnout of members and guests.
See also creativity at work in Kempinski: one of the dishes and artwork in the corridor.

Some websites and comments lack any decency: pure vulgarity.

I had earlier referred to:
http://beijingcream.com/2015/01/arrested-local-gang-alleged-to-have-targeted-foreigners-with-bats/

Turns out this site is full of vulgarity, impersonating others, the lowest of the lowest.
So I wonder if the article I used as a “reference”  merits any credit after all.
The people who write comments there are of the lowest vulgar level, even trying to impersonate me (and others?). Oh well, I pity them. They must be terribly frustrated, never get to enjoy a healthy relation, sitting in front of their screen, far away from the real world. Are they local Chinese? Overseas Chinese? Foreigners? Difficult to know as they hide their identity.
Extreme vulgarity is unfortunately not unusual on some blogs or bulletin boards. I have seen the worst on both Chinese websites … and U.S. websites. Chinese attacking foreigners, Americans attacking other races. Normally I drop out of those immediately as arguing is a waste of time. I just thought this website was a “normal” one. I already deleted and unsubscribed from that site.

IMPORTANT NOTE: see newer posting that explains it all, and gives Beijingcream credit!

Event: Western Returned Scholars Association, with France & Belgium

The Association (WRSA) now has a new branch: Branche France & Belgique (Association des anciens étudiants chinois retournés de l’étranger).
On 10 January I was invited as the “European Chamber Delegate and Belgian delegate” for the Chinese New Year celebration, held in the complex between the Beijing Hotel and the Forbidden City.
Our Belgian Ambassador Michel Malherbe was also present and gave a speech, there were also representatives of the French embassy.

We had over one hour of performances, pretty well done. We had African music and dance (Cameroon), Italian Opera, ballet by the ballet school “Arc-en-Ciel de Jeunes” of Beijing, wushu demo, fashion show by the senior ladies group of WRSA, and more.
I liked the ballet done by the Oh-so-cute little girls and the shows by the senior ladies – much like the Chongyang Festival performances.
We all noticed the ballet of the “four swans” being carried out by … five little swans…

Old China Hands Lunch 7 January

My friends told me it would be a difficult date to attract people. They were wrong! Despite five “no-show” we were 25! I ask the people who registered to send a message if they can’t make it at the last minute, otherwise it is difficult to organize the tables.

Our newcomer Olivier came to talk a bit with the French-speaking guests about “Chine-Francophonie”, see http://www.chinefrancophonie.com/
As always we had a pretty varied list of nationalities.
The following lunch will be on Friday 6 February 2015.
Thanks to Olivier for his pics, for once you can see me!