Being a Rotarian in Beijing: not that easy

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove
in Rotary

Due to government regulations, Rotary Clubs in China, such as our club in Beijing, are not allowed to have Mainland passport holders as members. As a result, recruiting and keeping members is pretty difficult as potential members must be “of good standing” in the community, in other words, be of a certain level. Most expats are here for a short period, usually like five years. Long-term residents are rather few. Worse, recently we have seen an even larger turnover with people leaving because of the difficulty to have a visa/work permit, for the pollution, because of retirment or simply because they do not feel like staying longer.
So, pretty sad to see always good friends leaving. We had a farewell Peking Duck for our always-smiling Swedish lady. We will miss her, as many others.

New members join and finally I can take some rest from my near-permanent role as Sergeant-at-Arms, with James taking over. Now I can enjoy my lunch and put money in the Happy Box as everybody!
James, stick to your job for a while!

When the language barrier leads to misunderstandings

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove
in general

A recent headline in the SCMP read:
‘Hong Kong students beat us to it’: Benny Tai declares.
It reminded me of a misunderstanding with a so-called American Chinese lady, on WeChat. While she seemed well educated, her English proficiency wasn’t that good it seems.
In Sanlitun The Village there was an event with male models to promote the opening a new well-known brand. Many people posted pics on WeChat, so did she. I left the comment, well-intended. that others “beat her to the pics”. She was pretty upset about it, did not understand the expression, said she “did not know the others” etc. etc. That was the end of our WeChat connection.

Conclusion was again:

  • The vast majority of Chinese who lived abroad fail to properly assimilate a foreign language, while they are convinced “they are fluent”.
  • Don’t try to make jokes with Chinese people you don’t know really well. It usually ends badly.

I was left pretty annoyed and disappointed with the miscommunication, even trying my best to explain. In vain.

Old China Hands lunch: 3 October

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

In the middle of the holidays but we had still 19 participants, who took their time for a long lunch and chat. At Morel’s Restaurant as usual, with the direct supervision of Chef Renaat.
Some of the participants got lost however, looks like they went to another Morel’s. Sorry guys, no palm trees here.

Next lunch will be 7 November.
See you!

Old China Hands lunch: 5 September

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

It was the start of the intense month of September, so, many Old China Hands were busy with meetings but we were far over twenty anyway, with some special guests such as the Belgian and Swedish ambassadors, as well as a former Polish ambassador who beats us all as “Old China Hand”: he came here like in 1955. Remarkable!

Next round: 3 October, right in the middle of the holidays, for those who prefer a quiet Beijing. No meetings or traffic jams will be accepted as an excuse!

Old China Hands sticking to the sauna in Beijing

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

On Friday 1 August, another pleasant lunch with around 20 of the hard-core Old China Hands who are sticking it out in Beijing during the oppressing months of July and August. I was just back in time from my Xinjiang trip (more on that later).

140801 oldchina1s 140801 oldchina2s

This time Renaat and Susan were back to make sure we were served in an absolute record time. Sigh, our Chinese friends left on their own are still so behind in organizing things, they simply can’t think ahead. Must be the step-by-step syndrome.
Next lunch at Morel’s: Friday 5 September.