LinkChinese UK News

The Terrocotta Army exhibition is so popular that British Museum is planning to extend the opening hour to midnight, even 24 hours a day, to accommodate the visitors. Almost all of the half million pre-book tickets have been sold. There are 500 on-the-day tickets every day. ‘The First Emperor: China’s Terrocotta Army’ exhibition is becoming the second most popular exhibition of British Museum, only beaten by the Tutankhamun exhibition in 1972.

The Daily Telegraph reports:

The British Museum is planning to take the unprecedented step of staying open 24 hours a day to meet the huge demand for its exhibition of Chinese terracotta warriors.

The demand to see the terracotta warriors is so great that the British Museum is planning 24-hour opening.

Total visitor numbers are expected to exceed 800,000 - more than twice the figure predicted when The First Emperor opened in September.

 

Some of the photos of Dong Yi’s Zheng Recital at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing. Photos courtesy of the concert organisers. Dong Yi is a graduate of Edinburgh University, and a postgraduate student of London School of Economics and Political Science. More about Dong Yi’s Zheng Recital at the Great Hall of the People, and the concert programme.

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Chinese parents are more anxious than their ‘little princesses’ to find a date for them. Aileen McCabe of CanWest News Service reports the phenomenon of the Blind Date Corner, attended largely by the parents.

SHANGHAI — It’s many a young girl’s worst nightmare.

Her parents are trying to line her up with a blind date. Worse, they post a sign listing her attributes and print pamphlets to hand out to anyone interested.

“My daughter would kill me if she knew,” one chatty mother confides, refusing to give her name just in case her offspring catches wind of the scheme. But she will readily hand over a flyer describing her daughter, complete with picture.

Read the full report.

 

The Guardian’s Julie Nightingale reports the increasing number of Chinese assistants coming to UK secondary schools to support the teaching of Chinese language and culture:

Eric Yu looks taken aback when asked his age. “Thirty-four,” he replies, cheerfully bemused and presumably wondering whether he’s about to be asked any other vital statistics.

Most European language assistants in UK schools are in their late teens or early 20s, but Yu is not a late developer; he’s Chinese. And the Chinese assistants who come here to support the increasing numbers of schools now teaching Mandarin are all qualified teachers with several years of experience under their belts.

Yu has a BA in English and teaches in a Shanghai secondary school. He’s spending a year at Djanogly city academy in Nottingham, supporting the school’s programme of Mandarin language and Chinese culture.

Read the full story.

 

Simon Hattenstone reports in the Guardian the story of Sandy (Jing Zhou) who, as many in the similar situation, is caught between the retrospective policy change by the Home Office, and the refusal of her employer to raise her hourly wage from £6.15 to £7.02. Having been working as a senior care worker for four years, she is now facing deportation.

From the Guardian:

Sandy loved her job. Yes, she was paid only £6.15 an hour, yes, it was hard work and required enormous patience, but she was born to care for people. She blushes and says she’s not being boastful, but she knows she was good at it. “People would say, ‘Are you on tonight, Sandy? Are you on tomorrow? Oh brilliant.’ They trust me because I love my work. Some of these people haven’t got family - no children, no family. They trust me, because they know I do this job with my heart.”

After four years in a Southern Cross care home, helping elderly people get on with their lives, Sandy, who is from China, was planning to apply for indefinite leave to remain in Britain. She assumed it would be a foregone conclusion. After all, she was doing vital work, paying her taxes, and her daughter was slap-bang in the middle of A-levels.

But in July this year she received a letter from the Home Office. It stated that senior care workers no longer qualified for work permits. The Home Office had re-assessed the job, decided it was insufficiently skilled to warrant a permit, and that Sandy would have to return to China in October.

Read the full story.

 

The Guardian debate, chaired by Jon Snow
Wednesday 14 November, from 19.00

20.00 - 21.30 in BP Lecture Theatre

£15, £12 concessions (admission price includes entry to The First Emperor: China’s Terracotta Army from 19.00)

The Guardian/ British Museum forum will be chaired by Jon Snow, writer and broadcaster, with an introductory speech from Neil MacGregor, director, the British Museum. Other speakers include Jonathan Fenby, writer and China expert, Sun Shuyun, author and film-maker and Steve Tsang, fellow, St Antony’s College, Oxford.

Booking information

 

The award ceremony of the 2007 Pearl Awards was held at Royal Festival Theatre on 1 Nov. The Pearl Awards, inaugurated in 2004, is the first award to celebrate the archievement and recognise the work of Chinese community in the UK.

From Pearl Foundation:

When Jackie Chan was electronically beamed across the wonderfully cavernous auditorium that is the Royal Festival Hall, a wave of palpable excitement rippled through the air. “I am sorry I am not in London as I am filming in China, but I am so happy to be associated with the Pearl Awards,” the internationally popular actor began. His eyes twinkled at the end of his message as he addressed HRH The Prince of Wales, “If you ever want to learn kung fu, give me a call, and I’ll come straightaway!” We cheered and clapped our approval, and so did the Prince.

That reflected the delirious mood of the evening. This was the Pearl Awards’ most high profile outing since its inception four years ago by its charismatic founder, William Ong.

Read the full report.

 

From Global Career Company:

Global Career Company is pleased to announce the Careers in Asia Recruitment Summit UK scheduled to take place in London on 7-9 December 2007. This annual invitation-only event brings together UK and Europe based Asian graduates and professionals seeking careers back home with leading multinationals and Asian based companies. It will feature pre-scheduled interviews, presentations and networking sessions with top employers from the region.

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UK Home Office announced that from the first quarter of 2008, when the points based system will be introduced, applicants will be required to demonstrate their English level. Individuals will be asked to provide evidence that they have passed an English language test.

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Glamour of Jasmine: Dong Yi in Zheng Recital

Conductor: Hu Bing-xu

Accompaniment: China Philharmonic Orchestra

19:30, 8th Nov 2007

Auditorioum, The Great Hall of the People

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