LinkChinese UK News

Spectacular and breathtaking, The Peony Pavilion is an extraordinary Chinese love story merging literature, music, theatre, dance, acrobatics and art.

Performed as Kunqu Opera, a 500 year old artform which is known as the mother of Chinese Opera, the story is dubbed the ‘Chinese Romeo and Juliet’ – a timeless tale of love which has been enjoyed by generations.

The production has been specially created to appeal to modern audiences. It is faithful to the traditional Kunqu styles of singing, music and acting, but features a young cast plus modern lighting techniques and stage design. The 200 exquisitely hand-made costumes, which are densely embroidered and extravagantly plumed, along with the painterly backdrops of mountain lakes and misty forests, create a narrative spectacle in their own right.

Each evening the cast will perform one three-hour section of the opera. Audiences are welcome to book for just one performance, to experience a taste of the artform, or to book for all three parts, in order to enjoy the full nine-hour opera.

Details
* Sadler’s Wells, Rosebery Avenue, London, EC1R 4TN
* 0844 412 4300
* Price: £10-£47
* Tube: Angel/Farringdon

 

“Kungfu Panda”, a relay team ran Edinburgh Marathon on Sunday for charity Mother’s Bridge of Love (MBL) and the children affected by Sichuan earthquake. The four members of the relay team, James Barrie, Andrew Ross, Gareth Poxon and Youlin Sun, finished in 3 hr 50 min. MBL has decided to use the donation to help children affected by Sichuan earthquake. The online donation page has collected more than 16,000 pounds in about two weeks time. “The generosity and kindness of the British public will be very much appreciated and remembered by every child whose life may be rebuilt.” said Wendy Wu, CEO of MBL. More update can be found in SichuanEarthquake.org.uk.

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Jessica Shepherd reports on the Guardian the congregation of students of different nationalists. The reasons could be historic connections, marketing efforts, and cooperation between eductional institutes between countries.

Why, for example, do almost 10% of all Spanish students in the UK go to the North East Wales Institute, which has just 7,300 students? Why are 510 of Robert Gordon University’s 13,000 students from Nigeria? So many that Amina Deji-Loguleko, a Robert Gordon student from Nigeria, says back home Robert Gordon is jokingly referred to as the “other University of Ibadan [Nigeria's oldest university]“.

Why is Nottingham such a hit with students from Hong Kong - 465 of whom are there out of 9,640 in the UK?

And the same could be asked of Oxford University for Canadians, the University of Westminster for Poles, Sheffield Hallam University for Malaysians, and the University of Greenwich for Indians.

Read the full report.

 

A tea party and charity auction held in Edinburgh Confucius Institute raised 700 pounds for the Help the Earthquake Children campaign.

The event, organised by Dr Yuhua Hu of Edinburgh University, was to raise fund for the charity Mother Bridge of Love (MBL), who will use the donation to help children affected by the Sichuan earthquake. Some local and visiting artists donated their work for the auction. Xiang Silou, a woodblock artist, donated two of his woodblock prints through Edinburgh Confucius Institute. A professor from Sichuan Normal University Institute of Arts, Xiang Silou is currently the artist in residence at the Burrell Collection, Glasgow and had exhibition recently in Ricefield. He went back to Sichuan before the earthquake and would like to help the people in the earthquake by donating his art work. Many Chinese of all generations had donated artifacts, jewels, fashion accessories and green teas for the auction. Wang Ying, a young artist, brought her own painting, Boy with a Bamboo Flute, to the event. The boy in the painting is a young Sichuan boy Miss Wang met during her trip to Sichuan last year.

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Brian Skinner, managing director of a Glagsow estate agency, is to run Edinburgh Marathon to raise fund for the UK charity Mother Bridge of Love (MBL). MBL is dedicated to primarily developing and supporting various cultural activities for the adopted Chinese children who are living with their British parents in this country. At the same time, MBL takes it up as its mission to help improve the life quality of the disabled Chinese children and the poor children in rural areas.

A relay team, named Kungfu Panda, is also running Edinburgh Marathon as a fundraising event for MBL. MBL decided to use this team’s fundraising page to raise money for the children affected by Sichuan earthquake. Wendy Wu, CEO of MBL, said, “Our focus will be helping children and women to recover from physical (food, water, and medical care immediately) and physiological damage (Counseling in a later stage). “

 

Sichuan Earthquake Update is a jointed effort by UK charity Mother’s Bridge of Love (MBL), Chinese community LinkChinese UK, Chinese Young Professionals in Edinburgh (CYPE), and other organisations to update the news of Sichuan Earthquake, the progress of the relief and rebuilding efforts.

Our focus is on the children affected by the disaster. The effect of the earthquake is terrible. The scenes of hundreds, perhaps thousands of students buried under the debris are heart-breaking. For those children who have survived, they will have a mountain to climb trying to rebuid their life. We are sending this urgent call to British public to do whatever you can to help those children.

At the moment, the easiest way to give your help is to give your donation to MBL, who will us their expertise and network in China to identify and reach those children who most need help to recover from the truama and to go back to school as soon as possible. A donation page has been created on justgiving website. You are also welcome to contact MBL directly (headoffice@motherbridge.org 020 70340686).

Mother Bridge of Love (MBL) Charity registration number: 1105543

LinkChinese UK

Chinese Young Professionals in Edinburgh (CYPE)

 

Venue:
Marlborough Fine Art
6 Albemarle Street
London W1S 4BY

Private View: 28th May 2008
Exhibition: 29th May – 21st June 2008

More information on Marlborough Fine Art

The directors of Marlborough Fine Art are delighted to announce the first UK exhibition of paintings by celebrated Chinese artist, Zhang Qikai. It will comprise twenty recent works, many using the image of the Panda, paintings for which he has been highly praised.

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Richard Tyler reports in the Daily Telegraph that the new UK Border Agency has admitted the it takes longer to process skilled worker applications. Some small employers have also complained the big increase of the fee a company has to pay to register as a ’sponsor’ of skiller migrants.

It said that instead of deciding 90pc of applications within 15 working days, it was now taking around four weeks to process even “straightforward” applications.

There has been a 135pc increase in the current skilled work permit fee and smaller companies only seeking to hire one or two migrants each year face a further 580pc jump in the fees to bring them into the country under the new points-based immigration system being phased in this year.

Under the new system, employers pay £1,000 to join a list of sponsors of skilled migrants from outside the European Union. There is then an additional £170 fee to issue a “certificate” to each migrant to be sponsored.

Read the full report.

 

The Border and Immigration Agency of the Homeoffice published proposals of the new T2 (skilled workers) and T5 (temporary workers and young mobility scheme) visa in the points-based system. Lists of current visa types to be replaced by the T2 and T5 visa are included in the documents. T2 (skilled workers) visa will replace current work permit and other totally 10 visas. T5 (temporary workers) will replace 16 current visas. The newsly created T5 (young mobility scheme) visa will allow young people to come and experience life in the UK for up to two years.

The BIA statement says:

British-based companies will have to prove they cannot fill skilled posts with a resident worker and must show that the job vacancy has been advertised in the UK, unless the job is on the shortage occupation list. Would-be migrants will need a job offer before they even apply for a visa.

To qualify, skilled foreign nationals will have to earn a certain number of points before being allowed to work in Britain. These points are awarded only if a person can prove they will be doing skilled work, speak a good standard of English, and are earning more than £24,000, or have a decent qualification. Employers will need a licence from the UK Border Agency to offer jobs to skilled workers.

Read the proposal in full.

 

From Eastern Art Report Online:

The work of New York-based artist Xu Bing, highly regarded because of his innovative and playful use of Chinese and English calligraphy, or what appears to be akin to it, will be on show in London at the Albion Gallery. This is Xu Bing’s largest and most comprehensive gallery show to date and will bring together nearly 40 works as well as the more recent Book from the Ground, shown at MoMA, New York, in 2007.

The exhibition is held at

Albion Gallery
8 Hester Road
Battersea, London SW11 4AX
Tel: 020 7801 2480

until 23 June 2008.