LinkChinese UK News

MBL has registered as an affiliated member of the Edinburgh Marathon 2008 which takes place on Sunday 25th May. We need runners to join the MBL team.

This is a great opportunity to raise funds and awareness to support Chinese orphans and disabled children and children in rural areas who do not have access to education. In the past the money raised by our marathon runners has helped us to sponsor a primary school in Qinghai by paying for tuition fees, a rural school library, food and transport for children whose families were unable to do so. We have also provided medical care for disabled children and sponsored life-skills programmes in various orphanages in China. Past funds have also been donated to Tongjiang in the Sichuan province to help families affected by the summer flooding to rebuild their homes and schools. To learn more about our projects please visit our website www.motherbridge.org.

Your participation in the 2008 Edinburgh Marathon can make a big difference to the lives of disadvantaged children in China. If you are interested in joining our team, or may know of someone who would be, please contact us.

If you are not able to run in the marathon but would like to support our work please consider giving financial support at: www.justgiving.com/mbl or to support an existing runner teams: www.justgiving.com/rbsjames or www.justgiving.com/brianskinner1

If you are interested to join our photography team please contact headoffice@motherbridge.org

MBL is a partner of LinkChinese UK

 

(Manchester April 19, 2008) More than 2000 Chinese students and professionals gathered outside BBC’s office in Manchester, protesting against biased reports during recent events in Olympic Torch Relay and Lhasa riot.

(more…)

 

Photos from London protest (19.04.2008)

Photos: JennieNi, boilingwater, darkblue, playas

(more…)

 

Thousands of pro-China demonstrators and Beijing Olympics supporters are to march in several UK cities this weekend. London, Manchester, and Glasgow will see demonstrators march in the city centre to protest the biased media report of the recent violence in Tibet and during Olympic torch relay. The protesters will also express their support of China and the Beijing Olympics. The organisers and participants are mainly Chinese students in the UK. Many living in other cities are said to travel to the three cities to join the demonstration.

It is believed the demonstration in London will be the largest among the three. Protesters are planning to march to Westminster area and White Hall. In Manchester, the demonstrators will hold a “silent protest” against BBC’s bias and misreporting during Tibet riots and Olympic torch relay. The Glasgow march will pass through the city’s main shopping area and Chinatown. The three demonstrations will be held more or less the same time this Saturday (19 April). The organisers of the three cities told LinkChinese UK News they made the decision of holding the protest independently, after seeing the “distortion of facts, biased journalism and anti-China mentality” of western media when reporting recent riots in Tibet and the disruption of Olympic torch relay.

The organisers and participants are encouraged by last weekend’s Edinburgh demonstration. “There were a huge number of people joining the march in Edinburgh, among them were many students from Glasgow and other nearby cities. I hope those who share our feelings will join us this Saturday just as they supported Edinburgh march.” Wu Yuxiang, one of the organizers of Glasgow march told LinkChinese UK.

 

Two thousand Chinese people marched on to the street of Edinburgh today to show their support of Beijing Olympics and protest against using violent disruption of Olympic torch relay for politics, as well as the media bias in reporting recent riots in Tibet.

The demonstrators, most are Chinese students from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, St Andrews, Aberdeen and Newcastle, marched through several streets in the city centre, then finished the rally at Princes Street Garden. Many brought with them Chinese flags and home-made banners and placards. Typical messages were “One World One Dream One China”, “Free Olympics From Politics”, “No Violence and Politics in Olympics”, and “Politics Are Not An Excuse To Disrupt Olympics”. One prepared a placard showing pictures taken when a protester tried to grab the Olympic torch from a wheelchair-bound torch bearer in Paris, with the message “Hands off Olympic Torch” on it. Some wore T-shirt with pro-Olympics slogans and pictures. One student prepared a placard titled “Tibet in My Eyes” showing the pictures she took in Tibet.

The demonstration, themed as “Proud of Olympics Proud of China”, was organised by Chinese students in Edinburgh. “We have been frustrated by the misreporting by BBC and some other western media about the riots in Tibet and the constant chanting of boycotting Beijing Olympics. Seeing the violent disruption of the Olympic torch relay in London, however, finally made us decide that we must make our voice to be heard.” Ma Yan, one of the organisers told LinkChinese UK.

(more…)

 

The following message is received from the organisers of Edinburgh Proud of Olympics Proud of China demonstration 

We are organising a street demonstration to support Beijing Olympics and protest against the use of violence to disrupt the Olympics.

Olympic Games is a festival for all the people of the world. Olympic flame is a symbol of peace and harmony. We are proud of China being the host of this year’s Olympics.

In recent days, when violence escalated on the streets of Tibet, and ordinary people’s life were threaten by riotous mobs, we are dismayed to witness numerous instances of distortion of facts by some political groups and the misreporting by some media organisations.

We want to use this peaceful demonstration to let people of Scotland and beyond know our support of Beijing Olympics. Peace, not violence, participation, not disruption, should be the spirit everyone inspires to. We are strongly against any attempt that hijacks Olympics for politics.

We also want to use this opportunity to express our sorrow for the lose of life in Tibet and anger against the violence stirred up by some Tibetan separatist groups.

We are proud of Olympics and proud of China.

We are calling Chinese students, members of Chinese communities in Scotland to join us!

The demonstration will be held on
Saturday 12 April 2008

Route:
East Market Street→Waverley Bridge→Princes Street→St John’s Church→Lothian Road→King’s Stables Road
We will stay further one and half hours at West Princes Street Garden (red blazed area near the fountain)

The demonstration will start at 11am at East Market Street.

If you want to join the demonstration, please send your name and contact to parade@ecssa.org.uk

Edinburgh Proud of Olympics Proud of China demonstration
http://lkcn.net/bbs/index.php?showforum=105

Edinburgh Chinese Students and Scholar Assocation (ECSSA)
http://ecssa.org.uk

Contact: Yu Bin (President of ECSSA)
yubin_771115@hotmail.com

 

BBC reports London’s Chinese New Year celeration and parade:

Thousands of people have gathered to see in the Year of the Rat at Chinese New Year celebrations in London.

The festivities started with a two-hour parade of hundreds of performers including dragons, lions and dancers travelling through the West End.

The opening ceremony at Trafalgar Square featured Chinese dragons, martial arts, and traditional and contemporary music and dance.

London’s celebrations are the biggest outside Asia, community leaders say.

BBC reports the celeration in Birmingham

Hundreds of people have been celebrating Chinese New Year in Birmingham city centre.

The beginning of the Year of the Rat was marked by traditional displays of dragon dancing, kung fu and firecrackers at the Arcadian Centre.

It also included children’s dances, acrobatics and karaoke.

Please send your Chinese New Year celeration photos to us at uk@linkchinese.net.

 

Xinhua reports:

Chinese citizens’ donations to charity totaled 3.2 billion yuan (about 438 million U.S. dollars) last year, according to a Ministry of Civil Affairs report.

The report said that in 2007, donations from individuals and businesses were about 22.316 billion yuan, equal to 0.09 percent of gross domestic product, up 123 percent from 2006. Donations from overseas stood at 8.609 billion yuan. The total of domestic and overseas donations, which exceeded 30.9 billion yuan, was double the 2006 figure.

Read the full report.

 

Independent’s David McNeill wrote the background stories of the tension between China and Japan over the ‘Rape of Nanjing’, ahead of the 70th anniversary of the massacre.

Why are we asking this now?

Next week is the 70th anniversary of the infamous Rape of Nanjing, when Japanese soldiers went on an orgy of rape and murder in the then Chinese capital. Dubbed the “forgotten holocaust” by its most famous contemporary chronicler, Iris Chang, the massacre is the subject of no fewer than a dozen new American, German and Chinese movies, including the $53m (£26m) Purple Mountain, helmed by Con Air director Simon West. Nanking, released in China earlier this year, is reportedly already the most watched documentary in Chinese history.

Read the full story.

 

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.