LinkChinese UK News

M.T.W. in association with TARA, presents China Voices, a double bill of exciting new plays, directed by British Chinese director Jonathan Man. As part of CHINA NOW, the UK ’s largest ever festival of Chinese culture, China Voices is playing at Tara Studio in Earlsfield, South London, at 7:30pm, Friday 25 & Saturday 26 July 2008.

Wolf in the House by Simon Wu is a psychological drama set on a stormy night in Hong Kong. A university professor on the Star ferry invites a young man from mainland China back to his smart flat. But this is the Festival of the Hungry Ghosts, and as we get to know the two men all is not what it seems.

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The Home Office has published the draft of the new Immigration and Citizenship Bill, an overhaul of all immigration laws. In the new bill, which is open for public consultation, current forms of purpose-based visa and duration-based bisa will be replaced two types of immigration permission - temporary and permanent permissions. A qualifying period will be required for those wish to become British citizens, the length of which will be longer than currently required but also vary depending on whether the applicant is actively involved in the community and abiding the laws. The English requirement and knowledge of British life have already been highlighted in recent legislations. The Bill is expected to be passed through the Parliament next year and take effect from 2011.

Read the Home Offce statement on the new bill

Download the draft bill and consultation papers

 

Owen Gibson reports on the Guardian:

The BBC has recruited the unlikely pairing of Huw Edwards and Damon Albarn to help meet the “unique challenge” of covering this summer’s Beijing Olympics as it attempts to walk an editorial tightrope between news and sport.

As it geared up for the logistics of transmitting live round-the-clock coverage for 17 days from August 8, the BBC said the decision to send Edwards, the anchor of the 10 o’clock news, reflected the importance of the games as a political and cultural event.

Adrian Chiles is to host the breakfast slot, and Gabby Logan will front the prime-time highlights. “There are always going to be news stories from a games, but there will be more than normal [here],” said Logan.

Read the full story.

 

The Guardian reports:

Forget Andy Murray, who was watched by a mere 10.5 million viewers on BBC on Monday night. The remarkable Jie Zheng was watched by an estimated television audience of over 100 million in China yesterday as she became the first woman from that vast country to reach the last four at Wimbledon. The audience in Shanghai alone was 14 million.

Zheng, ranked 133 in the world having been No786 at the turn of the century, also became the first wild-card entry to reach the semi-finals here as she beat Nicole Vaidisova, the 18th seed, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1.

The most heart-warming piece in this story is that Zheng, who turns 25 on Saturday, will not pocket one penny of the £187,500 in prize money she is guaranteed so far. She will donate her winnings to the fund set up following the earthquake in the Sichuan Province in south-west China in May which killed 60,000 people and left five million homeless.

“I would like to give all the money,” she said, “but some will go to the tennis association. Apart from this I will do some charity work when I get back after Wimbledon.”

Read the full story.

 

The UK Border Agency has made available the new Tier 1 (General) and Tier 1 (Dependent) application forms which will be used for application made on and after 30 June 2008.

Tier 1 (General) and Tier 1 (Dependent) forms.

 

Letter from Edinburgh University Confucianism Study Society outlining the purpose of the organisation as well as calling for volunteers:

Dear All,

I am pleased to let you know that Edinburgh University Confucianism Study Society (CSS) has been officially approved. So far, it has members committed from both the student body and the broader community.

The main purpose of the CSS is to promote cultural understanding between China and the UK, and to facilitate a better understanding of China within the modern global context, but also to contribute in some small way in what that China will be. The key concepts are ‘interaction’, ‘cooperation’ and ‘participation’, and through an active approach which incorporates these concepts, we see the creation of something unique (ie: a Chinese/UK fusion that is fresh and exciting). Ultimately, we expect opportunities to arise to create greater links between China and the UK, including, importantly, beneficial academic and business links.

For the coming academic year, the CSS will meet weekly on Tuesdays at Pleasance. Together with regular Mandarin lessons, various events have been planned. Additionally, the CSS will hold a grand East Meets West music event on around the Chinese New Year 2009 called ‘Connecting’, which will fuse a Scottish orchestra with Mr Peng YuQiang, Asian Newsmaker 2008 & a famous Chinese traditional Erhu player, playing specially commissioned music at the Queen’s Hall.

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The UK Border Agency announced today the new rule for family visitor visa, under which the sponsors of family visitors have to be licensed. If the family visitors they sponsor fail to leave the UK after six months period, the sponsors may face penalities and even jail sentence. The proposed cash deposit for family visitors is dropped after consultation. The period of visitor visa remains six month. To attract more tourists from the countries like China, a group visitor visa will be introduced.

A new type visa will be created for sports people and entertainers to come to the UK for one-off sports events or entertainment events such as Edinburgh Festival.

The UK Border Agency announcement.

 

The Tier 1 visa will be fully implemented on 30 June 2008, the Home Office announced. This will cover several Tier 1 catogries including Tier 1 (General) which has already been rolled out, Tier 1 (Entrepreneur), Tier 1 (Investor) and Tier 1 (Post Study Work). The much anticipated Tier 1 (Post Study Work) which grants two years of working visa to international students graduating from UK higher educational institutes, will replace current IGS and Scotland’s Fresh Talent scheme.

The Tier 1 visa is part of the points-based system, and will replace the following visa categories. On or after 30 June 2008, visa application of the following categories will not be accepted. Applicants must apply for one of the four Tier 1 categories.

The categories that will close and be replaced by Tier 1 on 30 June 2008:

* the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP);
* business people;
* writers, composers and artists;
* Fresh Talent: Working in Scotland Scheme;
* International Graduates Scheme;
* innovators;
* investors;
* self-employed lawyers.

The announcement on UK Border Agency website.

 

Marcel Berlins on the Guardian:

The Chinese population of South Africa suffered much discrimination under apartheid. They were not treated as badly as were black South Africans, but were still subject to many indignities and prohibitions. They fought hard against their second-class status and eventually, even before the end of apartheid, most of the legal barriers were removed or disregarded.

So there was something ironically surreal in last week’s decision by South Africa’s high court that the Chinese - at their own request - should be classified as black. The motive was financial - access to various black economic empowerment schemes available to the victims of apartheid. To qualify, they had to be regarded as black. Hence the court case.

 

The Times Ginny McGrath reports the new trends of Chinese restaurants, the use of MSG, and locally sourced ingradients.

If the mention of a Chinese meal conjures up images of lurid chunks of deep fried chicken, it’s time for a rethink.

The Asian cuisine, whose love affair with most Britons extends to nothing more wholesome than crispy seaweed and sweet and sour prawns, is undergoing something of a revolution. Restaurants specialising in regional Chinese cuisine, and not in the ubiquitous, greasy western version, are flourishing.

…there’s an ill-conceived presumption that all ingredients are imported from Asia, accumulating heinous food miles. But in reality, many restaurants will source produce locally simply because it is cheaper. “Without realising it, or advertising it, they [Chinese restaurants in England] will use a lot of locally sourced produce,” says Ching-He Huang, author of a contemporary Chinese cookbook, China Modern, and presenter of Ching’s Kitchen on UKTV Food.

While some Asian seasonings and vegetables cannot be sourced from within the UK, meat and fish are of course available here, and increasingly farmers are experimenting with growing Asian vegetables in the UK.

Read the full story.