ICCS Newsletter Autumn 2017








AUTUMN 2017



Contents

1. Programme
2. Unbound feet: the changing status of Chinese women, c. 1890-1950
3. China's New Nationalism
4. School Twinnings
5. 2017 Experience China – a Cultural Exploration of West China in Ireland
6. 27th May – Summer Outing Carton House
7. 90th Anniversary Celebration for the People’s Liberation Army at the Intercontinental Hotel
8. Party Night at the UAC.
9. Upcoming Events
10. Christmas Food Fest

1. Programme


For information on our programme, click HERE.   

Please note our meeting venue,

United Arts Club,
3 Fitzwilliam Street,

(just off Baggot Street,)
Dublin 2,

and meeting days,

the FOURTH WEDNESDAY (mostly!) of each month.








For information on our programme, click HERE.   

Please note our meeting venue,

United Arts Club,
3 Fitzwilliam Street,

(just off Baggot Street,)
Dublin 2,

and meeting days,

the FOURTH WEDNESDAY (mostly!) of each month.









2. The February 2017 talk: 'Unbound feet: the changing status of Chinese women, c. 1890-1950' by Dr. Isabella Jackson





At our February meeting Dr Isabella Jackson (TCD)gave us a fascinating talk which used the issue of foot binding to explore how the status of women in China dramatically changed over a comparatively short period of time. She outlined for us the myths associated with the development of foot binding and discussed their plausibility. The historical context in which foot binding developed was also explored and she indicated how the binding principally expressed a belief in the domestic nature of the female and focused on a need for women’s activities to be within the seclusion of the home.


This ideological position obviously caused issues for different social classes, especially for poorer groups where women might well be labourers rather than sequestered. In addition, Dr Jackson was clear that from the start there was always some opposition within China to the process of foot binding and that this opposition could be religious and/or political, even as early as 1664. However, this opposition was mainly ineffectual until the early twentieth century and she showed the reasons why. In the twentieth century with a political impetus towards a ‘new China’ changes began to happen. These were both cultural, political and economic in nature and they were reflected in attitudes to foot binding. In industries that developed, such as the mills in Shanghai which recruited large numbers of women workers, the tasks could not be done with bound feet. In the cultural sphere changes in fashions, the emergence of women’s magazines etc produced radical images not in line with ‘lotus feet’ and the relative physical immobility of women that binding produced. In the political sphere the emergence of women into political arenas, such as into provincial assemblies, provided a different image and role for women which challenged the emphasis on an enclosed domestic role for women with bound feet.

Change did not always come easily though and it wasn’t always possible for the state to ensure the end of foot binding. However, as the century progressed and political change swept across China the state became more powerful and the resistant family system which had clung to foot binding declined. The state was able to intervene in many areas previously seen as domestic and could enforce bans in matters such as forced marriage, or the keeping of concubines and was able to ensure that laws passed previously banning foot binding could now be enforced.
by Ann Wickham









3. The March 2017 talk: "China's New Nationalism" by Jerusha Mc Cormack and John Blair







Business and politics don’t happen in a vacuum. A knowledge of key cultural values is crucial in helping us to understand what it is that drives them. This was the premise underpinning a wide-ranging talk in which Jerusha and John took it in turn to give us their insights into recent developments in China’s political life and its relationship to the wider world.

They began with an image of Italian Jesuit missionary to China, Matteo Ricci’s 1602 map of the world, which was the first to place China at the centre, in order to illustrate the traditional, Sinocentric mindset which regarded the Middle Kingdom as crucial and the wider world as progressively less Chinese and more peripheral. Such ‘Empire Thinking’ is still influential today and provides fertile ground for Xi Jinping’s National Humiliation Narrative as it harks back to a glorious past to which it is China’s destiny to return, having gone through a series of subjugations at the hands of foreign powers in more recent times. The need to erase the ignominy of episodes such as the Opium Wars, the Boxer Rebellion and the Japanese colonisation is made all the more compelling due to the deep seated Chinese cultural value of miànzi/面子 ‘face’ (as in ‘saving face’: this is the nearest English equivalent but in China the concept has greater significance). A person without miànzi is like a tree without bark. Miànzi must be protected at all times since, without it, leaders cannot lead and followers cannot know their place. The period of foreign domination constituted a loss of miànzi for the nation and the only way to restore it was through death and sacrifice. Hence the importance of symbols like the Long March which showed the spirit of the people prevailing over hardship and humiliation.


An analogy was drawn with Ireland’s history as the 1916 leaders harked back, past the years of English domination, to a glorious Celtic past and dedicated themselves to a blood sacrifice in order to renew the nation’s spirit.


Jerusha and John went on to discuss the schizoid love-hate relationship China has with the US, which is often seen as a weak nation with Imperialist pretensions but whose cultural impact is immense. They traced the evolution of this relationship from the early days of the Nixon/Kissinger visit and went on to discuss Deng Xiao Ping’s replacing of the Maoist value of absolute equality with a drive for prosperity before broaching the seminal event of the Tiananmen Square protests where they introduced us to another important cultural value helping to mould Chinese affairs i.e. luàn/乱 which we can translate as chaos and is something to be resisted at all costs. It is the spectre of luàn which lies behind the state’s violent response to the protestors that fateful night, protestors whose demands were, after all, quite modest (an end to the two currency system and freer journalism and dormitory rules) and most of whom had already returned home by the time the tanks rolled in.


The same fear of luàn means there is no right to strike written into Chinese Labour Law and it lies behind a state of affairs where, in order to survive, one has to be prepared, like Huang Yongyu’s owl, to keep one eye open and the other eye shut to some of the things going on around you. The lively Q and A session at the end bore testimony to the stimulating nature of the talk.
by Yvonne Mc Guire and Paul Murray










4. "School Twinnings" by Deborah Wilson

As part of the ICCS delegation’s trip to Beijing, we were asked to propose a project to further cooperation and friendship between Ireland and China. After discussions with a friend who is principal of Stepaside Educate Together Secondary School and who would be delighted to twin with a Chinese school, it was agreed ICCS should visit DaYu School in Mentougou, in the province of Beijing. This school holds dear the same principles as the ET ethos in Ireland, and Yanyi Blake (Vice-President of ICCS) and I were welcomed very warmly by Principal Wang and two of her English teachers, and officials from the Departments of Education and of Foreign Affairs for Mentougou.


After exchanging videos made by pupils at SETSS and the tourist board of the Chinese region and DaYu school, gifts were also exchanged - including a wonderful couplet painted by one of the teachers, as DaYu is one of China's foremost schools in the Art of Calligraphy.
This Autumn it is hoped we will be receiving a delegation from DaYu school as they sign articles of friendship and co-operation with Stepaside ETSS. If this is delayed a little, it will be because, subsequent to our return, the junior school of DaYu want to twin with the junior school of SETSS. The possibilities of joint educational programmes will take time to come to fruition, but in the meantime, the pupils will be connecting directly with one another via email.

DaYu is also renowned for excellence in poetry, and is planning to learn more about our famous poets and their works and looking forward to visiting Ireland!
by Deborah Wilson, ICCS President









5. Experience China - a Cultural Exploration of West China in Ireland












This Cultural Exploration of West China featured a programme of events held in the National Concert Hall and the Savoy Cinema in Dublin by China's State Council Information Office and the Chinese Embassy in Ireland, consisting of a performance by the Yunnan Performing Arts Troupe of Dancing in the Clouds Folk Singing and Dancing of West China on 26th July in the NCH, and two documentaries (Roof of the World and Born in China) on 27th July in the Savoy Cinema. Large audiences took the opportunity to enjoy the Chinese minority ethnic group’s dancing and singing and to learn more about the beautiful region of West China from the documentary films.



6. Summer Outing to Carton House

There were plenty of rain drops running down the window panes on our visit to Carton House in May. Fortunately, we weren’t in a position to gamble away an entitlement to the Palladian mansion by betting on their relative speed. Unlike a visitor long ago who apparently did just that in attempting to clear a debt!



A fascinating visit included tea/coffee and scones at the Coach House Restaurant followed by a tour of the building which included a private viewing of the Chinese Boudoir as we followed in the footsteps of Queen Victoria who had followed in her own footsteps in 1897, a full 48 years after her original visit in 1849. Safe to say Carton made an impression on her!


We explored the magic of the carefully preserved and protected boudoir under the tutelage of an expert guide in Des Galvin. Lady Emily’s creation is stunning with its gilt wood over-mantle and mirrors in the style of Chippindale, gold furniture and papyrus wallpaper full of exquisitely drawn scenes of daily life in China; quotidian activities but rich in symbols and it is possible to discern the skilled hand of Chinese artists at work rather than the Europeans who began to copy the style as chinoiserie came into vogue.








7. 90th Anniversary Celebration for the People’s Liberation Army at the Intercontinental Hotel



In his opening address the Chinese Ambassador H.E. Dr. Yue Xiaoyong quoted President Xi Jinping’s contention that China will do well only in so far as the world does well and spoke of the win-win situation of increased bilateral trade. Representatives of the armed forces, diplomatic services, political representatives and invited guests enjoyed a convivial chat and an excellent buffet lunch.




8. Party Night at the United Arts Club



The pictures speak for themselves in evoking the enjoyable night we had in the United Arts Club on the 27th May. In future editions of the newsletter it might be nice to feature some of the beautiful objets d’art et alia, pictured below, with their accompanying stories.



Here are some photos of the beautiful artefacts that featured on the night.































9. Upcoming Events



The 25th October Talk: The Belt and Road Initiative



Paul Gillespie, former Foreign Policy Editor and regular columnist for the Irish Times, will give us the benefit of his insights into The Belt and Road Initiative which is a colossal plan to open up land links between China and Europe through central and west Asia, Iran, Turkey, the Levant and the Balkans. Alongside that there will be a maritime route through the South China Sea, the Indian Ocean, African ports, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. In his talk Paul will explore concerns raised and also the potential for positive change which Xi Jingping’s New Silk Road initiative brings with it, as China seeks to become a middle-income power by 2021, the communist party’s 100th anniversary year, and by 2049 a wealthy one, 100 years on from the revolution that brought it to power.


The 29th November Talk: The Role of Drama in Early Childhood Education




Dr Carmel O Sullivan is a former Head of the School of Education in Trinity College and an international educational consultant. She will discuss recent reform in Early Childhood Education and the role that a Drama in Education pedagogical approach can play in enhancing the quality of teaching and learning in early years classrooms.Carmel is pictured with Ms Lin Li, editor at the Renmin University Press,at the launch of a new series of books she has written especially for the Chinese education system.

10. 6th December - Christmas Food Fest in Wesley House



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This Newsletter is published by the Irish-Chinese Cultural Society.