and will be held in the
Dublin 2.
(very near Baggot
Street)
This venue is very convenient . It is right beside Baggot Street, and a five-minute walk from Leeson Street or Mount Street, so it is well served by buses. Parking is abundant and free (after 7.00 p.m., which is ideal for our meetings at 8.00 p.m.).
The origin and customs
of the Chinese
New year
A talk by Yanyi Blake
Yanyi Blake a long time member of our society, a lecturer
at DIT in Tallaght, and cofounder of the Association
of Chinese Professionals in Ireland.
Yanyi will give us an insight into the way Chinese people
celebrate the New Year and what activities take place
during this period.
Chinese New Year Dinner
7 Sandford Road,
Ranelagh,
Dublin 6
at 7.30 p.m.
Numbers are limited so early booking is advisable.
Aspects of the
Chinese Collection in
the National
Museum of Ireland
A talk by Audrey Whitty
This talk will focus
on the Chinese ceramics, glass, textiles, metalwork, furniture, statuary, etc. that form
part of the National Museum's collection. Established as the Science & Art Museum, Dublin
in 1877, the early days of the organisation experienced a strong collection's policy bias
in acquiring not only objects of European applied art, but also significant amounts of
Asian material.
Particular reference will be made to the Albert Maurice Bender Collection of Far Eastern
Art that was accessioned during the 1930s.
Audrey Whitty M.A. is Curator of Ceramics, Glass & Asian collections in the Art &
Industrial Division, National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks. She is currently
undertaking a postgraduate research degree in the History of Art dept., Trinity College
Dublin on 'the Acquisition History of Asian Applied Arts in the National Museum of
Ireland, 1877-c. 1948.
Confucius and Einstein:
A talk by Prof. Tao Kiang.
The Past and Future of Mankind
Ancient wisdom is probably best summed up in the Confucian saying "What you don't like done to yourself, don't do to others". This saying is characterized 1) by its making no reference to any Higher Being and 2) by its negative form. The latter is a result of the society being one of limited resources. Now, when Einstein's formula "E equals m c squared" becomes fact, then the society will be one of UNLIMITED material resources. When that happens, we shall be free from all the evils that stem from conflicts originating in scrambling for energy resource. But we won't be, if we persist in thinking that resource is power and power is human nature. The task facing the thinking person at this historic moment is therefore to realize, and to shout out loud, that the whole way we think about society, economics, human nature, God, and so on, has always been conditioned by limited material resources.
Ancient echoes in the modern world:
A talk by Dr. Hwee-San Tan
traditional music in
modern China today
The Chinese civilization has a long history of over four
millennia. Throughout the centuries, China had adopted foreign musical
instruments, assimilated foreign musical influences and developed
musical cultures that are now identified strongly as Chinese
traditional music. However in China today, most “traditional” music is
struggling to survive in the face of rapid modernisation, urbanisation
and globalisation. This talk will be a musical journey through China
to explore the state of traditional music and the challenges it faces
in a modern world.
Dr Tan is a lecturer in the School of Music, UCD.