Rotary Club of Beijing

This is a short summary, for the full Bulletin in PDF, click the following link:
090224_bulletin.pdf

Rtn. Serge Kioes led the Four Way Test.

Sergeant-at-Arms Gilbert welcomed visiting Rotarians:
- Mr. Jean-Marie Marneffe, from RC of Jodoigne, District 1630, Belgium
- Ms. Helen Boyle, from RC of Northwick Park, London, UK
- Mr. Albrecht Berkessel, from RC of Köln-Ville, Germany
And visiting guests:
- Ms. Ilse Mann, guest of Rtn. Niels-Uwe Behrens
- Ms. Charlene Chuang, guest of Rtn. Serge Kioes
- Mr. Benjamin Zhou, guest of Rtn. Vicky Wong
- Mr. Thomas Pattloch, guest of Rtn. Benjamin Thoma
- Mr. Nicolas Berbigier, guest of Rtn. Charles Lagrange
- Mr. Emile Bootsma, guest of Rtn. Matthias Kann
- Ms. Melody Chia, guest of Rtn. Vicky Wong
- Ms. Priscilla Wong, guest of Rtn. Vicky Wong
- Ms. Helen Zhang, guest of Rtn. Charles Lagrange (Speaker)
- Mr. Joshua Navarrete of Rtn. Alan Babington-Smith
- Mr. Allen Yang, guest of Rtn. Ruby Chang

Banners were exchanged with the following Clubs:
- Rotary Club of Jodoigne, Belgium
- Rotary Club of Köln-Ville, Germany

Reports & Announcements
Earthquake relief Committee Chair Rtn. Serge Kioes reported on the progress of the “Love Library” Project, which is a joint RCB collaboration project with the China Soong Qing Ling Foundation (CSCLF). The project aims to equip six schools with libraries in Wenxian County, Gansu Province, close to the Sichuan border. Each library costs around RM 20,000 and Chair Serge encouraged members and their guests to make donations to help the disaster hit area to build up their libraries.

Rtn. Gilbert showed the one page advertisement from Rotary International that came out in the International Herald Tribune, talking about the polio program.

President Kevin also encouraged members to make contributions to Rotary via the RI website. He explained that there is no limitation as to the amount, and what is contributed today will come back to the Club for project purposes after three years.

Birthday Celebration
Happy Birthday to Rtns. Serge Dumont, Regula Hwang Ma, John Barnes, Mattias Kann, Wade Dawson. Rtns. Regula and Mattias cut the birthday cake on behalf of all members celebrating their birthdays during February.

Speaker’s Program
Speaker’s program coordinator, Rtn. Charles Lagrange introduced today’s speaker, Ms. Helen Zhang. Ms. Zhang was born in mainland China and spent 8 years in Australia where she worked in both management consulting and investment banking before relocating back to Beijing in 2002.

Ms. Zhang gave an interesting talk on the hidden subtleties and nuances when interacting with Chinese people. Drawing from her book “Think Like Chinese”, written together with her partner Geoff Baker, Helen Zhang shared with us the following
- Why Chinese are different – 5 core elements of Chinese thinking: Chinese language/philosophy, law of yin & yang, born connectedness, mid-stream living and mianzi (Face)
- “Only tell people 1/3 of what is on your mind” – How Chinese communicate
- What to do

Rtn. Gilbert thanked Mrs. Zhang for her introduction to Chinese culture, which he felt was particularly helpful to expatriates to better understand China and its people. Gilbert explained the book triggered his new project – to write his own book about Chinese society and attitudes.