九龍華仁書院安省舊生會

Report from Doha, Qatar

Eric Li ('95), our Middle East Correspondent, reported from Qatar:

Before the announcement of the hosting country of FIFA2022, I am sure not many of us aware of the State of Qatar. Qatar is a small country and majority of the population are residing in Doha, the capital city of Qatar. Because of the reservation of natural gas and petroleum, Qatar has the highest GDP per capita in 2010. The country is still developing and you will find thousands of construction sites in Doha. Qatari loves sports and they usually offer great deals to sport fans. It's hard to believe I spent only CAD$25 in total for watching 2 semi-finals, double final and the single final of the Qatar Open (Tennis). Tickets for Asian Cup (football) are really inexpensive (from CAD$5 to CAD$25). Food is great here if you are a lamb lover but don't expect you will get any great Chinese cuisine here. Winter is wonderful here but the summer is really hot (close to 50C in the daytime and 40C in the evening + humidity). View pictures here.

Lunar New Year Greetings from Fr. Chow, WYK School Supervisor

On behalf of the Wah Yan Community and HK Jesuit Community, I would like to extend our Year of the Rabbit blessings to our fellow alumni of the WYK Ontario Chapter.

Fraternally,
Fr. Stephen Chow, S.J.

Website Access Statistics

The number of pages viewed on our websites has exceeded 110,000 per month. In fact, the number has surpassed 130,000 in October and November 2010. Thank all readers for your continuing support of our websites. Our Picture site remains the most popular choice, followed by our Blog. If you have any suggestions or comments, please drop us a line here. Together we will keep making our sites better and provide a quality service to our alumni and community.

Chi Gung Master from Sydney, Australia

David Tse Kwok-Shuen (67), an IT expert who happily retires in Sydney, was visiting in the New Year.  Since graduation, he took up Taoist Kung Fu and Chi Gung and has been practicing this martial art all these years.  Relaxing in his chair at least 5 ft away from the table, he pointed his right index finger at a standing bi-fold paper menu for two seconds or so.  Nothing happened.  Then, after 2 seconds, the bi-fold paper fell on its back!  The demonstration was performed twice, both successfully.  David’s recent interest is in Kendo (日本劍道).

With a bank note, he broke a chopstick into pieces.  Click the image to view the album.  To view the video demonstrations, please click (1) and (2).

[It has been known that some wahyanites are great Kung Fu masters.  We would be pleased to have updates of their interests.]

WYKwinos

Some of you may have heard about the WYKwinos Group which consists of a number of WYK alumni with a common interest on wines and food pairing. WYKwinos usually hold a monthly meeting with rotating hosts. The host will decide the venue, his selection of wines and dishes that go with them. A report will be published after each gathering (see past reports here).

From time to time, there may be openings in Winos meeting which allows the group to invite guests to join. These openings will be posted on our website. Any WYKAAO member who is interested in attending the up-coming Winos meeting (Feb 18, Friday) please click here to let us know and more details will be provided.

60's in Toronto New Year Dinner

Class of 1960 in Toronto met regularly all these years.  They met early this year to celebrate the New Year.  The gathering was organized to welcome Dr. Tommy and Diana Tam when they came to Toronto to spend their Christmas and New Year holidays with their children.

Small_class Teaching

A forum on Small-class Teaching organized by Past Students' Association, Wah Yan College, Kowloon will be held on Saturday, January 22, 2010 at School Hall.  Please click here for details.

Further links:
(1)  School Proposal for improvement on Small Class Teaching,
(2)  Video on WYK_SCT,
(3)  Mingpao advertisement dated November 30, 2010.

Update on Forum On Small-class Teaching.

China Meets the World (8) – Epilogue, the Future

This ends the series of China Meets the World.  It is subdivided into 

Overview,
Culture and Cultures,
The Unjust Past, Lingering Effects,
The Task of Rebuilding,
Forces from Abroad and
The Future.

The author, Kong Shui Loon, concludes: "No one knows the future, not tomorrow, the next year, or the next century. But human beings are still time-bound. We are able to look back to the past in order to understand the present and what is to come. I have unveiled the various living dimensions of China and the Chinese in recent history to describe how and why history had proceeded the way it did. If I am allowed to end this series with an optimistic note, I would say that of all the individuals that I had depicted in my writing, there are thousands and thousands like them to come. They will meet the world on their own independent terms, courteously, caringly, and harmoniously, in accordance with THE CHINESE WAY."

Please click here to read the whole article.

My Week in Guizhou Province, China, Oct. 2010

My Week in Guizhou - with the Guizhou Rose Society of Edmonton by Vincent Lee (65)

Background:
 
In the fall of 2009, I was looking for some kind of volunteer work that would allow me an opportunity to travel and to work in some dental or other capacity in a place where such services are needed - as long as it is not in a war zone (Doctors without Borders sometimes do that; I don't feel like working in an environment with bullets flying over my head!).  I almost ended up going to Nicaragua around Christmas time 2009, but that didn't work out.  And, because I couldn't go, I was able to attend a friend's Christmas dinner party, at which I ran into an old friend Dr. Chao Tai, a neurologist in Edmonton, who was originally from Singapore.  His son, now also a neurologist, and my son, Sigmund, were high school classmates, and they learned music and piano from the same piano teacher.  Much to my delight, I learned that for the preceding four years, Dr. Tai had been leading a group from Edmonton to do volunteer work in Guizhou Province (貴州省) in southwest China.  I expressed my interest in joining his group, and ended up going with him for his fifth year into this remote part of interior China.  Timing was perfect for me.  After my Zhangjiajie tour, instead of returning to Hong Kong from Chengsha, I flew from Chengsha to Guiyang (貴陽), the capital city of Guizhou.
 
Guizhou Province, together with its neighbouring province Yunnan, is part of a plateau in southwest China (雲貴高原), with a range of elevations between 1000 to 2000 meters.  It is hilly and wet, but the sandstone soil is of poor quality.  I was told that only about 15 to 20 percent of its land can be used for agricultural use.  Its capital Quiyang (貴陽) city is quite vibrant, though nothing like any of the coastal major centres.  The province has a fairly well developed highway network amongst its major cities; but beyond that, the roads into the country side and villages are still narrow, and not well maintained.  There are four major components to our group's visit: (1) The free clinic to villages; (2) Water projects to remote villages; (3) School visits, and (4) Visit to churches. 

Part I: The Medical Mission

Part II: The Water Projects

Part III The Village Schools