The Chinese Society of Nova Scotia, PO Box 29055, Halifax Shopping Centre, Halifax, N.S. B3L 4T8

CSNS NEWSLETTER Vol.3 2005/06 August 30, 2006

1. Activities Review

A) Mother’s Day Potluck Party

Mother’s Day Potluck was held on Saturday, May 13^th from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Canadian Martyrs Church, 5900 Ingles Street, Halifax. There were approximately 90 people attended including a delegation of visiting students from China were also in attendance. Thanks to Yolanda Yeung , daughter of Kim and Pollen Yeung served as the MC for this event. Also special thanks to Kim Yeung & Helen Kwan cooked Ham, while Jeanine Vongkeo & Theresa Cho cooked Turkey for the CSNS. Helen will also cook a pot of rice for us.

B) Consultation with Chinese Community of Nova Scotia on the head tax issue

A consultation meeting arranged by the Federal government was held on April 19, 2006 at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia on Bedford Row from 7pm to 9:30 pm regarding the issue of head tax. Thanks to the members that attended the consultation meeting.

C) “Life Insurance” Presentation

A presentation on “Life Insurance” was arranged by Kim Yeung and being presented by Mr. Jason Malloy and Mr. Bruce Landry, both from “Clarica”. This presentation was held on Friday, June 2nd 8:00 PM at the Fairview Junior High School. There were about 15 CSNS members attended and graciously appreciated Mr. Malloy and Mr. Landry’s presentation. Refreshments were also provided by Clarica. Any follow up question or information can be obtained by contacting Mr. Jason Malloy at Jason.Malloy@clarica.com

D) Multicultural Festival

The Multicultural Festival 06 hosted by Multicultural Association of Nova Scotia was held June 16-18, 2006 at the Alderney Landing Dartmouth Waterfront. CSNS and Chinese Language School participated in this event. In addition to the food booth and cultural booth, we also participated in various performances as follow:

The Dragon Dance, Chinese Folk Dances such as Happy Days, Nan Ni Wan and Dream of Watertown (Umbrella Dance). Special thanks to Angie Ngu in attending meetings and coordinating with MANS on behalf of CSNS and take care of the permits and coordinating the food and food booth, Kim Yeung in coordinating the Cultural booth, Zhoingming Dong, Guang Yang, Min Huang, Mei Wang, Ying Lu in coordinating the performances and last but not least all the performers and participants in attending the booths.

Due to our participation in the performances, we have received a grant of $200 through MANS from the Mentorship Program. The participation in the Multicultural Festival 06 gave us an opportunity to show case our society and also netted a small profit of $850.00 after expenses.

E) Dragon Boat Festival

The 9^th Annual Manulife Dragon Boat Festival was held at Lake Benook on July 8, 2006. We participated with a cultural booth, a food booth, provided a number of cultural dance and dragon dance performances and entered our dragon boat rowing team – Oriental Express. Thanks for Fung Wah Restaurant in providing us with the facilities to prepare the Pork Shish Kebabs and David & Kathy Yung, Jeannine & Soulivanh Vongkeo, Linda & Ping Seto, Henry Tan, Kim Yeung, Zhongmin Dong, Ted & Janet Tam, Oscar Wong, Aiming Pan and Alice Nguan for preparing the Shish Kebabs and attended the food booth. Also thanks to Yang Guang and her brother attended the culture booth. Thanks to Dragon Buffet King and May Garden in donation of fried rice. The combined net revenue from both booths in this event is $1,050.00

Our president Zhongmin Dong had the honour of taking part in the official opening of the festival in officiating the “dotting the eye of the dragon” ceremony. This year Orient Express team had raised $738.00 for Amateur Sport in N.S, which set a new record for our Team in this event. Our team have won first place in the Class B category and brought home a trophy. Congratulations to the team members, captain Kim Yeung, Coach Eugene Tan for a job well done and Thank You all for their effort. Also thanks to Eugene Tan, who represents CSNS in organising this event is successful in waiving all fees associated with this event.

2. Welcome New Members

We would like to welcome the following new members:

· Weng, Chi

· Liu, Duyun

3. Announcements and Community News

· Congratulation to Herbert and Hayley Li for their newlywed daughter and son‑in‑law Iris Li and Andy Banh.

· Message from CSNS member Ms. Mau Lui

As chairperson of Asian Heritage Month Committee May Lui wishes to thank all the CSNS members for their kind support in attending the Asian Heritage Month Opening Ceremony on May 1, 2006 and other programs throughout the month of May. She wants to thank especially Mr. Ted Tam for his on-going assistance in operating the sound system for years; Helen Kwan, Teresa Cho and Suzanne Fong for providing and/or showing guests the cultural artifacts at the Chinese display tables and the display case at Spring Garden Road Public Library, to Janet Tam for taking photos, Anne Tang and her friend, Dr. and Mrs. Keh Gong Shih for placing program brochures on the seats of the Theatre Auditorium, and to all of them for speaking to guests attending the function.

May is also very grateful to all the dances of “Happy Days” and “Dream of Watertown”, who performed on that day with coach and organizer Jing Yang. They are Mei Wang, Jing Yang, Min Huang, Ying Lu, Chao Chen, Jie Ou, Chuying Wu and Yukun Zhou; and to the Dragon Dance performers Jiasi Chen, Wilbur Huang, Ze-Chuan He, Alex Dong, Gillian Huang, Xiaoru Yang, Jonathon Lu, Melisa Szeto, Charles Lu, Shane Wang, Aimin Pan, Fred Lu, Guang Yang, Emily Nguyen and Lily Liu with organizer Guang Yang. The opening ceremony was a great success as reported by journalists of both major newspapers.

May also is greatly appreciative of the kind co-operation of presenters during the month, e.g. Mrs. Helen Kwan and Mrs. Teresa Cho on Chinese Paintings; Mr. Mitch German and his students of Halifax Ryuseikan Karate Club for Karate demonstration (Mr. Germain is the son-in-law of Dr. and Mrs. Fung); and Dr. Charles Beaupie and his students for Taiji Qigong demonstration. Unfortunately the Lion Dance at the Spring Garden Rd. Public Library was cancelled due to heavy rain.

Thank you very much everyone. Hope we can work again in future years.

On the issue of Head Tax, Canadian government had apologized to the Chines Canadians and offered financial compensation to those survivors of head tax and their widows and community compensation. May wants to thanks CSNS members who signed a petition of regress at the Last Spike Campaign which was presented by Alexa MacDonough, M.P. to table in Parliament 3 years ago.

· Mrs. Katherine MacDonald has been admitted to the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre (QEII). Should you wish to visit her, please call patient switchboard at 471 1510 for her room number.

· May Lui has been re-elected as President of Regions3/4 (Halifax Regional Municipality) of NS Government Retired Employees Association (NSGREA) and also re-appointed to the Community and Race Relations Advisory Committee of Halifax Regional Municipality as of June 2006. Anyone who has any concerns about community and/or race relations in HRM please contact May. Congratulations May.

· Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Jason Kenny was in Halifax on April 19, 2006 at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia to hear the views of Chinese Canadians regarding the Head Tax redress issue. Subsequently, the Canadian Government had apologised to the Chinese and offered financial compensation to those survivors of head tax and their widows and community compensation.

· The CSNS executive nominating committee is preparing nominations of executives for the next CSNS General Election. Please send in your nominations to any of the executives.

· We need nominations for the 2006-07 Executive Team. Please submit your nominations to any of the current executives.

6. Upcoming events

· General Meeting and Mid Autumn Festival celebration

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) for 2006 will be held in conjunction with the Mid-Autumn Festival celebration. This combined function will be held on Sunday, 8^th October 2006 at the Dragon Buffet King (201 Chain Lake Drive, Bayers Lake Park, Halifax). Registration will start at 4:00 p.m. with the collection of the annual membership fee and the cost of buffet. The cost per person is $11 for adult and $4 for children under 10 years old (this includes a $5 subsidy from CSNS up to a maximum of $20 per family). The annual membership fee for 2006 will remains the same, i.e. $35 for family and $20 for single member.