When I received Thomas’ email inviting me to his home for dinner on Wednesday, I felt surprised, and puzzled. It is not rational because I just had dinner at his home last Saturday. We almost approached his home when he told me that they had a party here as so many Chinese, of whom one is a musician. He wouldn’t me to miss the opportunity to meet them.
ZhangMin, Chinese teacher in Waiariki, was already there, with two volunteer Chinese teachers in Rotorua. The other two come from Confucius Institute atVictoriaUniversityinWellington, which is a cooperative partner with XiamenUniversity. They are all alumina of XiamenUniversity, volunteering to popularize Chinese here inNew Zealand. After a while , the last two guests arrived, Malaysian Chinese Chen Wen and her kiwi husband Michal. Now, all the people speak Chinese except Thomas and Michal.
The hostess, Laytee, after putting all the dishes on the table, made a brief welcome speech and announced the commence of dinner. Everyone took what he wanted with a plate and ate on the sofa or chair. We talked a lot about Chinese food and Chinese culture, learning that Chen Wen once lived inBeijingfor three years, accompanying her ambassador husband fromNew Zealand, and also in Shanghai Consulate for three years as a general consul, accompanied by her husband. She is now the acting Director of Confucius Institute atVictoriaUniversity. Laytee is a famous Chinese in Rotorua, promoting dozens of schools to teach Chinese, organizing Chinese contests, and popularizing Chinese culture. She is also well-known in Beijing Headquarters. After dinner, musician Kong played a famous pipa masterpiece “ Rainbow-colored and feathered Costumes” with great passion. The classical Chinese melody was so fascinating and touching that everyone present was indulged in it, with inevitable applause. Thomas told an anecdote about him and Laytee. When they got married in a church, a bishop said in a humorous way: “IndiaconqueredChina”. Immediately, and also unexpectedly, Laytee refuted loudly and decisively, “No,ChinaconqueredIndia”, which made the audience all dumbfounded. Having heard of this, I take great pride in Laytee as a Chinese. I can’t help adding respect and worship to my like of her.
On the way back to homestay in ZhangMin’s car, I made an appointment with her to come to her Chinese class the next day, teaching Maori patriarch and his son Chinese, getting to know about their motivation, and introducing Chinese culture as well as Chinese to Maori people.
(Written by Wang Yanning)
