庆祝2018年新西兰中文周Celebrations in New Zealand Chinese Language Week 2018

New Zealand Chinese Language Week is a Kiwi-driven initiative aiming at encouraging New Zealanders to discover Chinese language and culture. It was officially launched by Raymond Huo as a sitting Member of Parliament on 24 May 2014. This year New Zealand Chinese Language Week is on from 23 to 29 September. Explore all the events in the nationwide celebration during New Zealand Chinese Language Week.

New Zealand Chinese Language Week Celebrations at Shirley and Hornby Libraries

Coincidentally, Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival on 24 September and Confucius’ Birthday on 28 September fall during this year’s New Zealand Chinese Language Week. Christchurch City Libraries is collaborating with the Confucius Institute at the University of Canterbury to celebrate the two events.

Shirley Library

Our activities include paper cutting, calligraphy, plate painting, Chinese games, Chinese folk dancing, and learning basic Chinese greeting and numbers. Free, no bookings required. Recommended for all ages. Caregiver required.

• Shirley Library, Monday 24 September 2pm to 4.30pm
• Shirley Library, Thursday 27 September 2pm to 4.30pm

Hornby Library

Come and celebrate Chinese Language Week with us at Hornby Library. Lead teacher, Fang Tian from the Confucius Institute will run a Chinese calligraphy taster and Cherry Blossom painting session. Suitable for all ages. FREE, no bookings required. Wednesday 26 September, 3.30pm to 4.30pm. Find out more.

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival中秋节

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival is on the 15^th day of the 8^th month of a lunar calendar year when the moon is believed to the biggest and fullest. Chinese people believe that a full moon is a symbol of reunion, harmony and happiness so Mid-Autumn Festival is a time for family reunion. Mooncakes are the main characteristic food for this occasion. Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival was derived from the ancient rite of offering sacrifices to the sun in spring and to the moon in autumn. Folklore about the origin of the festival is based on the ancient legend of Chang’e and her fateful ascent to the heavens after having swallowed an elixir pill.

Books and resources in the library related to Mid-Autumn Festival 图书馆有关中秋节的读物

Confucius’ Birthday孔子诞辰

Confucius, also known as Kong Qiu, is a great Chinese scholar, teacher and social philosopher. Confucius is believed to be born on 28 September, 551BC. He was living in a period regarded as a time of great moral decline. Working with his disciples, Confucius edited and wrote the classics and compiled Four Books and Five Classics 四书五经 to find solutions. In his life time, Confucius traveled throughout eastern China to persuade the official classes and rulers of Chinese states with the great moral teachings of the sages of the past. Although Confucius did not succeed in reviving the classics, his teachings formed as a dominant Chinese ideology, known as Confucianism, which values the concepts of benevolence仁, ritual仪, propriety礼. His teachings have had a profoundly influence on Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese thoughts and life for 2500 years.

Each year, Confucius’ birthday celebration ceremonies are held on the island of Qufu (Shangdong Province, Mainland China), the birthplace of Confucius. Outside Mainland China, Confucius’ birthday is also celebrated in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Japan. In Taiwan, Confucius’ birthday is set as a public holiday for teachers, known as Teachers’ Day, to memorise the first great teacher in the Chinese history.

  

Books and resources on Confucius in the library 图书馆有关孔子的读物

Chinese Language Collection

• Chinese language collection for adults成年人中文读物
• Chinese language collection for kids and teens儿童青少年中文读物

Chinese eResources

• Overdrive — Chinese language eBooks中文电子书
• Dragonsource — Chinese language magazines龙源中文杂志
• Press Reader — Chinese language newspaper and magazines 在线中文报纸和杂志

    

Resources for Learning Chinese

• Mango Language – software for learning Chinese芒果语言学习软件
• Chinese language learning titles at catalogue中文学习书目

Programmes and services offered in Chinese at your library

• Chinese Book Discussion Group华人读书会
• Chinese ESOL Club and ESOL Club以英文学习为目的小组活动
• English-Chinese Bilingual Babytime中英文双语宝宝故事会
• Chinese language services in the library图书馆的中文服务
  Chinese language services are available at Halswell Library, Tūranga the Central Library, Upper Riccarton Community and High School Library and other Christchurch City Libraries with arrangement.

Hong Wang
Network Library Assistant

Riverside Neo-Georgian: The Theosophical Society Hall

Late in the afternoon of 25 July 1926, a crowd gathered at 267 Cambridge Terrace to witness the dedication of a newly erected building. Built in the Neo-Georgian style of architecture, it evoked the image of a palatial dwelling rather than that of a religious institution. At exactly 4:43pm, a time chosen for being the supposed moment when the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama, gave his first sermon at a deer park in Sanarth, India, a dedication stone was unveiled which read:

“This building is dedicated to the Glory of God and to the Service of Humanity.”

Yet the building was neither a Buddhist temple nor a church, but a purpose built hall for a new movement that had arisen in the late nineteenth century, the Theosophical Society.

The Theosophical Hall, Cambridge Terrace, Christchurch [1926]. File Reference CCL PhotoCD 8, IMG0085.

The Theosophical Society

The Theosophical Society was formed in New York in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), a Russian immigrant, who claimed to have visited Tibet and made contact with a group of secret mystics known as the ‘Masters’. In all likelihood Blavatsky had never visited Tibet (however, her grandfather was the Russian government’s appointed guardian of the Kalmyk people, descendants of Oirat Mongols who had migrated to the Volga steppe of Russia in the seventeenth century and who followed Tibetan Buddhism). Blavatsky managed to convince Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), one of the founding members of the New York Confederacy of Spiritualists, as to the existence of the Masters and that she was the recipient of their doctrines. Together they worked to establish a movement of which the objectives were:

To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or colour.

To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science.

To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in humanity.

Unable to establish itself on Spiritualist credentials alone, the Theosophical Society soon rebranded itself by appropriating the doctrines of Hinduism and Buddhism. To further this connection with the ancient faiths of India, the society relocated its international headquarters to Adyar, India, in 1882.

Theosophy in Christchurch

Theosophy soon became known in New Zealand through publications and visiting lecturers. Eventually the first lodge was founded in Wellington in 1888, with an Auckland lodge following in 1892.

On 13 May 1894 a meeting was held at the house of William Denne Meers, a clothing manufacturer, with the purpose of forming a Christchurch branch of the Theosophical Society. As a result, the Christchurch lodge was officially established on 28 June 1894. Without any formal premises, the society initially met in rooms at the Opera House at 214 Tuam Street. In the years that followed, the lodge was visited by prominent overseas members, including social reformer Annie Besant (1847-1933) in October 1894 and Henry Steel Olcott in September 1897.

A month after the visit by Olcott, the lodge moved to what was then 130 Lichfield Street, opposite Bennett’s corner. In mid-1900, it relocated to Hobbs’ Buildings on the north side of Cathedral Square (the present site of Tūranga). By 1906, its meetings were held at 150 Worcester Street (opposite the Federal Club). Eventually, in 1910, the lodge took up residence in Manchester Chambers at 263 Manchester Street where it remained until the Cambridge Terrace hall was established.

Sure to Rise

Thomas J. Edmonds (1858-1932) was a successful Christchurch businessman who was most famous for his baking powder and the factory which produced it (now the site of the Edmonds Factory Garden). With his wealth, he contributed to the architecture of the city, with notable examples being the Band Rotunda on Cambridge Terrace and the Radiant Hall on Kilmore Street. Although he was not a member of the Theosophical Society, his daughter Beatrice often attended the society’s meetings. When the society began fundraising for a purpose built hall in 1925, Edmonds offered his financial assistance.

Cecil Wood

The building was designed by prominent architect, Cecil W. Wood (1878-1947) who, from 1922, took an interest in Georgian architecture (one of his notable works being the residence of the Anglican Bishop of Christchurch, Bishopscourt, on Park Terrace). The tender for its construction was awarded to the building firm D. Scott and Son.

While other Theosophical Society halls in New Zealand, such as Wellington (1918) and Auckland (1922) were designed in the Classical architectural style, Wood chose Neo-Georgian for the Christchurch lodge. Constructed from brick, and rectangular in form, the building’s sparse street front was enlivened by the use of multi-paned windows and quoins. Classical elements were still included in the form an entrance framed by a triangular pediment set atop two pillars.

Within, various rooms including a library, kitchen and chapel (for use by the Liberal Catholic Church of Saint Francis) were accessed from a central hallway. At the rear of the building was the central lecture hall, which could seat up to 120 individuals (although it was originally intended to seat more). The second floor of the building eventually became the home of the Christchurch Lodge of Universal Co-masonry and the Esoteric Society.

Theosophical Hall, 267 Cambridge Terrace, 31 March 2011. Kete Christchurch. Theosophical_Hall__267_Cambridge_Terrace___31_March_2011____P3310167. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand License.

The end

The Theosophical Society in Christchurch and the Liberal Catholic Church of Saint Francis continued to use the hall until it was damaged in the 2011 Canterbury earthquake. Despite being a heritage listed building, it was subsequently demolished in 2012. Following the demolition of the hall, the Christchurch branch of the Theosophical Society now meets at the Canterbury Workers’ Educational Association building.

Demolition of the Theosophical Hall, 23 June 2012. Kete Christchurch. Demolition_of_the_Theosophical_Hall__23_June_2012__SAM_7293. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 New Zealand License.

Find out more

• View photographs of the Theosophical Society Hall on Kete Christchurch.
• Learn about other buildings and monuments in Christchurch associated with Thomas Edmonds.
• Learn more about the architecture of Cecil Wood in our collection or online.
• Read The Secret Doctrine by Helena Blavatsky.

Balance and Harmony: The Creation of a Sand Mandala at Te Hāpua: Halswell Centre – 12 August to 2 September

From Saturday 12 August to Saturday 2 September at Te Hāpua: Halswell Centre, Tibetan monks will be constructing a sacred cosmogram grain by grain with crushed marble coloured sand, representing a world in perfect harmony. There will be events including public talks and activities for children.

Balance and Harmony: The Creation of a Sand Mandala will open at Te Hāpua: Halswell Centre with a ceremony on Saturday 12 August at 10.30am when the monks will perform a consecration service and pour the first grains of sand after being welcomed by local iwi.

The monks will slowly build up the mandala, labouring over their work for hours at a time as they place one grain of sand after another to realise an intricate symbolic design in vivid colour.

After painstakingly placing the elements of the cosmogram, the grains will be brushed away, signifying the impermanence of all things. This ancient art form was an integral part of Indian Tantric Buddhism.

Events

Explore all the events related to Balance and Harmony: The Creation of a Sand Mandala:

Public Talks

Compassion, love, and patience
Sunday 13th, 20th, 27th August 11am to 12pm
Free to attend, no bookings required.
The Geshes (monks) will give talks in the library on how to cultivate compassion, love and patience from their training and perspective. This will cover ways to increase wellbeing and reduce internal emotional conflict. Known as the ‘four noble truths’ this will be discussed for practical everyday use, not from a religious perspective.

Inner Harmony and balance
Saturday 19th and 26th August 2pm to 3pm
Free to attend, no bookings required.
While the Sand Mandala is being created we will be hosting public talks by the Tibetan Monks. The Geshes will talk from their training and perspective on inner harmony and balance.

Children’s Activity: The Creation of a Sand Mandala

Sunday August 20^th and 27^th  2pm to 3pm
Please contact us to secure a place – phone 9417923 or email library@ccc.govt.nz
Here is a unique chance to attend a children’s mandala making programme. The Tibetan Monks will draw a lotus flower and children will have the opportunity to use the proper tools to fill it in with sand. There will also be mandalas to colour and iPad mandala apps with library staff. This activity is not suitable for pre-schoolers – to get the most of this activity children must have the motor skills to manipulate the tools. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

New year, new you

Who do you want to be in 2017? Someone better organised/less stressed/fitter/richer/more fulfilled?

The only thing stopping you is you… or maybe it’s just that you haven’t found the right programme, philosophy or inspiration yet. That being the case, here are some suggestions to set you on the path of the righteous/smug.

Ditching bad habits

We’ve got resources to help you stop smoking, drinking, and advice on how to cope with other addictions and compulsions.

Diet and fitness

There are plenty of titles available with advice on improving your diet, or find an exercise regime that suits your lifestyle.

Or are you just keen to keep your brain fit and healthy? There are programmes and exercises for flexing your cognitive muscles.

Maybe it’s just time to cope better with stress?

Money and finances

Is 2017 the year you show your mortgage who’s boss? Try some titles about personal finance, budgeting, and retirement planning.

Efficiency and organisation

Whether you want some advice on how to attack household tasks more efficiently, bring some orderliness to your possessions, or advice on time management, there are heaps of titles to choose from.

   

Better living, everyone.

Jean-Christophe Rufin: Walking your way to happiness – Auckland Writers Festival 2016

Two thousand people packed the ASB theatre at the Auckland Writers Festival on Sunday to hear Jean-Christophe Rufin (co-founder of Doctors Without Borders and former French Ambassador to Senegal) talk about walking.

Jean-Christophe Rufin, Image supplied

He loped on stage – tall, slim and packed to the gills with a kind of laconic Gallic charm. They are rare these men, but I have met one or two in my life, and what distinguishes them is their seamless fusion of Science and the Arts. When praised for his phenomenal CV he shrugged and said:

I am a doctor who writes, that is all.

Being the French Ambassador in Senegal is a bit like being the Queen in the British Isles. When his three year ambassadorial stint in Senegal ended, he found himself without all the trappings of a very high profile job. He had a reduced social status, no social calender, no servants and no idea what to do next. His life seemed to have become very pared down. In a fit of pique he thought to himself, so I will pare it right down. I will walk. I will walk a long way. I will walk the Santiago de Compostela. And you should try never to have that thought he said, because once you do it is like a virus, it will never let you go, you are entirely at its mercy.

But first you must pack your bag. That backpack will be your world. At the start everyone has huge bags. The weight of the bag represents your fear. Some people pack several raincoats. They are afraid of rain. Some people pack much water. They are afraid of thirst. What you pack in your bag will tell you a lot about yourself. When asked what he was afraid of on the walk, he jokingly replied – the snores of my fellow travellers.

But, one week from the end of the Pilgrimage, when he met up with his wife (they wanted to walk the last part together), he looked at their two bags. Hers was massive – packed full of beauty products and accessories. His was tiny. He had walked off his fears.

What do people talk about when they meet up as pilgrims on the Compostela? There are three main questions that get asked:

• Where did you start The Way?
• When did you start?
• And most importantly: How are your feet? You meet people, and you love them, and it all starts with the feet.

That is all. No one ever asks: Who are you? What do you do? These questions are superfluous on the Pilgrimage. But sore feet will be lifted on to the table and viewed by all, like they were the maps of the soul.

And of course, he shrugged, he would love us to read his book – The Santiago Pilgrimage.

But he is adamant. You can gain no real benefit from reading about walking the Santiago. You have to do it. One painful step at a time, until you fall in love with the world again, and you find that you are happy.

Find out more

• Find out more about the Auckland Writers Festival 2016
• Browse all our Auckland Writers Festival posts
• Read Masha, Moata and Roberta’s Auckland Writers Festival 2016 recommended booklist
• See photos from the Festival

Happy Hanukkah!

“Monica, Monica, have a happy Hanukkah!” I’m a tad ashamed to say that, yes, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word Hanukkah is Phoebe’s holiday song in Friends.  I suspect that I may not be alone in my limited awareness…

Beth El Synagogue, Christchurch [1901], CCLPhotoCD 6, IMG0079

Yet Hanukkah is one of the most popular Jewish religious holidays and people with Jewish heritage have played an important role in New Zealand since the first days of European settlement.

As the book Jewish Lives in New Zealand points out, Auckland alone has had five Jewish mayors. New Zealand’s first woman doctor, Emily Siedeberg, and first woman lawyer, Ethel Benjamin, were both Jewish.  Similarly, Jewish families, like the Keesings, de Beers, Ashers, and Hallensteins, were and are still prominent in the business community.

So what is Hanukkah? Traditionally it celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in 165 BCE, when, after a three-year struggle led by Judah Maccabee, the Jews in Judea defeated Antiochus IV, the Seleucid king who had invaded Judea.

The celebrations last 8 days and involve lighting candles each night in the menorah, a special eight-branched candelabrum. Scriptures are read each day and a special hymn is sung.

And what would  a celebration be without special food? Potato pancakes (latkes), doughnuts, and other treats fried in oil take the starring role at Hanukkah. Children receive presents and gifts of money (Hanukkah gelt), which may be the real thing or chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil.

Today is the last day of Hanukkah for 2015, so Happy Hanukkah to all who are celebrating!

If you do observe Hanukkah, why not share some of your family’s traditions?

• Find resources about Hanukkah and Jewish cooking in our catalogue
• Learn more about Hanukkah from Encyclopædia Britannica (to access this from home you’ll need your library card and PIN/password)
• Read about the Jewish community and its history in Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
• Search CINCH for Jewish organisations and groups in Christchurch

It’s 2am… let’s blog!

It’s 2am, I can’t get back to sleep. What to do? My super alert 2am brain has the answer:

Let’s blog!

Sometimes I get asked about blogging: where do the ideas come from; when do I get time to blog;  what’s the whole process? In a nutshell, I believe –  if it’s keeping me awake at 2am, it’s probably something other people will relate to and maybe want to read.

Here’s this morning’s 2am musings – all eminently bloggable in my opinion:

• How can I be a fantastic granny? Where’s the book on The Dummies’ Guide to Grannyhood? I can generate quite a bit of brain-play on this topic, but it never sends me to sleep. Next.
• Why are good things so often earnest, so humourless: Organic this, Spiritual that, Dietary whatever. Where’s the light-hearted look at Rammed-Earth Housing or Climate Change or Yoga. But wait, what about Yoga Bitch? I read the subtitle: One Woman’s Quest to Conquer Scepticism, Cynicism and Cigarettes on the Path to Enlightenment. Next topic please.
• What is the relationship between isolation and polarisation of behaviour? Take The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin and Plainsong by Kent Haruf. Lone men in isolated places and the arrival of pregnant, feral teenage girls. Is there a blog on mirror-image books? Not tired yet. Next.
• Why doesn’t anyone tell young people that once you have kids you can’t really travel for ages? OK, you might manage a trip to Hanmer Springs – with military precision planning. Either that or you do travel with kids and spoil everyone else’s holiday. Try reading What I Was Doing While You Were Breeding. Almost there, but Next.
• How come we think we have to travel all over the world to gain spiritual enlightenment, when it could probably just as easily happen from home? Because it makes for a better read? A good book on this (and with a terrific title) is Contents May Have Shifted by Pam Houston. Brain winding down now.

Finally drift off to sleep. Leap out of bed (OK, drag self out of bed) at 7-ish. Bash out blog before brekkie and submit it.

That’s my way.

How do other bloggers get it all together?

How are you shaping up for the new year?

Some make New Year’s resolutions, some resolve never to make New Year’s resolutions, either way now’s a good time to take stock of your well-being.

Whether you are returning to work from holiday or worked through the holiday period, this time of year is a tricky period of readjustment to family and work expectations. If you are feeling in a rut or envying the work life balance of others it is time to make some gains on your own plans. So get some tools and set some targets to get you to there, whether that be health and fitness wise or making gains on that long-planned outdoor adventure.

A great place to start is our very own Zinio for libraries take a look at these beauties and you get to keep each and every one of them. So no more excuses! You can download these, with your library card and PIN.

Search the catalogue for more titles available on Zinio.

 

 

 

 

 

New Year’s resolutions apathy: Let’s do less.

Are you having trouble being motivated to do your New Year’s resolutions?

Maybe you’re doing too much. Maybe your resolutions are all wrong.

This year I don’t feel I need to do more – but actually need to do less or at least do it more efficiently. Do you feel this way too?

Here’s some good titles to get you inspired to slow down and enjoy life:

      

Not my circus. Not my monkeys.

If you indulge in the odd spot of social networking on Facebook, you may have seen the lashings of “likes” for a post with the cheeky Polish saying: Not my circus. Not my monkeys.

First I smiled. Then I panicked. What if my plumber, dentist, bank manager, underwear sales assistant, even (though this would never happen!) my library assistant, took this stance? Where would that leave me?

At a time (in Christchurch in particular) when we are daily urged to look out for one another, and random acts of kindness make living worthwhile, where does this proverb fit?

Here’s some great library resources for you to delve into on this very topic:

• Give, but give until it hurts said Mother Teresa. Can’t say better than that now, can you.
• In his 2014 book The Good Life, Graham Music takes us on a research trip to uncover what tips us towards selfish or altruistic behaviour. He strikes a near fatal blow at the Selfish Gene hypothesis. This is a very compelling read.
• Recognising the importance of connection for those on the Autism spectrum, John Elder Robison has written Be Different, a book that stresses every individual’s ability to create strong loving bonds and that, essentially, we do this by caring for one another’s monkeys.
• Readings that encourage selfishness for survival maintain that we are genetically hard-wired to look after number one first. Check out the Team Selfish readings here, headed by Richard Dawkins’ controversial The Selfish Gene.

Truth is, I’ve grown to love your circuses and your monkeys. This to the extent that I may (on occasion) have neglected some of my own show ponies. Head-messing thought here: Could it be that I am caring, but for selfish reasons? And where is the book on that?