London 2012 blog

My relationship with the whole London 2012 project started before London won the Games - we were helping Neil (in LOCOG’s Community relations team) get in touch with Chinese community, getting support for the bid. Since then, I have sat on the London 2012 Forum, discussing issues with people from all the various communities in London.

The beauty for us of course is that this year the Games are in China, in Beijing, which gives a bit of extra flavour in our relationship with LOCOG: we have an even greater opportunity to build the relationship and share ideas and information - as we did yesterday. We were asked if we could help raise Chinese cultural awareness among London 2012 staff - especially for those who are going to Beijing programmes to get first-hand Games experience.

We were of course delighted to help and yesterday saw it all come together, in an informal (yet hopefully informative) education day.

It started with a cultural quiz, which was well-received. There were questions I certainly didn't expect Westerners would know the answer to - and things you wouldn't necessarily be able to learn from a book. One was 'what special diet must new Chinese mothers eat?' Some of the girls were a bit a bit scared of the answer but it's actually very popular and iron rich: stew boiled for 4-5 hours with boiled eggs, sweet black vinegar, ginger root and pig's trotters. The winner scored 8 out of 12 and received a healthy Chinese cook book as a prize.

The quiz was followed by a presentation by Mr Kam Sang Law including the history of China, the current political system, the philosophy of Confucius and Chinese etiquette - what you should and shouldn't do. Some of the top tips offered:

1. The way you hand your business cards over - use two hands, not one.

2. The first few times you meet someone always address them as 'mr' or 'madame', not by their first name.

3. Eating a meal in China - When all large dishes in middle of table, use the serving spoons/serving chopsticks to reach to the dishes serve yourself from the centre rather than picking it up and bring it to yourself.

Next we had a Kungfu demonstration by Master Liu from the Shaolin temple. Lots of people came to watch him stand on two fingers and chop wood and stone in half with one hand.

After a short break for lunch we had a short talk by Mr Yat Ming Loo on the early settlement of the Chinese community in London. They first settled 100-150 years ago in the Limehouse area - not far from the London 2012 offices. The Docklands was where most ships moored and at that time Chinese tea was being imported into England. The Chinese often worked on the liners in the laundrette or restaurant, which is why they set up in similar jobs when they settled here.

The final two sessions were workshops running simultaneously. The first was a musical instruments demonstration by Joanna Qiu, with a performance and then the chance for staff to try it out for themselves, including HR director Jean Tomlin. The other session was on Chinese calligraphy, run by Mr Kam Sang Law - a famous calligrapher who has had his own work exhibited at the V&A. Those taking part didn't quite reach his standard, but had a pretty good first attempt.

All in all a varied programme - we were pleased with the positive response we had to each of the sessions. Hopefully it will come in use over the coming months.