GOVPH

Consulate General lends presence and support to Filipino Teacher Organization’s Speakers Series

School children are not the only ones using the summer break for continuous learning, as The Filipino Teachers (TFT) held the latest installment of its Speaker Series in Jing’an District on topics of interest to Filipino educators in Shanghai and beyond.

TFT President Gem Calope said the Series aim to bolster the teaching skills of Filipino educators and further raise their stature within China’s education sector.

Three speakers of diverse backgrounds shared their expertise to onsite and online participants. Shenzhen-based lawyer Edgar Choi lectured on the basics of Chinese Labor Law; Filipino advertising executive and fulltime “mompreneuer” Carol Ong, shared tips on harnessing creativity, and nurse and Montessori teacher Shayne Beldia, spoke on “Learning by Nature” and maximizing outdoor learning opportunities for kids.

Consul Marlowe A. Miranda offered felicitations to the TFT for supporting the personal and professional development of Filipino teachers in China. Founded in 2018 in Shanghai, TFT is a non-profit social organization of Filipino educators in the country. END

Ball gets rolling for 2021 Filipino Basketball Summer League in Shanghai; Consul General opens tourney

Shanghai, 18 July – Bouncing back from a two-year hiatus, the Philippine Basketball Association in Shanghai (FILBAS) opened today its 2021 Summer League at the Hansen Sports Complex in Baoshan District.

Five teams – the Balleros, Shanghai Brothers, Shanghai Ballers, F&B Shooters, and T-Fish -- are participating in the revived tourney. The matches will take place Sundays until 17 October, when the top two teams in the double round-robin tournament will face off for the championship.

Guesting at the inaugural ceremonies, Consul General Josel F. Ignacio congratulated FILBAS on the League’s strong return. Alluding to Filipinos’ over-a-century-old love affair with basketball and the ubiquity of hoops, including improvised ones, in the Philippines, the Consul General characterized the sport as an outlet for Filipinos’ passion for community and interaction, as well as an expression of their resourcefulness and determination.

As he conveyed best wishes to the tournament and teams, the Consul General urged the players to “represent” in Shanghai, through their skills, sportsmanship, and above all, the camaraderie and unity that bind the Filipino Community.  END

Consulate General visits CPC’s 1921 Founding Congress Site and Memorial

Shanghai, 15 July – With China commemorating the 100^th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Shanghai proudly looking back on its role in this signal moment in PRC history, the Consulate General and its Attached Agencies were given a guided tour of the complex memorializing the CPC’s First National Congress in 1921.

The visit was arranged with the support and coordination of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government.

Located in Xintiandi in Huangpu District, the complex features the restored traditional Shanghainese shikumen (stone-frame house) in which the founding Congress of the CPC was held on 23 July 1921, an “oath-taking hall”, and a 3,400 sqm. new Memorial Hall. Opened only last month, the Exhibition hall features over 1,100 documents, artifacts and exhibits tracing the beginnings of the CPC, and its subsequent journey tracking landmark changes in China and its remarkable rise in the past 40 years.

“The memorial presents the story China’s struggles and impressive achievements in the last century, and the keystone role of Shanghai, our host city, in the CPC’s annals. As diplomats, the visit provided us valuable insights into the Party and its evolution, which inform our understanding of what shapes and drives China’s rise, policies and actions,” commented Consul General Josel F. Ignacio.

The site is an important Shanghai landmark, with 1.4 million visitors – visiting foreign dignitaries, diplomats, tourists and the Chinese public -- in 2018 and 2019. Numbers tapered off when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, but has since again picked up, boosted by the CPC Centenary and the site’s additions and expansion.

China celebrated the CPC’s centenary on 01 July. President Rodrigo Duterte has himself felicitated China on the occasion. At the CPC and World Political Parties Summit on 06 July, he joined “in celebrating this important milestone marking a century of the CPC’s visionary leadership” that “oversaw China’s extraordinary rise to prosperity, lifting over 800 million Chinese out of extreme poverty and driving a global growth in the process.” END