新年快樂！| Happy New Year

Prosperous Year of the White (Metal) Tiger to everyone!

Scene at Ongpin Street in Chinatown, Binondo, Manila on Chinese New Year.

The Chinese New Year was well celebrated at Chinatown, where the traditional Lion and Dragon dances were done everywhere in the vicinity. Foreigners and locals alike held their cameras ready to take photos of the festive event.

Lion Dance 舞獅

The restaurants were jam-packed with family, people, coming all over the country and overseas to witness and taste the different flair or fusion of cultures enjoyed the the Chinoys.


The Mr. Ube Gerry Chua hosted an eating contest, to spice up the event, where everyone was amused of the contest's appetite.

Binondo, a mixture of old and new, but culture will forever be true.

A Message from GFAP-Youth President Peterson Co:

On behalf of our Directors, Officers, & Representatives of the 36 family associations of Grand Family, we the GFAP Youth Group like to greet everyone a Happy & Prosperous Chinese New Year!

恭祝大家 虎年祥和 萬事勝意

We will also like to thank the Fil-Chi youths for their strong support in our various projects in uniting the Fil-Chi community! Especially the participants of our first & experimental speed dating, which we will start sending out the results soon via e-mail. Do share your ideas by sending comments or suggestions to any of our youth officers. Hope we can make more & exciting events that may bond our youth community more closer than ever!

The GFAP Youth
Officers & Representative

GFAPY Speed Dating on a Chinese New Year

Well, actually it was not on a Chinese New Year, it is a week before Chinese New Year, but it's good thing that it was moved, so that the new matches that the speed dating made will have time to celebrate Valentine's day, right?

GFAPY President Peterson Co, giving his opening remarks and greeting everyone.

GFAPY VP Leo Natividad, organizer of the event, giving his thank yous and welcomes everyone.

Here's how the successful event looked like--- jam-packed! Everybody looked that they enjoyed the company, not just on their designated table, but in other tables as well.

GFAPY Officers on break, while tabulating the results.

Hard-working youth that made the event possible.

Officers gamely entertained the crowd with their singing talents!

Charles Tan, serenades the crowd.

Katrina and Eric sings 'Someday' (we'll know?)

Alyssa singings 'Pretty Boy'

The event ended with the Valentine King and Queen, with one of our officers winning as queen, Sandra Kho! They won tickets for Valentine's day movie at Shangri-La courtesy of White Hat: Eric Chao.

GFAPY 2009 to 2011

The officers would like to send their thank yous to all the friends who came:

VP Leo Natividad:

To all our friends, THANKS YOU VERY MUCH for joining our speed dating event!

VP Mimmy Dino:

On behalf of the GFAPY officers, specially from our president - Peterson, and vp- Leo, again, thank you for making this event a success.

I apologize for those who called and asked for directions and those who sent sms on the last minute for instructions to get to the venue on time. But I am happy to see that you made it to the venue.

I do hope that you were able to make new friends at the least. :) Do share us your story/ies in the future if ever you were able to find your match and lifelong partner in the future thru this (wink wink)

A good year of the tiger to all and happy valentines.
新年快樂; 除舊佈新; 福虎生威
See you in the next GFAPY event.

VP Eric Chao:

CONGRATS on another milestone event!! this org is just getting better and better!!!

Note:
Wait for the email the GFAPY will send you for your matches.

GFAP Mandarin Class

February 7, 2010, First day of Mandarin classes offered by GFAP to enhance Mandarin speaking skills. The class starts at 9:00 a.m. every Sunday at GFAP Office, 14th floor of Tytana Building, Binondo, Manila , with two classes--- one is basic and the other one is advanced.

Before the class started, welcoming and intro by GFAP Elders.

The basic class is headed by Sian Si Wu Xing Yue, while the advanced is by Sian Si Yan (if am not mistaken).

Let's learn Mandarin! Mandarin in pop culture is the language of money.

Must See Movie | Confucius 孔子

Confucius starring Chow Yun-fat and Zhou Xun and directed by Hu Mei.
It was released in Asia last January 18, 2010, in Guangzhou, China. The 22 million yuan (US $3,222,121.43) government-backed movie was created to celebrate the Chinese sage's 2,560th anniversary. credit: gma.tv
It is a glimpse to the sage's way of thinking and a glimpse of how the society he lived in was.

子貢問曰：“有一言而可以終身行之者乎”？子曰：“其恕乎！己所不欲、勿施於人。”

Zi gong (a disciple of Confucius) asked: "Is there any one word that could guide a person throughout life?"
The Master replied: "How about 'shu' [reciprocity]: never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself?"

Analects XV.24, tr. David Hinton

credit: wiki

Photo Wall | GFAPY SPEED DATE ON CHINESE NEW YEAR

Event photo wall by Ms. Shanee Sia

Two days to go!

Be on your best on February 7, and bring your perfect pose, and mesmerizing smiles while the SIA sisters (gorgeous Shanee and cutie Sophia) takes you to a second of glitz and glamour by taking your photos on our photo wall!

Official photographers: Shanee and Sophia Sia

Tickets | GFAPY SPEED DATING ON CHINESE NEW YEAR

Thank you for those who took time to come and get their ticket/s, as well as those who sent message to confirm presence on Sunday. This is a great help for us in organizing and grouping the participants.

For participants who have not sent their registration, I have submitted your name/s and dob, but we still need your registration form/s.

And for all who were not able to get their tickets, you can get them on the day itself. Please come early. Ticket releasing starts as early as 11am.

Remaining tickets not claimed by 12nn will be sold on a first come first serve basis, including walk-in participants.

Event shall promptly start at 1pm to help us give you what you came for. Thank you and see you.
 
Enmelda 'Mimi' Dino
VP GFAP- Youth

Good Reads | Chinese Cinderella

Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah 馬嚴君玲, is a short autobiographical novel about an unwanted daughter. It is a revised version of her first book, Falling Leaves. I think it is a typical story of Chinese daughters in a male driven Chinese society/family, what made it worse for Adeline was her mother's death because of her birth. It gives you a complete picture of Chinese culture in that period of time (you can compare what changed from then to now) and narrates triumphs of being the best daughter and accepting yourself.

"You may be right in believing that if you study hard, one day you might become fluent in English; but you will still look Chinese and when people meet you, they'll see a Chinese girl no matter how well you speak English. You'll always be expected to know Chinese, and if you don't, I'm afraid they will not respect you as much." -Grandfather Ye Ye