Conferences & Meetings \>\> In China

International Symposium on Corporate Responsibility & Sustainable Development, Guangzhou

Topics on the agenda include: the tensions between respect for the natural environment, social justice, and economic development; the long view versus short-term imperatives; the competing priorities of north and south, east and west; and the separate agendas of business, consumers, communities, civil society and government.

Date: April 9 - 12

Venue: Guangdong University of Foreign Studies

Website: www.cr-sd.org

Real Estate Investment World China, Shanghai

A range of topics including business models, capital sources and investment strategies will be discussed at this real estate development, investment and finance forum for developers, investors, funds and asset managers.

Date: April 15 - 18

Venue: The Ritz Carlton Shanghai

Website: terrapinn.com

China International Software Cooperation Conference, Chengdu

Attended by key players in China's software industry, the event showcases products and research results as well as providing an ideal place to look for business opportunities in high-tech.

Date: April 10-13

Venue: New Century International Conference Centre

Website: www.chinasoft.org.cn/cn/index.html

E&T Networking, Beijing

The Institution of Engineering and Technology invites professors, professional engineers and senior executives to discuss developments and new technology in engineering. The first event, on March 20, will include Phil Blythe, a member of the Electric Vehicle Steering Committee, Royal Academy of Engineering, who will talk about electric vehicles in Britain and talk about trials currently taking place.

Date: March 20

Venue: Brussels Bar & Restaurant, Sanlitun

Website: www.britishchamber.cn

Conferences & Meetings \>\> In the US

Business Debate: China Short and Long, New York

The well-known short-seller and hedge fund manager Jim Chanosof Kynikos Associates, and Stephen Roach, senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute of Global Affairs, will host a two-hour debate on whether or not China's fast growing economy is poised to crash.

Date: March 27

Venue: 725 Park Avenue

Website: asiasociety.org

Culture \>\> In China

The Jefferson Dancers, Tianjin

The company's diverse repertoire includes more than 100 works of modern, tap, ballet, jazz, African, ethnic, and musical theatre, choreographed by nationally recognized choreographers.

Date: March 24

Venue: Tianjin Grand Theatre

Website: www.tjgtheatre.com

Marlis Petersen's Schubert Quartets, Shanghai

Marlis Petersen combines a voice of rare crystal clarity and brightness with an alert presence that enables her to identify with all her roles on the stage.

Date: March 22

Venue: Shanghai Concert Hall

Website: www.marlis-petersen.de

Portraits and Interiors, Chinese Dutch Painting Exhibition, Beijing

A contemporary show focused on one of the most traditional subjects in art history: portraits and interiors. Both are among the most intriguing subjects in the history of visual art and have a long tradition in Dutch and Chinese painting.

Date: March 4-30

Venue: Today Art Museum

Website: www.todayartmuseum.com

Music: Lutoslawski Quartet, Beijing

This youthful ambassador of Polish chamber music, founded in 2007, has already established its reputation as one of the best chamber music ensembles in Poland. The Quartet's performance ranges from traditional classical to contemporary jazz. Their strength is 20th century Polish music.

Date: March 30

Venue: Forbidden City concert hall

Website:www.theatrebeijing.com

Culture \>\> In the US

Nine-man panel, New York

A feature documentary about an isolated and exceptionally athletic Chinese-American sport that is much more than a pastime. The event will start with a preview of the documentary, followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Ursula Liang, nine-man athletes and historians for a look into this intense and secret fraternity.

Date: March 27

Venue: The Museum of Chinese in America

Website: www.mocanyc.org

Screening and discussion: The Emperor's Secret Garden, New York

In 2001 the Palace Museum and the World Monuments Fund partnered to conserve the magnificent 18th-century Qianlong Garden in the Forbidden City, choosing first to restore a unique building with some of the palace's finest surviving architectural interiors and decor.

Date: March 21

Venue: 725 Park Avenue

Website: asiasociety.org

Diplomatic pouch

Newly arrived Fulbright lecturer Veronica Hendrick, associate professor of literature and law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, presented her lecture "Toni Morrison and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850" at the US consulate in Shanghai recently. She combined a look at Morrison's novel Beloved with a perspective on US slave law and how the laws were formulated in order to maintain the system of slavery. Hendrick will serve as a Fulbright lecturer in American literature at Shanghai International Studies University this spring semester.

Chinese consulates in the US are encouraging the winners of Chinese Bridge proficiency competitions to apply for scholarships to fund further study in China. Scholarship winners could choose Chinese language and Literature, Chinese history or Chinese philosophy as their major. The admission date is autumn of 2013 or spring of 2014 and the grant term is one semester. For deadlines and application information, both college and high-school applicants should contact their local Confucius Institute.

Veteran Chinese diplomat Lv Congmin posted a salute to his old friend the late US senator Daniel Inouye, on the Chinese consulate website in Los Angeles. "This one-armed old man set many records," he said of the nine-term Hawaii senator who died late last year. "He was Hawaii's first full member of the US house of Representatives after Hawaii achieved statehood, the first Japanese American to serve in the US House of Representatives and later to serve in the US Senate.

"Daniel is an old friend of the Chinese people," he said. Coming from an Asian immigrant family himself, Lv said, Inoyue understood how "many Chinese came to the United States as laborers or coolies in the middle of the 19th century and they worked hard on the farms and in mines in the west or in building railways. Many Chinese died miserably in the United States, but no one here cared about them." Similar experience made Daniel sympathize with the Chinese-Americans, said Lv, a specialist on foreign affairs of the National People's Congress and an adjunct professor at Nankai University and China Foreign Affairs University. "The people of China have respected and admired him for his consistent friendship and understanding, and for his sensible and rational approach to China-US relations."

Send embassy and consulate news to michaelpeters@chinadaily.com.cn.

(China Daily 03/15/2013 page23)