Group of 8 art exhibition Dec 4th - 9th
The group of 8 artists including the youngest one, Karen Fung, age 3, had their paintings displayed at Cedar Ridge Gallery. Their paintings range from modern to traditional, east and west, playful to solemn. "The traditional Chinese material and technique can be compatible with the more lush oil-on-canvas Western art form," says Master Tam Shek-Wing, one of the featured artists. "In contrast, the Chinese form makes use of ink and paper. The seemingly modest material does not rob the pictures of vibrancy, considering the paintings of our artists here. If there is true collaboration between Chinese and Western artists, there can be true breakthrough in both forms."
The guests of honour were a multicultural cast of public servants, which includes the Ontario Minister of Consumer Services, Margarett Best, MPP Bas Balkisoon, and Councillor Castro Liu of Richmond Hill.

Surprise Book launch Aug 13th
A surprise book launch was organized at the centre for Master Tam whose first English translated book has been finally published. When he walked into the centre, he was greeted by many students who congratulated him on the book " Natural Appearance, Natural Liberation". Master Tam spoke about the meaning of his book. The publisher John enjoyed a great working relationship with Henry. Henry said he is happy to finally have this book printed as it involved a lot of hard work over the years. The students lined up to have Master Tam signed their book. Everyone later adjourned for cake and tea.

Art Exhibition Aug 13th
Master Tam has showcased many of his Chinese art paintings at the Ontario Chinese Artists Association. The paintings were drawn together with his student. Councillor Norm Kelly and Minister of Tourism and Culture Mr.Chan both came for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Beverley gave an eloquent speech about her guru.   Beverley's speech

Master Tam's 76th birthday celebration
Everyone got busy with practising their routines months before Master Tam's birthday in May. Sheila taught us steps for the disco dance and Shinder the Bollywood dance and we practised every Saturdays after class. At the dinner, everyone was clapping when we danced including Master Tam who seemed to get in the groove too. Mark and JJ jammed. Beverley sang 3 beautiful songs and the newly formed Ban-Jazz choir sang "I can see clearly now". The variety shows of the night was spectacular with Bonnie's elegant and artistic Tibetan dancing, Boon Thye's Italian opera singing and choir conductor of chinese folk songs and Nicolle's voilin perfomance of Bach's prelude. Everyone had fun and enjoyed themselves very much.

A start of a beautiful friendship
Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche and his entourage of lamas from Golok, Tibet dropped by to visit Master Tam in April while on his circuit lecture in North America to foster and strengthen their friendship. Master Tam showed them the beads and ancient tangkas handed down by his guru, Dudjom Rinpoche and the meditation centres. Hungkar Dorje Rinpoche was amazed at the size of Master Tam's library with walls and walls of Buddhist books as well as his volumes of publishing. They had a meaningful day and discussed ways to work together to spread the Buddhist teaching to benefit sentient beings.

Baby Shower
We gave a surprise baby shower to Xiao Ling and her husband on June 4th as this is a first baby for them. Linda did a great job of getting several pieces of beautiful blue clothing and a teddy bear for the baby plus a big black forest cake. The baby boy arrived a week earlier from due date, weighing at 8lbs 8 oz. Both baby and mom doing well.

Performance practice, April 2011
Check out the disco steps as demonstrated by Sheila Teixeira: