“Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition to Commemorate the 126th Anniversary of Kathleen Hall’s Birth” Opens!

The opening ceremony of the “Painting and Calligraphy Exhibition to Commemorate the 126^th Anniversary of Kathleen Hall’s Birth”, which was jointly organized by New Zealand-China Friendship Society and New Zealand Institute of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting, was held in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city on November 26. At the opening ceremony, Ye Su, minister-counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in New Zealand, read the Ambassador Wang Xiaolong’s letter. Chen Shijie, Consul General of the Chinese Consulate General in Auckland; Zhang Qian, Executive Vice President of Beijing People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries; Christopher Mark Lipscombe, President of New Zealand-China Friendship Society; Michael Lee, councillor of Auckland Regional Council; Michael Crook, Chairman of the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives, and others delivered speeches at the event.

The guests recalled Kathleen Hall’s life that touched people and her contributions to supporting China’s war of resistance and the cultivation of health personnel, and unanimously expressed that they would work to keep alive Kathleen Hall’s internationalist spirit and cement the friendship between the two countries. Dave Bromwich, former president of New Zealand-China Friendship Society, and Miao Fan, Vice President of New Zealand-China Friendship Society and President of the Kathleen Hall Scholarship Program, separately introduced the purpose of the “Kathleen Hall Memorial Scholarship Program” and the achievements in keeping alive the spirit of Kathleen Hall and training health and medical personnel for China over the years.

Ms. Kathleen Hall came to China in 1923 and cultivated a great number of medical personnel for China in the subsequent years. She met surgeon Henry Bethune during the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, during which she risked her life and limb to collect and deliver medicines and medical supplies to the Eighth Route Army despite immense difficulties. When she was forced back to New Zealand, she was still concerned about China, and joined New Zealand-China Friendship Society to promote the cause of New Zealand-China friendship. She devoted herself to China and Chinese people. In accordance with her will, her ashes were scattered on the Taihang Mountain – she remains in the land she loved.

As China and New Zealand celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations, painters from the New Zealand Institute of Chinese Calligraphy and Painting created 40 paintings and calligraphy works with the theme of Kathleen Hall for exhibition and charity sale, with the aim of allowing more Chinese and New Zealand people to learn about Kathleen Hall, publicizing and carrying forward the spirit of Kathleen Hall, cementing the friendship between the two peoples, and raising donations for “Kathleen Hall Scholarship Program”.