Event and Activiries

Excerpts of Minutes of Committee Meeting held on Saturday,
August 26, 2006, 4.00 - 6.00 pm, at the Queens Town Golf Club,
Golden Crown Restaurant

The following decisions were made:

1. That the Constitution be changed so that the financial year would end on 31 December in order to avoid having to redo the financial statement once for the IRAS and again to meet the requirements of our constitution with the financial year ending 31 March each year.

2. The Committee decided to change the official address of the Society back to 28 Oei Tiong Ham Park. Singapore 267033.

3. The website to be upgraded and updated. Dr Chia Lin Sien would be assisted by Encih Jaffar Kassim and our young member, Harsono Ng Yong Seng,

4. A book launch of The Zheng He Epic would be hosted by Select Books and sponsored by Select Books, Cheng Ho Cultural Museum and our Society to be held on 22 September 2006.

5. To organize a public talk by Liu Gang, the owner and discoverer of the World Map of 1418. The talk would take place on and in October 2006.

Excerpts from the Minutes of Committee Meeting held on Saturday,
February 10, 2006, at 28 Oei Tiong Ham Park.

It was reported that our Society’s jointly organised pubic talk with the National Library Board by Mr Liu Gang on the topic “The 1418 Map of the World” was successfully held in the premises of National Library. The talk attracted an audience of 70-80. Copies of the speech in Chinese and in English are available.

Also, the book Launch of The Zheng He Epic (English version) organized by our Society jointly with the proprietors of Select Books in conjunction with the launch at their bookshop in Tanglin Shopping Centre took place on the evening of 22 Sept 2006. The event attracted a small gathering of about 20 persons including some non-members. (See review under Publications)

A number of matters were discussed:

1. Our website - Dr Chia reported that a designer for our website has been found and the bulk of the material has already been given to the designer. It was suggested that the website should also be in Chinese as well as in Malay. However, it was felt that while this is a good idea and some materials are already available in both the additional languages mentioned. However, due to inadequate resources this can only be done at a later stage. Dr Chia, Encih Jaffar Kassim and Harsono Ng Yong Seng had earlier agreed to be responsible for upgrading and maintaining the website. Arising from this, there will no longer be a need to publish our newsletter.

2. Conference & Seminar - The meeting decided that an International Conference and Seminar on Zheng He and Southeast Asia be organised and held in Melaka some time in December 2007. A keynote speaker together with speakers from China and countries in Southeast Asia would be invited to the conference. This should be a scholarly conference with priority given to original research. Individuals or small teams of researchers would be identified and provided with some funds to undertake field work and research in countries and areas/locations where Zheng He’s fleets visited. These researchers would be invited to present their findings at the conference.

The meeting agreed that in conjunction with the conference in Malacca there should be a seminar to be held in Singapore. A panel of invited speakers would present papers and the event should be held in Singapore preferably jointly with one or more organisations such as NLB.

3. Sub-committees : Two subcommittees were set up: The subcommittee on Membership would be chaired by Encih Jaffar Kassim and the subcommittee on Education by Mr Chua Leong Kian.

4. Print media clippings : Mr Chua Leong Kian agreed to donate his valuable collection of print media clippings on Zheng He to our Society. Drs Tan said that the clippings would be classified and archived in the Melaka Cheng Ho Cultural Museum and to be made available to the interested public

5. Exhibition : Mr Chua also proposed that our Society hold an exhibition of publications and other materials to promote greater awareness of Zheng He. He felt that it would attract a good crowd especially among the Chinese speaking audience.