Monday, April 27, 2009

The Contest Winning Quote Is...

Three weeks ago, I introduced my Giveaway Contest for a new bookmark design. The deadline was last night and I received some excellent and inspiring quotes. As promised, I've selected the winners by popular votes and by generated numbers on Random.org. Here's the results.

There is actually tie between "When words fail, Music speaks." by Hans Christian Andersen and "We are the music makers, And we are the dreamers of dreams..." -Arthur O'Shaughnessy. These two entries received one vote each by other readers. To break the tie, I get to choose one out of the two quotes to be used as my new design. It was a tough decision but I selected Andersen's (posted by Evelyn) since I'm a minimalist person when it comes to design concepts. The other winner, (quote posted by Victoria), will receive a bookmark with O'Shaughnessy's quote on it instead.

The winners are:
  • Evelyn (hotmail address)

  • Victoria of wigglejewellery in UK
  • Emilie of Grocery Price Blog (#26 as generated by Random.org)
  • Valerie B (#9 as generated by Random.org)

Congratulations, and I will contact the winners soon. Thanks everyone for participating. Until the next contest, I hope you all have a wonderful spring.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Shaolin Temple Day T-Shirt

In case anyone missed the breath-taking performances at the Shaolin Temple Day 2009 (March 21) in the San Francisco Bay Area, here's a chance to snap up a commemorative T-shirt at 20% off, while supplies last.
According to Gene Ching, Associate Publisher of Kung Fu Magazine & http://www.kungfumagazine.com/, "A portion of the proceeds of these limited-edition commemorative shirts goes to the Friends of Shaolin, a special committee of the Tiger Claw Foundation, a non-profit charitable organization dedicated to promoting martial artists and assisting martial artists in achieving their goals."

For good karma, get your T-shirt already before they are all gone.

check out the Kung Fu Magazine forum posts for additional blog and video links.

Thursday, April 9, 2009

Passover Haggadah + Jews in Shanghai

A friend of mine, Julie, sent me this link where you can get a newly published copy of Passover Haggadah – China. It is a traditional haggadah mostly written in Hebrew and English. There is an introduction of the Passover holiday written in Chinese by Professor Xu Xin of Nanjing University. Artwork includes traditional Chinese paper cuttings and historical photos in the Chinese Diaspora.

Shanghai Jewish life began as far back as early 19th century. The first settler arrived in 1848, and the first wave of Jewish immigrants to Shanghai was Sephardic Jews from Baghdad and Bombay. They included the successful families of Sassoon and Hardoon, who built many of the city’s landmarks. In the 1870s, the community from Baghdad rented their worship spaces. In 1887, they organized the Beth El Synagogue. Established in 1920, the Ohel Rachel Synagogue opened its doors on Seymour Road (now 500 North Shaanxi Road). In the same complex were the Shanghai Jewish School, a playground, library and mikveh. The Ohel Rachel Synagogue was the first of seven synagogues built in Shanghai, and it is still standing today.

The second wave of Jewish immigrants (1920-1937) came via Sibera to the northeastern Chinese cities of Harbin, Tianjin and Dalian. When Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931, the Russian Jews move to Shanghai, numbering to 4,500 in the 1930s. The Serphardic/Baghdad Jews were substantially wealthier than the newly arrived counterparts, but they extended charitable help to these Ashkenazi/Russian Jews.
The third wave (1938-1952) comprised of fleeing European Jews during WW II. This time, the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities worked together to help these European refugees. At the time, Shanghai was the only place that did not require entry visas. Up to 20,000 refugees came from Germany, Austria, and Poland. When the Japanese occupied the area around Shanghai, these Jews were relocated to the Hongkou district known as the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto. By 1945 (the end of the war), there were about 24,000 Shanghai Jews. The community dwindled after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, when many Jews emigrated to Israel, the United States, Australia and Hong Kong.

Today, there is an active and growing Jewish community in Shanghai. They came from many different countries, living and working in Shanghai. They regularly hold Shabbat services, educational and b’nai mitzvah classes, and even enjoy kosher meals. In 1998, Shanghai’s mayor pledge over $60,000 to help restore the Ohel Rachel Synagogue. In a 1998 visit, then First Lady Hillary Clinton commented, “So, for [the Ohel Rachel Synagogue] to be restored, I think, is a very good example of respect for religious differences and an appreciation for the importance of faith in one's life."

Some Shanghai Ghetto survivors:
-Dr. Jakob Rosenfeld, who spent nine years overseeing health care for the Communist army.
-Michael Medavoy, a Hollywood executive at Columbia, Orion and TriStar Pictures.
-Peter Max, American pop artist.
-W. Michael Blumenthal, served as the U.S. Treasury Secretary.
-Eric Halpern, a cofounder of the Far Eastern Economic Review and its first editor.
-Shaul Eisenberg, who founded and ran the Eisenberg Group of Companies in Israel.
-Charles K. Bliss, whose Chinese experience inspired him to create Blissymbols.
-Rene Rivkin, Australian financier.
-Laurence Tribe, professor, Harvard Law School, Carl M. Loeb University Professor
-Gunther Gassenheimer, Rabbi, Temple Israel, Alameda, CA

Monday, April 6, 2009

FREE - Giveaway - Contest

In order to show my appreciation to my friends/supporters and new friends/supporters, I’m having a contest for my next bookmark design. My bookmarks have been my most popular online sales. There are so many inspiring quotes in the literary world that I always have a hard time deciding which one(s) to use. Instead of guessing what text to engrave next, I thought it would be more fun to pick the brains of all you lovely people.Rules of this Contest:

· For examples of my finished bookmarks, you can peruse my store.
· The inspiration will be the charm pictured above with musical notes.
· Only one quotation entry per person.
· The engraveable space is 3-7/8” long. As a guide, I can fit as much text as one typed line in Word document, using 10pt arial font. This includes the author’s last name. I like to give credit where it is due. Please don’t send me your dissertation. :)
· Copyright-free materials only.
· Enter your quote and author’s name by posting a comment below. Include your contact information, like your email, so I can contact you if you win.
· Contest deadline will be 11:59pm, April 26, 2009.

To earn 4 additional drawing entries, you can leave separate comments with your email address below:

· After you tweet about this contest and follow me on Twitter. Leave me a link to your Twitter.
· After you blog about this contest and follow me.
· Join my Facebook Page
· Visit this post before the deadline to vote on your favorite submitted quotes.

Contest Winners will:

· Receive notification by email and with an announcement/blog post here.
· If I use your selected quote for this charm, you will receive a bookmark of this new design.
· I will also pick two winners by random number drawing by Random.org.
· Of course there will not be any S+H charges to you, or I won’t call it FREE.

In summary, you can have up to 5 entries, and there will be at least 3 winners, maybe more there are more participants. Bookmarks will be shipped 1 – 2 weeks after the contest. Have fun! I can’t wait to see all the different ideas.