Wednesday, May 28, 2014

hangis

In New Zealand, our natives, the Maoris have adapted their version of volcano cooking called the Hangi.









I was teaching my ESOL adult students what a Hangi is.
I was pleasantly surprised that In South America, they also cook food in a similar way. In Peru, Felecites tells me they call it Pachamanca, and in Chile, Monica says they call it Curanto. My Samoa students call it Umu.
In my other blog, annkschin.blogspot.com, I wrote about Hangis and my book, Mail order Bride., and short story, Nadine in various posts, but I didn't have a closeup photo. Here I am fortunate that Ngarimu's cousin invited me to take as many photos as I wanted.
Here are pix of the hot pit.

Cooking for a storm, chicken, pork, mutton, potato, kumara, pumpkin, cabbage, wholesome food cooked on site. Food wrapped in paper and alumnium foil placed in a basket and steamed in the ground for hours from hot stones.

The Maoris got this idea of a hangi from the hot thermal volcanic grounds where eggs can be boiled by lowering into thermal pools. In a Hangi, a big pit or more than one square yard is dug in the ground. Timber is burned, and stones are heated. The baskets of food are put into the pit and covered with jute sacks. Dirt is dug on top of the pit. The food takes a few hours to cook. It looks like a smoking volcano.


Friday, May 16, 2014

Cry of Oppressed Women

Cry of oppressed women 妇女的哭泣

 



Published May 2014
www.3a.co.nz
Ann Kit Suet Chin Chan/Chen Jie Xue 我是 陈洁雪


Women face many kinds of oppression through the centuries. The author takes you to a journey of modern day oppression.
This story traces the life of Nadine, a girl born to Indian parents. It embodies the issues of a Kiwi girl, Nadine, growing up in conflicting cultures and getting lost in her environment.
Nadine grows up to overcome her problems to help women who suffered from physical and mental violence, domestic violence, rape, pornography, swinging, incest, bullying, sex with minors, sex slavery and human trafficking.

Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The soul of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it.
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Shadow of the Wind

Ann is the writer of Diary of a Bereaved Mother, Goodbye my baby, From China to Borneo to Beyond, and Mail Order Bride. Indeed each of these books has a soul. Ann gives a voice for the bereaved and the oppressed


I am the writer of:
1: From China to Borneo and beyond. 海外华人的中国魂: 从中国,到南洋,到更远
2: Diary of a Bereaved Mother, Goodbye my baby 丧儿记: 丧失儿子的母亲的一本传记 
3: Mail Order Bride 邮购新娘