“Mother’s Day Poem”
Sometimes you get discouraged
Because I am so small
And always leave my fingerprints
On furniture and walls
But every day I’m growing…
I’ll be grown someday.
And all those tiny fingerprints
Will surely fade away
So here’s a little handprint
Just so you can recall
Exactly how my fingers looked
When I was very small.
–Love, Catherine

When I get the new year’s calendar every year, an asterisk is immediately marked on the second Sunday in May. I always look forward to sending greetings to my elderly mother and mother-in-law in the first place. At this time, naturally, the blessings from my two daughters will not be missed. This year's Mother's Day is a little special. Since I am staying in Shanghai, I can certainly unfold this festival very leisurely.

My youngest daughter said that the best way to celebrate Mother's Day is to be with her mother. It's not so much that parents raise their children, it is better to thank our children for taking in our hearts in this boundless universe. Thanks for the time spent with our children, let’s watch the world and grow up together. My memory is also sorting out all the Mother’s Day greeting cards I received every year, hoping to find more fragments of the past in these beautiful pictures.

Thoughts seem to have returned to Vancouver a few years ago. The long summer vacation each year is the most yearning season for children and adults. When the second quarter begins, I will arrange my children’s summer schedule. There are many choices for summer camps. Different communities in different cities have different courses covering learning, sports, creativity, art and culture. All day and half day options are flexible. Parents are relieved of the trouble of doing nothing at home with their children.

Traditional public schools also have various programs, You can refer to the following schools:

1) University Hill Secondary School: Outstanding drama courses and experiential teaching methods.

2) Lord Byng Secondary School: Music and Art Education.

3) Prince of Wales Secondary School: Table tennis, football, hockey and rugby, drama, etc.

4) Point Grey Secondary School: Track and field, tennis court and sports on ice.

5) Magee Secondary School: Music, singing, sports and art activities.

6) Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School: Ideal Mini School focusing on fostering social responsibility, leadership and personal development.

7) Eric Hamber Secondary School: has a reputation for fashion design, music, sports and graphic arts courses.

8) Kitsilano Secondary School: The school will make special arrangement for individual with special talents in sports, music and dance.

What impresses me is the Pedalheads bike summer camp; young children play games and sing songs on and under the wheel. With the development of skills, they can improve their bicycle handling ability after moving forward to the advanced bicycle level. They also learn how to keep safe, participate in interesting team competitions, etc. With the combination of these tailor-made bicycle courses along with excellent coaches build up children's independence, confidence and team awareness.

As we all know, ballet and piano are also an important program in family life. I highly recommend Goh Ballet Academy to everyone. Principal Chan Hon Goh is the former chief dancer of the National Ballet of Canada. He has also worked as an art choreographer director for the winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Choreography, Anna-Marie Holmes. Last year, he was awarded the title of Canadian Honorary Citizen and is one of the well known local celebrities. Goh Ballet's "The Nutcracker" includes both professional dancers and school students. The performance of the show and the beauty of the stage art became the icing on the cake, present a beautiful artistic effect. The gorgeous costumes, extraordinary scenery, passionate dances and dramatic scenes make this play has a style of its own. This classic ballet is a hot event in the city before Christmas every year.

My colleagues are also super parents. Their lives are simply between office and home. Pauline is not only a senior expert in overseas immigration and identity planning, her son Leon is a famous little pianist in Vancouver. She shared with me what she has learned from accompanying her child on the path to music.

Pauline always believes that maternal love is a ray of fresh water that nourished the child's soul, and its highest form is to give children enough freedom. Parents don’t necessarily have to train musicians, but they try to be a musical family. Little Leon's strong interest in music is deeply rooted in the marrow. He listened to the collection of records at home every day since he was a child. He likes the feeling of being surrounded by music. He also likes to play the piano whenever he sees it.

Every time Leon participates in the competition is an artistic journey. At the age of 7, he won the second place in the Los Angeles Young Musicians International Competition. The reward is to visit his beloved planetarium, Getty Museum and Getty Manor. After winning the second place in the finals of the Canadian Music Competition, he excitedly visited the Olympic Stadium, Ecological Museum, McGill University, Notre-Dame Basilica and the old artistic street of Montreal. Travel between the grand Jazz music festival and feel deeply about the enthusiasm and love of local people for the music art. When he was invited to attend the award ceremony of the American Musical Talent International Contest in Carnegie, New York, he took his parents to visit Steinway’s headquarters in New York and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). He can freely appreciate Van Gogh’s “starry sky” which he had seen in the book. Wall Street, Fifth Avenue, Times Square, Empire State Building, world’s three most beautiful Christmas windows, and the world’s largest Christmas tree in front of the Rockefeller Tower, Broadway Opera, etc., where he can fully enjoy the influence of music art and fashion.

Now, Leon, who has just turned 10 years old, has been shortlisted in the top three of the International and Canadian Piano Competitions for multiple times. Also, he has passed through the Grade 10 Royal Conservatory of Music exam. He has performed concerto twice with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, and participated in many charity performances. This is also the feature of personalized education in North America.

As the children grow up, they are more capable to brand this city’s label on them. Alan, the son of our general manager Lloyd, is a very good example.

Alan has been fond of going in and out with roller skates since he was a child, and he is known for his environmental protection behaviour. He is currently working in the Social Policy Bureau of Vancouver City Hall, which is closely related to the environmental awareness he had since he was a child. Perhaps one of the chores Alan was assigned was to sort out and dispose the garbage, so he became interested in environmental protection.

When he was still studying at Sir Winston Churchill Secondary School, he had rich experience in environmental protection. At that time, Alan's classmates were all young environmentalists. In middle school, students brought plastic water bottles to school every day, and the school’s trash bins will pile up with plastic bottles after school. In order to change this situation, Alan along with some of his classmates searched for a drinking water purification system from the Internet, contacted the school and the Education Bureau, and gained CAD 5,000 from the government funds and social fundraising. They installed a drinking water purification system for the school, reduced the pollution of plastics bottles and promoted it to other schools in Vancouver.

After graduating from Churchill Secondary School, Alan went to McGill University. In his sophomore year, he began to participate in and set up an environmental model for student dormitories. For this purpose, McGill University specially set up a sustainable project fund of CAD 840,000 on the school tuition bill, which will be paid by each student. He also made it to the McGill’s Honour List, and was nominated to become one of the Canadian top 30 under 30 young talents in 2016 by Knight Magazine, a Canadian Environmental Protection Association.

Speaking of which, I think of many of my female friends who used to be CEOs, doctors, entrepreneurs... In the process of accompanying their children, they turned into an omnipotent, all-round mothers. They are skilled drivers, extensive readers, superb cooks, unique buyers, caring babysitters, of course, are also conscientious workaholics. While cultivating an excellent child, they still not forget to cultivate themselves. They are capable of doing yoga, music and oil paintings. In my view, each one of them is a perfect mother role model, worthy of my learning and reference.

No matter how powerful and savvy a woman is, when she talks about her child, she suddenly becomes gentle, I think this is the aura and power of motherhood! Just a few days ago on this laid-back Mother's Day, I chose to share delicious food together with my mother and daughter, and went to the Wuzhong Market to feel the attractions of the world. The time being with my mother and daughter is always so cosy. Again, I wish my mother and mothers all over the world to be joyful every day. I only hope this inseparable affection will remain in our memory like a precious treasure and will never be wiped out!

Angela Bi 毕颖
TCT Arte House, Founder
angelabi@tctandco.com

Written on May 11, 2020
Chinese Version 中文版

The Correct Way to Unfold Mother’s Day