Our Name and logo:  As a result of the successful growth and recognition of our work by the general public of our not-for-profit multicultural learning organisation, in August 2010 our group of founder members decided to change the society name to the more descriptive and multi-cultural / non-race specific name of Oriental Culture Educational Society.  We use for our logo the Chinese character for 'Nation' (guo) which itself correlates closely to the separate character for 'Jade' -- 'Yu'), an auspicious name that also unites in a symbolic way core aspects of Chinese culture and history.

NOTICE: this page's material will be revised in January / February 2012 to bring it up to date with recent positive development of the OCES organisational sturucture.

The creation of the Oriental Culture Educational Society has been due to the dedication and enthusiasm of many over the course of a number of years: these include translators and those supporting the multicultural learning initiative in lands of the Far East. 

All of the trustees, officers and important supporters / contributors listed below have high quality professional credentials in a number of key fields.  They each share a vision of an increasingly developed thriving multicultural society, in which the richness of Chinese culture is more fully appreciated, understood and promoted at individual and local community levels.

Background:  

The origins of the creation of the society date to as early as 2006 when a core group began to discuss how promotion of greater knowledge about a wide range of areas of Chinese culture of increasing globalised kinds (Feng Shui, etc)  could be provided at Bournemouth University, and more broadly.  This broadened into the belief that such an objective could be more successful by educating about related core facets of Chinese culture through exhibitions and on-line. 

During the 2008 - 2009 period, support began for the multicultural learning ideals and objectives of the original society group members by Bournemouth University postgraduate students Wei (China) and Zhi han (Taiwan).  Through the initiative of Zhi han, in his professional capacity as an official news journalist for the Taiwanese Macroview TV news channel,  a news report was created which showed the increasing influence and positive presentation of various aspects of Chinese culture in the UK to the Far Eastern viewers of this Chinese language news service.

In the Autumn of 2009 at the Bournemouth University Freshers Fair, officers of the BU Oriental Culture Learning Society [originally named, Qi China Society] had the opportunity to meet Mr Chris Hammond, the Development officer for the Dorset Race Equality Council.  Mr Hammond advised of the great potential benefits of creating a charitable multicultural learning organisation in the broader Dorset community based directly on the vision and objectives of the BU society.  As a result, through the enthusiastic support of many in both the Dorset Chinese Community and wider local community the Oriental Culture Educational Society as a registered charitable not-for-profit company finally took place in early 2010.  This would not ultimately have been possible without the very helpful technical guidance and extensive support from officers and specialist advisors from the Dorset Race Equality Council, and Bournemouth and Poole CVS.  In July 2010 our group received Grassroots Grants funding for our work from the [Bournemouth, Dorset & Poole] Community Foundation, and in August a grant to assist with volunteer related costs was kindly provided by Bournemouth Borough Council.

Perspectives and Policies

Perspectives: The Oriental Culture Educational Society is governed in all aspects of its vision and educational activities by a passionate belief in multiculturalism in our society. It has been created by a group of individuals, some Chinese / Far Eastern, and some Western, who share the belief that Chinese and related East Asian culture provides a rich and positive contribution to our community and to broader society.

At an important practical level, our organisation wishes to ease and tangibly assist those Chinese members of our local community who face limitations to fully participating in broader society and accessing key public services due to linguistic and cultural acclimatisation issues.

The OCES enthusiastically promotes equal opportunities and opposes all forms of discrimination on grounds of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and physical and mental health.  The society is pleased to partner / collaborate with other organisations that share the same values, who work to remove and overcome the harmful blight of discrimination against all individuals and sections of our society who suffer personal or collective distress or diminished quality of life on grounds of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and physical and mental health. 

Policies: The OCES has the following policies: Equal Opportunities, Health and Safety, Volunteer, Safeguarding and Child Protection.

About the OCES website

If you have an interest in any of these topics listed in the left-hand menu, and would like to share your ideas, and knowledge about Chinese and related East Asian culture with others, please sign up: you can then post or respond to articles in the forums section of the site and contribute to the multicultural learning objectives of the website.  Chinese / East Asian visitors are especially welcome to join and contribute to this politics-free, educational, online community site which seeks to play a positive role in furthering international friendship, and learning about the great culture of the Chinese and East Asian people.