Members of the Executive Committee of the ABCF gathered at the Maxwell Del Mar restaurant on Wednesday September 17 for an informal reception to welcome the new Chinese ambassador to Barbados, Dr Bingkai Zheng and his wife Wenjuan Wang. The ambassador and his wife were accompanied by Mr Gang Jiang, Head of the Political Section at the Chinese Embassy, and Ms Xiaoxuan Qi, the embassy’s Public Relations Officer. The reception was attended by a Co-Director of the Confucius Institute, and by members of the Chinese Association of Barbados, in addition to members of the ABCF Executive.
ABCF President Dr DeLisle Worrell made introductions all round, and reviewed the ABCF’s activities briefly. Ambassador Zheng responded with welcome remarks. After refreshments were served Ambassador Zheng and Dr Worrell cut a cake and offered a toast in celebration of Barbados-China friendship.
Xin Zhilei: Always there is the desire urging, always the convention restraining
Xin Zhilei, a 39-year-old Chinese actor, won the best actress award at the Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2025, for her role in The Sun Rises on Us All, directed by Cai Shangjun. She is the first Chinese woman in 14 years to take the Golden Lion trophy, a feat that quickly became a source of national pride.
Her win has set social media abuzz with accounts of her unlikely rise. Born into poverty in a rust-belt city in China’s north-east, Xin has made a career out of defying expectations. In a widely shared 2018 speech, translated below, she confronted head-on the labels attached to her—an actor “full of desire”—and argued that ambition was not shameful. Regardless of gender, everyone has the right to persevere, strive, and hold on firmly for what they aspire to, she said.
Intel chip architect Su Fei returns to China after 20 years in the US | South China Morning Post
After nearly two decades shaping Intel’s chip designs, one of its leading semiconductor architects has left the United States to join Tsinghua University as a full-time professor.
Su Fei, a veteran engineer in chip testing and semiconductor reliability, is now the Xing-Hua endowed chair professor at his alma mater’s school of integrated circuits, according to the faculty webpage.
At Intel, Su’s work spanned the entire chip life cycle – from early concept to mass production – with a focus on improving reliability, security and long-term performance of the advanced microprocessors used in everything from smartphones to data centres.
An American Ceramist in Jingdezhen: Code, Clay and Community
"I sold everything... I was all in. I put in all my chips." With this leap of faith, American ceramic artist Michael May left behind his life in the United States and arrived in Jingdezhen, China's porcelain capital, a year and a half ago. Having traveled to nearly 20 countries, the seasoned artist ultimately chose Jingdezhen as his creative base.
In the latest episode of "Trending in China", Michael shares his unique journey from Oklahoma City to Jingdezhen with host Yolanda Lu and co-host Belinda Chen. With a background in traditional techniques and a passion for innovation, he now blends 3D printing technology with traditional pottery, creating works that marry form with function.
What's The Weirdest Way to Say "River" in China?
I bet you never really thought there WAS a weird way to say “river”. Well there is. There are a lot of weird ways actually.
Do you want to get really nerdy about Chinese history and geography and rivers together with me? Yes? No? Okay, I don’t blame you…I know this will not be everyone’s cup of tea. I initially really only set out to write a small article about the new hydropower project in Tibet. I thought I would check what the name of the river means in Tibetan and accidentally got shunted into a week-long research mission to understand Chinese historical river naming conventions. Before I knew what was happening, I had written this pseudo-academic treatise on Chinese river history and I needed to share it with someone!
Inside China’s 7.48 million ride-hailing drivers - rdelw72@gmail.com - Gmail
Against the backdrop of economic headwinds and structural shifts, ride-hailing has become an important employment buffer in China. By 2024, the number of licensed ride-hailing drivers nationwide had reached 7.48 million — a figure roughly equal to the entire population of Hong Kong. Earlier this month, the China Research Center on New Forms of Employment (CNFE) released a comprehensive report on the country’s ride-hailing workforce. The study draws on 5,417 questionnaires collected from drivers across 13 provincial-level regions in July 2025, supplemented with big data analysis and in-depth interviews.
The findings paint a detailed picture of this rapidly growing labor group. According to the report, 62.8 percent of drivers are the sole breadwinners in their families, 77 percent entered the profession after losing a previous job, and 7.4 percent are recent graduates from 2024 onwards. The average driver is around 40 years old, and men make up the overwhelming majority. The report also compares ride-hailing drivers with other blue-collar occupations, including delivery workers, truck drivers, couriers, manufacturing production workers, and construction workers.
Mainland Chinese hiker missing for 4 days in Hong Kong rescued from sea cliff by sailor | South China Morning Post
A “faint whistle” from a mainland Chinese hiker missing for four days on Lamma Island in Hong Kong led to his dramatic rescue by a drone photographer sailing a catamaran.
The hiker, Zheng To, 52, who arrived in the city from the mainland on Saturday for a short business trip, was found on Wednesday morning with minor injuries at a cliff at the foot of Mount Stenhouse.
Zheng had told colleagues that he was lost and that his phone battery was running low, hours after setting off for a hike on Lamma on Saturday.
Chinese mother dies, leaves 2 daughters born in US via IVF with mainland passport issues | South China Morning Post
A tangled court case in Shanghai involving two young girls with an absent father and a deceased mother has trended on mainland social media.
The late mother of the girls, one of whom has a US passport that is close to expiring, was suspected of having bought sperm and given birth to the children through in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in the United States.
She has never revealed information about her daughters’ biological father, according to a report in the Jiefang Daily.
On September 2, the Xuhui District People’s Court in Shanghai heard a case after the children’s grandfather, known as Wang, applied to be their guardian.
After years of US sanctions, how is Xinjiang’s economy doing? | South China Morning Post
Chinese scholars have criticised US-led sanctions over Xinjiang, saying their research showed the measures had resulted in long-term economic damage, including job losses.
The findings, presented at an academic seminar in Hong Kong last month, offered one of the first aggregated assessments of the impacts of US sanctions imposed on Chinese companies over alleged human rights abuses in the far western Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
Beijing has denied those accusations and condemned the sanctions as “intending to create unemployment” in the region.
Enrolment of Russians surges at Chinese school, turning heads with blonde hair, blue eyes | South China Morning Post
A Chinese school along the border with Russia has welcomed a large batch of young Russians, drawing widespread coverage while underscoring how people-to-people exchanges between the neighbouring countries have warmed to a historically high degree.
A total of 127 children from north of the border began classes on September 1 at Heihe Primary School, a public institution in Heilongjiang province, according to an article posted by the Chinese embassy in Russia to its official WeChat account on Thursday.
The fresh enrollees joined 89 Russians already studying on campus, bringing the total to 216, according to the article.
This weekly newsletter is put together by DeLisle Worrell, President of the ABCF. Visit us at Association for Barbados China Friendship | (abcf-bb.com).
Thanks to everyone who sent contributions for this week’s Update. Please send items of interest to me via the contact page at ABCF-BB.com or to info@DeLisleWorrell.com
The ABCF mission is to build a deeper understanding between the Chinese people and Barbadians and Caribbean people from all walks of life. The association’s focus is on personal experiences, people-to-people contact, cultural exchanges and exchanges of ideas, and the facilitation of travel, business and study. From the outset we aim to learn from and build on the experiences of the Caribbean and China, and to develop mutual understandings and support that will be to the benefit of both sides.
