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Book Launch of “Beyond the Great wall”

beyond the great wall (View enlarged book cover) Alma Miclat, a friend and co-founder of The Compassionate Friends finally gave me the date for the book launch of their book, “Beyond the Great Wall”. It’s a family journal written by award winning writer, Mario Miclat, his wife, Alma and daughters, Maningning and Banaue. Maningning died a few months after my son’s death in 2000. Unlike me, Alma transformed her grief by starting the Maningning Foundation, whose mission is to recognize, nurture and promote Asian, especially Filipino artists 28 years and below through awards and creative programs. I hope you drop by the book launch to meet Mario and Alma Miclat and eventually buy their book. The book promises to be an interesting read . For 15 years, Alma’s family lived in the shadows of the Great Wall.

Here is the press release:

Anvil Publishing, Inc. and the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation announce the launching of the book Beyond the Great Wall at National Bookstore, Shangrila Plaza, EDSA, Mandaluyong at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, May 5, 2006.

The book is a selection of personal essays on China, the Chinese, and being Filipino. It is written by UP professor, writer and poet, Mario Ignacio Miclat, his wife Alma, and daughters Maningning and Banaue on their 15 year-sojourn in China from 1971 to 1986 covering the periods of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, the death of Premier Zhou Enlai, the downfall of the Gang of Four, and the reforms initiated by paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.

Miclat, in his preface, says : ““For 15 years, my family of native Filipinos lived in the shadows of the Great Wall. All through 1971 to 1986, we experienced the Middle Kingdom in depth and breadth. We made regular sojourns to different places, many of which were restricted not only to foreigners but also to the ordinary Chinese. We were privileged to see a world beyond the Great Wall.” The book contains the authors’ personal essays on the arts, culture, the economy, politics, and society arranged in four headings, namely: situating the family, searching for self, reversing the diaspora, and finding the nation.

Alma is SVP of Data Center Design Corporation in Makati, Meanwhile, Banaue is a film and theater actress who is graduating in June with a Master of Fine Arts in Acting at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York. Maningning was a multi-awarded artist, poet and writer in Filipino, English and Chinese.

The book will also be launched at the Cranwell International Center of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, USA on May 25. Signing tours are also scheduled for New York and San Diego in spring.

Published by Anvil Publishing, Inc., royalties and proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the Maningning Miclat Art Foundation,Inc. (MMAFI), a non-stock, non-profit organization. The MMAFI has been holding the Maningning Miclat Trilingual Poetry Competition during odd numbered years and the Maningning Miclat Art Competition during even numbered years. This year, MMAFI will hold the art competition for visual artists 28 years old and below with the grand prize winning PhP28,000.00 and a glass sculpture trophy by the eminent artist, Ramon Orlina. ( Email [email protected] , [email protected] and visit www.maningning.com for details).

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