The Philippine Embassy hosted the monthly tea party of the ASEAN Ladies Circle (ALC) in Beijing on 23 November 2012, with the theme “Islands Fiesta: It’s More Fun in the Philippines.” The ALC is composed of lady ambassadors, wives of ambassadors and officers and staff, as well as the lady diplomats of the ten (10) ASEAN embassies in Beijing. Guests from the ASEAN-China Center, China Radio International, ladies from the Association of Former Diplomats of China joined the ASEAN ladies in Beijing in the festivities.

With fiestas at the heart of the fun-loving Filipino culture, and with Christmas being the grandest, the longest and most-celebrated festival for many Filipinos, the Embassy celebrated Filipino Christmas in China with a  display of  Pampanga parols especially flown in by the Embassy in 2010 to showcase this iconic and uniquely Filipino symbol of Christmas.

Alongside the glittering and colorful parols adorning the Embassy’s Acacia Hall – which was transformed into a veritable Filipino fiesta scene complete with banderitas, a sorbetes cart, a jeepney facsimile and an Embassy-constructed nipa hut, thirty (30) photographs representing the joie de vivre of a free and fun-loving Filipino people taken by the Pinoy Overseas Photographers in Beijing or POP-Beijing were on view during the ALC party.

Aptly called “Mirth of the Islands”, the photos depict various fiesta celebrations as well as vignettes of island living in the Philippines. The project was conceived by the Embassy with POP-Beijing in 2011, and Cebu Pacific  Airlines flew six Beijing-based Filipino photographers to Samar and Leyte to photograph diverse scenes of joy and celebration in the Philippines. POP-Beijing President Renen Viola shared with the ASEAN ladies some stories and experiences of the POP-Beijing members during their trip to the Philippines to take the pictures.

Another crowd-drawer during the ALC tea gathering was the Embassy’s re-creation of the Pahiyas Festival of Lucban, Quezon. The Embassy constructed a nipa hut decorated with fruits, vegetables, agricultural products, handicrafts and rice paper decoration called kiping, which the Embassy also flew in from Quezon province especially for the event.

The ASEAN ladies and special guests feasted on piping-hot arroz caldo with fried tokwa, pandesal topped with adobo flakes and various sweets such as maja blanca, biko and cuchinta. Mango juice of Oishi and tanglad juice were served while a Filipino folk guitarist and a Filipino husband-and-wife dancing duo entertained guests.