Ambassador Erlinda F. Basilio led the ladies of the Philippine Embassy in hosting the monthly tea gathering of the ASEAN Ladies Circle (ALC) in Beijing on 29 September 2015, at the Sentro Rizal Beijing. 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.

The theme of this year’s hosting was “Philippine Visual Arts At Its Best,” wherein the Philippine Embassy invited two outstanding Beijing-based Filipino visual artists to show their works and conduct a live painting demonstration during the event.

Visual artists Ms. Jensen Moreno, visual art teacher at the Beijing International Bilingual Academy and at the Bluebridge International Bilingual Academy, and Mr. Peter Espina, Art Director of the English edition of the Global Times, the first national English tabloid newspaper in China, impressed the ASEAN ladies with their outstanding achievements in the field of visual arts, as well as with their talent and creativity as they jointly conducted a live painting demonstration during the event. Ms. Moreno has had an international solo exhibit in Vietnam in 2011 and has joined several art exhibitions in Vietnam, in China and in the Philippines. Mr. Espina has been Art Director of China Daily, the Hong Kong Standard as well as of the Far Eastern Economic Review. The two visual artists shared some of their experiences in their respective art careers during the short talks that they gave on art appreciation.

A highlight of the tea gathering was the drawing contest participated in by all the guests, simultaneous with the live painting demonstration of Ms. Moreno and Mr. Espina. With the two artists serving as judges, the drawing of a lady from the Embassy of Indonesia was picked for the top honors. Her prize was the painting rendered on-the-spot by the two artists.

Ms. Machelle Ramos, Ms. Jade Xian and Ms. Vera of China Radio International-Filipino Service covered the event live for a feature on the CRI-Filipino Service website.

The ASEAN ladies and special guests were treated to Filipino merienda fare of piping-hot arroz caldo, pancit palabok, fried vegetable lumpia, maja blanca, puto and buko pandan salad.

All the ASEAN ladies and guests were sent off by Ambassador Basilio and Philippine Embassy ladies with giveaway bags containing chocolate-covered Philippine dried mangoes and note cards/all-season greeting cards featuring the works of Ms. Moreno.