Join in the holiday fun at the powerhouse this month linked to our new exhibition, Evolution & Revolution : Chinese dress 1700s to now. DON'T FORGET our other special event, the Club Med Circus School which is part of the Circus! 150 years of circus in Australia exhibition experience !

    ◆ Chinese Folk Dancing: Colorful Chinese dance and musical performances by The Chinese Folk Dancing School of Sydney. Dances include: the Golden stick dance and the Chinese drum dance. A feature will be the Qin dynasty Emperor's court dance. Also included is a show of face painting for Beijing opera performances.

    Sunday 29 June and Wednesday 2 July in the Turbine Hall, at 11:30 am & 1:30 pm.

    ◆ Australian Chinese Children's Arts Theatre: Well-known children's play experts from Shanghai lead this dynamic youth group. Performances include Chinese fairy tales and plays.

    Thursday 3 to Sunday 6 July in the Turbine Hall, at 11:30 am & 1:30 pm.

    ◆ Chinese Youth League: A traditional performing arts group featuring performance highlights such as the Red scarf and Spring flower dances, and a musician playing Er Hu.

    Sunday 6 to Tuesday 8 July in the Turbine Hall, 11:30 am to 1:30 pm.

    ◆ Kids Activity: Make a Paper Horse: Young children make a paper horse cut-out. (The horse is a frequent theme in Chinese painting, indicating a kind of advancement. ) Suitable for ages 8-12 years.

    Sunday 28 June to Tuesday 8 July in the Turbine Hall, 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm.

    ◆ Club Med Circus School: Learn circus skills, including the trapeze, trampolining and magic. Note only for children over 5: There are 40 places available in each 1 hour session and these must be booked at the front desk, level 4, on the day.

    Tuesday 1 to Saturday 5 July at 11:30 am & 1:00 pm.

    Enjoy unlimited free visits and many other benefits by becoming a family member of the Powerhouse. Our family memberships cover two adults and all children under the age of 16 years at the one address. Members receive powerline, our monthly magazine, discounts in the shops and the restaurants, as well as free admission to the Museum. All this for as little as $50.00 a year! Call (02)9217 0600 for more details.

    Malka and Shaindle are sisters. Although they live an hour's drive from each other and don't see each other often, they are in touch. Malka has a large family. Shaindle, however, has had difficulty having children.

    Malka had just given birth to another son. Shaindle , married three years and still childless, was receiving fertility(生育) treatments. Involved with work, doctor's visits, and medical treats, she was unable to make the trip to visit her sister after she had given birth.

    Malka knew her sister's problem and was quite understanding. Shaindle and her husband Feivel would be at the haptismal (洗礼) ceremony，of course.

    On the day of the haptism, Shaindle and Feivel arrived early, earlier than Malka and her family. Malka's mother-in-law, Yehudit, was already at the hall. “Hello,” said Shaindle cheerfully, never thinking what was about to happen.

    Yehudit turned to her angrily and said, “What a selfish sister you are! Never once did you see fit to visit Makla this entire week! No wonder you have no children!”

    Shaindle went into shock at her words. She turned away, her eyes filled with tears. The accusation（控诉） had cut Shaindle like a knife. She was psychologically bleeding. Poor Shaindle couldn't calm down. It took a while before she could regain her calmness. She couldn't look at Yehudit; it was just too painful for her to do so.

    The minute the words had escaped Yehudit's mouth, she knew she had crossed a red line. She had stepped on very raw toes and felt regretted for her words –but it was too late. Her attempts to apologize were ineffective. The celebration had suddenly turned sour in just a matter of seconds. After all these years, the memory of that happening lingers on …

    In most parts of the world, many students help their schools make less pollution. They join “environment clubs”. In an environment club, people work together to make our environment clean.

    Here are some things students often do.

    No-garbage lunches. How much do you throw away after lunch? Environment clubs ask students to bring their lunches in bags that can be used again. Every week they will choose the classes that make the least garbage and report them to the whole school.

    No-car day. On a no-car day, nobody comes to school in a car. Not the students and not the teachers! Cars give pollution to our air, so remember: walk, jump, bike and run. Use your legs! It's lots of fun.

    Turn off the water! Did you know that some toilets can waste twenty to forty cubic (立方) meters of water an hour? In a year, it would fill a small river! In environment clubs, students mend those broken toilets. We love our environment. Let's work together to make it clean.

    One October morning, I got off the all-night train in Mandalay, a city in Myanmar. A rough man came up and offered to show me around. The price he asked was less than I would pay for a bar of chocolate at home. So I climbed into his trishaw(三轮车).

    As he was showing me around, he told me how he had come to the city from his village. He'd earned a degree in mathematics. His dream was to be a teacher. But of course, life is hard here, and so for now, this was the only way he could make a living. Many nights, he told me, he actually slept in his trishaw so he could catch the first visitors off the all-night train.

And very soon, we found that in certain ways, we had so much in common—we were both in our 20s, we were both fascinated by foreign cultures—-that he invited me home.

    So we turned off the wide, crowded streets, and came to rough, wild alleyways(小巷). I really lost my sense of where I was, and realized that I could easily get cheated or something even worse.

    Finally, he stopped and led me into a hut. And then he reached under his bed. Something in me froze. I waited to see what he would pull out. And finally he took out a box. Inside it was every single letter he had ever received from visitors from abroad.

    So when we said goodbye that night, I realized he had also shown me the secret point of travel, which is to go inwardly(向内心)as well as outwardly to places you would never go otherwise, to go into uncertainty, even fear.

    At home, its dangerously easy to think we're on top of things. Out in the world, you are reminded every moment that you're not, and you can't get to the bottom of things, either.

    Watching wooden dolls come to life may not be one of the most popular forms of entertainment today, but with over twenty years' experience, talented puppeteer (木偶表演者) Peter Roberts has earned himself the title "master puppeteer" because of his great ability to turn puppets into believable, almost living characters. "People are quite often surprised to hear what I do for a living and have little appreciation of puppy as a form of entertainment. But while the exact origins of puppet theatre are unknown, it has been popular in many cultures and may have been the very first kind of theatre," he explains.

    Roberts' shows are highly original. "A puppet show can involve anything from clowning(傻逗) to storytelling," he says.  Equally diverse are the audiences he performs for. "Some are attracted by the puppets themselves, while others enjoy the dialogue." Roberts believes that this form of entertainment can be appreciated by people of all ages and cultures.

    Roberts' interest in puppets started when he received some beautiful glove puppets one Christmas. He started putting on shows with these for family and friends and then moved on to handmade Chinese string puppets. Learning mostly from books and personal experience, he explains, "I was already spending most of my free time carving puppets and putting on shows, so I hardly noticed the change from students to full-time professional puppeteer."

    The puppets are designed specifically for each show, which is extremely time consuming. According to Roberts, "Sometimes what you expect and what you actually create in the end are two very different things. I've made some of my best puppets 'accidentally'."

    When most people hear the word "puppetry", they more than likely think of a way of keeping children entertained at birthday parties. Certainly the subject matter will be expected to be light-hearted rather than serious. However, Roberts wants to point out that puppets convey serious messages sometimes." he says.

    Want a wonderful travel in London? Don't miss the following!

    Cartoon Museum

    This highly entertaining London tourist attraction covers the history and development of British cartoons from the 18th century to the present day. You can find a detailed collection of all types of cartoons in this museum including caricatures (讽刺漫画) and rare examples of cartoon art: it's an ideal place to entertain kids of all ages as well as a serious collection for animation enthusiasts.

    There are over nine hundred pieces on exhibit and the museum regularly holds events where both children and adults can participate. Booking for these events is recommended due to the popularity year round of this London Museum.

    Telephone: 020 7580 8155

    Chislehurst Caves

    Chislehurst in London is home to chalk caves that were mined by hand for over 8,000 years. A tour of these caves is an exciting way to see how British people have impacted on their environment over thousands of years.

    Telephone: 020 8467 3264

    The Old Operating Theatre Museum

    The Old Operating Theatre Museum is one London museum offering a fascinating insight into the medical profession of the past. This 300-year old herb garret (阁楼) is Britain's only surviving operating theatre, with a wooden operating table and an observation stand, from which visitors can witness surgery performed.

    Telephone: 020 7188 2679

    Curzon Mayfair Cinema Museum

    Recently voted one of London's best cinemas by Time Out readers, the Curzon Mayfair cinema is everything you would expect from this particular part of town: luxurious (奢华的) and tasteful. Showing mostly art-house and independent films, the Curzon Mayfair is unique in the world of London cinema for its role in screening these films for industry and press.

    Telephone: 033 3321 0104