Legends of the Silk Road at Cos Cob Library

Chinese Language School of Connecticut Presents Children’s Chinese Artwork at Cos Cob Library

--Cos Cob Library graciously hosts students’ art work as a special display in their community room through September 30.--

Greenwich, CT, September 17, 2011– The Cos Cob Library is host to a new display of children’s Chinese artwork, which is being exhibited in their Community Room through September 30, 2011, sponsored by the Chinese Language School of Connecticut. (www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org), the non-profit, Riverside, CT-based provider of Chinese language programs to students, schools and corporations.

This year’s theme is “Inventions from the Middle Kingdom,” based on Simon Winchester’s book, “The Man Who Loved China.” The first day of the show coincided with the Library's annual Open House and book fair this past Saturday, September 10th. On display is a sampling of students’ work from kindergarten through sixth grade. Mr. Richard Campbell, the ex-president of the Cos Cob Library Association who facilitated the show was on hand to assist in hanging of the large panels and assorted canvases.

CLSC VP Art & Culture, Katy Chen Myers explained, “We are so grateful for the Cos Cob library’s support of our children’s art and culture programs. CLSC’s curriculum integrates Chinese history, art and culture, and includes hands-on learning projects for students via weekly workshops, so each student can learn experientially, through art. The Greenwich community is very fortunate to have the Cos Cob library’s resources available to children, teens, and families.”

Ms. Myers continued, “Each year, teachers at CLSC prepare an in-depth art and culture study for students of all levels. This past year's theme was the study of the Silk Road during the Tang and Yuan Dynasties, two of the major trading periods of the Silk Road in Chinese history. Colorful images of the Eight Immortals, plum blossoms, landscapes of the Steppes, silk worms on mulberry trees and caravans of camels and mules laden with treasures cover the walls in the library's community room, giving the viewer a glimpse of the trade along the fabled Silk Road during the 9th and 13th centuries. Students at CLSC used mediums such as acrylic paint, foam, ink, paper, fabric and assorted materials to create the artwork on display while learning about geography, trade, art, politics, along with China's contributions to the world during this important period of history. Visitors can view the artwork during regular Library hours.

The non-profit, fully accredited Chinese Language School of Connecticut (CLSC) (www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org) teaches Mandarin Chinese as a second language to children and adults in their weekday and weekend classes, private and small group tutoring, iVuChinese online distance learning, Before and After School programs, cultural workshops, summer classes, and AP Prep sessions. CLSC is the only fully-accredited supplemental Chinese language program in the U.S. which uses U.S. teaching methods in order to engage children in learning Chinese.

For information on the Chinese Language School of Connecticut’s programs, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email them at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org. For interesting articles on Chinese language learning and Chinese culture, please visit http://GreenTeaPop.blogspot.com and on Facebook at facebook.com/ChineseLanguageSchoolofConnecticut.

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Chinese Puzzles: Games for the Hand and Mind at MoCA

Chinese Puzzles: Games for the Hands and Mind
The Yi Zhi Tang Collection
November 6, 2010-May 2, 2011

Wooden sliding block puzzle, 1930s. Photo by Niana Liu.

China’s rich tradition of puzzles and fascination with puzzling objects is thoroughly embedded in its arts and culture, and has been a popular cultural export to America since the 19th century. The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) presents Chinese Puzzles: Games for the Hands and Mind, curated by Wei Zhang and Peter Rasmussen.

Over the course of a four-month period, more than 100 objects and images from the curators’ private Yi Zhi Tang (art and intelligence) Collection will be on view at MOCA. Consisting of over 1300 antique Chinese puzzles, books, and graphic materials, the collection dates back from the Song dynasty to the mid-20th century. Many of the puzzles are also objets d’art in the classical tradition and exhibit the highest level of workmanship, including beautifully crafted porcelains, carved ivory, and mother-of-pearl.

Literally translated in Chinese as “intelligence games”, puzzles inspire us to challenge our hands and mind. Visitors young and old will have the opportunity to play with modern reproductions of these classic puzzles, including: the tangram – the game that sparked the world’s first international puzzle craze; the nine-linked rings – an object of interest for mathematicians and computer scientists; and the sliding block puzzle – a challenge in military strategy.

The exhibition is accompanied by an 80-page, full-color catalog; and a full-range of public programs designed for audiences of all ages: guided gallery tours; Family Puzzle Days – workshops for budding puzzlers ages 5-12 years; Puzzler Day for newbies and veterans of the puzzling world; and curator talks with Wei Zhang and Peter Rasmussen, who have been collecting and documenting the histories of Chinese puzzles since 1997.


Great mention from @nytimes about new MOCA show Chinese Puzzles: Games for the Hand and Mind http://ow.ly/352KN

PUZZLING TEAPOTS
Wei Zhang and Peter Rasmussen call their holdings of 1,400 Chinese puzzles “the art and intelligence collection.” Retired teachers who have homes in Northern California and Beijing, they have spent much of the last 13 years traveling to antiques fairs, auctions, galleries and flea markets to find puzzles dating back 1,000 years.

On Saturday the Museum of Chinese in America in Lower Manhattan will display 100 of their sets alongside videos of traditional puzzle makers and solvers in action.

This married couple have acquired nested cubes, triangles and rings made of silver, jadeite, porcelain, wood and ivory and have researched how they were exported and subjected to scholarly study over the centuries.
Sometimes spending tens of thousands of dollars per acquisition, they also buy trick vessels with hidden compartments. Since around A.D. 960, Chinese artisans have made teapots that can be filled only through bottom holes, and “fairness cups” that leak out of concealed bottom holes if a pourer greedily fills them close to the brim.

“Here’s something we got today,” Mr. Rasmussen said during a recent visit to New York, pulling out a mound of Bubble Wrap he had just picked up at Christie’s. Ms. Zhang sliced open the plastic and revealed a bottom-filling purple pot draped with green leaves, made around 1700. (It cost $6,875 at a Chinese ceramics auction.)

She has been interested in puzzles, she explained, since her childhood in northwest China. During the Cultural Revolution, her father was imprisoned, and the family moved into a warehouse infested by rats. Expelled from school because of her father’s disgrace, she whiled away time making wire puzzles.

“We used them to lock up our storage boxes for food,” she said.

She and her husband plan to donate the collection to a museum, probably in China. Mr. Rasmussen occasionally suggests selling off their lesser examples, but then Ms. Zhang reminds him that she was born in a Chinese year of the dog.
“Once I get my jaw into something, I don’t let go,” she said.

At the Museum of Chinese in America, shelves running the length of the room are piled with reproduction puzzles for visitors to try. (The collectors have trained docents to give hints.) In one display case is a set of nine interlocked jadeite rings that belonged to Pu Yi, the last Chinese emperor.

In his thousands of rooms, Ms. Zhang said, “there’s no telling if he ever played with this.”

Shangri-La Chinese Acrobats at Ridgefield Playhouse

The Shangri-La Chinese Acrobats

Saturday, November 6 at 2 pm & 6 pm


For 30 years, the Shangri-La Chinese Acrobats have been performing their multi-faceted, multi-cultural acrobatic display that includes formidable feats of daring and balance, brilliant costumes and explosive Kung Fu energy and even some Chinese comedy. They have appeared on numerous television shows throughout the United States and Canada including “Good Morning LA”, “New York One News” and CNN and now they’re coming to The Ridgefield Playhouse!

It’s a great show for everyone in the family, from ages 2 to 102!


Under the artistic direction of the Hai Family and International Asia, Inc., the Shangri-La Chinese Acrobats flawlessly execute Chinese acrobatics with grace and precision honoring an art form honed by years of discipline and training. The troupe has received numerous awards including the Performing Arts Campus Entertainment Award.


Pepsi Children’s Series

&

Benziger Family Winery Comedy and Theatre Series

There will be a wine tasting in the lobby prior to the 6 pm performance beginning at 5 pm


Ticket Price: $25.00

Tickets for Children (under 18) and Seniors (over 62) are $20 each

and available only by calling the box office at 203.438.5795



For tickets call the box office at 203.438.5795 or log onto

http://www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org/venue.asp?eventID=1060






The Ridgefield Playhouse

for movies and the performing arts

80 East Ridge Avenue

Ridgefield, CT 06877

Phone: 203.438.5795

Fax: 203.438.4543

www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org