CLSC's 10th Annual Chinese New Year Festival!

For more pictures please visit us on Facebook at Chinese Language School of Connecticut.

10th Annual Chinese New Year Festival!

photo caption: Greenwich High School sophomore Grant Wang, 15, Greenwich, leads his Dragon Troupe, including Derek Wang, 10, Greenwich, Jack Rowley, 8 Bedford, NY, Kyle Lum, 5, Harrison, NY, Brandon Lum, 8, Harrison, NY, Henry Lagani, 6, Mamaroneck, NY, Ryan Chang, 9, Pelham, NY.


Chinese Language School of Connecticut Celebrates
10th Annual Chinese New Year Festival

-- Anniversary event will showcase Chinese food, art, and culture --

“We are excited and thrilled to be able to offer this wonderful event to the community, and celebrate our school’s 10th anniversary at the same time,” Anita Lai, Chair, Chinese New Year Festival 2012


Riverside, CT, January 10, 2012 – A host of special VIP guests, Chinese acrobats, martial artists, dancers and traditional Chinese musical performers will pay tribute to ten years of Chinese language-learning at the Chinese Language School of Connecticut at the school’s 10th Annual Chinese New Year Festival.

This year’s Festival will be held Sunday, January 22, 2011, from 12:00-3:00pm at the Stamford Plaza Hotel and Conference Center, 2701 Summer Street, Stamford, CT. For information and tickets please visit: www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

Chinese New Year Festival Chair, Anita Lai, of Greenwich, CT, said, “It’s especially fortunate that our 10th anniversary falls in a ‘Dragon’ year. In Chinese culture, the sign of the Dragon is a very auspicious sign. It represents wealth, strength, leadership, passion, bravery, and innovation, a good year to celebrate in!”

CLSC Board co-Chair, Pelham resident Jeffay Chang, said, "The Chinese Language School of Connecticut understands the importance of having children experience the culture to better appreciate the language. We are again looking forward to our school’s 10th Annual Lunar New Year Festival!”

New Canaan resident and Chinese New Year Parents Committee Chair, Janet Leung Fonss, exclaimed, “Food, culture, entertainment, and FUN!! The annual CLSC New Year's celebration showcases everything wonderful about our school. There is no better way to experience Chinese culture and language. Our children look forward to this fabulous event every year!"

New Canaan resident and Chinese New Year volunteer, Samantha Connell noted, "My children have been students at The Chinese Language School of Connecticut for six years now and they love attending the annual Chinese New Year Festival. Being part of the rich cultural heritage makes learning the language come alive for my children.”

This year’s Chinese New Year Festival will usher in the year of the dragon with musical performances, martial arts, and Chinese acrobatics by the Chinese DBA Performing Arts troupe http://www.chineseperformingarts.us and will feature a lion dance, traditional dancers, children’s activities, children’s arts and crafts, Asian vendors, and an all-you-can-eat, authentic Chinese buffet luncheon included with the price of admission.

CLSC President and Board member Susan Serven, of New Canaan, said “It’s been an honor and a privilege working with such a wonderful team of volunteers on each of our last 10 Chinese New Year Festivals. We’ve gone from a small, CLSC-family event, to an elegant, large scale gala, with fabulous food and top-tier entertainment. I know I speak for everyone when I say we wish CLSC another wonderful 10 years!”

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

* * *

Video on Chinese Characters

This is pretty good; would be even better with pinyin so non-speakers could know how to pronounce, and would be great with translations and pinyin of the Chinese they're speaking. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VhOCX5WLpw&feature=autoshare

How to Raise A Global Kid? Have them learn Mandarin Chinese

Newsweek: http://www.newsweek.com/2011/07/17/american-kids-immersed-in-chinese-asian-education.html

How to Raise a Global Kid

Taking Tiger Mom tactics to radical new heights, these parents are packing up the family for a total Far East Immersion.

Happy Rogers was the only American in her graduating class at Nanyang Primary School in Singapore.

Happy Rogers, age 8, stands among her classmates in the schoolyard at dismissal time, immune, it seems, to the cacophonous din. Her parents and baby sister are waiting outside, but still she lingers, engrossed in conversation. A poised and precocious blonde, Hilton Augusta Parker Rogers, nicknamed Happy, would be at home in the schoolyard of any affluent American suburb or big-city private school. But here, at the elite, bilingual Nanyang Primary School in Singapore, Happy is in the minority, her Dakota Fanning hair shimmering in a sea of darker heads. This is what her parents have traveled halfway around the world for. While her American peers are feasting on the idiocies fed to them by junk TV and summer movies, Happy is navigating her friendships and doing her homework entirely in Mandarin.

Fluency in Chinese, she says—in English—through mouthfuls of spaghetti bolognese at a Singapore restaurant, “is going to make me better and smarter.”

American parents have barely recovered from the anxiety attacks they suffered at the hands of the Tiger Mom—oh, no, my child is already 7 and she can’t play a note of Chopin—and now here comes Happy’s father, the multimillionaire American investor and author Jim Rogers, to give them something new to fret about. It is no longer enough to raise children who are brave, curious, hardworking, and compassionate. Nor is it sufficient to steer them toward the right sports, the right tutors, the right internships, and thus engineer their admittance to the right (or at least a good enough) college. According to Rogers, who in 2007 left New York’s Upper West Side to settle in Singapore with his wife, Paige Parker, and Happy (Beeland Anderson Parker Rogers, called Baby Bee, was born the next year), parents who really care about their children must also ponder this: are we doing enough to raise “global” kids?

“I’m doing what parents have done for many years,” Jim Rogers says. “I’m trying to prepare my children for the future, for the 21st century. I’m trying to prepare them as best I can for the world as I see it.” Rogers believes the future is Asia—he was recently on cable television flogging Chinese commodities. “The money is in the East, and the debtors are in the West. I’d rather be with the creditors than the debtors,” he adds.

It has become a convention of public discourse to regard rapid globalization—of economies and business; of politics and conflict; of fashion, technology, and music—as the great future threat to American prosperity. The burden of meeting that challenge rests explicitly on our kids. If they don’t learn—now—to achieve a comfort level with foreign people, foreign languages, and foreign lands, this argument goes, America’s competitive position in the world will continue to erode, and their future livelihood and that of subsequent generations will be in jeopardy. Rogers is hardly the only person who sees things this way. “In this global economy, the line between domestic and international issues is increasingly blurred, with the world’s economies, societies, and people interconnected as never before,” said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan in remarks in the spring of 2010 at the Asia Society in New York. “I am worried that in this interconnected world, our country risks being disconnected from the contributions of other countries and cultures.”

Despite Duncan’s articulate urgency (and the public example of Rogers and a few others like him), America is so far utterly failing to produce a generation of global citizens. Only 37 percent of Americans hold a passport. Fewer than 2 percent of America’s 18 million college students go abroad during their undergraduate years—and when they do go, it’s mostly for short stints in England, Spain, or Italy that are more like vacations. Only a quarter of public primary schools offer any language instruction at all, and fewer high schools offer French, German, Latin, Japanese, or Russian than they did in 1997. The number of schools teaching Chinese and Arabic is so tiny as to be nearly invisible.

Meanwhile, 200 million Chinese schoolchildren are studying English. South Korean parents recently threw a collective hissy fit, demanding that their children begin English instruction in first grade, rather than in second. Nearly 700,000 students from all over the world attended U.S. universities during the 2009–10 school year, with the greatest increases in kids from China and Saudi Arabia. “Not training our kids to be able to work and live in an international environment is like leaving them illiterate,” says David Boren, the former U.S. senator and current president of the University of Oklahoma. The gap between our ambition and reality yawns wide.

There is no consensus on remedies. According to a white paper issued in 2009 by the Institute on International Education, most colleges and universities say they want to increase participation in study-abroad programs, but only 40 percent are actually making concerted efforts to do so. Long immersion programs are expensive, and in an environment of tough statewide budget cuts, students and professors are too crunched for time to make international experience a priority. Educators disagree on which kinds of experiences are most advantageous for kids—or even what advantageous means. Is it enough for a teenager who has never traveled farther than her grandma’s house to get a passport and order a pint in a London pub? Or does she have to spend a year in Beijing, immersed in Mandarin and economic policy? Is the goal of foreign experience to learn a language or gain some special expertise—in auto engineering or peace mediation? Or is it to be of service to others by giving mosquito nets to poor children in an African village?

Jim Rogers sees an America in decline, and his solution has been to immerse himself in the countries and cultures that are ascendant. “We think we’re the world leader, but we’re not,” he says. “I don’t like saying that. I’m an American. I vote. I pay taxes. But the level of knowledge is not very high, and that’s going to hurt us, I’m afraid.” In the Rogers family’s five-bedroom bungalow, there is no TV. Instead, there are more than a dozen globes to look at and maps to ponder, a nanny and a maid who speak only Mandarin to the kids, bicycles to ride, and a new karaoke machine so the girls can learn Chinese songs.

A generation ago and as far back as Thomas Jefferson, a certain kind of child from a certain kind of family went abroad because it was done; a sojourn in Europe was as crucial to becoming a cultivated person as knowing the works of Mozart or Rembrandt. The point was to see the Great Museums, of course, but also to breathe the air—to learn to converse in another tongue, to adapt to the rhythms of another place. Hemingway did this, of course, but so did Benjamin Franklin and Johnny Depp. This is what Pamela Wolf, who just returned to New York City with her husband and children from a year in Barcelona, did. She enrolled her teenagers in an international school, where they made friends with kids from around the world and learned to speak fluent Spanish. Her children have a global perspective not only because of their language skills but also because arriving in a new place, knowing no one, forced them to be resilient. “It’s pushing yourself out of your comfort zone,” Wolf says. “It builds a very compassionate child. While, yes, grades and academics are as important to me as anyone, you need resilience to understand and have sympathy for other people.”

Such lengthy sojourns, though, are available to only a few: the very adventurous or the very rich. Wolf and her husband are both self-employed. “Financially,” she says, “we have the great privilege of earning money while we’re away.”

Without resources and connections, a foreign experience can be a misery. Two years ago, Maribeth Henderson moved from San Antonio with her husband, her college-age son, and her adopted 5-year-old daughter, Wei Wei, to a remote part of China, in Guangdong province. Wei Wei didn’t learn much Mandarin—her school taught mainly Cantonese—and Henderson felt lonely and alienated. “It was so Chinese that I couldn’t assimilate and feel comfortable,” she says. “I couldn’t speak the language; it was hard for us to even order food in a restaurant. If you ordered a chicken, they would literally hand you a chicken. You were lucky if it wasn’t alive.” Henderson abandoned ship, returning to Texas with Wei Wei ahead of schedule and leaving her husband and son in Guangzhou. Now, though, she’s planning to try again. This summer she and Wei Wei will move to Beijing, and Henderson hopes the big city will ameliorate her former isolation. About her goal—helping Wei Wei learn Chinese—Henderson has no doubts. “For children to be competitive and successful in a global economy,” she says, “it’s important for them to be bilingual.”

For parents who want to give their children global experience while keeping them safely on the straight and narrow American path of PSATs, SATs, and stellar extracurriculars, there’s an ever-growing field of options. Immersion schools have exploded over the past 40 years, growing from none in 1970 to 440 today, according to the Center for Applied Linguistics, and Mandarin, especially, is seen among type-A parents as a twofer: a child who learns Mandarin starting at 5 increases her brain capacity and is exposed to the culture of the future through language. (One mom in San Francisco laughs when she recalls that her daughter learned about Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott in Chinese.) The education entrepreneur Chris Whittle and colleagues recently announced plans for the new Avenues school, to open in New York City in September 2012 and designed to compete with the city’s most exclusive (and expensive) private schools. Its curriculum will be fully bilingual—parents choose a Mandarin or Spanish track when their kids are 3—providing the Happy Rogers experience but with all the conveniences of home. “We think that any child that graduates from high school a monoglot is automatically behind,” Whittle says. Fourteen months before the school’s doors open, Avenues has already received 1,200 applications.

Study abroad is now a prerequisite on some college campuses, and a few professional schools, especially in business and engineering, have begun to require international study as part of their curricula. Nursing students at a community college in Utah must all spend a month at a hospital in Vietnam as part of their training. But Margaret Heisel, director of the Center for Capacity Building in Study Abroad, believes that a real global education comes from a long stay in a strange place; it gives kids skills that no amount of study can teach.

My own experience proves this point. During my sophomore year in high school, my father, a university professor, moved our entire family to Amsterdam for his sabbatical year and enrolled my brothers and me in local public schools. During that glorious year, I rode my bike through city streets, learned to roll a cigarette one-handed, and eventually spoke Dutch like a 15-year-old native. (I can still say “That’s so stupid” and “This is so boring.”) We saw Stonehenge and the Rijksmuseum and drove to Burgundy for the grape harvest, but the real impact of that adventure was that I learned a degree of self-reliance—a 15-year-old girl needs to make friends and will cross any cultural boundary to do so—that I didn’t know I had.

“I think it’s liberating to some extent,” Heisel says. “It touches people in places that being in a familiar place doesn’t. It requires versatility, flexibility. It’s a different culture and it’s pressing on kids in different ways.” Baby Bee is equally at home on visits to the U.S. and in Singapore, where her father rides her to school each day on his personal pedicab. There she sings the Singapore national anthem and pledges the Singapore flag. “She’s no different from the Chinese kids,” says her teacher, Fu Su Qin. “And her Chinese is just as good.”

With reporting by Lennox Samuels in Singapore

China Pace University Business School Trip

Great blog with highlights from current students' and professors' trip.

http://dysoncollege.blogs.pace.edu/

CLSC Program Expansion!

photo caption: Chinese Language School of Connecticut Vice Principal Xian Xian Feng with students at CLSC's new weekday location at 2CC



Chinese Language School of Connecticut Launches New Weekday Programs at the Second Congregational Church of Greenwich


--CLSC to hold classes at historic Greenwich location.--



Greenwich, CT, October 15, 2010– The Chinese Language School of Connecticut (www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org) is pleased to announce their new location at Greenwich’s Second Congregational Church, 139 East Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT.



Principal Daisy Chen Laone said, “We are so pleased to be partnering with 2CC to offer Chinese at their beautiful school facility. CLSC’s classroom at 2CC is spacious, bright, and sunny, with plenty of room for teachers and children to interact while learning Mandarin Chinese.”



CLSC Board of Directors Co-Chair, Greenwich resident Cynthia Chang Scanlan, concurred. “My family are members of 2CC. We joined the church because of the wonderful pastor, Bob Naylor, the terrific staff, and the openness and friendliness of the other members. There are so many wonderful youth programs, as well, and CLSC is pleased and very fortunate to be able to offer Mandarin Chinese at one of Greenwich’s historic locations.”



For information on the Chinese Language School of Connecticut’s language programs for children or adults, their Before– and After- School programs, special workshops, private tutoring or corporate language programs, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email them at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org.


* * *

July 23 Free NYC Concert Little Angels of Canton

Thank you to Man-Li K Lin for this info; for details please email her at manlikuo@hotmail.com

The GuangZhou Children Symphony Orchestra will be performing at St. Paul the Apostle Church, Columbus Avenue & 60th St in Manhattan on Friday, July 23rd from 7pm-9pm.
Free Admission

Chinese Language School of Connecticut Offers Expanded Art and Culture Programs

Students Participate in Chinese Art and Culture Programs
-- Redding-based Artist Introduces Children to Chinese-Themed Mixed-Media Art --

“VP Art & Culture Katy Chen Myers is an energetic, true professional, dedicated to exploring Chinese history and culture with students via art, and we are all so lucky to have her,” noted CLSC Principal, Daisy Chen Laone.

Riverside, CT, July 1, 2010 – The Chinese Language School of Connecticut (www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org), the fully-accredited, non-profit, Riverside, CT-based provider of Chinese language programs to students, schools and corporations, is pleased to announce expansion of their Art and Culture programs for academic year 2010 - 2011.

During the Art and Culture section of CLSC’s classes this year, VP Art & Culture Katy Chen Myers, of Redding, CT, developed and ran segments whereby students studied traditions and celebrations focused on Chinese folktales and festivals such as the Moon festival. Handcrafted lanterns have been designed by CLSC students for an art shows in Westport and Greenwich this fall and winter.

Ms. Myers explained, Children love to cook, and eat, and are usually very interested in what others’ meals are like, as well. In our segment “The Chinese Diet” we studied agricultural traditions of northern and southern China, culminating with a look at traditional Chinese foods, and the banquet foods of the Qing Dynasty.

China has a tradition of travelling performers creating shadow puppet theaters during the Ming Dynasty, and up to the modern era. Our younger students were able to design their own shadow puppets as they learned about these Chinese entertainment traditions. We created our own, authentic traveling Chinese Shadow Puppet theater, probably the only one in the tri-state area, and students assisted in recent puppet performances.”

Ms. Myers continued, “One of our goals is to introduce Chinese as a second language to students while allowing them to explore Chinese culture via art in age appropriate ways. Our older students’ main focus centered on answering the question: Who am I? by creating a mixed-media project which involved students telling their own story by creating a biography in Chinese characters, and by creating self portraits using the graphic novel “American Born Chinese by Gene Yang as their inspiration.

Another project for this upcoming school year is the Chinese Cherry & plum blossom quilt which will also be readied for exhibit in upcoming shows.

One of the highlights of this past year was that in addition to showcasing work at various children’s venues, art created by CLSC students was accepted into a professional artist exhibit at Weston Art’s Center in Weston CT. The seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, a series of four paintings by students from CLSC levels 3-8, was displayed alongside works by professional illustrators, photographers and print makers from all over the US.

We are currently working with various venues to plan more exhibits as professionals, in New Canaan, Ridgefield and New York City for the 2010-2011 academic year. The main theme for CLSC’s art and culture segments next year will be the Silk Road. Many exciting projects are currently being planned for all levels with the goal being exhibition in various schools and libraries in Fairfield County.

I’m so pleased to be able to share my passion for art, and Chinese culture, with students of all ages, via CLSC’s programs. ”

For information on CLSC’s weekend or weekday language classes, summer programs, private tutoring, corporate services, or any of their other programs, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email them at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

* * *

NY Times: Shanghai World Expo 2010

From: New York Times today: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/31/business/global/31expo.html?scp=1&sq=Shanghai%20Expo%202010&st=cse

"Special Report: Shanghai Expo 2010 Turns Spotlight on Nations," by Julie Makinen. NYT summary:
"National pavilions at the world's fair are likely to influence visitors' decisions about vacations, study abroad and business dealings."


May 30, 2010
Shanghai Expo 2010 Turns Spotlight on NationsBy JULIE MAKINEN
HONG KONG — Two years ago, athletes from more than 190 countries came together in Beijing, vying for international acclaim on basketball courts and balance beams at the Summer Olympics. Now, a rematch of sorts is occurring in Shanghai — but this time, the competitors carrying their national flags are the architects and designers of hundreds of pavilions at a 184-day marathon of image and commerce, Expo 2010.

The ultimate winners of this contest will be decided not by referees with stopwatches or judges with scorecards but by the 70 million people — mostly Chinese — who are expected to attend the modern world’s fair before it ends Oct. 31. The impressions they take away are likely to shape such decisions as where they will go on vacation, where they will study abroad, what countries their companies will do business with and even what kinds of food they will eat.

“While the Beijing Olympics gave China the chance to host the world and show the world what China is, at Expo, the Chinese people are the guests and the various nations are playing host, showing China what the world is,” said Urso Chappell, who runs Expomuseum .com, a Web site documenting the history of such events, starting with the 1851 Great Exhibition in London.

“It’s a great opportunity for countries to dispel old myths or create new ones,” he added. “I doubt the average Chinese person ever thinks much about Luxembourg, for instance, but they have a really playful pavilion, and that’s going to certainly leave a lasting impression on those who see it.”

With a theme of “Better City, Better Life,” the Shanghai Expo is loosely organized around the idea of sustainable development. There are “urban best practices” pavilions showcasing cities like Vancouver, British Columbia, and Hamburg and corporate pavilions from companies like Coca-Cola and Cisco. But the main attractions are the national pavilions, which range from modest to imposing, simple to lavish, representational to abstract.

Some, like Britain’s, are the product of national competitions, significant government outlays and years of planning. Others, like that of the United States, were cobbled together at the last minute and funded by the private sector. Macao’s is shaped like a rabbit. The United Arab Emirates’ entry resembles a sand dune. Japan’s has been nicknamed “purple silkworm island.”

By far the most buzzed-about pavilion among both architects and the public is Britain’s “Seed Cathedral,” designed by Thomas Heatherwick. The structure is a six-story cube pierced by about 60,000 thin, transparent rods that extend from it like porcupine quills and sway in the breeze. During the day, the rods — each 7.5 meters, or 25 feet, long — act like fiber-optic filaments, drawing natural light into the building. At night, they project light from inside the structure outward, making it glow like a spiky marshmallow. Locals have dubbed it “the dandelion.”

Each rod, moreover, contains seeds of different plants collected in the Millennium Seed Bank Project, an international conservation effort of the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Before beating out architects including Zaha Hadid, John McAslan and Marks Barfield in the pavilion design competition, Mr. Heatherwick was perhaps best known for art installations.

The British government is touting his project as “a striking, visual demonstration of the U.K. as a creative and innovative nation.” Or, as Sir Andrew Cahn, director of U.K. Trade and Investment, which promotes Britain abroad, has said, it is an effort to show the Chinese that Britain is about more than “cobblestones and fog.”

At earlier world’s fairs, the key draws were often exotic products from distant lands and gee-whiz inventions like the Ferris wheel and the alternating current system of electricity. In today’s world of globalized trade and rapid communications, some architects say, there is a higher premium on the form of the Expo pavilions.

“All pavilions face a content problem,” said Yung Ho Chang, the architect of the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion, known as the Dream Cube. “These days, what can you put in a pavilion that will be a real experience, that people can’t find on the Internet? That’s why people are putting so much energy into the architecture, and the ideas.”

Michael Speaks, dean of the University of Kentucky College of Design, said the Expo offered the chance to see exciting projects from several young firms, particularly the pavilions from South Korea, Austria and Denmark.

“There’s a real difference between countries trying to represent what they’ve already done and countries trying to prototype what might be possible,” Mr. Speaks said. “Some choose to make a big square box and show movies about what happens at home. The most successful pavilions are about prototyping new ideas.”

Austria’s entry, designed by the Vienna-based architecture firms SPAN and Zeytinoglu, is a curved structure clad in 10 million porcelain tiles that allude to the long tradition of chinaware exported from China to Europe.

“It’s a coming to fruition of a digital design aesthetic, and a way of fabricating, that’s been emerging in the last six to seven years,” Mr. Speaks said, noting that Vienna had been in the vanguard of the trend. “It’s become easier and easier to create digital files and make a machine directly output those things. The result of that is much more formally organic shapes not using off-the-shelf materials or components.”

South Korea’s entry is by the seven-year-old firm Mass Studies, founded by Minsuk Cho, who studied in Seoul and at Columbia University in New York.

The design assembles the letters from the Korean alphabet into a cubelike structure, thus using signs to create the space. The exterior appears pixelated, with black-and-white alphabet squares alternating with colored ones created by a Korean artist, Ik-Joong Kang, that will be sold off piece by piece when the Expo is over to raise money for charity.

Inside, the exhibition is oriented around an abstract map of a Korean city that expresses the convergence of mountains, water and a dense metropolitan area.

The structure, Mr. Speaks said, is an updating of a discussion launched in the 1970s by the seminal book “Learning From Las Vegas,” co-written by the architect Robert Venturi, which looked at how the signs and images adorning buildings can be more important than the buildings themselves.

“What they’ve done here is reverse that or make an argument of that,” Mr. Speaks said. “Here we have images as form — they’re not representing something, they are the form. And that’s just one of the things going on with this building. It’s more evidence that Seoul is emerging as a design capital.”

Previous world’s fairs have left their architectural marks on their host cities. The Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle in Seattle and the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco all began as attractions at such events before becoming landmarks.

If the Expo were being held anywhere but China, it might not be a very big deal, Mr. Speaks said. But given the state of the global economy, and China’s rising economic might, “every architectural firm, from small to big, wants to be in the game in China,” he said. “This is a way that architects and countries can announce to China what their capabilities are.”

Museum of the Chinese in America

The Newly Renovated Museum of the Chinese in Americas has Free Thursdays.

MOCA Target Free Thursday! Gran Torino Forum Discussion With Actors on July 16, 2009

Come to MOCA's Target Free Thursday on July 16!
Gran Torino Forum Discussion With Actors
Thu, Jul 16 from 7pm – 9pm

Free gallery admission this and every Thursday, made possible through the generosity of Target.

11 am - 9 pm Educator-led tours of the new space, plans for core exhibit and the Core Portraits.

11:30 am; 1:00 pm; 2:30 pm; 4:30 pm; 5:30 pm Screenings of Chinatown Film Project

7 pm - 9 pm GRAN TORINO FORUM DISCUSSION WITH ACTORS
A conversation and documentary screening with Bee Vang (played lead “Thao” in Gran Torino and making his only appearance in New York), Doua Moua (played gangbanger “Spider” in Gran Torino), and Louisa Schein (Asian American media expert, Rutgers University)


Join the Museum of Chinese in America and New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute, for an exclusive and intimate conversation with actors Bee Vang (played lead "Thao" in Gran Torino), Doua Moua, (played gangbanger "Spider" in Gran Torino) and Louisa Schein (Asian American media expert, Rutgers University). Clint Eastwood's blockbuster was number 1 in the box office when it was released to critical acclaim. For Hmong Americans, Gran Torino marks a cinematic debut - the first they have participated in as characters, cast and crew in a major motion picture.

The event will include the New York City premier screening of "Gran Torino: Next Door" (directed by Mark D. Lee, produced by Cedric Lee), accompanied by a lively discussion and Q&A as the actors discuss their experiences as Asian Americans in the film industry and how they crafted their roles and their culture in Gran Torino.


"Gran Torino: Next Door", a short documentary made by two Detroit Hmong filmmakers, takes an intimate look at the Hmong actors' experiences and their stories, both on and off set, by mingling glimpses of early auditions and production shots with interviews - from Bee Vang, to Clint Eastwood, to writer Nick Schenk.

This event is free and open to the public. RSVP’s recommended. Email education@mocanyc.org with name and number of guests.

This exciting benefit has been made possible through the generosity of Target.


Upcoming Target Free Thursday performances:
July 30: Cynthia Lin (acoustic/folk/jazz), Alice Hu (alternative/folk)
August 13: Kelly Tsai (spoken word)

Travelling to China!

We recently returned from a wonderful twelve day trip to China (Beijing, Xian, Hangzhou and Shanghai) with our two children, ages 9 and 13. The trip was arranged by China Connections, and was very professionally organized, terrific guides, wonderful sites, extemely courteous attention, very well organized. I would receive a reply to every email within 24 hours. http://www.china-tour.cn/

June 26

We arrived in Beijing’s sparkling new international airport, and made it thru security and the H1N1 flu check. Security came on board the plane to do a temperature scan; technicians were wearing all white, surgical masks and visor-helmets. Sort of techno-scary, but very interesting way to start our trip. Very few crowds, so easy to get thru security and immigration was a snap.

June 27

Tianammen Square and Forbidden City were amazing so historical. Lots of people, mainly tourists from Korea, Japan and around Chinese. Very few Americans or Europeans.

In the afternoon we went to the Summer Palace and rode the Dragon Boat (a ferry across the lake to the exit, definitely worth doing. Then a visit to a
pearl factory.

Dinner was at this very upscale restaurant, Baizha Da Zhai Men - costumed actors in Qing dynasty wear, it was like a courtyard home, meticulously maintained; very expensive / exclusive. Most tourists, I've heard, do not know about this restaurant - definitely worth a visit!

Our hotel is good, not as upscale as 4 star would be in the States, but very good for us, because almost no one speaks English, so Em, Becky and I have to really make an effort to speak Chinese (and sometimes we draw pictures!).

We didn’t have cold water the first morning, but they fixed it fairly quickly after I called a couple times and finally went downstairs (at 6 AM).

Emily’s Ipod with Chinese app is coming in handy to look up all kinds of words (it gives Chinese, pinyin, English, with tones).

Food is great, we found the chef will make fresh Beijing noodles right in
Front of you, for breakfast.

Our guide, Robert Huang, is warm, funny, delightful, his English is great. If you travel to China and use China Connection Tours, I would recommend you ask for Robert. (info@ChinaConnectionTours.com, ask for Michael Xu.)

June 28

Yesterday we went to the Jade Factory then on to the Great Wall, Juyonguong Pass (this is a section of the Wall I did about 3 years ago, but I did it in April, 70 degrees, not end of June, 100 degrees…)

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/china_great_wall/scene/beijing/juyongguan.htm

We had lunch at the friendship store / cloisonne factory (I've been to this
Factory before, but they’ve renovated it, so they no longer have glass separating most of the workers which meant we were able to get up close to them while they worked, it was great.

We went to the Olympic Village, went inside the water cube,
and then went to a tea house and then to the Hard Rock for dinner (had to do it).

June 29

Today we visited the hutong area of Beijing, amazing, wonderful, in rickshaws, it covers a much larger area than I thought it would. You cannot skip this if you are in Beijing.

Then we visited Wangfujing Street, like Rodeo Drive, gorgeous, new, then on to the Temple of Heaven, a beautiful, big park, was where the royal families worshipped.

Then to dinner and to a gongfu show. It was great, very crowded, this is where all the tourists go. When we left someone managed to get into my bag and steal my wallet. (There were a lot of crowds, buses, chaotic.) You have to remember to watch your children, bags, when traveling, a good reminder.

June 30

The next day we went to the bank to get $$ from American Express and
turned out we were the first of anyone ever to try to do that, so took
1.5 >> hours, (we cancelled our field trip for the day, which was supposed to
be a 3 hour bus drive to an even more ancient hutong area, Cuandixia Village http://www.china.org.cn/travel/gallery/2008-11/13/content_16759910.htm but that was okay...our guide Robert Huang said we still had time, and could go, but we wanted to be sure we had cancelled credit cards, called insurance, etc.

Miraculously, though, after getting $$ from bank, Robert got a call, a car park attendant at the Crowne Plaza found my wallet - everything intact except cash, credit cards and ring, so we went over to pick it up. The car parking lot attendant said the wallet had been thrown under a car, so most likely what happened was that a gang of professional thieves scoped out the most tourist-y area they could find, found someone distracted (me) to accost, then within 30 minutes went to Wangfujing Street (Rodeo Drive) to charge about $12K worth of items, (including about $4K woth of clothes from Zara!) tossing my wallet with things they didn’t need out, along the way.

Surprisingly, everything left in my wallet was scrupulously in order, so the thief was very neat.

We made a trip to the Beijing Zoo, which wasn’t on our itinerary, but which China Connections graciously substituted since we had to cancel Cuandixia Village. This is another “don’t miss” in Beijing, especially if you have children. The pandas, of course, were the biggest hit, and I was surprised at the extent of the panda exhibit; I expected 2 or 3 pandas, but there were at least 6 or 8, many outside, climbing trees.


July 1

Today got up at 6, and took a walk to this great park we found, where Olympic baseball was played. People were doing tai chi, Chinese yoyo, walking dogs,
sitting outside with their birds in cages, wonderful.No matter how much you may want to sleep in, it’s worth it to set the alarm and get up to see some tai chi in the early, cool AM.

We went to Hong Qiao Flea Market, a large indoor market where you can pretty much buy anything you’d want. My children thought it was hysterical that shop girls would accost me in the aisles, sometimes grabbing me, four or six at a time, trying to get us to buy things.

Had a Beijing Roast Duck dinner, then on to the very clean, new-ish train station for the overnight soft sleeper train to Xian. We had 4 berths in a very small cabin, but very new, clean, air conditioned, so we actually all slept well.

July 2

Arrived in Xian at 8:30AM, this was tricky, at first we couldn’t find the way out / correct exit, and had to meet our guide outside the exit…but we managed, after paying someone much too much to help with bags (er shi liang kwai for oone or two large bags on wheels, 22 kwai RMB, about $3.50).

Our guide was Elsie, very knowledgable, very nice, she had a bit of a tendency to get short tempered with our questions, though!

Very hot, hotter than Beijing (if anyone has a chance to travel to China, but can make the trip in October or April, I’d recommend doing that, even if it means pulling your children out of school).

On to hotel to check in (lovely hotel, Arum International, beautiful, connected rooms, sophisticated staff, many people spoke English, easy to get an internet connection, great breakfast).

After breakfast went to Shaanxi History Museum (first capital of China in 220 BC, emperor Qin unified China, standardized currency, connected various walls to form the Great Wall). Xi'an was the center for international trade in the Tang Dynasty period - this was before the Silk Road / Marco Polo / Kubla Khan.

Then went to the Huaxian Peasant Painters Village (very famous, they came to
Greenwich a couple years ago), one woman, Mrs. Pan, who was a local crafts person when much younger, got local artists together to help promote their way of painting, and it's gotten international awards. Saw paper cutting, then back to hotel, had dumpling banquet and show (Tang Dynasty music and dance).

July 3

Today got up early, went to Terra Cotta Warriors museum, where we saw the
pottery area, kiln, a demonstration of how the warriors were made, how lacquer and pottery is made, and how the smaller (souvenirs) ones are made now, very similar, except now they use molds, back then they did not (220 BC). The Terra Cotta Warriors were part of the Emperor (Emperor Qin, above) tomb, to act as guards.

On to the actual excavation site, unbelievable and amazing, they 're still
excavating more. Met the farmer who discovered the stone warriors; he is in his 80s now, Mr. Yang.

Then on to the Big Goose Pagoda (buddhist monastery) and to the ancient
Xi'an City Wall, where we rode bikes on the wall, a great thing to do. Dinner was Szechuan hot pot, we walked through the city of Xian to get to the restaurant, much like parts of NYC. Older children would love this, you get to cook your own food.

July 4

We took an early flight to Hangzhou. Hangzhou is a very upscale, famous, water resort town, lots of BMWs,Mercedes (and with import taxes, they pay about 4X what we'd pay for the same car...).

Saw the West Lake, went boating on the lake, went to Ling Yin Temple and a
silk factory (supposedly the biggest in China), as well as a tea
plantation. Really beautiful.

Had dinner at Lou Wai Lou restaurant on the West Lake. Would definitely recommend this for the experience and views of the lake, except we seem to keep getting chicken and fish with bones, hard to eat…think about requesting “nothing with bones” when you are planning your trip, especially if you have children. (I’ll eat anything, but the bones get to me…)

Next AM took the van to Shanghai, checked in, and went to see the Yuyuan Gardens (with ancient bazaar; this market with buildings and zig zag bridge has been around for centuries), the Cheng Huang Temple (passed by, didn't go in), did Nanjing Road, then shopping, dinner, then acrobats at the gorgeous performing arts center. Puts anyhing in NYC to shame.

The next day we did the Shanghai Museum (I've been there before, we loved it), the Children's Palace (which was really a community center, strange naming), a wonderful Jade Museum, and then to the Pudong district, the Bund, TV Pearl Tower, and dinner at the top of the Pearl Tower's spinning restaurant. Again, this is something that might not make it to your itinerary unless you ask, and it's definitely worth it!

We finished up with a boat tour on the Huangpu River, which is amazing, All lights at night. This is another “must do” in Shanghai.

The next day took the maglev bullet train to the Pudong Airport and headed home!

A fantastic trip.

For more information on Chinese programs (especially Chinese language classes for children and adults, Chinese preschool classes, culture, history) please contact www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email us at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

Chopstix Chinese Story Time at Perrot Library, Old Greenwich, CT

The Chinese Language School of Connecticut Presents Chopstix Chinese Story Time at Old Greenwich’s Perrot Library
-- School presents activities and stories for three to five year olds --

“Perrot is thrilled to partner with the Chinese Language School of Connecticut in adding Story Time in Mandarin Chinese to our preschool program offerings. Learning a second language not only has a positive effect on a child’s mental development, but also opens the door to other cultures!” Perrot Library Technical Assistant Vicky Livoti”.

Riverside, CT, June 29, 2009 – The Chinese Language School of Connecticut (www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org), the fully-accredited, non-profit Riverside, CT-based provider of Chinese language programs, is pleased to present Chopstix Chinese Story Time at Old Greenwich’s Perrot Library (www.perrotlibrary.org).

This program is for children ages 3-5 (and their siblings); a parent or caregiver must be present.

Story times are Wednesdays, 1pm, July 8, 15, 22, 29. For more info www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org, or visit http://greenteapop.blogspot.com.

CLSC parent, Greenwich resident Robyn Wasserman said, "I am so pleased that the Perrot Library and the Chinese Language School of Connecticut are able to bring such a culturally enriching program to our community. Our children truly benefit when two wonderful institutions collaborate."


* * *

Robins, Blue Jays, Rooks and Children

For several years, we've had a bird's nest on the wreath on our front door, in front of a window, so we can watch the birds as they hatch and grow.

Now we have two nests, so have more of a Bird Condo on the wreath. It's been amazing this year to watch, first the baby robins, and then, the baby blue jays, on the two nests.

We were privileged to actually see the mother bird demonstrate flying, and then nudge her last baby off the nest -- on Mother's Day, no less!

And, the blue jays look like they're ready to go now, too.

In addition, the Economist's May 30-June 5 issue has an article (page 83) on rooks, which are birds. It seems that rooks in the wild, who are not "working together", lack an adaptive skill, but rooks in the lab, who are "working with other rooks" learn to adapt nearby items as tools, to obtain food. http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13726746

So, even rooks learn more by working together, being adaptive and innovative.

All this bird viewing and info made me realize how quickly children (and birds!) learn, grow and fly away.

So, the time we spend learning together seems even more valuable...if baby rooks can do it, so can we!

(For more info on summer learning resources and tools, please visit the Useful Links section of our web site, www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org )

Chinese Language School of CT's Chopstix Preschool Chinese Celebrates 10th Anniversary!

“It’s very gratifying to see how Chopstix’s growth has introduced so many young children to the fun of learning Mandarin Chinese,” noted CLSC Board member and president, New Canaan resident Susan Serven.

Riverside, CT, June 1, 2009 – The Chinese Language School of Connecticut (www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org), the fully-accredited, non-profit Riverside, CT-based provider of Chinese language programs to students, schools and corporations, is pleased to announce the tenth anniversary of their Chopstix preschool Mandarin Chinese program.

“It’s wonderful to see so many of our youngest students learning Chinese,” said CLSC president, Susan Serven. “Our principal, Daisy Chen Laone, and teachers, are all so creative and energetic, they make learning so much fun for the children, as well as the parents,” she continued.

Chopstix started as a small, volunteer-run class, organized by Serven in 1999, when her older daughter, Emily, who was adopted from Yunnan Province, China, in 1996, was 3.

Serven explained, “When Emily (now 13) was 2, she started asking me how to say certain words in Mandarin Chinese (‘Mommy, how do you say 'dog' in Chinese? How do you say 'flower' in Chinese?’).

I had to admit that, mainly, I didn't know. I enlisted a friend of mine, Susan Lem, who was able to teach Emily a few things, but since she had moved from Taiwan when she was very young, she didn't remember most of the Chinese she had learned as a child. Soon, even she started commenting that she would like her daughter (also 2, and adopted from Anhwei Province) to learn Chinese.

It occurred to me one day that I could set up a small Chinese program for preschoolers and charge a nominal fee. Emily and her friends could learn a few words, phrases, songs and games in Chinese, and I could donate the proceeds to groups that worked with children in Chinese orphanages.”

(Serven estimates that about $10,000 was donated over 4 years to various non-profit groups such as Families with Children from China, and Half the Sky Foundation.)

“Around the same time I met Dr. Joseph Ho and his wife, Catherine, of Stamford, CT. Catherine was a warm, wonderful Chinese teacher, who graciously volunteered to teach, so Chopstix was born.

We thought we would have five or six children, initially; but our first day 38 showed up! We started out at the New Canaan Library, moved to New Canaan’s First Presbyterian Church and, later, to St. Michael’s Church, also in New Canaan.”

Serven explained that she continued to run Chopstix for her younger daughter, Rebecca (now 9) and her friends, until 2003, when Chopstix was rolled into the newly-formed Chinese Language School of Connecticut. The program has grown each year from its inception; Chopstix now has approximately 80 children enrolled in CLSC’s Sunday and Weekday classes.

Regarding her children’s experience with the Chopstix program, CLSC parent, Stamford resident Samantha Connell, noted, "It has been well-established that early exposure to language can make all the difference in fluency. However, like most 3-year-olds, my son is not very cooperative, doesn't like to sit still, and has a very short attention span.

I was very concerned that we would struggle through his Chinese classes this year. I have been so pleasantly surprised with how much he has learned. Huang Lao Shi (Vivi) has done an absolutely incredible job--coming up with fun and interesting ways to engage the children in their lessons for every class.

It is clear that she spends a significant amount of time preparing for the classes and coming up with playful lessons and manipulatives for the children. Some examples are: using Mr. Potato Head to learn facial features, bringing in a huge bag of stuffed animals to learn animals, using individual number characters written on post-its for the children to put onto a picture of a train, blowing up different color balloons to learn colors (and shooting them off!), and awarding stickers and happy faces for good behavior.

Her patience and enthusiasm really keeps the children focused. My son has had a great year and has learned more Chinese than I expected. Most importantly, he enjoys his Chinese school experience."

From Greenwich parent, Henriette Hoang Rieffel, “Our younger son is in Chopstix II and looks forward to every session because he enjoys playing the games. The teachers do an incredible job in designing the class so that learning is reinforced by games after each short session. Parental presence in the class is excellent for both parent and child, helping parents learn the words in order to assist the children at home and making the younger kids feel more secure.

Over all, we are very impressed with the rich yet low pressure atmosphere in the class. Learning is fun for all of us."

From Greenwich parents, Helen and Daniel Zou, "We started our daughter, Amelie, in Chopstix 3 years ago, when she was 5. We were looking for a fun but meaningful way to introduce her to the Chinese language and culture. Amelie has shown great motivation to attend class at CLSC every week, so we've continued the program with the purpose of deepening not only her linguistic skills, but also her cultural understanding."

From Darien parent, Lin Shaw, The Chopstix teachers make learning Chinese fun for the children by incorporating music, story-telling, arts & crafts."

From Wilton parent, Dana Lupton, “Both Quinn and I have grown tremendously from our experience with the Chinese Language School of Connecticut. It has served as a source of bonding and an outlet for her to stay in touch with her Chinese roots. We began with Chopstix and she is now thriving in Level I. I am profoundly grateful for the experience it has provided both of us.....but most important and notable is the pride she takes in participating. I can’t say enough about the program, its founders and administrators if I tried."

From Bronxville parent, Daisy Wang, "I like the fact that the instructors in the Chopstix program are always well prepared for class. The curriculum is designed in a way that makes the learning process lively and encourages students to focus on the class, which is not an easy task for the toddler age program. Each student participates. I think these qualities explain the increased interest my son is taking in learning Mandarin Chinese in the Choptix program."

For information on Summer or Fall 2009 Chopstix preschool Chinese classes for children ages 18 months to 5 years old, or the Chinese Language School of Connecticut’s summer programs, weekend or weekday language programs for children or adults, Before– and After- School programs, special workshops, private tutoring or corporate language programs, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email them at info@ChineseLanguageSchool.org.

* * *

Chopstix Preschool Mandarin Chinese Class

How young is too young to begin learning Chinese?

Do your children ever express interest in learning Chinese, or hearing more about Chinese culture? (maybe after watching "Nihao Kailan"??)

When my older daughter (now 13) was 2, she started asking me how to say certain words in Mandarin Chinese ("Mommy, how do you say 'dog' in Chinese? How do you say 'flower' in Chinese?).

I had to admit that, mainly, I didn't know. I enlisted a friend of mine, Susan Lem, who taught Emily a few things, but since she had moved from Taiwan when she was very young, and because she hadn't paid attention in Chinese school, she didn't remember a lot.

So, even she started saying how her daughter (also 2) should be learning Chinese.

It occured to me one day, that if I set up a small Chinese program for preschoolers, I could charge a small fee, Emily and her friends could learn a few words, and I could donate the proceeds to groups that worked with children in Chinese orphanages (synergy!)

Serendipitiously, I met Dr. Joseph Ho and his wife, Catherine, of Stamford, CT. Catherine graciously volunteered to teach, and Chopstix was born.

For information on Chopstix preschool Chinese classes for children ages 18 months to 5 years old, please visit www.ChineseLanguageSchool.org or email us at info@chineselanguageschool.org