History of the Chinese Culture Center in the 21st Century by Dr. Gordon H. Chang (2015)

HISTORY OF THE

CHINESE CULTURE CENTER

st

IN THE 21 CENTURY Gordon H. Chang

"As the CCC enters its sixth decade, it remains a vibrant, energetic, and bold community-based organization that engages multiple audiences. It seeks to serve, as well as to enlighten audiences, understanding its responsibility to empower vital cultural and social identities in defining what Chinese art and culture mean in a rapidly changing world."

CONTENTS Introduction About the Author History

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Board of Directors CCC Team Support

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Exhibitions

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Rotation, painting installation, Zheng Chongbin, 2012 Cover images: 2 White Ink No.1, ink wash, acrylic on xuan paper Front: Zheng Chongbin, 2011

Back: Work from The Curiosity Box San Francisco, Lam Tung-pang, 2013

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INTRODUCTION I want to thank Professor Gordon H. Chang for his generous leadership and keen observations on the transformation of the Chinese Culture Foundation and the Chinese Culture Center. I have known Gordon since our community activism days and have admired his academic achievements over the years.

Dr. Gordon H. Chang is a distinguished professor and writer on Asian American history and an authority on US-Asia relations. His writing on the history of the CCC enables a greater understanding of its forward looking vision, and the role it will play in the years and decades ahead.

I encourage readers to also study “Thirty Years of the Chinese Culture Foundation and Twenty-Two Years of the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco,” reflecting on the Center’s storied past by the late Him Mark Lai. It’s a story that recounts the Foundation’s early beginnings with founder JK Choy and other important figures during the Civil Rights era, and unique involvement in Chinatown’s identity and struggle.

The Foundation continues the march of those who came before, for a more just, equitable, and vibrant Chinatown. I have a bold dream. Art and culture are critical and necessary to advance social justice and world peace.

Mabel S. Teng

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About the Author D r. G o r d o n H . C h a n g i s a n internationally recognized authority and author on Asian American and US-East Asia historical relations. He is the Oliver H. Palmer Professor in Humanities and Professor of History at Stanford University.

Professor Chang is the author and editor of numerous books including Friends and Enemies: The United States, China, and The Soviet Union, 1948-1972, Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present, Asian Americans and Politics: An Exploration, and Morning Glory, Evening Shadow: Yamato Ichihashi and His Wartime Writing, 19421945. Chang’s most recent work, Fateful Ties: A History of America’s Preoccupation with China, is a comprehensive introduction to the intellectual and cultural origins of Sino-American relations, providing readers new ways of looking at the past.

A d d i t i o n a l l y, h e i s a f r e q u e n t contributor to numerous edited volumes and academic journals.

Professor Chang received his Ph.D. from Stanford University and his B.A. from Princeton University.

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History of the Chinese Culture Center in the 21 st Century

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

September 14, 2015 The Chinese Culture Center (CCC), under the aegis of the Chinese Culture Foundation, is one of the leading and most prominent cultural and social centers of San Francisco’s Chinatown community and of the city generally. Established in the mid-1960s for the promotion of Chinese and Chinese American art and culture, the CCC has grown from ambitious aspiration to mature institution in the 21st century. With decades of hard work, sacrifice, and community support, the CCC today is an organization with a unique identity and purpose. The CCC simultaneously promotes neighborhood arts display and production as well as the presentation of cutting-edge contemporary art of international significance. The CCC maintains its tradition of serving popular interest in well-known Chinese folk arts and crafts, Chinese language instruction, and music-training in Chinese instruments.

The CCC has emerged as one of the most important venues for presenting provocative, original work that goes well outside the boundaries of what is usually considered to be Chinese art. Now, fifty years since its founding, the CCC is long past its early, tentative beginnings and is continuing to realize its dual mission of serving community interest in Chinese American and Chinese arts while venturing into the highly creative and provocative world of contemporary art and explore new modes of artistic expression that explore social, cultural, sexual, personal, and racial identities in a rapidly transforming, globalized world.

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"The Chinese Culture Center opens" is covered in East West 東西報，October 24, 1973.

L-R: Former San Francisco Mayor, Dianne Feinstein with Chinese Culture Foundation founder, JK Choy.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The detailed history of the CCC from the early 1960s to the end of the 20th century that Him Mark Lai completed in 2000 carefully recounts the story of its founding and development and focuses on leaders and Chinatown politics in the context of evolving United States-China relations. His was largely an institutional history of decision-making, personalities and personnel, funding, and community politics. The story he presents is a valuable record of the organization’s institutional progress. It also provides broader insight into community history during years that witnessed its transformation from a relatively insular community to one that is now deeply imbedded in city and regional politics and directly affected by national and even global change.

Him Mark’s account ends at the start of the 21st century. This historical essay in hand begins where his left off. The following account examines the CCC story over the last fifteen years and focuses on the challenges of defining organizational identity and programming in the context of a very different community and world. Institutional matters of funding, board membership, staff and personnel occupy less attention.

Greater attention is devoted to examining C C C underst andings of the complex matters of defining audience and “served population” amidst societal change, defining what is “art and culture” in a contemporary setting, and addressing issues of relevance and innovation. These challenging issues continue to face the CCC.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Him Mark Lai had already noted important developments in the social and political landscape that formed the context of CCC’s evolution. Of special importance, he observed, was the changing demographics and identities of Chinese in America and the overall relationship between China and America from the 1960s to the late 1990s.

New immigration patterns, generational change among Chinese Americans, and tectonic shifts in geopolitics directly affected the work of the CCC. These contexts, especially the rise of China, with its market economy and as a world power, continue to transform, arguably at an accelerated rate.

Founders of the Chinese Culture Foundation

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century centery / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

In the early 2000s, the deferred task of completing a major renovation of CCC’s facilities presented the occasion to address difficult questions about its basic mission and purpose. Taking the moment as an opportunity, the CCC, as it addressed the problems of inadequate exhibition space, code violations, office and classroom arrangements, launched a major fundraising campaign to support programming and build the endowment. An ambitious effort, the original goal was to raise $300,000 to help cover the renovation and support programming and an ambitious $3.5 million for the endowment. Despite sustained efforts over two years, the campaign fell far short of its goals, especially for the endowment. It was evident that the CCC would have to contend with operating on a budget far less than hoped and it would not solve its financial instability, a chronic problem since its beginning. The remodeling of the CCC facilities that created useable and attractive space for exhibitions, large performances and gatherings, classes, and administrative use was accomplished through a 2005 lease amendment with the property developer.

The Moment for Ink, installation view, 2013 (left work by Jonathan Wallraven, right work by Xiaoze Xie)

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Importantly, the physical transformation of CCC accompanied an evaluation of the organization’s fundamental mission and purpose.

In its first decades, the CCC’s public programming largely consisted of shows from China that varied from “high” arts, such as traditional ink painting, to folk culture, such as wood cuts and kites. Lectures from well-known American scholars presented informed knowledge about contemporary China to audiences who, because of geopolitical divisions, had few direct sources of information about Chinese history, culture, and contemporary social realities. Even as China increasingly opened to visitors and cultural exchanges after Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972, and especially after the death of Mao in 1976, the CCC continued to meet public interest in and curiosity about elemental Chinese cultural and social matters. The CCC faced little competition or overlap with the work of other organizations in these years.

The late Michael Sullivan, Abby Chen, Jonathan Wallraven in front of Wallraven's work at "Moment for Ink", 2013.

CCC gallery prepared for renovation.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Forty years later at the start of the 21st century, the situation in the United States was dramatically different. Americans had relatively easy access to China and schools and civic organizations could arrange exhibitions and exchanges directly with Chinese counterparts. Hundreds of thousands of Americans visited China annually. And in 2003, the eminent Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, ensconced for thirty-five years in Golden Gate Park far from Chinatown, reopened in dramatic fashion in the downtown Civic Center. It quickly established itself, with its substantial financial, artistic, and social connections and unrivaled collections, as a central hub of Asia-oriented cultural public programming. At the same time, the arrival of millions of new immigrants from Asia transformed the profile of the Chinese community in America. Traditional Guangdong-based immigrants who had long anchored Chinatown continued to sustain the community but very large numbers of people from Taiwan, other regions of China, and Southeast Asia complicated and diversified the social and cultural mix of Chinese America. The boom of East Asian economies also encouraged unprecedented numbers of professionals, entrepreneurs, students, scholars, and travelers to come to the United States. These and other developments posed fundamental questions of CCC’s purpose, mission, and audience. What was “Chinese culture,” dynamic and changing, under these circumstances? What did it mean to present “Chinese culture” in an America that too was undergoing change?

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The opening of the redesigned CCC in 2006 served as the occasion for announcing CCC’s reappraisal. Then recently appointed CCC Executive Director Sabina Chen described t h e c h a l l e n g e b e f o r e t h e C C C . “ Th e Chinese in America is a community whose roots are set firmly in tradition, while also seeking to define its place in the present,” she announced in one of her first public statements. She characterized Chinese America as a “community that is diverse and dynamic drawing from varied immigrant experiences and subsequent generations who call themselves Americans. With all the differences, what are the commonalities that bind us as Chinese?” Chen posed further provocative questions but did not attempt to answer them: “What are the issues that divide us – between generations, origins, language and culture? And how can one organization encompass the endlessly complex and rich questions of this community?” The answers would not be easily forthcoming.

Chen’s personal identity itself was evidence of the shift in CCC’s direction. She was a graduate of Stanford University with a degree in East Asian Studies but also had substantial experience in community activism with the Chinese for Affirmative Action and the Kearny Street Workshop, a pan-Asian American organization dedicated to supporting art practitioners from a wide array of backgrounds.

She herself appeared eager to bring CCC into the new century with new ideas, approaches, and programming. CCC’s previous executive directors had distinguished themselves as specialists in Chinese fine arts and culture.

Chen appeared eager to move beyond the inherited history of the organization.

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Icons of Presence, postcard image, 2008, curated by Margo Machida

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

In 2007, Abby Chen, who had experience in international arts programming, joined CCC as its new program director and helped forge new directions for the organization. In the spring and summer of 2007, the CCC offered shows that broke from the familiar material it had presented in the past. “International Modern Brush Painting” featured Chinese and nonChinese artists who were exploring radical new ways to use the traditional ink and brush. CCC partnered with the Kearny Street Workshop to present “Present Tense: Artwork by Emerging Chinese American Artists,” that showcased challenging contemporary work by young artists who rarely had the opportunity to present their work to a viewing public in formal gallery settings. “Cheers to Muses” was another effort to extend the horizon of CCC beyond what had been presented to the Chinese community in the past. Eleven artists and writers from different Asian American backgrounds offered tributes to non-Asian inspirations for their work. Abby Chen herself curated “Nostalgia,” a show of photography and video installation that raised issues of longing and memory of a China homeland offered by artists in China and the U.S. In raising multiple and contradictory visions of “homeland,” the show challenged common notions of cultural authenticity and homogeneity.

The Good Life, at Present Tense Biennial 2009, installation view Charlene Tan, 2009

Seeking to develop a firmer financial basis, the CCC held its annual fundraiser, called Harmony and Bliss, for the first time at CCC itself. A catered, black-tie event, the organization hoped to cultivate relations beyond its established base in the local Chinese community. Concurrently, CCC tried to strengthen its ties with other Chinatown arts groups, such as the Chinatown Photographic Society, the Huayi Performing Group and the San Francisco GuZheng Music Society, even as it set out in new directions in programming and development.

Confirming new directions for CCC however was not easy. The capital campaign did not build as hoped and by the fall of 2007 executive director Sabina Chen publicly admitted that the work of CCC was “a hard job.” Going beyond the stereotype of Chinatown, she stated, beyond “dragons and kung pao chicken” and to present the complexity of Chinese culture to America “as it truly exists,” was difficult. After just two years in the position, Chen abruptly resigned.

Infinite Regress, at Present Tense Biennial 2009, Store-front installation, David & Michelle Yun, 2009

Present Tense Biennial: Chinese Character, poster, 2009 Launched in 2007, Present Tense strives to provide a platform for young and emerging artists in the Bay Area and beyond. The exhibition series features a different theme each time to foster dialogue and provide a survey on current issues.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Al Cheng, a longtime member of CCC and leader of its highly successful In Search of Roots program, which connected Chinese American youth with their home villages in the Guangzhou region, served as interim executive director until the appointment of Mabel Teng in early 2009. The appointment o f Te n g , w h o h a d t h r e e d e c a d e s o f experience in education, community activism, and city government, raised hopes that she would bring organizational maturity to CCC and expand its outreach to new audiences and financial supporters. Teng started her work just after the start of the “great 2008 recession,” which complicated fundraising and any ambitious thought about new costly programming and activity.

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CCC therefore took a multifaceted approach to its programming and carefully marshaled its resources. One of Teng’s major efforts was to strengthen the CCC’s connections with other Chinatown and San Francisco organizations in order to partner in programming and maximizing impact. It strengthened its core community arts efforts, such as expanding youth arts programs and In Search of Roots, and initiated a high profile annual music festival held in Portsmouth Square. CCC developed ties with arts agencies including the San Francisco Arts Commission, SF Grants for the Arts, the California Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. It expanded its heritage walking tours of Chinatown and other historical locations important in Chinese American history as revenue generators. Hundreds of families participated in study excursions to Napa, Locke, Monterey and other prominent locations in Chinese American history, organized by the Him Mark Lai Learning Center.

Participants at the inaugural Roots California Excursion to Monterey. Organized by the Him Mark Lai Learning Center, Roots California excursions are opportunities to explore Chinese history in California.

Francis Wong on saxophone with the Jon Jang Warriors at the Chinatown Music Festival. It takes place annually at Portsmouth Square.

The crowd dances to the music of Jest Jammin’ at the Chinatown Music Festival.

Concurrently, C C C presented inspired exhibitions in its gallery space that spoke to the burgeoning interest in contemporary art production among Chinese and others in America. In the 21st century, art had clearly and definitively broken out of its boundaries to embrace new venues of presentation beyond the fixed walls of museums and galleries, of new media (from digital to found objects), of new aesthetic sensibilities and objectives, and of new audiences, especially among young generations. This “new art” could be found close at hand in Chinatown to as far away as China, which itself was seeing a revolution in art production challenging assumptions about what constituted Chinese art and culture. Verily, the notion of art itself was being redefined under these new conditions. Teng herself declared a “Chinatown art renaissance.”

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Lure, installation view Beili Liu, Xian Rui 2008 Xian Rui (Fresharp) highlights the work of exceptional Chinese and Chinese American artists, whose work is unrecognized, or under appreciated, in the U.S. In keeping with the themes of ‘fresh’ and ‘sharp’, the series will focus on the artist’s new sitespecific works.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

One of the first manifestation of this new thinking at CCC was the show by then emerging artist Beili Liu, “Lure.” The show was the first large-scale installation in CCC’s history. Liu, inspired by idea of people linked by fate and invisibly connected, created beautiful creations to express ideas of transcendence, human connection, and the ephemeral, using the color red, the color suggesting destiny and richness in Chinese tradition. It was a show that presented familiar themes to Chinatown audiences in untraditional ways. (In 2015, the CCC invited again Liu to develop an art project for the bridge that linked the CCC’s physical space with Portsmouth Square. Scores of volunteers created art by constructing Liu’s “Sky Bridge,” where 50,000 mylar, shiny bricks covered the grey mundane surface of the everyday bridge and transformed it into a magical place for strolling above gritty Kearny Street.)

Dancing on Sky Bridge, 2015

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Artist Beili Liu, CCC staff, and volunteers installing Sky Bridge, 2015

Sky Bridge invitation card, 2015

Sky Bridge, bird's eye view, 2015

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

In the fall of 2009, CCC presented “Chromatic Constructions: Contemporary Fiber Art,” by Dora Hsiung and in the summer of 2010, CCC staged “Emblems of Ethereal Grace,” featuring the China-inspired jewelry of Pat Tseng. The CCC hoped the shows would appeal to new audiences and to new interests even as it continued to speak to its traditional base with shows such as the art of paper cutting of Hou Yumei and martial arts instruction.

The show that most firmly established the CCC as an outstanding venue of contemporary art was the spectacular presentation of “White Ink” by the transplanted Chinese artist Zheng Chongbin. The show presented fifteen works created specifically for CCC’s gallery space.

Video projections accompanied large-scale compositions that offered new possibilities for Chinese ink painting and subject matter. It was a deliberate effort to offer a contemporary interpretation of Chinese arts and, in the words of curator Abby Chen, its aim was to put “ink in conversation with abstract expression to brew something new.” It was an expression of “celestial chaos.” The show, Chen believed, provided “new possibilities of thinking about not just Chinese culture, but culture at large.”

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The opening of the show provided further evidence of this new way of thinking about art and the purpose of CCC itself. Composer and saxophone performer Francis Wong, presented a special composition, “Sumie Sounds,” that paid “homage to art illustrated as music,” invoking Japanese sumie ink painting as inspiration. Wong linked Zheng’s abstraction on canvass with improvisation in jazz music.

Proceeds from the evening event went to benefit the “Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund.”

New Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting, at White Ink, video installation Zheng Chongbin, Xian Rui 2011 Zheng Chongbin, the Xian Rui artist of 2011, made his first institutional solo exhibition at Chinese Culture Center.

Following this successful launch, his work was later collected by major museums around the world.

Four definitions 002, ink on paper Zheng Chongbin, 2012 21

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Cocooning - Self Combing Woman, at WOMEN 我們 , video installation, performance Manyee Lam, 2012

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WOMEN 我們 (a Mandarin homophone meaning both ‘WOMEN’ and ‘we’) is an exhibition inaugurated in Shanghai in 2011, then traveled to San Francisco in 2012, and subsequently to Miami in 2013. The exhibition features video works, installation art, photography, sculpture, and more by a diverse array of artists, addressing issues of gender, queer equality, and sexual freedom.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Th e Z h e n g s h o w, w h i ch g a r n e r e d international attention and tribute, epitomized the CCC’s initiative called “Xianrui” (Fresharp), an effort to present vibrant and creative contemporary art of international significance coming out of, and in many ways breaking with, Chinese tradition. The CCC followed Zheng’s show with other efforts that explored the new possibilities of art production. Adrian Wong’s “Orange Peel, Harbor Seal, Hyperreal,” explored parallels between contemporary architecture and design in San Francisco Chinatown and that of 1970 Hong Kong. In the fall of 2012, CCC held the provocative show “WOMEN 我 們 ,” the title a play on the English language word and the romanized word in Mandarin Chinese meaning “us.” Organized in Shanghai, the show, again curated by Abby Chen, presented the work of a score of primarily female artists, Chinese and others, that offered intentionally shocking and provocative statements about gender, sexuality, and social place in China and in the contemporary world. Using photography, video, installation, graphic arts, as well as painting the exhibit confronted viewers with statements about homosexuality, nudity, gender roles, the sexual body, and social conventions. The high-profile show continued the explorations initiated by the Stella Zhang in her 2010 exhibition, “O Viewpoint.” These shows were a far cry from what the original founders of CCC probably had in their minds about what constituted “art” and Chinese culture.

Moth, made for WOMEN 我們 , video installation Muxi, 2012

0-Viewpoint, installation view, Stella Zhang, San Francisco Fine Art Fair, Fort Mason, 2015 24

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

CCC presented other shows that continued to break from the conventional. “Moment for Ink,” in which CCC collaborated with three other northern California arts institutions, offered work by fifty artists of different ancestry, past and present, who used brush and ink for expression. The show aimed to display the wide variety of technique and continuing possibilities for expression of a long established medium. The show traveled to the renowned Zhejiang Art Museum in Hangzhou after its run in the Bay Area.

Exhibitions of pioneering artists and Bay Area residents Fong Chung-ray and Summer Mei-Ling Lee continued the CCC’s foray into contemporary arts programming. The Fong show presented the epitome of the life work of Fong, an artist working within and without traditional Chinese painting. The work he presented was highly literate and calligraphic, colorful, non-representation but not fully abstract and clearly inspired by his Chinese identity, whereas Lee’s work, presented as “Into the Nearness of Distance,” used new ways of making art to explore notions of family connection, life, and being. Lee herself was inspired by Chinese texts and thinking. A third artist, Lam TungPang, who worked on the international stage, offered installations that presented representations of his personal living spaces to offer statements and observations about the individual and society entwined in a bewildering modern world.

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Between Modern and Contemporary, installation view Fong Chung-ray, 2014 Born in Henan Province in 1934 and immigrating to the United States in 1975, settling in the San Francisco Bay area, Fong Chung-ray is considered a pioneer in contemporary Chinese abstract painting.

In presenting innovative artists, the exhibition at the Chinese Culture Center marks Fong Chung-ray’s first institutional solo exhibition in the United States.

11-8, acrylic on canvas Fong Chung-ray, 2011

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Into the Nearness of Distance, installation view Summer Mei Ling Lee, Xian Rui 2014 Into the Nearness of Distance is an immersive video installation by artist Summer Mei Ling Lee in collaboration with Karen Leslie Ficke and Adam Hathaway. Another part of this work was extended to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA), as part of its exhibition Bay Area Now 7 in 2014.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Among the CCC’s most successful recent initiatives is its promotion of art in the street that encourages and supports artists using the physical spaces of the community, such as alley ways, walls of building, streets, and the subway stop for Chinatown as locations for art. With “Without Walls,” as the initiative is called, CCC is making a loud and clear statement that art cannot and should not be contained within fixed spaces removed, as it were, from the vitality and humanity of everyday life in the community. To try to do so would be to not just stifle art but would miss the wonderful opportunities that contemporary art presents with its expanded visions and practices of art and culture.

CCC has also seized the digital moment by establishing a highly successful online gallery of visual art that makes it possible for the work of many artists to be viewed beyond the limitations of fixed spaces. The site, which continues, has attracted tens of thousands of views.

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SF Chinatown Keywords School, 2014. Lead artist Xu Tan invites fellow artist Angel Chan for a social experiment and participatory art-making activity on the voting system.

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Ke y w o r d s M u r a l u n v e i l i n g celebration, 2014

SF Chinatown Keywords School featured in San Francisco Chronicle July, 9, 2014

Keywords Mural, made for SF Chinatown Keywords School project Justin Hoover and youth participants, 2014 31

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Through these sometimes daring and pioneering work, CCC also nurtured its commitment to established approaches to community arts and service. It honored the great historian of Chinese America, Him Mark Lai, with founding a learning center in his name. The Center emerged in just a few years as a hub for learning about Chinese American history. In CCC organized tours of the community, thousands of young students learned about Chinatown and the contributions of Chinese Americans to multicultural democracy presented during the “Chinatown Democracy Walk.” It honored the pioneering journalist Maurice Chuck, who devoted his life to writing courageously about Chinatown life, culture, and politics, and Dr. Rolland Lowe, one of the most generous and visionary supporters of the organization since its beginning. Even as it cultivated relations with important benefactors and friends such as Senator Dianne Feinstein, venture capitalists, bankers, and established foundations, such as the San Francisco Foundation, the Warhol Foundation, and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the CCC has been faithful to its continuing commitment to “building a strong community” as it seeks, in its Mission Statement, to “spark intercultural discover y through art, education and engagement.” In fact, CCC believes it has elevated its community activism through its partnership with the Chinatown Community Development Center, Chinese Progressive Association, and other groups dedicated to social, labor, and political advancement. Art and the efforts to advance social justice and community go hand in hand.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Opening celebration of the Him Mark Lai Learning Center on June 22, 2013.

L-R: Assemblyman David Chiu, Supervisor Eric Mar, Helen Y.H. Hui, Laura Lai, Dr. Rolland and Kathryn Lowe, Supervisor Norman Yee, and Mabel Teng.

Children learn about art and history with Artistic Director, Abby Chen.

Youth are engaged in the Chinatown Democracy Walk with Education Director, Darin Ow-wing.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

Keywords Mural made for SF Chinatown Keywords School project Justin Hoover and youth participants, 2014

Inspired by the famous story of “Borrowing Arrows with Boats” in the Chinese classical novel “the Three Kingdoms”, students’ keywords follow the trajectory of the arrows, and turn into roses flowing to the boat, a resemblance of the Asian fishing junk. This is the idea of sharing findings, with reference to “ 贈人玫瑰，手有餘香 The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.” (Hada Bejar, 1640-1689 British Playwright Poet). An archive of this project published in “41 Ross Dictionary” from San Francisco Chinatown Keywords School. For the first time, organizations, artists, youth, property owners, merchants came together for culture production. This was the start of CCF and CCDC's joint vision of turning Chinatown into an open art and cultural museum without walls.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / History

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Board of Directors

Chinese Culture Foundation The mission of the Chinese Culture Foundation is to spark intercultural discovery through art, education and engagement.

2015 Board of Directors Share Their Insights “The Chinese Culture Center continues to lead the efforts to empower and educate our youth by working alongside our community artists and other wonderful organizations. Our youth initiative serves as a powerful place for them to grow and develop their understanding of Chinese history through great programs such as the Visual Art Center and the Chinatown Democracy Walk. Of course, we couldn’t have done it without the generous support from our members.”

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-Gin Y. Ho, CO-chair 何宜君

s the CCC enters its sixth decade, it remains a vibrant, energetic, and bold community-based organization that engages multiple audiences. It seeks to serve, as well as to enlighten audiences, understanding its responsibility to empower vital cultural and social identities in defining what Chinese art and culture mean in a rapidly changing world.

“Art and Culture have no limits and we must dream big and become a global leader linking art and culture together.”

-Minna Tao, CO-chair 陶明娜 “When light passes through CCF, it beams out millions of colorful rays that spark intercultural discovery through the arts, education, and engagement with the community.”

-Sherman Tang, President 鄧灼照

The End

“Culture embraces many aspects of our lives. The Chinese Culture Foundation (CCF) has continued to evolve to bestow and compare our heritage in traditional, contemporary and intercultural forms. CCF offers exciting activities that reach into our communities and touch people of all ages. And I am honored and thrilled to be part of these innovative experiences.”

-Shannon Yip, Executive Vice President 葉新苗 “It is an exciting time to be part of the Chinese Culture Foundation. Since its inception, the Foundation has grown and evolved. With the opening of the Him Mark Lai Learning Center, a new chapter for the Chinese Culture Foundation begins. The Chinese Culture Center will be the place where people of all ages, young and old, come together to learn, view, communicate and experience culture, art and history.”

-Esther Li, Treasurer 蔡美萍

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Board of Directors

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Board of Directors

“My lifelong passion has been to teach children about the rich culture and traditions of our Chinese ancestry. I am proud to be a Director of an organization that promotes our culture and the arts in a very forward movement. The Center is always on the move and we, as board members, feel empowered to help and move with this vibrant energy.”

-Susan C. Tom, Secretary 譚陳素雨 “As a kid, I learned Kung Fu and Chinese Painting at the CCC. It instilled in me an appreciation for the rich cultural heritage that I was born into, and I am privileged to support the foundation’s important work as an adult!”

-Ben Choi, Vice President 蔡頌明 “I value the steady expansion of the variety of the Center’s programs to engage the diverse people of the city through innovative and traditional programs. The future holds a great deal of promise for the Center.”

-Dennis A. Lee, Esq Vice President 李耀華 “The steady expansion of the diversity of the Center’s programs to engage the diverse people of the city through innovative and traditional programs. The future holds a great deal of promise for the Center.”

“It is very important to preserve our history, our heritage and our culture. I am proud to be a part of the fine work being done at the Center.”

-Wai-ling Eng 伍慧玲 "I am grateful to be part of a great organization in which arts and cultural diversity are conduits for bringing people together and appreciate each other."

-George Mak 麥潤華 “I am proud to be part of the CCC family and I look forward to along, rewarding and fun association. I am amazed by its diverse,rich, and deep offerings and programs.Just like the Chinese American community as a whole. CCC has far to go.”

-Cecilia Sze 施黃式嘉 “The Foundation has undergone many transformations in its 50 years of history. One thing remains constant - the generous giving of time and resources from our donors and volunteers.

Without them, we would not be here today to celebrate this milestone so Thank You!” -Clare Lee 李屈詠文

-Tom Klitgaard, Esq Vice President 䈓勵鋼 “It is not the end of an era, rather it is the beginning of one.”

-Warren Seeto, Vice President 司徒衛國 “My vision for the next 50 years for CCC is that it will survive and THRIVE. Hopefully, it will become “indispensable” in the view of all Americans when thinking of Chinese America.”

-Helen Y. H. Hui, Esq 許婉馨 “CCC is such an amazing place. As a first generation Asian American, it’s a place where I can learn about my past but also look forward to the future.”

-Ryan Lee 李俊傑 “CCC offers some of the best educational and cultural programming in the city. I’m proud that the Foundation has created a new narrative of Chinese in America.”

-Garry K. Wong 黃光耀

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L-R: Mabel Teng, Shannon Yip, Clare Lee, Ryan Lee, Helen Y.H. Hui, Minna Tao, Warren Seeto, Sherman Tang, Wai-Ling Eng, Ben Choi, Susan Tom, George Mak, Esther Li, Tom Klitgaard, Gin Y. Ho. 39

Chinese Culture Foundation

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / CCF Staff

STAFF

Mabel S. Teng, Executive Director

Abby Chen, Artistic Director & Curator

Mabel Teng has been the Executive Director of the Chinese Culture Foundation since 2009.

As San Francisco’s first Asian American female Supervisor and Assessor-Recorder, she brings over three decades of public policy, advocacy, and nonprofit experience to the arts.

Abby Chen is the Curator and Artistic Director at the Chinese Culture Foundation of San Francisco. She initiated the Xian Rui/Fresharp Artist Excellence Series since 2008, the first of its kind in the country supporting mid-career artists of Chinese descent.

In 2009, she launched Present Tense Biennial. In 2010, she organized Gender Identity Symposium, a multi-city forum in Guangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai, followed by the 2011 exhibition WOMEN 我 們 (Shanghai, San Francisco, and Miami). Her most recent project is the social practice based experiment in San Francisco neighborhood with Keywords School and Social Botany, led by artist Xu Tan with support from San Francisco Art Commission and National Endowment for the Arts.

​ eng has led multiple creative placemaking T initiatives in San Francisco Chinatown. Under the banner of "Without Walls", Teng has realized significant projects that have made several locations in this historic neighborhood key sites to engage in excellent art that carries a vision for a healthy, vibrant, and conscious world. Among these projects are the Music Festival in Portsmouth Square, the Arts in Storefronts project in Wentworth Alley, Dancing on Waverley in Waverly Place.​ The most important thread in these activities is to engage the community through a broad range of strategies that promotes activism.

Under Teng’s leadership, the Foundation has gained national and international recognition as the community anchor to spark intercultural discovery. This past year, the Foundation broke new ground by reaching 250,000 people, changing minds, and touching lives of new Californians. Perhaps the most important thread throughout all of these activities is the ability to involve the community at deeper levels through a broad range of strategies that promote activism and engagement.

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Her other curatorial ventures include Moment For Ink, challenging nationalism and sexism in traditional Chinese Painting. The exhibition opened in various sites including Asian Art Museum, San Francisco State University, and traveled to Zhejiang Art Museum in China. She has curated and had loaned her exhibition to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Museum of Chinese in America in New York. Beginning in 2009, she also led and managed San Francisco Public Art Initiative of Artsin-Storefront and Central Subway Temporary Public Art for Stockton Station, as well as Culture Mapping, to investigate arts in immigrant neighborhood and advocate for city funding on underserved communities.

In 2012, Abby Chen was Summer Scholar from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She graduated with an MA in Visual and Critical Studies from California College of the Arts.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / CCF Staff

Xavier W. Tsang, Development Director

Francis Wong, Special Project Consultant

Xavier Tsang serves as the Foundation’s Development Director. He is responsible for the overall development of corporate partnerships, donor cultivation in addition to overseeing grant compliance. Xavier brings more than a decade of experience in management from the finance sector and has served in various managerial roles at multiple Fortune 500 companies.

Francis Wong shares decades of art resources development skills as the Foundation’s Special Projects Consultant. Francis has a AB in Economics from Stanford University and has received national recognition for his work with awards from Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Xavier completed an executive education in leadership at Harvard Business school, and previously obtained his bachelor's degree in management and professional study in financial management from Cornell University and Golden Gate University.

Jenny Leung, Director of Communication Jenny Leung is the Director of Communication, where she is responsible for the management of all of CCC’s internal and external communications, as well as branding efforts. She plays a key role in transforming the Visual Art Center into a contemporary space. Jenny brings a passion for the arts, community building, and impactful storytelling. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with her MA in Asian Studies.

Darin Ow-wing, Director of Education & Engagement Darin Ow-Wing has 30 years of experience in youth development, education, and nonprofit administration.

As Education & Engagement Director, he leads the Him Mark Lai Learning Center. In its first 2 years, the Center has introduced a contemporary understanding of the Chinese American experience to over 10,000 students in grades 4-12, and over 1,200 college students and adults.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / CCF Staff

Art Team

Education Team

Jing Wang Maria Wang Xiaoxiao Zeng Kai Lin Carlson Swing Zhou

Daisy Deng Christy Xu Janet Chan

Tony Cheng, Grants Manager Tony Cheng is Grants and Development Manager of the Chinese Culture Foundation and is responsible for all aspects of grant process: research, compliance and management. Tony holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from Northwestern, an MBA from INSEAD in France, and master's degree in International Policies Studies from Stanford University.

Lydia Han, Communications & Development Associate Lydia Han plans and executes all communication and marketing strategies and activities for the CCF. She introduced "Keep Exploring" to invigorate and showcase the forward momentum of the organization. She brings years of branding and messaging experience to the team. Previously, she worked at Cartier and MercedesBenz China headquarter offices.

Justin P. McDonnell, Executive Assistant As Executive Assistant. Justin works closely with the Executive Director and Board of Directors to increase the impact of the organization’s mission. Justin holds a dual bachelor’s degree at Goucher College in Spanish and Communication. Before CCC, Justin worked at the intersection of media and advocacy in New York and China.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Support

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Support

Corporate Support

C

orporate Support Philanthropic Support Government and Public Grants Major Donors 2013-2015

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Adobe Foundation

HSBC Bank USA N.A.

AHK International

KPMG LLP

Airbnb

Kwok Shing Hong LLC

Apex Components Inc.

Lincoln Property Company Gemdale

Arnold & Porter LLP

Lui & Associates, Inc.

Bank of America

McDonald's

Bank of the Orient

Morrison & Foerster

Bay Area Medical Services

Plentea Inc.

Bay Area Metro Radio

Portsmouth Plaza Parking Corporation

Charles Schwab Foundation

Realty World Advanced Group

CTBC Bank Corp. (USA)

Recology

DAE Advertising, Inc.

Reuben, Junius & Rose, LLP

Deloitte

Roller Coaster Road Productions LLC

Double Tree Hotel

Schwab Charitable Fund

East West Bank

SGDM, LLC

Ellision Enterprises Corp.

Today’s Hotel Corporation

First Republic Bank

U.S. Enterprise Corporation

Galerie du Monde Ltd.

Vincent Trading Co

Hall, Yee & Associates

Wells Fargo Foundation

Heller Manus Architects

WI Harper Group

Hilton Hotel Financial District

Wu Hoover & Co.

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Support

C -CUBED

Philanthropic Support

Friends of Chinese Culture Center: Major Donors

Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Bloomberg Philanthropies CCI Quick Grant Center for Cultural Innovation

Three years ago, the Chinese Culture Foundation established C-Cubed, Friends of the Chinese Culture Center. C-Cubed includes current and past board members, as well as artists and art collectors, and others who make an annual major gift. With their leadership, the artistic vision of Foundation in showcasing innovative artists and daring work becomes a reality. We would like to acknowledge their dedication in the arts.

Creative Work Fund Gee Family Foundation Hop Wo Benevolent Association James Irvine Foundation Lowe Family Trust Foundation Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation Robert J. Louie Memorial Fund

For those who are passionate about contemporary art and believe in the affirmation that art inspires change and action, we invite you to become part of this family and make an impact.

Rose T.Y. Chen Charitable Fund San Francisco Chinatown Lion's Club San Francisco Foundation

To inquire further, please contact Xavier Tsang, Development Director at xavier@c-c-c.org 415. 986. 1822

SF Symphony The Seeto Family Tom Do Hing Foundation Walter & Elise Haas Fund

Government and Public Grants

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Zellerbach Family Foundation

California Arts Council SF Community Challenge Grant SF Grants for the Arts Hong Kong Economic & Trade Office Institute of Museum and Library Services National Endowment for the Arts San Francisco Arts Commission SF Municipal Transportation Agency SF Neighborhood Arts Collaborative San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development Mei Lam and Tatwina Lee of C-Cubed

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Support

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Support

Acknowledge the Generous Support of C-Cubed 2013-2015 C-Cubed are major donors who contribute $1,000-$10,000 on an annual basis.

Betty Chang Abby Chen & Steve Liang Ben & Lydia Choi Eugene Y.C. & Anita Choi Julie Chu Maury Edelstein Wai-Ling Eng Fong Chung-ray Gin Y. Ho Roderick Hong Helen Y.H. Hui & Gordon Lew Tom & Patricia Klitgaard Katherine Lam Mei & Peter Lam Kenny & Suey Ling Lau Clare & Chris Lee Dennis & Anna Lee Dr. Richard & Tatwina Lee Emory & Ayleen Lee Robert E. Lee Ryan & Terri Lee Tzu-Chen & Benny Lee Esther & Calvin Li Dr. Rolland & Kathyrn Lowe George Mak Tom & Bobbie McChristy Jonas & Christina Miller

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Maggie Mui Supervisor Norman & Catherine Yee Carol P. Peckham Collin & Betty Quock Daniel & Irene Yee Riley Warren Seeto Blossom F. Strong Lucy Sun Cecilia Sze Sherman & Philomena Tang Minna Tao & Cynthia Blackford Mabel S. Teng & Lawrence Ngan Erick & Susan Tom Xavier Tsang & Rodolphe Herbrich Pat Tseng Ling-Chi & Linda Wang Cai Weijie Garry K. Wong Pausang Wong Peggy & Edwin Wong Vicky Wong Dennis Wu Ronald & Lillian Wu Barbara & Jackie Yee Shannon Yip Zheng Chongbin

“I am tremendously impressed at the direction of the Foundation and the work being exhibited.�

- the late Michael Sullivan, preeminent Chinese art scholar Collaborating Curators

Global Art Council

Terese Tse Bartholomew

Hou Hanru

Kevin Chen

Mami Kataoka

Glen Helfand

Pi Li

Mark D. Johnson Manni Liu Margo Machida Ellen Oh Alpesh Kantilal Patel Pi Daojian Kuiyi Shen Heather Snider Matthew Tedford

Art Advisory Board Terese Tse Bartholomew Tatwina Chinn Lee Manni Liu Gang Situ Pat Tseng

Him Mark Lai Learning Center Established by the generous contribution of Laura Lai Dr. Rolland & Dr. Kathryn Lowe Dr. Richard & Tatwina Lee

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Exhibitions

E

xhibitions

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Exhibitions

2005 February 8 – April 30: “Celebrating Spring”, the Chinese Folk Art Way. August 26 – March 25: “Rustic Splendors”, Kiln treasures from Shiwan.

2000

2006

January 29 – April 23: “San Francisco’s Old Chinatown”, photographs by Arnold Genthe.

February 11 – March 18: “In Search of Roots”

May 13 – July 2: “Dreams of San Francisco”, paintings by Zhao Zhunwang.

April 25 – September 9: “Duk Duk Chaang: The Clamor and Glamour of Chinese Opera”.

July 15 – October 8: “Small Wonders”, snuff bottles from Bay Area collectors.

October 7 – November 25: “Breaking the Mold”, ceramic art by Dottie Low.

October 22 – February 18: “Bruce Lee: A Retrospective”

December 9 – February 17: “International Modern Brush Painting”

2001

2007

March 3 – April 30: “Dong Kingman: An American Master” by Dong Kingman.

March 2 – May 19: “Present Tense & In Search Of Roots”, work of young emerging Chinese

May 8 – July 7: “made in usa: Angel Island Shhh”, mixed-media installation of Angel Island Immigration

American artists.

Station by Flo Oy Wong.

June 1 – August 25: “Cheers to Muses”, contemporary works by Asian American women.

July 25 – October 7: “Marvel and Reflection”, prints by Liao Shiou-Ping.

September 7 – January 4: “Nostalgia”, photography, video, and installation.

October 26 – February 24: “Room within a Room” 2008 2002

January 18 – March 15: “In search of Roots & Gateway to Gold Mountain”

February 8 – April 21: “The 108 Heroes of Shui Hu Zhuan Exhibit”

May 9 – July 5: "Xian Rui 2008: Lure/ 惑 ", installation art by Beili Liu

March 15 – April 7: “A Glance at Taiwan”

July 22 – October 11: “Chinese Puzzles”, traditional chinese puzzles from the Yi Zhi Tang Collection

April 26 – June 12: “Magic of the Brush”, paintings by Catherine Yi-Yu Cho Woo.

October 23 – January 3: “Icons of Presence”

May 18 – August 10: “China And Beyond: Artistic Influences Into and Out of China” June 20 – August 10: “Radiance of Life”, paintings by Chu Ko.

2009

August 16 – August 24: “GOT ART?”

May 2 – August 23: “Present Tense Biennial”

August 23 – October 13: “Infinite Harmony”, watercolors by Chen Yang-chun.

September 12 – January 10: “Xian Rui 2009: Chromatic Construction - Dora Hsiung”

November 21 – February 18: “Chang Dai-Chen”, paintings by Chang Dai-Chen.

2010 2003

January 30 – March 28: “Celebrate the Year of the Tiger with Kan Kwok Fan”

March 1 – May 24: “Chinese Fauve”, paintings by Lin Feng-Mien.

April 23 – September 5: "Xian Rui 2010: 0-Viewpoint", by Stella Zhang.

June 5 – August 30: “Raymond Hu Brush Painting Exhibit”

September 25 – January 11: “Emblems of Ethereal Grace”, by Pat Tseng.

September 23 – December 13: “Calling for the Ancients”, painting, poetry and calligraphy by Lo Ch’ing.

2011

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2004

February 27 – June 13: "Daily Lives: the CCC is Present at YBCA." Collaboration with Yerba Buena

January 30 – June 5: “Shanghai Meinu Yuefenpai”

Center for the Arts, on exhibit in the Room for Big Ideas, and Discarded Spaces, a storefront public

June 11 – July 17: “Chinatown Revisited”, photographs by Maurice Edelstein.

art initiative.

July 30 – November 27: “Purple Sand, Fragrant Tea”, contemporary Yixing wares by artists from China.

May 19 – July 30: “Xian Rui 2011: White Ink” by Zheng Chongbin.

December 17 – January 22: "Ancient Threads, Newly Woven”, recent Art from China’s Silk Road.

Dec 16 – Jan 10 (Shanghai): “WOMEN 我們 ”

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The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Exhibitions

The history of Chinese Culture Center in 21st century / Publications

2012 March 15 – April 5: “On the Edge of Culture”, by Carol Koffel, with Stella Zhang, Jiang Xueman, Liang Liting, and Liu Yin. May 12 – August 25: “Xian Rui 2012: Orange Peel, Harbor Seal, Hyperreal” by Adrian Wong.

September 15 – December 15 (San Francisco): “WOMEN 我們 ”

Publications (Partial list)

2013: January 13 – February 2: “Images from Chinatown: Four decades of Photographs” by Maurice H.

The Curiosity Box

February 23 – May 18: “The Moment for Ink: Shaking off tradition”

WOMEN 我們

Edelstein.

WOMEN OMEN 我們 Visibility

November 15 – December 20 (Miami): “WOMEN 我們 on the Go” 2014

Lam Tung-pang

June 13 – December 21: “The Curiosity Box” by Lam Tung-pang.

Authority

WOMEN 我們

Possibility

Wu Guanzhong

February 15 – May 31: “Between Modern and Contemporary” by Fong Chung-ray.

The Curiosity Box

Lam Tung-pang

The Curiosity Box (Lam Tung Pang)

Present Tense Biennial 2009

White Ink (Zheng Chongbin)

0-Viewpoint (Stella Zhang)

July 11 – December 20: “Xian Rui 2014: Into the Nearness of Distance” by Summer Mei Ling Lee. 2015 March 7 – April 11: “Mind Traveling” by Lu Chuntao.

June 13 – September 19: “Present Tense 現在時 -Future Perfect”, by J Kung Dreyfus ,Tanja Geis, Chiyomi McKibbin, Minji Sohn, Haisu Tian, Jingwei Qiu. Fong Chung-ray:

August 1: “Sky Bridge” by Beili Liu.

Between Modern & Contemporary

馮鍾睿：現代與當代之間

41 Ross Alley Dictionary

Lure/惑 (Beili Liu)

Between Modern & Contemporary Fong Chung-ray

Chromatic Constructions (Dora Hsiung)

Emblems of Ethereal Grace (Pat Tseng)

The Moment for Ink

Now available on Amazon Inquiries?

Contact Jenny Leung, jenny@c-c-c.org.

Chinese Puzzles

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415. 986. 1822 53

750 KEAR NY STR E ET, 3R D FLOOR SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94108 415. 986. 1822 / WWW.C-C-C.ORG