Spring Festival Celebrates the Year of the Hare
February 27 & 28, 1999, Saturday & Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.

      Celebrate the Year of the Hare, 4697, at the Chinese Culture Center. In the Center lobby, an enormous silk dragon will welcome you to join the festivities, including: Food: Sink your teeth into savory New Year dumplings and pastries. Our experts will show you how to make them right.  Crafts: Skilled craftsmen will demonstrate the art of making such things as paper fans and lanterns, clay whistles, and woven straw animals. 
Performances: In the auditorium, Bay Area artists will perform lively Chinese folk dances, traditional music, martial arts, acrobatics, and magic. Seeing Double…Lions, That Is!: And…when the clock strikes noon on Saturday and Sunday, over the Portsmouth Square Bridge will come two 
fierce, dancing lions: the traditional New Year Double Lion Dance! The Chinese Spring Festival is sponsored by the Chinese Culture Foundation and is partially funded by Grants for the Arts of the San Francisco Hotel Tax Fund. Admission free.

Genealogy Exhibit In Search of Roots 
February 6 - March 21, Tuesday - Sunday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

      You'll find in the community room an exhibit of the ancestral and family photographs, personal narratives, immigration documents, and genealogy trees of our 1998 In Search of Roots interns. Admission free. 

Painting Exhibition 
Urban Yearnings: Portraits of Contemporary China
by Liu Qinghe, Su Xinping, and Zhang Yajie
February 13 - March 28, Tuesday - Sunday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

     Oil paintings, ink-and-brush portraits, prints, and lithographs capture the yearnings of present-day Chinese and the psychic mode of contemporary China. Liu Qinghe, born in Tianjin City, received a Masters Degree in Chinese Painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) in Beijing, and in 1992 completed a residency at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid, Spain. Su Xinping, born in Inner Mongolia, graduated from the Tianjin Institute of Fine Arts, received a Masters Degree in Printmaking from CAFA, and is currently Deputy Head of the Printmaking Department at CAFA. Zhang Yajie, a Beijing native, graduated from the CAFA Printmaking Department, and teaches photography and art history at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute.Admission free. 

New Year Walks
Saturdays, January 30, February 6, 13, 20, 27, 2 p.m.

      One of the best introductions to Chinese New Year is to take a guided stroll through the noisy, bustling streets of Chinatown. During the holiday season, shops show off special window displays and decorations. 
Many stores put up spring couplets, which are short poems written on red paper, auguring good business for the coming year. The color red, symbolizing happiness, is seen everywhere, especially in displays of lai see, small red envelopes containing money given to children as Chinese New Year presents. Flowers are an important part of the New Year decorations, and the main streets of Chinatown are bedecked with vendors selling plum blossoms, narcissus, and other blooms associated with the New Year. $20 per adult, $8 per child under 12. Call 415-986-1822 for reservations. 

Lecture
"Chinese New Year: Celebration and Tradition" by Gordon Lew
Saturday, February 6, 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Gordon Lew is former Professor of Chinese Language and Culture at San 
Francisco City College and whilom publisher of East/West. 
Admission is free to Center members; 
Non-members $5.