When: October 3, 2008 (Friday, 6:00 pm)
Where: Chinese Culture Center, 750 Kearny St, 3rd Floor, San Francisco
Admission: $5 public, $3 member
C4 is happy to present “Morning Sun” 八九点钟的太阳 (2003) in English.

“Gripping, relentlessly tragic retelling of life in revolutionary times.” – Hua Hsu, Village Voice

Morning Sun attempts to create an inner history of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (c.1964-1976). It provides a multi-perspective view of a tumultuous period as seen through the eyes – and reflected in the hearts and minds – of members of the high-school generation that was born around the time of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 Read More »

By Alyssa Phillips
Contra Costa Times & Oakland Tribune
Article Launched: 09/11/2008 07:13:39 AM PDT

The Chinese language does not have a word for “puzzle.” The characters for “enhancing,” “intelligence,” and “games” must be fitted together in a specific order to create a close translation.

That irony is not lost on Berkeley puzzle enthusiasts Wei Zhang and Peter Rasmussen, a married couple who have spent the last 12 years traveling the globe collecting antique Chinese puzzles and their oral histories.

For the first time, the public can view pieces from their Yi Zhi Tang (means “art and intelligence”) collection in an exhibit titled “Chinese Puzzles: Games for the Hands and Mind” at the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco through Oct. 11.

Growing up in the Xinjiang Province in China, Zhang first became fascinated with puzzles as a child when she saw someone playing with a nine linked rings contraption. Zhang was so captivated that she went home and created her own, using items she found around the house. Read More »

C4: Chinese Culture Center Cinema

More information to come.

Date: 9/20/08
Time: 1 – 3pm
Location: CCC Gallery
750 Kearny St, 3rd Fl.
San Francisco, CA 94108
Admission: Free

Chinese – 中文網頁

In conjunction with its Chinese Puzzles Exhibition, the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco will be organizing a special event celebrating the publication of “Chinese Puzzles: Games for the Hands and Mind”.

Photographer Niana Liu and authors Wei Zhang and Peter Rasmussen will be on hand to sign copies of the book and to lead visitors on gallery tours.

Part exhibition catalog and part photographic exploration, this beautiful book uses as its subject matter the traditional Chinese puzzles on display in the Chinese Culture Center’s current exhibition. However the forms, textures and colors of the antique puzzles are given new life through the eyes and lens of San Francisco-based painter-photographer-designer Niana Liu.

“Chinese Puzzles: Games for the Hands and Mind” was written by Bay Area residents Wei Zhang and Peter Rasmussen, who collected the puzzles during twelve years of travels crisscrossing China and exploring Western antique markets. This book is the first to document the rapidly disappearing forms of handcrafted Chinese puzzles.

Niana Liu photographed the puzzles using natural light, resulting in the book’s distinctly non-catalog appearance. Niana’s youth and spirit convey the same playfulness to the reader that is such an integral component of puzzle solving.

Visitors are encouraged to come as early 10:00 am to enjoy the Chinese Culture Center’s free exhibition, Chinese Puzzles: Games for the Hands and Mind, which runs until October 11.