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 »