2008 is the Year of the Rat! With his parents’ blessing, the baby rat Ralph investigates the village with his new friend, the boy Bing. But being accepted isn’t as easy as Ralph would like, especially since some of his hereditary habits are hard to break. But when things go awry at Bing’s birthday party, how can Ralph help if he’s locked in the barn? Surely this rodent has some tricks up his sleeve to save the day!

Admission: $5 for non-CCC member. Free for CCC member
票價：非中華文化中心會員五元. 中華文化中心會員免費

Purchase ticket online now!現在就上網買票！ Read More »

Images of America Book Signing will be held on Jan. 19 at 1:00pm at the Chinese Culture Center, 750 Kearny Street, San Francisco, CA 94108.

Images of America簽書會將於1月19日下午1點文化中心3樓舉行 (舊金山,堅尼街750號,希爾頓酒店三樓)

Images of America: CHINESE IN SAN JOSE AND THE SANTA CLARA VALLEY has just been released to the public and we are happy to report that over 400 Chinese Americans play a very important part of the book. We have tried to show notable people, clubs (like Stanford and Chi Am Circle) , Chinese owned businesses, and the Chinese leaders of the present all the way back to mid 1800’s. Many historic pictures are shown in the 200 pictures of the book. Read More »

A Panel Discussion with Albert Cheng, Nicole Mones, Alex Ong and Martin Yan; moderated by Olivia Wu

Co-sponsored by the Asia Society and the Chinese Culture Center
Wednesday, January 23, 6:00 pm | Chinese Culture Center

View writing’s by “Cooking with Amy” about this event.

KQED’s food blog about this event and some of the dishes mentioned at the discussion.

出席人員: 鄭國和, Nicole Mones, Alex Ong,甄文達 論壇主持人:Olivia Wu
本活動由亞洲協會和中華文化中心聯合贊助 論壇活動將於1月23日星期三下午6點文化中心3樓舉行

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CENTRAL SUBWAY PUBLIC ART PROGRAM

COMMUNITY MEETING

Time: WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2007 at 6:30 PM
Location: Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco
750 Kearny Street, 3M

Co-sponsored by the Chinese Culture Center and the Chinatown Community Development Center.

PLEASE JOIN US!
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追尋移民創業路，展現各代代表作: 《華人的美國夢》一書出版, 主編林澗教授舉辦發布會
Book Launch: China Men’s American Dream (will be conducted in Chinese)
Location: Chinese Culture Center 3rd Floor
Date/Time: Dec. 15 at 1pm to 3pm
12月15日下午在舊金山“中華文化中心”舉行
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Book Reading & Discussion with Author Ruthanne Lum McCunn

Acclaimed author and San Francisco Chinatown native Ruthanne Lum McCunn will read from her newest historical novel God of Luck on Wednesday, November 14, 2007 from 7-9 pm at the I-Hotel Manilatown Center.

The event is co-presented by Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Chinese Culture Center, Chinese Historical Society of America, Kearny Street Workshop, and Asian American Women Artists Association.

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Chinese Culture Center, the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA), and University of Washington Press will be hosting a book party to celebrate the publication of The Adventures of Eddie Fung: Chinatown Kid, Texas Cow-boy, Prisoner of War, edited by Judy Yung, on Saturday, November 10, 1 to 4 pm., at the Chinese Culture Center.

11月10日星期六下午1點至4點, 中華文化中心、美國華人歷史學會以及華盛頓大學出版社將爲Judy Yung的 《Eddie Fung歷險記》舉辦新書發行慶祝宴會。《Eddie Fung歷險記》 講述了一名唐人街孩子曾經作爲德克薩斯州牛仔和戰俘的經歷… Read More »

9/23 (Sun) Fetish Friendships: interracial socializing and the dangers of being used

Fetish Friendships: interracial socializing and the dangers of being used
Performance and Panel Discussion
Co-presented with Kearny Street Workshop’s APAture Festival

Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007, 5pm , $10-20 sliding scale

Join us for an excerpt of David Henry Hwang’s Bondage, directed by Ryan Yip and performed by Yip and another actor, followed by a panel discussion about interracial relationships. Read More »

Bei Dao Interview by David Huang (Singtao USA)

Q=Question from reporter A=Answer from Bei Dao

Q: You once said this about American poetry: “Poetry has become the middle-class’ dessert, it’s a game of the brain, it has nothing to do with the heart.” However, a lot of contemporary poetry is intergraded into rap music, and has become very popular among the younger generation. What do you think about that phenomenon? With consideration of this trend, where lies “the game of the heart”?

A: I know very little about rap music. Generally speaking, poetry and music are two different things. Occasionally their spheres intersect, as with the case of Bob Dylan, who is both a singer and an important poet.
The main difference between poetry and song is its medium. Poetry is about language, songs are about melody. Rap music is more about language, but this type of language is more outward, spontaneous, current and kind of critical; poetry is completely different, it’s inward, hidden and private, most of time above or outside of reality.

Q. Poet or poetry, which is more interesting?
A:It’s hard to use the word “interesting” about poet or poetry. I am afraid this standard is irrelevant in the examination of something inherently subjective.

Q: Your early poetry seems to be more rebellious and angry, your recent prose and poetry are more vicissitudinous and peaceful. Is creativity something very personal? Is it necessary to communicate?
A: Based on the structure of creative writing, the substance of poetry and prose is different from each other, and is hard to make a comparison. Literature certainly needs communication, and poetry and prose are two different ways to convey an idea. While one may be a bridge, the other could be a road.

Q: You once said, “I drift around with nothing, Chinese is my only luggage”. The Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco strives to explore the issue of cultural assimilation and culture identity under the background of globalization and migration. Having drifted outside of China for many years, what kind of impact does being in exile have on your thinking and writing? Does it change your conception of territory, borders and homeland? And finally, how do you view the “World citizen”generation, which your daughter is a part of?
A: You combined the two sentences I said into one, which is kind of dangerous. In terms of cultural assimilation and identity, it is a constant changing concept following the continual expansion of horizon. We are the generation of exile. We were sent to the countryside as teenagers, went far away and flew high, since then, home is no longer home. Later on we went further, too far to go back home, even no longer wanting to go back home. Incidentally, this coincided with the trend of worldwide migration. After these many years of drifting, I went from homeless to feeling the world is my home. It seems to be some kind of destiny. My daughter inherited my destiny of drifting, crossing through multiple cultures, and thus she has a vision that is different from her peers. I worried about her when she was young, and now I am really proud of her. Because she has grown strong wings, that will enable her to balance the danger in flying.

Q: You mentioned you like the American jazz music, and long for the America in the 30’s. What are you listening to currently? What do you long for now?
A: I still like jazz, but I don’t listen to it as much as I used to. Now I mainly listen to classical music, especially solo. It’s like a dialogue between two hearts.

Q: You mentioned many poets in your new books, and it seems that you have established a friendship that is above language. For an art form like poetry, can we establish a communication above language?
A: Friendship is friendship. Poetry must be translated, this is the dilemma the human being has as described in the collapse of Babel tower in the Bible.

Q: Does China still need poetry? What kind of poetry do we need for China nowadays?
A: As long as there is human being, we need poetry. Poetry is the spirit of a nation (ethnic group). Without it, we became walking soulless corpses. Regretfully, we are failing in our own humanity. I don’t expect everyone to read and understand poetry, but they should at least understand the importance of poetry in the ethnic spirit.

Q: Facing commercialization of everything, what kind of role should the poet play?
A: Poet should always be a poet, this is a life calling and a profession. If you ask poet to be a business man and vice versa, it’s a huge mess.

Q: After 20 year, the readers in China have transformed quite a bit, maybe you can share your views on the matter?
A: Time changes, so do the readers. Sadly, the commercialization and the internet generates a class of predominantly tasteless writers and tasteless readers. A good writer will not follow the readers.

Q: You lived in seven countries in four years, moved 15 times, you said “I am grateful to all the turmoil these years, it takes me away from the center, the turbulence (of China), and lets my life really calm down.” After all these years, what did you gain? What did you lose?
A: Without the turmoil and drifting, it’s hard to imagine that I can still be myself in China’s turbulence. I probably don’t have the composure. Looking at many of my peers in China, I feel really fortunate. I feel like I’ve been to the sky’s edge, and took a very tough road. But I first needed to conquer myself.

Q: If time goes back to 1989, what would be your choice?
A: Of course what happened in 1989 is unfortunate. But in the long run, it was the incident that caused many people to flee their homes, which is not necessarily bad for the Chinese culture. Our ancient nation needs someone to be “away from home”, suffer a little, be punished a little, so that then they can gain some new understanding. I am very lucky to be one of them. To a certain extent, it’s a historical crusade, but the intention of the crusade is not to conquer the enemy, but for the person to conquer him/herself.

收听部分朗诵和讨论Listen to the readingPart1

收听部分朗诵和讨论Listen to the Reading Part2 and discussion

北島接受星島日報記者黃偉江先生訪問全文
Interview in English by Singtao reporter David Huang
Reviews from the audience Read More »

美西《星島日報〉〉記者黃偉江三藩市報道

在空中與北島的對話

中國當代朦朧詩歌的代表性詩人北島將於7 月29 日 （周日）下午2 ：00 ， 應舊金山中華文化中心邀請，舉行詩誦會（中英文）。我馬上擬定了採訪提綱，時間很短，正趕上北島搬家，我的提問只好通過電郵，請他在趕回加州的飛機上作答了。我在地上，他在雲端，或許，北島的答案會更加超然？
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