Contents

• President's Message
• First Annual Lantern Festival
• CAM Goes Under Construction
• CAM & Community News
  • Brewery Artwalk 2002
  • Internship Opportunity
  • 6th Annual Historymakers Awards Gala Banquet
  • Inspiring Lines: Chinese American Pioneers in the Commercial Arts
  • Finding Family Stories
• FCAM Donors
• Volunteer Profile
• Become a Docent at El Pueblo de Los Angeles
• Board of Directors
• Staff & Consultants
• Newsletter Staff

First of all, a heartfelt thanks for all of your support, participation and attendance at the Historymakers’ Dinner held on December 9, 2001. Our dinner committee, headed by George Wang, did a tremendous job of organizing things wonderfully. Over 500 people attended as we highlighted our award winners of actress Nancy Kwan, Billy Lew (posthumously), Judge Ronald S.W. Lew and artist Tyrus Wong. Thanks to the dinner committee for putting together a marvelous event.

On January 12, 2002, we were kindly invited by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to participate in their Miss Chinatown fashion show. Board member Carol Baca displayed her fashion talents by putting together a show highlighting her designs. She and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce graciously donated the funds raised from the auction of her dresses, to the Museum’s general fund.

Earlier in February of this year we had our first Lantern Festival event at El Pueblo Historical Monument, celebrating the end of Chinese New Year. Approximately 10,000 people attended the event, and many children enjoyed making lanterns for the closing parade, as well as kite making, face painting, Chinese knot -making, and storytelling.

We began the interior renovation of the Garnier Building this month, with a target finish date of April 2003. We are now focused on raising sufficient funds to build out all of the exhibit space as targeted. We also received a grant for $25,000 from the Getty Museum for the restoration of the historic balcony at the Garnier Building.

As we come into crunch time, I ask that you continue to help support CAM in our endeavor and invite others who might share our vision to participate. While it is a stressful time, it is simultaneously a very exciting one. As we watch portions of the museum being built, we all realize that we are watching a dream come true.

Fondly,
Judge Debra W. Yang

We have received generous grants from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, Mr. Bing Liu of Evergreen Publishing & Stationery, and California Federal Bank. Several elected officials celebrated this closing of the Chinese New Year period with us. Congressmember Lucille Roybal-Allard, Assemblymembers George Nakano, Judy Chu, and Jackie Goldberg took time from their busy schedules and appeared in person.

Mayor James K. Hahn, Assemblymembers Wilma Chan and Carol Liu, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, Councilmember Nick Pacheco, Councilmember Ed Reyes, and President of the El Pueblo Historical Monument Authority Commission Maria Pacho graced the event with their best wishes. The four Chinatown Princesses, Miss Juting Tsang, Miss Ruth Chen, Miss Tina Yao, and Miss Tina Huang, shared their warm greetings with us in English and Spanish.

Miss Olvera Street 2002 Lilia Barragan and Mr. Thomas Kao of Channel 18 KSCI-TV’s Nightly News emceed the event in three languages of English, Spanish, and Chinese.

Tyrus Wong, Bill Jong, Leland Lee, Monroe Leung, Fred Gong and Milton Quon, the six artists of the Inspiring Lines: Chinese American Pioneers in the Commercial Arts exhibit were recognized on stage.

Jeff Chan’s IMMORTALS demonstrated wu-shu, or martial arts and invited young participants to get into the rhythm of the dance by trying their small hands at chiming the cymbals.

The Los Angeles Classical Chinese Orchestra brought the joys of bygone string instruments to the Plaza with the quartet of Barbie Chien, Willy Fong, Allison Huang and Duyen Lee.

Meanwhile, Sanchez Street was buzzing with festival-goers making kites, lanterns and knots, writing the character “Horse,” admiring various palm leaf figurines, and getting their faces painted in Chinese Opera style. Colorful lantern submissions from kindergarten through sixth grade were received for the Lantern-Making Contest.

Lantern Contest Winners were: Travis Quan, Judy Li, Kevin Li, Tiffany So, Kyle Clark, Trevor Quan, Jodi Shou, Donz Hernandez, Dominique, Ya Fang Xie, David Clark, Jenny Kok, Carol Li, Edward Wong, Angela Ea, Jocelyn Hernandez, Daniel E. Calderon, and Jeremy Granados.

Volunteers passed out free tickets to meet Sagwa, the Chinese Siamese Cat, whose original story came from the inspiration of Amy Tan and now appears regularly on KCET.

Our programming reached many age groups. With the event so close to the original site of Chinatown (Union Station), we helped to conjure up fond memories from our elderly guests. Drawing the attention of our younger audience were storytellers Angi Ma Wong, Raul Rodriguez, and Dr. Sharon Cook. Radio show host Bing Bing and 5-year-old Tiffany Ding delighted the audience with the Chinese version of a tale similar to The Little Red Riding Hood. Small children danced to the beat of music from e:trinity’s Elson Trinidad and Barbie Chien.

As the evening dimmed, children picked up their lanterns for the closing parade. The Chinese American Dancing Group brought us two vibrant dance numbers and a jewel of a dragon to conclude the night.

In closing we want to thank many more people who have contributed behind the scenes. Peter Kwong provided Sesame Workshop’s Sagwa costume handler a comfortable stay at the Dragon Gate Inn in Chinatown; Chinatown Business Improvement District encouraged our success by having us hold a Lantern Making Booth at the Chinatown Chinese New Year festivities; Relaxtation donated the boba drinks for the volunteer staff; and City of Los Angeles employee Beatriz Pelayo produced the Spanish version of our evaluations forms. Without them behind us, we could not have achieved such success.

Thanks also to the Volunteer Planning Committee for bringing this lively festival from paper to motion. I am very grateful for the opportunity to support an educational project with the charismatic leader of Suellen Cheng, a stellar staff and dependable volunteers.

Now we are working on details for Lantern Festival 2003. Planning Committee will begin meeting in July 2002. Care to join us?

Yvonne Liu
Lantern Festival Coordinator

The City’s General Services Department (GSD), the same group responsible for the City’s $20 million upgrade that beautified El Pueblo and the newly refurbished City Council Chamber in City Hall, will be working with El Pueblo, and Project Manager Mike Shull of the Bureau of Engineering will oversee the already well-acquainted project team. The team’s ready familiarity with the characteristics of these historical buildings and the built-in effectiveness of a team-in-place may well translate as cost savings and other significant advantages for CAM.

This project entails the preparation of the large canvas for exhibitions, as well as preparing floors, walls and ceilings for public use, in accordance with usage of historical building materials and maintaining a suitable ambiance. Critical is the installation of museum-style lighting and utilities.

CAM construction will be followed closely by a Construction Team, which includes Munson Kwok (Development Chair and systems engineer), Jean Bruce Poole (FCAM’s historical and government consultant), Jan Wang (FCAM administrator), Suellen Cheng (El Pueblo) and Winston Wu. Mr. Wu, a retired engineer from Department of Water and Power, has graciously volunteered to assist in construction technical meetings with Mr. Shull and GSD. Ms. Wang will coordinate Team efforts and interface with Choy Associates and GSD financial management.

Preparations involve architectural, financial, and legal aspects. Detailed architectural plans had to be finished to the satisfaction of Museum staff, FCAM Development and Exhibit Committees, and GSD. Choy Associates has been the FCAM contractor doing this work. A construction cost cutting exercise of $100,000 was part of the process.

In an even more critical role, FCAM must assemble and convey about 60% of the financial resources for the interiors job, totally valued at $761,000. A major part is $424,000 from the California Arts Council. The Friends will be committing around $100,000 from its general fund.

Legally, the construction job required a memorandum of understanding between two City departments. This action necessitated staff reports and testimony by Kwok representing FCAM before the El Pueblo Commission and City Council committee to enable the requisite City Council resolution.

Jan Wang

The Artwalk offers the public the opportunity for interaction with resident artists of the Brewery complex, the largest live-work artists’ complex in the world. Artists will open the doors to their studios to the public, free of charge.

An invitation has been extended to the Chinese American Museum to host a CAM informational booth at one of the artist’s studio. This event has attracted 4,000 to 8,000 people in the recent past, and this year, over 100 artists will be exhibiting their work at the Artwalk.

The Brewery Arts Complex is located on 2100 Main Street, Units A10, Los Angeles, CA 90031. Please visit www.breweryart.org for more information.

Internship Opportunity!
The Chinese American Museum is proud to announce that two (2) Getty Multicultural Summer Internships are available for qualified undergraduate students from June 17 - August 23, 2002. Interns will receive training in collections management, exhibition planning support, archive and database maintenance, and participate in the Museum’s Oral History Project and Newsletter. $3,500 stipend for a ten-week period

Deadline for applications is Friday, April 26, 2002. Please visit our web site, www.camla.org, or call (213) 626.5240 for more information.

6th Annual Historymakers Awards Gala Banquet
The Chinese American Museum will be holding our 6th Annual Historymakers Awards Gala Banquet on November 9, 2002. It will be located at the Hilton Universal City & Towers . Please save this date on your calendar! Sponsorship opportunities are available. Please contact (213) 626.5240 or e-mail office@camla.org.

Inspiring Lines: Chinese American Pioneers in the Commercial Arts
In the few months that the Inspiring Lines art exhibition has been on display, it has received a wonderfully warm response from Chinatown and downtown communities, not to mention glowing local news coverage.

Our major sponsor for the exhibition, the Chinatown Business Improvement District (BID), made certain that the run of the show at its Chinatown venue, LMan Studio on Chung King Road, would coincide with a few of the neighborhood’s popular once-a-month Art Walks as well as its annual 3-day Chinese New Year bash.

CAM’s ongoing partnership with the Chinatown BID to bring new visitors to Chinatown is now educating old and new local community members about the long history of Chinese American art practice in Los Angeles since the early twentieth century.

With the exhibition now on display at the El Pueblo Gallery, the Museum has had the wonderful opportunity to each others about this living history. Inspiring Lines continues to enjoy a high degree of visitation since its opening on the day of the Museum’s Lantern Festival, especially from Latino families and ethnically diverse school groups who frequent El Pueblo Historical Monument.

The tremendous popularity of Inspiring Lines is a testament to the need for exhibitions, events and programs that highlight the growing array of Chinese American histories in our midst.

Finding Family Stories
Since 2000, the Chinese American Museum has had the great pleasure of partnering with the Japanese American National Museum on their Finding Family Stories arts project. Upon entering its third and final year, all four of the partners, including Self-Help Graphics and the California African American Museum, are looking forward to hosting the group arts exhibition in Spring of 2003.

As both artists and educators, Jose Ramirez and Steven Wong contributed their expertise and enthusiasm to Tyrus Wong’s kite-making booth at CAM’s first Lantern Festival. They taught children how to make kites designed by the 92-year-old artist, a long-admired citzen in the Asian American community.

Photographer and collage artist Dominique Moody could not attend the Festival, however, found another way to participate. Following a trip to Chinatown with a camera, Ms. Moody created an incredibly colorful monumental lantern as a dedication to her illuminating visit. As a result of this positive experience, Ms. Moody has proposed to instruct a combination Storytelling/Lantern-Making workshop at our next Lantern Festival!

Another Finding Family Stories artist, Michael Massenburg, who is also an activist and arts educator, has also availed himself to be an upcoming Lantern Festival workshop participant.

The culminating exhibition of new and existing work slated for Spring of 2003 promises to heighten CAM’s public visibility, boost our profile for multi-ethnic community outreach, and thereby help to further develop our increasingly diverse audience.

Patrons
City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department
Councilmember Nick Pacheco, District 14
Bing Liu, Evergreen Publishing & Stationery
El Pueblo Historic Monument
California Council for the Humanities
Chinese Chamber of Commerce
Chinese Club of San Marino
Rose Hills Foundation
East West Bank
Esther & Dan Louie, Jr.
Robert & Edith Jung
Henry & Margaret Leong,
Quon Yick Noodle Company
Kenjohn & Sei Mei Wang

Benefactors
Arthur Kassel
Golden Orchid, LTD
Tom Rubin

Donors
Autry Museum
Avery Dennison Corp
Gregory Bergman, Bergman & Dacey, Inc.
Kenneth L. Chan
Ming-Tu Chen, Great China
Corinna Chen
Lucie Cheng
Thomas & Susan Chiang
Shek Chiong,
Kong Chow Benevolent Association
The Emerson Glazer Foundation
Tom Flesh
Earl Lewis & Aya Kimura Goldberg
Golden Security Bank
Alice Huang
Annie Jeng
Munson Kwok& Suellen Cheng
Anna Lew
Danny Mallatin
Haig Papian, Commerce Casino
Cindy Poh, Chase Manhattan
David Schindler
Tim K. & Annie Chin Siu
Standard Savings Bank
Daniel Chou, Taipei Economic & Cultural Office
Diana Wong Tang
Stanley Toy
Unocal
George Wang
Jeffrey Wong
Tyrus Wong

Sponsors
California State Lottery
Pedro & Pek Chan
Ted & Doris Cheung
Morgan & Helen Chu
James Chung
James & Christiane Cook
Michael & Paivi Duchemin
Michael Eng
Julian & Beverly Foon
Elmo Gambarana
Japanese American National Museum
Daniel Johnson
Kow Kong Benevolent Association
Hing Lee
Terry & Allison Loo
Eugene & Susan Moy
Ross Ponedel
Richard & May Quan
Santa Fe Shadows
Peter Soo Hoo
Clare Wang
Norman & Sophia Wong
Jon Wong
Henry Wong
Hing C. Wong
Young Woo
Rita Yang
Cal & Gloria Yuen
De Zhao Zhou

Friends

Audrey Aloiau Yoshiko I. Araki Louise Bhang Clayton Braatz Michael R. Brown Jean Bruce Poole Kenyon S. & Shirley Jeff Chan Janice Chan Robert Chang Christina Wu Chen Gong & Linda Cheung Jack & Mildred Cheung Charly Cheung Florence C. Chew Clifford & Akimi Ching Joe Y. Chiu Paul Hung-Jen Chu William Chun-Hoon Kathleen Chung Lucinda Don Arnold & Rose Eng Ethel L. Farrand Theodore H. Fell Richard Ferrante Jeri Okamoto Floyd Richard Fong Howe Cun Fong Gim Fong Mon W. Fong Eileen & William Fong Michael Kingsley Fong Saykin Foo Carl Foo Agnes Fung John & Shirley Gee Gail Gibson Robert Gin Dennis Gong Troy Goo Brenda & Hugh Gottfried Shuiding Guo Giang Xu Ha, Mayflower Restaurant Lenora Hall Arthur & Debra Hansen Vincent Hing Mabel Wong Hogle Samuel Hoi Hsi Lai Temple Los Angeles Branch Se Yao Hsu Aloha & Amy Hsu Amy Ling-Mei Hsu Susan Hu Lois Huang Vincent & Cynthia Hung Fay & Helen Jew Jimmy Joe Sonia Y. Joe Daniel & Esther Johnson Daniel Johnson

Cecil Carl Johnson, Jr. Bill & Jean Jong Cynthia Jopanda Jimmy Jue Patrick Kelly Margaret C. King David Kuang Robert Kwan Edwin & Beula Kwoh Irvin Lai Collin & Susan Lai Laura J. Lai Collin & Susan Lai Jennifer Larabee Allen L. Lee Allen Lee Norma June Lee Richard & Pat Lem Joyce M. Leong Monroe Leung Arthur Lew Dorothy Louie Seto Lew Anita W. Lim Richard Lin Martha Liu Michelle Loong Marie L. Louie Albert Lum Pauline Y. Lum Eleanor C. Mar Christy Johnson McAvoy Daniel T. Munoz Encina Ong Jerry & Margie Omiya William Byrne Paullin Carol Wong Quan Dan Quan Don Quon Jeffrey Quon Glen Reed Micheline P. Reese Adam Ritter Judy Wong Ruth Judy Wong & Dearl Sai Anna Seto Rebecca Seto Lew Olivia Liwei Shao Icy & Michael Sloan Icy Smith Alfred Soo Hoo Bonnie C. Soo Hoo Jeff Soo Hoo Howard & Marie Soo Hoo Marian Soo Hoo Ronald Soo Hoo Walter Soo Hoo Tim Sottile Teena B. Stern

Robert & Joan Stillwell John R. Sweeney Wendy Jung Takahashi Edith Tom Doris Chin Tom Clara K. Tom Lenore G. Tom Herbert W. Tom Philip Pham Tong Pin F. Tsai Kung Yu Tseng Roy Tseng Lavaun Vawter Sherry Wang Lynne Wang H.E. & Ming Min Wang Brenda J. Wong Patrick P. Wong John Wong Shi Yin Wong Dore Wong Edward Wong Cynthia H. Wong Gay Wong Paul Wong Helen L. Wong Wen-Kuei & Shaio-Wen Wong Yep H. Wong Tana Ung Wong David & Lillian Wong Ellis C. Wong Ed and Lana Wong Gloria F. Wong Joseph & Betty Wong Mabel Wong Hogle & Jung Rhonda Bhang Wong Shee Wong Ellis C. Wong Christine Woo Paul Woo Jeanie L. Woo Winston Wu James Yan Philip Yang Lisa Yang David Yee Cindy Yee John L. Yee James W. Yee Lorraine P. Yee Monica Yeh Mun Yeh Donna J. Young Mae Young Matt Young Teh Chang Yu Cheng Yue

Four exceptional examples of such dedication deserving of recognition are Mason, Jenny, Kent and Annie of the Chen family. Husband-and-wife Mason and Jenny have volunteered for CAM, along with their children Kent and Annie, since the beginning of 2001. They have kept an ongoing collection of newspaper articles regarding Chinese Americans in the community.

The Chen family participated in the 5th Annual Historymakers Awards banquet in December of 2001. With over 500 people attending the Historymakers banquet and the anticipation of the night running smoothly, every single volunteer contributed to the overall success of the event.

Mason, Jenny, Kent and Annie also volunteered their Saturday at CAM’s first Lantern Festival event this past February. As the crowd began to disperse following the closing parade of the Lunar New Year celebration, the Chen family joined the clean-up crew after a long day’s work at the activity booths.

In addition to lending support at various CAM events, Kent has utilized his bilingual skills to help transcribe audiotapes for the Museum.

On March 29, 2002, he was presented with the Chinese Overseas Outstanding Achievement Youth Award at a formal dinner in Chinatown.

Currently a senior in high school, Kent has recently received his acceptance letter to attend George Washington University in Washington D.C. on a full scholarship. The FCAM staff would like to extend our congratulations to Kent and his family, and wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors!

Then come volunteer to be a docent at El Pueblo de Los Angeles. Docents lead free morning tours of Olvera Street and the surrounding historic buildings for school children, groups, tourists and local residents.

A docent training class will be held April 23 - May 28 (six Tuesdays), from 10am - 12 noon at El Pueblo.

For more info, please call the El Pueblo Visitor’s Center at (213) 628-1274 or e-mail jsandoval@mailbox.lacity.org.

President Emeriti
Dan Louie, Jr.
Ronald S. W. Lew

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