President:
Nancy Wang
576-0533

Vice President:
David Chung
538-4926

Treasurer:
Shirley Brummell
528-8044

Recording
Secretary:
Kevin Ablett
538-1938

Corresponding
Secretary:
Judy Cheung
528-0912

Newsletter,
Scholarship:
Mirin Lew
545-6173

Social Director:
Mary Lowe
528-8712 x18

Membership:
Judy Cheung

Ways and Means:
Lan Zhang
535-0985

Building Committee:
Joe Wang
576-0533

Youth Group:
Mark & Azy Heydon
575-9541

Board Members:
Stephanie Chan
Keung Chan
Irene Fong
Jean Gee
Winston Lee
Frances Lok
Shubert Yee
Kay Yee

August 2002

Contents
President's Message
Exhibit of Buddhist Relics Comes to Sebastopol
Language Classes Begin in September
Language Study Group and Cultural Program
FCA Moon Festival Celebration
Ceramic and Enamelware Exhibit
RECA Summer Culture Camps
RECA Youth Group
RECA Performers Shine at Wine Showcase
RECA at Bohemian Grove
Congratulations to Jimmy Fong
Congratulations to Nancy Wang
Mahjong Group Tours the Sheraton Hotel
Condolences
Thank You
Happy Campers
RECA Youth and Children's Culture Camps
Santa Rosa Parade Photos
Multi-Cultural Potluck Poetry Reading

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
By Nancy Wang

Time flies as an arrow, the summer is almost over. I hope everyone had a good time in this summer vacation.

As president of RECA, I would like to thank to all the participants in the Santa Rosa Rose Parade in May. It was the tenth year that we won the championship in cultural dance. Also, many thanks to all who helped at the clean-up day on June 2nd at the RECA Center. Everyone did a terrific job. We will have another clean-up day on Saturday, August 31. Please come and help if you can.

We had a very successful Chinese culture summer camp for children this year. It was so popular that we even had five kids on the waiting list. Special thanks to Mrs. Jean Walker who did a fantastic job teaching. Her curriculum really interested the kids and impressed all of the parents a lot.

The annual RECA picnic is coming up soon on Sept. 8 at Finley Park, Santa Rosa. We will have a membership drive at the picnic, so please bring your friends and neighbors to join us. More details are in this newsletter.

EXHIBIT OF BUDDHIST RELICS COMES TO SEBASTOPOL
by Mary Lowe

An extremely rare collection of sacred Buddhist relics is touring the world and will arrive for an exhibition on August 24-25 at the Enmanji Buddhist Temple, 1200 Gravenstein Hwy. South in Sebastopol. The "Heart-Shrine Relic Tour" includes relics from the historical Shakyamuni Buddha and his closest disciples Maudgalypana, Sariputra and Ananda as well as masters from the Chinese, Tibetan and Indian traditions. The showing is from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. both days. Admission is free.

Mary Fok, who viewed the exhibit earlier in the year, was so impressed that she decided to spearhead a showing in the North Bay. The tour is a way to share blessings, raise awareness and inspire viewers towards compassion. Begun in 2001, the exhibit has traveled to Taiwan, Malaysia and New Zealand. USA locations include Arizona, Los Angeles and San Jose. It will travel next to Oregon and Canada.

These relics will be permanently housed in a 50-story Buddha statue, part of a 250-acre development, to be built in northern India by 2006. For more information, call Mary Fok at 578-0314 or visit the Maitreya Project Web site at www.maitreyaproject.org or www.maitreyaproject.org/relictour.

LANGUAGE CLASSES BEGIN IN SEPTEMBER

Be sure to pre-enroll for our language classes beginning Saturday, September 7, with a new Tuesday class beginning on September 10. Pre-enrollment is important so we can plan for our staff, and the staff can plan curriculum. Teaching does not allow the teacher to walk into the classroom and say, "What will we do today?" It takes lots of planning to prepare the proper lessons for various ages and ability levels. So please, pre-enroll!

RECA offers Saturday morning classes in beginning Mandarin for children, beginning and intermediate Mandarin for older kids and adults, intermediate and advanced Mandarin for older kids and adults, and Cantonese for all ages and levels. Our Tuesday classes will offer beginning Mandarin for all ages unless pre-enrollment lets us know we need a second teacher for an older kids and adult class.

Our new Tuesday class will focus on beginning and intermediate-beginning children, with older kids and adults working more independently in the same class. If we have 16 or more pre-enrolled, we can hire another teacher and split the group. Some people interested in the Tuesday evening group are concerned with starting and ending times. Our first meeting will be Tuesday, September 10th, 5:00-7:30 p.m. At that time, the people attending will decide on the starting time and the length of the class. Some want it earlier, some want it a little later, and many want it shorter. There are various options to satisfy the needs of most, if not all, of the people who want the class. There will not be dancing class after the Tuesday class. The instructor is Hsiu Juen Armstrong who will also continue to teach the children's beginning class on Saturdays.

Location: Our new RECA Center, 3455 Sebastopol Road, Santa Rosa. From Highway 101, take Highway 12 west towards Sebastopol. Turn left on Stony Point Road, then right on Sebastopol Road. Go about 0.8 mile west. Turn right into the driveway just past the Pacific Bell Telephone grounds and Santa Rosa Fire Equipment Store and sign. Go slowly past the houses. Our location is the last house on the right. It is blue-gray.

Times: Saturday classes are 9:00-11:30 a.m. Students in all classes may stay 11:30-noon for our Cultural Dance Program. Tuesday evening classes are held from 5:00-7:30 p.m. for beginning Mandarin students.

Tuition may be paid per semester, or you can save money by prepaying for the full year in September. There are 16 class days per semester.

For more information, please visit our Language School page.

The Families with Children from Asia will be holding a Moon Festival Celebration at Galvin Park in Santa Rosa on Saturday, Sept. 21 from 4 to 9 p.m. There will be games, arts and crafts. Please bring a potluck dish to share. Rice and noodles will be provided, and a $5 donation per family is requested. For more information, please contact Sandy Bartholome at 539-1178 or Judy Grindahl at 526-1848.

An exhibit of ceramic and enamelware by Chinese-American artist Jade Snow Wong is now open at the Chinese Historical Society of America Museum at 965 Clay Street in San Francisco. Jade Snow Wong was born in San Francisco in 1922 and had a store on Grant Avenue in Chinatown. Her work was shown in a one-woman show at the Chicago Art Institute in 1952. She also wrote the books "Fifth Chinese Daughter" and "No Chinese Stranger." The show, titled "Jade Snow Wong: A Retrospective," runs through December 22. For more information, visit the Web site at www.chsa.org.

During the summer, regular Saturday classes stopped for summer vacation, but the staff and students have been busy. From June 17-28, Azy Heydon, and her assistants Shirley and Tran had the first-ever RECA Youth Camp for "double digit" kids. Originally designed for teens, we also included ages 10-12. Unsure of whether or not we could have the camp, due to lack of pre-enrollment, we decided to go ahead with the first day. Maybe some kids would show up. And they did! We had our total enrollment of 15 youth filled to capacity.

Youths were able to join together to continue the language lessons in both Mandarin and Cantonese, and to learn the brush calligraphy that is so popular during the school year. In addition, they had Tai Chi, Kung Fu, cooking (they made their lunches in class every day), dances (fan, ribbon, flower drum), sewing, and many more activities that more than filled each day. New friends were made. Guest instructors were met with enthusiasm.

From July 15-26, Jean Walker and Nancy Wang were the instructors in the Children's Culture Camp. This is our second year for having a day camp for children 5-10. We were so full that we had to turn people away. One 8 year-old opted to go to the Youth Camp and did very well.

The focus of the camp was to have fun, and to be able to say useful Mandarin phrases and words during activities outside the classroom environment. Each camper had a day when they were the star and brought something from home to discuss and learn the words in Chinese. These words, along with the prepared curriculum, were used over and over all day long during dancing, singing, cooking, hiking, art, tai chi and all the other activities packed into each day. They even had one end-of-lunch time activity when some of the children helped pick flowers, weeds and stickers for a floral display at the Alameda Historical Museum for a poetry event attended by Judy Cheung the next day.

Guest instructor Calvin Dang was well received as he assisted in Tai Chi lessons. Phi Phi Dang was there to help as needed during the Tai Chi lessons. Parent Kathleen Alberigi was invaluable each morning as she stayed until lunch time doing odds and ends the regular staff didn't have time to do, as well as helping in the classes. Thanks to Kathleen, we now have paper towel dispensers in both restrooms, and other such important, but overlooked, things that make our center a nice place to be.

RECA thanks the staff, volunteers and campers for making this a memorable summer.

See photos from the youth and children's culture camps here.

Thanks to our youth group for their Kung Fu and lion dance performances at various locations around the county. And special thanks to Sean Fong and his students for their hard work. The two-week youth camp was an outstanding success. We were able to work on our "survival Chinese" and say such standards as "How are you?", "Have you eaten yet?", and "My dog ate my homework!" Highlights were the traditional Chinese foods we prepared for our lunches, as well as Chinese calligraphy, art, Kung Fu and Tai Chi training, and folk dancing. It was quite a productive week for all! Thanks to our RECA youth group for helping out at the RECA cleanup day on June 2nd. Special thanks to Philip Ma and Bryce Heydon for really pitching in and helping out.

On July 7th, some of our youth made it to Vallejo's Six Flag Amusement Park. It was exciting! As one of our group said, "It was great just to get to know each other better. Upside-down. At sixty miles an hour...Fun!" On July 21st, the youth group met at RECA center where we watched the Mel Brooks classic, "Young Frankenstein." Oh, yeah, and of course we ate pizza--along with Vietnamese spring rolls. We also discussed our projects for the coming year. We plan to meet again on August 23rd for a beach party. Tell everyone you know to come join us. Bring a food dish, if you can. It promises to be a great time! For more information, contact Mark or Azy Heydon at 575-9541.

Thanks to connections through Kirk and Frances Lok, RECA's lion and dragon teams and cultural performers were among the featured entertainment at this year's Sonoma County Showcase of Food and Wine gala July 11-13. The theme at this posh and fun $150 per person fundraiser was pairing wine with Asian food.

Our cavorting lions, warding off evil spirits and spreading cheer to the crowd, sanctioned the annual event before the wine auction got off the ground Friday night at the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center in Santa Rosa. Then Saturday, amid guests sipping wine and sampling fancy hors d'oeuvres, our magnificent 250-foot long dragon, carried by 27 members decked out in brand new gold pants, paraded through the courtyard of Richard's Grove and Sara Lee's Vineyards at the Russian River. Our four attractive fan dancers, in traditional mandarin collar, thigh-cut "cheung sam" dresses, were also a crowd-pleaser. The adolescent Flower Drum girls added a wholesome balance. As a side treat, RECA participants were able to partake in the wonderful wine and food tasting from 97 wineries and 40 restaurants.

Then in the evening, it was off to the Luther Burbank Center where our "Sleeping Lion Awakens" ceremony enlivened the audience before the San Francisco Symphony's performance.

Altogether, this was a fine affair showcasing the talents of our organization.

For 3 weeks in July of every year, the Bohemian Grove has its Summer Encampment. This is where 2 to 3 thousand of its members and guests, including many prominent men in business and politics, come together to this 2500-acre redwood grove next to the Russian River. This year RECA's dragon got invited to participate in the grove's main play performance, "Emperor Norton." The story took place in San Francisco around 1860-1870. The setting was in Chinatown during the new temple dedication celebration. RECA's 250-foot dragon came twisting down the hilly back stage. The ultimate scene occurred as the dragon twisted into a coil on center stage with its head up high bowing to the audience. The scene was so spectacular that the audience gave us a standing ovation.

18 RECA men participated in the Emperor Norton play, a command performance, on Friday, July 26, 2002. Due to the requirement for rehearsals, many of the RECA participants were able to spend part of 3 days at the Bohemian Grove. Therefore they were able to experience and participate in many of the programs at the Bohemian Grove's 2002 Summer Encampment. Each man received a bronze medal to commemorate his participation in the 2002 Grove Play, Emperor Norton performance. We will display the Emperor Norton play program as well as the medal at RECA Center.

Recently, Jimmy Fong challenged himself by competing in the Black Belt division at the USA World Championships in Las Vegas. He won the Junior Black Belt Open Forms and Weapons by scoring more points than the two times defending Grand Champion. This 3-day world-rated tournament had over 6000 competitors. In the divisions for age of 17 and under, only 2 juniors including Jimmy were on the Saturday night Final Show that was televised worldwide.

Now Jimmy is 12 years old and has been training under Sifu Shu Dong Li since he was 7. Currently, Jimmy trains in Santa Rosa, Oakland and Berkeley. He has won over 100 medals and trophies and 7 Grand Champion titles. He has trained very hard to go to these tournaments, which includes traveling to Beijing, China to get training during the summer of 2001. Next month August 2002, Jimmy will travel to compete in the 2002 AAU CMA National Championship in Dallas and 2002 US Nationals in Orlando, Florida. Also, Jimmy will try to compete with the adults in the 2003 US Team Trials next summer. Hopefully, he will have the chance to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Winning that kind of wushu tournament would be very spectacular!

Nancy Wang, RECA President, has won another award for her community involvement. On August 11, Congresswoman Patricia Wiggens presented Nancy with the Women of the Wine Country Award, Social Involvement Category. Nancy Wang's continuing contributions of her time, effort, and expertise in disseminating information to assist individuals, organizations and governmental agencies is appreciated and honored with this special recognition. RECA is proud to have Nancy as our member, president and our true leader. Thank you for your never-ending, wide-reaching service.

The newly built Sheraton Hotel in Petaluma was developed by the Lok Group and opened for business in June 2002. On July 17, our gracious hostess, Frances Lok, invited the Mahjong Group and their spouses and a few friends, a total of 28 people, for a grand tour of the Sheraton.

Before our tour, the Mahjong Group presented Frances with 8 lucky plant branches in a white and blue vase for good luck and prosperity.

Our tour guide, David Cheung, Purchasing Manager, gave us a grand tour of the 183 hotel rooms. Every room was elegantly decorated with state of the art furniture, high tech computer equipment and a pleasant view of the Petaluma River. The lobby and the winding glass staircase were most impressive. We also visited the ballroom/dining room, meeting rooms, conference rooms, and the beautifully decorated restrooms. For relaxation there is the swimming pool and the fitness room. Everything was according to feng shui traditions.

We toured the kitchen with Barbara Hom, Executive Chef, who was the consultant and designer for the kitchen and restaurant, Jellyfish. Barbara is well known for creative Asian-fusion style of cooking, inspired by her family's favorite recipes when she was growing up. With her assistant, Tim Horrock, Chef de Cuisine, they use local foods with Asian condiments and cooking methods. Colors and flavors are demonstrated in their presentation of the dish.

As a finale, we were invited to enjoy a delectable bento box lunch.

Thank you David, Barbara and Tim for a job well done. Thank you Frances Lok for having us visit the Sheraton, and we wish you prosperity and great success.

Our condolences to Bob Gong Lowe whose wife, Carrie, passed away on June 22. Our thoughts are also with the family. If desired, donations may be made to the Carrie Gong Lowe Memorial Fund, c/o The Bank of Petaluma, 100 Petaluma Blvd. South, Petaluma. Funds received will benefit the cancer and diabetic research association and local educational institutions.

Our many thanks to Dee Ballantyne for donating a beautiful Chinese antique silk burgundy-colored skirt with flowers and matching ornate top to RECA. Dee is past president of NAMI Sonoma County (National Association for the Mentally Ill) at 4000 Montgomery Drive in Santa Rosa. We appreciate her thinking of us!

Siew Pheck Lin, Garrick Ablett, Shok Ting Ch'ng, Sydney Fong (front row left to right); Joe and Nancy Wang, Mary Lowe, Kevin Ablett, Jennifer Fong (top row) at Yosemite National Park in late July. Some made it to the top of Half Dome and back in the same day!

Cooking class in the Children's Culture Camp. Each day, campers made their morning snacks.

Children enjoy learning the ribbon dance.

Older youth were assistant instructors for younger youth. Guest instructor was a special treat in learning Tai Chi.

Children learned to greet people and say something about themselves and things they like.

On Saturday, August 10, 15 people from Redwood Empire Chinese Association, Poets of the Vineyard and Artists Embassy International gathered together for food, poetry and to have a good time. Despite the hundred-degree weather, we were able to stay cool with fans in our comfortable Center.

Poets came from Sonoma county, Richmond and Clear Lake. Dr. Zhong Ming Huang, whose office is at 3rd and Clement Street in San Francisco, sent three original poems in Chinese: "Climbing a Mountain," "Cruising San Francisco Bay" and "Southeast China." David Chung read the poems so English-speaking people could hear the music of the language and the difference in mood of each poem. Nancy Wang explained the meaning of each poem in English. Of course, the true depth of each poem could not be easily translated.

The star of the show was Phi Phi Dang singing poems by Li Bai. Other participating RECA members included Calvin Dang, Mary Lowe, Judy Cheung, recording secretary of RECA and president of Poets of the Vineyard, and Lillian Ozorio, RECA life member and vice president of Poets of the Vineyard.