President:
Nancy Wang
576-0533

Vice President:
Mary Lowe
528-8712 x18

Treasurer:
Hsiu-Chuan Armstrong

Recording
Secretary:
Judy Cheung
528-0912

Corresponding
Secretary:
Mark Heydon
538-1938

Newsletter,
Scholarship:
Mirin Lew
545-6173

Social Director:
Mary Lowe
528-8712 x18

Membership:
Judy Cheung

Ways and Means:
We need someone!
535-0985

Building Committee:
Joe Wang
576-0533

Youth Group:
Mark & Azy Heydon
575-9541

Board Members:
Kevin Ablett
Sandy Bartholome
Shirley Brummell
Irene Fong
Jean Gee
Norman Lai
Winston Lee
Frances Lok
Shubert Yee
Kay Yee

November 2005

Contents
PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
RECA SCHOOL BEGINS A NEW SEMESTER
SEE SANTA AT OUR HOLIDAY POTLUCK!
RECA YOUTH GROUP
RACIAL EQUALITY AWARENESS WEEK ENRICHING AND ENJOYABLE
SANTA ROSA HISTORICAL CEMETERY
YEEE HAH! AUTHOR VISIT TO RECA
CHINA CAMP
TECH TREK CAMP AT STANFORD
RECA ANNUAL PICNIC
PETALUMA HISTORICAL MUSEUM


PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Dear Members,


2005 is coming to an end, and I would like to take a moment to thank all of you for your help and support. As we wrap up the end of the year I am asking for your help. We have two big events that are coming up. One of them is on SUNDAY December 4th; this is our Christmas Potluck dinner, and on February 25, 2006 is our annual Chinese New Year Celebration Fundraiser. If you could please keep these dates in mind I would greatly appreciate it as we need as much help as we can get to pull off these events. So mark your calendars! I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving and hope that the holiday season brings much joy to you all. See you at the events!


Best regards,

Nancy Wang




RECA SCHOOL BEGINS A NEW SEMESTER
By Judy Cheung

Our RECA Language Classes have begun again. Our classes are going full swing, with openings in all classes still available. If you want to learn Chinese, come and visit us to choose your class on Saturdays 9:00-11:30 AM or Wednesdays 4:30-6:00 PM. 

On Saturdays we have Beginning Mandarin for children, Continuing Mandarin for beginning adults and youth or continuing children, Advanced Mandarin for adults and youth who speak but want to improve their language skills, and Cantonese for all ages. 

On Wednesdays we have one Mandarin class which serves all ages and all levels, but it currently has continuing children. We also have our Vietnamese class for beginning children with our new Vietnamese teacher, Nam Giang. Families With Children From Asia is working closely with Nam Giang to provide Vietnamese children some of the opportunities our Chinese children have for language and culture. 

On Saturdays, we have many activities that can include anyone who wants to attend. Dr. Robert Yee teaches guitar in the garage area which was newly cleaned up and painted over the summer by youth supervised and instructed by Keung Chan. Dance Class takes place from 11:30 AM to noon on Saturday for various aged dancers. Our fan dancers, aborigine dancers, ribbon dancers, flower drum dancers, and western Chinese tambourine dancers all practice for performances. Impromptu Chinese drum lessons are sometimes held while students wait for rides. Anna Kong can usually be seen working in our RECA garden. This summer she grew green onions, green peppers and cannonball watermelons. She also tends to the cactus on the edge of our property. For a real treat, ask her for her cactus recipe. After everyone is gone, the Singing Group meets for their rehearsals at 1:00 PM every other Saturday.

Ying Grebe teaches Children's Beginning Mandarin. This class is informal and based on games and enjoyment. After learning a basic list of words, children are promoted to Continuing Mandarin. Parents are always welcome to sit in with their young students and learn with them, so they can share speaking Chinese at home. Cathy Ringstad, our regular Beginning Chinese teacher, is in China with her son who is having a series of surgeries. We all wish Cathy and Sam well and send our best wishes to them.

Hsiu Chuan Armstrong teaches continuing (intermediate) Mandarin. If you have a command of basic words or are too old for the fun and games in Children's Beginning Mandarin, come to this class for basics in conversation, reading and writing. 

Azy Heydon teaches Cantonese class. Students of various ages and abilities work together.

Lily Chang ( front) teaches advanced Mandarin to those who can speak but want to improve their skills.

Ying Grebe, substituting for Cathy Ringstad, teaches continuing older children on Wednesday afternoon.

Nam Giang teaches young children Vietnamese. This is the second year for many of these young students.

Dance rehearsals are fun for all. Here, Nancy Wang, front, assists one end of the line of fan dancers while Meiji Chou, our choreographer and primary dance instructor, behind Nancy's shoulder, adjusts the fan of one of the dancers. Beginning, intermediate and accomplished dancers perform together. Experienced dancers have rehearsals at different times. Performances include our Chinese New Year Celebration, Rose Parade, cultural presentations for schools, organizations and stores, museums and cultural exhibitions such as our presentation at China Camp in August. Dance and be a star!

         We are planning on offering classes to teach Gu-Jen which is a Chinese musical instrument. If anyone is interested, please contact Nancy Wang  at 707-576-0533.

SEE SANTA AT OUR HOLIDAY POTLUCK!

	When: Sunday, Dec. 4th. Pose with Santa for           a free Polaroid photo from 6:00-6:30            p.m.  (Limited to the first 40 to            request photo) Potluck dinner will            follow. Where: 4-H Center, 6445 Commerce Blvd.,             Rohnert Park(behind Albertsons)
Bring a main dish entree to share for 8-10 people. RECA will provide dessert. Want to participate in our gift exchange? Bring a present under $10. Label it: "boy," "girl," "adult male," or "adult female." We will have entertainment and door prizes too. Come and help kick off the holiday season and make our celebration merrier!  For more information, call Mary Lowe at 528-8712 ext. 18

 


RECA YOUTH GROUP
By Azy Oiwa Heydon

Our RECA Youth Group is a fun and safe group that provides youth with positive experiences in a wholesome environment. We have a regular gathering time for dinner, meeting, and a movie on the first Friday of every month at 5:30 p.m. at the RECA Center.

We also get together for community cultural performances. Last week, we performed Chinese cultural dances for the non-profit organization “Face to Face” as a fundraiser for AIDS patients. Even though we (including Nancy Wang and dancers Meesha and Susan) all are extremely busy in our own lives, we still like to do meaningful things for others. We do a great deal of volunteer work around our community. 

Our youth enjoy being together, talking, playing video games, practicing kung fu, and even singing and dancing. We laugh a lot; everyone has a good laugh. As time goes on, many of our older youth have left us for college. It is sad to see them leaving us but some of our senior youth are still here to lead the younger ones by setting a good example. They learn how to socialize and learn about different cultures as well as about their own youth culture. 

It is so important for our children to involve themselves in a safe and enriching environment. One of our shy youth told me that he would be lost if there were no youth group for him because he couldn’t communicate with his own parents. Even though he does well in school, he told me that he felt like he was in a cave in his own home. He is always looking forward for our youth group meetings. Besides, he gets to eat pizza and other strange food that I put together, rather than his mom’s same old Chinese food!

We have youth from many different cultures. We try to build bridges between our diverse youth population in order to understand our multicultural America, as well as learning the values of good citizenship and community responsibility. The amazing thing is that they all get along very well and have a good time together. 

Our meetings now are in preparation for the Christmas potluck social event in December.

The winter ski trip for youth is coming up soon. We need volunteer drivers. Please call if you can help us. Your gas money and lift ticket will be provided. 

Again, for those parents who want their teenagers to join our RECA Youth Group, please call Azy or Bryce Heydon at (707) 575-9541.

RACIAL EQUALITY AWARENESS WEEK ENRICHING AND ENJOYABLE
By Mary Lowe; Photos by Joe Wang

As co-sponsor of the City of Santa Rosa’s Racial Equality Awareness event, RECA was active in this weeklong celebration beginning October 15 with our glittering dragon looming large down Sebastopol Road. Despite a weak turnout of onlookers because of the rain earlier in the morning, those storefront owners and parade goers who did show up lauded us with cheers and applause. Our 27-person dragon team took a breather at the newly opened Fusion Fitness’ parking lot for a photo op with Mayor Jane Bender, Vice Mayor Bob Blanchard other dignitaries.

We again made quite a showing at the culminating Racial Equality Celebration on Sunday, Oct. 23 at Finley Park. Among many other ethnic groups (including Cambodian, African, Native American) lining up to perform at two indoor and outdoor stages at Finley Center, RECA came out with cavorting lions, then a repertoire of entertainment including aborigine and ribbon dancers, Jimmy Fong with his incredible martial arts feats, and the team from Li’s Tai Chi Academy dazzling the crowd. With President Nancy Wang at the helm, we did not disappoint. One city official estimated that 1000 people attended this event.

Our hats off to RECA’s performers (too many to name!) and others who helped to coordinate our participation: David Chung on the SWABA (South & West Area Business Assn.) committee; RECA youth mentors Mark & Azy Heydon; dragon leaders Sean Fong and Kevin Wang; Justin Eggert and Li’s Tai Chi Academy. Thank you also to Peter Hsian, new owner of Fresh China Restaurant (formerly Genghis Khan) and Annie Wong of Kyoto Restaurant for donating entrees for us to sell; food servers Carl Wong, Jennifer Fong, Irene Fong; table display staff Thien-Huong Tran, Anna Kong, Joe Wang and Savanna Heydon. Kudos to the City of Santa Rosa for sponsoring this free community event which brought together many diverse groups to share and celebrate their cultural uniqueness and talent with the community. 

Carl Wong, Nancy Wang, Jennifer Fong, and Irene Fong served food donated by Fresh China and Kyoto Restaurants.

  


SANTA ROSA HISTORICAL CEMETERY
By Judy Cheung

RECA was honored to be asked to participate in the improvement of the Santa Rosa Historical Cemetery. Over 80 Chinese were buried there from the end of the 1800’s into the mid 1900’s. These graves were marked only with a small can of cement with a number. Now, RECA and other organizations have the opportunity to recognize those who were not allowed the dignity of tombstones in the past centuries. Our plaque will be placed on a Sonoma Mossback boulder at the entrance of the cemetery along with others of similar design. A kiosk is planned to be in that area which will describe the monuments and their significance. 

Dedication ceremonies have been postponed until spring when more work will be finished and the weather will be better. In the meantime, if you would like to take a look at the site, drive to Sutter Hospital, turn into the mental health area and take the loop behind the building. In the back, there are trees and an opening into the cemetery. It is an interesting adventure to see what is there. The Historical Cemetery backs onto the Franklin Avenue Cemetery.

Joe Wang displays our RECA plaque that will be placed in the Santa Rosa Historical Cemetery. Thanks to G&G Markets for donating the roasted chickens, RECA made enough money at the picnic to pay for the plaque without dipping into the general funds.

YEEE HAH! AUTHOR VISIT TO RECA
By Mary Lowe

Those of us fortunate enough to meet with Dr. Albert Yee from Missoula, Montana at our potluck social October 9 at the RECA Center were charmed by his presence. Enjoying lunch on picnic benches outdoors, our intimate group came back inside to mingle, chat and hear him make an informal presentation. Author of Yeee-Hah! Remembrance and Longing, a book containing his memoirs and philosophical insights, several of us had met him last summer at Copperfield’s book-signing event. RECA’s new lifetime member is a fourth generation Chinese-American who grew up in Santa Rosa where his family started a Chinese restaurant on 2nd Street in 1941. They also worked hard to buy a tree farm and property on Albert Drive which still exists today (his parents named the street after him). After serving in the Korean War, he considered staying in the military, but was influenced by his mom to continue his studies. He went on to earn a Ph.D. in psychology, was awarded a Senior Lectureship in Japan and became China’s first foreign expert in psychology after the Cultural Revolution. He also assisted the White House in planning President Nixon’s trip to China in 1972 and was instrumental in facilitating cultural exchanges between the U.S. and China.

Albert fondly recalls that teaching elementary school in Sonoma County was the happiest years of his educational career because he had freedom and creativity in the classroom, unlike schools today that focus on standardized testing. He advised parents to help motivate their children by taking an early interest in subjects they want to pursue. The sport of fencing, which he learned at Santa Rosa Junior College, changed his life by helping him to develop self-discipline and mind/body potential. His book delves into that further by discussing élan vital, “the compelling force that urges and inspires humans to excel and improve themselves.” Other topics include Asian stereotyping, the Wen Ho Lee spy case and even an appendix titled “Original Jokes” he invented. (Some of them I heard while growing up!). It was engaging to exchange ideas with a distinguished scholar, gold-medal fencer, activist, world traveler, gentleman and friend of RECA who took the time to visit his hometown in Santa Rosa and make new friends. 

L-R: Anna Kong came early and stayed late to set up and clean up. She was an invaluable help in putting on this event. Albert Yee chose some food from our marvelous array. Phi Phi Dang prepared to fill her plate. Cynthia from our Youth Group looks at our calendar of events. (Photo by Judy Cheung).

CHINA CAMP
By Judy Cheung

On Sunday, August 27th, cultural dancers and their escorts met at our RECA Center for a trip back in time. RECA Cultural Dancers were invited to provide two performances for the Annual Heritage Day in China Camp, Marin County.

We turned off of Highway 101 just past the Marin Civic Center and wound through the grassy, oak covered hills to emerge in a fishing village built over 100 years ago. China Camp is the last remaining shrimp fishing village of the many that dotted San Francisco Bay in the 1880’s to 1930’s. One family still lives there.

Upon arrival, we were given a guided tour by a park ranger. We strolled down the long pier, watched the junk Gray Swan sailing in from a turn around the bay, walked on the deck of a scow and meandered through the remaining buildings that display holding tanks, hulling mills and other exciting equipment from yesteryear. I can imagine the smell of the surrounding hills covered with shrimp drying in the sun. In its prime, China Camp and the other SF Bay shrimping communities were the major provider of dried shrimp around the world. They exported tons to China, Hawaii, and Europe and provided Chinatowns in San Francisco, Oakland and even Santa Rosa with this tasty delicacy. The parts of the shrimp that were not sold were ground up and used as fertilizer to grow food for this once thriving town.

The early arrivals posed with a Ranger who guided us through historical China Camp. More car loads came later.

Our stage was the old processing platform. Our Adult Fan Dancers perform while, back left, our young Aborigine Dancers wait for their cue to enter.

Our young Aborigine Dancers experienced their first Theater in the Round. The audience was in front, behind and on the sides of this huge stage. Face painting, souvenirs and art were sold in the booths under the awnings.

People walking to the tranquil beach stopped to watch our exquisite ribbon dancers. The slightest breeze plays tricks on the 15 foot long ribbons, making this outside performance very difficult. Our dancers came through with flying colors.

TECH TREK CAMP AT STANFORD
By Judy Cheung

The Ivy League campus of Stanford University hosts many kinds of gatherings, from athletic ones like Youth Soccer to residential ones like JHU CTY. Out of all of these, though, I doubt you can find one as special as the camp I attended this summer.

It's called “Tech Trek: A Math and Science Camp for Girls.” Put together by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), it supports 7h grade girls' interests in the fields of math and science. The selection process was very fair; you must be recommended by your math or science teacher, then fill out an application, write an essay on a given topic, and finally, be interviewed by the panel. That panel selects one girl from each Santa Rosa City School (mine being Slater) to go to Tech Trek on a $700 scholarship that summer.

Like most, if not all, I was a little nervous at first, but I must say, it all evaporated when I met my roommate and dorm mom (yes, we lived in the actual Stanford dorms) and moved in. Through the 6 days I was there, we each had a core class from 9-12 a.m. in the mornings, mine being-math. Many other girls had solar energy, astronomy, bacteriology, or marine biology. Later on in the day, we would have other fascinating classes like forensics, robotics, learn animation with a lady who works at Pixar, veterinary medicine, and learn that BATS are the reason for our agricultural success (who knew?).

The main highlights of the week were the Marine Science Institute Boat Trip and the Evening with Twelve Professional Women. We toured the waters of the San Francisco Bay in our boats, analyzing and learning about the creatures we caught and the rest who eluded our nets; that was everything from crabs to sponges, and even a shark! The evening of twelve, on the other hand, didn't have any evil European crabs to preoccupy us. All the professional women were most inspiring and intriguing, coming from all fields of science, and we learned all about what it was like to be a Mercury News scientific reporter, an Olympic gold-medalist swimmer, and even the Stanford sports coach who taught Tiger Woods! It was fantastic, and a week I'll never forget.

That camp taught me that in this world of male domination, I must demand my place and I'll pursue my goals with even more vigor. Recently, I met some truly accomplished women at the monthly AAUW Rose Branch (Santa Rosa Branch) meeting. AAUW is such a wonderful organization, with extremely knowledgeable women committed to equality for females of all ages, and with such principles! Being selected is truly thrilling, and I really feel fortunate that I've gotten to know that association, because now I finally realize that this world is undeniably my oyster!

RECA ANNUAL PICNIC
Photos and Captions by Judy Cheung

Picnickers enjoyed the gazebo area of Finley Park. There is lots of shade and good company in this clean and pleasant setting.

Cooks are hard at work. They came early and stayed late. Despite the summer heat, they cooked our chickens, donated by G&G Markets, until they were all eaten and served salad, leaf-wrapped pineapple coconut rice, watermelon and fortune cookies.

Picnic food servers had a hard time squeezing everything onto the long tables. Thank you to Phi Phi Dang who stayed up late into the night preparing our rice and the sauce for the chicken. Her husband, Calvin, along with David and Gloria Chung helped her out. The food was all delicious! Thank you!

A new feature this year, Bob Yee and friend provided guitar music as they led a sing-along of popular folk songs. Want to learn to play the guitar? Come and join Bob Yee on Saturday mornings if you are not in language class. If you are in class, join him during recess and after class. He is available to teach you various aspects of music as you learn to play the guitar.

Hula hoop contests are always popular to take part and to watch. Only the brave need apply! Yes, we did have swivel hipping hula hoop contests for older folks.

This year our Mahjong Club did not join us. However, some of our teens are accomplished at the game. Not only did they play here to show others the popular Chinese pastime, but our youth have also given lessons in some of the senior care homes as a community service project.

Talented teens from our Youth Group performed a hip hop routine choreographed and produced by themselves. If you missed this one, come to our Christmas social in December. They are preparing a new routine for us.

Led by RECA VP Mary Lowe, we had our picnic raffle, assisted by teens from our Youth Group and language classes. It's amazing how kids who are proficient in the classroom have difficulty saying numbers in public. Many picnickers were happy to go home with prizes consisting of dinner ware, cookware, seasoned olive oil and many other things. Thank you to all who donated our wonderful raffle prizes. And a special thank you to all who attended and made our picnic another big success!

PETALUMA HISTORICAL MUSEUM

High stepping RECA Lions opened the Chinese Heritage Exhibit at the Petaluma Historical Museum. Hundreds of people turned out on this balmy-turned-breezy autumn evening to see our Lions perform, and then squeezed into the museum to enjoy the exhibits and the Chinese hors d'oeuvres (Photo by Judy Cheung). 

Redwood Empire Chinese Association
P.O. Box 7854
Santa Rosa, CA 95407

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