mcca newsletter october 2013

President’s Message

MCCA New sletter October 2 01 3

Hi Everyone,

Well Summer has flown by, and now we’re heavy into our Autumn festivi-ties! Here’s a look back—and for-ward—at all that’s happening with MCCA.

I'm very pleased to announce our new partnership with College of Mar-in! By now you’ve all seen the COM Summer Course Catalog with MCCA's Lion Dance Team featured on the cover. MCCA offered three separate programs as we launched our joint adventure:

1) Four 1-week-long Mandarin sum-mer camps, where kids could learn

Mandarin in a friendly, fun, active environment at a very reasonable cost. (Unfortunately, low enrollment ended up canceling this program.)

2) A sold-out 7-week adult Chinese

Go

Green –

Newsletter

now

Available

by

Email

O c t o b e r 2 0 1 3 馬連縣中國文化會壹零壹貳年 + 月

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

President’s Message 1

Member Close-up….

Summing it up….

1

China’s Poet—Du Fu 4

Lion/Dragon Team Cal-

endar…. MCCA Classes

6

Dragon boat festival…

Family Day Photos

7

MCCA Board Roster… 8

Newsletter Contributions 8

The Purpose of MCCA is to promote the understanding, appreciation and preservation of all aspects of Chinese culture, in-cluding the language, history, customs, music, art, and cuisine of the Chinese and Chinese-American people.

Summing it Up…

Earlier this year long time MCCA members Jean B. Chen and Pete Stanek won a Meritorious Service Award presented at the National Math Conference Prize ceremony, They were honored by a reception

and dinner with the national Mathemat-ical Association of America (MAA.org) president.

The following is from an interview the MCCA Newsletter held with them.

MCCA: Have you and your husband

Look who made the cover of the lat-est College of Marin Catalog cover. Find out why…..

Artwork contributed by

M. Kathryn

Thompson

蛇年–Year of the Snake

MCCA Newsletter October 2013

always liked math?

JC: I have always loved math because it is logical and interesting.

PS: I cannot think of a time when mathematics was not absolutely fascinating for me.

MCCA” How did you get interested in math?

JC: Math found me.

PS: As a child in school, I found that mathematics was able to solve seemingly impossible problems. Mathematics always appeared mysterious and tanta-lizing. Also, useful in many areas.

MCCA: Did you always find it always easy?

J EAN AND PETE—CONTINUED

brush painting class, with well-known

master Mr. Alan Cheng S Lun.

3) A two-weekend course in Chinatown history, FromDynasty to Democracy, including a walking tour with delicious Dim Sum Brunch.

MCCA’s mission is to promote the understanding, ap-preciation and preservation of all aspects of Chinese Culture, including the language, history, customs, mu-sic, art, and cuisine of the Chinese-American people. I'm excited for this opportunity for all Marin County residents get to know us better. Let's join forces to welcome the partnership, and then enrich the upcom-ing programs.

MCCA is also leasing space at the Indian Valley cam-pus from COM as our new headquarters. We are planning classes and activities on the weekends for adults, young adults, teens, and children. We are in the planning stages and are open for suggestions, so any fun and interesting or inviting topics will be wel-come.

Other Summer and Early-Autumn fun has included:

• Our Family Day picnic at College of Marin’s IndianValley Campus (June 23).

• Our very successful food booth at the Marin CountyFair (July 3-7). Thanks to our leaders Bob Chin and Faye Chin, and to all the wonderful workers (and es-

JC: It was easy in high school but it has not been easy in college and beyond. Because math is so captivating, I spent time studying it. Some math problems had taken me years to solve.

PS: I suppose I found mathematics easy be-cause it was only a matter of logic and following the rules for computation and symbol manipula-tion. Mathematics has a rigid, yet simple stand-ard. Matters are either true or false. What could be easier?

MCCA: How does society value math skills?

JC: Society values math skills because without math, there could not be engineering, computer science, electronics, physics, chemistry, eco-nomics, etc. Most people are proud to say they are not good at math. They seem to think some are born to know math when it actually takes lots

pecially our great teens) who volunteered.

• Our first-ever venture into the Dragon Boat Festi-val on Treasure Island (Sept. 14-15). Thanks to fearless leader Meg Duficy-Kang and our hearty volunteers.

• Our rain-delayed but still lovely Harvest Moonbarbecue picnic (Sept. 22), featuring Kim Luu’s delicious ribs and those traditional moon cakes.

We have even more great events coming up over the next few months. Be sure to mark your calen-dars:

• Open House Picnic. Sunday, Oct. 20, 12-3 pm.Enjoy the beautiful COM/IVC campus and share a potluck picnic with your MCCA friends and family.

• Winter Festival Potluck, Sunday, Dec. 8, 4-7 pm.Bring the whole family and learn to make delicious dumplings, which we’ll cook in Kim Luu’s fabulous Winter Melon Soup.

• The Bay Area Discovery Museum Lunar NewYear Festival with the MCCA food booth, Feb, 17.

Chinese New Year Banquet. Saturday, Feb. 22, 5-9 pm at San Rafael’s B Street Recreation Center. We’ll gather for our party of the year, with exciting entertainment, great food, and always-wonderful MCCA community.

Thank you all for continuing to support MCCA and its goals. It’s all of us, together, who make MCCA the wonderful, important, successful organization that it is…...Denise

Volume 1, Issue 1

JEAN AND PETE—CONTINUED

of effort to become good at math.

PS: It seems to me that society at large takes math-ematics for granted. Sure, everyone is pleased that radio and TV works, computers do useful things, structures do not fall down, day follows night quite predictably. Appreciation and value are not quite the same. Society appreciates the results of mathemat-ics, but does not intimately value this study.

MCCA: Was there someone who inspired you?

JC: I had many really good teachers, especially at the University of Chicago, where world-class mathe-maticians devoted their lives to do math. They as-sumed I would go to graduate school to earn a doc-torate in math. After a while, doing math became my calling.

PS: I was inspired by many teachers who were inter-ested in explaining the universe if only I would take the time to learn. After a time, it was very important to me personally to reach the next level of under-standing. Likely I spent a lot of time musing over the discoveries of Newton and Einstein. In my childhood technology was exploding, and mathematics was the foundation.

MCCA: Did your family foster your interest?

JC: My family considered education very important but they didn't encourage me to study math.

PS: My family must have wondered about my ob-sessions, but they never tried to interfere. If any-thing, they allowed my interests to develop without constraints. They allowed me to skip graduating from high school and college because I couldn't wait to earn my master's and doctorate degrees in order to do research in math.

MCCA: How important is good teaching, as com-pared to having a natural talent?

JC: Good teachers inspire students to see the beau-ty of math. All children are born to love patterns and math but somehow they are turned off by math along the way. I think it is really important to study and think about math all the time until math becomes a way of life.

PS: Good teaching? Absolutely essential if we are to succeed as a society. I believe we are all born talented, our brains wired for mathematics. Good teachers can bring mathematical talent to light. Parents are even more critical to success in mathe-matics.

MCCA: When you first studied math, were there many woman in the field?

JC: No, there were only a few women math ma-jors. I never had a woman professor in college, and that was regrettable because I didn't have a role model for my professional path. So I invented my own career path. For the first 15 years of my tenure at Sonoma State, I was the only woman fac-ulty member at the Department of Math.

PS: Few. But I didn't seem to notice. I attended an all-male high school, so women were not in the picture. Jean broke ground in this area, and be-came a leader and role model for female students.

MCCA: Any advice you and or your husband have for the MCCA student members?

JC: I believe any MCCA student member can suc-ceed in studying math. Anyone can choose mathe-matics as a profession. Professions are rated eve-ry year nationwide. A couple of years ago, being a mathematician was rated the best profession, fol-lowed by statistician, and then actuary. All three are math related fields. Being a math professor is absolutely the best job in the world. It is challeng-ing and fun!

PS: I completely agree. Parents should encour-age children in all academic pursuits. Since I think studying and learning mathematics is easy, parents have a simple task to channel their children's inter-ests. Students, I think, should take time to think about their own future and make their own deci-sions. I hope no one falls into the trap of thinking that mathematics is too hard to learn or too much work.

The MCCA congratulates Jean and Pete on their awards.


China’s Poet -- Dù Fǔ 杜甫

Du Fu, whose influence on Chinese poetry has been compared to Shake-speare’s influence on English literature, lived from 712 to 770 AD and was born near Luoyang in Henan Province, China. While Charlemagne was consolidating Europe, which was locked in the Dark Ages, the Vikings were raiding Europe, the Mayan empire was col-lapsing, China’s Tang Dynasty was enjoying “a golden age of cosmopoli-tan culture.” But on the horizon were dark storm

clouds. In the final fifteen years of Du Fu’s life, a horrific eight-year civil war tore China apart. The Civil War started with General An Lushan declaring himself emperor of Northern China and forming the parallel Yan Dynasty. As a result, China never dur-ing the remainder of the Tang Dynasty regained the stability, cultural standing, or territorial scope it had achieved in the early Tang Dynasty.

Ironically given Du Fu’s literary stature, existing rec-ords reveal that he failed his Civil Service exams, for poetry no less, in the city of Chang’An (now Xi’an, where the terra-cotta warriors were un-earthed.) At the time, Chang’An was the capital of Tang Empire and likely the world’s most populous city. Passing the Tang civil service exam was an important milestone because China appointed its officials based on their performance in these stand-ard civil service exams just as today’s Chinese stu-dents gain entrance to universities based on one test. (And of course in the United States, high SAT or ACT scores opens doors to the most selective colleges today).

Because he didn’t pass the exam, Du Fu spent the next twenty odd years traveling around the country, starting a family and working in several office jobs. During this period, he began corresponding with the elder Li Bai (701-762), another giant among Chi-nese poets of the Tang period. They met twice, in

744 and 755. Shortly thereafter, the Civil War that would decimate two thirds of the Tang population broke out. As so often is the case in history, hu-manity reflects most profoundly on its state in times of pain and misfortune. Du Fu greatest poems were written in this period - nearly 400 of them – many describing the tragedy of the times. Here is one po-em that captures the zeitgeist:

兵车行 Song of the Wagons -- Du Fu

…We know now having boys is bad,While having girls is for the best;

Our girls can still be married to the neighbours, Our sons are merely buried amid the grass. Have you not seen on the border of Qinghai,

The ancient bleached bones no man's gathered in? The new ghosts are angered by injustice, the old

ghosts weep, Moistening rain falls from dark heaven on the voic-

es' screeching.

…信知生男恶

反是生女好

生女犹得嫁比邻

生男埋没随百草

君不见青海头

古来白骨无人收

新鬼烦冤旧鬼哭

天阴雨湿声啾啾

In 754, Yan Dynasty General An Lushan was assas-sinated. Capitalizing on the Tang-Yan Dynasties conflict, Tibetan King Trisong Detsen captured Chang’an in 763. Over the next years, Chang’an was seized and sacked by outsiders several times until it was finally recaptured by the Tang. The city of “protracted peace” became anything but.

To evade the chaos of war, Du Fu headed back to Luoyang and, according to one source, in his final years turned to Buddhism, and “made a pilgrimage to Holy Huen Mountain where he was discovered by a magistrate familiar with his works.” He was feted at the magistrate’s house. He “had not for many years seen such a feast and ate hungrily. Then at this host’s request, he tried to compose and sing, but he fell down exhausted. The next day he died.”

Volume 1, Issue 1

About two thirds of Du Fu’s estimated 1500 po-ems remain today. Because Du Fu was the first Chinese poet “to write extensively about real, immediate social concerns”, he is sometimes called the “poet historian.” Du Fu’s realism is apparent in the subject matter of many poems but is also reinforced by his technical virtuosity. Stanford critic James Liu cites a poem about a river in Hubei Province as an example of that virtuosity:

…The stars drooping, the wild plain (is) vast;

The moon rushing, the great river flows….

…星垂平野阔

月涌大江流…

Du Fu, he writes, reveals himself as the observ-er of life by describing objectively the movement of stars, the river, and the reflection of the moon in the water…” And Du Fu employs a verb for each noun, so that his imagery “has greater rich-ness and is more suggestive of movement.”

A major theme noted in Du Fu life is his struggle between, “service or seclusion, duty versus re-clusion,”- between choosing between “a lifetime of loyalty and service to the emperor and state” or a life of withdrawal from the confusion of the world and an irrational government. Explained in terms of China’s philosophical heritage, “Confucianism emphasizes the social responsi-bilities of man, while Taoism emphasizes what is natural and spontaneous in him… These two trends correspond roughly to the traditions of classicalism and romanticism in Western thought." Despite Du Fu’s struggles with Confu-cian thinking, the fact that he also harbored a “panoramic view of the human drama” in which “he saw that unfolding drama as a part of Chi-na’s vast landscape of natural process” gave him “a geologic perspective, a vision of the hu-man cast against the elemental sweep of the universe” In his poetry, Du Fu sought to recon-cile his Taoist worldview with his Confucianism.

I can only imagine Du Fu time “Twittering” across the ages to our era with his poetry - warning us that no matter how fractious our soci-ety becomes, we must strive to work out our dif-

ferences – his tweet would be that there are few human tragedies as great as that of a divided society turning on itself. It is no wonder that Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1983), the San Francisco-based poet and a translator of Du Fu’s poems perhaps sums up Du Fu best as "the greatest non-epic, non-dramatic poet who has survived in any lan-guage."

Two good places online to find bi-lingual translations of Du Fu poems.

http://www.mountainsongs.net/translator_.php?id=9

(translated by David McCraw who received his PhD in Chinese Poetry under James JY Liu, at Stanford)

http://www.chinese-poems.com/du.html

(a excellent compendium of various translations.)

Another online source

https://www.duo.uio.no/bitstream/handle/123456789/24120/Kunish.pdf?sequence=5

Winding River (1)

Each piece of flying blossom leaves spring the less, I grieve as myriad points float in the wind.

I watch the last ones move before my eyes, And cannot have enough wine pass my lips. Kingfishers nest by the little hall on the river,

Unicorns lie at the high tomb's enclosure. Having studied the world, one must seek joy, For what use is the trap of passing honour?

曲江二首 (一)

一片花飞减却春

风飘万点正愁人

且看欲尽花经眼

莫厌伤多酒入唇

江上小堂巢翡翠

花边高冢卧麒麟

细推物理须行乐

何用浮名绊此身

http://www.chinese-poems.com/d40.html

http://www.mountainsongs.net/translator_.php?id=9

http://www.chinese-poems.com/du.html



http://www.chinese-poems.com/d40.html


DRAGON & LION DANCE TEAM

PRACTICE SCHEDULES PRACTICE LOCATION: at Marin Recycling

Center, 535 Jacoby, San Rafael

(Environmental Classroom) Marin Recycling Center

Subject to changes: depending on whether we have enough performers

Oct 5 * Marin Recycling

Center

9am to Noon


Center

9am to Noon


Center

9am to Noon


Center

9am to Noon

Nov 2 NO PRACTICE

Nov 9 Room my not be

available

9am to Noon

Nov 16 Marin Recycling

Center

9am to Noon

Nov 23 Marin Recycling

Center

9am to Noon

Dec 7 Marin Recycling

Center

9am to Noon


Center

9am to Noon


Center

9am to Noon

Dec 28 NO PRACTICE

Jan 4 Marin Recycling

Center

9am to Noon


Center

9am to Noon


Center

9am to Noon


Center

9am to Noon

Feb 1 Marin Recycling

Center

9am to Noon

A Warm Welcome to Our

Newest Members

Herb & Pauline Ancell

Hanlon & Patricia Chan

Bruce & Kari Doll

Stone & Dina Duong

Darcy & Lou Ellsworth and daughters

Lily & June

Jennifer Fung

Benjamin & Erin Hailer and daughter Chloe

Yoshi Hollis

Mike & Christine Murdoch and children

Ian & Cecilia

Lieu Phan

Ken & Karen Rosenberg

Yonghua & Ginger Tai and son Mason

Conor Mangat & Rachael Wear and children

Oliver & Spender

Katherine Shotwell

Bernice Wong Brown and children

Myles & Harrison

Bill Stephens & Elaine Wong and daughter

KimberLee

David Wong & Priscila and children

Brett, Scott, & Kaitlin

Open to New members Performances:

January 31, 2014 Chinese New Year

August 14, 2014, (Sun) Ariane and John wedding

Reception 1 West Blithedale Ave . Mill Valley

Beginner & Intermediate Mandarin Classes Mandarin classes are offered every Monday at the Marin Justice Center

at 30 North San Pedro Road, Suite 290 in San Rafael.

We have a beginners class that Jie Zheng teaches from 6:00 to 7:30 pm.

The intermediate class is taught by Emily Peng from 7:30 - 9:15. Both

teachers use the Integrated Chinese textbook. Come for engaging inter-

active learning and an opportunity to meet new people. All those inter-

ested should contact Jean B. Chan at [email protected].

Tai Chi Classes Sifu Francis Wong and his wife Simu Elaine Wong teach the Guang Ping

Yang style of Tai Chi every Sunday morning at Terra Linda High in the

courtyard from 8 - 9 am. Sifu Wong has studied under Grandmaster

Henry Look for over 20 years. For more information, please contact Francis (Fritz) by email at [email protected].

Volume 1, Issue 1

PHOTOS FORM FAMILY DAY JUNE 23, 2013 ATN THE INDIAN VALLEY

CAMPUS OF COLLEGE OF MARIN .

The Dragon Boat Festival

at Treasure Island

by Meg Dufficy-Kang

The MCCA decided to join this

year's 18th Annual Dragon Boat

Festival as an official vendor and

take the leap by selling the tradi-

tional Dragon Boat Festival

food:

Zhongzi!

Although not a well known

food to many Americans, it is

historically an integral part of

the Dragon Boat Festival all

over Asia…As to be expected,

it was not the number 1 seller,

not even the number 10 seller

but it was greatly appreciated

by those who were familiar with

it!..

The organizers of the Festival

were grateful that MCCA had add-

ed to the cultural significance of

the Festival and one of the Chi-

nese newspapers were so sur-

prised and impressed that we

were selling zhongzi there, that

they ran an article with a picture of

MCCA members in the next day's

paper!

We also sold Denise's famous

strawberry lemonade which was a

big hit, luo ma kai as well as some

pork buns which arrived fresh out

of the Clement street oven both

mornings and bottled water…all of

which helped to boost sales!

The weather was ideal and we

had a beautiful spot on the wa-

terway from which to watch the

races! The Energy was young

and electric! There was ongoing

cultural entertainment each day

with a special area for children's

rides and activities and lots of

stands promoting healthcare, the

environment and selling Chinese

cultural gifts!

This is the largest Dragon

Boat Festival in the US with

over 120 teams and 3000

paddlers participating! Bene-

fits of the Festival go to 'The

Self Help for the Elderly

Group and the Chinese Drag-

on Boat Association Youth

Program..

Participating in this wonderful

festival for the first time was a

challenge and a worthwhile

learning experience! We hope

that all of you will join us next

year!

2013 MCCA BOARD OFFICERS

Denise Wear Co-President

Bob Chin Co-President

Kim Luu Treasurer

Amy Jonak Secretary

Jean Bee Chan Publicity & Asian Scholarship Chair

Ed Lai Programs Coordinator

Ben Chuck Lion Dance Coordinator

OTHER BOARD MEMBERS

Yee Lee Coliero

Meg Dufficy-Kang

Jie Zheng

Elizabeth Hom

Jason Lau

David Wong

Francis Wong

Harold Hirsch

Tasha Yee

Karen Koenig

This newsletter is published quarterly. We wel-

come submissions in the form of articles, re-views, news, calendar events, recipes, photos, or drawings from any interested members or their children. Submissions should be made by

DECEMBER 1, 2013.

We also wish to acknowledge the businesses of

our members. If you would like your business listed in the next newsletter, please submit it by

DECEMBER 1, 2013.

Please send submissions by email to

[email protected]

The MCCA newsletter can now be delivered to

you as a .pdf file by email. If you wish to save a tree and receive the newsletter by email instead of USPS, please contact us at:

[email protected] Check us out on Facebook… www.FaceBook.com/MarinChineseCulture or the web at www.MarinChineseCulture.com

Please Note: The MCCA will mail out a new membership roster to members in the 2014. Members

who have not paid their 2014 dues will not receive the new roster. Questions? Contact: [email protected]

Marin Chinese Cultural Association

P.O. Box 2053

Novato, CA 94945-2053

mailto:[email protected]

mcca newsletter october 2013

Education