Planning to be in Chinatown for the Lunar New Year Day Parade? Come early and visit the CHSA Museum before the Parade on February 11, 2012 from 11am-4pm!

The Museum has a full day of FREE programming highlighting unique Chinese-American experiences in celebrating the Lunar New Year. The schedule includes:

11AM
Opening Ceremony & Dragon Dance by Corey Chan and
Kei Lun Martial Arts

12PM
Author, Rock Icon, and co-Anchor of KTVU’s Lunar New Year Parade broadcast Ben Fong-Torres speaks about Musings of a Pop Culture Icon

Lunar New Year Crafts with JoAnn Lee

1PM
Connie Young Yu gives a Curator’s Tour of the exhibit Sun Yat-Sen: An American Legacy

Author of Good Luck Life Rosemary Gong presents on Chinese New Year cultural practices

2PM
Actor Lily Tung Crystal performs as Tye Leung Schulze,
the first Chinese American woman to vote in the US and a translator for the Angel Island Immigration Station

3PM
Artist-in-Residence Charlie Chin performs a repertoire of songs from the Asian American experience

On Display
Follow That Dragon: Chinese New Year Parades in America,
a new exhibit produced by CHSA to commemorate the Lunar New Year

Finding Jake Lee: The Paintings at Kan’s in the Yick Gallery

Plus much more! Please call us at (415) 391-1188 x101 or email info at chsa.org for more information.

Travel back in time at Dragon ReMix, a new twist on Lunar New Year celebrations that revives the nightlife of Old Chinatown. For one night only, the CHSA Museum opens its doors for a unique celebration remixing history with fresh beats, signature cocktails, tasty dim sum treats, and retro scene of early Chinatown.

For more information, contact: info@chsa.org | 415-391-1188 x101

Thursday, February 9, 2012, 6pm-9pm
At the CHSA Museum
FREE EVENT

Sponsored by PG&E

FEATURING:

• Music by d.j.o.g.
• Tasty eats by The Chairman food truck
• No-host bar with signature Dragon cocktails
• Parade costume dress-up with Pika Pika Photos
• Fashions by Bok Choy Apparel for sale

RSVP to receive a free drink ticket!

RSVP on Facebook >

As members, your input is very valuable and your participation is essential in determining the direction of the organization. If you have not yet already received your ballot, please call us at (415)391-1188 x101.

In addition to taking care of business, we will also celebrate the holidays with a Holiday Sale! Pick up Chinese Americana for the holidays to give to friends & family!

Located at 1135 Powell Street in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the festivities on Saturday, December 10, 2011 from 12 noon to 2 pm will include lion dancing and unveiling of honoring plaques, as well as speeches by City Librarian Luis Herrera, and Germaine Wong on behalf of the Him Mark Lai Library Committee.  Mayor Ed Lee and District 3 Supervisor David Chiu have also been invited to speak.

This event will also FEATURE the following projects:

Book launch of Him Mark Lai: Autobiography of a Chinese American Historian (Edited by Judy Yung with Ruthanne Lum McCunn and Russell C. Leong; co-published by UCLA Asian American Studies Center and Chinese Historical Society of America, 2011).  The book is being published posthumously & copies are available at the CHSA Museum for purchase ($18 for members, $20 for non-members).

Film preview of Felicia Lowe’s work-in-progress, Barefoot Historian (the story of Him Mark Lai and the particulars of documenting an excluded/marginalized group)

Book display of Him Mark Lai Collection (all his books and major articles on Chinese American history donated by his wife Laura Lai to the library)

Video Him Mark Lai- The Master Archivist

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Ben Fong-Torres (left) and Art Garfunkel (right) mimic a famous album cover

Join Author & Rock Icon Ben Fong-Torres as he speaks about his illustrious history with the rise of rock n’ roll at the CHSA Museum on Saturday, January 14, 2012 at 1 pm.

This is the first Second Saturday of 2012 and the event is free with Museum Admission. Please call (415)391-1188 x101 or email info@chsa.org to RSVP.

Ben Fong-Torres was born in Alameda, California, in 1945, and raised in Oakland’s Chinatown, where his parents owned a restaurant. He attended San Francisco State College from 1962 through 1966, majored in Radio-TV-Film and served as a reporter and editor of the campus daily.

Fong-Torres began writing for Rolling Stone magazine in 1968, in its eighth issue. Prior to that, he had a full-time job at another publication: Pacific Telephone’s employee magazine and by night, he was a volunteer editor at East West, a bilingual Chinatown newspaper. In May, 1969, Ben joined Rolling Stone as news editor. His interview subjects included Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones, Ray Charles, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson 5, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye, the Grateful Dead, and Ike & Tina Turner.

He was the host of KQED-FM’s live, weekly arts show, Fog City Radio, and has co-anchored KTVU-TV’s coverage of the Chinese New Year Parades since 1997. He and co-anchor Julie Haener have won three Emmys. Ben left Rolling Stone in 1981 and has since written for dozens of magazines, including Esquire, GQ, Parade, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, Travel & Leisure, American Film, TV Guide, and Harper’s Bazaar.

In 1983, Fong-Torres joined the San Francisco Chronicle, where he was a feature writer and radio columnist and where he continues to write the Radio Waves column on Sunday. He is also a prolific published author, including his memoirs The Rice Room: From Number Two Son to Rock and Roll (1994), Not Fade Away: A Backstage Pass to 20 Years of Rock & Roll (1999), which was followed by a second collection, Becoming Almost Famous, in 2006. He wrote The Doors by the Doors (2007), Grateful Dead Scrapbook (2009), and Eagles: Taking It to the Limit (2011).  He contributes articles to AsianConnections.com and writes a regular music blog at Wolfgang’s Vault’s site. He is a real-life character in Almost Famous, the 2000 film by Cameron Crowe.