By Gerrye Wong, CHCP Co-Founder and Trustee

On March 13, KTSF reporter Mina Li met me and Arthur Jue at the Chinese American Historical Museum in History Park San Jose to interview us about the work of our Chinese Historical and Cultural Project and the museum. She and her cameraman spent a wonderful time with us and they filmed a 30-minute program with us. Surprisingly, they presented our interview in full without any deletions on April 19 and 21 on KTSF Channel 26. In spite of our nervousness and surprise of being on screen with the broadcast, I must commend my partner, CHCP Director Arthur Jue, for doing a wonderful job of showing off our museum and giving his thoughts of why it is important to volunteer in groups like CHCP to preserve and present Chinese American history. In case you missed the program, here are sections of it saved by Advisory Board Member Ron Chan, with permission from KTSF, who edited the program down to 14 minutes by eliminating the Mandarin translation part from Mina to share with our friends. It was a great opportunity for me to promote the group and museum I helped co-found with colleague Lillian Gong-Guy and a wonderful team of directors back in 1987.

Thank you KTSF and Mina Li for helping inform your Chinese American audience of our museum and organization.

By Brenda Hee Wong, 2024 CHCP Director and SDCAP Chair

For Women's Heritage Day at History Park, CHCP screened several short videos celebrating contributions and accomplishments of Chinese women from the past and the present. The videos were created by members of CHCP's Student Docent Cultural Ambassador Program (SDCAP).

Everyone in attendance said they learned something new or learned more about the notable, trailblazing Chinese women of historical or contemporary influence. Very personable and animated interactions by SDCAP Members Sophia Zhang (project leader) and Vanessa Lam were made with the rapt audience.

The following is an excerpt from 01/29/24 Education Week:

By Sarah Elia

Sarah Elia is an English-as-a-new-language teacher in the Saugerties, N.Y., school district. She sometimes also teaches Chinese enrichment classes to elementary students.

New York announced last fall that all its public schools will have a day off for Lunar New Year starting in the coming school year. Schools in the Empire State will thus be joining those in districts in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and elsewhere that already officially recognize the holiday. The day off for students is part of growing school attention to a celebration important in many Asian nations and among people of Asian descent in the United States.

For more information: Read the full 01/29/24 Education Week opinion piece.

The following is an excerpt from the 01/28/24 San Jose Mercury News:

By Sal Pizarro, Bay Area News Group

The Chinese Historical and Cultural Project had a lot to celebrate at its anniversary dinner Wednesday night at China Stix restaurant in Santa Clara, an event that doubled as an early Chinese New Year party. Co-founder Gerrye Wong said that membership in the group dropped dramatically during the pandemic to less than 70 people, but President David Yick made bumping those numbers up a priority — and the membership rolls now top 300. Nearly all of them seemed to have packed the restaurant, where they heard a keynote from retired KGO-TV newsman David Louie.

Yick says the next goal is to recruit enough docents to allow the CHCP’s museum, housed in a replica of the Ng Shing Gung temple at San Jose’s History Park, to open to visitors every weekend. Go to www.chcp.org to find out more.

By Gerrye Wong, CHCP Co-Founder and Trustee

The CHINESE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PROJECT had a grand celebration honoring the new 2024 Board of Directors and Advisory Board installed at the China Stix Restaurant. Around 200 members and guests renewed their support of CHCP that evening. A fine banquet meal was served to all, with dinner being complimentary for membership renewals and new enrollees that evening. 

Guest Speaker of the evening was retired ABC Reporter David Louie who spoke of his journey from age 5 to his retirement with 50 years in the television industry. He recalled the lack of Asian reporters in media as far back as the 1970s, and the difficulties so many of the Asian industry pioneers faced to get recognized and on the air.  Louie recalled that of his many stories, the one interview that stands out in his mind was being the first to interview Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta following the 9/11 airplane attacks and covering Mineta’s public declaration of the grounding of all planes on that fateful day. He recalled being in the center of so many Bay Area happenings, such as the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and having the experience of being one of the first newsmen to enter China after President Richard Nixon’s China visit which opened that country to the United States and the outside world.

Members of the media acknowledged that evening for their media coverage and active support of CHCP were: ABC reporter Dion Lim, NBC reporter Robert Handa, and Bay Area News SJ Mercury columnist Sal Pizarro.

KTSF reporter Christina Chow, Ding Ding TV CEO Diana Ding, and former US Congressman Mike Honda were also in the audience to show support of all the works CHCP has done for over 35 years in San Jose.

CHCP’s new dragon had its inaugural appearance led with much fanfare by Board member Mike Mak. Following Chinese tradition, the body and especially the eye of the dragon were dotted in red to bring good fortune, health and blessings to CHCP supporting members in 2024 Year of the Dragon. The eye dotting ceremony was followed by 50 raffle prizes awarded to many happy members by Board member Peter Young and Advisory Board member Joshua Zhang.

It took a team of a complete board and dedicated SDCAP student volunteers to produce a wonderful program telling of our own history and encouraging the audience to support the Preservation of the Summit Tunnels Site which was constructed by Chinese railroad workers and is an important part of California's history.

It was a grand start to a good year for CHCP in continued sharing of Chinese American history and culture to its Santa Clara Valley citizens. The goal of the group is to open their wonderful Chinese American Historical Museum every Saturday of the year so more people can view the historic 1800s altar used by Chinese immigrants as their temple of worship, Chinese school and hostel. The CHCP museum is located in History Park San Jose and welcomes all to come and learn about the proud history of our forefathers in Santa Clara Valley.

View a short video of the Membership Dinner (courtesy of Ding Ding TV):

By Metrica Shi, 2023-2024 Student Docent Cultural Ambassador

Happy 2024! Over 20 adults and students in SDCAP kicked off 2024 with the New Year's Social on Sunday, January 14th. Members learned to create various crafts, played various board games, and engaged in lively conversations over festive snacks. Thank you everyone for joining us and making this student-hosted event a success!