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Friends of the Chinatown Library Business Feng Shui by Angi Ma Wong The Friends will sponsor a program on Business Feng Shui with the internationally known Feng Shui Lady, Angi Ma Wong, on Monday, April 21, 2008 at 6:30 PM in the Community Room of the Chinatown Branch Library located at 639 N. Hill Street, (at the corner of Hill and Ord Streets), Los Angeles, Ca. Angi will show us how to use feng shui to forget the disappointments and troubles from last year (the Year of the Boar) and to focus instead on the possibilities in store for us in the new year (the Year of the Rat). Angi has written 27 books including 15 on feng shui and 3 children's books (see article below). She has been featured on many television shows and magazine articles on the topic of feng shui. She is an award winning entrepreneur who started her own publishing company. Her books on feng shui include the following: Feng Shui Dos and Taboos, The US-Asian Market, A Practical Guide to Doing Business, Been There, Done That: 16 Secrets of Success for Entrepreneurs. Find out how to become a successful entrepreneur using Angi's experience and writings. Angi's books will be available for purchase and signing. The Friends invite you to join us for what promises to be a lively discussion with Angi Ma Wong. New Children's Book Celebration The Friends will celebrate the publication of Mei Ling in China City on Monday, January 28, 2008 in the Community Room of the Chinatown Library at 6:30 PM. The author, Icy Smith, the illustrator, Gayle Garner Roski, and the real-life Mei Ling, Marian Leng, will discuss their new book. Marian Leng is a volunteer at the Chinatown Library who teaches English to new immigrants on Saturday mornings. After her experiences as a young girl in China City, she became a wife, mother, nurse, and a Friends board member. To learn more about Marian's interesting life, come to our meeting. To learn more details about this book, click on New Books.
CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION 2008 Los Angeles Chinatown Events Thursday, February 7, 2008 Chinese New Year's Day Year 4706 Animal Sign is the Rat Saturday, February 9, 2008 Chinese New Year Festival 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM 109th Annual Golden Dragon Parade 2:00 - 5:00 PM Sunday, February 10, 2008 Chinese New Year Festival 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM Little King and Queen Contest 1:00 - 3:00 PM Friday, February 22, 2008 Chinese New Year Banquet at Empress Pavillion Restaurant, 6:00 PM Friday, February 23, 2008 Chinese American Museum Lantern Festival, 12:00 - 6:00 PM Festival Events take place in Los Angeles (LA) Chinatown. The entrance to LA Chinatown is at Broadway and Caesar Chavez Avenues. For more information on the festival events, click on lachinesechamber.org. For more information on the Lantern Festival, call the Chinese American Museum at 213-485-8567.
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month May 2006 SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN by Lisa See A Novel About the Secret Writings of Friends
On Monday, May 15, 2006, the Friends of the Chinatown Library, the Chinese American Museum, and the Chinese Historical Society hosted a book discussion on Lisa See's latest novel, entitled SNOW FLOWER AND THE SECRET FAN to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The novel traces the friendship of two Chinese women from childhood to marriage, motherhood, and later life as the matriarch of her family. The two main characters, Lily and Snow Flower, communicate secretly, using the Nu Shu language, written on the back of a fan. Historically, Nu Shu was a "secret-code writing developed a thousand years ago and used by women in an area of southern Hunan province. It appears to be the only written language in the world to have been created by and for women." A page from a genuine Nu Shu writing is displayed on the inside cover of the hardbound edition and shown below.
In the novel, the author explores the many facets of friendship between these two women, including the joys, victories, mistakes, tragedies, and finally the triumph of forgiveness. Historically, the author takes a realistic snapshot of a woman's status in 19th century China during customs of footbinding and arranged marriages. In the second half of the evening, there was a screening of the video tape "Nu Shu-A Hidden Language of Women in China" filmed in 1999 in the remote rural villages of Hunan Province. This book discussion and film took place at the Chinatown Branch Library Community Room located at 639 North Hill Street in Los Angeles, California, 90012. For more information, call the Library at 213-620-0925.
Author Presentation with Angi Ma Wong WHO ATE MY SOCKS? On Friday, November 18, 2005, the Friends hosted Angi Ma Wong speaking on her new children's book entitled WHO ATE MY SOCKS? Angi Ma Wong is an award-winning and best selling author of more than twenty books including several on the topic of feng shui and stress relief. Her first children's book entitled Night of the Red Moon, was nominated for a John and Patricia Beatty Award because it is a story based on historical facts. In 1871, a racial riot in Los Angeles caused a Chinese family to separate and then to reunite. Her second children's book is a rhyming tale trying to solve the mystery of missing socks. Before reading her book, Angi Ma Wong passed out socks to members of the audience. Each person had one sock from a pair. After she read all the verses, each person tried to find the mate to his/her sock. This is a fun way to engage children in learning about colors, patterns, and materials. The author shared how the book evolved, including how she picked the title and drew her own illustrations. Not only is Angi Ma Wong a successful author, she is also a successful publisher. Every book published by her company, Pacific Heritage Books, has sold enough copies to cover the costs of publication. Her Golden Rule for Family Harmony: Do not co-mingle your family's laundry; teach your children to do their own. To see the cover of WHO ATE MY SOCKS? click on New Books.
CHINESE HERITAGE COLLECTION AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW by Connie Wong How valuable is the Chinese Heritage Collection at the Chinatown Branch Library? A while back, the Los Angeles Zoo called to request information for their exhibit on the Golden Monkeys of China. Library staff found the needed information in the Collection. Disney's Epcot Center in Florida sought out an English translation of a poem by Li Bai for permanent enshrinement at one of their attractions. Library staff located the translated poem in the Collection. A Burbank woman, whose son would marry a Chinese girl, wanted to learn about tea ceremony etiquette before the wedding. Once again, library staff found the formal rules for a tea ceremony from a book in the Collection. These anecdotes demonstrate the Collection's importance as a resource not just for local residents but for people miles away from the Chinatown community.The library's current success in filling varied and unusual requests about both Chinese and Chinese American culture stands in stark contrast to the challenges of the library's formative years, when a "collection" really did not exist. In her speech to the Friends of the Chinatown Library and the Chinese Historical Society this past May 2005, former Senior Librarian, Juliana Cheng spoke of the difficulties she and her staff had at the start in 1977. Back then, patrons would call with questions or come into the library expecting to find shelves and shelves of easily accessible English language books about anything Chinese. Juliana recounted how "those were really frustrating and embarrassing times for us when we had to face people who wanted to know where that collection was located, and we had to tell them they made the trip for nothing." Slowly, with the persistent encouragement of supporters from the Chinese Historical Society; and help from the Friends of the Chinatown Library, the staff built up the Chinese American Collection (CAC) and eventually the CAC became the more inclusive Chinese Heritage Collection (CHC). Today the CHC boasts approximately 5000 titles, occupying a distinctly named location within the library, courtesy of the Intex Corporation. According to current librarian, Carol Duan, the collection space could accommodate double the current number of books and still have room for periodicals and audiovisual materials. Browsers of the collection can immerse themselves in books about Chinese dog breeds, Hong Kong comics, Yao Ming, Cantonese Opera and the Mississippi Chinese. Kids can read the Runway Rice Cake or Tales of a Chinese Grandmother. Carol states while the collection continues to grow, its purpose remains multifold; to be a centralized resource on Chinese and Chinese American culture for all library system patrons, including educators, researchers, and the movie industry, and to be a cross-generational teaching tool for deeper understanding and awareness of the unique aspects of Chinese life. Anyone can donate funds so the library staff can order the newest books and materials pertinent to the collection. Another great way to fill those shelves is for people to donate their personal copies of CHC books when they downsize their home libraries and dens. Bookstores and publishers could contribute a copy or two of a needed title. And the staff would appreciate donations of current magazine subscriptions as well as published journals or anthologies from universities. Reaching the point of having to expand the Chinese Heritage Collection space is a dream for the Chinatown Library Staff. For now this special collection will continue to keep its title as the best and most unique of its kind in this corner of the world
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