Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim on AM 1490 WGCH and Anywhere on WGCH.com: March 2018

Saturday, March 31, 2018

Coming Up Next: Unknown Tibet at The Asia Society New York City with Dr. Deborah Klimburg-Salter and the Tucci Expeditions and Buddhist Painting

Unknown Tibet: The Tucci Expeditions and Buddhist Painting is at the Asia Society New York City until May 20, 2018.

Listen to the show here

Mysterious, exotic, even other-worldly Tibet’s aura has captured the imagination of the Western mind for centuries.

On February 27, 2018 Unknown Tibet: The Tucci Expeditions and Buddhist Painting opened to the public at the Asia Society in New York City. The exhibition features stunning paintings collected by Italian scholar Giuseppe Tucci during his 1926-1948 expeditions to Tibet, along with striking photography of his travels.

Go to this link for an introductory video of the exhibition.

The paintings – on loan from the Museum of Civilization – Museum of Oriental Art ‘Giuseppe Tucci’ in Rome, Italy are on public view for the first time in the United States.

The exhibition closes May 20, 2018.

Tune-in to 1490 WGCH/WGCH.com Greenwich, Connecticut USA at 10:30 a.m. Eastern USA Time/10:30 p.m. Beijing Time on April 7 as we welcome the exhibition’s guest curator Dr. Deborah Klimburg-Salter, PhD.

She received her PhD from Harvard University in 1976, followed by her Habilitation from University of Vienna in 1989.

Klimburg-Salter is an art historian and emeritus professor of non-European Art History at the Department of Art History, University of Vienna. She is director of the research platform Center for Research and Documentation of Inner and South Asia, as well as director of the research network The Cultural History of the Western Himalaya financed by the Austrian Science Fund.

Her other accomplishments include being a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies, Princeton; Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin; and at Magdalen College, Oxford University. She has been visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania; the Oriental Institute, University of Oxford; the Ecole Pratique des Haute Etude in Paris; and she was the Mary L. Cornille Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Humanities at Wellesley College.

Deborah Klimburg-Salter is the research director of the Giuseppe Tucci Photographic Archive. Her work has involved extensive fieldwork and writing on the art and archaeology of Afghanistan, Northern India and Tibet.

The Asia Society was founded in 1956 by John D Rockefeller 3rd. It is the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among people's, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. Learn more at AsiaSociety.org.

We'll have our usual segments, including our Weekly Almanac of exhibitions and events you can attend all across the USA.

Tune in Saturday, April 7, 2018 at 10:30 a.m Eastern USA Time/ 10:30 p.m. Beijing Time for more of our half-hour weekly ongoing celebration of all-things Chinese. Go to 1490 WGCH or anywhere, anytime on WGCH.com, Greenwich, Connecticut USA.

Need to listen at your convenience? We've got you covered! We'll post the show online at our free-access archive of shows at Podcasts.com and at the top of this post, too. WGCH.com also features out latest shows on its Shows & Hosts section.

Xiexie! Thank you for tuning in to Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim. My weekly news blasts and blog site are here to connect you to my show on NewsTalk AM 1490 WGCH Radio, China and the other cultures of East Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Subscribe by email to MarvelsofChina@gmail.com. If you prefer not to receive messages please respond with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject-box of your email.

Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim's broadcasts are from AM1490 WGCH and anywhere on WGCH.com in Greenwich, Connecticut USA.

This show is title-sponsored by Beijing AmBridge International Culture Development Ltd. You are invited to explore how an alliance with Beijing AmBridge can help your company or organization grow and prosper. Call Beijing AmBridge's office in Beijing at 86-10-80775517 or email ambridge01@163.com.

When you visit San Francisco be sure to make the Grant Plaza Hotel your choice for quality accommodations. This impressive boutique hotel is has all the advantages: great location, easy access to ground transportation, clean, safe and easy on your budget. Staff are cheerful. professional and helpful. The Grant Plaza is one block up from Dragon's Gate and within walking distance of Union Square and Market Street, even Nob Hill. Restaurants and theaters are nearby. Located at 465 Grant Avenue, San Francisco, California 94108-3208.

The Pacific Learning Consortium in Honolulu, Hawaii and Greenwich, Connecticut sponsors of the weekly Confucius Moment. Now collaborating with the Admissions Network of Chinese Universities and Colleges by offering the Sino-American Cultural Exchange Scholarship Program. Now qualified Americans can study on full scholarships for their Bachelors, Masters and Doctoral degrees at Chinese universities. Get started today by contacting PacificLearningConsortium@gmail.com. Learn more online at www.pacificlearningconsortium.org.

This weekly show is also made possible by individual listeners like you all around the world. Thank you!

Monday, March 26, 2018

Coming Up Next: Qingming Festival with Douglas Chong in Hawaii

Listen to the Show Here

Each year the annual Qingming Festival -also known as the Pure Brightness Festival or as Tomb-Sweeping Day- falls on either April 4 or 5 on the Gregorian calendar. This year it falls on Thursday, April 5, 2018.

On the Saturday, March 31 broadcast of Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim I’m featuring an encore conversation with a good friend of this show, Douglas Chong of the Hawaii Chinese History Center in the heart of Honolulu’s Chinatown.

The festival -one of twenty-four solar terms on the traditional Chinese calendar- includes cleaning the tombs of and paying respects to the deceased with offerings of favorite foods and more.

The living among us also enjoy and appreciate the beautiful scenes of Nature as temperatures rise, trees awaken from winter’s slumber and turn green -a tradition traced back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD). Flying kites is another activity people engage in, too.

Douglas Chong will explain and educate us about all this and more as only he can.

The show will feature our usual segments -the Confucius Moment, Treasures of China, the Weekly Almanac of things to do and places to see, Chinese Fun Facts, news, announcements and more!

Tune in Saturday, March 31 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern USA Time/10:30 p.m. Beijing Time on 1490 WGCH and WGCH.com anywhere.

Subscribe by email to MarvelsofChina@gmail.com. If you prefer not to receive messages please respond with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject-box of your email.

Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim's broadcasts are from AM1490 WGCH and anywhere on WGCH.com in Greenwich, Connecticut USA.

This weekly show is also made possible by individual listeners like you all around the world. Thank you!

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Coming Up Next: Dr. Karen McNeill, Women's History Month and a Salute to Trailblazing Architect Julia Morgan

"Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves."

Architect Julia Morgan.

Listen to the Show Here.

As we continue to observe Women's History Month in the USA I'm featuring an encore interview originally broadcast in 2017 on Conversations with Dr. Karen McNeill, the nation's foremost authority on American Architect Julia Morgan.

As California's first female licensed architect, Morgan's designs are masterpieces.

What's her Chinese connection? She designed the building pictured above. The Chinatown YWCA in San Francisco is today the headquarters and museum of the Chinese Historical Society of America.

McNeill will once again illuminate us about this one-of-a-kind architect.

Her other designs include Hearst Castle at San Simeon, and here in Hawaii -where I am hosting from once again- Laniakea, the YWCA in downtown Honolulu across from Iolani Palace.

Tune for the broadcast on Saturday, March 24 at 10:30 a.m. Eastern USA Time for the latest in our journey together celebrating all-things Chinese on Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim on 1490 WGCH Radio and WGCH.com anywhere.

Subscribe by email to MarvelsofChina@gmail.com. If you prefer not to receive messages please respond with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject-box of your email.

Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim's broadcasts are from AM1490 WGCH and anywhere on WGCH.com in Greenwich, Connecticut USA.

This weekly show is also made possible by individual listeners like you all around the world. Thank you!

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

Coming Up Next: Filmmaker Robin Lung & Finding Kukan, A Salute to Li Ling-Ai and Women's History Month

Li Ling-Ai in the 1930's.

Listen to the Show here

“… Brilliant, indolent, and beautiful. She comes to the class arrayed like a princess of Cathay in long Chinese gowns. She has been over the world intellectually and physically. She is a dramatist and a dancer, cynical, gay and withering in her powers of intuition,” so said Harry Carr, a Los Angeles Times daily columnist and journalism teacher in Hawaii of the one and only Li Ling-Ai.

It’s Women’s History Month across the USA. On the upcoming March 17, 2018 broadcast of Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim I’m featuring an encore interview first broadcast on the show in 2016.

Hawaii-based Robin Lung was just introducing her award-winning documentary Finding Kukan to 21st century audiences. Through her persistence and diligence we were treated to a history like no other and to a vivacious and spirited Chinese American woman named Li Ling-Ai.

Born in 1908 as the sixth of nine children, Li Ling-Ai’s foundations in Honolulu were anything but conventional:

Her parents were among the first Chinese doctors practicing western medicine in Hawaii during the late 1800s. Her mother Kong Tai Heong was a popular obstetrician and way ahead of her time. Choosing to keep her maiden name, Dr. Kong kept a busy professional practice while raising nine children.

Li Ling-Ai’s father was Li Khai Fai, a principled physiologist who was vilified by many Chinese for reporting one of the first bubonic plague cases to the authorities in 1900, resulting in what author James C. Mohr calls “the worst civic disaster in Hawaiian history” next to the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor — the accidental burning of the entire Chinatown district and the forced quarantine of all its inhabitants.

And:

Though she defied tradition in many ways, Ling-Ai identified closely with her father and his efforts to bring reform to China. After the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, it became her mission to bring China’s plight to the attention of the western world. Educating Americans about the history and culture of China was an integral part of that mission, and she would employ her dramatic personality and exotic beauty to do so. (Read more here)

In 1937 Li Ling-Ai’s picture appeared on the front page of the Honolulu Star Bulletin. Flying a plane was not a common activity among women of any background -anywhere. She was lauded for her desire to fly a plane to support China’s resistance to a militarized Japan’s invasion.

She remarked, “I like the wind in my face.”

That story and her picture brought her to the attention of Honolulu Advertiser reporter Rey Scott who would become her filmmaking partner on the film Kukan.

It was this film that jolted Americans into action through a remarkable new medium: 16mm Kodachrome color film. Li Ling-Ai hired Rey Scott to travel to China and capture on film the massive bombings taking place -including the Japanese bombing of China’s wartime capital Chongqing.

Their film Kukan received an Academy Award in 1942 -only the first time an Oscar was bestowed on a documentary shot in color. It was screened in the White House by President Franklin Roosevelt and called “awesome” by the New York Times.

But Li Ling-Ai never received the credit she was due -and the film itself seemed lost forever.

That is until Robin Lung set out on what would be a seven-year quest to find Kukan and shed light on the remarkable Chinese American female firebrand from Hawaii who defied convention, calling attention and action to saving China from the horrors of war.

To learn more about Finding Kukan I invite you to go to this web link.

Lung’s documentary has earned awards and recognition, so we salute Robin Lung and Li Ling-Ai.

Please go to the web site and support Robin Lung’s efforts and attend a screening!

I’ve set up a page on MarvelsofChina.Blogspot.com where you can learn more.

Tune in this coming Saturday, March 17, 2018 on 1490 WGCH and anywhere via live streaming on WGCH.com Greenwich, Connecticut USA.

You can be sure that we’ll have the show online and ready to listen at your convenience on our channel on podcasts.com and on the Shows & Hosts section of WGCH.com. We’ll feature my conversation with Robin Lung and so much more!

Everything Chinese is all the rage these days. No exceptions. We promise.

Subscribe by email to MarvelsofChina@gmail.com. If you prefer not to receive messages please respond with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject-box of your email.

Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim's broadcasts are from AM1490 WGCH and anywhere on WGCH.com in Greenwich, Connecticut USA.

This weekly show is also made possible by individual listeners like you all around the world. Thank you!

Thursday, March 8, 2018

Coming Up Next: Michelle Chan of Oakland's Dragon School, the Street Mural Art Scene, the All-Chinese Weekly Trivia Contest and More!

Listen to the Show Here

Congratulations! Welcome back! You made it through Chinese New Year!

I hope that your travels were safe and worry-free, and that your celebrations were filled with heartfelt family reunions and a galaxy of smiles.

I also send my congratulations to the listeners of Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim in the 1490 WGCH Greenwich, Connecticut local listening area. The area has been hit by severe late-winter storms dominated by high winds, snow, sleet, rain, falling trees and power losses.

Despite it all the staff of WGCH kept the station open and on-the-air. Thank you!

Rest assured, our celebration of Chinese culture never stops here. After all -as we consistently assert- everything Chinese is all the rage these days. So true!

I just returned from a trip to San Francisco where I -along with hundreds of thousands of locals and visitors from around the world- celebrated the Spring Festival, the largest such celebrations outside of Asia.

The four-hour-long Chinese New Year parade was the highlight of my time there. It was simply magnificent and off-the-charts.

I want to send a sincerest aloha and xiexie to Ken Ho and his staff at the Grant Plaza Hotel, The Posh Bagel, Cool1 Tea (the mango tea was fabulous), Utopia Cafe and Katsu House.

On Conversations this coming Saturday I am welcoming Michelle Chan of Dragon School in Oakland, California’s Chinatown. When I visited San Francisco’s Chinatown I was, quite frankly, drawn and dazzled by the street murals along the district’s streets and alleyways. The colors and figures are bold, colorful and expressive, inspired by centuries of Chinese traditions -old and yet made new again. I was bound and determined to find out who was behind all this -which is how I encountered Dragon School.

Profiled on NBC News, the San Jose Mercury News, the East Bay Express and other media sources, Chinatown communities are being reborn through collaboratively created art by young people.

You can sample Dragon School’s art online, join the fun and contribute to its on-going mission on the web at DragonSchool99.com.

But there’s more! Your horizons will be widened on the Confucius Moment, Treasures of China, Chinese Fun Facts and more. The Weekly Almanac of all-things culturally Chinese to see and do will be back.

Get ready for the All-Things Chinese Weekly Trivia Contest! I’m giving away a free copy of The Beautiful Country and Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present by John Pomfret. He was a featured guest on Show #105 on February 3, 2018. Go here and listen to the show.

The first listener to answer the question correctly by email at MarvelsofChina@gmail.com will receive Pomfret’s book. Be sure to include your full name and address.

Tune in each Saturday morning 10:30 a.m Eastern USA Time/ 11:30 p.m. Beijing Time for more of our half-hour weekly ongoing celebration of all-things Chinese. Go to 1490 WGCH or anywhere, anytime on WGCH.com, Greenwich, Connecticut USA.

Is your electrical power out? Need to listen at your convenience? We've got you covered! We'll post the show online at our free-access archive of shows at Podcasts.com and at the top of this post, too. WGCH.com also features out latest shows on its Shows & Hosts section.

Subscribe by email to MarvelsofChina@gmail.com. If you prefer not to receive messages please respond with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject-box of your email.

Marvels of China: Pathways to the Pacific Rim's broadcasts are from AM1490 WGCH and anywhere on WGCH.com in Greenwich, Connecticut USA.

This weekly show is also made possible by individual listeners like you all around the world. Thank you!