Due to the slippery roads and extreme cold weather, tonights meeting is cancelled. The meeting has been rescheduled for Tuesday, February 13th.
Thanks,
CCGGGR Board
Don’t let the cold weather keep you away from our Chinese New Year meeting. We just received word that the Chinese Village dancers will be performing a brand new dance that they will be performing at the Chinese Association event later this month.
Lily An also has a craft planned for the kids that will help decorate your house for the Chinese New Year. I’m sure she can also help us all learn the traditional new year greeting. Lily will also have tickets to the Chinese Association Gala event which will take place on February 24th. For more details you can visit the CAWM website.
Happy New Year
Xīnnián kuà ilè
Come celebrate the year of the Pig. Get dressed up in your favorite Chinese outfit and enjoy a family style potluck dinner. Bring a dish to pass and your favorite dessert. Punch and table settings will be provided by the group. We will meet at Our Lady of Consolation located in Rockford, for a MapQuest link click here.
Social time begins from 6-6:30
Dinner from 6:30-7:15
Entertainment: The Panda Pals will be performing the Lion Dance. Of course, it wouldn’t be CNY without firecrackers….at least the sound of firecrackers as our kids jump of bubble wrap. Bring your earplugs and definately bring your camera’s and camcorders.
Happy New Year
Xīnnián kuà ilè (pronounced Shin nian kuai la)
We need your honest feedback as it relates to our monthly meetings. Attendance for our monthly meetings has dropped dramatically and the board has a few guesses as to why, but they are just that, guesses. Last night we hired Mr. He to teach calligraphy and papercutting and only had a few people attend (4 adults participated). In fact within the past year, we have had very little attendance outside of the larger events (Chinese New Year, etc.)
Please let us know your thoughts and if you’re willing to share, why you and your family have not been attending. This will help us decide which direction we need to take as an organization. Email addresses for board members can be found here
Thanks in advance,
Your Board of Directors
Members of the Culture Group have asked many times if there was an introductory class tailored for adoptive parents or adults traveling to China. Chinese Village has had a long standing relationship with our culture group and is now offering just such a class.
During the 6 weeks students will learn standard greeting in Chinese, how to ask for directions, bartering in the marketplace and other necessary phrases for getting around in China.This new class utilizes the Chinese-At-A-Glance book that can be purchased at Barnes and Noble or any other online bookseller like Amazon. Students will learn the PinYin system, which is the romanized or phoentic way to spell the Chinese language. Sentence structure will also be taught so that students can increase their vocabulary after classes conclude using the English/Chinese dictionary included with the Chinese-At-A-Glance book.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn Chinese but didn’t have the time resources that a semester course demands, please consider this class. Class meets on Saturday for 2 hours which is much more convienent for most adults.
Class will be taught by Esther Wang, who’s teaching format has helped equip dedicated students with the building blocks to begin speaking the Chinese language very quickly. Class is held at Keystone Community Church which is located between Spaulding Ave and Ada Drive.
To signup for this class please visit http://www.chinesevillage.org/register.html
xie xie,
Mark Elenbaas
CCGGGR Secretary and Webmaster
Our next Panda Pals Event is coming up soon! On Saturday, January 27, 2007, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m., we will meet at Char Lanning’s home office. Leonard VanGelter will be teaching the Panda Pals to perform the traditional Chinese Lion Dance. They will perform the Lion Dance for CCGGGR Chinese New Years party on Tuesday evening, February 6, 2007. Char has one set of cymbals, 2 lion heads and a drum. If anyone else has similar Lion Dance supplies which we could use, please let us know.
We need RSVP’s to know how many Pals will be coming on Saturday. We need some volunteers to supply cookies, drinks, fruits and vegies for snacks. We will order pizza for lunch.
If you are not already registered with Panda Pals and would like to come to the next event you can signup here
We are very excited to have Xixiang He demonstrate the art of Calligraphy to our group. This is a great opportunity for the whole family to get involved! We will be creating scrolls of our childrens names written with Chinese characters. Xixiang may also have time to do some paper cuts so don’t forget to bring some supplies from home.
The meeting will be held at our regular meeting place which is at Our Lady of Consolation in Rockford. The meeting time will be from 6-9pm which is a bit longer than our usual meeting duration but we need the extra time to accomodate the event. If you are interested in attending please signup here as supplies are limited.
Supplies that can be purchased at the meeting:
Supplies that need to be brought from home:
If you’ve got any further questions please email Dan Richter
Beginning in January 2007 we will be moving to a pay-per-meeting dues system. We realize that families may not be able to attend every meeting and so a pay-per-meeting structure offers more flexibility for our families.
The meeting fee will now be $5 unless otherwise stated in an event announcement. Both the meeting fee and the building donation can be paid at the beginning of each meeting. If you’d rather just pay the flat $40 dues for the whole year you can still do that by clicking on this link
Respectfully,
CCGGGR Board
Our next Panda Pals Event is coming up soon! Saturday, December 9, 2006, directly following the CCGGGR Christmas Party, 3:00-6:00pm. We will meet at Our Lady of Consolation Church in Rockford, MI. We will be shopping for the orphanage gifts and have our own Panda Pals party at Char Lanning’s. We plan to prepare gift bags for orphanages for our service project. The contents of the bag are yet to be determined.
A dim sum Christmas is the theme for our party this year which is scheduled on Dec 9, 2006 from 11am-2pm. Bring your favorite Chinese dish and dessert to pass. The group will provide something to drink and place settings. We will be meeting at our regular meeting place which is Our Lady of Consolation in Rockford, MI click here for a map.
The Panda Pals have an event planned immediately after the party. If you’re interested in learning more about our older kids group please contact Char by clicking here. For a list of upcoming events go to Panda Pals
For the younger kids, and for those that are just young at heart, there will be an appearance by Santa.
Chinese Village will have a few items for sale: kleenex box covers, wine bottle dresses(qipao), table runners, placemats with matching chopsticks and also pillow covers.
To signup for the party please click here
Below are a few links on traditional Dim Sum dishes.
