Chinese Culture Group of Greater Grand Rapids

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:

• Rice Paper ($1/four sheets)
• Brush/Pen ($3 per brush)

Supplies that need to be brought from home:

• Pencil
• Scissors
• Construction Paper

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.

• http://chinesefood.about.com/library/weekly/aa070700a.htm
• http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/article.3159.html
• http://recipes.wuzzle.org/index.php/46

Silent Auction scheduled on November 4, 2006 from 5-7pm at ChinaTown Restaurant at 69 28th St. in Wyoming, MI

Monies to benefit the CCGGGR Panda Pals group and also help defray overall group expenses.

Cost for dinner is as follows: Ages 3-5 just $4, Ages 6-10 is $5 and 11+ is $9 We are asking that families RSVP and pay using the link below so we can plan accordingly for setup and dinner preperation. There will be a $3 charge for payment the night of the banquet.

signupup now

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Don’t click that back button, you’re still on the CCGGGR site, we’ve just re-designed it for ease of use and added some new features. If you’re looking to signup for an event please go to the Signup menu and then choose the event you are signing up for.

1. Links to adoption related sites can be found on the right hand side. I’ve also included links to a couple China news sites to help us all keep up on what’s happening in China.
2. A photo gallery has also been added so everyone can enjoy pictures from our events. To protect the groups privacy, this section cannot be viewed unless you have a username and password. Contact me at webmaster@ccgggr.org for a signon
I’d love to hear any suggestions you might have for enhancing this site. You can send comments to webmaster@ccgggr.org

zai jian,

Mark