About the Alaska Chinese Association
Contents
1. Introduction
Alaska Chinese Association (ACA) is a non-profit organization with no political or religious affiliations. The main purpose of the association is to maintain social contacts and to provide cultural and educational functions to the Chinese community. It was first established in 1976 and is now in its 29th year of operation. Originally, there were about a dozen families, now our membership includes over 170 families. The majority of our members come from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Southeast Asia, but we also have many second and third generation Chinese-Americans and non-Chinese members as well. Our members come from all walks of life. We have government workers, petroleum engineers, teachers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, accountants, and airline/airport-service personnel, among many others.
2. Structure
The board of directors and four officers run the Association. The officers of the Association are the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. The board of directors consists of 13 members including the four officers. There is a set of bylaws guiding our operations. The end of our fiscal year is March 31. Annual meetings for elections are usually held in late March.
3. Activities
The Alaska Chinese Association is staffed with capable volunteers, organizing all kinds of exciting activities, some focusing on the Chinese community and others open to the Anchorage community as a whole. Though our members have many other commitments and everyone is loaded with responsibilities, the quality of our programs and activities continues to improve.
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Activities within the Chinese community
Every year, ACA celebrates Chinese festivals and hold events like Children's Day, Mother's Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival, Christmas and Chinese New Year. Sometimes, after the potluck meals, there are performances. The Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese New Year are often the biggest events each year. Members help out each year by making rice dumplings (Tsung-zu) for the Dragon Boat Festival. Moon cakes are provided for the Mid-Autumn Festival. The Chinese New Year features programs like the Lion Dance, folk dances, and musical performances. For the past two years, ACA has organized & sponsored the Overseas Chinese Art Festival (China Night) at the Discovery Theater of the Performing Arts Center.
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Activities for the Anchorage community
Often at the request of the Anchorage community and the school district, we participate in all kinds of cultural activities and performances, such as the annual Asian Culture Night. We also send members to elementary and secondary schools to introduce and promote Chinese culture and tradition to the local students. The Association works closely with the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Seattle to coordinate performers such as the Goodwill Mission, the Lan Yang Dance Troupe and the Chinese Musical Orchestra. Even though these activities demand a lot of energy and commitment, we have been very proud of our efforts, especially in seeing the success of each one of them. We are also proud of our continued commitment to the promotion of the Chinese culture to our community. This is not only a privilege, but also a responsibility.
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Chinese School
The overseas Chinese in Alaska have always hoped that our younger generation will have a comprehension of the Chinese language. However, this has not been an easy task. In the past several years, the Chinese School has been re-organized. We have a Principal and a Vice Principal. We requested the use of Central Middle School classrooms and set up six classes: phonetic symbols, pre-school, beginners class, elementary class, intermediate class, and advanced class with over 80 students. Classes are held on Friday evening from seven to nine. After school, we have extracurricular activities such as calligraphy, folk dance, lion dance and arts & crafts to help students appreciate Chinese culture. The teachers and the administrators are only compensated for their cost of transportation. We collect a small amount of tuition (or supply fees) to help pay for transportation costs. We have volunteer parents in the PTA to assist the school principal. The founding of the Chinese School has been a goal of our Chinese community. We, the Chinese in Alaska, take pride and comfort in realizing this goal.
4. Outlook and Goals
The Association is growing and doing an outstanding job for the Chinese community and the Anchorage community as a whole. Of course, we can and we will continue to improve. We set the following goals:
- To continue to improve the image of the Association internally and externally.
- To continue to improve the Chinese School so that our students can master their language skills.
- To continue to promote our Chinese culture in the community.
- To serve our members as best as we can.
By Edwin Chan
Edited by Steven Ning
September 2005