Sacramento's Chinatown Mall Culture Fair
Bridging the Future to the Past

 

2009 Chinatown Mall Culture Fair Huge Success

The 3rd Annual Chinatown Mall Culture Fair held on September 27, 2009 in Sacramento’s Chinatown Mall was a huge success. Up to 5000 visitors, many as far away as San Francisco, Stockton, Marysville, and the foothill communities of Auburn, Nevada City, and Truckee, came to Sacramento’s Chinatown Mall to enjoy a day of Chinese culture, arts, and Chinese-California history.

Notable elected officials such as California State Assemblymember Mariko Yamada, Sacramento County Supervisor Jimmie Yee, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, Sacramento Councilmember Robert King Fong, and Councilmember Ray Tretheway came to pay tribute to the historical land where the first Asian-Americans to came to seek their fortune in Gold Mountain, move mountains building the Transcontinental Railroad, part the waters building the vital delta levees, and lay the foundation to California’s world-class agriculture.


Click on the right button to view more photos by noted community photographers Thomas Chin, Joseph Cheung, and Clifford Lee . Click on the left button to go back to previous photos.
To view the 2008 Chinatown Culture Fair slideshow click here.
To view the 2007 Chinatown Culture Fair slideshow click here.

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As part of the In the Shadows of Exclusion: From Angel Island to Chinatown program, nationally renowned Chinese-Americans such as Professor Emeritus Judy Yung, author of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island and Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present, EMMY award winning producer, director, and writer, Felicia Lowe with her Angel Island film, Carved in Silence, Fulbright scholar Shawna Yang Ryan, discussing her book, Water Ghosts, Eddie Wong, Director of Angel Island Immigrant Station, Eddie Fung, captured Chinese American WWII soldier made famous by the film, The Bridge on the River Kwai, and Sacramento's own Chinese American WWII heroes of Chung Mei Post 8358 who fought for the rights of all Americans though they were denied those same rights due to Chinese Exclusion laws.

The 2009 Chinatown Mall Culture Fair also included the Angel Island Immigrant Station Foundation, Gateway to Gold Mountain exhibit in the gym of the Confucius Church. The following week the exhibit was made available for student visits in order to help educated Sacramento's children on the importance of tolerance and unity.

Chinese, East Indian, Russian, and American media covered the event with the Sacramento Bee, KBTV, KOVR CW31, and NTDTV/San Francisco covering with live reports. The Chinatown Mall opened its doors to all of Sacramento with a full program of over 15 performing acts from throughout Northern California including a Lion Dance with Master Sifu Hubbard of Eastern Ways Martial Arts, Tai Chi with Master Sifu Renee Neal and Master Sifu Janny Wu, Contemporary Chinese Songs, Chinese Traditional Dance with Sacramento Folk Dance Studio, Chinese Kung-fu with Master Xena Wu, Chinese Music with the CDR Chinese Orchestra, and Traditional Dances with the nationally renowned Red Maple Dance Group.