By Aldrich Tan/Staff writer

Editor's note: This is the first installment in a two-part series on what many Chinese-Americans believe is a fading appreciation for Chinese culture in the Central Valley - and what can be done about it.

August 27, 2005

Margo Huang approached the Central California Chinese Cultural Center in Visalia last month to ask whether Chinese-language classes were available.

The answer was no. Classes had been discontinued because of lack of interest, curator Joel Eubank said.

Huang was shocked. She'd recently had a conversation with a friend about the most important language to learn in the decade ahead.

"I said, bluntly, Chinese, because of the country's growing economic ties with the U.S.," Huang said.

The absence of Chinese-language classes at the center is just one indication of a failure to preserve Chinese culture in the Central Valley, Huang said. Visalia is home to 3,196 Asian-Americans, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, and is a place of historical importance to Chinese immigrants.

But the cultural center, created in 1990, mainly hosts fund-raisers and dinners, she said.

"Diversity is the most important thing to preserve in any community," Huang said. "But right now, it seems that Chinese culture is an endangered species in the Valley."

Differences

Huang attributes the fading of Chinese culture to several factors, including differences within the Visalia area's Chinese-American community.

For example, the directors of the cultural center are of Cantonese ancestry, having emigrated from the Huadu district of the Guangdong Province in Southern China. They own businesses in the Central Valley, including large local supermarket chains.

Huang, in contrast, is part of a group of Taiwanese immigrants who came to study in the United States in the 1970s. These immigrants tended to establish professional careers in the Central Valley, said Sidney Chang, a professor emeritus in history at California State University, Fresno.

Many gravitated toward the medical field, Chang said.

“We are just two different groups with different interests,” said center director Raymond Chun Wong, a grocery-store owner.

Taiwanese professionals weren’t involved in the construction or development of the Chinese Cultural Center, said Shu Dean Hsu, 62, a medical professional who lives in Visalia.

“Those who were born or lived in the Central Valley for generations were considered oart of the Chinese community,” Hsu said. “The newer immigrants were not considered a part of that community. If you didn’t speak Cantonese, then you were really out of the loop.”

Visalia is a difficult place for fostering Chinese culture, Huang said. Few central Valley residents travel internationally, she said, so there’s little opportunity to interact with different cultures.

And that friend who wondered about the most important language to learn?

“Even if my friend found a Chinese class, whom would she speak to?” Huang asked. “Everyone here speaks English!”

Those of Cantonese ancestry have a problem of their own when it comes to retaining their culture and heritage, Wong said. Children don’t necessarily want to follow their parents’ career paths.

“Many of the children of grocery-store owners don’t want to take over the stores,” Wong said. “They would rather become doctors or engineers.”

Time spent in a foreign culture also plays a role in the slipping away of tradition, Chang said.

“Naturally, as one lives longer in the United States, Western identity and values become more predominant,” he said.

The cultural center was proposed in 1984 by Cantonese businessmen. Among other things, it was intended to commemorate the Cantonese community’s achievements in the Central Valley and to maintain ties with the Guangdong government, Wong said.

For example, the center helps the Chinese government raise money and build schools in China, Wong said.

The cultural center also works to preserve aspects of Chinese culture in Visalia, Eubank said. It invites artists from China to hold classes on such subjects as the martial arts and calligraphy.

But the artists come only every other year, and then on a once-a-month basis, Eubank said.

Other than hosting banquets and fund-raisers, the cultural center hosts annual celebrations of Chinese New year and Confucius’ birthday, Wong said.

Confucius’ philosophy may be the key to breaking down cultural barriers that prevent community members from reaching their goals, Chang said. Confucius believed that human beings have more in common that they appreciate.

“The key is for the Chinese of the Central Valley to discover that they have more commonalities that differences,” he said.

Wong said he is willing to work with the Taiwanese professionals on reconciling those differences.

“Our group came together and took the initiative to build the center,” he said. “They need to take the initiative to come talk to us.”

Huang is eager to do so.

“I definitely respect the Cantonese community,” she said. “They are the first Chinese immigrants to the United States and experienced a lot of struggles to establish their place here.”

Chinese cultural center history

March 1984: Chinese cultural center proposed by Chinese business owners in the San Joaquin Valley. Spokes- man Herman Kong explains its importance:

"Our culture has been melted into the Western culture, our kids have intermarried - we want to preserve the integrity of our culture," he says. "It's not that there's anything wrong with Western culture. It's just a criminal shame that most of our kids don't think ... their old-world culture is important."

February 1990: Central California Chinese Cultural Center opens in Visalia with Chinese dance exhibition.

August 1990: Jade lion statues from Taiwan arrive at the cultural center.

October 1991: Taiwan sends Music Artists of the Republic of the China to a reception at the cultural center.

June 1995: Experts from China offer two weeks of free classes in tai chi, Chinese folk dance and calligraphy.

Next week in Life

Changing times call for a revival of Chinese culture in the Central Valley, say Chinese-Americans of various ages and backgrounds. Why is it important to everyone in the Valley? And how do advocates plan to achieve their goals?

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