The following is an excerpt from 01/26/25 Ding Ding TV:

By Gerrye Wong, CHCP Co-Founder and Trustee

The CHINESE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL PROJECT kicked off Chinese New Year of the Snake on January 23 when it held its annual CHCP membership dinner at the China Stix Restaurant in Santa Clara. The dinner is a welcome gift to all 2025 members so it was a wonderful celebration for over 180 of the CHCP membership to renew their pledge to support this worthwhile organization.

Incoming Co-President Kimberly Eng Lee, as MC of the evening, proudly stood under the CHCP banner on stage and welcomed all to the happy crowd assembled for the banquet dinner. A rip-roaring Lion Dance team, led by Liz Chew and Alan Fong at the drums, strolled through the tables in proper Chinese New Year fashion to the delight of the audience. As the Lion came to the stage and stood 12 feet tall, one member on top of the other’s shoulders, they displayed their Happy New Year Banner, while Board Treasurer Elizabeth Lee and Co-Founder/Trustee Gerrye Wong placed in its mouth, red li see envelopes in appreciation for their coming to bless the CHCP membership.

CHCP’s Student Docent Cultural Ambassador Program members came on stage to explain Year of the Snake traditions and showed off a beautiful Happy Lunar New Year of the Snake brochure presented by SDCAP members Sada Gill, Zacharee Ho and Jessica Li.

MC Kimberly announced to the audience that Gerrye Wong had received an Award of Excellence from the American Association for State and Local History for her decades of preserving and sharing Chinese American history in California.

2024 President David Yick came to the stage next to call to order his last membership meeting and recalled all of the CHCP’s events and projects that happened during his many years’ reign.  He led the Installation of new members of the governing Board of Directors, Trustees, and Advisory Board members, assisted by Advisory Board member Connie Young Yu. Outgoing President Dave was praised by Vice President Ingrid Lai and presented with a framed poster signed by all of his 2024 Board members.

Keynote Speaker Asst. Professor of Anthropology, Dartmouth University, Dr. Jiajing (JJ) Wang gave an interesting slide show presentation on her findings on “Uncovering Chinese Food Practices Under the Microscope.”

This was followed by exciting news from Brenda Hee Wong, Teddy Sue, Beatrice Lee and Phil Sexton who announced that their drive to petition the California Summit Tunnels to become a national historical landmark site was approved by the National Parks Service. The Summit Tunnel was part of the Transcontinental Railroad feat near Donner Summit completed with the help of Chinese railroad workers.

Musical entertainment came with Emily Zhang playing the beautiful Chinese melody, “Fighting with the Typhoon,” on her guzheng instrument.

A highlight of the evening came with the honoring of two Chinese American World War II veterans Harry Lim and Wing Lai to celebrate their 100th birthdays. Both men had been featured in the CHCP film “Our Story of War and Remembrance” that had been dedicated to the veterans of the China-Burma-India Theatre in WWII.

2025 Co-President Kimberly Lee announced the upcoming activities CHCP will embark on in the coming year and encouraged more to contribute their volunteer time and services. Unable to attend, 2025 Co-President Arthur Jue spoke via video on his plans for the future of CHCP which showed this organization will never relax its mission to preserve and present Chinese American history to all. To close the program, Peter Young and Ingrid Lai presented door prizes to a wildly enthusiastic group of winners as a fond farewell for another year for CHCP members and supporters.

For more information: Read the full 1/26/25 Ding Ding TV press release.