Chinese New Year is on February 1, 2022: it is the Year of the Tiger.
The Southern Oregon Chinese Cultural Association, SOCCA, will not be presenting the Chinese New Year celebration in Jacksonville in February 2022, Year of the Tiger. This decision was based on multiple factors, including the unpredictability of the pandemic and the difficulty in enforcing the current statewide COVID-19 guidelines given the nature of this community event.
Posted on our website www.socca.us are new videos of “Introduction to Beijing Opera” (presented by Ghaffar Pourazar at Grizzly Peak Winery) and “Revolutionary Bodies,” a presentation by Emily Wilcox on Chinese classical and folk dances and its cultural history through current revolutionary performances. Many events from last year can also be viewed on our website. Additionally, SOCCA is co-hosting with Jacksonville Community Center for local historian Larry Smith in a presentation of “Jacksonville’s Historic Chinese Community” on Saturday, February 12, 2022: click here for information and registration.
SOCCA continues to work with our local and out-of-town partners to present cultural and historical programs as they become available. On July 29, 2021, SOCCA co-sponsored with Friends of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument and Southern Oregon University Anthropology Laboratory in a Zoom presentation by Chelsea Rose titled “The Chinese Railroad/Diaspora”; and on July 31 an escorted hike through the Buck Rock Tunnel.
We wish everyone a Happy Year of the Tiger and we want to thank our sponsors U.S. Bank, Peter Sage and the Oregon Community Foundation for their support this year.
Please join Southern Oregon Chinese Cultural Association and community partners in celebrating 2022 Year of the Tiger.
While long-time Jacksonville residents may know about the important history of Chinese immigrants during the town’s gold rush era and the decades that followed, newer residents may be unaware of the important contributions of these workers and business owners in that period. The town had an active Chinese quarter with stores, hotels and boarding houses, a doctor, carpenters and laundries. The immigrants faced extreme racial discrimination in relation to owning property, taxation and operating businesses, notably mines. Despite these barriers, hundreds of immigrants lived here, some developing robust businesses and serving in leadership roles. Come to learn about the fascinating history of these energetic and resourceful inhabitants!
This session will begin in Jacksonville Community Center’s Great Room with a slide presentation about the Chinese community, followed by a walking tour of key local sites where they lived and worked.
Among many of his favorite stage-roles, Ghaffar Pourazar was most adept in performing as the ‘Monkey King’ a well-loved mythical character. After meeting primatologist Jane Goodall, he was inspired to write and adapted Goodall’s life in his Beijing opera style. Last year, SOCCA sponsored a presentation by Ghaffar Pourazar in a workshop “My Beijing Opera Dream and Celebrating Jane Goodall’s Bestiary” at the Grizzly Peak Winery in Ashland.
This video is a talk Professor Emily Wilcox gave at the University of Chicago in 2021. In her 2018 book, Revolutionary Bodies tells the history of the creation and promotion of what is today known as “Chinese dance, from the 1930s to the present, with vibrant stories, diverse dance artists and original footage and photographs of dance choreographies. This is the talk for you!
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