EXCITEMENT IN SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA
EXCITEMENT IN SAN JOSE
BY Gerrye Wong August 4, 2024
Anyone standing outside of San Jose Stage Theater in downtown San Jose last Saturday night could hear raucous laughter and enthusiastic applause coming from the sold-out crowd attending the First Annual AAPI Playwright Festival. The audience was there to cheer on six emerging local playwrights do a 10 minute reading of their latest play offering. Usually readings can be boring with two characters standing in front of a podium turning the pages of their script they are reading from, but that night’s presentation surprised and pleased the audience. A team of very talented AAPI actors with script in hand actually did extraordinary performances of the plays. CATS President Leianne Lamb said she was amazed at their talented presentation as they barely had a week of rehearsals to perform in these 10 minute plays.
As Artistic Director Jeffrey Lo explained, “ To be able to present six unique stories by AAPI playwrights, with two API directors and an entirely AAPI ensemble of actors is a real testament t to another generation of playwrights and their offerings of AAPI stories to what an exciting time it is AAPI representation in the arts.” Lo is a local boy who said he always wanted to be an actor, director and playwright since his high school days on the east side of San Jose. As the Artistic director of this evening’s productions, he comes with a long line of credits, the most prestigious to me being the Leigh Weimers Emerging Artist Award, because Leigh was a personal friend of mine back when he was the San Jose Mercury News’ premier columnist on the local scene, and his legacy of this award is being carried on through his wife, Geri Weimers.
Thanks to the presenter Contemporary Asian Theatre Scene (CATS) for instigating this inaugural festival and like Lo, I personally hope that this annual festival will keep that momentum going to encourage new works by enterprising young new Asian American playwrights. How often are we given the privilege to see premier showings coming from fine new aspiring playwrights presenting plays with some kind of Asian theme. Featured playwrights showcasing their work before a very enthusiastic supporting audience were Victoria Chong Der, Anthony Doan, Reed Flores, Kausar Mohammed Conrad Panganiban and Christin Ying. Reed Flores’ play LOTUS LAMPS AND BABY TEETH opened the evening with Dana Soliman and Risa Ferrer playing two sisters going through their mother’s belongings following her death, evoking memories from items found, such as one of their baby teeth in a plastic wrapper, to a simple looking lotus lamp which evoked special memories of wanting to keep it lit when little kids.
CHINESE AMERICAN HISTORICAL MUSEUM VISIT
History Park San Jose came alive last week when the South Bay Chinese Club members paid a visit to the Chinese American Historical Museum. Led by SBCC chairs Aliene Yee and Cecilia Leon, the group was welcomed by Docent Coordinator Anita Kwock, Founder Gerrye Wong, and Directors Edith Gong and Yucaipa Kwock for an hour long tour of the museum’s exhibits and artifacts. Always interesting to visitors is the introduction to the purpose of the museum, which is to chronicle the history of Chinese Americans in San Jose Valley since their arrivals in the 1850s. Thus, the group was shown first the timeline near the entrance which tells pictorially what was happening concurrently in China, the United States and San Jose from 1850-1950.Other displays they enjoyed seeing were those of the lion dance head, the opera costumes, and the touch screen where people could find out more information of Chinese America from 1950s-present.
Many expressed surprise at hearing there were once five chinatowns in San Jose during those 100 years, but the first four were destroyed by mysterious fires. Upon seeing news articles and cartoons on the discriminations against the Chinese during those mid 1850s years, they could understand why many citizens surmised that these fires were set because the leaders of that time did not want the Chinese inhabiting important sections in main downtown areas of the growing town of San Jose. Board member Ben Chew’s wife Lorraine had grown up in the valley, but said she was unaware of the history of the Chinese during those years because it wasn’t taught in California history when she was in school. The group was enthralled when ascending to the second floor upon seeing the historic altar that once stood in the 5th Chinatown Ng Shing Gung temple and had been restored by the CHCP group for its prime spot in their museum. Anita told the group that the altar had been commissioned by the Chinese residents of San Jose’s Heinlenville, the fifth Chinatown, and was shipped from China in 1888 for installation into the building that served as a community center, place of worship, school and hostel for visiting travelers who were not able to find welcoming accommodations for Chinese in the city during that era of discrimination.
Gazing at the ornate gold leaf glittering altar, the SBCC members learned they were looking at the largest existing standing Chinese altar on display in a museum in the United States. Listening to the taped descriptions of the artifacts contained within the altar, they were also told by Wong that miraculously the separate pieces of this altar had been stored under the bleachers of the San Jose Municipal stadium after the temple’s demolition by the city in 1949 so it was almost 40 years before they were uncovered and given to the CHCP in 1988 for restoration . The pieces were black from outdoor grime and it took CHCP women over 1000 volunteer hours to restore it to its gold leaf glistening beauty seen today by the thousands of visitors who have gazed and enjoy the beauty of this example of Chinese handicraft over a century ago. Craig Shum expressed appreciation for CHCP’s foresight in maintaining these relics of Chinese history and said he must bring his young child here so she too can see and learn about the lives of Chinese immigrant pioneers in the late 1800s to early 1900s which is showcased in the museum.
I was personally proud to show off the museum, as with Lillian Gong-Guy, we formed the Chinese Historical and Cultural Project group which built and gifted the museum to the city of San Jose as a token of community spirit in 1991. As community partners with City of San Jose and History San Jose, the CHCP maintains the building and introduces new exhibits, activities and events to further share the proud history and culture of we proud Chinese Americans today. With the mission to educating, preserving and promoting Chinese & Chinese American history and culture in Santa Clara Valley, the CHCP welcomes all to come to visit the museum, open on Saturdays only 11-3pm. I am happy to meet and greet and welcome private family or group tours upon request.
For more info: go to www.chcp.org & www.museum/historysan jose.org/ Financial and personal support is always welcome to this non profit 501 ©3 non profit rganization to keep their mission going. Welcomed support and donations can be sent to CHINESE HISTORICAL &
CULTURAL PROJECT OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY, INC. P.O. BOX 5366, San Jose, CA 95150 5366
