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Year of the Ox
Growing Pleasanton Chinese community welcomes Lunar New Year on Jan. 26

by Janet Pelletier

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More than 2,000 people are expected to help ring in the Chinese New Year in Pleasanton with planned celebrations for the Year of the Ox.

Chinese New Year, also known as the Lunar New Year, falls on Jan. 26 this year and is the equivalent of the Christmas and New Year's holidays in the Chinese culture. The Chinese American Cooperation Council, established in Pleasanton, will host a gala to mark the occasion Jan. 24, featuring stage performances at the Amador Theater. The 15th day of the month proceeding, according to the Chinese calendar, is when the celebrations culminate, and a carnival featuring cooking demonstrations, tastings and a potluck dinner will be held Feb. 15 at Amador Valley High School.

This is the sixth year the Chinese council has organized the celebrations and with each passing year, they grow in popularity and size.

"(The council) was established because there are so many people, especially Chinese-Americans, moving into the Tri-Valley area," said Dr. Amy Qiaoming Liu, the media director for the council. "Pleasanton is a great place and I think a lot of people come here for the community and especially for the schools."

Liu is the director of the sociology graduate program at Cal State Sacramento, where she is also a professor. She lives locally in the Tri-Valley, commuting two days a week to the state capital, and has seen a demographic change here.

"I think a lot of people moved here in the 1990s, but by the time we started this organization, there were so many families, Chinese-Americans, in this area, that they were looking for a place where they could gather to share cultural events," she said.

It's true that Pleasanton has become more diverse as the decades pass, as have many Bay Area cities. In the 1970s, Asians, which include Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Thai and others, made up 1 percent of the population. That number steadily increased each ensuing decade and in 2007, the Bay Area Census showed that 19.7 percent of people living here, or one in five, are of Asian descent. About one-third of Asians in Pleasanton are Chinese.

To meet that growing trend, the Chinese American Cooperation Council's Chinese School opened in 2003 and enrollment has remained strong. The school offers Chinese language courses and a variety of enrichment classes such as martial arts, chess, music, tennis and sketching, all held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sundays at Amador.

"It's really like a family activity for Chinese-Americans on Sundays," Liu said.

School Principal Richard Xu agrees, adding that it's not uncommon for three generations of families to sign up, since there are classes for children, adults and seniors.

"One indication is the enrollment, which is going up steadily year after year," Xu said. "We started with an enrollment of 400 the first year, 800 the second year, the third year was 1,500 and fourth year 1,200 and this year, our total enrollment is 1,400."

Growing diversity can also be seen in looking at Pleasanton school demographics. The most diverse school in the district is Mohr Elementary. In the 2006-07 School Accountability Report Card for Mohr, nearly 53 percent of students were listed as being of Asian descent. On the high school level, nearly 13.5 percent of students are Asian at Amador, while Foothill counts 21.5 percent of its student body as Asian. Districtwide, that number is 24 percent. Those figures include people of Chinese, Japanese and Asian-Indian descent.

The district prides itself in the quality of education it provides to students who are learning English as a second language. Jane Golden, who is the director of elementary curriculum for the district, said 5 percent of students are English learners.

"Every single English learner this year has passed the high school exit exam," she said. "Our teachers are amazing. They really tailor the program for these students."

"We've had more and better success in getting textbooks and reader materials in Chinese," she added.

For parents who have children at the CACC Chinese School, attending class can be a way to meet new people and socialize while also keeping culture and traditions alive.

"They come at 9 and stay most likely until 1 o'clock," Xu said. "The parents want their children to have something to do on Sunday. They don't want them to play around on the computer, chatting."

From his contacts with other Chinese schools, Xu said he thinks the growing popularity of Chinese language courses in particular is due to the increasing importance of China's economy on a global scale.

"The Chinese economy is becoming bigger and bigger worldwide and they realize that it's a language that's very important," Xu said. "If they are future-oriented, they think it is important to speak Chinese."

One new change to this year's curriculum is a language program for high school students that will fulfill their two-year foreign language requirement set by the University of California system. Previously, students only received elective credits for those courses. Fourteen students are enrolled in the level one Chinese course and 17 are enrolled in level two.

The council and the school are nonprofits and the money that's raised from tuition pays for teachers' salaries and for rental of the classrooms at Amador through a partnership with Pleasanton Unified School District.

"(The school district) didn't have enough (money) because of the budget cuts to open the Chinese language for everyone at the high school, so we worked with them on offering that," Liu said.

Xu said next school year, they plan to open a level three Chinese language course for high school students as well as one that's advanced placement. Each course is $336. He said he hopes as more people find out about the new program, that it will encourage not just teens of Chinese or Asian descent, but all races and ethnicities to learn the language.

"Now, the kids have a lot more choices for foreign language," Xu said. "In this way, I think we can attract more students and also students from different cultural backgrounds. That's our mission."

Liu said that message also transcends to the Chinese New Year celebrations.

"It's a celebration of diversity, so we do want to invite people from other racial groups to join us," she said.

On Feb. 15, Liu said there will be a variety of food demonstrations featuring regional dishes, such as barbecue lamb (Kao Yang Rou Chuanc).

"You don't get that from most Chinese restaurants," she said. "It's a very famous Chinese dish and a popular finger food."

The most popular food for the Chinese Lantern Festival is Yuanxiao, a kind of sweet dumpling made of glutinous rice or wheat flour, which is another dish that will be demonstrated and available for tasting. There will also be Taiwanese delicacies.

For more information about the school or the Chinese American Cooperation Council, visit www.caccusa.org.

Jan. 24

Chinese New Year's Eve Gala with VIP introductions, awards and professional stage performances

7 to 9:30 p.m. at the Amador Theater, 1155 Santa Rita Road

Tickets ($10-$15) are available online at www.caccusa.org. For more information, send an email to newyear@caccusa.org or call Jane at 577-5850.

Feb. 15

Chinese New Year's carnival with food and entertainment

5 to 9 p.m. at Amador Valley High School, 1155 Santa Rita Road

cooking demos, competitions and food tastings are from 5 to 6 p.m.; potluck dinner is from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and festival performances, vendor booths and children's games and raffles are from 6:30 to 9 p.m. RSVP at www.caccusa.org.