Are Chinese and Americans the Key to Life on Planet Earth ? Wei -Tai Kwok Climate Reality Project March 18th Saturday 4 p.m. Potluck and Program St Jude Episcopal Church 20920 McClellan Rd Cupertino In 2019 Wei Tai spoke to us about the climate crisis and how the US And China were responding to the challenge. Now, four years later, where does society stand ? In what ways have we moved forward ? Where are there still challenges ? What can you do to help? Wei Tai will provide us with the latest updates on the science ,impacts and solutions to climate change . Since our last meeting he retrofitted his home to replace all the fossil fuel appliances with advanced electronic versions . He will share his experiences upgrading to a zero emission home . He will also help us unpack how you can be part of the solution by accessing new incentives from the inflation reduction act of 2022 . The act, which at $ 369 billion in decarbonization funding, is the largest climate change solution legislation in history of America. Come learn why he thinks the actions taken by the American people and the actions of Chinese people, are the "Key to Life on Planet Earth." in his day job way he serves on Lafayette City Council and also works in the solar and renewable energy industry. Currently he is an advisor to Thule energy storage{ thermal energy storage )and Sunman Energy ( ultra lightweight flexible solar panels). He holds a BA in economics and political science from Yale University. Come join us for the potluck and talk

California Town Apologizes for Past Discrimination Against Chinese-Americans

By Winny Lin

Many of you probably have visited a quaint little town by Highway 1 with some of the world’s most dramatic ocean views —Monterey, California. Nobel prize author John Steinbeck also fueled its popularity and fame with his book “Cannery Row." But you probably didn't know that it's not just a place abundant with marine wildlife and fresh seafood. There is Chinese-American history there.

Ten years ago, my husband Kenny and I flew to California from Kentucky to visit our children during Christmas break. My daughter suggested we tour the infamous Cannery Row in Monterey Bay. As I was trying to take in all the beautiful water, the tourists’ hot spots, and souvenir shops, I was distracted by some signage at the end of Cannery Row. It mentioned that Chinese fishermen used to live here. I even vaguely remember seeing some little houses that were marked as their residences. It wasn't until years later when I moved to California that I learned more.

In 2014, Kenny and I moved to the Bay Area in California to be closer to our children and grandkids. Somehow we connected with the South Bay Chapter of US-China Peoples’ Friendship Association and met Gerry Low-Sabado at one of the meetings. As a 5th generation descendant of the Chinese fishermen, she was passionate and active in bringing community awareness of the contributions of the Chinese fishermen in Pacific Grove and Monterey Bay. She was interviewed by local tv stations and made special presentations for the Monterey Aquarium. I have always loved the history of Chinese-Americans so I was excited to become friends with Gerry and learn more about these fishermen. Unfortunately Gerry died of a brain tumor in September 2021, but her legacy has continued.

On May 14, 2022, nine of us joined hundreds of others to attend the annual "Walk of Remembrance” that Gerry started 11 years ago. Gerry’s husband, Randy Sabado, has carried on her mission, and this year's walk attracted more attention. Many local and California State officials came to the event, including California State Controller Betty T. Yee and former Oakland Mayor Lai Jean Quan. Why?       

A few days before this ceremony, the Pacific Grove City Council unanimously approved an “Apology Resolution to the Chinese Village Community and Descendants for systemic discrimination, acts of fundamental injustice, violence and cruelty.” It acknowledged the following:

The first men and women settlers from China arrived by ship before California’s statehood and were met with prejudice and discrimination. The Point Alones fishing village became the largest Chinese fishing settlement in California by 1906. On the evening of May 16, 1906, a fire of suspicious origin swept through the village, destroying most of the more than 100 buildings. In the late19th century, the town passed an ordinance that banned Chinese from fishing during the day, forcing them to do their work under dangerous nighttime conditions. Ethnic Chinese and other minorities were also banned from owning property.

So at this year’s “Walk of Remembrance” on behalf of the Pacific Grove City, Council Member Chaps Poduri gave an official apology to the Chinese descendants. As he finished his speech, I happened to be sitting right behind the podium. I softly said, “Everybody, say ‘thank you.’” I was shocked when I heard the crowd exclaim, “Thank you!”

It was such an uplifting and encouraging event to see whites, blacks, women, men and children holding large photos of Chinese fishermen. And seeing messages and signage on the walk that communicated “change with kindness, remember and move forward, and diversity, equity and inclusion.” I realized that the tide has definitely started to change to be more pro-Chinese instead of anti-Asian.

In addition to the words and message of “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” I added my own, “unity” which I think is the ultimate goal of this movement. The night before the walk, I stayed up late to make four banners and added Chinese characters: diversity 差异, equity 公平, inclusion  包容 and unity 团结. Shirley Lin Kinoshita, a board member of the USCPFA South Bay Chapter, who is an artist, made two signs with a peony, China’s national flower, on each. Because of the signs, we attracted a lot of attention and had our photos taken by many people, including the official event photographer.The nine members of our group were John Marienthal, president of the USCPFA South Bay chapter; Shirley Lin Kinoshita, a chapter board member, her husband Kim Kinoshita, me (Winny Lin), my husband, Kenny Lin, two of our friends, Aileen Nicholas and Aubrey Szanto, from East Bay, and Eva Atkinson and her daughter Anna from Owensboro, Kentucky.

We were very happy that we made it to the walk and used our voices to speak out against injustice. Gerry spent the latter part of her life tirelessly working to bring awareness of the Chinese fishermen’s contribution to the community. Chinese developed fishing techniques and helped conduct research that enhanced the economic development of the region. She once said, “We will not let others sweep our history under the rug.” It was a momentous occasion seeing her hard work pay off and witnessing the historic statement by the City of Pacific Grove to the Chinese community at this year’s walk. 

In addition, on July 1, 2022, a California State bill requires removal of “racial covenants” from property records. These “restrictive covenants” have not been enforceable in decades but are still written into the deeds of thousands of properties across the state. The covenants in titles and deeds once included language like “no person of any race other than the Caucasian or white race may use or occupy the property.” I am glad we continue to see change and progress.

CHINESE MOON FESTIVAL 11 SEP 2022

COME JOIN US, OUR FIRST LIVE EVENT The Moon Festival, aka Mooncake and Mid-Autumn Festival, is a tradition festival celebrated in China with similar holidays in other countries in Eastern and Southeastern Asia. The festival is a time to give thanks for the fall harvest and wish for longevity and good fortune. Please bring a dish (serve 4-6) to share. USCPFA program opens with welcome & announcements. Our own Winny Lin will share the lively stories, legends and customs of this festival.This is our first in-person event since March 2020. We will have mooncake tasting, games, poetry, and art. Date/Time: Sunday, September 11, 2022 5:00-6:00 pm Potluck Dinner/Announcements 6:00-6:30 pm Program with Winny Lin Place: 2822 Sycamore Way, Santa Clara CA Hostess: Teresa O’Neill RSVP: Shirley Lin Kinoshita, 408 255-3048 (c) silks442@gmail.com

Chinese-American Cultural Exchange During the Coronavirus Pandemic

CHINESE-AMERICAN CULTURAL EXCHANGE DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

By Winny Lin

The coronavirus pandemic not only has caused paramount economic problems for the world and caused astronomic numbers of death, it also has stirred an anti-Chinese movement in the United States. Science has been tossed aside and a few Americans are eager to blame Chinese for the crisis, since Wuhan, China was the first city shut down by coronavirus. 

In California, our governor Gavin Newsom issued his statewide “Shelter-in-Place” order  on March 19, and announced,”We have to meet this moment!”

However, the crisis brought opportunities just like the Chinese characters 危机. The first character means CRISIS  and the second one means OPPORTUNITIES. Our South Bay chapter members have created opportunities to “meet this moment”!

Somehow I reconnected with an old friend, Mr. Junsheng-jason Wen, who was recently promoted as the principal of #9 Senior High School in Anshan, Liaoning, China. Mr. Wen is a young and innovative educator whom I have known since 2007. He invited me to speak to his students who are mainly from either rural area or urban broken homes to broken their horizons. We tried Trecent, Skype, and finally decided on the platform of WeChat, the Chinese Facebook. Nine people could be on at one time meeting ‘face to face”. Our first meeting was to discuss what the students would like and they decided on “how to improve their conversational English and increase their vocabulary. I then invited some native speakers to join us.  Our first guests were two American high school students from Walnut Creek, CA, Kellie Hintzoglou and Abby Young, to compare and contrast the Chinese and American high schools. A perfect topic!

As it turned out three of the students at our first meeting were musicians. Jimmy Li plays guitar, Iris Li Chinese flute, and Nicholas Li piano. Who knew I happened to see Yo-yo Ma interviewed on PBS News Hour on TV. After he performed Dvorak’s “Going Home”, he encouraged musicians worldwide on all skill levels to join him in providing comfort amid the global crisis.  I quickly sensed this was one of those “opportunities” open to our Chinese young musicians. 

These three were so willing and in no time they sent me their musical videos: 

Jimmy did his own original rap in Chinese and English, “We should wear masks and we should stay home…. We learn some skills, joking, dancing, studying and we will be ok!”

Iris played her Chinese flute and recited a poem in English about the coronavirus, “It is a war  agains virus with doubts, fears, rumors ad discrimination.  All of us are fighters in this war…..”

and Nicholas played his original piano piece. I was very impressed! Then I submitted them to PBS Facebook page CANVAS and they subsequently published all three videos. Both Principal Wen and I were extremely proud that his 3 students out of 900 from his rural school in Anshan, China got a shining moment on American Facebook. 

Some of our South Bay Chapter members joined us on the WeChat sessions. First Chet Gnegy spoke with the musicians about his work and interest, even when he was in Vietnam (Thanks to the modern technology!) Another time Yanshuo Zhang talked to the students about her life journey from when she first visited the States as a 16-yr-old high school student to attend an American university, and now is an instructor at Stanford University.  

Later I invited John Marienthal, chair of our South Bay Chapter.  John has visited all the 26 provinces of China and taught English in Xinjiang and Shanghai respectively for years.  He has the experience and passion and now he is the main American facilitator of two Sunday English sessions to help Chinese high school students improve their English and American culture. 

Typical topics of discussion were “Festivals and sports in China and America”, “50th Anniversary of Earth Day and Volunteering to Help others”, “What activities do you do during and after school?” And “What are the top attractions of your city Anshan?”

The topics were chosen in sync with their school English curriculum and to help the students understand the world outside of Anshan, China. Mr. Wen is striving to help them develop a global view and at the same time to get them excited about life. After a month, I believe we are making good progress towards these goals. The South Bay chapter is doing its part to continue our interactions with China and the people even during these trying times as the coronavirus  pandemic hits us all hard. 

Anshan, Liaoning is located in northern China, about 92 kilometers south of the capital Shenyang where the USA has a consulate. It is the 3rd most populous city with 3.5 million people and famous for its Anshan Steel Company and its soft jade mining.

Note: I made this screenshot on March 28, 2020. Mr. Jason Wen, the principal of #9th Senior High School. in the bottom row next to me. John Marienthal is far left in the middle row.
Thank you, John,  for your continuous work every week. 

Chinese New Year Celebration 2-8-2020

Please invite your family and friends to join us for the annual celebration!

October 26 event--Is U.S. Waging a Lose-Lose Trade War with China?

We CAN Change and We MUST implores June Speaker

During the past two years, President Trump has rolled back environmental regulations, pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, and turned “global warming” into a punch line. “Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old-fashioned Global Warming right now!” he posted on Twitter in January when a snowstorm was freezing much of the country.’ His thesis is that Climate Change is a hoax created by the Chinese to adversely affect U.S. Manufacturing.

Really?

Not so, explained Wei-Tai Kwok, a member of former Vice President Al Gore’s Climate Reality Project, when he spoke to our group in June. —“Increasing levels of heat-trapping gases, such as CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide, are causing global average temperatures to rise. And China and America are the world’s worst carbon-dioxide polluters, accounting for over 40% of total annual global emissions.”

MUST WE CHANGE?

Mr. Kwok initially had nothing to do with climate science.  He had his own successful advertising company and thought nothing of the climate, other than was the weather nice enough to take his two young children to the park.  Then one weekend in 2006, his wife suggested they go see a new movie: An Inconvenient Truth.   The Oscar-and Nobel-Peace-Prize winning documentary, narrated by Al Gore, detailed the science behind Climate Change. Mr. Kwok was so moved by what he learned that he found it difficult to concentrate at work. Every day that he wasn’t doing something to help the environment was  a day he felt he was part of the problem, rather than the solution  So, after a year of struggling with this moral challenge, he decided to make a major change in his life. He sold his business, got a job working for the solar panel company SunTech Power, and became a member of the Climate Reality Project. This project, funded initially by Al Gore with proceeds from the movie and subsequent book, aims to educate people around the world about climate issues, and turn this awareness into action. Today the group consists of more than 20,000 scientists, cultural leaders, activists, and concerned citizens like Mr. Kwok, committed to building a sustainable future together.

One of the first things Mr. Kwok pointed out is that 18 of the 19 hottest years ever recorded by weather instruments have taken place since 2001, with the five hottest years being the last five years. Last summer, South Korea and Algeria set new records for the hottest days in their countries, with temperatures soaring to 103F and 124F, respectively. That same month, the temperatures were so hot in Berkshire, England, that the asphalt melted, trapping vehicles. In Shandong, China, it was so hot that a boy was actually able to cook an egg on a manhole cover. More seriously, however, thousands of people were taken to hospital, hundreds died due to global heat waves. “Every day, we spew 110 million tons of global-warming pollution into the atmosphere,” said Kwok.  This pollution comes from various sources: The dislodging of CO2 from soils, the burning of forests without an emphasis on sustainability, mining operations which rely on fossil fuels, the thawing of the permafrost in the arctic which dislodges both CO2 and methane. “But the main source of the global warming pollution, by far,” said Mr. Kwok, “Is our use of fossil fuels--oil, coal, and gas.”

Not only do the pollutants increase air temperature, but also rainfall. Mr. Kwok pointed out the science: warmer air holds more water vapor. As a result, we see more rainy days and more intense rain.  “In the US, extreme downpours are now happening 30 percent more often (every nine months rather than every 12 months) than in 1948. These downpours are also 10 percent more intense on average, nationwide.”

In fact, weather disasters have become more common and more intense.  In March, a bomb cyclone hit, causing massive flooding in the Midwest, a blizzard in Colorado and Wyoming, and produced winds up to 110mph. Just last month over 200 tornadoes touched down in the Midwest in just 13 days.  On Father’s day, 4 tornadoes touched down in Dallas.  Double the typical rainfall for June in the UK triggered flooding.  The list goes on and on.  According to data Mr. Kwok showed us put together by insurance agencies, in the 1980s there were  200 weather disasters per year. Today, there are more than 800.

Finally, Mr. Kwok spoke about ways the climate affects us—other than slowing our commute or messing up travel plans.  “Changes in the climate,” he said, “Affect our health.  Vector-borne diseases (think Zika Ebola, SARS, West Nile), heat stress, air pollution, and waterborne diseases are all influenced by a changing climate.”

CAN WE CHANGE?

Mr. Kwok believes we can change, and that China and America (who have the heaviest carbon footprints) must take the lead. He, for one, traded in his gas-powered car for electric, put solar panels on his house, and is taking steps towards becoming a vegetarian.  He also regularly contacts his elected representatives to keep them focused on climate issues. 

One of our audience members applauded Mr. Kwok’s effort to not eat meat, mentioning the devastating effects meat production has on the environment.  Producing meat uses enormous amounts of resources like land, crops, water, and energy while producing a colossal amount of carbon-dioxide –equivalent gases. Meatlless Monday is a worldwide campaign to get people to reduce meat consumption by 15%.

For those who cannot put up solar panels, Mr. Kwok explained that all of the new competitive electricity carriers in the Bay Area (PG&E, Silicon Valley Clean Energy, Peninsula Clean Energy) offer service plans with a 100% clean-energy option. For just a few dollars more each month, you can opt to get your electricity from sources like solar and wind.

So, while Mr. Kwok suggested keeping in touch with elected government officials, he emphasized the most important change maker is YOU.  Thirteen years ago when he saw An Inconvenient Truth, he was devastated. He was sure that his own children and grandchildren would witness only further destruction. Today, he is hopeful.  Hopeful that we can learn what it is we are doing wrong and find ways to change.  All it takes is our willingness to make change. One person at a time.

If you’re interested in getting trained like Mr. Kwok, look up the next session on the website: https://climaterealityproject.org/training 

If  you're interested in exploring US-China People to People collaborative projects on Climate Change, contact Dr. Billy Lee: williamslee@gmail.com.

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