About the Alaska Chinese Association (中文)

The Alaska Chinese Association (ACA) serves to maintain social contacts and to provide cultural and educational functions to the Chinese community in Alaska. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with no political or religious affiliations. The ACA was established in 1976 with about a dozen families. We are now in our 48th year, and our membership includes almost 200 families.

The majority of our members come from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Southeast Asia, but we also have many second and third generation Chinese-Americans and non-Chinese members as well. Our members come from all walks of life. We have government workers, petroleum engineers, teachers, bankers, doctors, lawyers, accountants, and airline/airport-service personnel, among many others.

The overseas Chinese in Alaska have always hoped that our younger generation will have a comprehension of the Chinese language. However, this has not been an easy task. In the past several years, the Chinese School has been re-organized. We have a Principal and Vice Principal. We requested the use of Northwood Elementary School classrooms and set up six classes: pre-school, beginners class, elementary class, intermediate class, advanced class, and an adult class. There are currently over 80 students enrolled in our Chinese School.

Classes are held on Friday evening from seven to nine during the ASD school year. After school and during the summer, we have extracurricular activities such as calligraphy, folk dance, lion dance and arts & crafts to help students appreciate Chinese culture. The teachers and administrators are all volunteers, compensated only for their transportation costs. We collect a small amount of tuition (or supply fees) to help pay for these transportation costs. We also have volunteer parents in the PTA to assist the school principal.

The Anchorage Daily News has written an article about the Yen Wulin Alaska Chinese School, exploring the variety of different students who attend Chinese classes.

The founding of the Chinese School has been a goal of our Chinese community. We, the Chinese in Alaska, take pride and comfort in realizing this goal.

The current members of the Chinese School staff are as follows:

Holiday Celebrations

The ACA hosts events every year, open to the public, to celebrate traditional and modern holidays. The events are typically as follows:

• Chinese New Year (late January - early February)

  

  The Chinese New Year celebration is the largest event that we organize every year. The program includes folk dance, traditional music, martial arts, and the lion dance. Participants enjoy these beautiful performances along with delicious Chinese food. This annual event has been highly commended in the community and the audience has grown past 800, half of which are non ACA members.

• Mother's Day (late March)

  Mothers are honored at this gathering with flowers and gifts. The husbands do all the cooking.

• Dragon Boat Festival (late May - early June)

  ACA members get together for a picnic to celebrate this traditional Chinese festival and enjoy Zongzi (sticky rice in Lotus leaves). We also have activities such as volleyball and soccer.

• Moon Festival (late September)

  This mid-autumn event traditionally features moon cakes and carnivals. It is normally held in the evenings so participants can appreciate the moon.

• Christmas Party (early December)

  At this annual potluck, children have a chance to take pictures with Santa.

Activities within the Global Community

The ACA mounted a disaster relief campaign following the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake. Our China Earthquake Relief Fund (CERF) program raised over $30,000 in donations and shipped tents and canopies to earthquake-affected regions in the Sichuan province.

In 2009, we held a fund-raising program to assist Taiwan's rescue and recovery efforts in the wake of Typhoon Morakot.