Your Custom Text Here
A Friends of Roots cohort traveled to Cuba in March 2020 to explore the Chinese presence which dates back to the 1830s and 1840s and which was once the largest Chinese population in the Caribbean and Latin America. Read Steve Owyang’s full article on the Chinese Family History Group of Southern California’s website.
Friends of Roots was recently featured on the CCTV Show 中国地名大会. On the show, Friends of Roots co-founder, Al Cheng, shared about the Roots program and its 30-year history of leading more than 600 Chinese Americans to over 500 villages in the Pearl River Delta region of Guangdong Province, China. Roots alum Scott Leung shared about his recent experience as part of the 2017 cohort of the Roots: Him Mark Lai Family History Project. See the video here.
In search of their ancestral villages, Friends of Roots and 11 people of the Chinese diaspora hailing from the Bay Area and Boston traveled to the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong 廣東省, China in June and July. We visited 5 different areas, including Kaiping 開平, Taishan 台山, Xinhui 新會, and Guangzhou 廣州. Read about their journeys here.
Steve Owyang, a Friends of Roots volunteer leader and advisor, was interviewed by China Daily.
Owyang, a retired judge from California, said he still remembers his first visit to his ancestral village in Zhongshan, Guangdong, where everybody shared the same family name — Owyang.
In one house, he saw the old photos that his family had sent back 50 years earlier. "To see pictures of my own family and relatives upon the wall in some village that I'd never been to before, that's very moving," he said.
"It showed me that people in China still feel very connected to their family even though the family had left the village two or three generations ago," said Owyang, whose family left Guangdong for the US in the 1870s.
Chinatown Community Development Center honored Friends of Roots at their annual Lunar New Year Luncheon on February 28, 2019.
Left to Right: Rev. Norman Fong (Executive Director of CCDC and Roots 2018 Alum), Roots leader John Wong, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Roots co-founder Al Cheng, Roots leader Walter Lim
Watch KTSF Channel 26’s news feature with interviews with Roots co-founder Al Cheng and Roots leaders Jane Chin and Walter Lim. 已故歷史學家麥禮謙所成立"尋根之友" 創辦成員獲市長頒發表揚狀
Read more from these local Chinese-language media sources:
Singtao USA: 楊重賢獲委任機場委員 and 華協春宴表揚尋根之友項目
World Journal News: 楊重賢任機場委員會委員 - 世界新聞網 and 華協中心表揚「尋根之友」項目 - 世界新聞網
US China Press: 华协中心举行农历新年联欢庆会
Chinatown CDC leaders honored Friends of Roots
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors recognized Friends of Roots with a Certificate of Honor.
Read Reverend Norman Fong’s Sing Tao Daily columns featuring the Fall 2018 Roots Plus program!
(L-R) Candace Hsu, Isabella Giannini, leader Al Cheng, Kona Yee-Wong, Nick Lau, leader Derek Lee, Diann Leo-Omine, Amanda Liu (not pictured- Jeremy Chin, Carol Lau, Robyn Lau)
The Roots 2018 summer cohort consists of 9 people from the Bay Area, New York, and Georgia. They depart for China next week and will visit areas of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong 廣東省, China, including Kaiping 開平, Taishan 台山, Zhongshan 中山, and Xinhui 新會. Stay tuned for updates on their Tumblr blog!
The 2017 cohort will be opening their exhibit at International Hotel Manilatown Center on February 10. They will also be presenting at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center on March 3. Join us and learn about their experiences in the Pearl River Delta region in Guangdong, China.
Enjoy the preview below.
info@friendsofroots.org / San Francisco, CA
