FIRST SATURDAY PDX
  • Spring Fundraiser Banquet Lunch/ Auction 18 FEB, 2023
  • Upcoming Presentation 4 March, 2023
  • Welcome to First Saturday PDX
  • CURRENT SEASON 2022 - 2023
    • Quick Preview of Season 2022 - 2023
    • Season Schedule (2022 - 2023)
    • A Visit to the Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art ​at the ​Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art​, 10 September, 2022
    • ​China’s Last Imperial Frontier: Late Qing Expansion in Sichuan’s Tibetan Borderlands 15 October, 2022
    • Girls with Big Ideas: Gidget and Song of Youth 5 November, 2022
    • * DIM SUM/ YUM CHA BRUNCH!! 19 November, 2022 *
    • Following the Thread: China Along the Road of Silk 3 December, 2022
    • The Chinese Massacre in Hells Canyon 7 January 2023
    • Spring Fundraiser Banquet Lunch/ Auction 18 FEB, 2023
    • Inscribing Chinese Gardens: The Origins of Shutiaoshi 书条石 4 March, 2023
  • THE FIRST 20 YEARS
  • PAST SEASONS & PROGRAMS
    • Past Seasons & Program Highlights >
      • Season 2021 - 2022 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2021 - 2022
        • Season Schedule 2021 - 2022
        • The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project, 2 October 2021
        • Connecting to our Natural World: The Portland Botanical Gardens, 6 November 2021
        • Lan Su Chinese Garden: ​The Vision of a Classical Chinese Garden, 4 December 2021
        • ​Re-visioning ​Chinese History, ​900-1350: ​The New Look of Song and Yuan, 8 January, 2022
        • Chinese New Year 2022/ Year of the Tiger 4720, 5 February, 2022
        • Auspicious Seals and Chops, 5 February 2022
        • The Erhu and Erhu Music, 5 March, 2022
        • Pictorial Naturalism and "Truth": Contextualizing the Eleventh-century Luohan Sculptures of Lingyan Temple in China, 2 April, 2022
        • Celebrated Stories in Sichuan Shadow Theater,7 May, 2022
        • The Daode Jing's Forgotten Forebear: The Ancestral Cult 4 June, 2022
      • 2020 - 2021 Season >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2020 - 2021
        • Season Schedule 2020 - 2021
        • Collecting Under Socialism: Philately in 1950s China, 12 September, 2020
        • Myriad Treasures: Celebrating the Reinstallation of the Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, 3 October, 2020
        • The Real Mulan? Tales of a Female Rebel in 18th century China 7 November, 2020
        • Spice it Up! ​How the Chile Pepper Flavored Chinese Culture 5 December, 2020
        • A Century of Collecting Chinese Painting at Oberlin College 9 January, 2021 ​
        • Chinese New Year 2021/ Year of the Ox 4719
        • Artistic Exchange Between China and Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 6 March, 2021
        • The Scholar’s Retreat: Loss and Resilience in the Chinese Landscape and Garden 3 April 2021
        • Simmering, Whisking, Steeping: Methods for Preparing and Consuming Tea in Premodern China
        • Silk and Sericulture: Beauty Inspired by a Social Contract
      • 2019 - 2020 Season >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2019 - 2020
        • Season Schedule 2019 - 2020
        • Mawangdui: The Tomb of China’s Sleeping Beauty, 7 December 2019
        • Field Notes from Sichuan: Learning To Be a Foreigner, 5 October 2019
        • In Search of Korean Liberation in China, 2 November 2019
        • From an Architect's Perspective: 3, 5, 7, 9 Column Halls: Status and Hierarchy in a Confucius Society, 7 December 2019
        • China Under the Covers - ​A Bookbinder’s Journey to the Roots of Books 11 January, 2020
        • Lunar New Year Lunch, 1 February, 2020
        • Early Phonetic Rendering Schemes for Chinese Characters, 7 March 2020
        • The Garden of Elk Rock at Bishop's Close, 4 April 2020
      • 2018 - 2019 Season >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2018 - 2019
        • Season Schedule 2018 - 2019
        • Notable Women of Portland, 8 September 2018
        • Mooncakes: A Hallmark of Tradition of the Mid-Autumn Festival, 6 October 2018
        • Music: A Universal Language for Healing and Touching the Soul, 3 November 2018
        • China: In the Pursuit of Happiness, 1 December 2019
        • Babur's Gardens: An Illustrated Introduction, 5 January 2019
        • Chinese New Year Lunch 2 February, 2019
        • Living with Penjing: Three Dimensional Poetry, 2 March 2019
        • Discovering the Intellectual and Sensory Essences of Chinese Literati Gardens, 6 April 2019
        • Sino-Japanese Cultural Connections in the Yuan Dynasty, 4 May 2019 ​​
      • 2017 - 2018 Season >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2017 - 2018
        • Season Schedule 2017 - 2018
        • Developing Patronage: Chinese and Asian Pacific Heritage, 9 September 2017
        • Every Plant Has a Story to Tell: Bamboo, 7 October 2017
        • Wonders to Enjoy: Chinese Snuff Bottles, 4 November 2017
        • Sichuan Shadow Theater: Messages from Hell Courts, 2 December 2017
        • Legacy of the Qing Manchu Culture: The Sibe of Northwest China, 6 January 2018
        • Chinese New Year Brunch, 3 February 2018
        • Classical Tradition: Ancient Musical Instruments of China, 3 March 2018
        • Welcome to First Saturday PDX
        • Ancient Traders of the Silk Road: The Uyghur People of Xinjiang, 7 April 2018
        • "Poetic Exposition on Heaven and Earth": A Third-Century Chinese Verse on How the Cosmos Began, 28 April 2018
        • Word Play: The Art of Xu Bing, 2 June 2018
      • 2016 - 2017 Season >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2016 - 2017
        • Season Schedule 2016 - 2017
        • Contemporary Chinese Society: A View from the Films of Zhang Yimou, 6 May 2017
        • Chinese New Year Brunch, 4 February 2017
        • The Uyghurs: History of a People at the Center of Asia, Part 1, 4 March 2017
        • Creating a Tea Aesthetic ​in Tang Verse, 3 June 2017
      • 2015 - 2016 Season >
        • Season Schedule 2015 - 2016
        • Guzheng and Erhu: A Dialog Between the Strings, 2 April 2016
      • 2014 - 2015 Season >
        • Season Schedule 2014 - 2015
      • 2013 - 2014 Season
      • 2012 - 2013 Season
      • 2011 - 2012 Season
      • 2010 - 2011 Season
      • 2009 - 2010 Season
      • 2008 - 2009 Season
      • 2007 - 2008 Season
      • 2006 - 2007 Season
      • 2005 - 2006 Season
  • Videos
  • Partners
  • Join our Email List/ Contact Us
  • Zoom!
  • Stop Asian Hate Resources
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2007 – 2008 Season

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Experiencing the Chinese Garden Through the Eyes of Children
Joan Kvitka
September 8, 2007


This program enhances and inspires the confidence of docents in touring school-age children.  Build on your expertise as you invite students to “Hear” the Fragrance, “Read” the Landscape, and “Know” the Fish.  This enthusiastic program explores our touring capabilities in the context of teaching school age youngsters about the unique culture embedded in a Chinese Garden.  Learn some strategies for captivating young minds while they, in turn, teach us what they understand.

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Experiencing the Aesthetics and Meaning of Garden Couplets
Frances Li
October 13, 2007


The written word and poetic couplets are an integral part of Chinese classical gardens.  They often define a space and sometimes spell out its feeling and use.  Not infrequently, they may make discrete references to classical literature.  Historic and poetic context may be used to engage the mind, just as the forms around may play upon the senses.  Rocks, trees, and flowers may seem incomplete without a touch of poetry that adds to a scene.  Our artist-docent Frances shares her respect and love for the calligraphy and poetry of two scenic areas in the Garden—the Moon Locking Pavilion and the Hall of Brocade Clouds.


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Finding Peace in Garden Retreats
Barbara Blossom Ashmun
November 3, 2007


Author of Married to My Garden and Garden Retreats, professional horticulturist and fellow gardener Barbara Blossum Ashmun shares her thoughts on the special qualities of our Lan Su Garden that set it apart from others in fostering peace of mind during stressful times, and why the Chinese Garden brings about tranquility for so many.  She presents a slide show of Garden Retreats: Creating an Outdoor Sanctuary with a special focus on the elements of Lansuyuan which contribute towards that goal.


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Plant Tour – Docent Training
Bill Alley
November 10, 2007


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​Wondrous Symbolism and Rebuses in Chinese Art and Gardens
Erick Schiess
December 1, 2007


The language of symbolism is unique and pronounced in the art and poetry of China.  An awareness and understanding of the traditional, symbolic language ensconced in Chinese culture for centuries can greatly enhance the pleasure and enjoyment of the discrete layers of meanings found in the metaphoric compositions of our classical scholar’s garden.  Erick Schiess, through the medium of Chinese snuff bottles, illustrates some of the many symbols and rebuses, which are consistently found in Chinese art and, not surprisingly, in Lansuyuan.  Like a Chinese garden which is a condensed representation of nature, snuff bottles epitomize the inscription on our south facing stone gateway, “All Nature’s Splendors Captured in this Gourd Heaven.”

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"Delavayi" A French Connection in
​Lansuyuan and in My Garden

Megan Esler
January 5, 2008

While the greatest number of plant species in Lansuyuan originated in China, the introduction of so many of them came by way of enthusiastic botanists visiting or living in China.  This is frequently reflected in the species names which we often find difficult to remember, let alone pronounce.  Through several Catholic priests on missionary work in China, such as Jean Marie Delavay, thousands of plant species, previously unknown to Western science, were discovered.  Many of them have added tremendous joy to Megan Esler’s garden and can now be found in our Garden.  Megan, a member of the initial core group of docents, will share her knowledge and special interest in the plants with “Delavayi” in their name.  Learn about this wonderful and often overlooked French connection.


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Chinese New Year Brunch :  Welcoming the Year of the  Rat  鼠 , 4706
February 2, 2008

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Chinese Opera in Portland
Mary Leong
March 1, 2008
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Chinese opera, together with Greek tragic-comedy and Indian Sanskrit Opera, comprise the three oldest dramatic art forms in the world.  One of the earliest forms of Chinese opera, Canjun opera, goes back to the Three Kingdoms period.  Since that beginning, Chinese opera has evolved into over 300 regional opera styles.  During the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong established an opera school with the poetic name, Liyuan, or Pear Garden.  To this day, operatic professionals are still referred to as “Disciples of the Pear Garden.”  Mary Leong, a fourth generation Chinese resident of Portland, introduces us to Chinese Opera in Portland.  She reminisces about the plots, costumes, makeup, colors, dances, acrobatics, and the distinctive dialectical music unique to the Chinese opera.


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Women Literati of the Ming and
​Early Ching Dynasties

Roger Luedtke & Lynn Connor
April 12, 2008


When reading or hearing about the major accomplishments during the Ming and Early Ching dynasties, we notice the absence of women.  One can only wonder what the women of these periods did and what their legacies were.  During these both peaceful and turbulent times, can commonalities be found between a Courtesan (also an expert archer on horseback) and a Jiangnan mother who accompanied her husband official to a remote Western outpost in China?  How can these women’s stories add to our understanding?

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Yixing Ware
"Mysterious and Beautiful”
​and A Practicum: “Creating A Scholar Brush Rest”

Anne Perrigo
May 3, 2008


To begin to fully appreciate a Chinese scholar’s study, one needs to learn of the “literati arts of China,” and cultivate a sensibility for the Chinese scholars’ taste and aesthetics.  How can this aesthetic best be accomplished?  Perhaps through discussion, and the examination of typical artifacts found on a scholar’s desk or in the study.  This would be akin to the selection of written words and poetic couplets in a scholar’s garden, which are employed to engage the mind and help define a space or to suggest a feeling and use of that space.  To begin this journey, Anne Perrigo introduces us to Yixing Ware and why it is often associated with the aesthetics of Chinese scholars.  Anne leads a practicum with clay so volunteers can create a brush rest or stand that might be found as a scholar’s desk object.


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The Literati (Scholar’s) Culture
During Late Ming and Early Qing

Jan Vreeland & Dennis Lee
June 14, 2008


In order to develop a greater understanding and appreciation of the Garden’s Scholar’s Study (Hall of Permeating Fragrance), we need to learn about the person who could have occupied the facility, and how it would be furnished and used in keeping with the ideals of a unique literati culture that emerged during the late Ming and early Ching dynasties.  In approaching this study, which is not without complexities, this presentation focuses on the sensibilities of the literati culture, which is characterized by intelligence, inner virtues, eremitism, and elegance.  What were the qualifications to belonging to such an elite, close-knit society?  To help us reflect on this culture, we will take a look at the Four Treasures and the connoisseurship which populated a Scholar’s Studio, revealing another layer of a Chinese gentleman-scholar’s garden.

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​© 2014 - 2023  First Saturday PDX
  • Spring Fundraiser Banquet Lunch/ Auction 18 FEB, 2023
  • Upcoming Presentation 4 March, 2023
  • Welcome to First Saturday PDX
  • CURRENT SEASON 2022 - 2023
    • Quick Preview of Season 2022 - 2023
    • Season Schedule (2022 - 2023)
    • A Visit to the Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art ​at the ​Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art​, 10 September, 2022
    • ​China’s Last Imperial Frontier: Late Qing Expansion in Sichuan’s Tibetan Borderlands 15 October, 2022
    • Girls with Big Ideas: Gidget and Song of Youth 5 November, 2022
    • * DIM SUM/ YUM CHA BRUNCH!! 19 November, 2022 *
    • Following the Thread: China Along the Road of Silk 3 December, 2022
    • The Chinese Massacre in Hells Canyon 7 January 2023
    • Spring Fundraiser Banquet Lunch/ Auction 18 FEB, 2023
    • Inscribing Chinese Gardens: The Origins of Shutiaoshi 书条石 4 March, 2023
  • THE FIRST 20 YEARS
  • PAST SEASONS & PROGRAMS
    • Past Seasons & Program Highlights >
      • Season 2021 - 2022 >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2021 - 2022
        • Season Schedule 2021 - 2022
        • The Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project, 2 October 2021
        • Connecting to our Natural World: The Portland Botanical Gardens, 6 November 2021
        • Lan Su Chinese Garden: ​The Vision of a Classical Chinese Garden, 4 December 2021
        • ​Re-visioning ​Chinese History, ​900-1350: ​The New Look of Song and Yuan, 8 January, 2022
        • Chinese New Year 2022/ Year of the Tiger 4720, 5 February, 2022
        • Auspicious Seals and Chops, 5 February 2022
        • The Erhu and Erhu Music, 5 March, 2022
        • Pictorial Naturalism and "Truth": Contextualizing the Eleventh-century Luohan Sculptures of Lingyan Temple in China, 2 April, 2022
        • Celebrated Stories in Sichuan Shadow Theater,7 May, 2022
        • The Daode Jing's Forgotten Forebear: The Ancestral Cult 4 June, 2022
      • 2020 - 2021 Season >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2020 - 2021
        • Season Schedule 2020 - 2021
        • Collecting Under Socialism: Philately in 1950s China, 12 September, 2020
        • Myriad Treasures: Celebrating the Reinstallation of the Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, 3 October, 2020
        • The Real Mulan? Tales of a Female Rebel in 18th century China 7 November, 2020
        • Spice it Up! ​How the Chile Pepper Flavored Chinese Culture 5 December, 2020
        • A Century of Collecting Chinese Painting at Oberlin College 9 January, 2021 ​
        • Chinese New Year 2021/ Year of the Ox 4719
        • Artistic Exchange Between China and Europe in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries 6 March, 2021
        • The Scholar’s Retreat: Loss and Resilience in the Chinese Landscape and Garden 3 April 2021
        • Simmering, Whisking, Steeping: Methods for Preparing and Consuming Tea in Premodern China
        • Silk and Sericulture: Beauty Inspired by a Social Contract
      • 2019 - 2020 Season >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2019 - 2020
        • Season Schedule 2019 - 2020
        • Mawangdui: The Tomb of China’s Sleeping Beauty, 7 December 2019
        • Field Notes from Sichuan: Learning To Be a Foreigner, 5 October 2019
        • In Search of Korean Liberation in China, 2 November 2019
        • From an Architect's Perspective: 3, 5, 7, 9 Column Halls: Status and Hierarchy in a Confucius Society, 7 December 2019
        • China Under the Covers - ​A Bookbinder’s Journey to the Roots of Books 11 January, 2020
        • Lunar New Year Lunch, 1 February, 2020
        • Early Phonetic Rendering Schemes for Chinese Characters, 7 March 2020
        • The Garden of Elk Rock at Bishop's Close, 4 April 2020
      • 2018 - 2019 Season >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2018 - 2019
        • Season Schedule 2018 - 2019
        • Notable Women of Portland, 8 September 2018
        • Mooncakes: A Hallmark of Tradition of the Mid-Autumn Festival, 6 October 2018
        • Music: A Universal Language for Healing and Touching the Soul, 3 November 2018
        • China: In the Pursuit of Happiness, 1 December 2019
        • Babur's Gardens: An Illustrated Introduction, 5 January 2019
        • Chinese New Year Lunch 2 February, 2019
        • Living with Penjing: Three Dimensional Poetry, 2 March 2019
        • Discovering the Intellectual and Sensory Essences of Chinese Literati Gardens, 6 April 2019
        • Sino-Japanese Cultural Connections in the Yuan Dynasty, 4 May 2019 ​​
      • 2017 - 2018 Season >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2017 - 2018
        • Season Schedule 2017 - 2018
        • Developing Patronage: Chinese and Asian Pacific Heritage, 9 September 2017
        • Every Plant Has a Story to Tell: Bamboo, 7 October 2017
        • Wonders to Enjoy: Chinese Snuff Bottles, 4 November 2017
        • Sichuan Shadow Theater: Messages from Hell Courts, 2 December 2017
        • Legacy of the Qing Manchu Culture: The Sibe of Northwest China, 6 January 2018
        • Chinese New Year Brunch, 3 February 2018
        • Classical Tradition: Ancient Musical Instruments of China, 3 March 2018
        • Welcome to First Saturday PDX
        • Ancient Traders of the Silk Road: The Uyghur People of Xinjiang, 7 April 2018
        • "Poetic Exposition on Heaven and Earth": A Third-Century Chinese Verse on How the Cosmos Began, 28 April 2018
        • Word Play: The Art of Xu Bing, 2 June 2018
      • 2016 - 2017 Season >
        • Quick Preview of Season 2016 - 2017
        • Season Schedule 2016 - 2017
        • Contemporary Chinese Society: A View from the Films of Zhang Yimou, 6 May 2017
        • Chinese New Year Brunch, 4 February 2017
        • The Uyghurs: History of a People at the Center of Asia, Part 1, 4 March 2017
        • Creating a Tea Aesthetic ​in Tang Verse, 3 June 2017
      • 2015 - 2016 Season >
        • Season Schedule 2015 - 2016
        • Guzheng and Erhu: A Dialog Between the Strings, 2 April 2016
      • 2014 - 2015 Season >
        • Season Schedule 2014 - 2015
      • 2013 - 2014 Season
      • 2012 - 2013 Season
      • 2011 - 2012 Season
      • 2010 - 2011 Season
      • 2009 - 2010 Season
      • 2008 - 2009 Season
      • 2007 - 2008 Season
      • 2006 - 2007 Season
      • 2005 - 2006 Season
  • Videos
  • Partners
  • Join our Email List/ Contact Us
  • Zoom!
  • Stop Asian Hate Resources