FIRST SATURDAY PDX
  • Upcoming Presentation, 1 April, 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
    • Year of the Rabbit 4721
    • Spring Fundraiser Banquet Lunch/ Auction 18 FEB, 2023
    • "Model Letters" and the Audiences of Calligraphy in Early Modern China , 4 March, 2023
    • Women in the History of Tea in in China, 1 April, 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
 registration is required for access to any online  streaming (Zoom) presentations and also for in-person events to give us a head count .  This information will be available on the Upcoming Presentation page and program announcements, when applicable.  We look forward to you joining us!
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2022 - 2023 Season Schedule        




Welcome to the First Saturday PDX 2022 - 2023 season!  This collection of  programs will be a hybrid group, with in  person programs and online presentations.   Although all our events are free, registration is required for each event; available on the Upcoming Presentation page. 

This season we have China-related subjects involving a trip to the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, a comparison of Gidget and Lin Daojing from the 1950's, exploring the Central Asian Textiles of the Silk Road, an in person gathering around the dim sum brunch table, the Role of Women in the the History of Tea in China, the Late Qing Expansion in Sichuan's Tibetan Borderlands, a look at Chinese Calligraphy, and the story of the Massacre at Hell's Canyon, followed by a half hour of further discussion and socializing 
in our virtual First Saturday PDX Tea House for the online programs, or lunch family style at a Chinese restaurant for in person programs.  This season begins on 10 September, 2022 running through 3 June, 2023.

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 A Visit to the Soreng Gallery of Chinese Art ​at the ​Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art​
Anne Rose Kitagawa and Ina Asim
10 September, 2022  

Renowned for its large and important assemblage of Chinese art, the JSMA’s holdings include one of America's most impressive collections of court textiles, along with superlative examples of traditional Chinese painting, sculpture, ceramics, jade, glass, lacquer, metalwork, furniture, and a small, but growing selection of contemporary Chinese objects. We will have a guided tour of the Soreng Gallery and have access to the adjacent galleries of Japanese and Korean Art.  Further information and images here

China’s Last Imperial Frontier:
Late Qing Expansion in Sichuan’s Tibetan Borderlands 

Xiuyu Wang, PhD
15 October, 2022  ​ 

Dr Xiuyu Wang  speaks to us on Qing China’s attempt to integrate eastern Tibet at the turn of the nineteenth century.  Dr Wang draws on archival and ethnographic research to analyze the interactions between local authorities in Eastern Tibet and Qing imperial officials during the region's incorporation in the 19th and 20th centuries. 
​Further information here

Video here​
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Girls with Big Ideas:  Gidget and Song of Youth
Wendy Larson, PhD
5 November, 2022 

Published within a year of each other in the late 1950s, Yang Mo’s Song of Youth and Frederick Kohner’s Gidget became wildly successful cultural phenomena, one in China and the other in the United States.  Both were made into films shortly after publication, expanding their influence.  Dr Larson considers both novels and in an uncanny comparison, the young protagonists Lin Daojing and Gidget similarly defy the gender expectations of their times.  They fight inequality with an optimistic state of mind, which tells us a great deal about the respective environments in which they live.​
​​Further information here
Video here


First Saturday PDX's Dim Sum/
Yum Cha Brunch

​First Saturday Planning Committee
19 November, 2022 


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It's been too long since we have gotten together in person and we think it's time to rectify that!  Come join First Saturday PDX for dim sum  - a casual no host brunch (approx. $20/ person) where we catch up over many small dishes of "heart's delight". 
​Further information here

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Following the Thread:  China Along the Silk Road 
Mariachiara Gasparini, PhD
3 December, 2022         

As a non-verbal form of communication, textile material and wall painting representations provide a different perspective on the intercultural and artistic interaction along the so-called Silk Road between China and the “outside” world. Dr. Gasparini will discuss the development of silk production and its use in China and the acquisition of foreign cotton and wool and their interplay over the centuries beyond their religious Buddhist consumption.
Further information here
                                                                                              

The Chinese Massacre in Hells Canyon
R. Gregory Nokes
7 January, 2023​

Hundreds of thousands of Chinese men journeyed across the Pacific to American shores in the 1800s, seeking a better life, for themselves and their families in China.  Covered up at the time, and long-forgotten since, the massacre of nearly three-dozen Chinese gold miners in Oregon’s Hells Canyon in 1887 stands as one of the worst crimes in Oregon history. Gregory Nokes reveals how a gang of white horse thieves robbed them of their gold, killed them all, and threw their bodies into the Snake River in what can only be understood as a savage act of racial hatred.  
Further information here

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Spring Banquet Lunch/ Auction Fundraiser
​First Saturday PDX Planning Committee

18 February, 2023        12:15 - 2:30 pm
     
​First Saturday PDX invites you to attend our annual 10 course banquet lunch and fundraiser at Happy Dragon Chinese Restaurant at 707 NE 82nd Ave, Portland Oregon 97220.   Join us while we  celebrate  our continuing programs, the new year and the coming spring with friends and family.  Our silent auction and raffle items await your knowledgeable bidding!  
Further information here.  


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"Model Letters" and the Audiences of Calligraphy in Early Modern China
Dr. Lei Xue
March 4, 2023


Shutiaoshi (书条石), stone slabs with engraved calligraphy, are commonly found in Chinese gardens. Join First Saturday PDX as Dr. Lei Xue shows us how these stones were once made to produce compendia of ink rubbings, known as fatie, which served as copybooks for calligraphers. While the trend of installing these stones on walls in gardens may have had earlier precedents, it was largely reinvented during a politically charged interaction between the Machu emperor Qianlong (r. 1735–96) and cultural elites in the Jiangnan region. The display of shutiaoshu in gardens also presaged a modern form of spectatorship that differs from the traditional way of viewing calligraphy.
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Further information here

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Women in the History of Tea in China
Dr. James Benn
1 April, 2023


Women are often entirely absent from historical accounts of tea culture in China, yet that absence defies common sense. Women in premodern China, picked and processed tea leaves, they prepared and served tea for themselves or for others, they designed important items of teaware, and they had opinions  on rituals around tea. In this talk, Dr Benn will look at the surviving sources from the Tang dynasty onwards in order to reveal a more balanced portrayal of women in the history of Chinese tea.

Chinese Americans and the Residential Hotel 
Dr Marie Wong
5 May, 2023

How Chinese Americans lived in and owned residential hotels in Chinatowns, and the modern impacts of redevelopment.  This expands on her 2018 book titled Building Tradition: Pan-Asian Seattle and Life in the Residential Hotels
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Our instructive program series has been developed with support by PSU’s Institute for Asian Studies, Northwest China Council, Lan Su Chinese Garden and Portland Chinatown Museum.  It is free and open to the public.  

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​© 2014 - 2023  First Saturday PDX
  • Upcoming Presentation, 1 April, 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
    • Year of the Rabbit 4721
    • Spring Fundraiser Banquet Lunch/ Auction 18 FEB, 2023
    • "Model Letters" and the Audiences of Calligraphy in Early Modern China , 4 March, 2023
    • Women in the History of Tea in in China, 1 April, 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