2025 - 2026 Season Schedule
Welcome to the First Saturday PDX 2025 - 2026 season!
We love our new home and the beautiful campus of Reed College, Rm B19 lower level in the Biology Building, and you will too. The building has an elevator, adjacent to a roomy parking lot (free). Although all our events are free, registration is required for each event, both online and in person; available on the upcoming presentation page and program announcements. We welcome your attendance.
This season's collection of in-person and online programs of China-related subjects has a discussion on diverse cultural and historical influences that have shaped Nepal's culinary heritage "The Mystic Kitchens of Nepal," as well as a meal at a Nepali venue. Programs will also include a Conversation with the First Chinese American to hold office in a United States legislature, an examination of the Healing Power of the Wood Stone Culture within the Penitentiary, and a Penjing demonstration, and a talk on "To or Not Eat: The Curious Affair of Western Missionaries with Chinese Food."
2026 will bring a gathering for Dim Sum, and then our Spring Banquet Fundraiser Celebrating the Year of the Fire Horse. We will then have a discussion on Kang Youwei "A Chinese Reformer in Exile," followed by a presentation on the commodification of Confucian painting in Ming Dynasty Suzhou and then an examination of Ancestral Tablets of China.
Each program will be followed typically by a casual no host lunch family style at a Chinese restaurant for in person programs, or a half hour of further discussion and socializing in our virtual First Saturday PDX Tea House for the online programs.
This season begins on 6 September, 2025 running through 6 June, 2026.
We love our new home and the beautiful campus of Reed College, Rm B19 lower level in the Biology Building, and you will too. The building has an elevator, adjacent to a roomy parking lot (free). Although all our events are free, registration is required for each event, both online and in person; available on the upcoming presentation page and program announcements. We welcome your attendance.
This season's collection of in-person and online programs of China-related subjects has a discussion on diverse cultural and historical influences that have shaped Nepal's culinary heritage "The Mystic Kitchens of Nepal," as well as a meal at a Nepali venue. Programs will also include a Conversation with the First Chinese American to hold office in a United States legislature, an examination of the Healing Power of the Wood Stone Culture within the Penitentiary, and a Penjing demonstration, and a talk on "To or Not Eat: The Curious Affair of Western Missionaries with Chinese Food."
2026 will bring a gathering for Dim Sum, and then our Spring Banquet Fundraiser Celebrating the Year of the Fire Horse. We will then have a discussion on Kang Youwei "A Chinese Reformer in Exile," followed by a presentation on the commodification of Confucian painting in Ming Dynasty Suzhou and then an examination of Ancestral Tablets of China.
Each program will be followed typically by a casual no host lunch family style at a Chinese restaurant for in person programs, or a half hour of further discussion and socializing in our virtual First Saturday PDX Tea House for the online programs.
This season begins on 6 September, 2025 running through 6 June, 2026.
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Culinary Heritage and History:
"The Mystic Kitchens of Nepal" Author/ Chef Bikram Vaidya 6 September, 2025 "The Mystic Kitchens of Nepal” is a tribute to the diverse cultural influences that have shaped Nepal's culinary heritage into a harmonious and mystical cuisine. Author/Chef Bikram Vaidya explores how Nepali food connects to history, geography, culture, migration, and sustainability - from the Himalayas to the Tarai, and from the East to the West. Further information and images here |
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A Conversation with The Honorable State Senator Mae Yih, the First Chinese American Elected to the State Legislature in America
The Honorable State Senator Mae Yih 4 October, 2025 The Honorable State Senator Mae Yih made history in 1976 when she became the first Chinese-American ever elected to a state legislature in the United States. With 26 years in the Oregon legislature,Senator Yih earned a reputation for hard work, honesty, integrity, and fighting tirelessly for the interests and concerns of her constituents and her legislative district. We talk with Senator Yih about her experience that led to her successful political career, the priorities that were at the center of her legislative service. Further information and gallery here |
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The Healing Power of the Wood Stone Culture
within the Penitentiary Mark Vossbrink. BFA 1 November, 2025 Penjing master Mark Vossbrink shares the power of qi involved in a garden – positive energy which ties into meditation and enlightenment in a Buddhist way. Plants manipulate and attract energy; in a prison, the garden fosters that positive energy in that space. Mark will also revisit a living piece created for us in 2019, demonstrating how deliberate cultivation has contributed to its development. Further information here |
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To Eat or Not to Eat: The Curious Affair of Western Missionaries with Chinese food Piotr Gibas, PhD 6 December, 2025 - online presentation What did Western Christian missionaries eat in China and why, for the most part, it was not Chinese food? This study focuses on two groups of missionaries and their foodways: the Portuguese Jesuits (Catholics) based in Macau between the 16th and 17th centuries, and the British and American Protestants in Hong Kong and Shanghai in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It aims to reveal what they ate, what they refused to eat, and why. While examining ideological and cultural factors that shaped the dietary choices of Christian missionaries, this talk also engages with enduring Western attitudes, perceptions, and phobias regarding Chinese food more broadly. Further information here |
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First Saturday PDX's Dim Sum/ Yum Cha Brunch
Excellent Cuisine Restaurant 3 January, 2024 Come join us for dim sum also known as "yum cha" - a casual no host brunch where we catch up over many mouth watering dishes of "heart's delight". The diversity of the dishes allows us to include gluten free selections and we will try our best to accommodate other food allergies. Further information and images here |
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Spring Banquet Lunch Fundraiser
YEAR OF THE FIRE HORSE 火馬 Golden Horse Seafood Restaurant 15 February, 2026 12:15 - 2:30 pm 春節 ! We celebrate our continuing programs, the new Year of the Horse, and the coming spring with our Spring Banquet. This is a delicious multi-course lunch including dishes unique to Golden Horse Seafood Restaurant. There will be also a small Raffle with some special prizes. |
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"A Chinese Reformer in America"
Jane Larson 6 March, 2026 Jane Larson will give an overview of her 2025 co-authored book, "A Chinese Reformer in Exile," which examines Kang Youwei’s travels in North America and leadership of the Chinese Empire Reform Association between 1899 and 1911, during his exile from China after the failed Hundred Days’ Reform of 1898. By tracing his activities between 1899 and 1911, she will highlight the global dimensions of this pioneering Chinese reform movement and its impact on overseas Chinese communities, including Portland, one of the most active chapters of the reform association. Further information here
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Painting in Ming Dynasty Suzhou: The marketing of Scholarly Taste
Ann Wetherell, PhD 4 April, 2026 Between the 15-18th centuries Suzhou developed into an economic and cultural powerhouse with an increasingly fluid social structure that dissolved the lines between commerce and the scholarly elite. Best known scholar artists of Suzhou will be discussed, especially Shen Zhou and Wen Zhengming, how their paintings functioned within their personal networks, and the subsequent commodification of Confucian painting to meet the demands of the burgeoning market for Suzhou souvenirs. Further information here |
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Mapping Memory via Ancestral Tablets
K.E. Brashier, PhD 2 May, 2026 Chinese ancestors have long needed tangible tools in the here-and-now to locate them. Thus descendants had ancestral tablets inscribed mapping their ancestors genealogically and socially, spatially and temporally, both securing their existence and making them relevant to the present. K.E. Brashier shares his new research about the prescriptions and practices that inform this iconic tradition with as-yet-unpublished images of numerous ancestral tablets and paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries. Further information here |
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Our instructive program series has been developed with support by Reed College, Northwest China Council, Lan Su Chinese Garden and Portland Chinatown Museum.
It is free and open to the public.
