A Kite-Making Event for COFCC Children
The OCA Columbus Chapter and Central Ohio Families with Children from China (COFCC) co-hosted a 2-hour cultural event for the COFCC children on August 29 at Thompson Park in Upper Arlington. More than twenty children plus their parents participated in the event. Some traveled as far as Chillicothe. Everyone had hands-on experience making kites and then flying them, thanks to the beautiful and windy weather, and the Chinese artist Jingfei Li from Kunming, China.
Board members of OCACC and COFCC planned for the event for several months with the objective of creating a Chinese cultural experience for COFCC children. The event was focused on kite-making led by the invited Chinese artist Jingfei Li, who is a visiting artist at OSU. Ms. Li first discussed and demonstrated an ancient style kite found in Yunnan, China. Then all children (including some parents) followed her to make paper kites by coloring, cutting, adding bamboo frame, and finishing with tying thread.
COFCC provided Chinese style soft drinks and cookies to all participants. The COFCC co-organizer is Gail Rigelhaupt with support from Filomena Folden; the OCACC co-organizer is Kun Shi with support from Linda Wong. Present at the event were board members of OCACC: SL Lee and Tai Wong, who used to serve as mentors for the COFCC children.
Dr. Patrick McAloon from the OSU Chinese Flagship was invited to speak to the COFCC families about his experience with Chinese language learning and the opportunities of studying Chinese at OSU. Also at the event was Jeff Chan, assistant director of the OSU Institute of Chinese Studies.
OCACC hopes to continue working with COFCC in providing cultural and mentoring programs for the children adopted from China. For more information about OCACC and COFCC, please visit http://www.ocacolumbus.org and http://www.centralohiofcc.org. The event was printed by the Erie Chinese Journal, available at http://www.ecjnet.com/PDF_FILES/ECJ140/ECJ140-12.PDF. (KS)