Taste of Asia Festival

The Board of Directors of the Birmingham Chinese Garden, Asian Cultural Center Foundation would like to welcome you to our first fundraising event in pursuit of our vision to build a Classical Chinese Garden, an Asian Cultural Center, and an International Friendship and World Peace Plaza in Birmingham. To be successful, this vision will require many people from many different backgrounds and cultures to cooperate

and work together. We have made a good beginning in our less than two year effort thus far, but there is much more to do! Our theme, "Unity in Diversity" will be well illustrated in the program and by the volunteers for this event. We hope you will become interested in assisting our effort as you enjoy the richness and beauty of things Asian presented on November 3.

"A Taste of Asia" refers to much more than the opportunity to sample the many delicious Asian foods that will be available at the festival; it will also celebrate the many Asian arts and cultures represented there. We hope you will delight in and appreciate the dancers who will present traditional dance and costumes from China, India, Japan, and Korea. The very different sounds of a Chinese erhu will conjure images of old Kunming in 1944-45 for those who attend the presentations of Dr. Gregg Millett on one of China's "National Treasurers." the earliest known color photographs ever taken in China. Perhaps you will be moved to bid on one or more of the exquisite pictures or other fine items from China or Korea or Vietnam being offered for sale in our silent auction. One of the Foundation’s goals is to build a classical Chinese garden - a place of beauty and repose near the hustle and bustle of U.A.B. and the downtown business district. To learn more about the historical and design considerations of such gardens, two presentations will be made by a scholar in landscape architectural design from China, Ms. Wu Jiaying. There will be an opportunity to see a model illustrating how a team from the Suzhou (China) Institute of Landscape Architectural Design incorporated classical aspects into their design for the Birmingham Classical Chinese Garden while visiting Birmingham in September, and a walking tour of the proposed site for which the garden design was made.

We hope you come early and will stay late to enjoy as much as you have time to see. Let your mind and heart be opened to the beauty and friendliness of all the Asian arts, cultures, and peoples. This festival presents but a taste of things to come when a world-class Asian Cultural Education Center of Birmingham and a Birmingham International Friendship and World Peace Plaza are also a reality!

Please look through your festival program on November 3 and note the names of those businesses and individuals that support this first "Taste of Asia Festival".  Their generous contributions, as well as those of many of the presenters and performers who donated their time and art in support of the goals of the Foundation, are most appreciated! Let's commend them and patronize their businesses as a thank you for their support of Birmingham's Asian communities.