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Contact: Lynn Cullivan, 415-561-7006 Contact: Rene Yung, 415-309-4386
Free Program in Conjunction with the Chinese Whispers: Bay Chronicles Multimedia Art Installation. Saturday, December 12, 1:30-3pm in the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Visitor Center. WHAT: Calvin Fong (whose father Fong Wan operated a Richmond, CA shrimp camp) and Mike Taggart (Chief Archaeologist on the excavation of a 19th century Chinese shrimp camp near Pt. Molate, Contra Costa County) in conversation with Rene Yung (Chinese Whispers Artistic and Executive Director) against the backdrop of Yung’s new multimedia art installation “Chinese Whispers: Bay Chronicles” at the Park. WHEN: 1:30-3:00 pm on Saturday, December 12, 2015. WHERE: San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Visitor Center, 499 Jefferson Street, San Francisco, CA 94109. Space is limited, please arrive early. CONTACT: In advance: Lynn Cullivan, 415-561-7006/415-859-6796 (cell), Rene Yung, 415-648-1302/415-309-4386 (cell). On 12/12: Rene Yung, 415-309-4386 (cell). WHO: Calvin Fong, the eighth of 12 children, was born in Oakland, CA, graduated from UC Berkeley, earned a MS in Marine Biology from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, served in the Navy, and worked for the US Army Corps of Engineers. Now retired, he is researching his father’s past. Mike Taggart, RPA, whose archival research and extensive excavation of a site in Contra Costa County resulted in the identification of artifacts and features representing occupation by Chinese fishermen circa 1870–1912, will focus on the physical legacy of this obscured aspect of California history. Rene Yung, Artistic and Executive Director of Chinese Whispers, is an internationally exhibiting artist, cultural activist, writer, and designer. DETAILS: The Chinese shrimp camp near Point Molate in Richmond was part of nearly 30 such camps that once flourished around San Francisco Bay. Racial hostility, discriminatory laws, and environmental degradation caused the demise of the once thriving Chinese shrimp fishery. Fong Wan’s Richmond shrimp camp operated from 1934 until the early 1940s. A true entrepreneur, Fong Wan had financial interests in hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, laundries, real estate, and a rice field in addition to being a very successful herbalist in Oakland, California. “Chinese Whispers: Bay Chronicles,” a partnership between Chinese Whispers and the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, explores the changes and dislocations in the cultural and ecological environment of San Francisco Bay through sound and video captured during a series of art and research voyages aboard the Park’s replica San Francisco shrimping junk Grace Quan. The CW Bay Chronicles public program is part of the multi-platform approach of Chinese Whispers to bring to the public overlooked history in different forms that best convey the history, engage the public, and captivate imagination. ### 12/3/2015 |
Last updated: December 3, 2015