2012 A Passsage to China
April 21 & 22
Go Diplomacy
For photo highlights, please visit our Photo Gallery 1, Gallery 2, Gallery 3, Gallery 4, Gallery 5
For video highlights, please visit China Insight or CBS MN
Returning to Mall of America on April 21 and 22 for its 5th annual presentation of A Passage to China, the Chinese Heritage Foundation, together with China Insight, reaffirms its goals by ‘inscribing’ them in both English and Chinese on its entrance gates into the Rotunda. There is no better way to achieve its goals of mutual understanding and mutual courtesy between the Chinese community and the greater Twin Cities community than to have proponents from both communities come together at Passage.
Many major Twin Cities organizations, some with a Chinese focus, have participated side by side with Chinese organizations at Passage over the years. Minneapolis Institute of Arts with its major Chinese
collection, Children’s Theatre with its productions such as Monkey King and Mulan, Stages Theatre with its upcoming production of Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, and Concordia Language Villages with its Chinese villages, have found Passage to be an important venue in which to express their own goals of reaching out to the Chinese community. The same desire was evident in cultural performances in Sears Court. There were kung fu and tai chi and qigong performances headed by Caucasian masters. It fills the heart of a Chinese to the brim when Minnesotans embrace the wonders and practices of ancient Chinese culture with such forthrightness.
Aided by strong mainstream advance media and print coverage, attendees at this year’s Passage started lining up more than an hour before the Passage gates were opened. Performances in Sears Court literally filled the space to the rafters, as audiences lined the upstairs balconies at least two deep. In the Rotunda children continued to reap from their own efforts, from making paper dragons to lanterns to porcelain necklaces to water painting and paper cuts, carrying away their newfound precious possessions and receiving a hong bao each to boot. Sometimes the active process was reversed as they sat patiently to have their faces painted. Older children took on the challenge to learn Mandarin Chinese, spoken and written, or to learn how to use the abacus or to master the seemingly inexhaustible variations of tangrams or Chinese chess.
It remained for the game of go to show bystanders how direct communication could best be achieved. The host, a young Caucasian in this case, invited an elderly Chinese gentleman to sit down for a game. No words were spoken, as neither spoke the language of the other, but they played an intense game that required resilient communication skills. Trying to anticipate each other’s intentions several moves ahead, they responded to each other with quiet courtesy. In the end it no longer mattered who won, it was the process of understanding each other’s intentions and responding accordingly that made the game so engrossing. What would the world be like if everyone practiced such mutual 
understanding and courtesy?
Participating Organizations and Artists
Alex Ewald
American Academy of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
Andrew Moy
Annie Rollins shawow puppetry
Asian Creations
Association of Minnesota Chinese Physicians
Baqua Flow
Breck School
CAAM Chinese Dance Theater
Carleton College Chinese Music Ensemble
Carleton College Singers
CHF candies/chopsticks selling
ChinaSprout Inc.
Chinese American Academic and Professional Association in Minnesota
Chinese American Ballroom Dance Association and Dance With Us America
Chinese American Business Association of Minnesota
Chinese Musical Gallery
Chinese Social Service Center
CIAC Travel Inc.
Concordia Language Villages
Dragon Festival
Dragon Gate School of Tai Chi Chuan
Families with Children from Asia
Gary Erickson
Green Dragon Kung Fu
Hopkins Xin Xing Academy
Hui’s Lucky Dragon Dance
Hunan Folk Association
James Ting Kong Studio
Macalester College
Mingzhou Hua Xia School
Minhua Chorus
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Minneapolis Plum Blossom Kung Fu School
Minnesota China Friendship Garden Society
Minnesota Chinese Dance Theater
Minnesota Chinese Opera
Minnesota Minghua Central School
Minnetonka Public Schools
Muzi Youth Chorus/Li Lei Music Studio
Normandale Community College Tai Chi for Health Programs
Northfield Youth Choirs
Pak Mei Athletic Association
Panda Express
Shaanxi Association of Minnesota
Shaanxi Folk Association
Spring Forest Qigong
St. Paul Public Schools Chinese Program
Stages Theatre
Tea Garden
The Laurasian Institution
Tsinghua Alumni Association of Minnesota
Twin Cities Chinese Dance Center
U MN China Center
U MN Confucius Institute
U MN Immigration History Research Center
US China Business Connections
US-China People’s Friendship Association, MNChapter
Xu Qian Studio
Yinghua Academy
Passage Volunteers
American Go Club
Americorps
Chris Anderson
Christopher Anderson
Conor Andrle
Josephine Auyeung
Cindy Bai
Blaze Beecher
Corey Bergad
Pearl Bergad
Robert Bergad
Angie Brain
Chiafang Chang
Ivy Chang
Joy Chen
Luke Chen
Ping Ben Chen
Yigang Chen
Yueming Chen
Emily Colwell
Winnie Crosbie
Winnie Crosby
Maddie Diehl
Lilly Ding
Abby Erdmann
Gary Erickson
Madison Ernst
Vivian Fan
Mike Ferrell
Ivy Flanders
David Fong’s Lion Dance Group
Mitch Foster
Becca Freeman
Qinghuang Geng
Walter Graff
Elizabeth Greenberg
Henry Han
Jijun He
Andrew Headrick
John Ho
Zi (Hunter) Huang
Cheng Huang
Marlene Huei
Greg Hugh
Paul Johansen
Rustam Kosherbay
Melinda Lai
Norton Lam
Ida Lano
Trevor Larsen
Ken Lau
Theresa Lau
Gary Lee
Michelle Lee
Siu Kee Lee
Michelle Levesque
Lisa Li
Charlie Li
Ruskin Li
Ying Chris Sorman Liang
Hong Lin
Daisy Liu
Jenny Liu
Michelle Liu
Jane Mahowold
Stephen Mao
George Maverick
Linda Mealey-Lohmann
Vickee , Jeff Nelson
Grant Opperman
Peter Otto
Linda Quon
Carter Roland
Annie Rollins
Noah Rubin
Noah Rubin
Jack Schimidt
Kongkai Shan
Julia Shi
Yuxin Shi
Scott Simpson
Yin Simpson
Jo Soo
Ellie Soskin
Denghui Sun
Linda Tam
Yue-him Tam
Nancy Tang
Ming Tchou
Sonja Tillbury
Steve Tsai
Priscilla Van Sloun
Mary Warpeha
Wally Warpeha
James Wille
Dominic Wong
Junie and Victor Wong
Margaret Wong
Brenham Wong
Maureen Wu
Bingwen Yan
Alice Yang
Flora Yang
Amy Yin
Young You
Maddie Youngdale
Xuefeng (Phenix) Yu
jing Yuan
Mary Zhang
Mary Zhang
Paul Zhang
Yingxue Zhang
Zhiqan Zhang
Andrew Zheng
Boling Zheng
Xinxin (Kristy) Zheng