4th New York Chinese Film Festival Red Carpet and Opening Ceremony

The 4th New York Chinese Film Festival kicked off at Lincoln Center's Alice Tuly Hall.  Actor/Director Vivian Zhao Wei, Singer/Actor Miriam Yeung, Action Star Donnie Yen, Wu XiuBo (Finding Mr. Right), Larry Yang (Director, Sorry I love you), Wesley Wong, Vivian Dawson 錦榮 and Jade Lin were among those who walked the star studded red carpet.

Vivian Zhao Wei

Chinese heartthrob, actor Wu Xiu Bo

Hong Kong Singer/Actor Miriam Yeung and husband Real Ting

Beautiful Couple: Action Star Donnie Yen 甄子丹 and Wife Cecilia Cissy Wong 汪詩詩

MOCA Museum of Chinese America Legacy Awards Gala

The Museum of Chinese America, MOCA held their glamorous star studded Legacy Awards Gala at Cipriani Wall Street honoring Chinese Americans in the fashion field.  The Legacy Award winners were Angelica Cheung Editorial Director, VOGUE China,   Silas Chou President and CEO, Novel Holdings Group,  Calvin Tsao Architect, Tsao & McKown, and  Humberto Leon and Carol Lim Co-Founders, Opening Ceremony, and Creative Directors, Kenzo.  Funds raised at the legacy awards dinner and silent auction benefits MOCA's educational programs.

From L to R: Model Fei Fei, Angelica Cheung (Editorial Director of Vogue China), Designer Jason Wu

Piece by Designer Maya Lin (designer of the Vietnam War Memorial)

With Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang

Chiu-Ti Jansen of Chinahappenings.com in custom made red gown of her own design.

Playwright David Henry Hwang

Wearing a cocktail dress by designer and friend Cheng Huai Chuang

With Designer Angela Gao of ANGG

Yunnan Photo Diary - Dali

China's most popular tourist destinations include Beijing, Shanghai, XiAn, which I've already visited.  So last winter, I explored the province of Yunnan in Southwest China with my mom and brother. Yunnan is a province with many ethnic minorities of China.  Although westerners think of China as one homogenous people, the population is actually made up of many different peoples.  I've always thought of myself as Chinese American, but when I visited Yunnan, I realized I'm considered part of the "Han" majority.  In the different cities we visited, we were met with tour guides from different ethnic groups.  Our first guide in the city of Dali, was from the Bai minority (or white, because of their fondness of the color white) , the city of Li Jiang was the NaXi (which means black in the Naxi language) minority, and in Shangra-La, our guide was Tibetan. Each of the minorities have their own language and traditional dress.  There was even a tourist attraction called "minority village" in the province of Kunming introducing all the minorities.

Butterfly Springs in Dali

I found Yunnan to be clean compared to the more urban Shanghai and Beijing. The Butterfly Springs in Dali, had such clear water, I could see the bottom of the springs. Of course, like the rest of the world, they are feeling the effects of pollution. The Jade Dragon Mountains in LiJiang, which are the southernmost glaciers in the northern hemisphere used to have snowy peaks all year round, but now it's only during the winter season.

The Three pagodas of Dali

Performance by minority people

The sign says Yunnan's 18 strange/unique items - Yunnan is known for 18 interesting foods including fried cheese (below the sign and bottom right)

I decided to visit a Walmart in Yunnan - they had a whole section devoted to chilli peppers!

A savory "cake" made from beans which was spiced with chilli, garlic, soy sauce.  I didn't try it, but it looked good!

A Tibetan Prayer wheel

Beautiful minority traditional dress, with silver headdress