The guests of honor will be Chicago Consul General Huang Ping and his colleagues. Dr. Robert Jacobson, Chair of Asian Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, will Keynote the event, followed by a diverse group of presenters.

The first day of the event will feature a lecture at the East Asian Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis West Bank Campus, S-75 Wilson Library (http://eastasian.lib.umn.edu for location and parking), and a Moon Cake Festival Open House where people can enjoy Moon cakes and fresh tea while listening to traditional folk stories melodies of the erhu.  The day will end with dinner at Little Szechuan Restaurant at (by reservation only), 422 University Avenue West, St. Paul.

Saturday, Sept. 13, the second day of Moon Festival in Minnesota will be held at the Hamline University Conference Center (http://www.hamline.edu/visitors/PDF/campus_map.pdf

Conference Center is between Law School +

Holt Tennis Courts off-street at 1492 Hewitt, St. Paul

Parking in Lot D on map). 

The day’s activities will begin at 8:45 a.m. when Joyce Cox, President of the Midwest Region and Mary Warpeha, President of the Minnesota Chapter of USCPFA will welcome conferees.  Consul General Huang Ping from the Chicago Consulate, his wife and two counselors will be the official honored guests.

Keynote speaker Dr. Robert Jacobsen, Chair of the Department of Asian Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts will present and then there will be seven diverse one-hour workshops covering a broad range of cultural and historical topics. Each of four time slots (10:45-11:45 a.m., 12:45-1:45; 2:00-3:00; 3:15-4:15 p.m.) will provide attendees many options. During the lunch hour storyteller Betty Friesen will relate the legacy of the Moon Festival.

Workshop topics include:

• Porcelain-making in Jingdenzen by Professor Gary Erickson

• Feng Shui principles in the garden by Carole Hyder

• Shadow puppetry of Shaanxi by Annie Katsura Rollins

• Brian Moon’s telling of the remarkable reunion of U.S. Airmen shot down over China and the farmers who harbored them safely from the Japanese over 50 years ago

• The changing education opportunities in China by China Center Director, Dr. Yongwei Zhang

• Wal-Mart and the changing Chinese consumerism by Professor David Davies,

• China’s regional strategy in Asia by Professor Ed Farmer

Day two will conclude with a banquet (by reservation only) at Peking Garden (1488 University Avenue, St. Paul). The evening will feature entertainment including musical arrangements in the traditions of Minnesota’s sister relations of Changsha, Harbin and Shaanxi Province.

For information about the fees and to register for activities during the Minnesota Moon Festival, visit www.uscpfa-mn.org or call Rebecca Warpeha at 612-379-2425 during the day.  Those who register after Sept. 8 will have to pay an extra US$10 fee.

The Minnesota Moon Festival is co-sponsored by:

Midwest Region, US-China Peoples Friendship Association

East Asian Studies at Hamline University

East Asian Library of the University of Minnesota