Suzhou Chinese Orchestra's "Charm of Chinese Music"

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the establishment and ongoing relations of the Portland-Suzhou Sister City Association

The Suzhou Chinese Orchestra, on the occasion of the Portland – Suzhou Sister City’s 30th Anniversary, performed at Portland State University’s Lincoln Hall Friday evening August 26th.  The Suzhou Chinese Orchestra is a professional orchestra co-founded by the Suzhou Municipal Government and Suzhou New and High-tech District. A municipal non-profit art group, with Peng JiaPeng(a.k.a. “Pang KaPang”), renowned National Class I conductor as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor. Peng also notably visited Wiener Musikverein as conductor.

Other members of the Orchestra included:Zhu Changyao, renowned Urheen player, composer and National Class I performer as Art Guide, and Cheng Congwu, Honorary Chairman of Suzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles and National Class I Art Supervisor as General Manager. The orchestra currently has over 90 performers, composed by renowned players at home and abroad, and excellent graduates of ten conservatories, represented by the Central Conservatory of Music, China Conservatory of Music and Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Conductor Peng JiaPeng was kind enough to provide a demonstration of each unique Chinese instrument to a full house of appreciative guests.

http://cn.chinadaily.com.cn/2018-07/30/content_36667385.htm  

Suzhou Chinese Orchestra Charms of Chinese Music Program included Chinese as well as American musical scores:

1. Celebration Prelude Composed by Zhao Jiping2. Kentucky Home and SusannaAdapted from American folk songs by Peng Xiuwen3. Butterfly Dream Composed by Zhao JipingCello Soloist: Kang Qiaoxuan(Guest)

——Interval——

4. Candide Overture Composed by Leonard BernsteinAdapted by Zhang Dasen5. Pe0ny Pavillion Touring the Garden(Kunqu and Chinese Orchestra)Composed by Zhu ChangyaoSinger Wang Fang6. Lyricism Partita Composed by Liu Changyuan7. Macau Capriccio Composed by Wang Danhong

Suzhou Poster Design Exhibition, “Innovative Suzhou, Great Journey”

Portland City Hall - July 27, 2018 to August 3, 2018 2018 marks the 30th anniversary of sister city relations between Suzhou and Portland and also the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening up.  iSuzhou, part of Suzhou Daily, organized a poster design competition to highlight Suzhou’s journey in the past 40 years and to promote international exchanges in culture and cultural innovation.  Over 3000 entries were submitted into the competition by Suzhou citizens. The best 50 entries were selected as part of the “Innovative Suzhou, Great Journey” exhibit in Portland City Hall for the Portland-Suzhou Sister City Association’s 30th Anniversary Celebration festivities.

A ribbon cutting ceremony took place in the afternoon on July 27th in the North Atrium of  Portland City Hall. Ms. Chido Dhilwayo, Director of International Relations for the City of Portland, served as Master of Ceremony.  The event was organized by the Portland-Suzhou Sister City Association in collaboration with iSuzhou, Suzhou Foreign Affairs Office, and the Office of Government Relations of City of Portland.

Five Royal Rosarians warmly welcomed the Suzhou Delegation led by Mr. Gu Jie, Secretary General of Standing Committee of Suzhou Municipal Peoples’ Congress to Portland with welcome greetings and a commemorative certificate.   Mayor Ted Wheeler of City of Portland and Secretary General Gu Jie of Suzhou both gave remarks. Mayor Wheeler exchanged gifts with Mr. Jie, also accepted a seal with his name from the exhibit curator and signed a commemorative certificate.  

The ribbon cutting ceremony was performed by Secretary General. Gu Jie, Mayor Wheeler and representatives from both Cities of Portland and Suzhou.  A group photo was taken to mark this special occasion and everyone enjoyed looking through the beautiful poster exhibit before the event ended. 

Original link here (note Chinese language)

My First PediCab Ride at the Portland Grand Floral Parade 2018

Article contributed by Yeshe Versluys

(The son of PSSCA board member JeanLi)

Hi, my name is Yeshe and I attend Lake Oswego Junior High.

On June 9th, 2018, I participated for my first time in the annual Grand Floral Parade, part of Portland’s Rose Festival. I had a great time riding in the pedi-cab representing the Suzhou-Portland Sister City Association. We (My mom and I) arrived bright and early in the morning at the meeting place (which took some effort to find) and immediately got to work, decorating our cab with bundles of bright and scented flowers. Our fellow decorators from other associations commended us on our extravagant bundles of flowers lining the bright orange cab. Finally, our group arrived at the start of the parade, and I saw just how complex, but well organized an operation this was. Horses lined the street, their riders mounted high above everyone else, sporting bright colors and intricate designs in their clothing. I also noticed the various floats that were positioned behind our ensemble of 20 or so carts. Then we started moving.

I have two favorite moments from the parade; the first one was when our caravan entered the coliseum. I remember waving at the massive crowd of people lining the edges of the room, I couldn’t help but smile, taken away by the big audience and grand introduction. As our fleet exited the coliseum, I knew this would be a fun day.

My other favorite moment from the parade was seeing all of the different people, from different backgrounds and a wide range of ethnicities, coming together for this event. It brought a grin to my face as we paraded down the streets smiling, waving, and our drivers cheering their heads off (figuratively). I also enjoyed seeing people’s faces light up when they recognized the various cities being represented, I heard people on the side saying things like “Oh, Oh, Suzhou! I recognize that!”. I even saw some of my classmates there.

All in all, I had such an amazing time and I look forward to attending and maybe even participating next year!

2017 Evening Under The Stars Gala

An evening to be remembered, many years to come, for so many wonderful reasons.

Mayor Ted Wheeler welcomed Suzhou Foreign Affairs Director Xu Huadong to Portland for which PSSCA President Lynne McIntyre and Elizabeth Edwards, Interim Director, Office of Government Relations at City of Portland participated in the gift exchange.

There was the heartfelt speech by Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler extolling the friendship and important meaning of the Portland Sister City relationship with Suzhou. That incredible friendship was confirmed when the Mayor bestowed upon PSSCA’s Foreign Affairs Officer, Lu Hehe as an Honorary Citizen of Portland. Known to her friends here in Portland as Dorathy, she was honored for her 13 years of dedicated service to PSSCA. Former Mayor Bud Clark, one of the founding fathers of PSSCA, joined Bonnie Starkey, PSSCA Secretary in the ceremony.

The Mayor congratulated Julie Richman, Principal of the Hope Chinese Charter School for the PSSCA Cultural Leadership Award for the school’s award-winning participation in the Jiangsu Province International Youth Art Competition. Director Zhang Jian accepted the PSSCA Educational Leadership Award on behalf of the Confucius Institute, celebrating their 10th Anniversary at Portland State University. Mr. Lu Chen, Senior Logistics Director, GC for Nike Logistic Center in Suzhou accepted the PSSCA Business Leadership Award. Rachel Burlington, Curator of the Portland's International Rose Test Garden was honoured for her cooperation with PSSCA in establishing a Portland Suzhou dedicated Rose Bed that will be on display at the Garden. Once again Andre and Ardina Wang honored a PSU Scholarship Award to Yamin Hong who is in pursuing a degree in accounting.

This special evening will also be foremost remembered for PSSCA President Lynne McIntyre’s wonderful stewardship of emceeing PSSCA’s Evening Under the Stars Gala for the very last time. She recently announced to the Board of PSSCA that she will be relocating to Los Angeles to join her daughter. She has been President of PSSCA on two different occasions and has been a member of the Board since 1998. She will be dearly missed. We wish her the very best and thank her for her long and dedicated service to PSSCA.

PSSCA wishes to thank the following sponsors for helping make this fundraising evening a most successful one: Platinum Sponsor, The Lan Su Chinese Garden and Polytech Heating LLC, Griffin Mesher & Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP; Gold Sponsor, The Confucius Institute and Berkshire Hathaway Home Services; Bronze Sponsorship, donor-bridge, Mark Spencer hotel and the Oregon - China Sister State Relations Council.