Resources

Join influential playwright Philip Kan Gotanda to get the inside scoop on the ideas and inspirations behind his groundbreaking body of work, including his play, After the War Blues, which explores the lives of a diverse community in San Francisco’s Japantown in the aftermath of World War II. Gotanda, who teaches theater at UC Berkeley, appears in conversation with Michael Omi, associate professor of Asian American and Asian diaspora studies at UC Berkeley. To set the stage, local actors and musicians perform scenes from Gotanda’s plays. Warning: Contains explicit language.

The Bay Area’s own Ballet Afsaneh, a dynamic ensemble whose repertory focuses on Silk Road regions in Central Asia, will perform colorful, kinetic traditional dance.

2010 is the Year of the Tiger! MATCHA kicks off the Lunar New Year and special exhibition Shanghai with dynamic tiger-style kung fu (martial art) demonstrated by Shaolin Temple USA monks.

Where is the line between history and mythology? In Extracted, artist Ranu Mukherjee eclipses the boundaries between the two, placing them in the same universe. Commissioned for the Asian Art Museum’s 50th anniversary, this exhibition drew inspiration from California’s Gold Rush, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the ancient text The Classic of Mountain and Seas, and the museum’s own collection.

The main figure in this stone sculpture from the 900s shows many characteristic features of images of the Buddha. Here we see elements that tell us we’re in the presence of the Buddha as he was on the threshold of achieving enlightenment. Above his head are branches of heart-shaped leaves. They indicate the sacred bodhi tree, under which he is said to have attained enlightenment some 2,500 years ago.

Bojagi means “wrapping cloth” in Korean. It is used for a variety of purposes, including formal celebrations such as wedding ceremonies and birthday gift presentations. Each bojagi is a unique work of art. Artist Youngmin Lee demonstrates how to make bojagi using various techniques.