Chicago Chinese culture organization opens academy

With drumbeat and lion dances, a local Chinese culture organization celebrated its expansion of services on Chinese arts in downtown Chicago Saturday afternoon.

Xilin Association, headquartered in western suburb of Chicago, has recently launched the Performing Arts Academy in Chicago. The group offers education programs, arts classes and other social services to local community.

"I've been involved with Xilin's activities for more than 10 years and witnessed its growth step by step," said Kitty Wo, executive director of the newly opened Performing Arts Academy.

Wo said the academy will offer courses in dance, music and arts. "We want to enrich the educational experience of children and adults," she said.

Among the VIPs and community leaders who praised Xilin's services in the Asian community and American society at the opening ceremony are Illinois Secretary of State Jessie White, Chinese Deputy General Consul in Chicago Wang Yong and a representative sent by U.S. Senator Mark Kirk.

"It's important for us to support an institution like Xilin, a place where people can come and learn about the Chinese culture and for the young to learn artistic skills," White said.

Xilin was set up as a Chinese language school in 1989 when Linda Yang, its executive director, and a couple of other Chinese parents couldn't find a school to send their children to learn simplified Chinese. They organized their own school, utilizing the facility at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) to provide lessons. The program was so well received that it was included as a special program at the Chancellor's Office at UIC.

In 1991, Under Yang's leadership, the group set up its office and a Chinese language school in a western suburb of Chicago - Naperville, where there was a large Chinese population.

They soon realized that a language school can't meet the needs of the students, Yang said. So Xilin set up an affiliation with a community college and began offering classes in English and Math.

Over the years, the Xilin Association has expanded the children's education program from weekend schooling to after school programs, and added performing arts, senior services and community healthy programs.

"Xilin's social service to seniors was great," Bill Liu, a longtime supporter and board member of Xilin told Xinhua. "It provides a venue for seniors who don't speak English to have social activities together."

The organization provides services for people from age three to 103, Yang said. "Not just Chinese, but also people from other ethnic backgrounds."

Xilin's senior services include therapeutic activities, meals and social activities. Their community health programs provide mammogram, osteoporosis and hepatitis B screenings for people over 40 who have no insurance coverage.

With the grand opening of the Performing Arts Academy, two dance classes, one for children under seven, and the other, which opens to all ages, have started.