Festival 5

The 5th Asian American Festival was held on September 20, 2015, at the Marriott Hotel in Burlington, Massachusetts.

The yearbook photograph of the registration table shows a banner reading 第五屆亞美節 and 2015年9月20日 1:00pm–11:00pm. The same banner prints the host as 亞美聯誼會 (the Association’s name as used on that printed banner) and co-organizers that are legible in the yearbook photo, including the American Asian Art Institute (美國亞洲藝術院) and New England Zhonghua (紐英倫中華…). The rest of the co-organizer line is not fully readable in the scan.

Theme and partners

The Organization Overview records this edition as the 5th festival and the 5th anniversary of the founding of AAAB, held at the Burlington Marriott together with more than ten partners.

A Chapter 3 interview with Klysler Yen, written before the day, says that year’s festival would join 12 partners, including the Asian Cultural Center and Boston Qiaobao Weekend (僑報週末), at the Burlington Mall Marriott. It describes a program aimed at Greater Boston (not Quincy only): lectures on the internet, entrepreneurship, medical care, and education; commercial booths; antique displays; cheongsam display; a Miss Asia meeting; and professional theatrical performances. Those partner names and the “12” count are from that interview; the later overview uses “more than ten.”

Program

The overview (after the event) lists:

• lectures on health, medical treatment, education, appraisal of antiques, business, and service
• booth exhibitions of more than 30 institutions
• dinner for more than 600 people
• performances by the Asian American Art Troupe and other artists

Those counts are stated in the yearbook; they are not independently verified here.

Director Phillip Pan’s profile says he took part in the 5th festival’s public-welfare authentication of antiques and artworks.

Director Pinci Cao’s profile says that at the 5th festival he led 160 members of the World Cheongsam club to perform, wear cheongsam, and volunteer. (That profile prints the venue as the Marriott in Woburn; the chronology and overview place the festival at the Burlington Marriott. Both wordings are kept as printed; this page does not treat them as the same hotel.)

Guests and officials

The chronology records congratulatory letters from U.S. Representative Michael E. Capuano, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch (yearbook English: Tomas. Koch), and Mayor Gary Christenson (yearbook English: Morton Mayor; Chinese: 摩頓市長).

Officials who attended and spoke, as named in that chronology: Massachusetts Assistant Secretary of Commerce Pham Wennan, Massachusetts Senator Lewis, Zian Huang, Burlington Mayor Robert Hogan, and Zhonghua Club President Hong Can Ruan. Also present: the wife of Harvard Kennedy School Professor Tony Saich (yearbook English: Tony Sage; Chinese: 托尼·賽奇), and Harvard Fairbank Center researcher Yinyin Zeng.

The overview adds that provincial, municipal, and local politicians and celebrities attended, and that there were more than 1,000 visitors. That visitor figure is from the overview; it is not independently verified here.

The Yen interview also records that when Donnie Yen visited his parents in July of that year, the 5th-festival preparatory committee held a press conference and received a congratulatory letter.

Photograph

This page is a recap of a festival that has already been held. It is not a notice of an upcoming event.