CUPERTINO, California—The record breaking temperatures that have scorched the Western United States in the last few days gave a break to the organizers of the 24th Taiwanese and Chinese American Athletic Tournament of San Francisco Bay Area (TCAAT). Today's ceremonies took place at De Anza College in Cupertino—home of a large ethnic Chinese population—in a more comfortable setting with temperatures in the 80's compared to the high 90's and 100's that have been seen in previous days.
One of the reasons the ceremonies were moved to June from July and August in previous years was to allow for more moderate weather, and luckily the organizers got that today.
In it's 24th year, TCAAT is the largest Chinese-American sporting event in North America according to TCAAT Chairwoman Wendy Wu, in her opening remarks on Sunday.
Speakers at the opening ceremonies included several government officials, including Chinese Americans council members from cities such as Cupertino, Campbell, Fremont, as well as the first elected Chinese American councilmember for the city of San Jose, Kansen Chu.
"We have over 10,000 athletes participating in this event," said Christine Chen, coordinator of the Art Center. "Today, athletes will compete in about 15 of the 24 events which have started in May to span an almost 2 month competition period", continued Ms. Chen. The events included Swimming, Track & Field, Basketball, Soccer, Golf, Badminton, Tennis, Volleyball, and of course, Martial Arts.
Yet, TCAAT is not all about sports. It is about art, culture and being social and connecting with friends all over the US. Ms. Chen coordinated the painting competition with over 300 entries from high school students to 8 yr. olds and below. "The theme of most of the paintings is about the Olympic dream with students depicting Olympic events and activities" added Ms. Chen.
Other events include Family Fun Games, Singing, Dancing, Special Needs, Community Celebrity Challenge and the newly added "Folk Custom Skill".
Asked about the history and goal of this event, Morris Wu, TCAAT spokesperson and President of the Taiwanese American Chamber of Commerce of Northern California said: "In the 80's a group of people, the first generation immigrant who came to this country as graduate students initiated this event. This is one way of re-uniting our community with the same ethnic background. The most work required is in the area of collaboration and teamwork. They feel they get together and accomplish something and this provides a very friendly competition environment and not just for us, but also for the next generation which we hope will see what has been done and pick up the baton and run with it in a similar way."
Mr. Wu also mentions that TCAAT is not a pure sports event. "Asians and Chinese Americans in particular have a lot of social organizations already. This is the way to put them together, this is sometime they can do together at the same time, and get to know each other even better."
"There are incremental changes year after year. We add more substance to the events, we invite other communities, and this year for example we have American high school kids to join us in the marching band."
Mr. Wu points out that there are similar organizations in cities with large Chinese populations such as New York and Los Angeles, yet the magnitude of their events is not comparable to this one. "Sometimes they send delegates and teams to join us here in Cupertino. Currently, a cross-geographic connection is now limited due to financial issues, yet we are very determined to keep this going."
Another note-worthy aspect of this event is that one of the several groups that are banned from participating at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and which is also persecuted in China for nine years, Falun Gong, was present and welcomed by the audience at the opening ceremonies in a large contingent including a 150 plus person marching band.
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