Crystal Chang

Crystal Chang considers her September calendar and is momentarily stumped about setting a time to meet. Every moment of every day of the month is booked. She works full-time as a Mandarin instructor, is the co-founder and current vice president of the Monterey Bay Chinese Association, director of the International Language and Cultural Association and a board member for the Asian Art Society of Monterey Bay.

“So I play many different roles and I have many different hats on me,” she says, chuckling.

Chang has another reason to be busy in September: She’s the main organizer of the 2nd annual Chinese Cultural Festival, taking place Sept. 23. There are musical and dance acts to be finalized, activity booths that need coordinating and myriad details that call for attention. A group of MBCA volunteers are helping out by donating time and money to make the family-friendly festival free of charge.

Besides music and dance performances – some by DLI instructors – festival activities include Chinese brush painting, calligraphy, Chinese knots – the art of creating complex knotted shapes out of a single length of cord – dumpling-making from scratch, creating bamboo rice wraps and playing games like Jianzi, also known in English as Chinese hacky sack or kinja.

The association also operates the MBCA Chinese School on Saturdays in Seaside. The nonprofit school keeps the Mandarin language alive for Monterey County families of Chinese descent through immersion and conversation classes, as well as promoting Chinese culture through games and art. MBCA students will show off what they’ve learned at the festival.

Weekly: The Chinese Cultural Festival is relatively new. How did it get started?

Chang: My (DLI) colleagues and I, we realized that the Chinese actually started early here in the Monterey area – we have Chinese ancestors (who settled) here – so we realized that the Chinese had a big impact on local history. However, the new generations such as us, we’re new immigrants here and we didn’t know our ancestors that well.

Back in 2012, we started a Chinese New Year event, which we do every year. We’re starting to reach out, instead of being in our own group; now we’re reaching out to let people see us, because we feel we have this obligation to let more people know that we want to embrace these two cultures, American and Chinese.

Where do you come from in China?

I’m actually not Chinese, I’m from Taiwan…

My apologies! I know that’s a faux pax, given the conflicts between the two countries.

(Laughs) That’s OK.

Does your group include people from the two countries?

All mainland, one Taiwanese! But our mission is the same and we’re all working toward the same goal. It’s open to all. Anyone can join our membership, they don’t have to be Chinese.

You call sharing the Chinese culture with Americans your “obligation.” Why?

America helped me grow. America made me who I am today. Taiwan is my first home, America is my second home. America gave me education, the environment to grow into who I am today.

I’m more sharing today. If you know about Chinese culture, it’s not like this. Our belief is don’t trust people, but I built a trust here in the United States, and it feels good.

You’ve spent half your life here in the U.S. Is there anything you miss about Taiwan?

What do you mean – like air pollution, the traffic jams… ?

More like family traditions, or food.

Maybe the food. In Taiwan it’s 24/7. Anytime you’re hungry, you just go on the street and there’s food there. It’s not like here: 9pm, nothing. I’m a vegetarian, and everything you can eat in Taiwan is vegetarian.

Any particular Taiwanese dish you miss?

Fried “chicken” nuggets, vegetarian. It’s so tasty, so tasty. I miss it. They don’t make it here. I also miss stinky tofu. It is so stinky but in a good way. Stinky tofu tastes really good to Chinese and Taiwanese, but to Americans – they don’t like it. They don’t have it here in Monterey, but some of the stores have it in San Jose. It’s just a cultural difference. The way we like stinky tofu is the way Americans like blue cheese. We cannot take blue cheese, it’s too strong.

THE CHINESE CULTURAL FESTIVAL happens 10am-5pm, Sunday, Sept. 23 at Custom House Plaza, Monterey. For more information, email Crystal Chang at ccatmbca@gmail.com