Vaboomer -- Baby Boomer Views & News

Donald Tang: A Man Moved by Love

How Love Can Shape a Boomer's Life

My Country Series books

I came across Donald Tang, a trailing edge boomer, because I am starting to work on a new book, the first in our new www.thimbleberrypress.com My Country series intended for middle school social studies classes.  (In the works also in this series is Vol II. My Country: Haiti, which will be in English, Creole and French with a companion Draw on Culture Activity and Coloring book.)

I was noodling around the internet, since almost all my China research materials and books are in NJ and the local library in Calumet, Michigan has 6 books on China, the most recent of which was published in 1984. I found my way to the Asia Society of So Cal site and discovered Donald Tang who is now its Chairman. This quote from a 2007 speech really grabbed my attention:

He Came for Love

Following the woman he loved from China to America, here are his words:

And I want to use this occasion to thank my girlfriend of 28 years, my wife of 23 years, the girl who stood by my side since I was 14--if I have done one thing right in my life it has to be my choice of a partner in love, my partner in life, my partner in giving, Thank you, Jean. And for giving me the greatest gifts of all, our daughters Rosemarie and Elaine.

For many of us, the kids are what inspire and motivate us to make a difference--because they are the future, they are what we are living for, not only in India, in China and but everywhere in the world. They are our legacy.

Wow! here is a man after my own heart--that love can and should be the greatest motivator. So let me add to my list in a former post about the GNH (Gross National Happiness)and so on with GNL (Gross National Love), GNE (Gross National Ease), and GNHR (Gross National Harmony). How amazing it would be if we measured our world on these metrics...

The article below is from a year or so ago and he is now embarking on new projects that will bring Chinese culture and language to the US! I have worked so long on these projects that  I am thrilled with some one of his skill, talent and heart undertaking such a project. And that kids are at its core--well, kudos, Mr. Tang.

So enjoy this profile of Donald Tang...

(Read More:)

And Our Book and Company Make Two!

If you are in Copper Harbour, Mich, on August 2, join us for a talk and signing

For Immediate Release

For more information contact Lloyd Wescoat at Grandpa’s Barn Bookstore (906) 289-4377.

 

What is a creative partnership?

Thimbleberry Press founders discuss their creative publishing partnership.

Laura Smyth, designer, poet and publisher of Thimbleberry Press, and Virginia Cornue, author, cultural anthropologist and executive editor of Thimbleberry Press will discuss their creative collaborations in making books and founding their publishing company at Grandpa’s Barn Bookstore on

South Fourth Street in 

Copper Harbor,  Sunday, August 2nd at 7:00 p.m.

Smyth and Cornue will talk about how they created Thimbleberry Press and collaborated on The Dragon’s Daughters Return (2007) and Draw On Culture: Little Friends Around the World (2009).

“When you’re at our kitchen table anything can happen...and it did. We founded a publishing company and mapped out our first book, The Dragon’s Daughters Return, all over dinner,” said Smyth. “But we didn’t do it completely on our own—

China was a big help, too!”

While on a heritage visit to China with her daughter in July 2006, Cornue developed the idea for the first book the two would create together. As an adoptive parent and a China scholar who had spent a great deal of time in China in the 1990s, Cornue secured the cooperation of senior Chinese officials for the printing and shipping of The Dragon’s Daughters, and unbeknownst to Smyth, volunteered her design services as well.

“We started the book before we started the company, but both were realities within six months,” said Cornue.

Some of the topics to be discussed at the August 2^nd book talk include:

• creating a vision / creating the reality

• complementary talents /  complimenting talents

• keeping a sense of humor / keeping the sky as the limit.

A Q & A and book signing will follow.

To find out more about Thimbleberry Press and their current and upcoming publications visit the website at http://www.thimbleberrypress.com or the blog at Thimbleberry Press Blog.

Thimbleberry Press,  P.O. Box 162, Copper City, MI  49917

Phone:  (906) 934-2050

Also on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/krhl8c and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thimbleberryprs.

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Ms. Judy Chu (Baby Boomer) Goes to Washington! First Chinese American Woman

Judy Chu becomes first Chinese American woman elected to Congress. 

The San Gabriel Valley Democrat, who will represent the 32nd District, adds the victory to a 24-year political career. She won with nearly 62% of the vote and the support of local political leaders.

Judy Chu can trace the beginnings of her career as a San Gabriel Valley activist and political leader back to the early 1970s and her freshman year in college.

As the young math major, intent on a career in computer science, was crossing the UC Santa Barbara quad one day, someone thrust into her hand a flier about a new Asian American studies course. She decided to give it a try.

It was like a light went off in my head," Chu recalled.

(READ MORE:)