Celebrating Chinese culture, art in Schaumburg
The Prairie Center of the Arts in Schaumburg this weekend will host a Chinese heritage arts program featuring dozens of performers presenting the unique customs, music, dance and art forms of different Chinese cultures.The Xilin Art Center is producing the program, which begins at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Prairie Center, 201 Schaumburg Court, in Schaumburg.The performance is a celebration of the Middle Autumn Moon Festival, which in Chinese cultures is similar to an American Thanksgiving. Traditionally, family members return to their hometown for the festival.Among the performers at the event will be the famed Shaolin Kung Fu and Chinese Martial Arts performed by Shaolin Monks and professional martial arts masters. They#146;ll be joined by students from the suburbs who will show off their acrobatic ability and skill.More than half of the performers for the celebration are teens and children from the area.The Xilin Art Center is one of the branches of the Xilin Association, a nonprofit organization that provides for social services and Chinese education, as well as performing arts programs and art education classes. The association was started 16 years ago by a few talented young ladies who, after settling down in their lives as new immigrants, decided to use their unique artistic language to communicate with the other ethnic groups.In 1998, the art center won support from the Illinois Arts Council, which has opened a new page in the history of the center. In the same year, successful professional artists joined the center to ensure the quality of the programs in the center. Since then, its members have performed at locations across the Midwest and even in parts of China.Tickets for Saturday#146;s performance are $15, $20, $25 and $35. For ticket sales or information, contact: Carla Zhang/June Yang Xiaoying Zhu (847) 382-7818; Joan Li (847) 809-4620; Xin Kimmet (630) 355-7294; or Haiyan Huang (847) 821-0553.For more information on the association or the program, visit http://xilin.org/.