Sessions on Saturday, September 25, will include the World Cataract Foundation in China, US-China business interests, Chinese art & architecture. We’ll also visit the zoo to see and hear about the Pandas at noon, and we’ll end Saturday evening with a banquet. The business/plenary session will be on Sunday morning, and the conference will close at noon on Sunday, September 26. Chinese consular guests, including Consul General Hu Yeshun from Houston, who attended the SR Conference in Nashville in 2002, will be invited.

Conference registration is $250 and includes program, hotel (Fri& Sat nights, double occupancy), and lunch and banquet on Saturday. (Registrants will be housed in a hotel near Rhodes College, and the host chapter will provide transportation for sessions.)

Plan to arrive on Thursday or Friday to pursue extracurricular activities in Memphis. Use your web browser or call the Chamber of Commerce to check out Memphis attractions. Two exhibits to consider:

· Masters of Florence: Glory & Genius at the Court of the Medici is the Wonders exhibit in the Pyramid (downtown, near the Convention Center). Tickets ($15, $14 seniors) available at the door; hours: 9 am-7 pm. Visitor information available at 1-800-559-7907 or www.wonders.org.).

· Chinese Artistry: A Legacy of Treasures is a permanent exhibit of artworks in jade, ivory, cloisonné, & semi-precious stones at the new Peabody Place Museum (downtown, near the Peabody Hotel). Tickets $5 ($4.50 seniors); hours 10am-5:30 pm Tues-Fri, noon-5 pm Sat & Sun. Visitor information at 901-523-ARTS or www.belz.com.

MY personal favorite Memphis activity is walking down Beale Street in the evening—to hear music in the home of the Blues. Try it on Friday evening with a few friends.

Registration information will be mailed to USCPFA-Southern Region members. For more information, contact USCPFA Memphis, Anne Freeman, at 901-754-0049.

The USCPFA Southern Region Conference was held in Nashville, Tennessee, September 6-8, 2002. Registrants included 40 members and friends from USCPFA chapters in Nashville, Memphis, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Houston, and Palm Beach plus USCPFA National President Barbara Harrison and CTAC’s Kitty and Bart Trescott. A delegation from the Chinese Consulate in Houston was headed by Consul General HU Yeshun and included Cultural Consul Chief WANG Guilin, Cultural Consul WANG Jun, and Consul WANG Zhenshan. QIAN Decun, First Secretary at the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC brought greetings from the Ambassador. On Friday evening before the Conference officially began, Consul General Hu graciously hosted a dinner for the Southern Region Board, the Nashville Chapter Conference Planning Team, and guests.

The Conference was held on the beautiful campus of Scarritt-Bennett, a small conference center in the middle of Nashville. Saturday and Sunday began with Tai Chi under the trees, and meals were served in the Old-English style, wood-paneled dining hall. Program topics were varied: China’s Current Development and China-US Relations, China and its Economy, Chinese Traditional Medicine, A Pre-Modern Perspective on China’s Government, Art and Architecture of the Forbidden City, and Soong Ching Ling: the Southern Region’s Link with China’s Republic. John F. Copper, professor of International Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, was keynote speaker; he has spent more than 13 years teaching and doing research in Asia. He ended his remarks on China’s economy and development with an admonition for people to go to China to see for themselves what/how China is doing; a sentiment with which USCPFA agrees!

Greeting old and new friends and browsing at the display and sales tables were favorite activities during breaks. Kitty and Bart Trescott covered several tables with books and materials from CTAC, USCPFA’s Center for Teaching About China. Sylvia and Ed Krebs of the Atlanta Chapter brought for display and sale several peasant art paintings from the rural Hu County countryside of Shaanxi Province—a preview of peasant art they would exhibit in Atlanta the next weekend. The Nashville chapter offered several Chinese objects (i.e., cork sculpture, silk table cover, porcelain statues, and cloisonné vase) for Silent Auction; winning bidders carried home a treasure, and Nashville chapter earned about $100 from the auction. Bonnie Edwards of the Nashville chapter organized a game of guessing the location/occasion in four photographs—one was the ancient orchestra in LiJiang, Yunnan Province.

photo: Barbara Cobb

Attendance swelled to 60 participants for Saturday night’s cultural program. The program focused on three arts of China: Tai Chi (demonstrated by Lijun Ma of Nashville), music (with an erhu solo by Eddie Wang of USCPFA Chattanooga), and dance (by four delightful children from the Chinese Cultural Group of Nashville).

The Conference presented an informative and entertaining program and has helped reinvigorate the Nashville chapter. What more could one ask?
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Barbara Cobb is active in USCPFA in the Nashville chapter and Southern Region, and on the national level, and was the coordinator for the 2002 Southern Region Conference. If you have questions, contact Barbara Cobb, Tel 615 833-9512, Email .