Highlights from China Charity and Cultural Projects 3Q2023 –

4Q2023 Highlights

Attended this MIT D-Lab forum on 12-12-2023 and was impressed with the fascinating stories about how this program got started 20 yrs ago and now a standard program at MIT for students to lean and engage with projects that work with communities in the design and development of tools and equipment to improve the wellness of the people in communities in Haiti, Nepal, India, Ghana, Brazil, Tanzania, etc.. Will continue to donate to this program from my retirement fund and explore opportunities to help rural communities in China….

Continued to help Tibetan children in West Sichuan province with medicine expenses after their congenital heart corrective surgeries in Beijing.

Visited Dalian Orphanage and brought school supplies for 120 older kids…

Little Brother Dragon (LBD) continued to do well in his behavior and helped his mother, who has been ill, to do house and farm work during the harvest season. He received the Good Behavior Award for 2H2023. Also visited his grandmother and helped her medicine expenses in the hospital after a fall that broke her hip bones.

Continued teaching of American Oral Language online classes for students in Dalian, Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Taipei Taiwan, Manchester UK, and Santiago de Chile.

Visited Qi-Lu Chinese cultural birthplaces

3000 years ago during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Waring States period, sages and men of virtue began to influence the education and faith of the people and began to form the foundation of the Chinese culture. Qi-Lu area of the now Shandong province became the birth place of Taoism and Confucianism. Visited many intangible cultural heritage sites including Weifang, Zibo, Qufu, Jinan, and Changzhou in order to understand the cultural significance of these places in history.

1Q-2Q2024 Highlights

Dalian orphanage project –

Visited the orphanage to find out the current needs for the children. Decided to donate 60 boxes of pizza plus chicken wings, etc. as a special treat for more than 50 school age kids on a Saturday afternoon after their sports activities. This unique donation worked very well and was very appreciated by the orphanage. We’ll continue to search for the best way to help those kids in the orphanage. Another inquiry into the possibility of helping a Memphis couple to adopt a kid was not yet allowed at this time due to government policies.

visit to the ancient town of Dong Yi in the City of Rizhao, Shandong province –

Learned part of the intangible cultural heritage at the Dragon King God Taoist temple in the ancient town of Dong Yi(originated in the Ju State 3000 years ago), Rizhao City, Shandong province. This temple was said to be the first Taoist temple in China, originally built in the Song and Yuan dynasties, worshipping the God of Sea Dragon King, as well as the earliest sages of Taoism. Also learned the proper way to show respect in Taoism, which can be viewed as a intangible cultural heritage that’s in danger of extinction. This town also has a Confucian school, worshipping Confucius.

3Q-4Q2024 Highlights

West Sichuan Tibetan Children project –

Visited the First Peoples’ Hospital in Chendu to see and hear how Tibetan children with congenital heart disease were screened, transported and operated there. Our funding help during the last 3 years, along with other charities from Shenzhen and Changsha enabled the ongoing live-saving program from this hospital. Received briefing from the Chief Surgeon and the Head Nurse and toured the hospital facilities. Seeing and receiving thank-you notes and messages from those innocent Tibetan children was very heart warming. We aim to continue our support in this joint charity effort to provide medical help to needed Tibetan children.

LBD Project in Jilin:

Visited Little Brother Dragon and his widowed and ill mom with the village chief to witness the completion of a new outhouse for them to replace the unsafe old one before the cold winter. The extra funding provided by BigBall for materials, along with the labor provided by LBD, and by volunteers like the Village Chief and other villagers ensured timely completion of construction. LBD continues to recover from TB and has continued to behave well for his mother and other villagers. This has been a very successful project for the last 10 years to save LBD’s life from self-inflicted injuries due to low self-esteem and brain damage from childhood illness.

Aid to sick elderly people in various provinces

Visited ill elderly women in Jilin and Anhui and provided vitamins and support for medical treatments.

Learning on Significant Cultural Heritage Sites

As part of the mission collaborated with another charity to discover and collect intangible cultural heritage artifacts and knowledge that may be in danger of extinction, explored cultural heritage sites in Anhui, Nanjing and Chengdu that covered architecture, irrigations, and artifacts stretched from 3000 BC to 100 years ago.

Public Forums Conducted over 10 online public forums on wide range of topics, including environment (e.g., carbon neutrality), cultural comparisons (e.g., raising children in the U.S,), education (e.g., AI’s impact on selected professions, background and usage on over 100 American proverbs), etc..