In the early 1970s, the few Chinese residents living in the Fairfield County were largely restaurant, laundry mat owners or professionals working for companies in the New York metro area.  Since 1970s and 80s, more and more Chinese families from all over Asia came to America. All these families needed a Chinese school. Large corporations began relocating to Fairfield County in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. Stamford began its commercial growth and its neighboring towns attracted their share. With the influx of large corporations, the population of Chinese professionals also grew.

As more Chinese families moved in, they sought to connect with the few others like themselves. The few core families united behind the need to socialize with other Chinese and to educate their children in the Chinese language and culture. Most were Mandarin-speaking immigrant professionals from Taiwan, Hong Kong and other parts of Asia. At first, they met for monthly pot-luck dinners, bridge and mah-jong. At this time informal classes were held for children in the home of active parents with education background. With time, under the leadership of a small group of eight men, the Chinese Association of Fairfield County (CAFC) was formed on June 12,1975 with the mission to promote Chinese culture and establish Chinese language classes. In 1989, CAFC was renamed OCA-FC (Oversea Chinese Association – Fairfield Chapter) in recognizing oversea Chinese on a more national basis.

The Chinese language school (CLS) was formed in 1977 and was based at the United Methodist Church in Stamford.  Initially, it operated for two hours every Sunday.  Every Sunday, families would meet and most importantly children could learn Chinese culture and language. The United Methodist church remained the base of the CLS for 25 years. Throughout this time, the CLS serves an important role in supporting the education and culture need of the ever growing Chinese population.

The families have taken turns serving as administrators, teachers, and board members in keeping the school running.  Cultural classes were added to the curriculum and could be taken by people of all ages. Particularly in 1986 there were great advances to the system.  The curriculum was further refined and revised.  Over time, cultural classes such as Kung Fu, Chinese calligraphy, Chinese painting were added as an additional hour to the regular two-hour program for children.

In the more recent years, the profile of the new incoming Chinese has increasingly changed to that of ABCs (American Born Chinese) and young professionals who first came as students from mainland China. The life experiences and needs of these groups differed significantly from the earlier Chinese settlers. Also, adoption of Chinese babies by American families increased dramatically in recent years. Demand for links with Chinese culture for these adoptive families surged. Many joined the Chinese Language School. In 2000, the school relocated to its present, larger location at Rippowam School in Stamford. In the spring of 2002, a group of parents decided to form a new school focused more on the conversational and cultural needs of non-Chinese speaking families. Our CLS continues to cater to the more traditional first generation Chinese families, with a more rigorous academic curriculum.  Many of the graduates have scored well in SAT II. Many teachers and volunteers have served tirelessly in making the CLS a great learning environment. In the last 30 years there has been continuing development of the Chinese Community; despite different beliefs and conflicting ideas the community has been steadfast and always stayed true to the principles in was founded upon. Click here for Chinese translation.

 principals by school year.