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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.
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