Each month, we will feature one of our Sponsors, and highlight why they are supporting the AAA-Fund. Our Featured Sponsor this month is Dr. Catherine Yi-yu Cho Woo.
Dr. Woo was the first Asian American woman to serve on the National Council on the Arts, and herself is an accomplished poet, composer, painter, and writer. Although Dr. Woo is a Republican, she supports the AAA-Fund for its pioneering efforts to empower Asian Pacific Americans and encourage them to serve their country through public service.
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Yi-yu Cho Woo addresses audience at a show of her paintings in Taipei
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Catherine Yi-yu Cho Woo was born in Beijing, where, at age 4, she was recognized as a child prodigy with tremendous talent as a painter. Her grandfather, Cho Chun-yung, was a master calligrapher, and her father was also an accomplished artist.
Dr. Woo's family moved to Hong Kong in 1949, and she moved to the United States to study architecture at the University of Illinois. She went on to receive undergraduate and Masters degrees in Interior Design and Art History from San Diego State University. She studied Chinese literature and language at U.C.L.A., and earned her doctorate from the University of San Francisco.
Dr. Woo is Director of the Chinese Language Program at the National Language Resource Center, and formerly directed the China Studies Institute and the Center for Asian Studies at S.D.S.U.
She has won numerous awards as a teacher, including 1988-89 S.D.S.U. Outstanding Professor, 1990-91 S.D.S.U. University Research Lecturer, and 1995 Phi Beta Kappa Lecturer.
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Dinner in New York with I. M. Pei and Uncle Moley Cho
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Dr. Woo is the rare artist who can address both scholarly and mainstream audiences. She has authored nine books in Chinese and English on Chinese literature, art, and culture.
Her two collections of poems have been well received internationally, and one, "Tian Tian Tian Lan," was made into a popular song that was a number one hit in Taiwan.
Seeing herself as an ambassador for the arts and for inter-cultural understanding, Dr. Woo has lectured at universities throughout the United States, such as Yale, Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Duke, and the University of California at Berkeley. She also has lectured at the United Nations and the National Endowment for the Arts.
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Yi-yu with her mother and brother, Dr. Alfred Y. Cho, with President Clinton at the White House
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Part of the reason it is such an honor to have Dr. Woo as a sponsor of the AAA-Fund is that she is such a renaissance woman. She has a deep knowledge of Chinese history, yet she has lived in the United States throughout her adult life. She appreciates and creates works of beauty, yet she also knows that Asian Americans have to get involved in the political affairs of the day or risk being marginalized in their own country.
Dr. Woo herself has spent many years as a public servant in appointive offices. For six years, she served as the Commissioner for Arts and Culture for the City of San Diego, California. She also was appointed to serve on the National Council on the Arts from 1991 through 1996. For her efforts, she was honored in 1997 as Humanitarian of the Year by the National Conference (former called the National Conference of Christians and Jews).
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Yi-yu at a ribbon-cutting ceremony at an art show in Washington, D.C.
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Dr. Woo's paintings have been shown in galleries and museums throughout Asia and the United States, including the United Nations, the Sackler Museum at Harvard University, and the National Gallery in Taipei, Taiwan.
Her paintings have been described as visual poems, because of the simplicity, intensity, and purity of her expressions.
A master of Feng Shui, the 4000-year-old Chinese art of designing one's environment to maximize the flow of positive energy (ch'i), she channels into her works an insight into beauty and peacefulness that is sought after by devotees ranging from New Age seekers to mainstream American corporations.
Dr. Woo has lived a life as a bridge between Chinese and American culture, so her support for the AAA-Fund is just another example of her generosity and concern for future generations.
She and her husband Peter Woo have been blessed with four children and six grandchildren. They live in Irvine, California and travel the nation and the world in search of greater understanding and harmony between all of the world's peoples.
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