Please see "Celebrating the First Ever Guqin Day: A Series of NAGA Events"
On June 19 th the mayor of Milpitas, Jose Esteves, presented a proclamation to Wang Fei of the North American Guqin Association proclaiming November 7th as Guqin Day in the city of Milpitas. In doing so Milpitas became the first city in the United States to honor the guqin in this way. With a history of over 3,000 years the guqin is China 's oldest string instrument.
As stated in the proclamation “the guqin , as an esteemed and ancient art, is especially worthy of promotion worldwide.” The date of November 7th was chosen because on that date in 2003 UNESCO declared the guqin a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The North American Guqin Association anticipates presenting an event highlighting the guqin in November.
In accepting the proclamation Wang Fei noted, “the music of the guqin is a particularly good medium for getting to know Chinese culture since it is so rich and embodies so many aspects of Chinese culture. My hope is that this proclamation will not only introduce the world heritage art of the guqin to the city of Milpitas , a diverse city with a large Chinese community, but that the guqin will also serve as a bridge between American culture and Chinese culture.
Please see a Chinese version of this news item wrote by Charles Qi at
http://www.chineseculture.net/guqin/newsletters/07nagaevents/nagaguqinday0619cn.htm
For more information about the event, please see photo album took by Michael Cohen at
http://hustlepix.com/concerts/naga_guqin_proclamation/
Live video archive at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6697023776792032563
Reporter: Fred Pohlmann
Editor: Julian Joseph
North American Guqin Association
www.guqin.org
North
American Guqin Association