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SAN GABRIEL VALLEY CHINESE CULTURAL ASSOCIATION (SGVCCA)

Home to Southern California’s longest steam-breathing Chinese Dragon!


The San Gabriel Valley Chinese Cultural Association was founded in 1968 to promote the enrichment of the Chinese language and culture, and to share these interests with the community at large.  SGVCCA is a family-oriented organization, dedicated to teaching the Chinese language, Mandarin, cultural classes such as lion and dragon dancing, instrumentation, Chinese watercolor, calligraphy, martial arts, and crafts for all ages. 

The SGVCCA Youth group represents the future leaders of the organization. Its goal is to develop leadership qualities that will help youth members become well-rounded and successful individuals through teamwork. A major part of developing these skills is by the numerous public and private events it partakes in, such as participating in local parades and events, and even appearing in TV shows, such as Law and Order, Las Vegas, Good Day LA, a Maroon 5 music video, UPS commercial, L.A. Clippers half-time shows, and many more. It also performs in numerous events like grand openings and private weddings.

In addition, SGVCCA has been the only group that has a steam blowing, custom-made Chinese dragon in Southern and Northern California.  If you have seen a red and black dragon that blows steam from its mouth, you would have encountered SGVCCA’s Barney.

With great pride in our history, we invite you to join the family!

Due to COVID-19 and LA County’s social distancing guidelines, we have made the decision to postpone in-person Saturday classes for the Chinese School Cultural Program. However, our teachers have prepared our class to be done over ZOOM and we are excited to start classes again on Saturday, October 3.

The session will focus more on the practice of Chinese mandarin conversation. Based on feedback from families in the area who have their children in Mandarin dual immersion classes, this is the toughest part of the learning curve. During the Zoom session, our students will get a chance to practice and learn how to:

  • Formulate sentences in mandarin

  • Ask questions in mandarin

  • Listen and follow instructions in mandarin

The best part of our ZOOM learning environment, your child will have the opportunity to practice mandarin in a small group environment. With continued practice and casual conversation, they’ll gain confidence in using their new language skill.

Our teachers are also finalizing our arts and culture activities for the year. Learning about Chinese culture or any culture for that matter, we feel is very important in understanding one’s roots. Learning past customs and learning how to respect other culture’s customs will only make our community stronger.

With that being said, we’d like to extend an invitation to all in our community from all walks of life. Even if you or your child are not involved in a Mandarin Immersion Program, you are welcome to attend. We will be offering a free class on Saturday, October 3, 2020 at 10:00 AM for anyone interested in learning Chinese mandarin, Chinese culture or just to learn something new.

Please be sure to follow fill the reservation form out so that we may send your the information to login to the class.

 
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Lion Dance

What is lion dancing?

Lion dancing is a traditional dance in Chinese culture and other Asian countries in which performers mimic a lion’s movements in a lion costume (on the right) to bring good luck and fortune.

We teach classes that consist of lion dance fundamentals, instruments (that go along with lion dancing), and exercising!

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Dragon Dance

About once every other year SGVCCA teaches people of all ages how to dragon dance. Performers dragon dance with a dragon (on the left) and hold the pole with two hands, moving the poles and dragon a certain way to do tricks.

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