Speeches

Governor Gary Locke’s Remarks
Indochina Chinese Refugee Association of Washington
February 8, 2003


Thank you Simon.

Good evening.

It’s a pleasure and an honor for Mona and I to join you this evening.

It’s great to be a part of this gathering of the Association.

As we welcome the New Year together, we are also grateful for the many blessings of the past year.

I am proud to be an American, and I am proud of my Chinese ancestry and cultural heritage.

I am proud of the enormous contributions China has made to civilization over the past thousands of years, and will continue to make in the future.

Chinese Americans have made many contributions to this state and indeed America.

We helped build the railroads and cities.

We worked in the mines and timber camps.

We labored on the farms and in canneries and factories.

Chinese Americans helped transform Washington state and other states into modern-day economic success stories.

There were hardships to overcome.

But we persevered.

And today we continue to make important contributions as we enter a New Year.

We are a proud part of Washington state and America.

At the same time, it is important that we always remember and honor our heritage and pass it along to future generations.

I commend the Indochina Chinese Refugee Association for working so energetically to help ethnic Chinese maintain our culture, language, and values.

The Association has been preserving our Chinese heritage for nearly a quarter of a century now.

One major accomplishment of the Association has been the Yat-Sen Chinese School.

This was established twenty years ago, and has grown to serve more than 300 students and their families.

Yat-Sen Chinese School is doing a great job to ensure that our heritage is passed along to our children so that we will always remember and honor our cultural traditions.

We need this school—I’d like to see more schools like Yat-Sen.

So tonight I encourage this community to continue to support Yat-Sen Chinese School.

Enjoy the evening, and “Kung-his fa-tsai!” Happy New Year!



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