18th Anniversary Message

It’s another year and we are back! Welcome to the Eighteenth Annual Pacific Rim Street Festival in Old Sacramento and the Downtown Plaza. The Planning Committee has been very creative with their ideas to bring you--”Paper” of the Pacific Rim.

Again, it has been a very challenging economic year, but we strive to carry on Frank Fat’s dream of presenting the Pacific Rim Street Festival to the Sacramento community and provide another venue to learn about the Asian Pacific Island culture.

This festival takes a lot of planning, coordination and TEAM WORK from our committee members. This committee is a well-oiled machine; we work almost year round to plan this festival…so THANK YOU TEAM And a VERY BIG THANK YOU goes to our Event Partners , Sponsors who supported our event...we could not do this without you! Pacific Rim Street Fest is a success due to this DEDICATED TEAM of committee members, volunteers and sponsors.

Check out the paper activities in the Children’s Activity area or learn about the process of making paper. Look around at the various paper lanterns. Maybe make a paper hat to keep you shaded from the sun. Stop by one of the four entertainment stages. See the many origami creations; smell the aromas of food cooking; purchase a special item from one of the many arts and crafts vendors, and most of all, enjoy the day as we bring to you The Pacific Rim Street Festival 2010.

Merlayna Yee-Chin
Chairperson & Volunteer Chairperson
Pacific Rim Street Fest Planning Committee

Paper
by Randall Ishida / Paraeducater Specialist

Paper is essential to all cultures. It is a keeper of many records, books, magazines, and newspapers, the basis for printed materials. Here you are now, reading a paper with all the information you need about the Pacific Rim Street Festival.

Paper gets its name from papyrus reed, cut into thin slices and pressed into sheets by the ancient Egyptians. Paper as we know it now was invented in China in 105 AD by Ts’ai Lun, in the reign of Emperor HoTi. Dissatisfied with the silk and bamboo that were being used for writing materials, Ts’ai Lun mixed together the bark of mulberry trees, hemp, and worn-out fishnets and softened them in water. He pounded them to separate the fibers, and this was paper. More than a thousand years later William Rittenhouse made the first piece of paper in the British American colonies, in the 1690s.

Long ago, intricate paper cutting became an art form created by the Chinese. Requiring artistic creativity and nimble fingers, it was very popular in the royal palaces and the houses of nobility as a pastime for the court ladies.
In Japan, paper artwork takes the form of Origami, paper folding. The Japanese word “ori” means to fold, and “kami” means paper. Contrary to the Chinese paper cutting techniques, origami does not use any cutting or glue.

This highly disciplined art demands that only paper folds can be used to create the subject.  

Today paper is everywhere, still among the cheapest and most common materials, and still used extensively in all kinds of art and decorative work.

But that certainly isn’t all: Look around your own home to see the abundance of paper, including copy paper, bills, napkins, wallpaper, boxes, picnic plates, index cards, money, tissue, and of course the many books on your shelves.  We get rid of the extra by recycling, shredding, and burning, but it’s still everywhere. For most of us, the promise that technology would produce a “paperless society” clearly hasn’t come true!

Festival History & Background

In 1993, the first Pacific Rim Street Fest was presented in Old Sacramento by the restauranteur, Frank Fat, and community groups. With his ever optimistic spirit, he was able to create a coalition of community leaders and succeed in seeing his dream of a street festival come to pass.

For the past seventeen years the festival has displayed the richness and diversity of many Pacific Rim cultures through cultural programs, entertainment, art and food. The event also enhances the community's knowledge of Asian/Pacific Island cultures in a fun and positive environment.

The Annual Pacific Rim Street Fest is scheduled for May 23, 2010 from 10:00am -5:00pm in Old Sacramento and Westfield Downtown Plaza. Having people of all ages and backgrounds at the event offers an excellent vehicle for leading businesses to showcase their support for the Asian American community. Each year we feature an aspect of Asian culture as the theme of the festival. For the year 2010, the theme is "Paper".

Ride RT buses to the Fest!