Kaisa celebrated its 30th anniversary on Aug. 27 with its members and friends.
In the morning, the traditional blood donation drive (on its 19th year) was done with a record breaking 56 bags of blood collected from 98 people who registered to give.
Kaisa president Meah Ang See gave a powerpoint presentation on the group’s highlights for the last 30 years. Long-time partner of Kaisa, Dr. Tan Cho Chiong, inducted the new officers for 2017-2018.
In the afternoon, Kaisa opened the Chinese Literary Room (菲律濱華文文學館), an extension of the Chinben See Memorial Library.
The room contains literary works – novels, essays, poems – in Chinese by local Tsinoy writers. Kaisa trustees Elena Cu-Uy-Gam, Conchita Wang, Betty Limpe and Meah Ang See unveiled the marker for the room.
Past president Lyonel Ty explained that through the years, the Chinben See Memorial Library has served researchers, and scholars on the Chinese in the Philippines and other parts of the world.
The library, full with material on the Chinese diaspora and other resource material, has little room to accommodate new literary collections given especially by eminent scholars Drs. Wang Gungwu and Leo Suryadinata.
Therefore, Kaisa decided to give the Chinese literary works its own space, with room to grow.
Close to 250 guests arrived to celebrate the 30th anniversary and reminisce with Kaisa its years of bridge-building for the nation.