Building local and national networks helps grow Japanese culture in Los Angeles
We published the monthly Cultural News from July 1998 through March 2020. We had to stop the monthly editions of Cultural News following the nationwide lockdown of many activities including cultural events.
To “Keep Cultural News Alive,” we changed the publishing format from a monthly paper to a weekly PDF format in June 2020. This change saves a lot of expenses and provides Cultural News a path toward sustainability in the coming decade.
We ask the public to help raise the amount of $30,000 annually to “Keep Cultural News Alive” and “Keep Japanese Culture Alive.”
For promoting Japanese culture in Los Angeles, Shige Higashi (Publisher of Cultural News, President of the non-profit Cultural News Association) asks you to support to Cultural News.
Building local and national networks helps grow Japanese culture in Los Angeles
By Shige Higashi
President, Cultural News Association
September 12, 2021
If we don’t have sushi, anime, taiko, judo, kendo, karate, ikebana, bonsai, odori, shamisen, shakuhachi, ukiyo-e prints, Japanese gardens, koi ponds, and tanabata in Los Angeles, our lives would be quite different.
Maintaining one particular culture over the long term could not happen by accident. Fortunately, the current Japanese culture has been transmitted over generations for more than one thousand years in Japan. The seeds of Japanese culture in the U.S. were planted more than 100 years ago by the Issei generation of Japanese Americans.
More than 20 years ago, when I started recording Japanese cultural events on tabloid newspaper, Cultural News came into being.
The goals of Cultural News are to build local networks of Japanese cultural activities in Southern California, and coordinate between Los Angeles groups and those in other regions of the U.S.
“Keep Japanese Culture Alive” is the motto observed by Cultural News throughout the period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We published the monthly Cultural News from July 1998 through March 2020. We had to stop the monthly editions of Cultural News following the nationwide lockdown of many activities including cultural events.
To “Keep Cultural News Alive,” we changed the publishing format from a monthly paper to a weekly PDF format in June 2020. This change saves a lot of expenses and provides Cultural News a path toward sustainability in the coming decade.
We ask the public to help raise the amount of $30,000 annually to “Keep Cultural News Alive” and “Keep Japanese Culture Alive.”
Mission and goals:
- Promoting Japanese art and culture in southern California and beyond the immediate region
- Creating a legacy of Japanese art and culture for succeeding generations in Southern California
Publishing Project:
- Promoting Japanese cultural events by publishing Weekly Cultural News in PDF format
Public Projects
- Creating networks of Japanese cultural groups by conducting online events. For example the Zoom webinar meetings, which are presented by Cultural News: https://www.culturalnews.com/?cat=7251
- Providing free information about Japanese cultural events to the public via the website: www.culturalnews.com and through sending email blasts created by the Cultural News Editor.
- Providing a free Japanese language website, ロサンゼルスのメール交換 (Los Angeles Mail Exchange), for estimated 100,000 Japanese natives in Southern California.
Online Lecture Project
- Monthly online lecture “Genji Monogatari” (The Tale of Genji) by Prof. Hiroaki Sera from Hiroshima, Japan https://digest.culturalnews.com/?cat=3065
The Cultural News Association is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization.
Employer Identification Number: 83-3101601
Your support and donation to the Cultural News Association are appreciated.
Payable to: Cultural News Association
Send to: Cultural News Association
328 ¼ South Alexandria Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90020-2673
In regard to sending your donation via PayPal and additional information, please contact:
Shige Higashi
Cultural News Editor & Publisher
President of the Cultural News Association
higashi@culturalnews.com
(213) 819-4100.