100-year legacy of first Chinese women organization, Square & Circle Club, on view at SF Main Library

(SAN FRANCISCO) An exhibition which showcases the 100-year profound history of the country's first Chinese American women organization, the Square and Circle Club, is now on view at the San Francisco Main Library.

The exhibition, titled "Square & Circle Club: Preserving a 100-Year Legacy", takes place at the San Francisco Main Library 6th floor gallery from June 15 thru September 22. The exhibit is free for the public.

Members of the Square & Circle Club hosted an opening ceremony for the exhibition on June 22 as part of the centennial celebration of the Club founded in San Francisco Chinatown in 1924.

The Club donated 21 boxes of its collections to San Francisco Public Library in 2004 when the members celebrated its 80th anniversary.

The exhibition which is currently on view at the City's Main Library features some of the collections from the Club dated back to the early days that seven founders of the Club were active in serving the Chinese community by holding a variety of fundraising events including fashion shows, dancing performances, concerts, and opera shows.

The Club’s members often performed in the benefit shows with their talents on entertainments while they were professionals in their careers.

Up to this day, the vast majority of the Square and Circle Club members are American born and daughters of immigrants. Many of them have been lifelong educators, like two Co-Presidents of the Club, Lorraine Dong and Claudia Jeung.

Dong is a professor of Asian American Studies Department at the San Francisco State University. Jeung is a retired school principal of Jean Parker Elementary School in Chinatown and continues to serve actively as a curriculum writer and teacher trainer focusing on newcomer education. Both Dong and Jeung also serve as the Club’s Centennial Co-chairs to plan for the celebration of its 100th anniversary.

The Square and Circle Club was formed on June 15, 1924. Seven very young, talented and educated Chinese-American women in their late teens or early 20s wanted to do something for the flood victims in China, so they co-founded an organization to raise funds.

Those young founders were inspired by the ancient round-shape Chinese metal coins with a square hole in the center to name the Club. The motto of the Club was “in deeds be square, in knowledge be all round”.

The goal of the Club was to serve the community through philanthropy. Their tradition has been carried on for over 100 years.

Alice Fong Yu was one of 7 co-founders and served as the Club's founding President. Yu was regarded as one of the most influential leaders in the Club and the City's education community.

Yu made history as the first Chinese/Asian American public school teacher hired into the San Francisco Unified School District in 1926.

Yu taught at Commodore Stockton Elementary School in Chinatown for 31 year and moved to teach speech therapy in schools throughout San Francisco until she retired in 1970. In 1995, Alice Fong Yu Alternative School in the Inner Sunset neighborhood was named after her as the nation's first Chinese immersion public school. Yu passed at the age of 95 in 2000.

San Francisco Chinatown has been the second home for all members of the Square and Circle Club, including Shirley Dere, 87, who is also a lifelong educator and one of the leaders within the Club. Dere joined the Club as a member in 1964. During the past 6 decades, Dere had served as the Club's President.

"The Chinese Congregational Church on Walter Lum Place in Chinatown was the birthplace of our Club," Dere said and remembered she also joined the Square and Circle Club in that church by knowing other members of the Club.

Dere did not reside in Chinatown, but she loved the food in Chinatown when she was young and went to the Chinese Congregational Church in her spare time.

Dere recalled she and Club members always talked about education and how they could serve the community in the church. "San Francisco Chinatown and the Chinese Congregational Church have brought all of us together," Dere said at the Main Library.