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Join the Summer of Friendship!

ENGAGE WITH YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY

Let’s spend the summer making friends and advocating against war with China! Use this page as your go-to toolkit to connect with your local network and plan fun, engaging activities in the name of peace and harmony with China.

Index

  1. Start a Book Club
  2. Join Cities For Peace
  3. Recommended Reading
  4. Take a Trip to China
  5. Host a Movie Night
  6. Liberate the Film
  7. Host a Chinese Game Night
  8. Ping Pong Diplomacy
  9. Plan a Cultural Event
  10. Support Your Local Asian Community
  11. Take a Class
  12. Nourish Your Qi
  13. Host an Academic Discussion
  14. Join CODEPINK's China Is Not Our Enemy Community
  15. Follow Us On Social Media
  16. How to Connect to Your Local Community

Start a Book Club

Participate in a sharing of thoughts and ideas by starting or joining a book club. Local cafes and coffee shops are a great place to meet with your community members and discuss great reads. 

Join our book club here.

Join Cities For Peace

Participate in citizen diplomacy efforts by connecting your city to a sister city in China. Fill out this Cities for Peace Interest Form for more information.   

Take a Trip to China

There’s no better way to cultivate a deeper understanding of a place than to travel and meet locals in the community. Check out our Travel to China Resource Page for some helpful information about planning a trip. 

We are planning a community trip to China this November 2024. You can fill out the China Trip Interest Form to join the trip and help with planning or email [email protected] with any questions. 

Liberate the Film!

Host a screen of the PBS-censored documentary, Voices from the Frontlines: China’s War on Poverty. The film was directed by award-winning Peter Getzels, co-produced by PBS-SoCal with a foundation led by China expert Robert Lawrence Kuhn. It details the methods of how China lifted 800 million people out of poverty. Shortly after its release, The National PBS took down the documentary, censoring it to the American public. 

We invite you to host a screening of the documentary in your community, a local bookstore, or even your home to start a conversation about China's success in alleviating poverty. Sign up here to get access to a toolkit we created to help you plan an educational event!

👉 Watch Jodie Evans' interview with director Peter Getzels to learn more about the film and its censorship.   

Make sure to sign our petition telling PBS: Liberate the Film About China's War on Poverty!

 

Ping Pong Diplomacy

Did you know that relations between the US and China were sparked by a game of ping-pong? Bring your community together with some good-natured competition by hosting a ping-pong tournament or basketball game. Check with your local recreational center on the availability of courts and sports equipment.

Support Your Local Asian Community

Choose to spend your money at local Asian-owned businesses instead of chains and corporations. In the past few years, as anti-China rhetoric dominated our news and media, Asian American hate crime rose, and many small family-owned businesses took the brunt of it. Show some love to these small businesses and bring your friends with you!

Take a Class

A wide variety of classes are offered in major cities around the US including, but not limited to, Chinese language courses, calligraphy lessons, and Chinese cooking classes. This is a great way to come together with community members while also learning more about China’s rich culture. 

Nourish Your Qi

Chinese traditional medicine and wellness practices are thousands of years old, and still widely used to this day. While Western medicine focuses specifically on the cause of a disease, Chinese traditional medicine looks at your body as a whole.

Your qi, which is another word for energy, can be nourished through qigong, tai chi, yoga, meditation, and acupuncture. There are numerous Chinese medicine facilities around the country, as well as fitness centers offering these practices. 

Join CODEPINK’s China Is Not Our Enemy Community

CODEPINK’s China Is Not Our Enemy community hosts bi-weekly meetings where we discuss recent events and our thoughts on waging peace with China. Meetings are every other Monday at 7pm ET / 4pm PT. Email [email protected] to be added to the list. 

How to Connect to Your Local Community

Join the China Is Not Our Enemy facebook page:

Find locals in your area by joining our facebook page. Don’t be afraid to send a message and see if others are interested in co-hosting an event. 

Let us know about your event:

Email [email protected] with the date, time, and a brief description of your event. We will add it to our event page to let other CODEPINKers in your area know it’s happening. 

Send your photos to us!

Take some amazing photos of your event? Email them to [email protected] to be featured on our social media.

Print a Summer of Friendship flyer here.

Recommended Reading

Host a Movie Night

Bring some fellow peace-lovers together for a movie night– and don’t forget the Chinese take out! Here are some recommended movies and documentaries: 

Documentaries

The Coming War on China - Award winning journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn’t – that the world’s greatest military power, the United States, and the world’s second economic power, China, both nuclear-armed, may well be on the road to war. 

My Country, My People - This is an omnibus movie about modern China and the key moments of its history, told chronologically through "small" stories, episodes, and oblique vignettes. It captures the hidden, unseen labors– the small efforts, the "knight's moves" of people– that created present-day China.

Award-Winning Movies

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - In early 19th century China, Li Mu Bai goes on a great journey to find his stolen sword. 

Ip Man - During the Japanese invasion of China, a wealthy martial artist is forced to leave his home. 

The Farewell - A family discovers their grandmother’s days are numbered and plans a wedding to gather before she dies. 

Red Cliff - The first installment about a battle fought during China’s Three Kingdoms period (220-280 A.D.)

Walking to School - A movie about young Lisu (ethnic minority) children in China who risk their lives to go to school.

Host a Chinese Game Night

Spend the night playing these popular traditional Chinese games:

Go - Also referred to as Weiqi, Go was invented in China nearly 2,500 years ago and is believed to be the oldest board game still played today. The point of the game is to capture as much territory on the board as possible. Learn how to play here.

Chinese chess - Chinese chess, otherwise known as Xiangqi, is a strategy board game played between two players. Though it has some similarities to regular chess, there are many differences that make it an exciting game to learn. Watch this video about the rules of the game. 

Mahjong - Mahjong is a traditional Chinese game played between four people using a combination of skill, strategy and luck. It is a tile-based game invented in the 19th century, and is extremely popular in China today. For more information on how to play, click here.

Plan a Cultural Event

It’s great to organize fellow community members around cultural events and Chinese holidays. Here is a list of public holidays in China:

Host an Academic Discussion

There is a vast pool of research analyzing China’s rise and its current place in the world, as well as US foreign policy in the region. We highly recommend reading these articles and discussing them with other interested parties. The discussion does not have to be formal– it can operate merely as a meeting amongst friends. 

Recommended articles:

Send a message to your local facilities:

Dear [Target name],

My name is [Your name] and I am organizing an event under CODEPINK, a feminist anti-war nonprofit, for locals to come together and advocate against war with China. For the event we would like to [brief description of event]. I am wondering if you are able to offer/have any availability for [the facility or tools you are requesting]. Thank you for all your help!

Peace and solidarity,

[Your name]

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