Support Our Programs
Help sustain our educational programs so that many more generations of students enjoy people-to-people exchange and access experiential learning. At CFHR, we will implement our mission of fostering cultural and educational exchanges between the U.S. and China by opening a Museum of Rural Chinese Folklife, hosting a Jianchuan Pavilion Exchange Project, and establishing an endowment fund. The permanent assets of the Residential Courtyard and Cultural Exchange Center will expand the number of visitors who can deeply experience CFHR, as well as the range of programs CFHR can offer, from intensive scholarly seminars to inter-faith dialogue retreats. The Museum and Pavilion cultural exchange project will establish CFHR’s unique people-to-people approach, bringing our message of cultural engagement, mutual understanding, and experiential learning to a global audience.
Support the Museum of Chinese Rural Folklife
Help us develop the China Folk House into a Museum of Chinese Rural Folklife! The Museum of Chinese Rural Folklife will focus on the theme of “tradition and transformation.” The museum’s goal is to convey the richness of Chinese rural traditions that are embodied in a Chinese house, and to understand how everyday life in rural China was transformed by key state policies and historical events during the revolutionary and reform periods of the last century. Our aim is to give American visitors a deeper encounter with the life experiences of people in the Chinese countryside in order to promote friendship and mutual understanding. We would love to show our gratitude for your gift by naming a floor of the Museum in your honor. If you would like to help fund this project, please visit our Contact Us page.
Support Our Pavilion Exchange Project
The Jianchuan Pavilion Project will connect master carpenters from the Jianchuan Craftsman Cooperative in Jianchuan, Yunnan with craftmasters from the West Virginia Timber Framers Guild to collaborate on a Pavilion. We are hoping to initiate this program in 2023. This Pavilion will not only complete the courtyard and provide lodging for visitors, but this people-to-people exchange could foster mutual understanding among communities that don’t often have the opportunity to participate in cultural exchanges: working craftsmen from rural areas. Funding this project is a unique opportunity to help “build common ground.” If you are interested in financially supporting this project, please contact us.
Support Our Endowment Fund
We need to establish an endowment to help sustain our programming. The endowment will cover operating expenses, staff salaries, and graduate internships will provide a solid foundation so that the living museum and weekend workshops can be freely available to the public, and the summer craft school can be self-funding yet still an affordable experiential learning option for a wide range of diverse youth from the DMV and West Virginia. One benefactor, corporate sponsor, or group of “angel donors” giving $3 million could make this CFHR dream a reality! Please contact us if you would like to support our endowment fund.
Many dedicated donors have made possible the China Folk House Retreat
We are grateful to the Daofeng and Angela Foundation and Bedrock Foundation for their outstanding generosity as leading supporters