Multicultural Lessons at the Dinner Table and Beyond

Pitzer College hosts author Cathy Bao Bean for reading and conversation

CLAREMONT, Calif. (Oct. 15, 2003) - Cathy Bao Bean knows the struggle to understand one's identity and candidly shares her journey in The Chopsticks – Fork Principle: A Memoir and Manual.

Pitzer College will host a reading and conversation with Cathy Bao Bean at 4 p.m., Thursday, October 30, in the Broad Center Performance Space. The author will read selections from her book and promises to engage the minds and hearts of those who attend.

Author Celia Morris describes Bean's book as, "Zany, moving, hilarious, and deep – not infrequently all at once - Cathy Bao Bean has written a tart, feisty, whimsical, and penetrating saga of the family that invented the Chopsticks- Fork Principle and then proceeded to live by it. No reader can leave this book satisfied with the relatively staid life he or she had on opening it."

As a Chinese immigrant raised in the United States, Bean's life has been a series of lessons in the synthesis of multiple cultures. Bean's book carries us through her experience as a daughter in a Chinese family, wife to a Caucasian, free-spirited artist, mother raising her son to be at least bicultural and ends with her new role as a mother-in-law. Bean writes from the belief that we are all multicultural and have a great deal to learn by increasing our awareness of diversity.

Bean speaks and writes from the perspective of a daughter, business manager, aerobic instructor, mother, friend, writer, sister, educational consultant, wife, activist for the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, philosophy teacher, cook, student, carpool driver and board member of the Society for Values in Higher Education. Bean is an alumna of Claremont Graduate University.

"What Cathy Bao Bean has to say is something all Pitzer students can relate to. Pitzer is all about diversity and the belief that we are all multicultural," says Chris Frausto, Assistant to the Director of the Center for California Cultural and Social Issues. Pitzer welcomes the public to attend and learn from this reading and conversation. Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served. Bean's book will be available for purchase and she will be available for book signing after the free program.

This event is hosted by Pitzer College's Center for Asian and Pacific American Students (CAPAS), Center for California Cultural and Social Issues (CCCSI) and Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies.

About Pitzer College

Pitzer College is a nationally top ranked undergraduate liberal arts institution. A member of The Claremont Colleges, Pitzer offers a distinctive approach to a liberal arts education by linking intellectual inquiry with interdisciplinary studies, cultural immersion, social responsibility and community involvement. For more information, please visit www.pitzer.edu.

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