CAGK History

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The Chinese American Association of Greater Kalamazoo (CAGK) was formally chartered in February 1981 with a potluck dinner party held at the WMU Wesley Foundation to celebrate Chinese New Year and to launch CAGK with its first annual business meeting. Before CAGK was officially formed, some local Chinese Americans (mostly professionals who had immigrated from Taiwan and Hong Kong and were employed by Upjohn Company, WMU, Kalamazoo College, and Borgess and Bronson hospitals) had been holding family gatherings in one another’s residences. The increasing number of participants made it difficult for a single family to host such a gathering, which led to the formation of CAGK. The inaugural night, February 21, 1981, collected $519 in membership fees from 66 members.

In its early years, CAGK’s main activities consisted of the annual Chinese New Year celebration (in potluck dinner format, with impromptu entertainment performances), a summer picnic (in local parks), a fall welcome party (which later evolved into a Moon Festival party), and periodic Chinese film screenings. As membership increased, the venue changed from the Wesley Foundation to area public schools and KVCC. The biggest event of the year (the Chinese New Year celebration and annual business meeting) was also expanded from a potluck dinner to a catered buffet dinner, and from internal spontaneous performances to full-fledged, organized programs open to the community. In addition to holding the three major events and showing Chinese movies at WMU, CAGK began holding weekly Friday night gatherings at Portage Northern Middle School in the late 1980s. These gatherings were for affiliated group activities or practices (such as Chinese school, lion dance, folk dance troupe, tai chi, aerobics, and ballroom dancing) and for members to exchange movies and tapes, chat, and play table tennis, badminton, and basketball scrimmages. To serve the needs of its members, CAGK also conducted workshops on topics such as estate planning, tax filing, educating the second generation, and parent-child relations. It also helped fellow Chinese people in distress or hardship in various ways, whether or not they were CAGK members or local (such as those affected by the China floods and the San Francisco earthquake). CAGK also reached out to the community by inviting the public to our events, publicizing and coordinating the visits of several cultural performance groups from Taiwan and China, participating in community cultural events (such as the Children One World Festival and activities of the Portage Senior Center and other organizations), and holding a nonpartisan town hall meeting for Congressman Fred Upton to respond to community questions.

Also noteworthy in the history of CAGK is its close relationship with another Chinese group, the Kalamazoo Chinese Christian Fellowship (KCCF, the precursor of KCCC). Chinese Christians have been a significant component of CAGK’s membership, and many have served on the CAGK board of directors. The two groups have worked together to serve the local Chinese community for many years. The traditions and partnerships established in CAGK’s early days are still upheld, and CAGK continues to carry out those activities and functions today.

Each year, we host a Lunar New Year performance at Chenery Auditorium in January or February. Quite recently, we attended local events like the Do-Dah Parade in downtown Kalamazoo, the Moorsbridge Cultural Festival, numerous WMU events, and the nationally recognized ArtPrize event in downtown Grand Rapids.

In January 1981, a group of early Kalamazoo residents recognized the need for a Chinese American association in Kalamazoo. They drafted a constitution and bylaws for the Chinese American Association of Greater Kalamazoo and called an organizational meeting, which was held at the WMU Wesley Foundation on February 21, 1981. This group included Frank Sun, Andrew Huang, Andrew Tang, Donald Tong, David Huang, Cheng Lin, and Fred Yen. Five of the seven organizers worked for the Upjohn Company at that time. As of January 2011, only Andrew Huang of the original seven organizers still lived in Kalamazoo. The rest had either retired to sunny California or moved to other cities. According to Frank Sun, about 200 people (adults, children, and students) attended the potluck dinner meeting on February 21, 1981. CAGK’s constitution and bylaws were passed, Andrew Tang was elected the first CAGK president and Betty Chang vice president, and CAGK was born! The first CAGK directory shows that the organization had about 80 family and individual members. Over the last 35 years, CAGK and its affiliated organizations have provided many essential services to our members and the local community. Information about CAGK’s programs and activities can be found on the association’s official website (www.cagk.org). We should be proud of our organization and celebrate CAGK’s 45th anniversary on February 5, 2026. We also want to take this opportunity to thank all seven organizers and many other early Kalamazoo residents for founding the association.

As many of you know, the Chinese community in Kalamazoo has grown significantly since then. CAGK’s membership has also expanded over the last 45 years. The following is a list of past and current presidents of the organization. Some of them have served as president twice. Those past presidents, their vice presidents, and many other board members have served CAGK and the Kalamazoo community well over the last 45 years. We thank them for their hard work, leadership, and dedication to the association.