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The Chinese Picture Book Princeton Exhibition has landed! Following...Pittsburgh Chinese Cultural Center, USA、Simmons University Children's Literature Research Center、R. Michelson Gallery, a renowned American art gallery after, “"The East Wind Blows in February: 2026 China Original Picture Book US Tour Exhibition"” A major institution has joined the project, helping to establish an exclusive exhibition at Princeton Library.
FishBird Collective, a New Jersey-based nonprofit organization, has officially joined the traveling exhibition's collaborative efforts. They plan to host a dedicated exhibition at Princeton Library during the tour, leveraging their extensive community resources and cultural promotion experience to build bridges for the overseas dissemination of original Chinese picture books and promote in-depth dialogue between Chinese and American children's literature and culture.
About FishBird Collective
As a non-profit organization rooted in the Chinese American community and radiating across diverse cultural circles, Fish & Bird has been committed to inheriting collective values, promoting cultural identity, and facilitating cross-cultural exchanges since its inception. It is dedicated to maintaining and strengthening genuine connections between people in the age of artificial intelligence and is an important promoter of overseas Chinese cultural dissemination and cross-cultural exchanges.
Institutional core characteristics
Identity positioning
Registered in New Jersey, USA, as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the core team consists of middle-aged professionals with full-time jobs. All members are first-generation immigrants to the United States, and driven by their passion for communal living, they dedicate their spare time to serving the Chinese community and promoting cross-cultural exchange.
Core Concepts
The team firmly believes that the "collectivist spirit" within Chinese American culture should not be diluted in the process of integrating into mainstream society, but rather should be actively and consciously inherited and promoted. They argue that the "inclusive and diverse" nature of mainstream American culture provides space for the expression of various ethnic cultures—Chinese Americans organizing collective cultural activities is not a "departure from the mainstream," but rather an injection of new vitality into a diverse society. Only through unity within ethnic groups and communication between different ethnic groups can true and sustainable social prosperity be achieved.
Cultural Symbols and Their Meaning
“The fish and bird motifs are derived from spiritual symbols in traditional Chinese landscape and cultural paintings, embodying the auspicious meanings of "good fortune, free flight, and unrestrained spirit" in Chinese culture. They also reflect the organization's original aspiration of "unity, mutual assistance, and cultural inheritance" in a foreign land. Its cultural spirit further traces back to the story of "the Kun transforming into the Peng" in Zhuangzi's "Free and Easy Wandering," symbolizing the power of "breakthrough and sublimation," while echoing the imagery of "freedom" in Li Bai's writings, achieving a cultural dialogue between "Chinese philosophy and American freedom."
Practical direction
Fish & Bird Gathering has always focused on two major areas: “connecting the Chinese community” and “cross-cultural exchange”, and has organized various group activities, such as: Chinese baby reading parties, Spring Festival markets, summer markets, Dragon Boat Festival parties, offline exchange meetings with director Gao Feng in New York, and special seminars and educational markets with Professor Po-Shen Lo.
These activities not only provided a platform for cultural identity building for the Chinese community, but also showcased the vitality of Chinese culture to American society, accumulating rich community resources, venue cooperation experience, and cultural promotion channels. This provided important support for the touring exhibition of original Chinese picture books at Princeton Library.
Submission method
Contact person: Huanzi
WeChat: Chinaliyaze
Email: huanliedu@gmail.com
Mailing address: Please add us on WeChat to obtain.
We welcome submissions from Chinese picture book creators and organizations to help spread Chinese culture overseas!
