The concept of an organization like the Northwest Chinese Alliance was first discussed in December 2010 between Cathy Chinn and Michael Zhang, then presidents of Northwest China Council and Chinese Friendship Association of Portland, on how to jointly promote the understanding of Chinese culture in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, and to showcase Oregon and the Pacific Northwest to the global community. This discussion then evolved into a solid plan of involving Portland metro Chinese community organizations to work together and showcase Chinese culture in the Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade.
In late 2010, phone calls went out to the different Chinese community groups. The first meeting, held in December 2010, drew many participants with high level of interests and commitments. Things just snowballed from there.
By the time we performed in the 2011 Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parade in June 2011, we represented 16 major Portland Chinese community groups. Our team had a superior performance and was featured in the Rose Festival Edition of Oregonian newspaper. We were all very proud of our achievements, but above all, we were proud that we could put this together in a very short time and with very little capital.
In late 2025, We welcomed the Huayun Arts Group, created and led by Ms. Lihong Dai and a group of 20+ dancers. They have represented the Northwest Chinese Alliance to perform at many Portland Oregon cultural events, and also join with our regular volunteer dancers at the Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parades.
We are deeply indebted to our founding organizations that contributed our initial seed capital. Over the years, we have had multiple performing partners, supportive sponsors, committed artistic and performance directors, lovely dancers and many parade day photographers and volunteers.
In the summer 2026, We are celebrating our organization’s 15th Anniversary. It is a major milestone that the Northwest Chinese Alliance (NWCA) has been successfully carrying out our mission of showcasing Chinese culture and performance arts in the Metro Portland area via our annual entry in the Portland Rose Festival Grand Floral Parades since our foundation in 2011. In addition, we have now expanded our programming to reach even large audiences with many more cultural performances since the addition of the Huayun Arts Group in 2025.
We could not have done this without the support of our community. Thank you vey much.
