Japan’s Go Ambassador Narumi Osawa Visits Hua Xia Chinese School

By Dachun Yao and Fiona An

New York City, April 7, 2013, — This morning, two special Japanese guests, Ms. Narumi Osawa and Mr. Mozart Ishizuka, visited Hua Xia Chinese School Greater New York (HXGNY) at the invitation from Ms. Jie Tang, a well-known GO player at North America and the Go class instructor of HXGNY. Zuojun Cao of HXGNY also played a key role in organizing this event.

Ms. Osawa is a professional Go player (4P) from Go Institute in Tokyo, appointed as the nation’s GO ambassador by Japanese government. The accompanying visitor, Mr. Mozart Ishizuka (AGA 5P Player), is President of Japanese Go Club in New York. The guests were greeted by HXGNY school leaders Dapeng Hu, Jun Lin and Dachun Yao. All the participants shared their zeal and support of spreading Asian culture in North America. In the following three hours, Hua Xia students and parents played matches with Ms. Osawa, Mr. Ishizuka and teacher Ms.Tang on handicapped stones. At the end of this fun event, Mrs. Tang shared her thoughts from years of Go teaching, which was summarized as “GO is like life as life is like Go.”

[gallery] Originated in China, glorified as a reflection of ancient oriental wisdom, Go constitutes an important component of traditional Chinese culture. Being Chinese Americans, we shoulder the honor and responsibility of carry forward this culture jewel and introduce it to more people on this land, especially to the younger generation. Chinese school makes an ideal platform to carry on this task. Ms Narumi and Mr. Ishizuka’s visit is part of HXGNY’s continuous commitment to Go education. Ms. Tang recently attended the Spring Go Expo at Harvard University, where she met world champion Chang Hao (9P) and saw the premier of documentary film The Surrounding Game. "My plan is to continue to promote GO in HXGNY and NY area," siad Ms. Tang.