Chinese Language

You're going to die. With luck, you might also get old. That's clear whether you live in Orange County or Taiwan, and it's the subject of "Red Sky," tonight and Saturday at the Irvine Barclay Theatre. While the Taiwan-based Performance Workshop previously has sold out productions in Orange County to Chinese-speaking audiences, this time the group will use English supertitles. As recently as January, PW director Stan Lai said he was "dead set" against translation.

"It's nice to know that Chinese is finally being accepted," said Alhambra High School junior Gary Chen as he prepared to join more than 3,000 students nationwide on Tuesday in tackling the College Board's first test to measure proficiency in Mandarin Chinese. Chen, 16, a Chinese American, has studied Mandarin at his school for the past three years. He will be among about 250 students from the heavily Asian Alhambra, Mark Keppel and San Gabriel high schools who will take the Chinese exam.

No Saturday morning television cartoons. No extra hours' sleep. No playtime with friends from school. But that's all right with 10-year-old Melissa Chang, who spends four hours of her Saturday mornings sitting in a Hacienda Heights classroom. Inside, the American-born fifth-grader learns about her Chinese heritage and how to speak Chinese. "It will help me when I go to Taiwan and when I go to foreign countries," she said before the start of her Chinese arts and crafts class.

Chen Kaige knows it's not a preferred subject in this capital of frivolity, but he can't help himself. "I've been in Cannes three times," the thoughtful Chinese director says, looking at his hands, "and every time, I talk about the Cultural Revolution. I was an eyewitness to those events, I saw a lot of tragedy, I persecuted my own father. How could I pretend not to see anything?"

A lone female figure stepped onto the sidewalk, pausing to adjust her cargo of terror: some $40 worth of suspense, mystery and horror books. Armed with enough mystery treats to last through many a dark night--"Strega" "Rod Serling's Night Gallery Reader," "Silver Scream" and "Scare Care"--she moved briskly toward a waiting car. Mary De Louise needn't have scurried away from her midday caper, however.

Chinese-speaking consumers in Los Angeles and across the country will have their own limited version of a 411-style phone directory service, starting today. Monterey Park businessman Marty Shih and 30 Asian companies nationwide are launching the service after two months of testing that attracted 400 callers a day. The companies will advertise the number, (800) 777-CLUB, and Shih expects 2,000 directory calls a day.

No longer are they dragged to Chinese lessons on Saturdays or after school, while their friends get to watch cartoons and play. Learning Cantonese is a no-fuss process at the West Portal Chinese Immersion Program in San Francisco. In the nation's only public school Chinese immersion program, about 150 students get Cantonese, along with the usual math, history and science.

After 21 years of living in America, Shih-how and Jane Chang have witnessed the slow but unmistakable Americanization of their three daughters. No matter how often they speak Chinese to them, no matter how many stories of their families and the "old country" they pass on, no matter how many Chinese classes are given, the parents see in their own daughters the gradual loss of a great heritage. It isn't that the Changs didn't expect this to happen.

In the heart of Orange County, in a typically stylish Irvine home, but in a ceremony as old as China itself, Tze-fan Deng will be there to honor her ancestors. This family observance Jan. 26, the eve of Chinese New Year's Day, will be led by the tiny 78-year-old matriarch herself and held in her son Eh Deng's residence. Many of her children and grandchildren will attend. The incense will be burned. The traditional wine, fish and meats will be meticulously arranged. As it should be.