Page 21 - 42-Winter 2014_Final

quarter century ago, the seeds of Tzu Chi’s Great Love floated across
the sea from Taiwan to the United States. The seeds took root in foreign
A soil, and soon they grew and flourished.

In 1980, Mr. and Mrs. Huang in Sacramento, California, felt the call of
Dharma Master Cheng Yen’s compassionate spirit, the understanding that
“when others hurt, I feel their pain.” And so they vowed to devote themselves
to promoting Tzu Chi in North America and started raising charity funds. Two
years later, realizing that limited manpower was impeding their efforts, they
asked Master Cheng Yen for permission to establish an official Tzu Chi office
in the United States. With the support of author Xie Bingying, Mr. Feng in
Canada, and an American lawyer, the Huangs successfully established Tzu
Chi’s United States Regional Office, which in 1985 was approved as a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit in California.

At the same time, Shiu Yun Tsai was diligently introducing Tzu Chi in
the ethnic-Chinese enclaves of Los Angeles County. With her introduction,
entrepreneur Stephen Huang visited Taiwan to have an audience with Master
Cheng Yen. He was deeply moved by both her self-reliant spirit embodied by
the “no work, no meal” philosophy and her great vow to build a hospital. He
vowed to promote the spirit and missions of Tzu Chi in the United States in a
systematic and organized manner.

Following the Master’s instruction to “rely on your own efforts by utilizing
local resources,” Stephen Huang provided a building he owned in Alhambra,
California, to serve as the Regional Office’s first home. To show her support,
Master Cheng Yen sent a “Jing Si Hall” placard to hang over the door. With that,
the first overseas Jing Si Hall was opened on December 9, 1989. Tzu Chi was
so well received that the small office was soon insufficient to accommodate
everyone, so Tzu Chi moved across town to a bigger space in Monrovia on
October 27, 1991.

The early development of Tzu Chi in the United States could never have
happened without “tea parties,” or informal Tzu Chi introductions held in
individuals’ homes. Whenever the opportunity arose, Stephen Huang and
a few of the other early commissioners would travel all across the country
to hold tea parties and introduce Tzu Chi. Those efforts paid off and Tzu Chi
offices quickly began springing up in cities across the country.

Top: "Jing Si Hall"
placard (left). Tzu Tzu Chi's backbone is charity. When there were only a handful of Tzu
Chi's first homes in Chi volunteers in the United States trying to grow the organization in an
Alhambra (center) environment and culture so different than what they were accustomed to,
and Monrovia (right). these first volunteers diligently studied how to carry out charity cases in
their local communities. When disasters happened, they joined in assisting

www.us.tzuchi.org | 21