Left to right: Christopher Green, US Consul General in Wuhan, his wife, Nicholas Burns, US Ambassador to China, Steve Harnsberger, President, PPX, and Mr Li Yiqiang - Deputy Director General FAO Jiangxi -
Wuhan, China, June 24, 2024
Left to right: The Lushan Suite Partnership Agreement signing - Steve Harnsberger, PPX President, Mr Hu, Deputy Director Jiangxi FAO, Ellen Roots, PPX Vice President, and Yuan Yong, Lushan City Mayor -
San Francisco, April 19, 2024
Left to right: Christopher Green, US Consul General in Wuhan, his wife, Nicholas Burns, US Ambassador to China, Steve Harnsberger, President, PPX, and Mr Li Yiqiang - Deputy Director General FAO Jiangxi -
Wuhan, China, June 24, 2024
Left to right: The Lushan Suite Partnership Agreement signing - Steve Harnsberger, PPX President, Mr Hu, Deputy Director Jiangxi FAO, Ellen Roots, PPX Vice President, and Yuan Yong, Lushan City Mayor -
San Francisco, April 19, 2024
What is PPX.org?
The People-to- People Exchange (PPX) San Francisco, CA USA is a cultural exchange nonprofit and NGO focused on strengthening friendship between the peoples of America and China by rebuilding bridges of over 125 years of collaboration and partnership spanning 5 generations.
PPX fosters intercultural understanding and restores meaningful personal relationships between the peoples of the US and China.
PPX is based in Marin County, California, founded by Steve Harnsberger and Cultural Anthropologist Michael Wolf Leifer with the support of the Harnsberger Family.
It’s goal is to share broadly the historical stories of and music by Americans from European descent, who served in China where it became home, and whose families established schools, hospitals and tended the sick, fought famines, disease, invasions and floods.
Frances Roots composed orchestral music and was the first musical ambassador from the US to ever play in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing at the invitation of Premiere Zhou Enlai (whose life they saved twice).
PPX also highlights the stories of Pearl Buck, who wrote the Nobel Prize-winning book, the “Good Earth” about the mindsets of the peoples of China and the US, and became woven into the fabric of the community.
PPX is building bi-cultural bridges and communities by producing cultural exchange programs of music, art, literature, movies, podcasts, newsfeeds, and much more.
The PPX 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor is the Players Philanthropy Fund.org.
Cultural-Exchange Program Objectives
PPX program objectives include establishing a set of music-exchange concerts, museum, creating specific permanent exhibits in both the US and China, producing cross-cultural events in multiple locations - such as art, music and cultural exhibits and festivals - utilizing traveling exhibits, and distributing streaming services, broadcast communications and printed material via the Internet.
Read about the PPX recent Lushan Suite Program success.
Signed Agreements
PPX / Kuling American School (KASA) has two signed cultural exchange partnership agreements with the Jiangxi Province, the Lushan Mayor's Office, the Roots Family - owner of rights to The Lushan Suite, PS Buck Foundation and Lushan FAO teams in China.
The first agreement - signed on April 15, 2024 - is for the Lushan Suite Concert and Exhibit program.
The second agreement - signed on April 19, 2024 - is for the Pearl S. Buck in Lushan Educational Exchange, Exhibits and Documentary Film program which KASA arranged.
What is PPX.org?
The People-to- People Exchange (PPX) San Francisco, CA USA is a cultural exchange nonprofit and NGO focused on strengthening friendship between the peoples of America and China by rebuilding bridges of over 125 years of collaboration and partnership spanning 5 generations.
PPX fosters intercultural understanding and restores meaningful personal relationships between the peoples of the US and China.
PPX is based in Marin County, California, founded by Steve Harnsberger and Cultural Anthropologist Michael Wolf Leifer with the support of the Harnsberger Family.
It’s goal is to share broadly the historical stories of and music by Americans from European descent, who served in China where it became home, and whose families established schools, hospitals and tended the sick, fought famines, disease, invasions and floods.
Frances Roots composed orchestral music and was the first musical ambassador from the US to ever play in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing at the invitation of Premiere Zhou Enlai (whose life they saved twice).
PPX also highlights the stories of Pearl Buck, who wrote the Nobel Prize-winning book, the “Good Earth” about the mindsets of the peoples of China and the US, and became woven into the fabric of the community.
PPX is building bi-cultural bridges and communities by producing cultural exchange programs of music, art, literature, movies, podcasts, newsfeeds, and much more.
The PPX 501(c)(3) nonprofit fiscal sponsor is the Players Philanthropy Fund.org.
Program Objectives
PPX program objectives include producing music-exchange concerts, establishing a museum, creating specific permanent exhibits in both the US and China, producing cross-cultural events in multiple locations - such as art, music and cultural exhibits and festivals - utilizing traveling exhibits, and distributing streaming services, broadcast communications and printed material via the Internet.
Read about the recent the PPX Lushan Suite Program success.
Signed Agreements
PPX / Kuling American School (KASA) has two signed cultural exchange partnership agreements with the Jiangxi Province, the Lushan Mayor's Office, the Roots Family - owner of rights to The Lushan Suite, PS Buck Foundation and Lushan FAO teams in China.
The first agreement - signed on April 15, 2024 - is for the Lushan Suite Concert and Exhibit program.
The second agreement - signed on April 19, 2024 - is for the Pearl S. Buck in Lushan Educational Exchange, Exhibits and Documentary Film program which KASA arranged.
PPX Team
Steve Harnsberger, Co-Founder, Chairman, and President
Responsibilities: Management of the Board of Directors, donors, fiscal sponsors, partnerships and serves as the public spokesperson
Michael Leifer, Co-Founder and Executive Director
Responsibilities: Day-to-day operations, program content and management of local cultural organization partnerships
Angelina Frost, Strategy and Developmental Communications
Responsibilities: strategic donor, PR, social, partnership and nonprofit communications
Chen Hui, Advisory Board Member and Translation Director
Responsibilities: Translation into Mandarin of The Pearl Buck Program in all forms (communication, press releases, articles, educational curriculum, event speeches, sub-titles, programs, books and more) and Managing the Pearl Buck Educational Program with PSBI at the Lushan School
Jindong Cai, Advisory Board Member and Chief Lushan Site Music Program Consultant
Responsibilities: Strategic direction for the overall The Lushan Suite Music Program, and relationships with symphonies, orchestral musicians, universities and the China Now Music Festival
Kim Whitener, Advisory Board Member
Responsibilities: Video production guidance for the documentary video
PPE Team
Steve Harnsberger, Co-Founder, Chairman, President
Responsibilities: Management of the Board of Directors, donors, fiscal sponsors, partnerships and serves as the public spokesperson
Michael Leifer, Co-Founder and Executive Director
Responsibilities: Day-to-day operations, program content and management of local cultural organization partnerships
Angelina Frost, Strategy and Developmental Communications
Responsibilities: strategic donor, PR, social, partnership and nonprofit communications
Chen Hui, Advisory Board Member and Translation Director
Responsibilities: Translation into Mandarin of The Pearl Buck Program in all forms (communication, press releases, articles, educational curriculum, event speeches, sub-titles, programs, books and more) and Managing the Pearl Buck Educational Program with PSBI at the Lushan School
Jindong Cai, Advisory Board Member and Chief Lushan Site Music Program Consultant
Responsibilities: Strategic direction for the overall The Lushan Suite Music Program, and relationships with symphonies, orchestral musicians, universities and the China Now Music Festival
Kim Whitener, Advisory Board Member
Responsibilities: Video production guidance for the documentary video
Partner Team
Samantha Freise, Head Curator and Director, Pearl S. Buck International
Responsibilities: Co-produce educational program with Chen Hui, manage Pearl S Buck International exhibit materials, PSBI spokesperson, and consult on the Pearl Buck documentary video.
Stephanie Saveriano, International Programs Director, Pearl S. Buck International
Responsibilities: Directing the Educational Program, administrating the scholarships with Chen Hui, and curating the materials for the PS Buck Exhibits
Brief History
PPX extends the legacy of its predecessor, the Kuling American School Association (KASA) - a unique boarding school founded in China’s premier hillside retreat, Mt. Lushan, Jiangxi Province. PPX carries forward the service work of a unique group of American families - many of whom were born and raised in China - who spent multiple generations in and around Lushan, prior to WWII.
KASA operated as a self-funded nonprofit from its inception in 1938 until recently, and was made up of a community of families that were born in and/or lived in Lushan (Kuling), China.
KASA organized reunions, created a book called “Lushan Memories,” and organized many trips back to Lushan to celebrate their deep, lifelong connection to China that grew stronger as the decades passed.
KASA’s initial objective was to preserve the friendships between the American’s with the people of China and to remember their true home would always be above the valley called The Gap, on the magical Mount Lushan.
Diplomatic Relations and Research
KASA/PPX conducted research and established dialogues with Jiangxi FAO, The Pearl Buck rights-holding families, and The Pearl S Buck International Foundation, yielding a number of program agreements and reflecting an end-to-end work product of The PPX Team.
Given that both programs' objectives are to illuminate a lost common history and demonstrate the goodwill of the American people for the people of China, The PPX US-focused Team is well-positioned and has the proven domain expertise, skill sets, content, relationships and resources, to bring to fruition both cultural exchange programs, slated for 2024-25.
PPX is ideally situated to succeed in delivering meaningful and important US/China historical and cultural education programs, by aligning PPX objectives and resources, syncing PPX planning for historic storytelling-based diplomacy, and curating museum exhibits and media outreach so as to more closely meld with the PPX US Teams' objectives in Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Beijing and Washington DC.
PPX’s improbable diplomatic work is born of KASA families and their descendents’ need to make sense of their deep emotional bonds with China, as KASA families were the first - albeit incidental - US ambassadors to China, dating back to the late 1800s.
PPX’s exchange programs aim to cultivate this understanding and to celebrate KASA/PPX families’ connection to Lushan across five generations, while also bringing a message of peace and goodwill to our friends in China.
With the pandemic in 2020 closing down all cultural exchange, and amid rising political tensions, the necessity for an increase in non-governmental, “people to people exchanges” made itself apparent.
The PPX team has spent the past 4 years curating and reviving these historical accounts.
Partner Team
Samantha Freise, Head Curator and Director, Pearl S. Buck International
Responsibilities: Co-produce educational program with Chen Hui, manage Pearl S Buck International exhibit materials, PSBI spokesperson, and consult on the Pearl Buck documentary video.
Stephanie Saveriano, International Programs Director, Pearl S. Buck International
Responsibilities: Directing the Educational Program, administrating the scholarships with Chen Hui, and curating the materials for the PS Buck Exhibits
Brief History
PPX extends the legacy of its predecessor, the Kuling American School Association (KASA) - a unique boarding school founded in China’s premier hillside retreat, Mt. Lushan, Jiangxi Province. PPX carries forward the service work of a unique group of American families - many of whom were born and raised in China - who spent multiple generations in and around Lushan, prior to WWII.
KASA operated as a self-funded nonprofit from its inception in 1938 until recently, and was made up of a community of families that were born in and/or lived in Lushan (Kuling), China.
KASA organized reunions, created a book called “Lushan Memories,” and organized many trips back to Lushan to celebrate their deep, lifelong connection to China that grew stronger as the decades passed.
KASA’s initial objective was to preserve the friendships between the American’s with the people of China and to remember their true home would always be above the valley called The Gap, on the magical Mount Lushan.
Diplomatic Relations and Research
KASA/PPX conducted research and established dialogues with Jiangxi FAO, The Pearl Buck rights-holding families, and The Pearl S Buck International Foundation, yielding a number of program agreements and reflecting an end-to-end work product of The PPX Team.
Given that both programs' objectives are to illuminate a lost common history and demonstrate the goodwill of the American people for the people of China, The PPX US-focused Team is well-positioned and has the proven domain expertise, skill sets, content, relationships and resources, to bring to fruition both cultural exchange programs, slated for 2024-25.
PPX is ideally situated to succeed in delivering meaningful and important US/China historical and cultural education programs, by aligning PPX objectives and resources, syncing PPX planning for historic storytelling-based diplomacy, and curating museum exhibits and media outreach so as to more closely meld with the PPX US Teams' objectives in Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Beijing and Washington DC.
PPX’s improbable diplomatic work is born of KASA families and their descendents’ need to make sense of their deep emotional bonds with China, as KASA families were the first - albeit incidental - US ambassadors to China, dating back to the late 1800s.
PPX’s exchange programs aim to cultivate this understanding and to celebrate KASA/PPX families’ connection to Lushan across five generations, while also bringing a message of peace and goodwill to our friends in China.
With the pandemic in 2020 closing down all cultural exchange, and amid rising political tensions, the necessity for an increase in non-governmental, “people to people exchanges” made itself apparent.
The PPX team has spent the past 4 years curating and reviving these historical accounts.
US/China People-to-People Exchange.org
a California educational nonprofit
Mailing address:
54 Woodland Ave
San Anselmo CA 94960
PPX Fiscal Sponsor
Players Philanthropy Fund.org
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation
1122 Kenilworth Drive, Suite 201
Towson, MD 21204-2146
Federal Tax ID: 27-6601178
UEI: M5REPDES9AN7
US/China People-to-People Exchange.org
a California educational nonprofit
Mailing address:
54 Woodland Ave
San Anselmo CA 94960
PPX Fiscal Sponsor
Players Philanthropy Fund.org
a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation
1122 Kenilworth Drive, Suite 201
Towson, MD 21204-2146
EIN# 27-6601178
UEI#: M5REPDES9AN7