Some sources say that the discovery of fireworks occurred about 2,000 years ago, and other sources place the discovery sometime during the 9th century during the Song dynasty (960-1279), although this could be confusion between the discovery of gunpowder by the cook and the invention of the firecracker.
Some sources suggest that fireworks may have originated in India, but in the October 18, 2003, online edition of The Hindu, an Indian national newspaper, the Chinese are credited with the discovery of gunpowder.
A Chinese monk named Li Tian, who lived near the city of Liu Yang in Hunan Province, is credited with the invention of firecrackers about 1,000 years ago. The Chinese people celebrate the invention of the firecracker every April 18 by offering sacrifices to Li Tian. During the Song Dynasty, the local people established a temple to worship Li Tian.
The firecrackers, both then and now, are thought to have the power to fend off evil spirits and ghosts that are frightened by the loud bangs of the firecrackers. Firecrackers are used for such purposes today at most events such as births, deaths and birthdays. Chinese New Year is a particularly popular event that is celebrated with firecrackers to usher in the new year free of the evil spirits.
To this day the Liu Yang region of Hunan Province remains the main production area in the world for fireworks. It is important to remember the geographic origin of fireworks, because often detractors of the fireworks industry say that fireworks are produced in China to take advantage of cheap labor. But the reality is that the fireworks industry existed in China long before the advent of the modern era and long before the disparity in east-west wage rates, and hopefully the fireworks industry will exist long after the existence of communism has an effect over the Chinese economy.
Generally Marco Polo is credited with bringing the Chinese gunpowder back to Europe in the 13th century, although some accounts credit the Crusaders with bringing the black powder to Europe as they returned from their journeys.
Once in Europe, the black powder was used for military purposes, first in rockets, then in canons and guns. Italians were the first Europeans who used the black powder to manufacture fireworks. Germany was the other European country to emerge as a fireworks leader along with Italy in the 18th century. It is interesting to note that many of the leading American display companies are operated by families of Italian descent such as the Grucci family, Rozzi family, and Zambelli family.
The English were also fascinated with fireworks. Fireworks became very popular in Great Britain during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. William Shakespeare mentions fireworks in his works, and fireworks were so much enjoyed by the Queen herself that she created the position of "Fire Master of England." King James II was so pleased with the fireworks display that celebrated his coronation that he knighted his Fire Master.
In the modern era, the American fireworks industry really began to influence Chinese manufacturers following President Nixon's normalization of relations with the Chinese Communist government in the early 1970s. Prior to that time, business was being done between U.S. and Chinese companies through Hong Kong brokers with little or no direct contact with mainland manufacturers.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the distribution channels in China were essentially state owned factories producing fireworks that were then exported through government owned provincial export corporations. Products produced in Hunan went through the Hunan Export Corporation, and products produced in Jiangxi went through the Jiangxi Export Corporation, and so on. During this period, factories were not required to make a profit, but rather their goal was to keep people working in a region of China where there was no real industry other than agriculture. The Chinese government subsidized these factories to keep production going.
The Provincial Export Corporation in turn sold to Hong Kong brokers who were the link between Mainland China and the foreign business entities. The Hong Kong brokers procured orders, arranged logistics, and helped finance shipments to the U.S. distributors.
It was also during this time period that the first formally educated leader of China, Chairman Deng Xiaoping, saw what his counterparts in the former Soviet Bloc did not see, and that is that Communism simply did not work economically. Chairman Deng began a policy of economic reform that basically set China on the road toward capitalism.
During the 1980s, China opened up dramatically to travel within its borders for visiting U.S. importers. This enabled the first American fireworks buyers to travel to the production regions and establish relations with Hong Kong exporters and the provincial export corporations.
In the late 1980s, consumer fireworks became the focus of intense scrutiny by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Up to this point, most of the fireworks products had old generic export corporation labels that had incorrect warning labels based on item size and performance. To correct the situation, representatives from the CPSC, American Pyrotechnics Association, and Hong Brokers Association spent 10 days in Southern China meeting with representatives from each export corporation and factory managers, on a province by province basis.
The meetings involved shooting each item produced in China and determining what the appropriate and correct warning descriptions and print size should be from the point of view of providing safe warning labels for the American consumers. The Americans involved took on the infamous moniker of "The Shekou Six" by most of the shell shocked Chinese industry people, and from that meeting and a few that followed was born the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory (AFSL) which monitors firework production within China to this day.
In the 1990s, economic reform continued under Chairman Jiang Zemin as Chinese factories were weaned off government funding and forced to turn a profit for the first time. It was during this period that many Provincial Export Corporation personnel left the government owned companies and were permitted to start their own.
Initially these new private companies worked through the established Hong Kong brokers to reach the U.S. market, but within a few years they were selling directly to U.S. importers.
In order to survive, Hong Kong brokers invested money into Chinese factories and joint-ventured with Chinese entrepreneurs to start their own exclusive product lines and for their remaining larger customers. With the loss of key personnel, the government provincial export corporations never quite adapted to economic reform, and today most are gone or left selling to domestic Chinese markets.
The 1990s saw the rapid growth of private labels in order for U.S. companies to differentiate their product lines. In the 2000s, China is a basic "free for all," with small mainland export-broker companies forming and folding each month. Additionally, separate factories are attempting to bypass historical channels and selling directly to U.S. importers. Each week American companies receive a half dozen e-mails or fax communications asking for the American companies to place orders directly with some small new and obscure factories that would like to begin exporting to the United States.

Article Source: www.fireworks.com/safety/fireworks-history.asp

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(Father’s Day Party on June 13, 2010 at Tokyo Buffet, city of Westminster. California. USA.  Josue with orange color-shirt, standing next to Thai-Nguyen).

2010 Fourth Annual Father’s Day (Speech by: Thai-Nguyen on Saturday June 13, 2010)
 
People always said “No free lunch” and it is true here today. We treat you lunch because my co-worker Josue and I want to sell you our beach-front vacation home in Las Vegas, Nevada. What is that Josue? Oh, the beach is not ready. OK, we will talk about it next year then!

Actually you all had paid for today lunch, long time ago. You paid for it when you first stepped on our soil in Vietnam. You had spent your youthful years fighting for freedom, some never came back. For our South Vietnam soldiers, one second of your time in the re-education camp is worth more than 1 thousand lunches. You all deserve much better than this!

Diamond and I just came back from Duluth, MN. This beautiful city is located next to Lake Superior, the largest of 5 Great Lakes. Did you know they hold 20% of total freshwater on earth? We had a nice time visiting our sponsors, Mary Milbrath, Phyllis Miller, and Charlotte Boyd.

                                             
   (Left: Thai-Nguyen, Diamond, Ms. Mary Milbrath. Right: Ms. Charlotte Boyd & Ms. Phyllis Miller)
                           Photo taken by: Ms. Mary Milbrate – June 5th, 2010 at Duluth, MN.

Last year we honored their late husband: Mr. Cy Milbrath was a Marine Captain, Mr. Ray Miller was a Navy Specialist, and Mr. Robert Wallace Boyd was a Navy Captain. Mr. Boyd died in April but his body was buried a year ago on 6/6 so went back for the first burial anniversary. We paid respect to him and two other heroes in the same cemetery. They had done a remarkable job for this great nation. Also we want to pray for Carol Dahl’s health, our other sponsor that we did not have a chance to see. Get well soon, “Mom”!


 
(California State Senator: Lou Correa was share his feeling with Diamond BN & Thai-Nguyen and all the members of Country-Feet Band).

We have this party because we want to show our appreciation to them, and to this generous country.  For most of us, our life is 100 times better than what we had 35 years ago in Vietnam. We now live in the most advanced and wealthy country in the world! Having this annual event is a great way to celebrate our blessing but it becomes more difficult each year. Things are getting more expensive and we are getting older. We were undecided for awhile until we got a loud and clear message from the IRS. In March we filed a tax return and expected around $1,100.00 back. We were surprised and concerned when they refunded $1,900.00 instead (800 more than we asked for). We surely thought they have made a mistake. But then they sent us a letter explaining that we did our tax wrong. See that folks! Our friendly and professional tax agency IRS just gave us an incentive for one more party.

Actually your desire of being here is our motivation. I know Ben has practiced his banjo since January. Anita has tried to lose weight since last year so she can fit into our traditional dress ao dai. You come here to show your support because you recognize that we keep less for ourselves and give more to others. We follow “true giving” principle. It is much more than just passing along used clothes or old canned foods. We give the best like the Taiwanese fishermen had given us when they rescued me and 28 others from my sinking boat back in 1978. We would be very happy with just instant noodles but their chef gave us a real feast each day with the best seafood that you could imagine. Lobster tails were as big as my arm. In fact after three days of serving 29 un-expected guests, they were out of beer, wine, and even rice!

We have worked with Ms. Dorothy Kumar from Pomona Neighborhood Center for over 5 years now. The homeless shelter only opened in the winter months.  We usually threw three or four parties around the holidays like Christmas, New Year, and Tet. We always went to shop for the foods ourselves. Diamond would carefully pick out the best apples, one by one. She wanted to make sure they were fresh and had no bruises. Just imagine that fragile and soft hands have picked, turned, and bagged over 2,000 apples for the last 5 years!

Like the way we selecting fruits, we do the same with dinner entries. Our weekend music show at nursing home in OC usually ended around noon and dinner at the shelter was not until 6 PM. We had to hang around Little Saigon until 4 or 5 in the afternoon because we wanted to pick up the foods as late as we could. We wanted to serve hot fried rice, crispy egg-rolls, and fresh French sandwiches (banh-mi). It was hard work but the smiles or appreciation waves from our homeless guests justified all our troubles.
 
Let’s pray for our heath so we can continue to serve the community. But more important, let’s enjoy the good company, good foods and good music! Thanks to my super-wife, Diamond and all members of the volunteer band.  For the past 5 years Tom Sy Le and Trung Chanh had missed over 2,000 weekend hours of watching fantastic sports events on TV or having a good time with friends at the coffee shops. The same is true with Dr. David Bui, body shop-owner Anh-Ngoc and his wife Kim-Vui.

Also thank you for being outstanding parents. You have worked hard to make sure your children are doing well. I know many of you have grown-up children who are now professionals in medical, legal, business, or science field. Some are elected officials, and some are now serving bravely in the Arm Forces right at this moment. Happy Pre-Father’s Day to everyone and thanks God for a wonderful world!

Please view this Father’s Day Party Program at “Photos 2010” and “Video 2010” section on this web-site.