If you drive through a neighborhood at Christmas time and see a vibrant blinking star with many different colors; it’s a pretty safe bet that you’ve just passed a Filipino home. Christmas in the Philippines and practically everywhere else in the southern hemisphere celebrates the holiday in the middle of summer. So what do you do when Firs and Pine trees aren’t covered in white snow? Celebrate with Parols! It’s a Filipino tradition to create stars out of bamboo and tissue paper, lit with tiny lights. The Parols is the Filipino version of a 9ft Noble fir decked out in holiday trim. The Chronicle’s Michelle Louie wrote an article a few weeks back highlighting the history and tradition of this cultural symbol.
The Philippines is a nation that is 85 percent Catholic. Invaded by Spain hundreds of years ago, the indigenous people of the Philippines were converted to Christianity by Catholic missionaries. The missionaries used the parol as a symbol to distinguish Christian’s from Non-Christians, and as a means to convert non-believers. However this symbol was also taken by the resistance movement against Spanish colonization. The resistance movement or Katipunan, took the symbol as a fight for freedom against Spanish oppression and rule.
But there was also a resistance movement known as the Katipunan that fought to rid the Philippines of Spanish rule. Founded in 1892, this brotherhood inducted new members in a blindfolded, candle-lit, blood-signing ceremony that was held in a cave.
“When you opened your blindfold, you were blinded by the one light,” Canlas says. “You were committed to fighting for this light.”
The Bayanihan Community Center off of 6th and Mission in San Francisco, hosted their fifth annual Parol Lantern Festival. People from all walks of life joined the parade, creating their own stars. Some from recycled materials like aluminum cans, others creating stars as large as10 foot Christmas trees. I was able to take a few photos as they marched down Market St., sharing their holiday spirit with shoppers and onlookers.
On Christmas Eve, my sister-in-law brought bamboo sticks with different colored tissue paper. We spent the time after dinner, creating our own stars. We laughed together as we cut and pasted tissue paper on bamboo sticks, creating our own personalized stars. A friendly competition emerged as to who could create the best looking star. Here are a few of them that we created as a family.
The parol is our symbol of Christmas. The star signifies the coming of the Christmas season and the birth of Christ. It was the symbol the three wisemen used to find Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. It was once a symbol used to mark those who were non-believers. It was also a symbol used to inspire people to freedom against their oppressors. It is a symbol that brings community together in song and march. It is a tradition of belief and faith, love and hope. But now it means more to me than paper and bamboo. It’s a symbol of how my Christmas was spent with my family, sharing, laughing and loving the holiday spirit, as we spent time making parols together. The parol is my symbol of Christmas.
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On behalf of everyone here at 8Asians.com, I’d like to wish you guys a very Merry Christmas, or whatever the hell you guys celebrate.
Oh, and another small footnote: 8Asians.com was pretty much started around a year ago today, to humble beginnings – basically sending out a couple of co-workers and friends if they were interested in starting a blog about “Asian American stuff.” One year and over 50,000 unique visitors and 150,000 hits to the website later, we’ve gotten mentions on Spiegel and Newsweek and have had our first in-person happy hour, not to mention our fair share of drama, whether it be from angry Asian Americans or angry Germans. Something to piss somebody off, right? Right.
I would publicly like to thank the 17 (!!!) other bloggers who have helped out with 8Asians.com, past and present – in particular, Mike and Genghis for the initial support during that fateful night in the work cafeteria, and Christine for joining forces with her fantastic podcast, POP 88. Finally, I would like to thank you, 8Asians.com reader, for making the site what it is today. Here’s to another year, whatever the hell it will bring.
(Photo credit: augapfel on flickr)
Shopping With GASP!
As someone who does support things because they are Asian, I almost bought my parents tickets to Holiday Wonders. The show, which plays in New York and also goes on tour, is a pastiche of dance and song and reminds me of things I was subjected to on Loveboat.
I think I need some time to get used to it. Although it’s now in its fifth year, it’s only the second that I’ve heard of it. Right now it seems like a very elaborate talent show, one that I only support for political reasons. This I do despite the fact that the show is neither here nor there -it’s in both English and Chinese, has both European ballet and Chinese dances. It doesn’t seem to know what it is (and yet that in itself is an Asian American trait).
At any rate, as a collection of ditties for the holiday season, it can’t be any worse than the other songs and dances offered up at this time of year. Sometimes I think Asians are their own worst enemies, with tendencies to be too critical, analytical, and demanding of themselves and of each other. Holiday Wonders wants to be a new American tradition, and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t have that place.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!
Christmas, Holiday, Wintery music just in time for the Festive Season with music from J, K, Fly To the Sky, Ayumi Hamasaki and Gackt plus a whole lotta pictures goodness all wrapped up tightly in this Enhanced Podcast.
I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and all the Happiness the Holiday Season brings to you and your family.
For requests, comments, suggestions and feedback, leave a comment at Popcast88.com or email at christine [at] popcast88.com. Continue Reading »
Aaah, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. You know the movie – two Asian American protagonists get really stoned, look for a White Castle, and somehow find Neal Patrick Harris and ride a cheetah instead. The movie did relatively poorly in the box office – only $27 million at the box office – due to no one wanting to watch a movie with Asians in it a poor plot “model”. That being said, it IS a stoner movie, and the stoners DO love watching the DVDs. So much so that it made $30 million in DVD sales, thus deeming it a cult movie. A cult movie, ready for a sequel.
For years, I thought the name of the movie was going to be Harold & Kumar Go To Amsterdam, which makes sense – more weed! More hilarity! But the events of the last couple of years seem to have made the movie take a political bent, and the movie is now called Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay.
The interesting thing to me is this – while White Castle was just a movie about two stoned guys who happened to be Asian, Guantanamo Bay plays up the “two minorities look like Al-Queda” race card, especially in the trailer and the movie posters. I don’t know how I necessarily feel about that. A stoner comedy is a stoner comedy, however, so if it has the necessary jokes about bongs and Neil Patrick Harris and cock sandwiches, it should drive the stoners and the folks into stoner movies into the theaters or at least buying a DVD. For the people that are going to watch to support their fellow Asian-American actors? Not so much, but hey – it’s not like we do anyway.
In today’s New York Times, the newspaper reports that in South Korea, “Where Boys Were Kings, a Shift Toward Baby Girls“:
“According to a study released by the World Bank in October, South Korea is the first of several Asian countries with large sex imbalances at birth to reverse the trend, moving toward greater parity between the sexes. Last year,
the ratio was 107.4 boys born for every 100 girls, still above what is considered normal, but down from a peak of 116.5 boys born for every 100 girls in 1990. The most important factor in changing attitudes toward girls was the radical shift in the country’s economy that opened the doors to women in the work force as never before and dismantled long-held traditions, which so devalued daughters that mothers would often apologize for giving birth to a girl. The government also played a small role starting in the 1970s. After growing alarmed by the rise in sex-preference abortions, leaders mounted campaigns to change people’s attitudes, including one that featured the popular slogan “One daughter raised well is worth 10 sons!” …The preference for boys here is centuries old and was rooted in part in an agrarian society that relied on sons to do the hard work on family farms. But in Asia’s Confucian societies, men were also accorded special status because they were considered the carriers of the family’s all-important bloodline.”
The article goes on to describe the growth of the South Korean economy as well as liberalization of the government from an authoritarian to a truly democratic nation as helping change Korean society’s attitudes of girls and women. Additionally, demographers are hopeful that such changes in Korea can be translated to China and India, where sex imbalances between boys and girls are still pronounced.
I came across this ongoing series titled “Sexy Beijing” (credit goes to a commenter named “Craig” for bringing it to my attention). Apparently, it’s been around for over a year now and has slipped under our collective radars. Doh! In any event, here’s a real brief synopsis: It’s a Sex and the City-esque documentary style series starring an American white woman named Su Fei (whose fluent Mandarin Chinese blows mine out of the water). We follow her around as she explores the culture, life and people of Beijing.
Two of my favorites are “Country Loving” (below) and “Bad Boys of Beijing“. For more episodes, here’s the link to their website.
Is it just me, or does anyone else find her inexplicably yet wildly attractive? Somewhat Lisa Loeb, a dash of Tina Fey and a slice of Carrie Fisher (circa When Harry Met Sally… don’t ask).
*Follow up: Here’s an article from CNN covering Su Fei and Sexy Beijing.
In today’s New York Times, the newspaper reports in “Silicon Valley Shaped by Technology and Traffic” how there are micro-industry niches based on technology, traffic patterns / location (SF vs. Silicon Valley), and several other factors, including ethnic ties:
“Mr. Chaddha also represents another social cluster in the Valley, the ethnic Indian community. When he and Mr. Gupta needed advice, he said, “we went back to our roots,” tapping leaders of the Indus Entrepreneurs, a powerful ethnic Indian networking group.
Today, Mr. Chaddha is a senior member of the organization. New companies with deep ethnic links — mainly Indian and Chinese — are sprouting up in the Valley. Often, ethnic background is but one layer of social relationship. SnapTell, a start-up that seeks to marry image-recognition technology, cellphones and marketing, was founded last year by G. D. Ramkumar and Gautam Bhargava, Indian computer scientists and Valley veterans. The company has 10 employees, six of whom have Ph.D.’s and three of whom are from Stanford. The shared backgrounds, interests and schools make for frictionless communication that fosters rapid innovation.”
If you work in the San Francisco Bay Area and in technology and Internet industry, I am sure you will agree with a lot of the observations detailed in the article. I’ve attended numerous Chinese Software Professionals Association (CSPA) , Asia America MultiTechnology Association, ORIENTED.COM, events, as well as Stanford BASES (Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students) promoted events, as well as events in my www.digitalmbas.org listed events.
The other day, I was watching TV and saw an American Express ad about some new “Plum Card” that they were promoting featuring the store, Pinkberry and Asian-American entrepreneurs Shelly Hwang and Young Lee (both originally from South Korea). According to “Wikipedia”, “Pinkberry is an upscale chain of frozen dessert restaurants headquartered in Los Angeles, California. There are currently 36 stores, mostly located in Southern California with seven in New York City.”
I had first heard of Pinkberry a few months ago from my friend (originally from Los Angeles) who said he half-jokingly wanted to make a career change and open a Pinkberry franchise, and I was wondering – what the hell is that? (a new version of the Blackberry?).
My friend went on to explain Pinkberry, and since they are currently only in Southern California and NYC, there’s a reason why I didn’t know about them. After getting my December issue of Fast Company and reading about Pinkberry (”Berry, Berry Ambitious“), and now seeing the American Express ad:
it looks like Pinkberry is approaching the tipping point of national awareness. I hope Pinkberry opens some stores in the Bay Area soon so I can tryout this “swirly goodness. It’s honest food, without preservatives, additives or excess sugar. It is dessert reinvented.”
In October, Pinkberry received $27.5 million from Maveron, the VC firm launched by Starbucks. Let’s hope these Asian-American entrepreneurs are just as successful!
It has not been a good week for trans-racial adoptive parents. First there was the case of the Dutch diplomat and his wife, which I wrote about earlier this week, who dumped their adopted Korean daughter on Hong Kong officials after 7 years. Now, a woman in Indianapolis has been charged with killing her adopted Korean 13 month old. Rebecca Kyrie is facing the charges of murder, battery resulting in death, neglect resulting in death, and aggravated battery in the Sept. 4th death of Hei Min Chung. Autopsy results show the baby died from blunt cranio-cerebal injuries associated with shaken baby syndrome. Rebecca and her husband adopted Hei Min Chung less than 6 months ago.
After my initial reaction of horror, sadness, and anger upon hearing of these stories, I began to wonder about the comparative rates of infanticide and homicide of children living with non-genetic caregivers vs. those with genetic parents. Does a lack of a genetic bond increase a child’s risk of being killed by their caregiver? And if so, what are the implications for adopted children and the whole adoption process – particularly cross-border adoptions. Unfortunately, research from the late 1990′s shows that stepparents are 100 times more likely to fatally abuse their children than genetic parents – the rates are even higher when just looking at stepfathers.
On a positive note (if there is such a thing when examining this topic), there was no variation in fatal abuse rates between adopted parents and genetic parents. The researchers believe the lack of variance is due in part to 1) the fact that adoptive parents are highly motivated and undergo greater scrutiny during the adoption process, and 2) adopted parents tend to return children to adoption agencies more frequently than appreciated. Current rates of adoption dissolution or disruption (unsuccessful adoptions) are about 10 - 20%.
Two thoughts popped into my head when applying these rationales to cross-border adoptions. First, don’t people turn to international adoptions b/c the process is easier and faster and there is less scrutiny? Therefore, wouldn’t it be logical to conclude that adoptive parents entering into the international adoption market are less likely to be vetted and there is greater risk for unfit parents to adopt a foreign child. Secondly, while disruption and dissolution might be viable options to end an adoption that hasn’t bonded well, isn’t it a lot harder for parents of cross-border adoptions to return their child to the home agency? It’s not like a family can just purchase a one way plane ticket to China and stick their 13 month old adopted child in the seat. The logistical complexity of dissolving a cross-border adoption may be enough to convince the parents that it is not an option for them.
All this to say…the world of cross-border adoption and trans-racial adoption is not a simple one to tread. I salute the loving parents who are raising healthy, well-adjusted (relatively speaking) adopted children, and also the children and adults growing up in multi-ethnic adoptive homes. I’m now going to go and read something happy and get all these negative adoption stories out of my head.
Being an obsessive (though novice) Asian cinephile and eating up anything stamped ‘Wong Kar Wai’ and ‘Ang Lee’, I’ve been dying to see Lust Caution for a while now. So going overseas on a two week trip to
Quang Bao, executive director of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop, is leaving the organization. The Workshop is a national not-for-profit arts organization devoted to the creating, publishing, developing and disseminating of creative writing by Asian Americans. Members of the workshop include not only writers but also supporters of writers and the Asian American community.
Bao joined the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in 1999 as managing director, and became the executive director in 2000. Over the next eight years he became a familiar face to those who attended the readings, book parties, and panel discussions held at the Workshop’s Manhattan loft.
Those not living in the New York area could get a sense of his character through the letters he sent to the mailing list several times a year. These requests for donations came wrapped in anecdotes about writing, news about the workshop, and even bits of memoir. In addition they revealed Bao’s congenial personality.
In his most recent letter, Bao cited creative reasons for leaving the workshop. Bao himself is a writer, and felt that he needed to step down in order to create space to write. In a phone interview, Bao said, “I just felt that it was time. I don’t think people should stay at a small arts organization for years and years. It’s a chance for everything to be refreshed.”
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop is currently looking for new leadership. The new director, Bao said, should have strengths in fundraising, collaborative programs, and developing a new, specific and clear direction for the organization.
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