A new website for DJs, mixcrate.com, created in part by 8asians alumnus Genghis Mendoza, has a story about how the DJ scene in San Francisco Bay Area became large and influential.  Turntablism is now practiced worldwide, and many legendary DJs like Qbert and Babu are Filipino-Americans from the Bay Area.  CSU Long Beach Sociology professor Oliver Wang did his Ph.D dissertation at UC Berkeley on this subject.  “Spinning Identities:  A Social History of Filipino American DJs in the Bay Area” chronicles the history of the mobile DJ scene.  He has created the web site http://legionsofboom.com/ for sharing this work.

The Bay Area DJ scene definitely has had influence, even in my family.  My nephew Ryan Buendia, who is currently a music producer for the Black Eyed Peas, started out as a turntablist and is part of the Fingerbangerz crew .  This DJ crew has produced a lot of music for the dance crew Jabbawockeez.

As I mentioned, mixcrate.com is a site where DJs can share and promote their mixes.  Created by Bay Area DJs (Genghis is also a DJ), it too is part of the ongoing heritage that Wang describes.

How did these Japanese Canadians get into the fishing business?  It seems that Japanese Americans and Japanese Canadians have had some influence in fishing in the US Northwest and Canada.  The fishing technique for salmon called “Mooching,” drift-fishing using only a banana-lead weight tied to a leader with a herring, described here, was said to be invented to by Japanese immigrant fisherman.  The name, according to this account, comes from these Japanese fisherman who did so well that other fisherman would “mooch” their bait to use themselves.  The Tengu fishing derby in Elliott Bay near Seattle was started by these Japanese-American fisherman in the 1930’s.  A “Tengu” is a creature from Japanese mythology whose nose, like Pinnochio’s, grew when it lied, a perfect name for a fishing contest (think “fish” stories about “the one that got away”).  The tournament was interrupted by the Japanese American internment, but has been going on ever since.  Bob Izumi’s father started one of the first fishing tournaments in Ontario.  Japanese-American and Seattle Native Mark Yuasa blogs about fishing for the Seattle Times.

Researching this post makes me want to try fishing some day.  I was pleasantly surprised to learn about the influence that Asian-Americans and Asian-Canadians have had on fishing in North America.  Plus, Mariko Izumi’s show seems like a great and certainly easy on the eyes way to start learning about it!

Jaden Smith, the next Karate (Kung-Fu?) Kid

Some fans of the original Karate Kid movie are appalled by the remake starring Jaden Smith as the new Karate Kid and Jackie Chan as his teacher.  Some are very explicit about their displeasure to a having a black kid play the role.    But as Jeff Yang points in this article, the story of an African-American learning self control and discipline from martial arts is “less of a perversion than it is a correction.”

Yang says that African-Americans were the first non-Asian community in the US to embrace martial arts, and without them, Asian fighting disciplines might never have taken root.  “The story of martial arts in black communities is part of a much bigger narrative of African American interest in Asian culture,” says Amy Obugo Ongiri, assistant professor of English at the University of Florida and author of the forthcoming book “Spectacular Blackness.”   White flight, she says, made inner city theatres become spaces for people of color, and cheaper, less marketable films like martial arts movies were often shown.  “We’d go and watch films all day,” recalls Warrington Hudlin, the producer behind films such as “House Party” and “Boomerang.”

Bruce Lee has been particularly influential.  In the documentary “How Bruce Lee Changed the World,” a number of African Americans, like Wu Tang Clan rapper and producer RZA and actor and rapper LL Cool J, talk about how Bruce Lee influenced them.  While filming certain scenes, LL Cool J thought about how Bruce Lee would have done the scene and acted accordingly.  Interestingly enough the new movie is being filmed in the Wu Tang mountains.

I am not sure that this new version of the Karate Kid (shouldn’t that be “Kung Fu Kid” if he is learning from Jackie Chan in China?) will be better that the original (although the reimagined Battlestar Galactica certainly has its plusses).  In any case, check out Yang’s article – it’s interesting, and I hope the Karate Kid remake is at least as good!

One of Number Two Son’s favorite shows is Man vs Food.  In this show, host Adam Richman goes to various towns and cities and indulges in the local fare.  Toward the end of each show, he engages in a local food challenge where he needs to finish either some huge amount of food, something extremely spicy, or some combination of both in order to win a prize or recognition.  Richman is a fairly big guy, and while he says that he is not a competitive eater, more often than not he wins the challenge.  Despite his size, bulk is not necessary to win eating contests.  Take for instance, Juliet Lee. This 5 foot tall slightly over 100 pound mother and beauty salon owner is also ranked #11 in the world of competitive eating (believe it or not, there are rankings for competitive eaters).   She has eaten 34 hot dogs within minutes!

She is not the only Asian big eater with a small stature.  We have written about 128 pound Takeru Kobayashi, long time champion of the Nathan’s July 4th Hot Dog challenge (53 hot dogs in 12 minutes), and formerly #1 ranked eater.  He is not a huge guy.  Neither is 100 pound Sonya “Black Widow” Thomas, ranked #6 in the world and eater of 41 hot dogs within 10 minutes.  How can these small Asians eat so much?  According to the International Federation of Competitive Eating (yes, folks, there really is such an organization), smaller Asian “gurgitators” (their name for eating competitors) often do better than huge guys because they don’t have a belt of fat around their waists that restricts  stomach expansion.

I look at these Asian “gurgitators” with a mix of pride, disgust, and envy.   Pride, from the idea that these skinny Asians break stereotypes of big eaters.  Disgust, from just thinking about how much they eat.  Envy, from the fact that these three are still so skinny after eating so much food!  I can gain a pound by just looking at a cheesecake.

Eugene Amano

This is the comment that Number One Son’s flag football coach told me after a football game.  Number One Son had a good game at cornerback, shutting down the receivers on his side of the field.  Tackle football?  I can’t say that I am a fan of tackle football, given some recent history of deaths, concussions, and the general feeling that it doesn’t contribute toward lifelong fitness.  Besides, Number One Son, while quick, is a thin lean Filipino kid.  Filipino kids don’t go pro, do they?

Well, apparently, they do!  At least there is a small number who do.  While we have talked about Hines Ward and his work in South Korea, this article from the Asian Journal (reposted also here at New American Media)  talks about NFL players of Filipino descent, both past (like former Rams quarterback Roman Gabriel) and present.   Some, like running back Steve Slaton, are partly Filipino but acknowledge their ancestry (Slaton has a Filipino flag tattoo).   Manila born offensive lineman Eugene Amano is  not a typical Filipino at 6 foot 3 and 310 pounds.  He gives back to the community by hosting football clinics, and is working to raise awareness and funds for Filipino Typhoon victims.

Will I let Number One Son play tackle football?  I don’t know yet.  We’ll see if he puts on those extra inches.  While I am not very enthusiastic about tackle football, as I stated above, I’d like to see what he wants to do.  In any case, it’s good to know that some Filipino kids can go pro.

When I was coaching The Daughter’s volleyball team, that was one of my fellow coaches’ comments about our team of short Asian girls.  For those of you who don’t know volleyball, a libero is a defensive specialist who concentrates receiving on serves and “digging” out spikes that get past the blockers.  While there are tall professional volleyball players like Kevin Wong and tall Asians in general who can “roof” people, liberos (and many Asians) tend to be short.  Hence the comment.

Tamari Miyashiro is a 5 foot 7 Asian American libero who plays for the University of Washington.  This article explains that she was lightly recruited, and while  a walk-on (non recruited) red shirt (someone who doesn’t play in order to extend athletic elgibility), she practiced with the national championship team.  After helping that 1995 championship team off the court, she wants to win one on the court.  She is extremely good at her position, being volleyball magazine’s two time defensive player of the year and is the third all-time in digs in Pac-10 history.

One thing that puzzles me is how she was “lightly recruited” and had to walk-on.   I know that Asian-Americans in other sports like Jeremy Lin have had trouble being taken seriously, but I wouldn’t have expected it in volleyball.  Being from Hawaii could be a reason, although Kevin Wong was from Hawaii.  There is history of  excellent Asian-American players, such as legendary setter and Olympian Debbie Green and Olympic competitors Eric and Liane Sato.

Tamari Miyashiro is good example that you don’t have to be tall to make it in athletics and in volleyball.  As for the short Asian kids on The Daughter’s middle school team, we always did pretty well and often beat taller and whiter teams.  Two of the girls who continued to play volleyball in high school made all league honorable mention last year as sophomores, and I hear that one is being scouted by colleges as a setter.  As my bad passing often infuriates my teammates when I play volleyball, I have to say I envy Tamari Miyashiro’s libero skills and wish her the best of luck in her quest for a championship.

A mother called up the admissions officer of a local private high school.
“How can I best position my daughter to get into your high school?” she asked.
“What grade is she in?” replied the admissions officer.
“Fourth grade,” said the mother.
“Too late,” said the admissions officer.

That admissions officer recounting this story at a high school information night said with a grin that the mother went nuts.  We knew that he was joking, but in the same room were an Asian family who dragged along what looked to be a fourth grade girl and fifth grade boy. Why were the Wife and I were at the high school information night?  Number One Son will be applying to the local private high schools in about a year, and some of the best known private high schools in Silicon Valley were giving presentations and other information.

It may seem both extreme and crazy, but that Asian family might have the right idea.  According to this US News and World Report article, Princeton sociologist Thomas Espenshade calculated that for students with similar grades, test scores, athletic ability, and family background, whites were three times as likely as Asian students to get in an elite college.  When I first read that, I got pretty angry.  Do I have to push my kids three times harder than white kids just to keep up?  I calmed down when I realized that there are a number of caveats to this study.  The study did not factor in extracurricular activities other than athletics.  Mitchell Chang, a professor of higher education at UCLA, says in the article that Asian students might be less likely to participate in certain kinds of extracurricular activities and that Asian parents push their children to apply to big name schools.  Also, Espenshade’s data from the 80’s and 90’s deals with elite colleges – what about the next tier of schools?  I wish there was data about those.

Still, I have to admit that I am a bit spooked by all of this.  I don’t think that those mitigating factors I mentioned explain away all of that three to one advantage.  The Daughter will be applying to colleges next year, and I feel pangs of guilt that I let her drop out of Kumon a couple of years ago and didn’t make her to do club sports back when she was younger.  Remembering her experience applying to the local private high schools (there are entrance exams and of course, test prep courses for that exam), it’s going to be a stressful time next year for Number One Son.  On top of that, The Daughter will be going to waiting for college acceptance letters at the same time.  Spring of 2011 will not be a happy time.  Before then, I’ll probably end up reading Espenade’s forthcoming book Not Longer Separate, Not Yet Equal, that has more details from his study.
(Hat tip to John)

Manny Pacquiao isn’t the only Filipino boxing champion.  On September 12, Ana “The Hurricane” Julaton won the IBA Super Bantamweight championship (122 lbs) by defeating Kelsey “the Road Warrior” Jeffries.   We have written before about female Asian boxers defying stereotypes, but “The Hurricane” not only defies stereotypes but proves that she can be the best at what is typically thought of as a male sport. Her match at the HP Arena in San Jose is said to be the first time a female bout was featured as an IBA main event.

Julaton lives in the Filipino American enclave of Daly City, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this article, she cites the influence of Bruce Lee as an inspiration:

“I wasn’t sure where I fit in; I didn’t know who I was.  I found some kind of purpose I guess, in seeing a successful Chinese American like Bruce Lee.”

His influence lead her not only to learn Taekwondo and become a boxer, but also to embrace her own Filipino-American heritage.

Another thing she has in common with Manny Pacquiao is the hall of fame trainer Freddie Roach.  With excellent people like Roach behind her, Ana “the Hurricane” Julaton will be making an impact for some time to come.

(Flickr photo credit: FrankZoe)

Kawasaki disease is an inflammation of the middle size arteries that occurs in children.  This inflammation can affect many areas, but the most serious and lasting problems happen in the heart’s arteries, where aneurysms can lead to heart attacks, even in young children.  Common symptoms are a prolonged fever with pink eyes or pink lips, such as shown by this baby.  It most commonly occurs in children of Japanese descent.  Most children completely recover from the disease, which is treated with aspirin and Gamma Globulin.  Long lasting complications, when they occur, are typically heart problems caused by damage to coronary arteries.

Oddly enough, while Kawasaki disease happens more often to those of Asian ancestry, Americans of all ethnic groups are getting it.  It tends to happen more in groups with higher socio-economic status.   John Travolta’s son Jett, who died earlier this year, had the disease when he was 15 months old.  There is some speculation that environment factors, such as carpet cleaners, are responsible for this increase, and there is also some theories that an infectious agent is responsible, as the disease often occurs in outbreaks and tends to be seasonal during late winter and early spring.

Hat tip to Tim