Category Archives: History

Island in Between: Review and Q&A with Oscar-Nominated Director S. Leo Chiang

I live in Silicon Valley, and one of the benefits is that I live about five miles from Stanford University, where are often quite a few events of interest to me that are open to the public. Recently, there was … Continue reading

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Heinlenville Park in San Jose commemorates a Historic San Jose Chinatown

Heilenville Park opened in October of last year in San Jose’s Japantown, but I only recently got around to seeing it for myself this past weekend.  The park is named after the Heilenville Chinatown that was located at the site. … Continue reading

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An Astronaut, an Asian Parent’s Expectations, and a Space Ship Hatch Lock

“If you guys don’t give me a chance to repair my instrument, I’m not going back.” Asian Americans sometimes joke about Asian parents’ high expectations, but the expectations of an Asian father had lasting effects on space travel. In this … Continue reading

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Traveling Japan: Fort Goryokaku at Hakodate, Hokkaido

Although relatively less known in the States, Hokkaido is a common travel destination for people in Asia, so I’ve known quite a few family and friends who have visited this most northern part of Japan, and I’ve commonly seen pictures … Continue reading

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Publishing Your Way as a Change Maker: The First Chinese Festivals

I came across this Cornell webinar from an alumni email about a “Leadership Lunch and Learning” webinar series.  The topic was the following: “L Sam Zhang, author and illustrator of The First Chinese Festivals series of picture books, speaks on … Continue reading

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Pinoytown Rising: San Jose Public Library Exhibit through November 30

When Number Two Son and I were getting coffee in a cafe in San Jose Japantown, we noticed a small flyer on their community bulletin board that talked about Pinoytown Rising, an exhibit in San Jose’s Martin Luther King Library … Continue reading

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Asian Americans in Pop Music History: Norma Tanega

Most people have probably only encountered the work of Norma Tanega through her song “You’re Dead” which is used as the theme song for both the movie of “What we Do in the Shadows” and the ongoing TV series of … Continue reading

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Most Asian Americans say they don’t know Asian American History

I have run a number of Asian American history talks and events for an Employee Resource Group (ERG) in my company, and a common responses from my fellow employees is that they had no idea about much of the history … Continue reading

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Larry Itliong’s Son and Grandson talk about him on StoryCorps

While we often write about notable people, we rarely talk about their families, much less talk about them from the viewpoint of their families.  That is one reason that I found a particular StoryCorps story so interesting. We hear about … Continue reading

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WWII Soldier Remains identified 80 years later as Wing O. Hom

We have talked about Asian Americans who have died for their country during military service, and the identification of the remains of Wing O. Hom adds another to that list. Hom, from Boston, was killed in action in Italy during … Continue reading

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CAAMFest 2023: Review – Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story

I was supposed to review Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story (trailer here) during or around CAAMFest 2023, but I let the screener link expire and the screening during CAAMFest was on Mother’s Day. I finally reached out to the … Continue reading

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125th Anniversary of Wong Kim Ark Day [3/28/1898] – Celebration & Commemoration

Another blog post I am woefully late on (but did post the video on YouTube shortly afterwards). I had attended the 125th anniversary back on March 25th commemorating and celebrating the landmark Supreme Court decision of U.S. vs. Wong Kim … Continue reading

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