8 Asians

As blogged earlier in September, Asian American candidates in the New York City primaries did well.  CNN just did an excellent profile of Margaret Chin, who is on the verge of being elected to the city council and being the first Chinese American ever to represent New York City’s Chinatown:

“For Chin, a 56-year-old Hong Kong immigrant, the long road to political victory has not been easy. As she closes in on a probable November victory, though, she’s confident the lessons learned along the way will serve her — and her constituents — well. Chin’s American story began almost a half century ago, during the Kennedy administration. Her father, seeking new opportunities, left China for Colombia. A few months later, he became an undocumented U.S. worker, scratching out a living as a waiter in the Bronx section of New York. When the family’s immigration papers came through in 1963, he borrowed money to bring them to America. Margaret, the third of five children, remembers her dad’s exhaustion and pain after spending long days on his feet.”

Maybe I’m ignorant, but I think these kind of stories can only be made in America: Chin has run for city council three times before, but lost in the Democratic primaries. Because of greater Chinese-American involvement and through experience, Chin was able to win in her primary. Since New York City is predominantly Democratic, the chances of her losing to her Republican candidate is slim (must be frustrating to be the token opposition). Best of luck to Chin – I look forward to reading about her victory!

I grew up in Manhattan’s Chinatown. My family speak Toisanese (or Taishanese), which is a version of the more commonly known Cantonese. As far as I knew, everyone in Chinatown spoke either Canton or Toisan, or both. But not Mandarin.

Now that elusive gaw-gnui is taking over as the language of Chinatown, thanks to parents pushing their kids to learn it in order to advance in the world. With China growing in influence every day, it’s only natural for our kids to speak the language, so to speak. Even the local Chinese school offers more Mandarin classes than Cantonese.

But what about the older generations who continue to speak Canton and only Canton? Apparently, they’re going to have to readjust everything from where they shop to where they eat. Mr. Wong says when he enters a store where the staff speaks only Mandarin, he must try someplace else. Another Canton speaker, Jan Lee, says he can no longer order food from East Broadway, where a lot of the newer, Mandarin-speaking immigrants are settling. “They don’t speak English; I don’t speak Mandarin. I’m just as lost as everyone else.”

My family moved out of Chinatown eight years ago. Each time I go back to visit, the place evokes memories — memories I am going to have to hold onto, for my childhood home has changed in so many ways. Right down to the language I grew up with.

Something to do in New York: the National Asian American Theater Festival. This year’s festival seems to have very little connection to the performances from the first NAATF in 2007, which offered twenty-five groups and a lot more variety. Here are the options: Sharif Don’t Like It, a one man show about the treatment of people of Asian and Middle Eastern descent after 9/11, Bahu-Beti-Biwi, an Indian dance, Imelda, a musical about Imelda Marcos, APACUNT, a performance piece about a variety of Asian American topics, an interpretation of Chekhov’s The Seagull, and some screenplay readings.

I went to APACUNT on Wednesday, its opening night. The performance features a “panel” of three Asian American characters plus a “moderator” who is also the director. Each night has a different topic and on Wednesday it was “THE PAST: Isn’t it Semantic? The Unprofitability of “Asian American.” Alice Tuan, an academic, Kristina Wong, an actor obsessed with her reviews, and Soo-Jin Lee, an Audrey magazine-type character, discussed the label Asian American and then exhorted the audience to help them think of a different name. As in, we actually broke into groups and brainstormed names and some loose marketing ideas. Normally I love interactive and participatory over passive and spectator — but I wasn’t into it and in an audience of a dozen people, there’s limited room to disengage. Note: a British bloke in my group pulled at the corners of his eyes to describe the model Tyson Beckford. I guess he was too old to learn from Hannah Montana’s mistakes.

The remaining performances of APACUNT (pronounced appa-cunt) are:

Friday, Oct 16, 10:30pm
THE FUTILE:
Creating a National Asian American Network
Join the Rapture now or be left behind to die.
The Chinese will buy us all out, so you might as well start packing now.

Saturday, Oct 17, 10:30pm
SPECIAL TOPICS:
Writing in the Margins
I once stuck my dick in Judd Apatow’s mouth
Join the playletting, forge into our peanut gallery, and the freestyle challenge. Whine and cheese always provided. Special orations by Alice Tuan.

Sunday, Oct 18, 6pm
CLOSING PLENARY:
REINVENTING THE WHEEL: What spoke?
Free styling toward innovation in Asian American Theater and performance of the human in the 21st century.

The festival is held at Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue, New York.

Tonight, after I get off work, I will be casting my vote for New York City comptroller in the runoff election between city councilmen John C. Liu and David Yassky. As previously blogged about here on 8Asians, Liu received the most votes in the primary election two weeks ago, but not enough to reach the 40% needed to avoid a runoff.

Those of you living in the New York have probably seen the negative ad campaign waged by David Yassky (who, by the way, has the endorsement of The New York Times). In that ad, he brands Liu a liar:

“That’s the problem with comptroller candidate John Liu. He says he returned contributions from people who got city contracts. Not true. Liu’s commercial claims he found fraud in the MTA. Also not true. And get this: He claims he worked in a sweatshop, but it never happened. His father was actually a top bank manager.”

As several 8Asians pointed out in the internal listserv, it is entirely possible that Liu did work at a sweatshop, but his mother may have denied it in front of the media to “save face.” After all, many immigrant parents come to America to provide a better life for their children. How would it look then, if their own children worked in a sweatshop?

Yassky’s spokesman said Liu is not playing fair either. Yesterday was Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews. Yassky, who is Jewish, took the day off from campaigning to observe the holiday. But Liu, who is not Jewish, went out campaigning. In his defense, Liu’s spokeswoman said they had already consulted with Jews about campaign etiquette, and that out of respect for the day, Liu’s team did not knock on doors in predominantly Jewish neighborhoods.

I don’t know about other New Yorkers, but at this point, I’m just ready for this election to be over. No matter the outcome, I’ll be glad to not hear any more negative campaigning for a while.

From left to right: John C. Liu, Margaret S. Chin, Yen S. Chou, Kevin D. Kim. Photo sources:  NYC 2009 Primary Election Voter Guide

It looks like New York City is becoming more like the San Francisco Bay Area when it comes to getting more Asian Americans getting involved in local politics. This past week, New York City had its primaries and Asian American candidates made a terrific showing in a city that is approximately 12% Asian American.

“Asian-American candidates won Democratic primaries in three  City Council districts on Tuesday. And John C. Liu, a Queens Democrat who was the first Asian-American to be elected to the Council, received the most votes for city comptroller, though not enough to reach the 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff… Chinatown itself is likely to be represented by an Asian-American for the first time, with the victory of Margaret S. Chin …  a community activist, over Councilman Alan J. Gerson, a two-term incumbent. In Flushing, Queens, Yen S. Chou, a Chinese immigrant who owns a tutoring center, won a closely fought five-way primary, which included three other Asian-American candidates, for the nomination to replace Mr. Liu. And in a traditionally conservative district in northeast Queens, Kevin D. Kim, an aide to Representative Gary L. Ackerman, won the primary for a seat being vacated by Councilman Tony Avella. Mr. Kim — who will face a Republican opponent, Dan Halloran, in November — would become the first Korean-American on the Council if he wins.”

If Margaret Chin wins in the general election in November, she will be — ironically –  the first Chinese American to represent New York’s Chinatown, within one year of San Francisco’s David Chiu of being the first Asian American to represent ANY Chinatown in the United States.