On May 25, 1887, a group of up to 34 Chinese miners were massacred by a group of white frontiersmen in Hells Canyon in a section of the Snake River now officially known as Chinese Massacre Cove. After robbing them of every ounce of gold they had, the Chinese were hacked to pieces, and some of their mutilated bodies were found at Lewiston, Idaho, 65 miles downstream.
It is one of the worst acts of vicious hate violence against Chinese in American history. They could have stolen their gold and left the Chinese miners alive since there were few laws around to protect Chinese or their property. But they gunned them down and then mutilated their bodies on top of that. If that isn’t a hate crime, I don’t know what is.
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Not Oprah? What? This can’t be! But no, quite on the contrary, it seems that the richest woman in the world happens to be Wu Yanjun, executive director of Longfor Properties Co., who has a net worth of $6.6 billion. Interestingly enough, most of the wealth amassed by Chinese women seem to happen in the crazy real estate market. And I know that for a fact judging by Shanghai condo prices last time I spoke to my mom whom is a realtor herself. And no, my mom isn’t one of those women. That I know of anyways.
Shopping With GASP!
After nearly two years of stalling, the Red Dawn remake has finally found a distributor willing to take on this film, after MGM emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 and deciding not to release it. FilmDistrict, an independent studio, is finalizing a deal with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
I don’t know what to make of this story about a Chinese mother who has kept her mentally ill son chained up for 23 years. You really don’t think that anyone would ever do something like this, but basically the guy has been living naked in a barn because his mother says that he destroys things. Apparently he was normal until he was seventeen and started setting fire to the house and ripping off his clothes.
Food for thought from the New York Times: The Chinese Premier is meeting with US counterparts and talking as if the US economic smackdown is just a passing phase. Amusingly, this carries a little bit of bias, considering that the Chinese actually own the majority of United States debt and thus wouldn’t want a collapse of US economics since that would make their debt worthless.
“Dad, what language should I take?” asked Number One Son, as he filled out online enrollment forms for high school. “Spanish or Mandarin?”
Indeed, that is a question that others have asked. Nicholas Kristof asked the question in an Op-ed piece, and his answer was Spanish, which was an interesting choice as he and his Chinese American wife both speak Chinese and co-wrote books on China. A contrasting answer would come from Jim Rogers, an American businessman who moved from the US to Singapore and makes sure that his daughters speak Mandarin.
I just caught word that Disney is attempting to make a live-action version of their beloved classic Snow White but this time, it’s going to be set in 19th century China. The plot goes like this: A 19th century Englishwoman who returns to her Hong Kong home for her father’s funeral, only to discover that her stepmother is plotting against her. She escapes to mainland China, finding solace among a rogue band of seven international warriors.
Wait, what?
On board with this really bizarre/really cool idea is Toy Story 3′s Michael Arndt, who is writing the script and Francis Lawrence (I am Legend, Constantine) attached to direct. Apparently, Natalie Portman is rumored to play the starring role but due to her pregnancy, this may be difficult as the role of Snow White apparently is capable of several different fighting styles.
Is this like Snow White meets Seven Samurai but where it’s like a hapless white girl who learns the mystic ancient Chinese ways of kung-fu and defeats the evil stepmother? Why are the warriors “international” as opposed to just being Asian if it’s set in 19th century China? Is Hollywood running out of ideas again, for the 56th time? Where did my brain go?
And more importantly: What are your thoughts in all of this?
Scarlet Chan - Dave Contreras. Permission given for use.
I don’t usually pay attention to reality shows so when it flashed across my Facebook that Scarlet Chan had written something, I thought, “Hey, neato. Let me comment, even though she’ll never read it.”
This is a funny statement coming from a Chinese American girl, but considering her K-Town Reality Show is about a group of Asians hanging out in Koreatown, I could see why people might think that Scarlet would be Korean. But it brought up a perfectly good point: how do Asians identify other Asians? Is this something that white people do in a similar fashion?
Ever hear about how Asians all look alike? I’m sure you have. For Caucasians, defining features that differentiate people are often hair color and eyes; yes, I understand that there are other obvious differences, but on a bigger picture level, that’s what you would look at to identify a person. But Asians all have black hair and black eyes, so that methodology doesn’t quite work out.
But because we have the same color hair and eyes, Asians seem to identify other nationalities with more subtle differences at first glance. Obviously, I haven’t actually done any research into this, and it was just a conversational piece that I had with my wife about identification since usually there are some features that are dominant with certain ethnicities. But back to the question itself: does Scarlet look Korean? And if not, why?
Let’s be honest: This was also a perfect chance to put up a semi-nude shot of Scarlet. Scarlet Chan approved. Boo-yah.
For those that have never really caught it before, yes, I am in an interracial relationship. So understanding quite well that I too am a part of this Pew statistic where one in seven new marriages are interracial or inter-ethnic, I thought it would be fascinating to throw in my two cents on why this is happening instead of speaking on the statistical study itself.
I ran across this a while ago but haven’t had time to look into it further until now. I was searching for a microlending organization that not only was either a write-off or “investment” of sorts, but focused on China. Everything so far that you usually hear about was Kiva this, or Kiva that but they don’t really allow tax deductions.
Enter Wokai.
Wokai actually helps rural entrepreneurs in China start their own businesses. It goes through field partners and gathers information on whether or not this person is successful with repaying their loans. A person that gives to Wokai gets to see the money all the way through three rounds of loans before it goes into Wokai’s long-term fund which I found absolutely gratifying since you are donating money and writing it off, but you also get to pick and choose where it went went, which is a bit more unusual.
While there are many microlending foundations, there really aren’t many that focus on Asia in general (most of them are more Africa based). So finding something that ties back to my heritage was pretty neat to say the least.
As we get fully entrenched in this holiday season, now best known for getting and giving gifts, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss the cultures that have really perfected the art of giving gifts. Asian cultures specifically of course. Fellow blogger Joz and I both had the opportunity to travel back to Taiwan over the recent Thanksgiving holiday. We met up while we were there, and had the opportunity to reflect on the custom of having to bring gifts when visiting Taiwan, and how it always seems we never bring enough of them.
The custom of bringing gifts was instilled in me by my parents. It was partly a matter of “saving face”, as you instinctively know all the relatives you will be visiting will have a gift for you. If I were to have visited Taiwan without bringing appropriate gifts (like mixed nuts, chocolates, and face cream), I’m sure my mother would have turned over in her grave. But even with all my preparation, I still felt unequal to the task at hand. Everyone seemed to have a better, nicer gift to give me or my daughter who accompanied me to Taiwan.
The practice of gift giving in Chinese culture is also firmly planted with my family here in the U.S. I wouldn’t dream of visiting an auntie or uncle here in the states without stopping by a bakery first to pick up a cake or tart to bring along. Now with Christmas so near, I can hear my mom’s admonishments in my head to make sure I have a gift for everyone that comes to our house for Christmas dinner. This thought goes through my head, even though we sent out invites specifically saying there would be no gift exchange for adults in this economic downturn. I also said we were picking names out of a hat to determine who brought the single gift for each child who is coming to dinner. But secretly my mind is insisting I give every niece and nephew their own gift. Having a gift for everyone is so ingrained in my behavior, that I keep a fully stocked gift closet, so that no matter who comes over, I have something to give them.
There was one Christmas I stocked up on large tins of cookies and treats from Costco, so I could give them to my aunties. Each one got a different container, so I knew what I gave everyone. I gave one auntie a large red tin container. Imagine my surprise when on Christmas night, I received back the same container from a different auntie. The re-gifting had gone full circle. I’m not relaying this story to embarrass my aunties, but to show how practical the Chinese can be as well. My own mom, was a champion at re-gifting.
I can’t finish an article on the art of gift-giving without also giving a nod to Japanese culture, which has not only taken gift-giving to an art form, but the practice of wrapping gifts is an art form in Japan as well. So enjoy your holidays, and remember to go forth and gift appropriately.
For those of us growing up in the U.S. with immigrant parents in the seventies and eighties, there was no getting around the fact that the term F.O.B. (Fresh Off the Boat – pronounced letter “F”, letter “O”, letter “B”) was meant to be derogatory, when applied to ourselves, or to our parents. I had no idea, the term has changed in recent times to “fob” (rhymes with rob) and used affectionately as “fobby”. Jeff Yang tackles this topic in a recent article for SFGate. Specifically he writes about two websites, that have gotten a lot of attention in Asian circles, mymomisafob.com and mydadisafob.com. I’ve actually seen the first site, and read through many funny entries.
Yang calls our attention to these sites, not only because they are funny, but because there’s something endearing about them for those of us that have immigrant parents. We love our parents and all their funny quips and sayings. As I said earlier, for those of us of certain age, we’d never actually call them F.O.B., so Yang wanted to know why Teresa Wu and Serena Wu (not related, but creators of the two respective sites), included the “fob” in the title of their websites. It turns out they used the term as “fob”, not “F.O.B.” and referred to their parents as “fobby” in the most endearing way possible. Yang gets some help from another Yang, Gene Yang, to get the explanation for this cultural shift:
[Gene] Yang, who now resides in Fremont, notes that Mission San Jose, the high school Teresa and Serena attended, has one of the most Asian student populations in the nation. “It’s like 80 percent Asian,” he says. “The average SAT scores there are through the roof, and they have no football team, but an absolutely killer badminton team.”
It makes sense that kids growing up in an environment where being Asian is the norm would have a different view of being an immigrant than one where they’re in the minority. “If everyone has immigrant parents, it’s easy to go, ‘Oh, my parents are such fobs’ and feel affectionate toward them, even proud of them,” he says.
I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to wrap my head around calling my own parents “fobby”, but they definitely had their share of “fobby” moments. When my parents bought their first new car ever in 1973, they bought vinyl seat covers to go over the vinyl factory seats. They finally took the seat covers off 13 years later to sell the car. By then the rest of the car was rusted out from too many New York winters, but the seats still looked brand new. I was able to convince my parents in later life that should enjoy the velour in their new car in 1997, rather than wrap the car seats with seat covers, so the next owner could enjoy the seats. I’m curious if anyone else actually uses “fob” and “fobby” endearingly, or do you also think of “F.O.B.” as a derogatory term?
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