Boston Globe: Asian-Americans notch wins in municipal elections

Posted on November 28, 2007 by John

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/images/usa/massachusetts.jpgI was reading the blog Angry Asian Man, and came across The Boston Globe article on “Asian-Americans notch wins in municipal elections.” I’m originally from Massachusetts (as stated in my profile – I grew up in Western Massachusetts), so it was really interesting to read:

“Several Chinese-American politicians won election in Newton, Brookline, and other posts around the region this month, as Asian-Americans made some strides in increasing representation in the area. Paul Watanabe, director of the University of Massachusetts at Boston’s Institute for Asian American Studies, pointed to evidence of a growing trend with the victories on Nov. 6, including in two races in Newton, where Greer Tan Swiston was elected to the Board of Aldermen in Ward 3’s at-large race, and Alderwoman at Large Amy Mah Sangiolo was reelected in Ward 4. Also, Donald H. Wong was elected to the Saugus Board of Selectmen, and then named chairman by the board, and Lisa Wong was elected mayor of Fitchburg. Other Chinese-Americans to win office include Brookline School Committee member Ira Chan and former Brookline School Committee member Terry Kwan. Watanabe said Asian-Americans from other ethnic backgrounds who have also won seats include Sam Yoon, a Korean-American just reelected to a second term on the Boston City Council; Rithy Uong, a Cambodian-American who served on the Lowell City Council; Dean Tran, a Vietnamese-American who just won a second term on the Fitchburg City Council; and Lexington School Committee member Ravi K. Sakhuja and Norfolk Selectman Ramesh Advani, both Indian-Americans. He said the success of those candidates has spurred other Asian-Americans to run, noting for example two Chinese-Americans who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in Quincy this year.”

Massachusetts is about 5% Asian, and a lot of those Asians live in the greater Boston area (for reference: California’s population is about 12.5% Asian). I’ve actually met Sam Yoon a few years ago at a Democratic National Committee Asian-American conference in San Jose, so it was nice to read that he got re-elected. In any case, there are not nearly as large congregations of Asian-Americans in Massachusetts cities as there are in California, so I imagine many of these candidates who got elected are breaking new ground.

When following some November election news, I did come across a Boston Globe’s article on Lisa Wong, 28, winning the Fitchburg mayoral race “Wong romps for mayor in Fitchburg” with over 75% of the vote, becoming the first minority mayor of Fitchburg ever in its 243-year history, defeating a four-term city councilor.

Posted in Current Events, Observations, Politics | 2 Comments

Fresno’s Underground Chinatown

Posted on November 28, 2007 by Lily Huang

The LA Times ran a story about possible tunnels in Fresno’s Chinatown. Urban legend says that there is a system of tunnels under the streets, that extends for blocks and once led to speakeasies and brothels in the late 19th century through World War II. Right now the evidence consists of a recently discovered crawl space, boarded up archways, and oral history from a few survivors of the time when the tunnels would have been active.

In addition to the historical preservation and archaeological aspect of “underground Chinatown,” the article also addresses criticism of the urban legend. Skeptics say that the tunnels are merely “connected basements” and that the tales told abet xenophobia. They cast the Chinese as a “population of undesirables” and make them mysterious. The population of the Fresno Chinatown, founded in 1872, consisted largely of California railroad workers.

This is certainly a concern- one hopes that the tunnels, or whatever one wants to call them, could be used to promote understanding, not engender racism or prejudice. Perhaps the tales could be reframed so as to not be xenophobic. The very idea of xenophobia assumes the point of view of the mainstream looking at the outsider. But what about the outsider looking in- what was it like to be that underground person, what did the world look like from that perspective?

If they do exist, they could be used to illuminate some truth of the times. And there’s something inherently fascinating about tunnels aside from the allure of secrets. One thinks of other things also; of burrowing, of the womb, of the inexhaustible theme of appearance versus reality. At any rate, one hopes that the historical preservationists capture what pieces of the story they can from remaining septuagenarians, rather than let it slip away. It’s a much better one than that of Manhattan Chinatown, where the underground lives today, and is used to cache faux designer handbags.

Posted in Lifestyles | 6 Comments

Who should sculpt MLK Jr?

Posted on November 28, 2007 by Bo

A Chinese artist was selected to sculpt the planned Martin Luther King Jr. tribute in Washington D.C. and now the CA chapter of the NAACP, black artists, and American granite workers are in a xenophobic tizzy. Objectors have taken issue with the fact that 1) Sculptor Lei Yixin is Chinese and not American, 2) He’s Asian and not Black, and 3) He’ll probably use Chinese granite rather than American granite for the project.

A Black artist in Altanta has even gone as far as to create a protest website: www.kingisours.com

“It is disgraceful that there will be a sculpture to honor a black man for his fight against racism in this country and we couldn’t find one black person on earth to interpret his likeness,” Young said. “It is insulting and does not serve my people well. It makes us invisible.

“I do not think that anyone outside of my immediate community should have been looked at first. We need a black artist to interpret Dr. King and a black name at the base of the monument, because he died for us.”

Wasn’t it King who stated that men should not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character?

Of course, memorial controversy is nothing new. People protested the choice of Maya Lin for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Apparently a Chinese-American was thought to be an unsuitable choice at the time. Ironic that the Vietnam Memorial is now one of the most iconic and beloved memorials in our nation’s capital.

I think the choice of Lei Yixin is a tribute to an amazing man who’s message of hope and positive social change reached way beyond the borders of America. Martin Luther King Jr is a global hero and his memorial doesn’t deserve to be sullied by such a parochial assault of narrowminded racism.

Posted in Current Events, Discrimination | 6 Comments

The Sevrano’s: Once living the American Dream

Posted on November 27, 2007 by genghis

The SevranosThis isn’t any new news: Homeland Security has been attempting deport many illegals back to their homelands. And quite frankly they are deporting many who may have fallen through technicalities in the system. Dr. Pedro Servano and his wife received notification the day after the Thanksgiving holiday that they were to pack their bags and be processed for deportation at the Allenwood Federal Prison in Pennsylvania. These aren’t illegal immigrants who crossed the border and have been living secret lives in American society. These are well educated, well-to-do contributors to society who help others in their community and have tried legally to attain citizenship from the U.S. Government.

The Servanos’ offense? They entered the United States in the early 1980s on visas that did not reflect the couple had married since their mothers had completed the pair’s visa applications.

The Servano’s applied for their visas as single when they first entered the U.S. in the early 80’s because they were not married yet. Then in 1987, the couple officially wed and a few years later applied for legal citizenship as a married couple. During the process, an immigration official accused them of having misrepresented their marital status.

The couple have done nothing wrong except that their visa applications wrongly stated they were single, which was true when the applications were submitted, their attorney said.

Dr. Pedro Servano and his wife, Salvacion, obeyed an order to meet with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials in Philadelphia and were told to report back in 60 days, attorney Gregg Cotler said. No deportation date was set, he said.

The couple has attempted to follow all laws and rules by Immigration officials. And now they must wait it out till their fate is decided from a mistake that was made years ago. Support is brewing for the Sevrano’s. Stay tuned for more info…

Posted in Current Events | 6 Comments

Happy Birthday Bruce Lee!

Posted on November 27, 2007 by Mike

Happy Birthday Bruce Lee!

I remember running home from grade school to watch Fist of Fury, Way of the Dragon, and Game of Death as a kid. Then I’d daydream about being a kung fu master and practice my moves on my little brother. Hwah! Hwah! Hwaaah!

Bruce Lee would be 67 years old today. He was born in San Francisco, CA, then raised in Hong Kong, where he learned Chinese martial arts and started making Hong Kong martial arts films.

He also attended the University of Washington from 1960-1963, where he majored in drama major and took some philosophy classes, while working at Ruby Chow’s restaurant (on Broadway and Jefferson). It was here that he met his future wife, Linda Emery.

The students of UW are holding a rally to support a Bruce Lee memorial today, from Noon-1:00pm on the campus’ Red Square. The memorial would include a statue of Bruce Lee, which “could potentially be the best statue ever.” Heh. (BTW, the photo featured here is the statue of Bruce Lee in Hong Kong).

I wasn’t able to find any celebratory events for Bruce Lee in San Francisco though. So in lieu of that, here’s my birthday song to the master:

Happy birthday to you,
You have awesome kung fu,
You totally kicked Chuck Norris’ ass,
And Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s too!

Happy Birthday Bruce Lee!

(Hat tip: George Kelly)
(Photo credit: Sandy Leung)

Posted in Current Events, Sports | 8 Comments

activist imagination. & irrelevant side notes.

Posted on November 27, 2007 by tincan

activist imaginationin what could be considered a response to (or therapy for dealing with) the myth/existence of the apathetic asian american*, the venerable Kearny Street Workshop (an asian pacific american arts nonprofit based in san francisco) is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, and one of its 35th anniversary programs, Activist Imagination, kicks off tonight at the Manilatown Center International Hotel in San Francisco’s chinatown. Wah! how exciting.

as an arts organization, KSW is rooted in activism, and the Activist Imagination program is recognizing that history while also inviting a group of visual artists, as well as activists and other community members, to consider the past and present of activism, and imagine (hence the imagination part of the program’s title….) forms of activism that might hold relevance and be effective in the future. the full AI program runs tonight through may 2008, and includes a series of discussions as well as a visual arts exhibition at KSW’s space180 in SF’s mission district. Tonight’s event is a discussion focusing on the last three and a half decades of activism–quite a broad area, but it’s an impressive line up of panelists–nancy hom, oscar penaranda, min paek, and alison satake–so i think they will tackle the subject matter admirably, with enthusiasm & precision. The event is free, as are all the AI events, and the full description is here; information on the full AI program is here.

Also, in true APA spirit, they’ve started a blog about the program. Viva the APA bloggers. and APA activists.

*asterisked note to my own post–when you google “apathetic asian,” what should come up first? a february 2007 post from 8asians‘ own.

**mystery double-asterisk not referencing any particular point in my post: have ‘a-p-a’ ALways been the first three letters of the word ‘apathetic’? why have i not noticed this before? now i can go around saying “[insert name of asian-american-person-to-be-insulted here] puts the APA in apathetic.” we ALL can.

anyway, that was an irrelevant side note. yay irrelevant side notes.

Posted in Current Events, Entertainment, Politics | Leave a comment

A Day Without Asian Immigrants

Posted on November 26, 2007 by Bo

The 2004 movie “A Day Without a Mexican” took a comical look at what would happen if all Mexican immigrants up and disappeared overnight.  As you might imagine, much dismay and hilarity ensued.  The US economy comes to a grinding halt and good ‘ol boys are shown desperately beseeching Mexicans to return to the US to take their righful place as the lowest men on the economic totem pole.

If this New York Times article about the impact of immigrants on the economy of New York State is correct, fiction may be closer to the truth than many Republican law makers might want to admit.

In the suburbs north and east of [New York City], about 4 of every 10 doctors and more than one-fourth of college professors were foreign-born, the study by the private Fiscal Policy Institute found. In upstate New York, where just 5 percent of residents are foreign-born, immigrants accounted for about one-fifth of the professors and more than one-third of the doctors, according to the study. 

How much do you want to bet that the vast majority of those doctors and professors are East and Southeast Asian immigrants? 

This research is another piece of data to refute what I feel is an entirely misguided and and unjustified immigration debate.  While most of the debate is consumed by discourse on the negative impact of illegal [mostly Mexican] immigrants (which is debatable), law makers and regular joes forget about the positive, rejuvinating impact of legal, often highly educated immigrants (like yours truly!).

Three cheers to our good health…and the foreign-born immigrants who ensure it remains that way!   

Posted in Current Events, Politics | 8 Comments

NPR: Vietnamese-Owned Pot ‘Grow Houses’ Flourish in Pacific Northwest

Posted on November 26, 2007 by John

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/marijuana-leaf.jpgI’m a big fan of National Public Radio (NPR), and heard this piece in the car while driving home tonight: “Pot ‘Grow Houses’ Flourish in Pacific Northwest” which discussed the growing trend of “grow houses” – growing marijuana indoors, found in neighborhoods around the country, but becoming especially common in the Pacific Northwest — particularly in the suburbs of Seattle.

The most interesting part of this story relevant to 8Asians is:

“Largely Run by Vietnamese Immigrants – Peter Truong is a community service officer for the sheriff’s department in Seattle. He speaks Chinese and Vietnamese — also spoken by most of the people busted in grow houses around Seattle. Truong is constantly being called in by local police departments for help questioning the people arrested in the grow houses. “A couple of weeks ago, I turn my cell phone off, my home phone off, because I got so tired,” Truong says. Truong immigrated to the United States in 1975 and has worked with the sheriff’s department for 20 years. He says the people who live in grow houses tend to come from Vietnamese communities in other places — often Massachusetts and Vancouver, Canada. They’re recruited by the grow operation owners to tend the plants, and they’re told to keep a low profile in the suburban neighborhoods where the houses are located. “They live normal life,” Troung says, adding, “Really polite. You never know what inside.” Truong says the only tell-tale sign he’s noticed is the rash that people get when they tend the plants. He guesses it’s caused by the chemicals, or some other side effect of living in close quarters with hundreds of marijuana plants.”

I wonder how well rooted in fact this reporting is….As I had posted last week, there is a large Vietnamese-American population in San Jose. I wonder if the trend is similar in the Bay Area?

Posted in Current Events, Observations | Leave a comment

Asian American Mental Health Services

Posted on November 25, 2007 by Mike

The winter holidays are coming. This means lots of holiday jingles, gift shopping, and family reunions (like this past Thursday). For many, it also means stress, loneliness, anxiety, depression, and even suicide.

There’s already been a fair amount written on the topic of Asian American mental health issues, so I won’t go into how and why these issues are so prevalent (a list of Asian American mental health articles is listed at the end of the post). Instead, I’d like to talk about how you can find help.

So far, I’ve come up with three main sources of help: friends & family, mental health professionals, and online forums. Mental health professionals are the best source, though they are the most expensive of the three. But if you can manage to find a good mental health professional, it will be well worth it.

Whichever path you choose, that first step is the most important one. Once you take it, you’ll be that much closer to removing those awful feelings. Good luck!

Friends and Family

Friends and family can be a source of help. Having a strong and trusted circle of friends is healthy, as they can provide emotional and social support.

Unfortunately for some people, these sources aren’t always reliable. You may not have many friends you feel you can turn to, or your family may be the foundation of your frustrations. They also aren’t trained professionals and their advice can be misleading or even damaging. If that’s the case for you, consider experienced mental health professionals instead.

Mental Health Professionals

Finding the right mental health professional can be a daunting endeavor. For Asian Americans, there are cultural and language considerations, in addition to the financial considerations. Cultural considerations include needing a professional who understand one’s own culture (both from an immigrant and an American-born standpoint) and fighting the stigma of discussing family & personal issues with a stranger. The language considerations are obvious. Financial considerations can be especially difficult for immigrants without health insurance.

Most of the mental health programs and professionals I’ve found are located in coastal metropolitans such as New York City and the California Bay Area. Services do exist within the rest of the US as well, though information on them is a little sparse.

Many mental health professionals accept HMO and private insurance. You can also pay out of pocket. The fees typically range anywhere from $50 – $200/session, though many offer sliding fees that can be adjusted based on your income.

If you know of other good sources, please let me know!

Asian-American Mental Health Directory

This service provides listings of mental health professionals in the California Bay Area. It allows you to search by the type of service and by language preferred. Then it displays the professional’s contact info and typical fees, though many seem to be flexible with their prices.

NY Coalition for Asian American Mental Health

This is a list of mental health professionals and programs in New York City. Many of the private practice providers listed (the pychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers) offer sliding fees to adjust to your financial situation; many accept HMO and private insurance also. Languages spoken are also provided.

Asian LifeNet

This is a free telephone hotline available 24/7 to individuals in the New York City area. The number is 1-877-990-8585 and they can help with a wide range of issues, including family difficulties; depression, anxiety, bipolar, & panic disorders; and drug & alcohol abuse.

National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association

This service provides a listing of mental health professionals across the US, though its search interface isn’t as easy to use as the others. On the Search Listing page, you can just enter in the information you need and leave the rest blank. Basic contact info and languages spoken are provided for each professional; they don’t list their fees unfortunately.

Mental Health Online Forums

Online forums can also be helpful if there aren’t any Asian American mental health programs or professionals in your area. None targeted specifically for the Asian American community, however.

Like friends and family, online forums can only provide so much help; the respondents aren’t trained professionals and their advice can be misleading. Still, they are a good alternative since they can provide a network of support. But as soon as you feel a particular forum is becoming unhelpful or even abusive, leave it immediately.

If you know of other good forums, please let me know!

Mental Health News Articles

General

Children

Women

Elderly

Posted in Health, Lifestyles | Tagged | 2 Comments

On the Angry Asian Trend

Posted on November 25, 2007 by Lily Huang

Angry Asian Man blurbed a CBC article about the trend of the angry Asian man. (The article is about the emerging image of the angry Asian man, not about Phil Yu’s site which is coincidentally but not irrelevantly named Angry Asian Man.) The news article cites a variety of evidences, including Seung-Hui Cho, Shortcomings, and Harold and Kumar.

Much of this would be more accurately named discontent or something else, but for dramatic purposes, ‘anger’ suffices. And movements are more powerful when grouped together to make a trend. Here’s another to add to the collection, though it comes from Japan rather than the US — that angry look in much of Yoshitomo Nara’s art. The character depicted in his paintings also convey the feeling of the child- being a small person or just someone who is viewed as relatively powerless, yet who has internal potential and thoughts roiling in their head.

Nara’s art takes into account this other side – niceness, congeniality, emphasis on providing goodwill. I think the anger is the backlash to some broken or frustrated aspect of this circulating generosity. And though no one would write articles about him, there’s also the too-nice Asian man. The closest I’ve come to seeing it is travel articles about how nice the Thai family was to take them in even though they hardly knew them. There is one in the current issue of the New Yorker, “Wheels of Fortune,” in which the author gets in a lot of car accidents and doesn’t pay for any of them because the car rental man smiles and says it’s okay.

Posted in Lifestyles | Leave a comment

UC adopts ‘Count Me In’ application proposal

Posted on November 24, 2007 by John

I read in The San Jose Mercury News online today in “UC adopts ‘Count Me In’ application proposal” that:

“The University of California will revamp its undergraduate application to find out more about the Pacific Rim students who have become UC’s dominant face. Next year’s application will expand the number of Asian-American and Pacifichttp://www.lanl.gov/news/albums/logos/UC_Color_Logo.jpg Islander categories to 23 – a nearly threefold increase from the current eight categories. The ethnic identification will continue to be optional and will not figure into admissions decisions, administrators said…The effort will help the university track groups that have not been adequately studied, such as Hmong and Samoan students, he said…Studies have shown that students from several southeast Asian countries 1/3 including Laos and Cambodia – are not as likely to attend college as those from Asian countries with more developed higher-education systems….”

That’s the challenge and irony of trying to unite under the category of “Asian-American” (and Pacific Islander) – for any ethnic group to have a voice, one needs numbers. Yet, those united numbers can also mask the differences in an uber-group.

What really struck me from the article was this statistic though:

“The number of Asian-Americans has surpassed white students in the UC system. On some campuses, such as Berkeley and Irvine, the numbers are overwhelming. Irvine has about twice as many Asian-American undergraduates as white students, and hundreds more Asian-American students than whites attend UC Berkeley.”

As someone who grew up in Western Massachusetts and as one of a handful of Asian-Americans amongst a mostly Caucasian student body, and an undergraduate university in upstate New York where Asian-Americans made up 15% of the students, the thought of Asian-Americans outnumbering Caucasian students (or any ethnicity for that matter) is sort of mind blowing. As I have said before, only in California…(and of course, Hawaii)

Posted in Current Events, Observations | 2 Comments

YouTube Fridays: Che’nelle (and other urban artists)

Posted on November 21, 2007 by Ernie

Okay, it’s not Friday, but the day before Thanksgiving counts as a Friday in my work world. After flipping through radio stations, I came across “I fell in love with the dj” by Malaysian born Australian artist Che’nelle. This raggaeton song is familiar to me because while I was in Tokyo a month or two ago, it was getting major promotion and was #4 on the charts in Japan:

Hella catchy beat (and some four-to-the-floor dance remixes) aside, she hasn’t been made much of a dent in the U.S. Billboard charts. According to a PR Release, Adrienne Lau’s “Magic Tricks” was technically the first Chinese American to enter the Billboard Hot Singles chart, but besides her MySpace page, I don’t have much information about her. Her official website reveals that she’ll be singing the Pop version of the Beijing Olympics theme song. (No wikipedia entry or video on YouTube? Really? Seriously?)

Which leads me to the following question – will there ever be a major Asian or Asian-American artist on mainstream Top 40 radio? The last single I could remember on radio was CoCo Lee’s 1999 hit, “Do You Want My Love” – other attempts by Hikaru Utada didn’t do so well. I mean, it’s not for a lack of talent: R&B A Capella group At Last made the finals of America’s Got Talent, and J-Pop artist Crystal Kay has a mighty fine song called Kirakuni, although never released in the U.S. So what’s the deal? Bad marketing? Wrong A&R? Or is there just no market for Asians in the United States?

Posted in Entertainment | 15 Comments