iLL-Literacy

I decided to look up iLL-Literacy after watching that hilarious but very truthful YouTube video about Ethnic Makeup in class. iLL-Literacy is a group made up of poets, emcees, and individuals just like us who have the mission to say something to people who want to listen and send the message out about their views. This group is made up of Ruby Veridiano-Ching, Adriel Luis, Dahlak Brathwaite, and Nico Cary, who all have a say in their own rights. They have toured many places around the world in order to spread their wisdom through many mediums such as singing, rapping, and hip-hop. Wherever they go, iLL-Literacy has made a huge impact on audiences everywhere. Their talent has caught the attention of many broadcast stations such as MTV and poetry television shows.

iLL-Literacy makes lots of videos that can be accessed on YouTube. One such video that I watched is named No Fly Zone- On Being Biracial. In this video, Nico Cary and Adriel Luis perform a social experiment at UC Berkeley and its Asian American student organizations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGXr1Y6YPEo

So the basic idea about the video is that Nico Cary is half black and half Chinese, and he says that his appearance makes him look Filipino to others. He tests out whether or not Asian American student organizations at UC Berkeley will flier him to join Asian American student organizations, since he has never been given a flier once in his five years of attending UC Berkeley. So he sets off to visit the Asian American student organization booths and at the end, he does not get a single flier from an Asian American student organization but only gets fliers from other non-Asian American related organizations. There is a control in the experiment that apparently looks more Asian than Nico who sets off to visit the Asian American student organization booths and at the end, he gets a flier from every single student organization.

This video shows viewers that your appearance plays a large role in what others think of what ethnicity you are. For bi-racials, they are often discriminated because they are of two ethnicities, and yet they look like another ethnicity that is not related to their ethnicities. People do not accept others based on their looks instead of actually getting to know them first. There is no equality since it is the person’s interest to join the student organization, and the idea should not be that they should not be given a flier based on their appearances. I thought that this was very interesting but I knew that it was true. You rarely see people who do not look like the majority of their peers in student organizations, such as a Filipino in a Chinese American group.

The Dim Sum of All Things

Kim Wong Kelter's novel, The Dim Sum of All Things, explores what it like to be Asian, American, female, and the struggle to find a balance between the three worlds.

The main character, Lindsey Owyang, starts off by complaining how her last name sounded so Chinese, and how the kids at school would mock the way it's pronounced. She has to go to Chinese school and American school. While she does well in American school., she does poorly in Chinese school. She does not seem to know a lot about her own Chinese ancestry, but has pride in being who she is. Her parents don't seem to support her interest in their background culture, but she still tries to connect with her "Pau Pau," which is Grandma in Chinese, through culture. The book shows her growth as her bond with her Pau Pau strengthens, and she learns more about herself and everything around her.

She is always critical when Caucasians like Asian things, especially Asian women, whom she dubs "Hoarders of All Things Asian." She is so skeptical of them that she created her own theory about these men and is always trying to see whether they fit her categorization or not. Most of the time, they do.

Lindey works with a magazine that makes sure its employees do not eat meat. She finds out that her co-worker actually likes her and realizes that she likes him back. When she gets to know him more, she notices he has all the symptoms of being a Hoarder! This is when she starts to rethink what makes a Hoarder, and what she really wants.

Kaiser Permanente San Francisco International Dragon Boat Frestival

This past weekend, on October 4 & 5, I participated in the 13th Annual Kaiser Permanente San Francisco International Dragon Boat Festival held at Treasure Island! It was a long and tiring weekend waking up at 6 in the morning and leaving at 4 in the afternoon on both days, but none the less a fun and eventful weekend filled with racing, watching cultural performances, eating, sleeping, and other fun activities! In this two day event, over 100 dragon boat teams and 3,000 dragon boat paddlers from across North America came out to Treasure Island to race the 500 and 300 meter course.

You're probably wondering, what is dragon boat? Dragon boat originated in China over 2,300 years ago and is now one of the fastest growing sports in the world. I have been dragon boating for almost four years now and this is a sport that really depends on teamwork. It is the key to succeeding in this sport. There are 20 paddlers in a boat, ten on each side, and each and every paddlers should be in time with the paddler in front, behind, and next to them, so if someone was watching from the side line it should look like one big paddle going in and out of the water at the exact same time. As I stated above, the race course is either 500 or 300 meters, and yes it sounds like a long course, but once your adrenaline starts pumping at the start line and once you start paddling you just have the urge to keep going until you reach the finish line. It doesn't even feel like 500 meters!

Other than racing or watching the races, there was many forms of entertainment. For those who wanted to sit and relax, cultural performances were being performed on stages which included Chinese Acrobatics, Lion Dancing, Filipino Folk Dace, Taiko Drumming, Hawaiian/Tahitian Dance and much more. For children, there was a children's area called "Dragon Land" were arts and crafts were made. Or, for everyone, there were a number of food vendors and community booths advertising and handing out free stuff!

Not to be stereotypical, but it's true and I do it too. When there is free stuff being handed out most of the people in line are Chinese people. Chinese are known for being cheap because we do any to get free stuff even if it means waiting in line for hours... if its free it doesn't matter what it is we get it! There were endless lines of Chinese people trying to get all the free stuff they could. And I am proud to say that I was one of them. Fourteen free pens, a free car visor, a free nalgene bottle, a free draw string bag, a free tote bag, I could go on and on, but that is what I did during my down time between races. It helped make time go by faster. :)

Over all, despite waking up at 6 in the morning, I had an eventful and cultural day. Usually, I don't pay attention the the Cultural performances, but this year, thinking about my Asian American Culture class, I actually watched a few performances and experienced the different kinds of Asian American Culture out there especially how the style of dance in each culture is expressed differently. I can't wait till next year!

Reflections on Dim Sum

Right off the bat, Lindsey Owyang (the main character) is my kind of girl! Didn't remind me too much of myself, but enough to laugh and say, "I know what you mean girl!” The Dim Sum of all things by Kim Wong Keltner had me agreeing one way or another with every page flipped over.

First things first, Keltner addressed the historic puzzler for all Asian women, what is it with guys that are into Asians? I’ve asked a couple of my non-Asian friends before and I remember them saying it has to do with being different – foreign – exotic. I always thought that was the role of European models, but they also said the food, culture and “cuteness” Asian Girls have blind them into a trance. “You guys are great looks, book smarts, obedience, great food, and exciting history all in this little cute package that I wanna take home, keep forever, and show everybody!” my friend B said. I guess it goes the same for Asian girls and white guys. Lindsey and Michael’s relationship cracks me up because she’s so innocent and oblivious to relationships that she doesn’t know how to properly act when it comes to Michael. But that’s how it is for most girls, but the whole “white thing” – I gotta admit, I’m like that too. Difference is exciting, new, and something that keeps you wanting to learn more about it. I mean, all my life I’ve been surrounded by Filipinos and dating other Filipinos is too familiar and is like dating a family member. So why white guys instead of other Asians or other races? “American” is what we strive to be right?! When it all comes down to it, we long for achieving that “American Dream.” It’s like searching for acceptance because we are different, and it’s not like being with some white guy will ultimately give us that, but in a sense it’s the chance at really feeling American, and that is what attracts us Asian women to white guys – for me at least, despite their ways of cuteness.

The book also reflected upon interracial relationships. With Lindsey’s cousin Stephanie, she marries Mike who is white and her father didn’t talk to her for months because of that. Why is that? Most parents, as done mine, teach their children to love and give love – they never specified to whom and what race – why now when Stephanie brings home a white man? Was it seen as disrespectful? Or was it a personal hate integrated within her father? Either way, I wouldn’t know how that mindset would continue up until now. This is still something that perplexes me, as well as Lindsey.

Aspects of AA

AA culture was not strongly recognized in the past,
AA culture is composed of family, food, friends, and any other aspects that represent our heritage,
AA culture will be taken up by those who care about their ethnic makeup, which expresses who we are and is a mix of numerous aspects of culture and heritage.

AA food was constantly shaped throughout history,
AA food is a unique representation of each particular AA group,
AA food will be always reminding us about how important food is for our culture.

AA art was expressed through ancient paintings, sculptures, and writings, historical, valuable pieces of treasure that stood against the challenge of time,
AA art is a message to audiences that displays views and aspects of AA culture,
AA art will be allowing more AA to step up to the plate to express themselves more clearly.

AAS was not originally taught to college students in the past,
AAS is all about teaching and informing students about their own identity,
AAS will be reaching out to society if students voice their own beliefs of what they think of themselves as being part of an Asian American society and inform others.

AA family was very tight-knit in the native country,
AA family is a key role when celebrating traditional holidays,
AA family will support each other when times are rough.

Lap-POP!

This year is the 10^th annual APATURE, and I attended Lap-POP! on Sunday, September 21, 2008. It consisted of blog readings, story telling, and video clips from many artists, some of which were made famous from the internet.

We listened to a story told by Annie Koh, who was born in Chicago and now lives in Seoul. She said she loves telling other people’s stories more than her own. She told us about how life in Korea is different than life in America; most importantly, the nightlife. Many places in Seoul are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, while here in San Francisco, you will be lucky if you even find a 24/7 restaurant. I always wondered what it would be like to live somewhere with nightlife because it sounds great to not have to worry about a place closing.

We also had Hasan Minhaj, a stand-up comedian, grace our presence. He has performed at numerous places, including Punchline and is the next up-and-coming comic to watch. He joked about race, which we all need to do, because it is taken way too seriously. Even though he’s a comedian and is trying to make us laugh, a lot of the ideas he put out was true, like how Indian isn’t put on one of those forms that tell you to bubble in your ethnicity, but Alaskan Native, or some other obscure population is.

Eric Wu has a webpage, where people tell him to make faces depicting the emotions viewers send in, and he didn’t even know he was going to be on APAture, so he didn’t have anything planned. He made the performers compete against each other to try and show the emotion he says best. He cracked up the whole audience, and I would say this was the best part of Lap-POP!

Ernie Hsiung read two entries from his blog, and I really liked the way he wrote it because it’s informal and told like a campfire story, which makes it more interesting.

Min Jung Kim who told us a story about her experience as an Asian American blogger, and how it was like to be recognized in the real world because she used her real name in her blog.

Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami, founders of the site Icanhascheezburger.com, explained how the LOLcats phenomenon came to be. It all started when Eric needed some cheering up because he had a bad day. Kari shows him a funny picture of a cat and Eric thought it was SO BRILLIANT, that he had to post some up with captions as a gag for Kari. What started out as a site just for the two of them because so big that they were begging for more web space all the time, since they were getting thousands of hits on the site per day.

APAture: Lap-POP!

Two Sundays ago (September 21st) I went to Lap-POP!, one of the events in APAture's 10-day lineup. Lap-POP! is a showcase of blogs—each authored by Asian-Americans—and other online media. The first presenter was Annie Koh, whose newly-created website features stories about Korean culture. She is currently working on a project about "taxi driver restaurant" culture (taxi drivers know where good, cheap food are served). Next up was Hasan Minhaj, who was named an "up-and-coming comic to watch" by NBC. His stand-up routine consisted of jokes about race, what he would if he was rich (he would wear a cape), race, Kanye West, and...race. After this hilarious performance, Eric Wu of Eric Conveys an Emotion hopped onstage and admitted that he had nothing prepared. After explaining the creation of his website, he invited all the presenters to the stage for an impromptu face-off contest. This type of thing is better viewed than read, so here a few of the shots I took:






(Watch Office Space if you don't know what that is.)
The next presenter (and face-off winner) was Ernie Hsiung, who read two entries from his blog. He asked the audience which they wanted to hear first—sad or funny? Sad was chosen, so he read "Word Association," which describes how he deals with his sister's schizophrenia. The funny post was "Change it to the Butterflies," detailing the frustrating process of helping his mother obtain access to the Internet to check her email.
After a ten-minute intermission the emcee, Min Jung Kim, talked about her blogging experience before presenting her and Dino Ignacio's film, BA-AME. It starts off with a melancholy voice-over full of metaphors about identity, and, after a couple images of processed Asian food and other Asian-y things, the audience realized that it's a parody, with lines like "I fight with the soul of a dragon with fists up in the air—if dragons had fists" and "So where am I in all of this? Where am I? Would God listen and answer me if I asked Him these questions? Probably doesn't care. He's probably white, anyway." I highly recommend this film; watch it and find out what "BA-AME" stands for!
Up next was Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami, co-founders of the highly popular icanhascheezburger.com, which is a massive collection of LOLcats. The duo explained the creation of their website (started as a joke but later became a blog), the rise to popularity (which led to bandwidth issues and sleep deprivation), and the publication of their book.
Lap-POP! was much different from what I expected, in a good way. Before this event, I didn't know that there were Asian-American bloggers who attracted many readers—just by writing about their personal life and daily musings. Min Jung Kim mentioned that her brother discovered her blog through a colleague in Korea, making me realize how far a voice of one person can be heard on the Internet. I wonder if anyone besides people from our ETHS 210 class will read this blog...