Saturday, February 26, 2011

10 Reasons You Should Attend Banana 2 Tomorrow | DISGRASIAN™


The title says it all. From Disgrasian:

10 Reasons You Should Attend Banana 2 Tomorrow | DISGRASIAN™

But if that doesn't convince you, how about this photo? The bloggers are congregating! JapaneseBallplayers.com Daigo Fujiwara, Nikkei View Gil Asakawa, Angry Asian Man Phil Yu, Adventures in Multicultural Living Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, AARisings Nelson Wong, Dad in a Strange Land Jason Sperber, Joz Joz Joz!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Bananas!! Competition, Community and Banana 2 Blogger Conference | Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

Getting excited for the Banana-2 APIA Bloggers Conference today. So cool to meet everyone in real life. Speaking on a panel re social justice activism with some really cool folks!

Uncovering the Activist in You/Social Media for Social Change
Creator: Edward Hong (of The HanSarang Movement)
Moderator: Keith Kamisugi (of keithpr.com)
Panelists: Jehanzeb Dar (of Muslim Reverie), Frances Kai-Hwa Wang (of Adventures in Multicultural Living), Fatemeh Fakhraie (of Muslimah Media Watch), Marissa Lee (of Racebending), Cynthia Liu (of K12-NN), more TBD
How does one make a difference in the world with only their computer/smartphone at their disposal? Can an everyday person become a social media activist and take the steps to create real, tangible change in this world? Is it even possible? Or is it naive and wishful thinking? In this panel, we will discuss the possibility of this matter and whether or not we can take advantage of the blogging/social media world to make a stand.


Ck this article from Hyphen Magazine:

Ever notice how often API bloggers front-page links to their fellow bloggers? Why do that? Especially in light of topics overlapping?

Don't they worry about competition? Shouldn't they get more possessive about market share?

API bloggers know community doesn't work that way, and I believe that’s why they post links to fellow bloggers. For the variety of spin but also to support one another. Online, it’s not the scoop; it’s the spin. The more varied voices, the more the topics will be talked about. And the more voices, the more we’ll be heard.

The 2nd conference of API bloggers convenes this weekend in LA. Almost sold out and with sponsors attached, Banana has a venue for the third one already slated.


click on link for more: Bananas!! Competition, Community and Banana 2 Blogger Conference | Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

ADVENTURES IN MULTICULTURAL LIVING -- A pair of poems for our children at King School International Night - NAM EthnoBlog

from New America Media's Ethnoblog:

When I asked Crystal’s grandfather if he could write some Chinese calligraphy for King School’s International Night, I naively thought it was just a matter of his putting brush to paper and writing some pretty Chinese characters on red paper.


click on link for more ADVENTURES IN MULTICULTURAL LIVING -- A pair of poems for our children at King School International Night - NAM EthnoBlog

Profile: Writer Frances Kai-Hwa Wang « May-lee Chai's Blog


Lucky me! I got to meet and have lunch with my virtual BFF, Dragon Chica author May-Lee Chai this week, even more beautiful and lively in person than she is online. A perfect birthday. May-Lee writes about our wonderful day together, finally meeting in real life, on her blog. My side coming in my Sunday column.

click on link for more: Profile: Writer Frances Kai-Hwa Wang « May-lee Chai's Blog

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Adventures in Multicultural Living: A pair of poems for our children at King School International Night - AnnArbor.com

When I asked Crystal’s grandfather if he could write some Chinese calligraphy for King School’s International Night, I naively thought it was just a matter of his putting brush to paper and writing some pretty Chinese characters on red paper.

My job was to get a long roll of red paper from the art teacher and send it home on the school bus with little kindergartener Crystal. That I knew how to do. I wrapped it up tight in a clear plastic trash bag to safely school bus- and kindergartner-proof it. The paper was taller than she was.

I did not even think about what Crystal’s grandfather should write, other than a Chinese New Year’s poetry couplet or dui lian, from the Chinese New Year’s tradition of paired door hangings to protect the household and express wishes for the new year — usually something about family and fortune and long life. I explained to Crystal’s grandfather the sort of place King School was and all our hopes and dreams for King School’s International Night, “Bringing us together. Celebrating our diversity.”

Even then, I did not really understand, and I sort of imagined him looking something up from a giant book of poems, with that thin almost translucent Chinese paper.

The next thing I knew, he had composed two nine-word verses for us in a pocket-sized spiral notebook, the children described as a garden of multihued flowers.

click on link for more A pair of poems for our children at King School International Night - AnnArbor.com

Monday, February 14, 2011

ADVENTURES IN MULTICULTURAL LIVING -- Working off different calendars. Is it Lunar New Year's or Valentine's? - NAM EthnoBlog

My girlfriend Nina once complained when she had to have dinner with some university bigwig…on Valentine’s Day. She was indignant, incensed. It was Valentine’s Day, for goodness sake. I barely even registered her complaint, my mind completely overwhelmed by my overload of Chinese New Year’s events. I thought it might be nice to have dinner with that particular university bigwig, and I gave her a message to relay. I could not understand why she stomped off in a huff.

We were working off different calendars, I suppose.

click on link for more: ADVENTURES IN MULTICULTURAL LIVING -- Working off different calendars. Is it Lunar New Year's or Valentine's? - NAM EthnoBlog

Sunday, February 13, 2011

ADVENTURES IN MULTICULTURAL LIVING Working off different calendars. Is it Lunar New Year's or Valentine's?

My girlfriend Nina once complained when she had to have dinner with some university bigwig…on Valentine’s Day. She was indignant, incensed. It was Valentine’s Day, for goodness sake. I barely even registered her complaint, my mind completely overwhelmed by my overload of Chinese New Year’s events. I thought it might be nice to have dinner with that particular university bigwig, and I gave her a message to relay. I could not understand why she stomped off in a huff.

We were working off different calendars, I suppose.

Last year, I attended a Chinese New Year’s event on the first Sunday in February. About halfway through the evening, Little Brother, then 6, and all the high school boys he had been following, disappeared. I found them all down the hall at the information desk, watching the Super Bowl together, Little Brother’s feet swinging back and forth. I laughed to myself at the realization that this big event was scheduled on the day of the Super Bowl because no one on the organization committee — likely all immigrants who did not grow up watching football — either knew or thought it was important (No wonder so many of the non-Asian dignitaries and special guests had to leave early for “previous engagements”).

Interesting how we learn about each other through the differences in our calendars.

click on link for more Working off different calendars. Is it Lunar New Year's or Valentine's? - AnnArbor.com

Sunday, February 6, 2011

AML: A snow day for Lunar New Year's Eve: Auspicious dreams and Korematsu Day - AnnArbor.com

Posted: Feb 6, 2011 at 6:12 AM [Today]

Some people believe that whatever happens on the first day of the lunar new year portends what is to come in the new year, which is why some superstitious folks do not scold their children, let their children cry, or argue on the first day of the new year—or else they will be scolding, crying, or arguing all year.

My kids are hoping the snow day gets extended into the new year, “Snow Day! Snow Day! Snow Day!”

On the western new year’s day, January 1, many people make new year’s resolutions for what they are going to do better in the new year—lose ten pounds, exercise more, Facebook less, lose ten pounds.

Lunar new year’s does not have the same custom, but we do reflect on our hopes and dreams for the coming year while cooking and eating lunar new year’s eve dinner. The meanings are embedded in the names of the dishes, the wishes made manifest in the cooking and eating.

Losing weight is not one of them.

click on link for more A snow day for Lunar New Year's Eve: Auspicious dreams and Korematsu Day - AnnArbor.com

Thursday, February 3, 2011

AML So what’s the big deal about sleepovers, anyhow? | InCultureParent

On my 16th birthday, a blond classmate was shocked to discover that I would not also, automatically, be allowed to date.

“But it’s a Constitutional right that you are allowed to date when you turn 16.”

The other three Asian American girls in my class and I all looked at each other. None of us were allowed to date until college. It was a distraction from our studies, a waste of time, danger. “You are not going to marry anyone you date in high school, so what is the point?” my mother asked.

The thing is, although my non-Asian friends thought my parents were soooo traditional, conservative, and unfair, actually, my parents thought they were being incredibly liberal.

click on link for more So what’s the big deal about sleepovers, anyhow? | InCultureParent

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

AML: "The Train to my Home Town" shown by U of M Center for Chinese Studies - AnnArbor.com

Posted: Jan 31, 2011 at 6:14 AM [Today]

Every year at Chinese New Year’s (also called the Spring Festival), 130 million Chinese migrant workers try to go home to see their families, their children, their homes. The difficulties of this mass migration are evident in the photos of the doughy man who stripped to his underwear in frustration last week when tickets to his hometown sold out instantly despite the fact that he was third in line and had spent the night at the railway station. The photos became an internet sensation in China, in no small part because of the gross indifference of the railway officer texting away and smoking a cigarette.

Maybe what he needed was a pair of Voltron boxer shorts: Form Blazing Sword!

The Train to my Home Town, a documentary film by Ai Xiaoming, reveals a darker side of Chinese New Year’s and will be shown by the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies on Saturday, Feb. 12, 7 p.m. in Auditorium A, Angell Hall, 435 S. State St., Ann Arbor.

click on link for more "The Train to my Home Town" shown by U of M Center for Chinese Studies - AnnArbor.com