Learning about Christmas and Santa through the claymation classics-Adventures in Multicultural Living - NAM EthnoBlog

Asian American journalist Lisa Ling once said onThe View that as a child she thought Santa liked Caucasian children better than Chinese children because he always left much better and bigger gifts, like stereos, for her Caucasian friends, whereas he only left small gifts, like batteries and toothbrushes, in her stocking. When I heard that, it was as if I was hearing silver bells. I always got batteries and toothbrushes in my stocking, too. I had grown up thinking that gifts from Santa always had to be small in order to fit inside the stocking.

It was not until I was in my 30’s that I discovered that some people received gifts from Santa that not only spilled out of their stockings, but covered the floor and piled up as high as the Christmas tree. Some people did not even bother hanging up stockings by the chimney with care, as they knew their gifts would be bigger than that. Is that allowed?

click on link for more: Learning about Christmas and Santa through the claymation classics-Adventures in Multicultural Living - NAM EthnoBlog

Chicago is the World » Learning about Christmas and Santa through the claymation classics and Oh! Oshogatsu!–Adventures in Multicultural Living

oops these were supposed to go up in December and January.

Chicago is the World » Learning about Christmas and Santa through the claymation classics–Adventures in Multicultural Living

Chicago is the World » Oh! Oshogatsu! Missing Japanese New Year’s Day–Adventures in Multicultural Living

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Racism in the Extended Family on the Holidays | InCultureParent

The Sunday after Thanksgiving: The day we pack up, gratefully drive back to our own home in our own town with our own way of doing things, and are stuck in the car together for hours and have no choice but to talk to each other. It is a time to reflect on the (peculiar) people we met and the (wacky) things that happened, and it is a chance to talk to the kids about what is really important to us as a family. I call it the post-holiday debriefing (and I recommend this in my Multicultural Toolbox workshops as one strategy for combating racism and intolerance in the extended family).

click on link for more: Racism in the Extended Family on the Holidays | InCultureParent

Thanksgiving … Asian-fied! (a round-up of blog posts and newspaper stories) | Northwest Asian Weekly |

Thanks to Northwest Asian Weekly for including not one but two of my articles in their Asian-fied Thanksgiving roundup!

Thanksgiving … Asian-fied! (a round-up of blog posts and newspaper stories) | Northwest Asian Weekly |

How to make Hawaii-style barbecue (teriyaki) sauce. A recipe. by Derek Paiva | HAWAII Magazine

Our Thanksgiving Eve teriyaki turkey with homemade teriyaki sauce and 12 treasure sticky rice stuffing an unexpected success. I shouldn't brag, but I'm so surprised! Here's the recipe for the teriyaki sauce that I discovered this summer in the book, Kau Kau:

How to make Hawaii-style barbecue (teriyaki) sauce. A recipe. by Derek Paiva | HAWAII Magazine | Hawaii news, events, places, dining, travel tips & deals, photos | Oahu, Maui, Big Island, Kauai, Lanai, Molokai: The Best of Hawaii

LifeLong Learning @ WCC ›› Writing & Literature

Teaching two writing classes at Washtenaw Community College next term: Writing Ethical Wills--a Love Letter to your Family, and Writing with Style--Finding your Voice. Full descriptions and Registration information here: LifeLong Learning @ WCC › Browse All Classes › Writing & Literature

Distant Relatives versus Nearby Friends on Thanksgiving - NAM EthnoBlog

My parents say that there is a Chinese saying (there is always a Chinese saying) about how distant relatives are not as good as nearby friends. To illustrate, they recall the time our car broke down on the winding and treacherous Pacheco Pass after midnight and how our neighbor, Mr. Shigematsu, came to rescue us and did not get home until after 2 a.m. Our relatives in distant Los Angeles or San Francisco could not have done anything to help because they were too far away.

click on link for more: Distant Relatives versus Nearby Friends on Thanksgiving - NAM EthnoBlog

Friends vs Relatives on Thanksgiving | Adventures in Multicultural Living | InCultureParent

My parents say that there is a Chinese saying (there is always a Chinese saying) about how distant relatives are not as good as nearby friends. To illustrate, they recall the time our car broke down on the winding and treacherous Pacheco Pass after midnight and how our neighbor, Mr. Shigematsu, came to rescue us and did not get home until after 2 a.m. Our relatives in distant Los Angeles or San Francisco could not have done anything to help because they were too far away.

Thanksgiving is a time of feasting and family, and people are traveling, cooking and cleaning like mad, trying to get to their families for four brief days. Because many of my children’s friends are from international families and do not have extended family close by, I like to gather up all our friends and celebrate “Thanksgiving Eve” the night before with a big potluck of what turns out to be the most amazing spread of foods from around the world — teriyaki turkey, sticky rice stuffing, butternut squash Thai curry, chicken biriyani, babaganoush, tabbouli, lasagna, shrimp and broccoli, mangoes and black sticky rice, Thai pumpkin custard and more.

click on link for more: Frances Kai-Hwa Wang | InCultureParent

Thanks Angry Asian Man and USF APA Students for making my day!!

great twitter exchange yesterday, Angry Asian Man is the best!

fkwang Frances Kai-Hwa Wang
signing out for now @JusticeConf see you next year in chicago #ajc2011 i'm off to talk to USF students about cultivating APA identity!
28 Oct

JusticeConf Advancing Justice
@fkwang Thanks for coming out here and happy travels! Loved hearing your thoughts on the social media panel yesterday.
28 Oct

angryasianman Angry Asian Man
@fkwang Lucky USF students!
28 Oct

apascusf APASC
Yes we are! RT: @angryasianman: @fkwang Lucky USF students!
28 Oct

Speaking at University of San Francisco Friday Oct 28

check out this great flyer, I'm a scholar!

Speaking at Advancing Justice Conference in San Francisco, Thursday, October 27

Is There An App For That? Leveraging Social Media for Social Justice

Date: Thursday, October 27th
Time: 11:00am-12:30pm
Place: Spring C
Workshop Track: Capacity Building

Social media is now ahead of email in terms of online activity and accounts for over 10% of user time spent on the Internet. Recognizing that this shift is a powerful vehicle by which to communicate social justice messaging, many nonprofits are using social media to raise funds for their programs, inspire advocacy, and raise awareness. This workshop will address how to leverage social media more effectively, overcome challenges, and draw supporters to their cause.

Speakers: Keith Kamisugi, Director of Communications Equal Justice Society; Bilen Mesfin, Communications Consultant/Principal Change Consulting; Mariam Hosseini, Director of Communications Asian Law Caucus; Frances kai-hwa Wang, Online Communications Chair American Citizens for Justice Advisory Board

http://advancingjustice.org/conference/2011/is-there-an-app-for-that-leveraging-social-media-for-social-justice/

UMS Lobby » Performances for the Whole Family: Filling the master calendar with UMS events

Part of the excitement of coming back to town at the end of summer is collecting all the calendars—Ann Arbor Public School’s holiday and half-day calendar, Huron High School’s band calendar, Clague Middle School’s orchestra calendar, King Elementary School’s PTO calendar, the crew calendar, the soccer calendar, the academic games calendar, University of Michigan’s football calendar, Washtenaw Community College Lifelong Learning calendar, Rec and Ed, Parks and Rec, etc.—whew!—and finally sitting down to map them all out onto one big master calendar in order to see what our year is going to look like.

My favorite calendar to pore over with the kids is the one from University Musical Society (UMS).

click on link for more: UMS Lobby » Performances for the Whole Family: Filling the master calendar with UMS events

Chicago is the World » U-M Center for Chinese Studies Kite Festival and keeping the conversation going | adventures in multicultural living

excerpt: An English teacher at Huron High School used one of my columns to stimulate classroom discussion of a Maya Angelou book they were reading — which was so lively it spilled into a second day, and even more impressive, students who normally never talked in class really got into the discussion.

click on link for more: Chicago is the World » U-M Center for Chinese Studies Kite Festival and keeping the conversation going | adventures in multicultural living

U-M Center for Chinese Studies Kite Festival and Frances' Farewell--let us keep the conversation going - NAM EthnoBlog

The University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. As usual for an academic department, they have all sorts of lectures and films and art exhibits and concerts and performances and colloquia and conferences planned.

click on link for more: U-M Center for Chinese Studies Kite Festival and Frances' Farewell--let us keep the conversation going - NAM EthnoBlog

Adventures in Multicultural Living: U-M Center for Chinese Studies Kite Festival and Frances' Farewell--let us keep the conversation going

The last installment of Adventures in Multicultural Living in AnnArbor.com:

The University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. As usual for an academic department, they have all sorts of lectures and films and art exhibits and concerts and performances and colloquia and conferences planned.

Kicking it all off is the New Millennium East Meets West Kite Festival this Sunday, Sept. 25, 1-5 p.m., at Nichol’s Arboretum. There will be kite-making workshops, kite flying competitions, cultural performances, and kite masters from China and Michigan. There will be special categories for students and community. It's a real town and gown and east meets west affair, much like the dragon boat races they organized at Gallup Park in 2007.

I had the good fortune of being invited to help with some kite-making workshops through Parks and Rec and to escort fourth-generation premier kite master Ha Yiqi — with whom two U-M Art and Design faculty apprenticed this summer in Beijing — to visit local elementary schools. I also enjoyed the neat kites made at the Center for Korean Studies’ Chuseok celebration.

I am excited to see what this year will bring. During the University of Michigan LSA ChinaNow Theme Year in 2007-2008, converging as it did with University Musical Society’s Asia Festival and the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti Reads Asian American book, I met so many incredible people (including my literary hero, playwright David Henry Hwang) and was given the gift of so many personal and professional opportunities. My whole life changed that year, and I did my best writing ever.

Unfortunately, AnnArbor.com will be discontinuing my column, “Adventures in Multicultural Living,” to focus more of its resources on local news.

click on link for more: U-M Center for Chinese Studies Kite Festival and Frances' Farewell--let us keep the conversation going

Adventures in Multicultural Living: 'Looking Both Ways' at the 'Made in China' label and 9/11 fears | annarbor.com

The wall of 52 faces at the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) Looking Both Ways contemporary art exhibit is striking.

The styles are all different — formal, casual, realistic, cartoonish, playful, even black and white and fake-photoshopped. There are old men and young women, hipster rock stars and craggy-faced workers. There is a high mandarin collar, a hooded sweatshirt, a tie, a baseball cap, spiky dyed hair, a cigarette.

One of the three curators, EMU art education professor Guey-Meei Yang, explains that these are the real people who work at an art factory in Dafen, China. Their job is to paint to order, whatever you want—A painting of your family or a Vincent Van Gogh. Normally prized for their technical precision, self-expression is not particularly valued, and the artists remain invisible behind factory walls.

Then John C. Gonzalez from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, made an unusual order—a self-portrait of every artist who worked in that art factory, in any style. Together, they are a powerful illustration of the real people behind the “Made in China” label.

click on link for more: 'Looking Both Ways' at the 'Made in China' label and 9/11 fears

Chicago is the World » Making Mooncakes the modern traditional way for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival | Adventures in Multicultural Living

"The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is this Monday. That means mooncakes!

A harvest festival, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is a Chinese (Zhong Qiu Jie),Vietnamese (Tet Trung Thu) and Korean (Chusok) festival that celebrates the end of the harvest, family and food. It’s sort of like Thanksgiving (without the turkey), Octoberfest(without the beer) and Sukkot (without the tent). It is always celebrated on the largest full moon of the year, the Harvest Moon."

'via Blog this'

click on link for more: Chicago is the World » Making Mooncakes the modern traditional way for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival | Adventures in Multicultural Living

AML Making Mooncakes the modern traditional way for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival - NAM EthnoBlog

The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is this Monday. That means mooncakes! A harvest festival, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is a Chinese (Zhong Qiu Jie), Vietnamese (Tet Trung Thu) and Korean (Chusok) festival that celebrates the end of the harvest, family and food. It's sort of like Thanksgiving (without the turkey), Octoberfest (without the beer) and Sukkot (without the tent). It is always celebrated on the largest full moon of the year, the Harvest Moon.
Mooncakes are the centerpiece of this festival, as much for eating as for giving to other people. They are round like the full moon and symbolize family unity. To call mooncakes “cakes,” though, is a bit of a misnomer. They are not light, fluffy, frosted, candle-studded confections. Rather, imagine a giant Fig Newton, the size and shape and weight of a hockey puck, dense and heavy and rich with red bean, date, lotus seed, dried fruit or pineapple filling.

click on link for more: Making Mooncakes the modern traditional way for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival - NAM EthnoBlog

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Making Mooncakes the modern traditional way for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival | annarbor.com

The Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is this Monday. That means mooncakes!

A harvest festival, the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival is a Chinese (Zhong Qiu Jie), Vietnamese (Tet Trung Thu) and Korean (Chusok) festival that celebrates the end of the harvest, family and food. It's sort of like Thanksgiving (without the turkey), Octoberfest (without the beer) and Sukkot (without the tent). It is always celebrated on the largest full moon of the year, the Harvest Moon.

Mooncakes are the centerpiece of this festival, as much for eating as for giving to other people. They are round like the full moon and symbolize family unity. To call mooncakes “cakes,” though, is a bit of a misnomer. They are not light, fluffy, frosted, candle-studded confections. Rather, imagine a giant Fig Newton, the size and shape and weight of a hockey puck, dense and heavy and rich with red bean, date, lotus seed, dried fruit or pineapple filling.

click on link for more: Making Mooncakes the modern traditional way for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Ode to bento boxes and lunchboxes for back to school perfection | annarbor.com

In the hubbub of back to school preparations—registration, green emergency cards, forms, fees, textbooks, pictures, school supplies, backpacks, lunchboxes, scheduling extracurriculars, new lunch and snack ideas, catching up with old friends, etc., I keep ending up in the bentobox or lunchbox section of every store I enter, be it the Chinese grocery store, the Japanese bookstore, Target, Walmart, CVS, or Busch’s grocery store.

Long after we have bought all the things we came for, and the children suddenly notice that I am no longer walking with them, they know where to find me. Mesmerized. Stammering. Strategizing lunches. Squealing over lunchboxes.

I confess.

I have a fetish for bento boxes. A fondness for tiffins. A weakness forTupperwares. Don’t get me started on lunchboxes.

click on link for more: http://www.annarbor.com/passions-pursuits/ode-to-bento-boxes-and-lunchboxes-for-back-to-school-perfection/Ode to bento boxes and lunchboxes for back to school perfection