Happy New Year!

Do you know how to make your holidays last longer?  Celebrate Chinese New Year!

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, AND Chinese New Year, you get around 6o days to enjoy the holiday spirit!

I've done my part this year to extend the holidays, though it was not something I was planning on doing before the holiday season started.  I bought a live/cut Christmas tree at Findlay Market a week before Thanksgiving.  It's been sort of a new tradition of mine, making a break from the really fake looking artificial Christmas trees that I had grown up with.  Artificial trees are popular with cost conscious Asian families, but are lacking in the overall aesthetic.

I've been meticulously caring for my tree, adding water to its container daily.  So when the non-Chinese New Year rolled around, the tree was still beautifully lush with all its needles intact.  I've been raised not to waste things, so I opted to keep the tree up with all its Christmas lights on.  I'm the last house on the street with decorations still up.  But it's OK, Chinese New Year is here now.  My tree is coming down this week, but it will have been around to help me celebrate the year of the Ox.

May your year be happy and prosperous!

(According to Wikipedia, it's either year 4706, 4707, or 4646.  In any case, we've been around a long time!)

Yellow fever

In case you haven't seen it yet... a couple of Asian guys try to figure out why so many Asian girls with white guys but not vice versa. Bugs the heck out of me, it messes up the mass balance...

Asian Americans getting into politics (in Louisiana?)

As a follow up to my entry on the advantages of having diverse people within your ethnic group, I came across this article about Asian Americans getting into politics. I think this is a wonderful thing, the next step for us to be a major player in the country and the economy. There may even be an Asian American presidential candidate in the future, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.

Sidenote: I find it really interesting that two of the Asian Americans mentioned in the article as examples of Asians making it to Congress and governorship are both from Louisiana... If I had to guess which state would have Asian American firsts, I think Louisiana would've been my 30th guess. I wonder, why Louisiana? I think it's great, just curious.

The downside of everyone learning math and science

I recall a conversation I had with my dad many years ago. We were talking about the movie Schindler's List, and he was lamenting that there weren't any movies about the Chinese holocaust. I told him maybe it was because all the Chinese kids were being told to study math and science instead of film. Can you imagine the Chinese kid going to his parents and telling them he wanted to study filmmaking?

Morale of the story: There are advantages to having diverse expertise amongst your people.

Ad for Interracial dating website

I saw this banner ad while browsing and I found it a little odd. There's a difference between being "race blind" when dating and someone seeking out "interracial partners". I'm not sure what I would think about dating someone who was primarily just interested in finding someone of a different race. I'd almost feel like a checkbox being filled. Asian? Done it.

Insights on race on this MLK day

An absolutely wonderful post about race, on this Martin Luther King day... from a surprising source: A blog about escaping the corporate world!

Pamela Slim talks about her mixed race kids and has great insights on how they talk about race. And how noticing the color of one's skin doesn't make you racist. Her attitude on race is right on. I would even tell her to teach her kids to take the best of both worlds!

Absolutely wonderfully written. It'll send chills down your spine (in a positive way). I hope you check it out!

Chinese speaking white guys

Pardon those of you who read my blog on Wisconsin sports, but this story crosses over into the Asian world... the Milwaukee Bucks' first round draft pick last year was a guy named Joe Alexander. He grew up in China and was born in Taiwan, and speaks fluent Mandarin. Click here to see the 30 second interview.

For the non-Chinese speaking people, near the end of the interview the reporter asks him in Chinese (a question that inevitably always comes up when Chinese people talk to Americans) what his favorite Chinese food is. He says, "Kung-pao chicken." Then later adds, "All Americans like Kung-pao chicken." Really funny stuff coming from a white guy!

Asian sideline reporter!

I'm watching the Sacramento Kings broadcast of a Milwaukee Bucks game, and lo and behold, it's an Asian sideline reporter!
I must admit, she's not very good... her delivery is a little forced. But then again, most sideline reporters on local broadcasts aren't very good. I wonder if her parents are disappointed that she wasn't a doctor.

Chthonic- Taiwanese Death Metal Band

This morning I got this email from the Cincinnati Taiwanese Association

I am pleased to announce that Mr. Freddy Lim, lead singer of "ChthoniC" and head of "Guts United, Taiwan" will be in Indianapolis, Indiana very soon to deliver an imporant speech to the Taiwanese American community of the Midwest.

I was kind of curious about Chthonic so I visited their website and their entry on Wikipedia.
It turns out they're a Taiwanese death metal band that has performed at Ozzyfest.
From Wikipedia.org:

While some songs have their lyrics partly or entirely written in Taiwanese, Japanese, or Taiwanese aboriginal language, most of the band's songs have their lyrics written entirely in classical Chinese (with Mandarin pronunciation), which is rarely seen in contemporary Chinese music. Taking advantage of classical Chinese's feature of being a monosyllabic language, many songs, especially those in earlier albums, used plenty of parallel sentences in their lyrics to create an epic atmosphere.

The themes mostly surround early Taiwanese colonizers' defiant spirit, fictional war between aborigine's gods with Han's gods, Taiwanese folklore and mythology, and the historical event known as Wushe Incident, which is a rebellion against Japanese governor by Seediq people.

Although the lyrics are quite profound compared to most contemporary Taiwanese songs, many Taiwanese people don't prefer black metal vocals and said that they couldn't understand anything sung by Freddy, which is probably why Chthonic is said to be more famous in western countries than in Taiwan.

Ok, a Taiwanese death metal band that's popular in the West. That "sings" their songs in Taiwanese. That's a little unusual. However, things are not always they appear on the surface.

Freddy Lim, the vocalist is a highly respected political activist. Especially with the Taiwanese and Tibetan Independence movements.

Here's a picture of Freddy Lim's recent visit with the Dalai Lama.And a video of the same event.



If I had a child who started listening/singing death metal music, I think I would be in a panic and questioning my skills as a parent. Instead, the band members are meeting the Dalai Lama and are positive role models for the next generation of Taiwanese! I was talking to my father about Freddy Lim and he knew all about him and proceeded to go on and on about his courage, spirit, and his ability to mobilize the youth of Taiwan. My father is not alone in his admiration. When Chthonic travels in the United States, many older Taiwanese go to their concerts to support them and to bring them home cooked Taiwanese meals.

If you're curious you can hear their music while looking at their pictures on Chthonic's gallery.

Oh, the bass player of the band is slightly attractive.

A cut above

One of the more interesting and underrated intricacies of being an Asian American male is how hard it is to find a place that knows how to cut your hair. Back in my hometown of Milwaukee , there was one place my dad and I would always go to. When I moved out to Cincinnati, I went to Great Clips and kept trying different ones, hoping to get find someone who would cut my hair right.

I learned from a few of the barbers I talked to that Asian hair is one of the hardest to cut because it's so thick and straight. If you cut it the wrong length it sticks straight out. Asian women have the option of leaving it long. I guess guys do too (one of my barbers said my other option was to leave it long and put it in a ponytail… it did sound like it might work, but it just wasn't me). I've seen many Great Clips barbers struggle with my hair, sometimes taking a long time because they kept on having to fix and refix things.

I have found a place that I go to now. Amit, one of my Indian friends, introduced me to it… It's Martin's Barber shop in Sharonville. I go to one guy there all the time, because I'm always satisfied with the cut I get there. I also got a recommendation from another Asian friend to go there, and I happen to run into a 3rd Asian friend there too.

So that begs the question… how much untapped demand is there for services or products aimed towards Asians, and specifically the underappreciated Asian male?

CNN's Sanjay Gupta approached for Surgeon General

From CNN.com: CNN's Gupta approached for surgeon general

The Obama transition team approached Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, about becoming U.S. surgeon general, according to sources inside the transition and at CNN.
...
The transition team is impressed with the combination of Gupta's past government experience, as a White House fellow in 1997 and a special adviser to then-first lady Hillary Clinton, along with his medical career as a neurosurgeon and his communication skills, the transition source said.

Gupta is a member of the staff and faculty of the Department of Neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He regularly performs surgery at Emory University Hospital and at Grady Memorial Hospital, where he serves as associate chief of neurosurgery.

I think this is an interesting choice for Surgeon General. The role of Surgeon General doesn't seem all that important in terms of policy, but is a very public position for shaping American's attitude towards health. As Surgeon General, Dr. Sanjay Gupta would be one of the most recognizable Asians in government.

According to Wikipedia, the Surgeon General reports to the Assistant Secretary for Health who is the principal adviser to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. In the Obama Administration, that will be Tom Daschle.

I find it refreshing to have a candidate with a background that I can relate to as a second generation Asian American.

Chinese food in New Hampshire?

From Yahoo Sports...

Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News: "Spurs center Matt Bonner didn't have any specific plans for celebrating New Year's Day. He says he likes only the holidays that involve food. 'I'm more of a Thanksgiving and Christmas guy,' Bonner said. 'I don't think New Year's is known for feasting.' Growing up in New Hampshire, Bonner's family did sustain one food-related New Year's tradition. Every Jan. 1, they ate Chinese food. 'New Hampshire is known for its Chinese food,' Bonner said. 'You didn't know that?'"

Is this true? Maybe we should take a road trip and see if he knows his Chinese food or not.

An experience

I hadn't had to deal with something like this since I was in grade school, but by handling it with a calm but firm voice and by education, I made the best of the situation and I think everyone came out for the better.

I went to the batting cages on Friday to take some swings. There were two kids there, probably 8-10 years old, and African American. Apparently they had biked there on their own. One of them kept yelling "swing batter batter" as I was trying to hit. After one series of pitches I stepped out, found him, and asked him to not do that (in a game, maybe it was OK, but in a batting cage it didn't seem appropriate). He said OK and stopped.

As I left, he and his friend came back in the door. I stepped out of the way to let them through, and I was walking out I heard them snickering behind my back as kids do. Then I heard one of them say "konichiwa" (the Japanese word for "hello"). I wasn't about to let that go. I went back and confronted both of them. At one point I thought about asking the facility to throw them out, but I figured they were a couple of ignorant kids and this might be a good learning experience.

It turns out it was the second kid who made the comment (the first kid that I had talked to before didn't want anything to do with it). The first thing I told him was "konichiwa" is Japanese for hello, and I'm Chinese (thinking back, I should've taught him how to say it in Chinese). I told him that I don't make fun of him, and he shouldn't make fun of me, and we're here to have a good time. The first kid kept trying to help me out ("yes, you shouldn't talk to him like that").

I know that they were kids and didn't mean much by the comment. But I did want to make sure they understood that Asian people were more than just "konichiwa." He had the typical "I'm intimidated but I'm trying to look cool" look on his face, but hopefully he will be better off after this experience.

I invite anyone else who has an experience like this to calmly but firmly confront it, and take an educational approach to the situation.

Failure and the Asian culture

Being an Asian American means you live with Asian culture and American culture at the same time. Sometimes it conflicts, which makes it really difficult, especially if you're still young and impressionable.

I'm reading the book "Bounce" by Barry Moltz, which talks about the role of failure in success. Failure is a natural part of being successful, but in our society failure means you weren't smart enough, you didn't work hard enough. On page 66 of the book it talks about how failure is taken in the Asian culture... i.e. you've shamed yourself, your family, and the entire galaxy. Getting a B means you were that far away from getting an A. Asian parents believe that 2nd place is the first loser.



The advantage of the Asian culture in this case is the concept of humility. If we can take the humility part from the Asian culture and the risk-taking part of the American culture, we'd be very successful. One of the things the book talks about is failing with humility allows you to learn the most out of the failure.