Going through our annual APA Heritage Month edition, we were delighted to find an older piece in the archives that still seems as basic and worthy of mulling over as when we first piosted in years ago.
In Holding Onto Heritage, our old friend and feature contributor Gil Asakawa of Nikkei View, posed the question, mostly rhetorically, "What's the aspect of your heritage you most want to hold onto?"
For our conclusion to APA Month this year, we want to put the question out there, and invite thoughts that we may compile at the end for annual section. Even if it's just a sentence or two, please drop us a comment here, or through our feedback on for on the main site. We think it would a meaningful commemoration of Heritage Month to hear what other people really value in their Asian and Pacific Islander heritage.
Hope to hear from you.
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8 comments:
Hi,
In light of your recent post on the APA Heritage month, I thought you might be interested in taking a look at the National Trust for Historic Preservation's APA Heritage webpage. It's a newly created section on our website devoted to preservation of Asian Pacific American Heritage. You can see it here:
http://www.preservationnation.org/about-us/asian-pacific-american-heritage/.
There are some great blog and magazine stories, as well as individual profiles and a list of currently endangered Asian Pacific American sites.
The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the question
was another question: My heritage? What would I define as my heritage?
I could say that it's the inherited legacy of my parents--the water of
tradition and belief and received wisdom that cascades down from
generation to generation, becoming a little less pure, the flow diminishing. If so, the thing I wish I'd retained most is probably the language-- Chinese, a tongue that I rejected as a youth and have since lost, something I regret for personal, practical and professional
reasons. But I think for Asian Americans, "heritage" is a more complex beast--it invokes a story we're still in the process of telling, one that's infused with thousands of varied influences, drawn from dozens of different cultures. I guess using that definition, the thing I most
hope to retain is the idea of "Asian Americanness" itself, as war-worn and ragged as it sometimes feels. It's going to have to change and evolve, it's going to have to grow and adapt, but the concept of a pan-Asian community with a shared struggle and unique, common identity
is still beautiful to me, and I'd like my children and their children to believe that too.
Jeff Yang
Author, Columnist, Editor of
Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology
http://www.secretidentities.org/
The aspect of our Chinese heritage I really want o hold on to is the ability to be introspective. However that ability to examine self must be balanced with the courage to act, when one is almost dead certain that he/heself has been wronged. Otherwise, it becomes an excuse to be a coward and just delude oneself by looking at discriminate against us as an accidental occurrence.
S.B. Woo
Fmr Lt Governor of Delaware and
Founder and Current Acting Executive Director, 80-20 Initiative
http://www.80-20initiative.net
I love how the twin aspects of food and family are so intertwined in Asian and Asian American culture.
Curtis Chin
APAs for Progress and
Producer, VINCENT WHO?
http://www.apaforprogress.org
Interesting question. I guess I'd have to say:
The aspect of my culture I'd most like to hold on to would be my language, both verbal and written. I took calligraphy classes as a kid and still remember how to correctly write kanji. It's second nature. I may not know what I'm writing but I can write it correctly. My Japanese verbal skills are severely lacking and is one thing I regret not following through with as a child. Now having children myself I understand more the value of such a skill.
Tak Toyoshima
Artist, Creator of "Secret Asian Man"
http://www.secretasianman.com
Now past the five decade mark, I start each day marveling at the purple spotted orchid frozen in a breezy hula pose on my desk. My younger self would have admired its beauty between bites of a sandwich.
Phil Tajitsu Nash
Asian American Studies
University of Maryland
http://aast.umd.edu/
My grandfather always said that "if we don't know where we come from, we won't know where we're going": for my kids I'd like to hold onto the importance of family, the emphasis of sharing within community, and the ability to take care of one another that my Filipino heritage gives me.
Monica S. Flores
Principal, 10K Webdesign
Ridiculously indulgent early childhoods. Living to 100. Gardening.
LeiLani Nishime
Assistant Professor
University of Washington Dept. of Communication
http://www.com.washington.edu/faculty/nishime.html
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