Adventures in Multicultural Living Kiss Me I'm Irish. or Italian! Kiss Me I'm Chinese? Wearing our cultural pride on St. Patrick's Day - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, Adventures in Multicultural Living:

I used to think that St. Patrick’s Day was a national holiday.

I attended Catholic schools in Los Angeles, and all the Bishops at the time, the ones who set the calendars for all the Catholic schools in the Archdiocese, were Irish. Thus St. Patrick’s Day was always a school holiday. Always. Along with Lincoln’s Birthday, Washington’s Birthday, and All Saint’s Day.

Then our school got a young new principal, Sister Nathaniel. She was Italian American, with dark brown bangs peeking out of her white habit, a matter-of-fact way of speaking, and a brisk efficient stride. She declared that since St. Joseph’s Day (March 19) was about the same time as St. Patrick’s Day (March 17), we would celebrate both saints’ days together.

I have often thought of this story as one which shows the difference one person can make. Because she was Italian American, she understood the importance of St. Joseph’s Day to our many Italian-American families; no one else even knew. (click on link for more)

Kiss Me I'm Irish. Kiss Me I'm Italian! Kiss Me I'm Chinese? Wearing our cultural pride on St. Patrick's Day - AnnArbor.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Chinese Lunar New Year feasting and family - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Acting Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

The focal point of Chinese Lunar New Year celebration is gathering the whole extended family together for a big feast on New Year’s Eve.

Just as Thanksgiving has certain special foods that must be eaten like turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and sweet potatoes with marshmallows, Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve also features special food that must be eaten, each dish imbued with meaning and good wishes for the new year. A whole fish is served because the Chinese word for fish sounds like “more than enough” (and one must leave leftovers so there will be “plenty” “left over” in the new year). (click on link for more)

Chinese Lunar New Year feasting and family - AnnArbor.com

Discovering the meaning in Chinese New Year's celebrations - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

I never even heard of Chinese New Year until I was already 12 years old. We had recently moved from Los Angeles to San Jose, and I had just started attending Saturday morning Chinese School for the first time. One of our lessons was about Chinese New Year stories and customs. Of course, being only 12, I was most interested in the tradition of red envelopes, which contain gifts of money. I went home demanding to know why my brother and I had never before received red envelopes, and insisted on years of back pay.

My brother and I forced our parents to celebrate Chinese New Year that year. We invited all our relatives over for a big dinner of Mongolian hot pot and we made a special trip to the really far Chinese butcher’s for the extra-thin cuts of meat needed. Aunts No. 3 and 6 came with all our cousins, and we had so much fun with the house full of relatives, warm with gossip and food, that we did not even notice until everyone had left that we still did not get any red envelopes.

Every year after that, I would ask my parents what they were planning for Chinese New Year, and the usual response was, "Oh, I don’t even know when it is. I’ll have to check the Chinese calendar." If I was home, and insistent, then they would cook a meal and invite some relatives over; if not, then they would forget. They were modern Chinese who did not need these old world superstitions. But I did. (click on link for more)

Discovering the meaning in Chinese New Year's celebrations - AnnArbor.com

photo courtesy of Andrew Fang photasa.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living: We gain so much from wading in the water of each other's cultural experiences - AnnArbor.com

IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang's Adventures in Multicultural Living column:

Two years ago, my father’s choir at the University of Hawaii was invited to sing at a big international diversity concert at Lincoln Center in New York for MLK Day. Choirs from around the world had been invited to sing together, and a Hawaiian choir adds instant diversity with its multicultural population of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Portuguese, Caucasians and native Hawaiians. That summer, over a breakfast of Chinese pancakes and Portuguese sausage, my father told us about the difficulties he had had the night before at choir practice pronouncing the words in the spirituals that they were learning, “You have to say the words like a Negro,” he said.

Twelve-year-old Hao Hao gently corrected him: “African American. These days you should say African American.” (I bet Senator Reid wishes his grandchildren had told him this, too.) (click on link for more)

We gain so much from wading in the water of each other's cultural experiences - AnnArbor.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Living in harmony in a great world house on MLK Day - AnnArbor.com

IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang writes in her Adventures in Multicultural Living Column:

In Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Nobel Peace Prize lecture, given in 1964, he talks about the idea of a house, “We have inherited a big house, a great ‘world house’ in which we have to live together - black and white, Easterners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Moslem and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other.”

I love the imagery of that house, so easy to picture. A nice Victorian, neat and trim, brightly painted, purple and pink, warm lights shining through lace curtains, with all the peoples of the world living in harmony together inside - everyone happily cooking together, feasting and celebrating, sharing the bounty of the garden, raking leaves and shoveling snow with the seasons, emptying the dishwasher, doing the laundry, vacuuming the floor, fixing the car, fighting for the bathroom…

Wait. But how do you do that, exactly? (click on link for more)

Living in harmony in a great world house on MLK Day - AnnArbor.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Oh! Oshogatsu! Missing Japanese New Year's Day - AnnArbor.com

The doorbell rings. The dog barks. I turn on the porch light, open the front door, and…

No one is there. Then I look down. A package!

Ooh, I was not expecting any more Christmas presents. I bend down to pick it up, and I hear the unmistakable sound of…

Rice.

A box of rice. A very big box of rice. Who would ship me a very big box of rice?

I stagger into the house, the sound of trickling and flowing rice filling my ears, and I put the very big box down on the kitchen table. I look at the label to see who in the world would FedEx me a very big box of rice and smile when I read, “Koda Farms.” (click on link for more)

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Wishing for an American New Year's Eve - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

Oh the excitement of New Year’s Eve! The perfect little black dress, impossibly high heels, dazzling rhinestones, an invitation to THE New Year’s Eve party of the year, a handsome and suave “New Year’s Eve Date,” a fluted glass of champagne, cute foods, counting down with the crowd, getting magically kissed right at the stroke of midnight (the primary purpose of said “New Year’s Eve Date”), singing Auld Lang Syne with one’s dearest friends, starting on that new year’s resolution to lose ten pounds (tomorrow)…

Oh the glamour! The style! The fantasy! As the child of immigrants, with my nose pressed up against the glass, it all seemed so exquisitely “American” and romantic, “better” in a way that as a child I had somehow decided that cars with trunks, ten-speed bikes, store-bought clothes, Adidas running shoes, and the symphony must be “better” and “more American,” because they were things “real Americans” (read Caucasian Americans) took for granted but which my sensible immigrant family would never indulge. I thought we were so uncultured and uncouth. (click on link for more)

Wishing for an American New Year's Eve - AnnArbor.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Is Christmas any less Christian if you put up a Bodhi Day tree? - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

One of my daughter’s Jewish friends from preschool once said that she liked coming to our house this time of year because we were the only other people who did not have a Christmas tree, either. Her mother described the conflict her child felt at school having to do Christmas-themed art projects such as decorating trees, which, regardless of what you call them, are still Christmas trees. Even a 5-year-old could see this.

It felt good to know that she found comfort in our home, although I had to confess that the real reason we did not have a Christmas tree at that time was that we used to always travel over the holidays. I was raised Catholic. We do celebrate Christmas. However, we did it reflexively.

So then I nearly scared my children to death with the pronouncement, “Now that we’re Buddhist, maybe we shouldn’t celebrate Christmas anymore.” (click on link for more)

Is Christmas any less Christian if you put up a Bodhi Day tree? - AnnArbor.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Learning about Christmas and Santa through the claymation classics - AnnArbor.com

from IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

Asian American journalist Lisa Ling once said on The 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 - AnnArbor.com

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Learning about Christmas and Santa through the claymation classics - NAM EthnoBlog

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Wanting 'one right way' - resisting multiculturalism, diversity, tolerance - AnnArbor.com

from IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

Years ago, a friend from Chicago was visiting right around dinnertime, when we decided to make noodles or pasta for dinner. I started boiling the water and rummaging around for some vegetables when he declared, “That’s not how you make pasta!”

I was surprised because my family is northern Chinese and so I have been eating and making noodles all my life. I was speechless when he pushed me aside in my own kitchen and instructed me on How To Make Noodles—by peeling and mincing the garlic just so and drizzling the noodles with olive oil. Years later, I learned that this recipe is called pasta aioli, and is certainly one way of making noodles, but in his mind, it was the only way to make noodles, and I was wrong for wanting to make them any other way. (He thought I was wrong for crushing the garlic with my grandmother’s cleaver, too.)

Soon thereafter, I was at an Italian couple’s home with a group of friends when dinnertime overtook us. Our hosts started making pasta with a simple marinara sauce to feed everybody. All the women gathered around the kitchen, ooohing and ahhhing and watching and learning until someone commented, “You’re such a good cook.” Cici with her long white hair and throaty accent was completely unimpressed, “I am not a good cook, I am just Italian.” (click on link for more)

Wanting 'one right way' - resisting multiculturalism, diversity, tolerance - AnnArbor.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living: The Sunday after Thanksgiving: The post-holiday debriefing - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

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).

Let me preface this by saying my children attend a school named Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary. They know about racism and they know about resistance. Three of the four children are strong and tough girls, so much so that Little Brother used to put his head down and cry, “I don’t have any Girl Power.” Add on that their mother is a writer on multicultural issues and a civil rights activist who speaks out on behalf of others. We are not easy people to have over for dinner. (click on link for more)

The Sunday after Thanksgiving: The post-holiday debriefing - AnnArbor.com

Adentures in Multicultural Living: Creating our own multicultural Thanksgiving traditions - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

My neighbor Lisa always celebrated two Thanksgivings while growing up in Ohio, a tradition she and her siblings continue every year. First, they have a traditional “American Thanksgiving” on Thanksgiving Day with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. Then, on Friday, they have “Lebanese Thanksgiving” with hummus, kibbe, fattoush, grape leaves, hashwe rice pilaf, and meat and spinach pies. That makes for a lot of cooking and a lot of food, but with five siblings and a ton of cousins, nobody misses a beat.

At Thanksgiving time, many families are caught wondering how to celebrate this quintessential American holiday — a holiday that is as much about the food as it is about family and giving thanks. Family is easy, everyone has family, as is the idea of giving thanks — especially for families that may have come to America because of war, oppression, poverty or lack of opportunity. However, celebrating a tradition that is not your own is more complicated than it looks. (click on link for more)

Creating our own multicultural Thanksgiving traditions - AnnArbor.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living--Ode to Halloween Costumes, Plus Warning - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

As I child, observing the world as it was presented to me by the mainstream, I often decided to shut doors myself before anyone actually told me to. Growing up in the age of Farrah Fawcett, I knew that one had to be blond in order to be beautiful, by definition. My horseback riding friends and I knew from statistics that at ten years old we were already too tall to ever become jockeys. Common sense told me that I could never become a country-western singer, no matter how many pairs of cowboy boots I owned. Even school assignments like, “If you could live anywhere in time, where would it be?” were problematic because I knew that as a girl, and as a Chinese girl, I would not be able to just “drop in” anywhere in history.

However, once a year, I could be whatever I wanted to be, construct whatever image or story I wanted for myself, travel backwards and forwards in history and literature, creatively cross over any social barriers. It was also a chance to pretend to be pretty and show off how smart I could be.

One night a year—Halloween. (click on link for more)

Adventures in Multicultural Living--Ode to Halloween Costumes, Plus Warning - AnnArbor.com

Adventures in Multicultural Living--Ganesha, Diwali, and Ravi Shankar too - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

I was at the University of Michigan Art Museum (UMMA) a few weeks ago when a museum staff member perched up high on the fourth floor where she could monitor many levels of the museum barked out at a family on the second floor not to touch. I turn to see a South Asian family showing their two young daughters, about 3 and 5 years old, an 11th century Ganesha carved out of volcanic rock.

Chastened, they back away. Curious, I go take a closer look.

The face is almost completely worn away from centuries of people touching and anointing the deity's forehead with tikka powder and oil, but he is still unmistakably Ganesha, with his elephant's head and round belly... (click on link for more)

Ganesha, Diwali, and Ravi Shankar too - AnnArbor.com

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Adventures in Multicultural Living--Mooncakes and Yo-Yos - AnnArbor.com

From IMDiversity.com Asian American Village editor Frances Kai-Hwa Wang:

We were going to have an moonlit picnic at the park--teriyaki chicken musubi, steamed little dragon buns, a thermos of hot jasmine tea, and of course, plenty of mooncakes. Thirteen-year-old Hao Hao had already written up a grocery list (which suspiciously includes "Pocky--1,000,000 boxes"). We had four pink and green paper lanterns and candles from Vietnam, one for each of the kids. It was going to be a rare Saturday night with everyone together, just to sit and eat as a family and look at the beautiful full moon, the Harvest Moon, while composing a poem or two for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival (basically, Chinese/Vietnamese/Korean Thanksgiving or Oktoberfest...but without the beer).

But then rain was forecast.... (click on link for more)

Adventures in Multicultural Living--Mooncakes and Yo-Yos - AnnArbor.com

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Obama proclaims APA Heritage Month

Newly added to our annual Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month section is this year's official presidential proclamation designating May to commemorate the history and heritage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

While at first glance it appears to be the usual sort of official release that is probably ghostwritten then quickly rubberstamped in the West Wing, a closer look definitely reveals more than a subtle shift in the tone and address of this statement.

For one thing, the nation's first president to hail from Hawai'i has renamed and recast the month as Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, pointedly putting the "P.I." back in "AAPI".

An even closer look at the description of what is being commemorated reveals, less superficially, a real and frankly exciting change in tone from the kind of boilerplate annual proclamation we've grown accustomed to in recent years. Where there had been abstraction and generality there is specificity and recognition of our community's diversity. Where there had been reference to vague and monolithic contributions as entrepreneurs and (even more vaguely) " servants of the cause of freedom and peace," this year's proclamation recalls the earliest immigration, the labor of the railroads and farms and mines, as well as current contributions in academia, the arts and literature, government, technology and other sectors.

In short, it is happily the kind of proclamation we would have expected from Barack Obama -- our first Hawai'i President, our first nonwhite President, our first "hapa" President. For those who enjoy government speeches and rhetoric, it's pleasant reading and an interesting departure from the past years when our community has felt so left out in the political cold.

Check it out for yourself at the Village's Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month section.

Merrie Monarch Festival Winners for 2009 (w/ clip)

The results of the 46th Merrie Monarch Festival were determined last week. Congratulations to these winners!

Overall Winners
Ke Kai O Kahiki

Wahine Overall
Halau Na Mamo O Pu'uanahulu

Wahine Hula Kahiko
Halau Na Mamo O Pu'uanahulu

Wahine Hula 'Auana
Hula Halau 'O Kamuela

Kane Overall
Ke Kai O Kahiki

Kane Hula Kahiko
Ke Kai O Kahiki

Kane Hula 'Auana
Halau Na Mamo O Pu'uanahulu

Miss Aloha Hula
Cherissa Henoheanapuaikawaokele Kane
(Halau Ke'alaokamaile, Wailuku, Maui)

The Merrie Monarch Festival was founded for "the perpetuation, preservation, and promotion of the art of hula and the Hawaiian culture through education. The festival is considered the world's premier forum for people of all ages to display their skills and knowledge of the art of ancient and modern hula."

To learn more, see: http://www.merriemonarchfestival.org

Diwali Less Sweet in a Hard Year

A good pair of item from National Public Radio this morning reports on how recent bombings cast a pall over India's Diwali celebrations, with a terrific follow-up commentary bringing it home by New America Media editor and occasional featured contributor on Asian American Village, Sandip Roy.

In his audio commentary, Diwali Better Minus The Fireworks, Roy recalls celebrations of years past, both in India and in San Francisco, and how the fear of violence had cast a shadow them at times.

Adding to the gloom of this year's celebrations, a commentary on Reuters reports, is the shaky economic condition of the stock market.

"Diwali, the festival of lights, is here but do we see a pall of gloom with the
BSE Sensex crashing more than 50 percent since January 2008? Things have
come to such a pass that some people have simply stopped looking at their
portfolios. They think it’s too late now to cut losses."

Meanwhile, reports Gavin Rabinowitz of the Associated Press, it's another sign of the times that mithai -- the sticky sweet treats that are a traditional highlight of the festival of lights -- are also losing their allure.

In his article posted in the Asian American Village AP News Headlines section, Rabinowitz examines a heightened waist consciousness in an India whose "economy [is] booming, and its people's waistlines expanding."

"[Mithai] have long been central to this Hindu festival of lights -- sweet,
fudgy goodies rich with cardamon, pistachio and saffron, often coated with an
ethereal foil of pure silver. They are eagerly eaten, given as gifts, offered to
the gods. [But] increasingly, the nation's growing urban middle class wants
holiday presents that better reflect newfound wealth. And an explosion of
obesity and related health conditions has many Indians -- some 35 million of
whom are diabetic -- thinking twice about treats."

It's hard not salivate, though, over the accompanying sidebar recipe for Pista Badam Mithai (Pistachio Almond Sweets). The recipe, adapted from Tarla Dalal's Mithai, features a relatively modest dosage of honey, and promises a preparation time of 15 minutes start to finish.

A little sweetness may be just the thing to momentarily lift the spirits after what's been an anxious year everywhere.