Adventures in Multicultural Living: Relishing Real World Halloween Costumes - AnnArbor.com

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

After spending the weeks leading up to Halloween researching horrific racist and sexist costumes, and commiserating with other Asian American activists, it is a pleasure to attend the University of Michigan Halloween Concert and see that all is still well in the real world. Those online commercial costume websites may be glitzy and gross, but they are for the uninspired minority.

The children and I sit in the mezzanine of Hill Auditorium in front of about three or four rows of giant bumblebees. The closest one is a big stout bumblebee with a beard, long black arms folded across his yellow-striped chest, stern expression on his face, sparkly silver antennae dangling in the air in time with the music. (click on link for more)

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Relishing Real World Halloween Costumes - AnnArbor.com

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.

Asian University for Women Launched; Seeks Inaugural Faculty

This just came up on the IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Jobs Center. The editors thought it of interest both as a major development in international women's education access and for scholars/educators possibly interested in participating in the enterprise from the ground-floor:

The Asian University for Women is inviting applications for its inaugural faculty of 16 positions to begin in Bangladesh in July 2009.

The AUW is being established as a leading institution of higher education for women across South and Southeast Asia. While international in its vision and scope, the University will remain rooted in a context unique to the diverse cultural, religious, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds of South and South East Asia. The civic and academic goal of the AUW is to better prepare disadvantaged women of high ability and potential through a world-class education that will encompass both the progressive liberal arts & sciences and requisite professional training in order to further the intellectual and professional development of eligible young women.

The AUW is currently advertising calls for faculty applications in three areas:

• Four opportunities for Social Science faculty
• Four opportunities for Humanities faculty
• Four opportunities for Quantitative Reasoning faculty

Review of applications begins this week. The AUW is being supported in the U.S. by a Boston/Cambridge-based Foundation.

The IMDiversity.com Asian American Village Jobs Center periodically highlights a shortlist of featured opportunities of particular interest to Asian American Village readers, culled from among the tens of thousands of job postings at the IMDiversity.com Career Center Job Bank.

Vivien and The Shadows: Ong Keng Sen/Theatreworks World Premiere

Vivien and The Shadows: Ong Keng Sen/ Theatreworks (World Premiere)
Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 7:30pm
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Memorial Hall

A soul-stimulating, post-modern spectacle, Vivien and The Shadows melds film/performance, race, gender and sexuality. Internationally lauded Singaporean director Ong Keng Sen gathers some of the best talents in global performing arts and transports us into the fantasy world of Vivien Leigh’s Blanche DuBois, inspired by the 1951 film, A Streetcar Named Desire.

With new texts by acclaimed Asian-American playwright Chay Yew; soundscapes by pioneering London electronica artist Kaffe Matthews; sizzling videos by CalArts media artist Brian Gothong Tan; and three virtuoso performers who witness, impersonate and accompany Vivien Leigh-Blanche DuBois to her transcendence: multiple Obie-winner Karen Kandel, art-burlesque star of the New York underground Julie Atlas Muz, and the charismatic Charlotte Engelkes from Sweden.

Vivien and The Shadows is commissioned by Carolina Performing Arts.

"Ong Keng Sen is one of Singapore's...cultural jewels."
- The Guardian, UK

WAYNE WANG'S "THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA"

CAAM'S PRODUCTION of WAYNE WANG'S "THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA"
PREMIERES FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17 AT 9:00PM PST
ON YOUTUBE'S® NEW SCREENING ROOM
www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom


Acclaimed filmmaker Wayne Wang's new film THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA will make its world premiere on YouTube® on Friday, October 17, 2008. The free release will go live on YouTube's recently launched Screening Room, www.youtube.com/ytscreeningroom, a channel dedicated to premium film content.

In THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA, Sasha (Ling Li) is a foreign exchange student who finds herself pregnant. She's the new generation of China, unmoored to traditions and history. As she says, "In America I learned a new phrase, 'moving on.' Tomorrow I can start a new page." She travels from Nebraska to San Francisco to get an abortion, but in her exploration of the city in the next 24 hours she learns that turning a new page doesn't necessarily mean turning your back on the past.

THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA is adapted from a collection of short stories by award winning author Yiyun Li.

To learn more about the film, visit:
http://mediafund.asianamericanmedia.org/supported-projects/princess-of-nebraska/

Please use the link below to view/embed the trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJISq4MyfKg

To download hi-res images please visit:
http://www.magpictures.com/presskits.aspx

A Disappearing Number at University of Michigan

A Disappearing Number
Complicite
Conceived and Directed by Simon McBurney
September 10 to 14, Power Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
University Musical Society

How often are you going to find a play about both an Indian character abroad and Math? Not that we APAs are all Math geeks, but, well, you know...

Following its triumphant production of The Elephant Vanishes in 2004, the theater company Complicite (pronounced kum-PLIH-si-tay) returns to Ann Arbor for the exclusive US presentation of its award-winning hit, A Disappearing Number.

In the chilly English surroundings of Cambridge on the cusp of the First World War, the English mathematician GH Hardy unexpectedly receives a letter filled with mathematical theorems from a young Indian visionary, Srinivasa Ramanujan, whose idiosyncratic and creative approach to mathematics ultimately led to some of the most complex and beautiful mathematical patterns of all time.

Complicite’s innovative, multimedia approach frames past, present, and future simultaneously, with the Hardy/Ramanujan collaboration serving not only as a central aspect of the narrative, but more so as a window into a larger world of ideas: about the awesomeness of infinity and its relationship to human mortality, about the beauty of science and our quest for meaning and knowledge, about who we are and how we connect to one another — and ultimately about what is permanent and what disappears forever.

“With touching emotion and unnerving disquietude, A Disappearing Number forces the spectator to consider the facts of love, death, and belonging, within the space of his or her own personal universe.” (New Statesman)

Related Activity: UMS Book Club: The Indian Clerk
Sept. 8, 7 pm, Ann Arbor District Library (343 S Fifth Ave., Ann Arbor, MI)

In David Leavitt’s The Indian Clerk, the English mathematician G.H. Hardy unexpectedly receives a letter filled with mathematical theorems from a young Indian visionary, Srinivasa Ramanujan, whose idiosyncratic and creative approach to mathematics ultimately led to some of the most complex and beautiful mathematical patterns of all time. UMS is assembling U-M experts on math and literature to explore the themes in David Leavitt’s breathtaking novel. This event is an excellent primer for those attending the UMS presentation of the theater company Complicite’s A Disappearing Number, which draws on the relationship between Hardy and Ramanujan as a central story line in the play.

University Musical Society www.ums.org.

China Travel Series for the Olympic-Bound

Got the Olympic bug?

This week we're running a China Travel Focus Series, featuring special pieces from the AP Beijing bureau with tips on travel planning and (of course) food, including sightseeing, restaurant recommendations, a round-up of the best travel guides, and more. Just for fun, the section also includes a recipe of the day, with a new dish representing a different region and cooking style every day. In keeping with the general theme, the section will also highlight select jobs and employers from the IMDiversity Career Center database that are related to working in or travel to China, or where employers have specified that candidates with Chinese language skills or international experience are desirable for the post.

Benazir Bhutto killed in Suicide Attack

Newswires this morning are reporting that Benazir Bhutto, 54, the former prime minister of Pakistan, has died following a shooting and suicide bombing that also killed at least 15 other people at the rally where the attack took place.

Bhutto had only recently returned to Pakistan in advance of January parliamentary elections elections, surviving another attempted assassination in Karachi on Oct. 19.

Educated in America and England, Bhutto was the eldest daughter of prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who was himself assassinated following a 1977 coup.

More reportage:

International Herald Tribune
Bloomberg
BBC
ABC News
Top News India

"Bumming in Beijing"

Contemporary Chinese Documentary Film: “Bumming in Beijing”
Monday, December 3, 2007, 6:30 PM - 10:30 PM, The Michigan Theater, 603 East Liberty Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

First a reception at 6:30pm in the lobby of the historic Michigan Theater with film scholar Berenice Reynaud and director Wu Wenguang. Then at 7:00 pm, a showing of contemporary Chinese documentary film, "Bumming in Beijing" (Director Wu Wenguang, China, 1990, 70 minutes, Mandarin with English subtitles)--a nuanced documentary account of the wanderings of five young artists who migrated to Beijing from the provinces during the heady years of the late 1980s leading up to and including the tragic confrontation in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Followed by Q&A with Reynaud and Wu.

Lecture: Floating, (In)visible, Off-Screen: Voices and Bodies in the New Chinese Documentary
Monday December 3, 2007, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM, University of Michigan School of Social Work Building, Room 1636

Also, earlier in the day, Berenice Reynaud, California Institute of the Arts film scholar, will be speaking on contemporary Chinese documentary filmmaking. Based on the theories of Michel Chion, Pascal Bonitzer and Serge Daney on the relationship between image and sound, and in particular between the field of the visible ("on-screen") and the voice in cinema, Berenice Reynaud proposes to study the relationship between the voice and the body in the "New Chinese Documentary Movement." Coming after years of mainstream documentary, in which image and sound were superimposed together through a disembodied, all-knowing, official voice-over commentary, the independent video documentaries of the early 1990s on (starting with Wu Wenguang's "Bumming in Beijing") can be read as a series of multiple, sometimes contradictory strategies to reinsert the voice and attach it to a body. She will describe the evolution of the "movement" from this point of view, ending with new levels of sophistication (off-screen voices, voices in non-Chinese languages, voices that function as a "menace" threatening the integrity of the screen image.

For more information, check out the University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies.

“Realizing a New China”--Wang Dan to Speak at University of Michigan

Monday, November 19, 2007, 7:00pm
Michigan Law School, Hutchins Hall, Room 100

Wang Dan, who was one of the student leaders during the student democracy movement in China that led up to the events at Tiananmen Square on June 4, will be speaking at the University of Michigan Law School on “Realizing a New China.” Then a student at prestigious Beijing University, he was often considered the brains behind the movement. He rose to prominence advocating political reform and the rule of law in Reform-era China. Imprisoned twice after the events of June 4, 1989, Wang was exiled to the United States in 1998, and he is now completing a Ph.D. in history at Harvard University.

Sponsored by The Michigan Law School and the Center for Chinese Studies as part of the University of Michigan’s LSA China Theme Year. Free and open to the public. For more information, please contact the UM Center for Chinese Studies at 734-764-6308 or check out their website at www.lsa.umich.edu/chinanow.

H.RES. 121 "Honda Resolution" Passes; Coalition Responds

121 Coalition Statement on the Passage of H.RES.121

Monday July 30, 2007

With the passage of H.Res. 121, the United States House of Representatives reaffirms its promise as a powerful advocate for human rights.  
 
We commend the leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Congressman Mike Honda, and Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Tom Lantos, as well as all 167 cosponsors for their passionate, bipartisan support for this resolution.
 
We also want to thank Congressman Lane Evans and Congressman Henry Hyde who championed and supported H.Res.759.  When H.Res 759 failed during the last Congress, many supporters felt defeated; but others did not give up.  The 759 campaign became the foundation for a national movement behind H.Res.121.
 
We highly commend survivors Ms. Lee Yong Soo, Ms. Kim Koon-Ja, Ms. Jan Ruff O’Herne, as well as all survivors, living and deceased, who advocated for truth and reconciliation, and testified courageously about their agonizing captivity in military rape camps, also known as “comfort stations” during WWII.
 
We extend our gratitude to the American electorate who supported this resolution by sending thousands of letters and petitions to Congress members from all over the United States.  
 
The so-called “comfort women” issue is not only about the past.  It is also about the present and the future.  Tragically, Japan’s wartime military rape camps were the precedent for  human trafficking, rape, and sexual slavery that continue to this day.  H.Res.121 delivers a strong message that we must protect civilians left vulnerable to violence and exploitation during armed conflicts, especially girls and women.  The perpetrators of these deeds must now take notice: the world will hold you accountable.  
 
This resolution is in no way an insult to the great nation of Japan.  Rather, it is a challenge to leaders of all nations who would deny historical truth for political gain.  The people of Japan have long understood that this issue can only be resolved with openness, honesty, and mutual respect.  Leaders who deny history, like those who deny facts, serve no one but themselves.  The people of Japan deserve an opportunity to put this terrible chapter of human history to rest, and reconcile with the world community in peace and in friendship.
 
Ethnic and sectarian conflicts in the Middle East serve as reminders that crimes such as these become fodder for future violence if the wounds they cause are allowed to fester without reconciliation, justice, or acceptance of responsibility.
 
Today, we stand with the United States House of Representatives to urge the people and the government of Japan to accept an invitation from their friends, the citizens of the United States, to officially acknowledge, apologize, and take responsibility for Imperial Japan’s role in the atrocities committed during WWII.  We thank those who have sent us messages of support from around the globe, and we express our support for the citizens of Canada and Australia as they seek to pass similar resolutions.  We see the success of H.Res 121 not as the end of our campaign, but as an auspicious beginning — one that will continue in partnership with human rights advocates in this country, in Japan, and around the world.

Statement From M. Evelina Galang,
Filipina American Coordinator, 121 Coalition

The passage of House Resolution 121 is an invitation to transcend past crimes against humanity, and a boon to the efforts of surviving “Comfort Women” who have been seeking justice for over 15 years. It is an opportunity for healing and reconciliation as well as a statement that defines what is and is not acceptable even during times of war. It is my hope that Japan accepts the invitation to bear witness to the women’s experiences and to honor and respect them by delivering a formal and unequivocal apology to all surviving “Comfort Women” of WW2.  
 
On September 18, 1992 Rosa Maria Henson was the first Filipina “Comfort Woman” to step forward and ask the Japanese government to accept full responsibility for the WWII systematic rape and abduction of over 200, 000 women and girls throughout Asia.  Following her lead, 173 of the estimated 1000 Filipinas subjected to the Japanese Imperial Army’s “Comfort Stations” also came forward and began to reclaim their dignity through organized campaigns designed by feminist grassroots organizations such as Liga ng mga Lolang Pilipina-Gabriela (LILA Pilipina).
 
Of the 173 Filipinas who have come forward, 54 have died.  Today, only a handful of women in their 80’s and 90’s are actively involved.   
 
The passage of House Resolution 121 demonstrates that the United States Congress and their constituents have heard these women.  It is a great sign of respect and support.  Let Japan follow the example of the United States House of Representatives as they pass House Resolution 121.  Let them look to the women, see their faces and hear their stories.  Let them acknowledge the past and take responsibility.
 
Novelist and University of Miami Professor M. Evelina Galang served as Florida Coordinator and Filipino American Outreach Coordinator for 121 Coalition

 

Follow up on Coalition 121 "Comfort Women" Resolution Action

This is from one of the organizers:

Based on preliminary analyses by the organizers, Coalition 121's lobby day, a number of U.S. legislators appear to be favorably viewing Congressman Mike Honda's resolution calling on Japan to recognize and apologize to former WWII "Comfort Women". During the Coalition's lobbying day on March 23, activists and volunteers visited some 130 offices on Capitol Hill to urge legislators to support the resolution by signing or cosponsoring it.

The Coalition reports that four representatives -- James McGovern, Jesse Jackson, Linda Sanchez, and Bobby Rush -- have already confirmed their cosponsorships of the resolution.

---

Also, in an only somewhat related item, we've posted a new Secret Asian Man strip, "The Abe Interview," by cartoon satirist Tak Toyshima, a fresh take on the issue for this year's Women's History Month.

Bright Sheng’s Threnody for Pipa and Orchestra, "Nanking! Nanking!"

The University of Michigan Center for Chinese Studies presents as part of the Arts on Earth Initiative and China Theme Year:

Bright Sheng’s Threnody for Pipa and Orchestra, NANKING! NANKING!
Panel Discussion with Video and Film Viewing
Friday, March 30, 2007, 4:00pm
Schorling Auditorium, School of Education (SEB)
610 E. University, Ann Arbor, Michigan

U-M MacArthur awarding-winning composer and music director Bright Sheng’s symphony Nanking! Nanking! was created in memory of Chinese victims of the 1937 massacre during the Sino-Japanese War. The composer tells the story “through the ‘eyes’ of one person (the pipa) who is not only a victim, but a witness and survivor… it is also a story of humanity’s spirit…” Why have issues of Japanese war nationalism and denial surfaced in this 70th anniversary of the Nanking Massacre in Japan, China, and the United States at a time when these nations reflect on issues of war and war memory? The NM is one of the most explosive metaphors for the still contested Pacific War, and the nationalist ambitions that drive that war and contemporary wars.

Historian Mark Selden of Cornell University will begin the session with an overview of the Nanjing Massacre (40 min), followed by a DVD viewing of Bright Sheng’s Nanking! Nanking! score played by the U-M Symphony Orchestra (18 min), and a panel discussion with Bright Sheng, Mark Selden, music critic Sheila Melvin, and Stanford University conductor Cai Jindong. Nicholas Howson, U-M School of Law, will moderate the panel (50 min). The History Channel’s “Rape of Nanking” documentary film will conclude the program--please note that the video contains graphic film footage of the conflict in Nanking.

A related lecture by Mark Selden is scheduled for Thursday, March 29, entitled “Bombing and the American Way of War: From the Pacific War to Iraq” at 1014 Tisch Hall at 4:00.

PANEL:
Bright Sheng, Leonard Bernstein Distinguished University Professor of Composition, University of Michigan
Cai Jindong, Director of Orchestral Studies, Stanford University
Sheila Melvin, music journalist and a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times
Mark Selden, Research Associate, East Asia Program, Cornell University
Moderator: Nicholas C. Howson, University of Michigan School of Law

Statement by 121 Coalition Supporting H.Res. 121

Call to Action from 121 Coalition
support121.org

About H.Res. 121

Japan's Imperial Army enslaved 200,000 girls and women of Asia during WWII and exploited them as "comfort women."

But there was no comfort and many were not yet sixteen.

These girls and women were victims of gang rape and brutal torture organized by the Japanese military that resulted in death, dehumanization and disease.

It's terrible enough that this atrocity was committed, but the suffering continues because despite testimonies from survivors and official documentation, Japan has not fully acknowledged responsibility for the crime. Their past attempts at apologies were equivocal and vague. And the truth is not taught in schools.

In fact, Prime Minister Abe and the Japanese government are now denying that the government played any role in raping of these women. Now they want to maintain that these girls were well-paid prostitutes at brothels. These women have evidence on their bodies: the knife wounds, broken bones, the diseases, removed uteruses. This is a moral outrage and a threat to global peace.

H.Res. 121, proposed by Congressman Mike Honda, calls upon the Japanese government to make an unequivocal and official apology for committing this war crime. Support H.Res. 121 and stand on the side of human rights, women's rights, global peace, truth and reconciliation.

For a list of organizations in our coalition, to join, or to learn about events and actions, go to: support121.org

Take action now!

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For more info:
House Resolution 121 : http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ca15_honda/COMFORTWOMEN.html
Mike Honda's statement at the Feb. 15th hearing: http://internationalrelations.house.gov/110/hon021507.htm
Mindly Kotler's testimony: http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/110/kot021507.htm
Dr. Ok Cha Soh's testimony: http://internationalrelations.house.gov/110/soh021507.htm
Testimony of comfort woman, Lee Yong-Soo: http://internationalrelations.house.gov/110/lee021507.htm
Testimony of comfort woman, Kim Koon-Ja: http://internationalrelations.house.gov/110/kim021507.htm
Testimony by comfort woman, Jan Ruff O'Herne: http://internationalrelations.house.gov/110/ohe021507.htm
Dai Sil Kim-Gibson: Silence Broken film and book
Japanese War Crimes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_war_crimes_in_mainland_Asia
Comfort Women News Archive: http://comfortwomen.wordpress.com/archived-news-articles/

Also: On "Comfort Women" by Secret Asian Man

While we're at it -- looking at Mike Honda's Resolution and the Japanese PM's response, that is:



We dug this out of the archives from a previous Asian-American Village Women's History Month edition. By the wildly popular, ever-controversial Secret Asian Man creator Tak Toyoshima, the strip tackled a similar theme a couple of years back -- this one in reference to the positioning of "voluntary comfort women" in Japanese school textbooks. We called the strip, "Why Japan Needs a Women's History Month".

Yul Kwon weighs in on Comfort Women

Reality TV star Yul Kwon has joined in the movement in support of CA Rep. Mike Honda's call for Japan to accept responsibility for the wartime treatment of "comfort women".

Kwon, who won the competition on last season's Survivor: Cook Islands, is featured in a new video by filmmaker and frequent Asian-American Village contributor Eric Byler now circulating on YouTube, Yul Kwon Supports Resolution Calling on Japan to Apologize.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe remains dug-in in his insistence that there was no forced recruitment of Asian sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War II. The growing clamor on this side of the Pacific, as well as by members of the opposition, is certainly embarrassing to the PM.

Check out the Yul Kwon video

Chinese politician wins in N. Ireland

A fitting story following up on International Women's Day, and for our Women's History Month edition, moving toward St. Patty's Day -- this reported by By SHAWN POGATCHNIK of the Associated Press:

Chinese politician wins in N. Ireland

Anna Lo being called the first Chinese elected lawmaker in Europe

"Lo, a Hong Kong native who has lived in Northern Ireland for 32 years, on
Friday became the first ethnic minority to be elected to political office in
this almost exclusively white British territory. Chinese media reports also
described her as the first Chinese person to be elected as a lawmaker anywhere
in Europe."

and this...

"Lo, the 56-year-old chief executive of the Chinese Welfare Association in
Belfast, said many of the approximately 10,000 Cantonese-speaking residents of
Northern Ireland have lived here for more than three decades — and had never
voted before her candidacy."