I used to have a relatively vague and singular definition of Chinese cuisine. Region was an important factor. Only people who live in China can cook a dish that shall be considered authentic — though there is a great diversity across different regions within China. For example, most people from the Southern Guangdong region do…
Media representation, especially government sponsored media platforms, will influence audience perceptions by legitimizing particular concepts.The annual Chinese Gala is a celebratory New Year Show, produced by the Chinese central broadcasting station, and is an essential part of the lunar year celebration routine for the majority of Chinese people. When I was watching a clip of…
My mother’s solution to every single body ache or movement of pain is to apply Tiger Balm or a Salonpas patch over the area. Run into the wooden table and gained a bruise the size of a golf ball? Apply Tiger Balm to soothe the contusion on your skin. Feeling nauseous or stuck with a…
When I was doing a reading log for my Japanese class, I was attracted by the story about a Japanese traditional festival — tanabata (七夕), or the Double Seventh Festival. This story caught my attention because this festival is also celebrated in China, and its names have exactly the same form in Chinese characters as…
Currently, the Broadway performance of “Miss Saigon” — a musical about yet another Asian woman abandoned by her white male lover — is going on tour across the United States. As if to set back the damage, East West Players’ “Vietgone,” a story about a pair of lovers who are “refugees fleeing the Vietnam War”,…
The controversial Atlantic article “My Family’s Slave” by the late journalist Alex Tizon sparked a range of emotion and discussion. Tizon writes about Eudocia Tomas Pulido, a Filipina domestic worker his family enslaved for 56 years and how he felt about her contested role in the family, even after her death. Reactions ranged from sadness…