I slept on every ride to Chinese school, and every ride back. It was part of a weekly routine, a well-remembered Saturday morning sequence. Tumbling into the car and watching the rolling hills pass the window, the burnt-black trees on the roadside after the wildfires. Drifting in and out, feeling the freeway pass beneath the…
English is not my first language. It’s also not my second language. I grew up listening to and speaking an amalgamation of three different Chinese dialects: Mandarin, Cantonese, and Fujianese. Most children play with dolls and teddy bears – I spent the first four-and-a-half years of my life playing with combinations of these three dialects.…
“American justice has become American injustice. Superimposed on you.” Showcased at this year’s San Diego Asian Film Festival, “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail” is a documentary directed by Steve James that encapsulates a five-year-long legal battle between the state of New York and Abacus Federal Savings Bank. Within the first three minutes of the film,…
My mom is Taiwanese and my dad is Chinese, but many people only see me as Chinese. This was more of an issue when I was growing up than it is now, but usually when I tell someone in the U.S. that I’m Taiwanese and Chinese, they reply with, “Oh, so you’re Chinese, right?” As…
With stringed lights twinkling above the Fowler Museum courtyard and colored spotlights illuminating the stage, Raunak Rupani entered with his two guitars, smiling at the crowd. Last Thursday, the Fowler Out Loud concert series hosted two diverse musical acts. To open the night was +Adam, a fusion and spoken word band inspired by the riot…
The city, located in the San Gabriel Valley, provides the opportunity for the majority Asian American community to ring in the year of the monkey with family and friends.