heritage

Her ‘crime’ was different, having a relationship with and then marrying a Chinese man, but the result the same. Thrown in jail, stripped of citizenship and child, and forced abroad, Demerson offers a historical perspective on sexist laws that still deny Canadians their right to nationality. Another segment in the Vancouver Observer's Lost Canadian series shines light on a tragedy that has yet to be apologized for by the government.

***

In 1939, Velma Demerson was 18 years old when she was arrested, convicted of being incorrigible, and locked up for ten months.

The dreadful “crime” for which Velma Demerson was imprisoned was to fall in love with a Chinese-Canadian, Harry Yip. The Chinese Exclusion Act was still in force, effectively keeping nearly all people from China from entering Canada, and stating quite boldly that it was government policy to put up a barrier to the intermingling of races.

Velma was a Caucasian and her relationship with an Asian was deeply frowned upon.

Contact: Britt Braaten
Multicultural History Society of Ontario
Phone: 416-979-2973
Email: mhso.mail@utoronto.ca
Website: www.mhso.ca/chinesecanadianwomen

New Educational Website Celebrates Chinese Canadian Women’s History  TORONTO

(Mar. 14, 2011) The Multicultural History Society of Ontario’s new educational  website Chinese Canadian Women, 1923-1967 launches on March 31, and features oral  history interviews with Chinese Canadian women from across Canada. The website presents  the experiences of Chinese Canadian women during a time of discriminatory immigration  restrictions. Visitors can explore exhibits and activities; teachers can download learning  resources; and researchers can examine over 1,000 items in an online database.

As white Americans move into the minority, some are claiming they're the ones now subject to racial oppression. Do they have a case?

For a small, nerdy cluster of folk -- social science and cultural studies wonks, market researchers, armchair political pundits -- this month is the Super Bowl, Oscars and Olympics rolled into one. That's because the next few weeks will see the gradual, yet grand unveiling of data from the 2010 U.S. Census, an event literally 10 years in the making.

Maclean's article sparked overdue rebellion against powerful voices claiming racial discrimination is not a problem

Maclean's magazine has struck a match. Now a firestorm of criticism is headed its way. Canada may never be the same.

On Nov. 25, Victoria city council unanimously adopted a motion, submitted by veteran councillor Charlayne Thornton-Joe, criticizing Maclean's for their article 'Too Asian' in their widely read special university rankings feature edition (Nov. 2010). The motion, unanimously adopted, described the title of the Maclean's article as "offensive and intolerant" and criticized its contents for "propagating a litany of racial stereotypes."

I agree and Thornton-George and the council deserve credit for speaking out against a media giant. Their action demonstrates how far we have come from the bad old days.

A Recap on the past news about "Too Asian" in Maclean's publication that triggered off public anger over it's racist content targeting Asian Canadians in higher education.

CCNC Statement on Dialogue with Maclean’s
Monday November 22, 2010

The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) and Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter (CCNCTO) held a media briefing today to report back on the dialogue with Maclean’s magazine on their article entitled “Too Asian”?

Toronto, ON – The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) and Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter (CCNCTO) held a media briefing today to report back on the dialogue with Maclean’s magazine on their article entitled “Too Asian”?

CCNC and CCNCTO and a number of community organizations met with Maclean’s on November 12th and again on November 17th for hour each time. Maclean’s had offered to publish a letter from CCNC in a future edition. CCNC and CCNCTO, after consulting with various community organizations responded with a 4 point proposal:

There has been some recent discussion surrounding a racist piece of media that had recently surfaced on the Maclean's website about the increasing number of Asian students in their academic institutions (racist...ahem).

Not only has this article unnecessarily making an issue of race but also implying that Universities and colleges are "too Asian" for their liking, a very racist emitting but also at the same time hideous at a glance.

Although the original article has been edited the original version can be found here "Too Asian" (Thanks to Angry Asian Man's post).

So you might ask should Chinese Canadians be concerned? of course not, because we are not the ones complaining. Obviously all those who are enrolled in higher education is obviously there to study and nothing else.

OAKLAND, Calif.—Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou might have some words of advice for this city's first Asian-American mayor-elect, Jean Quan.

When he was elected president in 2008, at a time of great economic hardship and political instability, Ying-jeou famously said, “One day of excitement is enough.”

Quan should remember those words, says Kai Ping Liu, the veteran reporter who covered her mayoral campaign for the World Journal. Quan was declared Oakland’s next mayor on Wednesday, after a week of nail-biting suspense in one of the city’s tightest electoral races in recent years.

For Quan, “there is not much time to take the victory lap,” says Vincent Pan, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action. “She has to hit the ground running.”

Oakland’s unemployment rate hit 17.3 percent in September, much higher than the state average of 12.4 percent. A series of robberies and assaults this year have heightened racial tensions and suspicions, especially between African Americans and Asian Americans.

UC Davis Cancer Center is now home to the National Center for Reducing Asian American Cancer Health Disparities, the only such national center for Asian-Americans designated by the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities to research populations disproportionately affected by the disease.

The $5.6 million research grant builds upon more than a decade of accomplishments by the Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness Research and Training (AANCART) that has increased cancer awareness and builds community-centered research capacity to address cancer issues among Asian-Americans.

The center will continue to function as a consortium of organizations, including UC Davis, UC San Francisco, Chinese Community Health Resource Center in San Francisco, Hmong Women’s Heritage Association in Sacramento, UCLA, University of Hawaii and the University of Washington.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, held each year during the month of May, celebrates Asian Pacific American cultures and heritage and recognizes the many contributions Asian Pacific Americans have made to this nation.
An Wang

An Wang (1920-1990), a Chinese-born American computer scientist, is best known for founding Wang Laboratories and holding over thirty-five patents including patent #2,708,722 for a magnetic pulse transfer controlling device which related to computer memory and was crucial to the development of digital information technology. Wang Laboratories was founded in 1951 and by 1989 employed 30,000 people and had $3 billion a year in sales, with such developments as desktop calculators and the first word processors. An Wang was inducted into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame in 1988.
Enrique Ostrea

Posting from the "Colorblind" Blog:

Jeff was publisher of A. Magazine, one of the most popular and influential Asian American magazines during its run from 1989-2002. Since then, Jeff has published several books including co-editing Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology and is widely recognized and respected as an expert on Asian and Asian American pop culture. I have admired Jeff’s work for a long time but only finally got the chance to meet him at Syracuse.

MAY is ASIAN HERITAGE MONTH in CANADA! CELEBRATE AT THE 14th ANNUAL explorASIAN FESTIVAL – MAY 2010

Some event descriptions/website links pending – please check back for updates.
All events are subject to change without notice. Please confirm performance times and ticketing information with the presenter of the event.

Festival 2010 Calendar http://explorasian.wordpress.com/2010-festival-calendar/

Explorasian Website http://explorasian.org/

A FURORE has erupted over a new mini-series about the deadliest sniper at Gallipoli, Chinese-Australian Billy Sing, who is played by a white.

This portrayal in the The Legend of Billy Sing has been attacked by Australians of Chinese ancestry as a betrayal of their heritage, robbing them of a rare historic hero.

Director Geoff Davis has cast his son Josh in the lead role, while Sing's Chinese father is played by the veteran actor Tony Bonner, who came to prominence as a blond-haired helicopter pilot in the Skippy TV series.

Sing, born in 1886 at Clermont, Queensland, to a Shanghainese father and an English mother, moved as a young man to the canefields of Proserpine, where he became a keen cricketer, kangaroo hunter and a crack member of the local rifle club.

New Studies Show Huge Health Disparities Among Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Asian Immigrant Populations

Critical Avenues to Prevent Cancer Overlooked; Immigrant Women at High Risk of Death from Breast Cancer
WASHINGTON

VANCOUVER - Vancouver's Chinese community had a defiant message for Winter Olympics organisers when it was suggested they should cancel their longstanding Lunar New Year parade - 'no way in hell'.

The city's 36th annual parade, which will usher in the Year of the Tiger, will go ahead as planned on February 14, two days after the start of the February 12-28 Olympics.

City councilor Kerry Jang said there had initially been suggestions from VANOC, the Olympics organising committee, to either cancel or postpone the parade "over security and other concerns".

"The Chinese community said ‘no way in hell'," said Jang, a third-generation Chinese-Canadian.

"They went to city hall and said ‘forget it, we're having it'. So we had a compromise."

He said he was expecting about 20,000 people or more to attend this year's festivities which will start earlier than usual.

 Dec. 31 (by James S. Russell) -- I didn’t want to let the year close without reflecting on the new Museum of Chinese in America designed by Maya Lin.

The location, on Manhattan’s lively Centre Street, poignantly underlines the mutability of ethnic identity. It is steps from the bargain-hunting throngs on Canal Street, around the corner from what’s left of Little Italy, and smack in the path of SoHo’s encroaching slickness. It’s the perfect spot to consider what it is to be a hyphenated American.

The museum’s tinted-glass storefront, half-framed by a long horizontal L of wood, is a rather tentative invitation to a building with richly entwined stories to tell and tough questions to ask.

It’s too bad that Lin, famous for the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., avoided the tough task of making a specific statement rather than a generalized one.

Passing as an Asian - an article written by an asian adoptee raised by two Russian Jewish caucasian parents, sharing her experiences while growing up in self hatred but surprisingly finds an awakening that puts her back on the road, acknowledging her asian side and forever searching for the missing pieces.

Passing as an Asian Written by Maya Fleischmann (11 January 2009)

I spent the first fifteen years of my life trying to ignore the fact that I am Asian.  Ironic, considering I was born and raised on the small island of Hong Kong and its population of 6 million other Asians.

By Craig Takeuchi

It's been a while since there's been an Asian North American box-office hit. The Joy Luck Club, The Wedding Banquet, and Snow Falling on Cedars were all from the '90s. Indie successes like Better Luck Tomorrow and Eve and the Fire Horse (by Vancouver's Julia Kwan) have been few and far between over the past decade. Other filmmakers of Asian descent (Jessica Yu, In the Realms of the Unreal; Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre), have established themselves by tackling subjects unrelated to their heritage.

The most consistent local source for such works remains the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, which runs from November 5 to 8 at the Cinemark Tinseltown (88 West Pender Street). Unlike other local events that showcase films from Asia, VAFF emphasizes stories by and about Asian Canadians and Americans.

The Washington Post is running a series called “Voices of Power” wherein top White House staffers are interviewed about their positions in the Obama administration. Today, the Post published video and a transcript of their conversation with Chris Lu, who, as Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary, is one of the most prominent Asian Americans in the White House.

The full transcript is five pages long, but I found Lu’s comments about his identity as an Asian American in the White House intriguing:

You are among the most senior Asian-Americans in the administration and in the White House. What does that mean to you?

Mr. Lu: It means a lot to me. My parents were both born in China. They moved to Taiwan for grade school and high school. They both emigrated here in the late ’50s for college.

Company Supports Asian/Pacific Islander Community in Promoting Hep B Awareness

SAN FRANCISCO - Subaru of America is joining the San Francisco Hep B Free campaign as the official vehicle and partner by donating the use of a 2010 Subaru Legacy detailed with full color artwork promoting the campaign theme which calls on everyone to "B a Hero" in preventing liver cancer and the hepatitis B disease.

Hepatitis B causes up to 80 percent of all liver cancers, and disproportionately affects 1 in 10 Asian and Pacific Islanders. A safe and effective vaccine prevents infection and liver cancer caused by hepatitis B. The most important step towards eliminating hepatitis B disease is by bring tested for infection in your doctor's office.

SAN FRANCISCO - A diverse array of elected officials, community organizations and leaders raised several thousand dollars at a benefit Friday night in San Francisco for the victims in the Philippines of Typhoon Ketsana, known in that country as Ondoy.

The massive flooding in metropolitan Manila in the Philippines has claimed hundreds of lives and affected more than 2.5 million people in what is considered the worst such calamity in the region’s history. The impact of this unfortunate event will be felt for many months ahead and the country will need a lot of help from the global community in rehabilitation efforts as well as in dealing with resulting food and basic supply shortages and the spread of disease.

“I grew up in Manila in a home by the river and this effort was prompted by that one Saturday in the wake of the killer typhoon when I couldn’t get a hold of my family,” said event chair Keesa Ocampo. “I didn’t know if they were safe or even alive.”

U.S. ASIAN WIRE - Charlottesville's Tim Be Told confection of catchy hooks and positive vibes, is a band on the rise. They combine a variety of eclectic elements to create a form of soulful pop-rock of their own, similar to Maroon 5 and The Fray.  The multicultural band comprises of frontman Tim Ouyang, drummer Jim Barredo, guitarists Andrew Chae and Luan Nguyen, and bassist Parker Stanley.

VisualizAsian.com - Continuing with our AAPI Empowerment Series at visualizAsian.com, our next guest is Phoebe Eng, author of "Warrior Lessons: An Asian American Woman's Journey into Power," Vice Chair for the Ms. Foundation for Women and head of Creative Counsel, an organization that connects artists and entertainers with social causes.

LIVE INTERVIEW IS ON TUESDAY, JUNE 23 at 6 PM PDT (9 PM EDT) on VisualizAsian.com, Register here

From NAM - Him Mark Lai, the internationally noted scholar, writer, and “Dean of Chinese American History” was born on November 1, 1925 in San Francisco’s Chinatown. His ten books, more than 100 essays, and research in English and Chinese on all aspects of Chinese American life are published and cited in the U.S., the Americas, China, Southeast Asia, and Australia. He obtained a high profiency and fluency in English and Chinese languages, impressively having knowledge of ancient Chinese.

Lai was a member of Amerasia Journal’s editorial board for more than 30 years and a contributing writer. Among his works published by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press are: A History Reclaimed: An Annotated Bibliography of Chinese Language Materials on the Chinese of America (1986); in 2000 Amerasia Journal published his autobiographical essay: “Musings of a Chinese American Historian.”

 According to Ruthanne Lum McCunn: