P.O.P Reflection

Abby here, writing about P.O.P--

P.O.P came so quickly! It was just last week we were all preparing for P.O.P and then performing on Monday was so surrel. So from my group- Ria, Angelie, and I went to Lawrence's house on Sunday for what was supposed to be a whole run through of the show. But it turned out to be that we were the first ones there. So we chilled for a bit and waited for people. People started coming around 11 o'clock. Out of all the people form the class that raised their hands that they could make it on Sunday, it seems as though only a few of us actually made it. Since we needed most of the people from my group to actually do something productive, we didn't get much done. So it was pretty much hella chill for the three of us. It was fun seeing the dance group, and Ben and Jon practice. Lawrence told us to have confidence in ourselves as we were performing and everything would be fine. I agreed with him. But when Monday came, just being at the theater gave me butterflies! Watching the first class perform was very funny. Then when we had to perform, I was so nervous! I wasn't even on stage! But when my group and I was up, and being that I had to read off from a paper, I think my nervousness got the best of me. I couldn't read from my paper because I was behind the curtain and there was no lighting source whatsoever so I had to ask Julien if he could hold my phone up to my paper for some light and thank God he did! I didn't realize I was reading so fast. I know during the first blog, I paused for a bit because I really could not see. Overall, I think our performance went well. I know we could've done better if we all practiced before-hand but wasn't able to do so because most of the peoples in my group had class or work until 6 that day. For the whole class performance, we went over our time limit. Each class was supposed to perform for only 30 minutes, but with our class, I think we performed for over 45 minutes, or at least it felt like it. I think it's cuz we had a lot of technical difficulties, but Irene explained to us that Lawrence's laptop froze. Another thing we could've had was an MC for the class performance that could've introduced each performance so that audience wouldn't be wondering "WTF are they doing?!" haha. But other than that, I'm really proud of the whole class. Jon and ben's performance was tight! I wish someone could've recorded the class performance but sadly no one didn't. I couldn't stay for the rest of the performances for the night because I had to study for a final the next day, but I hope to see clips of it online!

Yesterday was officially our last class together. Everyone brought food. We started the class off by writing questions related to EThs 210- whatever we learned in class or futuristic questions. And it was funny! I was watching everyone and how we were all laughing, having a good time. It was sad knowing that it was our last day together. I had to leave 20 minutes early though because I had to meet with a TA from another class.. I kind of regret that. I started with everyone on the first day of class, and leaving early makes me feel like I didn't finish Eths 210 with everyone else...

finals

so, we recently had finals. oh how stressful this turned out to be. lawrence was saying how we shouldn't stress off finals too much and that it'll turn out fine. and yeah everything went good in a sense especially within the time frame given. so i give kudos to our class for all their performances. i just wish we had more time to rehearse our skit and i understand time wise it was nearly impossible for us to find a time and day where we were available all at once. but we tried our best and did what we can and that's all what really counts, the effort. the other classes were pretty impressive too, everything was entertaining yet very educational. the majority of performances were skits, videos, and people spitting some mad flows though. i personally enjoyed the song performances because i'm so big on music. a little off topic but you know how there's certain images out there. for instance, what a artist should look and don't take this the wrong way because i'm all for being a individualist. but yeah most of the guys who came up to perform a song surprised me. i look at them as if they're just regularass people until they open that mouth of theirs and wow pure genious type of shit. the one person who really surprised me was the asian boy who performed before our class and came out the cuts in a polo and some slacks. like he looked really asian and hope this does not offend no one, you'd expect him to be on some other shit. i was like this boy has mad talent with words, lyrically he fucking just blew me away. and i love when a person can prove me wrong in a sense where you couldn't picture a person doing this or that, or being this or that you know. so props to him had me bobbing my head the whole time, haha. so yeah i touched on that subject pretty long. overall after finals i felt like this semester just flew by fast. like it just hits you that it's finally over and you won't be going to irene's dopeass class no more, hah. and it kind of sucks like i mean i liked being in our groups throughout the semester but i wish we mixed it up more. because i felt towards the end that's when i really met other people in our class. and it's so much different out of the classroom especially going to lawrence's place i felt like that's when i actually spoke to other people in our class and had a real conversation. nonetheless a memorial semester with some cool folks, i enjoyed having this class. i guess this is see you guys around. . .

--ria.

poet: native guns

Native Guns

Native Guns

iron chef

this is pretty late, but hey i still remember that day pretty vividly haha. so near the beginning of the semester irene introduced a pretty sick activity called the iron chef. i'm sure many know the show, i use to watch it all the time. we basically recreated the show by having each team come up with a asian american inspired dish which is taking an american cuisine and infusing it with the tastes of the culture we chose. our team thought we were pretty sick coming up with a continental breakfast with a mix of chinese foods, but it happens that irene's example was a previous class who attempted the same dish. but it's okay, i thought our dish turned out quite good though. it had a fried rice hashbrown, egg and ginger omlette, chinese sausages, tofu mixed with sausages, and bombass slices of pork. although i did not help cook the actual dish, we all done our part by researching the background on each of the foods. so of course in iron chef your competing with another chef so we went against the justsosick girls who created a vietnamese sandwich. although both groups did well, our group won. our first and only victory, but it was fun. i thought this activity was hella clever and you learn a lot from it. it touches on the idea of what is asian american, gain history behind the foods, experience the different tastes, and learn to work as a team. it's activities and lessons like these that makes students want to actually come to class. and irene is very good at that, haha i sound like a fucking suck up whatev.

--ria.

POP!

So as our final, we were to prepare a show together with the other Eths 210 classes. POP, Producing our Power, showcases the different ideas that we all learned in class and what we will take along with us for the future. For our class, we decided to divide up into groups, each focusing on a different element- dance, skits, poetry, video and music. As apart of the skit group, we decided to split up into two groups so we can make two skits. When given the theme of Stereotypes and the struggle of Asian Americans, we tried to think of different ideas to incorporate them into a skit. We decided on making a skit about our whole experience in the class and the activities we did. One person would be blogging, just like how our assignments are, and another person reads it in the background as if they were the inside voice, while the others acted out the scene. The concept seemed really coo and different, but we were short on time so we had to figure out how we were going to pull it off. Our group met up about once or twice, but all the time was spent on thinking about what we were going to do as oppose to actually rehearsing it. Me, Ria and Abigail even went to Lawrence's on Sunday but we weren't able to do much without our whole group. When it came to the day of the show @ Brava Theater, me and Ria were actually pretty excited because we never really done anything like this before. Although we were kinna worried about the performance because we hardly had time to rehearse all together. Seeing all the other students in the other classes was nice and how we all came together to put on this show. When it came down to show time,our class opened up with a News video. I wasn't able to actually watch it there, but I seen it on our MySpace and the commercials they made were pretty hilarious. The other skit group went second, and it was coo how they used popular reality shows as their model. The dance group started off with a hip-hop routine, then brought it back to a cultural dance and ended it with a contemporary piece. Our skit group was up next, and I'm not sure if it showed our unpreparedness but we tried our best. The poetry and music groups went next. But there were technical difficulties with the songs. Props to Jon and Ben for their performance though! And lastly, we concluded our part of the show with a commemoration video for the whole class. Overall, the whole experience was fun. It gave us a chance to interact with people outside of our regular groups and show everyone what we have learned. Despite the short amount of time to prepare and some technical difficulties during the show, we still pulled it off and everyone did their best.

- Angelie

Angel Island Immigration Station

In class, we watched a short video on Angel Island to introduce our poetry assignment.

The Angel Island immigration station is located in the San Francisco Bay where thousands of immigrants hoped for their papers to be completed and processed to be able to enter the U.S. Beginning in 1910, thousands of Chinese immigrants poured into the station only to find out that were going to be detained and interrogated. Many of the immigrants stayed in barracks for not only weeks or months, but some even years, awaiting their approval. Many told the stories of their struggles and expressed their fears and frustrations through poems that were carved on the wall, many of which are still visible today in the museum. The immigration station operated for 30 years before a fire destroyed the administration building in 1940 forcing the government to decide on abandoning the station.

After watching the video, I've realized the great length thousands of immigrants endured to be able to live a better life for not just themselves, but their families. Many immigrants traveled on their own, leaving behind loved ones to find work to provide and support their families. I can't even begin to imagine what was going through their minds and how they felt going to a foreign country, completely different from their homes and what they know.

- Angelie

Ryan does Cantonese Opera? WTF?

Yes, i do Cantonese Opera. its something i started about three or four years ago. It started when a friend of my brother, needed more people for a show, because they were short some. So my brother recruited me and few others from the Oakland High School lion dance club. We help out a group call the Red Bean Opera house. so now every summer we help out with their variety show. Last year, thought that it would be cool to do a skit that is full of ABC (American born Chinese). Mainly to show the Chinese community that us American born are into our Chinese culture and want to learn more about it. Wanting to prove to them that even if we're born in America, we are not just Americans but Chinese as well. Even it most of us are new to the art, lot of people enjoyed our show.
This past summer we did another show called," The Swaying Reeds". here are the links to watch it on you tube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7s4X2XWQus&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_UdCfYV2Tc&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_gicpAkLug&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cj1ycGuY7k0&feature=channel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY-QBju9hFo&feature=channel
As you can clearly see, its in 5 parts. I'm in the first and second part. The guy in green and the large black beard.
This opera is an excerpt from the classical Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. in this show, the eastern kingdom of Wu is determined to regain the province of Jing Zhou. To lead this campaign is their military strategist, Zhou Yu, who leads with 3000 troops towards Jing Zhou. But the opposing kingdom of Shu's military strategist, Zhuge Liang, predicted this attack and was already well prepared. At Jing Zhou he stationed two generals, Huang Zhong and Wei Yan( thats me), with an army of 50000 foot soilders and 7000 calvary. They were meet Zhou Yu with the orders to not to kill him but to mock him and taunt him. Because Zhou Yu had ashort temper, he was easily overwhelmed and had to retreat to the Swaying Reeds Marsh, where he encounters Zhange Fei, another oppseing general under the command of Zhuge Liang, with the same order. Not to kill Zhou Yu, but to mock and toy with him. However Zhange Fei accidentally wounded Zhou Yu. Frightened that he was killed, Zhange Fei inspect Zhou Yu's body. Discovering that he was still alive, Zhang Fei throws Zhou Yu back to his troops for a shameful retreat.

POP!!

Ryan here with my POP reflection.

So Pop stands for "producing our Power"...i think. So it's an event where all four of Ethnic Studies 210 classes come together and form a show. Each class was to create their own show to perform in front of the other three classes. so for our class, we divided into different groups; skit, dance, video, poetry, and music. The CPG all decided to go into skit. So we had about a week to come up with an skit to perform, but since there were so many people who wanted to do a skit, we decided to spit the skit group into two. I decided to leave behind the CPG to join the other half of the skit group to help even up the number of people. This group decided to do a skit about Asian-American stereotypes. We went through many ideas and finally concluded to show these stereotypes by imitating TV shows.
Last Monday night was the day of POP, let me say that, to me, that was a long day. The show started at 7 o'clock, so we had plenty of time to rehearse and to get something to eat. After rehearsing a few times, the group got the skit down. Our lines was a bit shaky but was still good.
Then the show began, our class was the second to perform. Iforgot which class went first, but they did a really good job. It was very organized and well rehearse. it was very creative and entertaining to watch. After their last number, our class went up and did our show. WE were not as oragnized as the last group but we were ready to do our best. And i think we did. I think everyone did a good job on their part. I believe everyone was able to send out their message to the crowd. it was kinda sad that we had technical difficulties at the end of our show. So when everything was all finish most of the class stayed to watch the show and a few had to go. i was one of them, so i wasn't able to enjoy the rest of the show.

Better late then never

I keep forgetting to post this up, so here's my letter to Hyphen editor.

Dear Harry

Hi, this is Ryan one of the student that was in Irene’s class. First off, I just want to say that I really appreciate you and everyone at Hyphen in making these magazines. It is really rare to see magazines about Asian-Americans and I just want to say thank you all for this wonderful product. I bought your Music issue and Road Trip issue and both were fantastic to read. There are many interesting articles to read and after reading them, I was to understand the world of Asian-American a bit more. I understand how they think and how they see the world. One thing that really amazed me was that there was an article about The Notorious MSG. Not many people know about them, well not many outside of New York. Seeing them in your magazine was shocking and now thanks to Hyphen magazine, I understand their reasons in going into music and what is their goal.

There are so many good articles I would like to talk about, but I don’t want to bother you any much longer reading this letter. So as a finally message, I just want to say that this is fantastic work, you all did a wonderful job, and keep up the good work. I support you guys 100%.

Sincerely,

Ryan Young

food review: kadok's restaurant

so my family and i go to a dental office located in the excelsior on mission street. after our appointments we decided to go out to eat and have lunch together because we rarely go out and eat at restaurants together just for the fuck of it. so my dad comes across this filipino restaurant called kadok's just a block down from our dentist and we end up trying it out. the place was a pretty typical filipino resturant serves all your common filipino cuisines and shit. angelie basically named many of the foods served there on her food review @ a different filipino restuarnt. i mean their food was okay nothing too special about their menu. i mean my grandma could whip up the same shit at home and probably even taste better. the only thing i enjoyed was the seating near the window because it resembled a bamboo house like those made in the philippines, so you had a little feel of being in the pi. other than that i'd probably recommend the restuarant to people who like filippino food, is cheap, and just out to eat really fast. the place is pretty small, so i wouldn't throw a party there, just for quick outings. i only ordered palabok and lumpia which are both one of my favorites. taste wise it did the job and satisfied my needs. this is not intended to disrespect their restuarant in any means, so hopefully no one talks this the wrong way. i have still yet to go to a restuarant that can woo me with new dishes and the place is inviting as well as eye catching so one could enjoy her stay. i like going to restuarants that are well-decorated with pictures that could tell a thousand words, weird sculptures, and stuff like that. and hopefully the look of their place reflects the taste of their food too. (:

Kadok's Restuarant
4794 Mission St
(between Leo St & Onondaga Ave)
San Francisco, CA 94112

--ria.

immigrating

so, i want to write about my parents experience immigrating to the u.s. and this is not intended for sympathetic needs what so ever, but more of me gaining the appreciation for the life i live now because of what my parents have gone through. and i'm sure a majority of our parents have gone through the same lengths, so big ups to them. although i don't know the detailed story behind everything, but growing up i managed to piece little information little by little and connecting it to how my parents managed to stand on their own two feet now. my parents don't like talking about what they've done or gone through when i was younger because i guess they didn't want to bring the matter up and spoil my mind with the negatives. so, as an infant i grew up in a house packed with my dad's side of the family. his dad and mom, my grandparents of course had 12 children and all whom had @ least one child lived under one roof. as a child i never understood why i always lived with all my cousins but it was fun you know. you were never bored, always got into some trouble, and it was like constant adventures in our big back yard. there were only 6 bedrooms and families crammed into bedrooms with 8 or more people. to me it kind of felt like a big sleep over you know. later i found out as a teenager, my dad and aunt were the first to arrive the u.s. and worked long hours to bring all their sisters and brothers to the u.s. and saved as much money to support everyone. it took years and they both invested in this 6 bedroom house which 3 rooms were illegally made to create borders amongst families to provide a little privacy. when my dad and aunt managed to successfully bring all their siblings to the u.s., life was tough. they all had to find jobs and get their licenses while the kids stayed at home with their beloved grandma (: even our grandpa as old as he was still worked to help support this family. however, it was not until sophmore year when i visited the philippines did i get the real picture behind my family immigrating. yes the story is so cliche about immigrants wanting to move to the u.s. in hopes of a better life but in all means everyone just wants whats best for them and their children. so when i saw how living out in the philippines was like it was tough you basically spend every minute of your life doing what you can to survive but yet even through the struggles they can still enjoy the little pleasures in life which i thought was fucking amazing. here you have a family living in a bamboo house, their 7 year old daughter cooking and cleaning already, mother out in the marktes trying to sell merchandise or food to bring a little money home, father out in the fields growing and harvesting crops in the scorching heat, and what not. i was like damn i spend $5 dollars on some mcdonalds and that shit can feed a whole family out there. i mean as sad as it seems, a lot families love the life they lived out there. i know my parents plan to move back to the pi when they retire. i guess my family did all this just so their children can get a good education and later support them in their older years you know. and that's the least we can do you know for having them struggle so we'd have an easier life. i remember after the whole philippines experience my dad straight up said, "you better change your life when we come back home" meaning appreciate what they give us and start helping out. but i've grown a lot through their experiences i look at what they've started out with a house with 12 familes to now owning our own house, own car, both parents have decent jobs, and their children all going to school. i think they live their dreams through us and it's taught me so much about life. like appreciate what you have, it's the little things in life that count, fuck what people think, and sorts of jazzy shit. yeah i know what a long blog, hoped you enjoyed.

--ria.

stereotypes

sterotypes have be around for forever. as much as we despise them because it categorizes us into a certain group rather than seened as an individualist, we should learn to accept them light-heartly. a lot of sterotypes seem to be dead on one's culture, so how do all these come to be you know? like we've repeatly said in class it must of came from somewhere you know or reflected off of how someone's culture speaks, dresses, presents themselves, etc. for instance, i'm filippino and we're commonly known or teased about is being a "dog-eater". and i imagine that my ancestors ate dogs as of survival means you know and who is someone to testify them against their will of trying to stay alive. you do what you do to help your ownself and health feel me. so as much as it is true, and i'm not saying this is the story behind the sterotype "dog-eater" it's just a quick inference i made. but coming from a family who struggled growing up to support their families. my family didn't always have the money to go out and buy groceries they raised animals and farms used their sweat, tears, and blood you know. i don't find the term dog-eater a serious matter but nonetheless i accept the idea because it is true in a sense. i admit at times i do make dog eating jokes, but what's life if you can't keep an open mind about ideas.

--ria.

japan town

so, i want to write about the one of the many places i've planned to visit for a long time now. although i am a san franciscan sadly i have never been to japan town. one of my friend always speaks of going to japan town and taking these photo booth pictures. she says it's really cheap and you can edit the pictures with words, cute anime characters, little add on's to your body and face, change backgrounds, etc. it sounds really fun and there are probably plenty of more activities you can explore when going to japan town. you might be thinking why am i blogging about this when i've never been there? i think it is very important to know the background behind everything just so when you experience such as going to a widely known place you are aware of it's history and how it became. i feel it'll make the experience more worth it because the history and exploring are both equal in parts. so, some say japan town is an inexpensive way of visiting japan without actually travelling there. there are resturants, sushi bars, karaoke lounges, supermarkets, theatres, hotels and shops that offer merchandise from japan. on weekends, particularly on spring cherry blossom festival you can see traditional japanese music, dance performances, flower arranging demonstration, etc. learning this is pretty impressive because japan town has so much shit you can do that you can actually get a feel for how japan is like. you can taste how their food is, buy the clothes they wear such as a kimono or buy japan inspired clothing and jewlery, watch their traditions, and more! and the cool thing about it, it is just locted a mile from union square and i didn't know that. as you can tell i haven't gotten around the city much, but now that i'm older and parents give me more freedom i plan to finally explore the city and understand why a building, bridge, statue, or area was built and what it's significance is. and i actually do have plans on friday to go out and explore the city with my girls so hopefully this will turn out to be a sick adventure. so a quick sum up of how japan town became to be it began in 1855 with the van ness ordinance. japan town was only land that was sandy and barren which carried all sorts of wild life like bobcats, rabbits, quail etc. in the 1870s san francisans began to move to this area and built homes. van ness avenue was the eastern boundary of the western addition and it experienced the 1906 earthquake that caused a big fire. the western addition stayed untouched by the fire and provided a place for the victims of the fire. tent villages were set up next to parks and families crowed around small apartments. eventually people started building businesses such as resturants, theatres, saloons, and hotels that shaped what we call japan town today.

--ria.

Cultural and Racial Identity

For the past couple of weeks, I have been really thinking about this identity struggle. I just got a copy of Russell Peter’s show. One of his skits he starts talking and joking about the difference between identifying yourself racial or culturally. And I’m sitting here thinking, ”Shit, that is so true. “ There is a major conflict on how people identify themselves. He uses himself as an example and I agree. Racially he is an Indian man, but culturally he is Canadian. There is nothing Indian about him. And I feel that that’s how a majority of Asian-Americans are. I myself, like to identify being Chinese-American, because culturally I’m Chinese and American. I have both cultures in me. And that is how I identify people, by culture. If you’re your racially Asian but culturally American, then to me you’re just an American, because there is nothing Asian about you. You’re only Asian, because of your skin tone, and background. Lot of Asian-American are identify themselves Asian racially, but let’s think about this if we identify ourselves racially, then that just makes us Asian. We can’t call ourselves Asian-American, because we are not racially American. So we must rely on culture to identify ourselves. Then, as I said before, if Asian-Americans just have American culture and no Asian, then that just makes them American. It one of these major conflicts that we are or need to make clear of.

I still see the term “Asian-American” is two terms, not one. We are called Asian-Americans, because we are Asian and American. Our Asian culture and American culture what makes us what we are. If the two words have to be one then what ever Asian-American culture is, have to have some sort of combination or fusion of Asian and American culture. Like the Chinese food we talked about in class, if we actually think about it, it’s still Chinese food and not Chinese-American. We only make it because the white people liked it, meaning they will come to the restaurant more often. Or like Hip-Hop, how is that Asian-American? Just because majority of Asians are into it makes it like that? Hip Hop is still an American culture and if we follow the roots I guess we can say its African culture. Can we really just say,” Oh it’s an Asian doing an American thing, so it’s Asian American.” Well what happens if we have a White guy doing Asian things? Is that American Asian?

There is still such a large conflict on this matter because everyone has a different point of view. And I might be one of the few who is struggling the most, because I’m into my Chinese culture and the American culture. It harder for me to find a place to fit in because everything is so one sided. Its ether you’re American or you’re Asian. And that is my goal as an Asian-American to be accepted by both, because I’m into both cultures. It shows that I can fit in with both side by constantly switch back and forth between the two cultures.

I what to talk a little more about this but I’m getting a bit tired of typing so maybe later.

-Ryan

Poet Continue

OK allow me to finish this up this poet project.
So heres some of her poems, really easy to read because its for young people, and should be easy to understand. And again the reason why i chose this poet because i thought what these poems say are important to Asian American, about our struggles in America and our identity as Asian Americans.

Speak up

You’re Korea, aren’t you?

Yes

Why don’t you speak Korean?

Just don’t, I guess.

Say something Korean.

I don’t speak it. I can’t.

C’mon. Say something.

Halmoni. Grand mother

Haraboji. Grandfather.

Imo. Aunt.

Say some other stuff.

Sounds funny.

Sounds strange.

Hey, let’s listen to you

For a change.

Listen to me?

Say some foreign words.

But I’m American, can’t you see?

Your family came from

Somewhere else.

Sometime.

But I was born here,

So was I.

Do I really need to explain what this is talking about? This is what all of us Asian Americans have to deal with. Just because we look Asian doesn’t mean that we all can speak our language. To me I see it as a good thing to be able to speak our language, but with people that sees it as entertainment or as a joke, it can discourage us to learn it.

Waiting at the railroad Café

All the white kids are eating.

“Let’s go, dad,” I say

“Lets get out of this place.”

But dad doesn’t move.

He’s going to prove

The Asian race

Is equal. We stay and take our silent beating.

He folds his arms

Across his chest

Glaring at the waitresses who

pass by like cattle

Ready for a western battle.

They will not look, they refuse to

Surrender even to my best

Wishing on bracelet charms.

“Consider this part of your education,”

Dad says. I wonder how long

We’ll be ignored, like hungry ghosts

Of Chinese men who laid this track,

Never making their journeys back

But leaving milestones and signposts

To follow. “Why do they treat us so wrong?”

I wonder. “ Don’t they know we’re on vacation?”

A drunk shouts at us and

Gets louder and redder

In the face

When we pay

Him no mind. I say

“ lets get out of this place.

We’re not equal. We’re better,”

As I pull dad by the hand.

This is a tale of our struggles fitting in with white America. Constantly being looks down like we are just insects, but we refuse to back down. We stand our ground and prove to them that we are equals. If they still try to resist then that shows that they are the cowards and not us. We are not afraid to accept them, but they are afraid to accept us, making us better then them.