+ This news is not new news, but I have been thinking a lot about Felicia Lee. I first read about her on Disgrasian, where they break down the disparity in coverage between Annie Le and Felicia Lee. A few weeks later, a former high school classmate of mine posted about her on Facebook. That's when I realized that Felicia was a classmate of mine, someone I barely knew and probably only talked to a few times. I am deeply saddened to hear about her violent death, and feel so sad for her friends and family members. Feels like I've been hearing about so many cases of abuse and violence against women, some perpetrated by strangers, and other ones, as this one is alleged, by her own boyfriend. This violence -- domestic, stranger violence, any kind -- against women MUST STOP. Especially in light of the recent Richmond High rape case.

Here are some good pieces on the web by fellow Asian American writers, in case you missed it:

• Ky-Phong Tran, one of Hyphen's/Asian American Writers' Workshops' short fiction finalists this year, writes a very personal and compelling piece about the health care and the public option at Nguoi Viet and republished at New America Media. (By the way, Tran's short story, "A Thing Called Exodus," is printed in issue #19, out on news stands now).
• Journalist/historian William Wong blogs about Oakland Asian Cultural Center's Oakland Chinatown oral history project and their very cool, new and interactive website.
• My friend Bao Phi writes a post at the Star-Tribune about an upcoming (this Saturday, October 3) fundraiser for the family of Fong Lee, who was killed by police. He interweaves personal stories about growing up in the midwest and his feelings and interactions with police, which I think will resonate with many folks of color all over.
• Finally, this isn't a thing to read, but to watch. If you're in the DC area, check out the 10th annual DC APA Film festival! Opening night is tonight and it goes until Saturday, October 10. The list of films looks great. I haven't seen 'em all, but definitely check out the narrative Children of Invention, if you haven't seen it, and documentary A Village Called Versailles. There are, of course, other great films in there. You really can't go wrong.

Is it just me, or are more Asian Americans blogging these days (or is it just more people blogging in general)? A few of note in recent days/weeks.

Check out this just released short film by UCLA student Chuck Diep, co-produced by Robert Nakamura, Gena Hamamoto and Tad Nakamura. The title is A Salon Story and Diep's main subject is a nail salon owner. It's a good short film from the perspective of an Asian American.

The synopsis: "The mention of nail salons often evokes images of acrylic nails and heating lamps, neon signs and nail polish. The Vietnamese salon worker has become a recognized image within the industry. Who are these salon workers and what is their story?"

You know the old saying: You don't learn to appreciate your parents until you become a parent yourself. I think that's somewhat true. In reflecting on/writing about raising a multilingual child, I've been thinking a lot about being raised bilingual. My parents never made it a big point to force us to speak Chinese; it just was what it was. We never really questioned it. Mandarin was my first language and it connected me to my immediate family members. We were very privileged because my sister and I got to spend a lot of time in Taiwan, where my grandparents lived. We spent summers there and thus gained a lot of fluency through immersion in a Chinese environment.

I wonder how my my parents and other first generation parents pondered over their children's language acquisition; how much they thought about issues of assimilation or retaining their cultural heritage. I also think for second and third generation Americans, it may be a more conscious decisions in most cases to raise their child knowing a language outside of English.

One of the drawbacks I didn't mention in being a bilingual child, where my first language was not English, is that when I started school, I became really quiet. At home, I would talk, but at school, I rarely said anything unless the teacher asked me something or unless another kid engaged me in a real way (not just talking at me). I'm sure a big part is my personality, but this silence thing reverberated throughout my schooling years. Even in college, I always felt like by the time I could formulate words to participate in a discussion, the discussion had already moved on.

There have been several news stories that I thought Hyphen readers might find interesting.

* First, a breakdown of the use of the phrase "illegal immigrants" in mainstream media. I have long wanted to write a post about this, but I thought this post from Read Media Ethnics is a good jumping off point for a discussion around language and power. It's not the first time people have brought it up -- the National Association of Hispanic Journalists issued a statement against this term in 2006. The Rockridge Institute also has a good piece by George Lakoff and Sam Ferguson about it entitled "The Framing of Immigration." Yet time and time again, the term "illegal immigrant" is used in mainstream papers and elsewhere. Whenever I brought this up to editors, they would point to their "style guide" which dictated that this term was okay in describing a person. Just about every mainstream news outlet uses "illegal" to describe a person or people. Lakoff and Ferguson point out that this very common phrase is not neutral:

These are NOT neutral terms. Imagine calling businessmen who once cheated on their taxes "illegal businessmen." Imagine calling people who have driven over the speed limit "illegal drivers." Is Tom Delay an "illegal Republican?"

I just heard the news that Richard Aoki passed away Sunday at age 70*. Richard Aoki was one of the first members of the Black Panther Party and a field marshal of the revolutionary group.

Aoki was born in San Leandro, CA. He and his family were interned during WWII, and afterwards, resettled in West Oakland. Aoki befriended Black Panther Party founders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale at Merritt College in Oakland, where they all went to school. Richard was also a student leader in the Third World Student Strike at UC Berkeley in 1968 and a member of the Asian American Political Alliance.

I'm sure Richard will be missed by many friends and people in the community. Feel free to post a message here. I am writing a full obituary on him for the local paper, which I will link to later.

Here's an article I wrote about him on the 40th* anniversary of the Black Panther Party. Here's an article that Neela Banerjee, also a Hyphen editor, wrote about him in AsianWeek in 2001.

*corrected from original version.

This year, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival has another great group of films lined up. I had the opportunity to review some of them, and for some reason, they all seemed to center on the theme of individual and community resilience:

Whatever It Takes

This film focuses on first-year principal Edward Tom of the South Bronx Center for Science and Math. The film follows Tom and his school for a year, and zooms in on one 9th grade girl in particular, Sharifea. I was really amazed at how much access first-time filmmaker Christopher Wong had to the school, Tom and Sharifea's family. All in all, it's a great documentary about the dramas of being a principal in a small urban school. There are a lot of ups and downs and a few unexpected turns. I recommend this film for everyone. It's not the only urban school documentary out there, but possibly the first that focuses on an Asian American principal. The school community and Sharifea's life eventually overshadow Tom's story, but I think that's the point: it's not one person, but a whole community that makes a school what it is.

So, it's been over a week since rapper/singer M.I.A. sang at the Grammy's on her due date. A few days later, she gave birth (I admit, I obsessively checked Google news the following days to see if she had her baby). It seems that though there are lots of bloggers and entertainment writers out there obsessed with the news of her baby, her polka dot/lady bug outfit, and her bravery, some in the news establishment quickly shifted to her politics.

M.I.A. is the daughter of a leader of the Tamil independence movement in Sri Lanka, and has referenced it in her songs and videos. The New York Times did a piece about how she's viewed in Sri Lanka (where Tamils are a minority), which according to the piece, is not very highly. This isn't the first time people have confused her with promoting terrorism and we all know she had some visa issues (to the U.S.) a few years back (though she now lives in NY). It's all whack. Here's a good post from the Village Voice in response to the New York Timespiece.

But since we are obsessed with M.I.A., the new topic is whether she will perform at the Oscars (she's nominated for the song "O Saya" from the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack). I don't know -- performing big bellied is cool, but rolling her out onto a bed or performing via hologram? Honestly, I hope she just takes it easy.

I have always liked M.I.A. though I don't enjoy all of her music. She is clearly talented and I like what she's said about art and politics. How many times have I listened to songs with a good beat, only to realized how f-ed up the lyrics are? All the lyrics that demean women, especially in the radio rap hits. Even M.I.A.'s co-conspirator in the Grammy performance, Kanye West, has some awful sexist lyrics (though ironically, he spoke out against domestic violence a la Chris Brown/Rihanna). His music sounds great but he needs a good writer! Anyway, I'm saying this because M.I.A. is the opposite -- a lot of her music is fun has good beats and her lyrics are good (think "Pull up the people/pull up the poor"). Congrats to the new mama. Her Grammy performance was a big WOW but I think giving birth is a much bigger accomplishment. 

Stephane Gauger's feature film, Owl and the Sparrow is now playing in Southern California and will soon open in Northern California and Texas theaters.

I caught this film, about a vagabond orphan, an elephant-whisperer (okay, a guy who works at the zoo) and flight attendant, nearly two years ago when it showed at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

I totally fell in love with it.

It's a very charming tale and the acting is excellent. Gauger, who is Amerasian, shot the film in Vietnam. It's akin to Slumdog Millionaire except not exactly a rags to riches tale. It's about very ordinary people finding love and finding each other. And the cinematography is really beautiful.

Poster by Jesus Barraza and Melanie Cervantes.

It is approximately 10 pm Wednesday night, and I can still see and hear the helicopters outside my window. Earlier this afternoon, at least 1,000 people gathered peacefully in front of Oakland City Hall to protest the shooting of Oscar Grant by a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) police officer early New Year's day. Grant, 22, was lying face down when one of the officers pulled out his gun and shot him in the back. The peaceful protest from earlier today turned violent when a reported few dozen people lingered around and smashed in some windows and cars.

When we left the march around 6 pm, we were hoping to pick up some dinner from our favorite Chinese restaurant, but it was closed. It seemed that about 70 percent of the businesses in Chinatown closed early due to the protests, because of its proximity to downtown. And most of the downtown businesses also closed early, with many boarding up their windows. 

So, as a parent of a toddler, we spend some, er, quality time in front of the computer watching YouTube videos -- in moderation, of course. My son learned to say "video" very quickly (in what I think is a Mandarin accent). We try to find culturally appropriate ones that we enjoy watching too. Check 'em out:

This one is from Ni Hao, Kai-lan, a bilingual Mandarin/English children's show. I like this one, since it's about making dumplings.

I just watched The Princess of Nebraska, directed by Wayne Wang, on YouTube a few nights ago. [Update: they seem to have taken the movie down.] I have to admit, my partner and I watch a lot of videos and DVDs on our computers these days when our son's asleep. So watching a full movie on the computer wasn't too foreign to us. Still, there were points when I wondered if it would've been a lot better on the big screen.

I've been observing the hype around this election from afar. As someone who rarely watches TV, doesn't party much nor get too excited about electoral politics, I've been able to look at the election hoopla from a distance. I have to agree that the election is at once historical and something to be celebrated on a symbolic level -- I certainly don't want to diminish that -- and at the same time, I can't bring myself to attend any celebrations around the election.

I didn't vote for Obama. I feel like this fact is something I should whisper, or that I'm confessing something eternally sinful. I voted for that old white* dude instead. No, not that old white dude. Ralph Nader. Yes, I did. (And I know others did too). Of course, I have the so-called privilege of living in California, which is not a swing state. If I lived in Indiana or somewhere else, I probably would've cast my vote for Obama just to be safe. I voted for Nader because his politics and policies are much more aligned with mine. As a new mother, and as someone opposed to wars in general, I couldn't bring myself to vote for someone who is open to bombing other countries.

Here are several links that range from congratulatory to events-you-can-attend to news that is just appalling and maddening.

The first known Chinese American film, "The Curse of Quon Gwon," (c. 1916) will be showing in Oakland this Saturday. The film was rediscovered by documentary filmmaker Arthur Dong while doing research for his film, "Hollywood Chinese," which includes a snippet of the original film. 

The film was made around 1916 by Marion Wong, a Chinese American woman who lived in Oakland. It features her family members, with sister-in-law Violet Wong as the lead. I interviewed Violet Wong's daughter earlier this year for an article, and she told me that her mother hardly mentioned this historic project to her children when they were growing up. Violet Wong later started a popular restaurant in El Cerrito, CA and became known more for that than her foray into silent film.

By now, you may have heard about the Save KoreAm campaign. If you haven't, KoreAm is a Korean American magazine that's been around for 18 years, a lifetime in Asian Am magazine years. Staffers at the magazine recently launched this campaign to reach out to the wider community for support.

I talked to the President of KoreAm Journal, James Ryu, on the phone yesterday, to clarify some things about what's going on at KoreAm. If anything happens, we may be short of not one, but two Asian American publications, since KoreAm also publishes Audrey, an Asian American women's magazine.

Basically over the last year and a half, they've had a huge dip in advertising -- nearly 30 percent -- which makes up 70-75 percent of their revenue, according to Ryu. He said the staff met as a whole to see what to do -- cut 20 percent of the jobs, or cut everyone's pay by 20 percent. The staff decided they would all take the pay cuts to save their jobs. There are currently 11 staffers at KoreAm and Audrey, based in Los Angeles.

Interested in honing your creative writing skills and you live in L.A.? Asian American Poetry and Writing (AAPW), a newish group started by Ky-Phong Paul Tran, is hosting writing workshops at the Japanese American National Museum near downtown Los Angeles this fall. The classes sound pretty cool--introduction to fiction, introduction to poetry, memoir/personal writing, and screenwriting. The instructors are Noel Alumit, Neil Aitken, Naomi Hirahara and Koji Steven Sakai. Sounds like a nice line up. To see a full list of class descriptions, go here.

The group also has original articles. A couple of new ones include an interview with Kawita Kandpal, author of "Folding a River," by Hyphen contributor Ching-In Chen. Vanessa Hua, formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle, also has a piece on Berkeley-based indie publisher Kaya Press. Check out AAPW here!

This is, in Ky-Phong's words, a totally "DIY" (do-it-yourself) operation so spread the love to folks you know in the Los Angeles area who might be interested!

I just read on Angry Asian Man about the death of Hiu Lui Ng, who recently died under custody of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Please read the entire story in the New York Times, and prepare to be enraged.

The man was dying of cancer in his lungs, liver and bones -- and had a spinal fracture. At the age of 34. It sounds like he was denied real care, over and over and over again because it was only right before he died that the cancer was detected.

He was continually harrassed by ICE staff the whole time he was suffering from all of this.Tortured. And they didn't believe him when he said he was in pain.

On top of that, it sounds like he was retaliated against by ICE. According to the article:

"In federal court affidavits, Mr. Ng's lawyers contend that when he complained of severe pain that did not respond to analgesics, and grew too weak to walk or even stand to call his family from a detention pay phone, officials accused him of faking his condition. They denied him a wheelchair and refused pleas for an independent medical evaluation.

Instead, the affidavits say, guards at the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in Central Falls, R.I., dragged him from his bed on July 30, carried him in shackles to a car, bruising his arms and legs, and drove him two hours to a federal lockup in Hartford, where an immigration officer pressured him to withdraw all pending appeals of his case and accept deportation."

Okay, I have only been sort of following the real-life drama between Spike Lee and Clint Eastwood. I'm sure we don't even know the whole lot of it, especially since the media is quick to jump on racial conflict like this.

I have to say that I have a lot of respect for Spike Lee and his work, and I am also a fan of some recent Eastwood flicks. I appreciate Spike Lee for the messages in his films, about African American male role models and families (think "Crooklyn," and even that not all that great made-for-TV movie "Sucker Free City"). I liked Eastwood's "Letters from Iwo Jima" because it humanizes, in my mind, not just Japanese soldiers but Asian people in general. I know that is a simplistic way of looking at it, but when I see an Asian person on screen, I identify with them, even if they are not Chinese like me. The whole cast was practically Asian, and that is unusual for a Hollywood film, by a white director, no less.

I haven't seen "Flags of our Fathers," the subject of the debate, so I won't comment much on that.

But I do know that if we're talking about historical accuracy, they've both got some more work to do.

Today marks the 63rd year after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing more than 200,000 and physically, mentally and psychologically harming many, many more.

The mayor of Hiroshima, Tadatoshi Akiba, is apparently trying to get the U.S. to sign a nuclear arms abolition treaty. So far, the U.S. is one of three countries that hasn't signed, while 170 other countries have. Akiba is also launching a study on the psychological damage done by the a-bombs dropped on August 6th, 2008.

It seems like there are some U.S. peace activities around this day, including in Manhasset, NY, where Japanese American children reportedly were to give out paper cranes, a sign of peace. Apparently this day is commemorated around the world with peace vigils and marches.