January 4, 2017 International Examiner

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

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Activist Al Sugiyama passes away Cover art by: Raychelle Duazo

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2 — January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE OPINION

Allegiance and a Little Sun, a Little Stew

By Bob Shimabukuro IE Columnist

Back then (the 1970s), major national cultural events were on one of three major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) there were Bear with me, as I order my thoughts, no other media (PBS just didn’t have any memories, anger, depression, and feelings clout then) that could compare. over the last few months in order to write about my reactions upon seeing the movie of The Wizard of Oz Allegiance, the Broadway musical produced One day, Cathie came home from work

by George Takei. Allegiance is about the and noted: “Today, all the kids were talking incarceration of Japanese Americans living about The Wizard of Oz. I think every kid on the West Coast during the 1940s. Takei’s (and probably their parents) had watched it.” artist’s rendering of the past collided with Including Mira. the remarks of our president-elect, about “They were talking about Dorothy, the inclusion and exclusion, enemies lists, and Wicked Witch, Tin Man, Cowardly Lion, the specter of mass incarceration. etc., and of course, the red shoes.” Including In addition, my Nesan Toki is in a memoir Mira, even though we didn’t have a color workshop at her assisted living center and TV. Mira had seen The Wizard of Oz movie she asked me to help with memories and (at a theatre) at least three times before that documents that I had about Dad, stuff television “happening,” so I’m positive she that Toki and I had collected years ago saw the red shoes on the black and white TV under the Freedom of Information Act. also.

About his “subversive” activities. And lists of organizations he was tied to. About Allegiance citizenship school. His “alien registration I. Big Sun: Mira and I arrived at the card.” I remember Mom reminding Dad to theater fashionably late JA time (15 minutes get his registration done. before the film was scheduled to start), and I’m trying to focus on the past, the future, it looked crowded going up, so we went and the present because it’s all connected. down into the front section. Sat in seats with Right now. My brain’s working on overload. nobody sitting in front of us. If I was at the What to do, what to say, what to write? live musical, I would have been at the back So here goes. of the theater, squinting, trying to see what “Little Sun” and “Little Stew.” Two was going on, while weaving my head to get preschools that were started by Mira’s mom good sight lines to the stage.

Cathie and some of her friends. “What cute II. Big Stew: When the movie of the stage names for preschools,” I thought, before performance started, I was overwhelmed by being told that they were “Littles I” and the size, everything was huge. The people “Littles II.” This project had something to on the movie screen were, well, larger than do with LBJ’s “War on Poverty” funding, life! I could see everything, and realized when an agency called “4 Seas” (again, immediately this was not going to a be just my mistake, this was really CCCC, for a documentary with some music and dance, Community Coordinated Childcare but had a chance of being good. Of epic Centers, I believe) which sponsored this proportions. modest early learning program.

As the movie progressed, I was drawn Mira attended Little Stew. into the individual characters’ stories and

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the music because the production became a stage for how people cope with forced confinement. Confinement for no other reason than what they look like and who their ancestors are. Try to make some sense out of that. They collect stones, they talk, they write, build baseball fields, then play baseball on them. Grow flowers.

Vegetables. Sing and dance. Fight amongst each other. Volunteer to join the army to prove their loyalty. And resist the draft to prove they’re American. Anything to take the sting away from being locked up.

III. Big Tree: After the movie credits ran, there was a short film clip of a George Takei interview that brought the whole project into perspective. One jarring note in the plot line of the play: an implication that the Nisei Vets were isolated when they returned, and the draft resisters were more welcomed by the community.

Resister-coming-home stories do not back that up.

Upon further thought after the film clip, I realized that the play was Takei’s own take about what went down during the post-mass incarceration years.

In the clip, Takei said that he had, in anger, criticized his dad for leading the family to the incarceration without any resistance. His dad silently walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

Takei said that he never got a chance to apologize to his dad.

Takei was not alone. Many others thought the same. But a larger group thought it best to ride the tide. Even forget the whole thing had happened. Group amnesia. It happens.

IV. Big Shi: I’ve heard Takei speak many times about the mass incarceration and he has always said, that he admires the Nisei Vets for their services and sacrifices in WWII, but he did find what the resisters

EDITOR IN CHIEF Travis Quezon editor@iexaminer.org

NEWS EDITOR Izumi Hansen news@iexaminer.org

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MARKETING INTERN Hiroki Sakamoto STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Isaac Liu STAFF WRITER Chetanya Robinson CONTRIBUTORS Bob Shimabukuro Matt Chan Nalini Iyer Roxanne Ray Fred Wong Jacqueline Wu Maisy Chan Bob Antolin Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo Terada Yoshitaka

did to be more heroic. Allegiance reflects GT’s personal story and thoughts about the experience, and the production is partly the apology to his father. He is also telling us, how easy it is to divide communities and families into fighting amongst themselves, while ignoring the true oppressors. And even worse, to continue those divisions into the next generations.

As such, this was a very important production for the Nikkei community. A lot of people seemed to be talking about it the next day on social media.

If the objective for the movie was to tell the story to a greater American audience, then it probably failed in that purpose.

The audience in the theater I saw it in was mostly Asian.

But for the folks who were there, the focus on the breaking up of families and community was a major theme that needed to be addressed. Especially to the generations in attendance that did not experience the mass incarceration, but most certainly were affected by it in some way they could not even fathom previously.

To George Takei, thank you. Allegiance is a gift to all of us.

Time to Catch a deep, deep breath, then keep moving.

‘Writing, Redress and Social Justice: 75 years after Executive Order 9066’ will feature conversations with (Dad) Bob & (Daughter) Mira Shimabukuro. Mira Shimabukuro is the author of ‘Relocating Authority: Japanese Americans Writing to Redress Mass Incarceration.’ Bob Shimabukuro is the author of ‘Born in Seattle: The Campaign for Japanese American Redress.’ The event happens Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 3:00 p.m. at Elliott Bay Book Company (1521 10th Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122).

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INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017 — 3

IE OPINION

Fake news: Personal responsibility must trump intellectual laziness

By Matt Chan IE Columnist Where do you get your news? That question has become incredibly important given the results of our Presidential Election.

How many times have you heard, “I read a news story on Facebook and ...” The problem: Facebook is not a news service; it’s a “social media” site whose purpose is to connect like-minded friends and family, to provide you with social connections, and online entertainment.

For Asian Americans social media provides an important and useful way of connecting socially and in some cases politically, but there is a downside. The downside is how social media actually works. These sites employ elaborate algorithms to track and analyze your posts, likes, and dislikes to provide you with a custom experience unique to you. The truth is you are being marketed to, not informed.

What looks like news, is not really news, it’s personal validation. All in an attempt to keep you on the site longer, to click a few more things, to make you feel good about what you’re reading. It makes it seem like most people agree with you because you’re only fed information and stories that validate your worldview.

On the other hand, real news is hard work.

Its fact-based information presented by people who have checked, researched, and

documented what they are presenting as the truth. Real news can be verified.

“Fake News” is, well, fake, often times entirely made-up or containing a hint of truth. Social media was largely responsible for pushing “fake news” stories that were entirely made up to drive clicks on websites.

These clicks in turn generated money for the people promoting the stories. The more outrageous the story, the more clicks, the more revenue. When you factor in the algorithms that feed you what you like, you can clearly see the more “fake news” you consume on social media, the more is pushed your way. There’s an abundance of pseudo news sites that merely re-post and curate existing stories, adding their bias to validate their audience’s beliefs, no matter how crazy or mainstream. It is curated solely for you. Now factor in that nearly 44% of Americans obtain some or most of their news from social media and you have a very toxic mix.

The mainstream news media has also fallen into this validation trap. You have one news network that solely reflects the right wing, others that take the view of the left-center leaning, and what is lost are the facts and context, the balance we need to evaluate, learn, and understand the world. People seeking fact-based journalism lose, because the more extreme the media becomes to entice consumers with provocative headlines and click-bait to

earn more money, the less their news is factbased and becomes more opinion driven.

There was a time when fact-based reporting was required of broadcast news. It was called “The Fairness Doctrine,” a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) policy introduced in 1949 that required holders of broadcast licenses (TV and radio stations) to present controversial issues of public importance in an honest, equitable, and balanced manner. The doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to present these issues and provide contrasting views, the very definition of fair and balanced reporting. But in 1987, the FCC, under President Ronald Reagan, eliminated the Fairness Doctrine, an event that some feel was a contributing factor for the rise of political party polarization in the United States and led us to where we are today in the mainstream media.

So what does this intersection of social media and news mean for you? It means that it’s now a matter of personal responsibility to make sure you’re not consuming “fake news” or propagating misleading information without vetting the facts of the stories you consume. It is your job to become more media literate. To make sure what you are reading, watching, and sharing is true and fact based. To know when you are being informed or marketed to. To question the origin of “news” stories that show up on your wall. To seek out credible fact-based

reporting that strives to tell the truth that is so important to a democratic society. To not do this is the ultimate in intellectual laziness.

We all need to support journalistic efforts that reflects what is important to the communities we value and are part of.

There is a strong fact-based journalism community in Seattle, news sources that cover Seattle’s issues, with diverse voices like the International Examiner, Crosscut, Seattle Globalist, and the South Seattle Emerald, which are all excellent examples of community-based journalism. We’ve seen where commercial news and social media has taken us when the main goal is to make money; it’s a world we will have to live in for the next four years. Real factbased citizen journalism can and needs to flourish in the age of Trump.

The International Examiner is teaming up with 21 Progress and industry expert Matt Chan to present the third workshop in a series on citizen journalism on Thursday, January 12 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at 21 Progress, 409 Maynard Ave. S #202, Seattle, WA 98104. $25 for professionals and $10 for students. Visit www.facebook. com/internationalexaminer to find the event page for more information and to register.

The workshop will be focused on preproduction—addressing what to do next once a story is chosen.

‘Broken English’: People are more than their outer appearances

By Phiengchai Sisouvanh Guest Columnist The rhythms of language can be compared to the rhythms of dancing.

The artistry lies with the differences in people’s perceptions. In Mother Tongue, Amy Tan points out the discrimination against her Chinese immigrant mother because of her limited English proficiency. Many Americans treat her mother with indignity because of the language barrier. In fact, much of American society views immigrants as ignorant and uneducated people, seeing only their differences instead of their similarities. However, Tan sees a different aspect of life, by seeing immigrants as well-educated people, whose use of limited English is not indicative of their intelligence.

the United States, immigrants are often judged by how well they speak English.

In contrast, immigrants see the best in both worlds, their perceptions of language are not as limited as that of many Americans.

Similarly, Tan’s intimate knowledge of her mother’s “broken English” helps her to have new perceptions. She believes that her mother’s language “is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way she saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world.” I agree that language spoken at home helps play a role in shaping the language of children because my experience as an immigrant confirms it. It opened my eyes to understanding those with limited English-speaking proficiency. I’ve always believed that people who judge others based on what they see or hear are the ones who face limitations.

the challenge of learning how to speak English fluently while growing up in a home with parents who could hardly speak or understand English themselves.

Since the age of six, my parents counted on me, because I am the oldest child, to be their primary interpreter. I was embarrassed because of their lack of English and also, because of that, I believed they couldn’t fathom what was really going on in the United States.

However, as I have gotten older, my perceptions of my parents have changed.

I am more accepting and understanding of their language barriers.

***

Formerly Incarcerated Group Healing Together (F.I.G.H.T.) was started by a group of Asian & Pacific Islander (API) men who were at one time incarcerated in the Washington State prison system.

F.I.G.H.T. is a direct outgrowth of the organizing that many of us did through different API groups in different prisons. This organizing built deep bonds of unity among us. Together we learned about our own diverse cultures and political histories, life experiences, and perspectives. We also created cultural celebrations featuring various My family and I hunger with a desire forms of traditional arts, like language, to break out of the box of discrimination music, and dance. against those who speak “broken Upon being released, we stayed English.” Our strength, perserverance, committed to continuing to support and determination have helped us each other, whether inside or outside overcome the hardships and judgement of the prison system. We support both of many Americans. If anyone knows current and formerly incarcerated APIs how to hold on to a dream and realize through mentoring, advocacy, outreach, it, it’s the Sisouvanhs. Therefore, let us and political education. We encourage embrace each other and our differences, each other to embrace positivity, and remember that everyone comes compassion, strength, hope, confidence, from a different background, each and building healthy lives and healthy writing their own life story. communities, while breaking the cycle

Tan describes how people treat her mother because of her “broken English.”

She notes “that people in department stores, at banks, and restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good People are more than their outer service, pretended not to understand appearances and shouldn’t be treated her, or even acted as if they did not hear negatively because of their limited her.”

English proficiency, but rather they Phiengchai Sisouvanh is a Laotian of mass incarceration.

This form of stereotyping is common should be embraced for their differences.

As an immigrant, my family and I have American incarcerated at Purdy with many Americans, particularly For more information, visit www. where perceptions come into play. In had extremely limited opportunities but Women’s Correctional Facilty. fightwa.org. we never gave up. We were faced with

4 — January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE NEWS

Attorney, author Qasim Rashid wants to advance the narrative about Islam through education

By Alia Marsha IE Assistant Editor Qasim Rashid was a sophomore in a private Christian university in Chicago when 9/11 happened. He experienced firsthand the increased profiling from law enforcement authorities. Since then, he has gone to law school to equip himself and others on Muslims’ rights in the United States, written three books (the latest entitled Talk to Me: Changing the Narrative on Race, Religion, and Education), and recently spoke at the Crosscut Courage Awards.

Now 15 years after 9/11, Rashid is still advocating for interfaith and interracial dialogue trough the campaign True Islam.

The campaign was created by Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA in an attempt to distinguish true Islam from extremism. It asks supporters to endorse 11 points that defy stereotypes of Islam in the American mainstream narrative. Each point, such as “1. True Islam is a religion that wholly rejects all forms of terrorism,” is backed by verses from the Holy Quran. Since its launch last year, the campaign has gotten endorsements from members of U.S. Congress.

The International Examiner caught up with Rashid, who resides in Virginia, about his campaign, his upbringing and the future of Muslims in the United States under Donald Trump’s upcoming presidency.

International Examiner: What was your upbringing like?

Qasim Rashid: I was born in Pakistan and when we moved to the United States in the 1980s we lived in DC for about a year and a half. We then moved to Chicago. I lived in Chicago my entire schooling and my undergrad so I was there for over 20 years. And then about seven years ago we moved back to Virginia.

I was raised in a Muslim environment. My parents were and are practicing Muslims.

Within the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to which I belong, there’s a strong push for children to attain not only religious education but also secular education. And in terms of religious education there’s a huge emphasis on pluralism and understanding religious diversity, understanding why you believe what you believe, and being able to come on your terms, your own understanding of God and making a commitment of independent accord when you’re an adult that you want to be a Muslim. This is something that’s taught to children at a young age so when they get older they have the ability to think for themselves and make a conscious decision to remain Muslim rather than following what their parents believe.

My upbringing was in a very positive environment in that respect. I believe that this is the environment Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) taught and intended for Muslims to follow.

IE: Can you speak more on the Ahmadiyya Muslim community?

Qasim Rashid

Ahmadi Muslims have been deemed kafir, or heretics, by several Muslim leaders in several countries such as Pakistan, Indonesia and Egypt.

QR: The advocacy that I do has very little to do with Evangelism and has very much to do with ensuring that no person is persecuted for their belief or lack thereof.

Whether somebody is a believer or an Atheist, a Muslim or a non-Muslim or a member of the Ahmadiyya community or not, I’m less concerned about what their own privates believes are. In fact, I’m not concerned about that at all because that’s between a person and God, but I’m much more concerned and more focused on ensuring that my advocacy and work create an environment where they can practice or not practice without any discrimination or intimidation whether from a state level or societal level.

As a result of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community’s advocacy and our beliefs in general, we face heavy persecution in countries like Pakistan and even Indonesia unfortunately, which long had been a beacon for pluralism but unfortunately is starting to become this really Draconian persecution of Ahmadiyya Muslims. Our focus to continue to march forward and provide what true Islam stands for by our action not merely by our words. I think in the long run that has proven to be a successful model that can create the bridges for understanding that this world desperately needs right now.

IE: You are a practicing lawyer. What kind of reaction have you seen from the Muslim communities regarding their rights since Donald Trump won the presidential election?

QR: Just last night I got an email from a young woman who is a Muslim, she’s a convert to Islam and she’s afraid because her family is trying force her to recant her faith as a Muslim. In the United States of America. They’re threatening her. She’s telling me she’s in a safe place right now but I think anytime you’re threatened by your family, you’re not in a safe place so it can be difficult.

Women are emailing me asking about what they can do to protect themselves especially those who observe hijab.

These kinds of questions are real. They’re happening. We see the increase of hate crimes against Muslims, against people who “look” Muslim like our Sikh and Hindu friends. When I say “look” Muslim I don’t mean to stereotype, I mean from the standpoint of people who are ignorant of Islam, Sikhism, and Hinduism. They don’t care to tell the difference. I’ve seen an increase and it’s unfortunately going to continue for some time which reinforces the need for these kinds of dialogues in the first place.

IE: And of course, you’ve heard of the proposed Muslim registry, which reminds us of the incarceration of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II. QR: Our goal, our responsibility is to be promoter of peace and to promote justice.

Where President Trump is going to uphold the law, we’re gonna stand with him. Where he’s gonna violate the law by having things like a Muslim registry, we will vehemently but peacefully oppose him every step of the way. We will use every legal remedy to oppose him and I don’t think that’s exclusive to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community. I think all people of conscience will response in that way. That things like this, effect of the precursor to concentration camps, have no place in civilized society, most certainly not in a country where we have a constitution like we do in the United States.

It’s concerning a lot of people but it’s not something that’s making us disheartened or disillusioned. We will continue to march forward to promote justice and peace and this kind of fear-mongering tactics aren’t gonna scare us away.

IE: How is the campaign True Islam going so far?

QR: It’s been outstanding. It’s been overwhelming, the response. We’re getting close to 10,000 people who have supported online and signed up as a Muslim ally.

Fundamentally what it’s doing I think is undercutting extremist rhetoric by arming people with education which is without a doubt the best weapon we have to combat extremism. It’s allowing Americans, Muslim and non-Muslim, to come to a consistent platform of understanding of what Islam actually stands for and how to differentiate extremism from true Islam.

When people sign up, this is not just an empty signature. By educating themselves, they have then advancing the conversation in their circles.

We get emails from people saying, “I signed up as a Muslim ally, I read the 11 points, I thought this was cool stuff but then a few weeks later I was at a dinner party with a friend and somebody made an antiMuslim comment and I was able to respond to them and explaining to them why they’re wrong instead of just telling them they’re

wrong and actually change their mind.” To me, that’s a huge victory. That’s a victory of victories.

IE: Point number three—“True Islam believes in the equality, education, and empowerment of women”—surprised me, because in the Indonesian Muslim household I was raised in, I was and still am told that I need to essentially sacrifice for my future husband.

QR: If you click on that point, it provides the Quranic and the Hadith support for the statement that Islam believes in female equity, equality, education, and empowerment. This is again not an empty statement. It’s supported by a law, by Islamic jurisprudence. There’s evidence for it. And these verses that talk about women allegedly being forced to be submissive or obedient to their husbands is severely misrepresented.

These verses talk about marital harmony and the need for husbands and wives to listen to one another, to support one another.

So this is not a one-way street.

We look to why these misinterpretations are around and why they exist and it comes down to the 11th point of the True Islam campaign. True Islam believes in unified Muslim leadership. You have inconsistent Muslim leadership, which is motivated by a variety of things. Could be by money, could be by power, could be by alleged prestige.

But it’s not motivated by righteousness.

And that’s when the problem comes in.

These inconsistent Muslim leaders, some of them are saying things like what you’ve pointed out, that women are subservient to men and others are taking it to a much more aggressive extreme.

It is a result of this failed Muslim leadership that we are seeing these issues in the world today and what the True Islam campaign argues is that we need a consistent Muslim leadership. We need unified Muslim leadership that’s based on righteousness. This is a model set forth by the Prophet of Islam, by the Holy Quran, and this is the model we need today.

IE: So in that way, this campaign targets Muslims and non-Muslims.

QR: We’ve invited every Imam in the United States to support this campaign and very few, if any, has responded yet. And that’s OK. That’s their choice, we’re not going to force that upon them. But as far as we’re concerned, we’re going to continue to march forward. One thing you’ll notice about the True Islam campaign is that it doesn’t mention sectarianism in there. We want this campaign to be a non-sectarian campaign. So whether somebody is a Sunni, a Shia, an Ismaili, an Ahmadi, they should be able to endorse these points because these points are secular points, they’re not dogmatic points. We believe that people who are dedicated to reforming the issues that we see in the world today, Muslim or non Muslim, will continue to sign up and advance this narrative of education.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017 — 5

IE ARTS

Guards at the Taj: ACT Theatre welcomes director Samip Raval

By Roxanne Ray IE Contributor ACT Theatre welcomes the first of two Thomas S. Kenan Directing Fellowship recipients this year. As an emerging director gaining practical knowledge and experience, Samip Raval will be in residence at ACT until February, under the guidance of John Langs, and will direct Rajiv Joseph’s play, Guards at the Taj. With this fellowship, Raval is particularly enjoying the opportunity to work with Langs. “I worked with John Langs during my final year at University of North Carolina School of the Arts and knew that I wanted to continue working with him,” Raval said. “After working around the country for a few years, I wanted to return to the core values I learned in school and I knew I could find that with the way John approaches a script in the rehearsal room.”

But Raval’s interest in directing didn’t begin in a rehearsal room. “I think theater happens everywhere, even where there aren’t stages or lights, or even audiences sometimes,” he said. “It’s happening inside of homes, coffee shops, classrooms, workplaces, playgrounds, or anywhere you can find people. So what’s interesting to me is bringing to the stage some of these interactions that are happening in these various environments and adapting them into the dramatic form.”

Raval has since approached a number of collaborations from this perspective.

“There are only 24 hours in a day and there’s so much art to create,” he said.

“How can I manage my time in a way where I’m best serving the craft? It’s a great question to ask and an even greater challenge to take on.”

Part of his process is to continue to ask questions of his own work. “I think it’s very easy to have ideas, but the more Samip Raval distinguished test is how loyal are you to your artistic impulse?” he said. “How From these initial observations, Raval far can you separate your ego from the has strived to become well-rounded in work?” the dramatic arts. “Since I began my This is a challenge that Raval has been training, I have gotten to act, direct, write, wrestling with for years. “I think great and teach in the field,” Raval said. “Each writers and directors are so eager to scrap of these experiences has taught me a away early ideas in order to find the real different side of the craft, and you have to core of a story,” Ravel said. “I find myself be fully immersed in those experiences to learning to detach from the early impulse extract such specific teachings. I continue and continue asking endless questions to dance between these various roles of until I hit a very specific nerve in the the theater because it deepens my practice body.” and understanding of the art form.”

That’s when the surprises can arise.

Over the years, Raval has taken many “It’s important to stay alert, to not get of the teachings of others to heart. “I once complacent,” Raval said. “A work of art had a mentor tell me, ‘You’re a lucky is a living and breathing thing. It’s always director if you’re the dumbest one in the changing and so you have to be ready to room,’” Raval quoted. That mentor went change with it. You’ve got to love this on to tell Raval: “’When you have a group challenge.” of people you can trust and fail with, it Raval also likes to take this questioning makes it so much easier to throw paint at the wall and not worry about what it looks mode into the classroom when he teaches. like. It gives you a chance to see the raw “I don’t know if I have a teaching form of an idea before you go in and shape philosophy, but what I hope to achieve in a classroom is, how can I knock my it.’”

students off their feet?” he said. “How can I set them up for surprise so they actually forget they have to learn, but rather feel the need to crave and be hungry for learning?”

These references to physical sensations, such as hunger, are not accidental for Raval. “I hope to exercise the students physically and mentally, reinforcing the belief that you need both to bring about your best work,” he said. “My most personal and specific goal is for them to come to the understanding that they are the writers of their own stories, not a character in an already written journey.”

To deploy this free will and agency, Raval urges his students and the actors under his direction to remain alert. “It comes back to not staying awake, not letting yourself get complacent,” he said.

“If students can embrace that work is fun, then I think they can become free from the restraints of fear.”

Raval expects this to be true for him during his ACT fellowship, as well. “I thought it was a great chance for me to really apply what I’ve been learning over the years,” Raval said. “And of course it’s invaluable having the guidance of John and the ACT staff.”

‘Guards at the Taj’ runs from January 27 to February 4 at ACTLab, 700 Union Street, Seattle. For more information, visit www.acttheatre.org/Tickets/OnStage/ GuardsattheTaj.

Mukherjee’s The Gene is informative, eminently readable

By Nalini Iyer IE Contributor Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Gene: An Intimate History is a massive tome at nearly 600 pages and yet an eminently readable and informative book.

Mukherjee’s history of the gene, genetics, heredity, and the scientific quest to answer vexing questions has been a much anticipated book. It doesn’t disappoint.

For Mukherjee, the award winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies, this history is deeply tied to a family history of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

And like many of us who have family histories of devastating illnesses, he wonders how these are passed on through the generations. Thus begins his quest to understand how scientists and thinkers from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel, Darwin, Watson, Crick, Venter and a plethora of other scientists have explored this question and contributed to that body of scientific knowledge that we broadly call genetics.

His history of the gene is interspersed with poignant and candid portraits of how mental illness impacted his family.

We learn about his uncles and cousin and their bouts with mania and depression, of

his grandmother’s fierce protection and care of her children, and the anguish of the author as he wonders what the future holds for him and his children. This is not just a story about illness as it may be passed on; it is also an exploration of how we arrived at the point where we are today in this quest. Many questions have been answered such as what is the structure of a gene or how to map the human genome. We know what particular genes have mutations that cause sickle cell anemia or breast cancer, and we have stories about cures and tests for conditions like hemophilia or cystic fibrosis. Mukherjee’s gripping narrative is the story of these scientific discoveries made by curious intellectuals through a combination of dogged work, intuition, and luck.

There are also stories of spectacular failures such as the death of Jesse Gelsinger who received gene therapy for OTC, a rare condition that affects protein breakdown and leaves devastating amounts of ammonia in the body.

Mukherjee probes the sordid history of eugenics which reached its apex in Nazi Germany, and he continuously explores the ethics of these scientific discoveries. What does it mean for us to be able to manipulate genes to create three parent children or when does our quest for ultimate frontiers in genetic engineering lead to ethical challenges? How do governments and scientific communities regulate genetic research and why? These are major questions that Mukherjee raises and presents from a historical perspective.

The book leaves us with more questions than answers—will there be a day when we can treat illnesses like schizophrenia that involve many genes? Will there be therapies that mitigate or cure devastating conditions? He seems optimistic but this book does leave open questions for us such as how much do such therapies cost and what does that mean for those who do not have access to such treatment? Will our insurance policies be able to cover these costs assuming that we have coverage?

Most of this history is focused on the advancements made in Europe and the United States with their vast investments in scientific research, but what will this mean for the poor across the globe for whom such advances mean little when costs are high and there are more pressing health concerns like potable water and sanitation.

Mukherjee takes a very dense and complex subject and manages an engaging narrative while also explaining scientific principles and concepts for the lay reader—no easy task. And, he does not overwhelm the reader with footnotes— quite an achievement for such a book. This book is a must read for anyone who wants to be better informed about genetics and a field that is changing healthcare rapidly.

6 — January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE ARTS

Terratopia: Why Chinese landscape?

By Fred Wong IE Contributor Terratopia: The Chinese Landscape in Painting and Film is on view at the Asian Art Museum in Volunteer Park through February 26, 2017.

The second exhibition organized by Curator of Chinese Art Ping Foong “juxtaposes classical Chinese works … mostly works on paper or silk—with a film by contemporary artist Yang Fudong, The Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest. Together, the works demonstrate the ways that landscape serves as a metaphor for human emotion and endures as a subject of artistic, philosophical, and environmental reflection from the third to the 21st century,” according to the Seattle Art Museum website.

The small number of 26 works that span the centuries also range in various media from film, painting, calligraphy, scholar’s objects, and ritual objects. Dr. Foong carefully chooses objects that cover a wide range of meanings that landscape can take on in Chinese art. The layout and design of the exhibit is again superb, as in Dr. Foong’s previous show. There is just enough space to breathe, to spend time, to have a comfortable experience with the object in front of you. Dr. Foong writes very informative and insightful texts that capture the essence of each piece, and how landscape is central to it. I also really appreciate the translations of the texts when they appear in the works.

What might help viewers new to Chinese art is more simple information about how a Chinese audience interacts with works of art, especially the classical works. Landscape to Chinese art, like the human figure to western art, is the first, most important subject/motif, for expression. It takes on infinite meanings, symbolisms, allusions, variations, moods, and stories. The Chinese see nature and landscape as the life force; they worship its power and generosity; they feel both a separateness from it and an intimacy with it.

inspire spontaneous conversation, or inspire a new painting, poem, and/or calligraphy.

So if you are new to viewing Chinese art, spend some time with one or two of the pieces.

Savor the stories and sentiments the artist is sharing. Let the explanatory texts guide you. Treat it like eating an ethStill from The Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, Part 1, 2003, Yang Fudong, nic food for the first 35 mm black and white film. • Courtesy of ShanghART Gallery, China time. It is a new exIn art, Chinese painting and calligraphy citing adventure. Let’s take a brief look at the are meant for viewing and appreciation on a roles landscape play in some of the objects in single occasion, and not meant for long term the exhibit. display (or decoration) as Western works of art The bronze Cosmic Mirror and Hill Jar are often end up being. An album of paintings is viewed in an intimate fashion, on a table, and objects of protection, ritual, ceremony, and handled. A handscroll (long horizontal format) the landscape motifs depict sacred places of painting is unrolled a few feet at a time, from magic.

The Model of a Fantastic Rock and Landright to left, and the viewer travels through the landscape led by the pathways, waterways, scape Rock for the Scholar’s Table are objects mountains, or clouds in the painting. Also the of contemplation or imaginative play. They viewer reads the titles or introductory or end- spur on the imagination, whether to Daoist ing texts (if any) of the scrolls to know more magic or to new creative activities like paintabout the state of mind of the artist, the con- ing. text behind the creation of the piece, and even The handscroll painting Wangchuan Villa comments from past viewers. After viewing recalls the beautiful and famous retreat of a and sometimes conversations with friends model scholar, the high minded and virtuous about the painting, the viewer probably puts it Wang Wei who withdrew from the “world” to away in its storage box until the next occasion this peaceful villa. As we view the painting, that moves them to bring the work out again. we too can momentarily “escape the dusty Similarly a hanging scroll (tall vertical format) world.” Two other pieces recall a story of a is hung for an occasion to honor a guest, for care-free time or place: Chen Fu’s The Orchid a seasonal event, or just at a moment’s whim. Pavilion Gathering and Xiao Yuncong’s SeekChinese art is also often an art of subtlety. ing the Ford.

It requires the viewer to slow down, and have Many paintings and calligraphy are prean imaginary conversation with the artist. The sented as gifts. Wang Jianzhang’s Isles of the viewer often spends a lot of time with the art Immortals on a Spring Morning may allude to object. He or she appreciates it as an object of immortality, and thus, a good wish for longevcontemplation, of inspiration. A painting can ity. Shen Yinmo’s Pair of Calligraphic Cou-

plets in Five-character Verse shares a sentiment between two friends: a longing for home and easier times.

Some works are intensely personal. To a 21st century viewer, the perspectives and compositions in Shao Mi’s Landscape of a Numinous Realm may seem very tame and nothing unusual. To an early 17th century viewer, these pictures depict strange, mysterious landscapes and scenes. Shao Mi offers up: “As a hermit, I find this [painting] a joyous aspect of an otherwise unhappy existence. This album, having been done after drinking and by lamplight, is not worthy of being seen by a sober man.” We get a picture of drinking alone, and of the creative act of painting to drown one’s sorrows.

The three 20th twenty paintings share a common theme of experimentation with Western/Chinese/Global art ideas, while still treasuring the expressive use of brush and ink, and the powerful connotations of landscape to the Chinese artists and viewers. In Ch’u Ko’s Mountain in Motion, one may see an expressive vision like Paul Klee’s. In Liu Guosong’s The Purity of Snow, one may see the gestures like those of the abstract expressionist Robert Motherwell.

Yang Fudong’s film, Seven Intellectuals in a Bamboo Forest, may be a fitting conclusion to the Terratopia exhibit and its sampling of landscape in Chinese art. The contemporary artist Yang Fudong can readily sample any and all global art ideas. Yet, Yang chooses the famous Seven Worthies of the Bamboo Grove, ideals of moral integrity from 3rd century China, and re-cast them as flawed movie characters in the 21st century in urban, rural, and natural settings. If there is a truth to the Chinese view of landscape, it may be that when we immerse ourselves in a landscape, we become it. In the landscape settings of Huangshan (Yellow Mountains), as the seven intellectuals move through this place that seems to defy time, they are moved to contemplate and reflect on their pasts, and imagine their future.

From Standing Rock to the Pacific Northwest: The national fight for Indigenous rights

By Jacqueline Wu IE Contributor

The Chinook tribe resided in the lower Columbia River region, around southwest Washington and northwest Oregon. Most notably, the Chinook welcomed Lewis and Clark to the Pacific Ocean. In 1851, the Chinook tribe signed the Tansy Point Treaty with Anson Dart, the Superintendent for Indian Affairs in the Oregon Territory. The Tansy Point Treaty allowed the Chinook to live in their aboriginal territory, maintain access to resources, and most importantly, remain in close-proximity with their ancestors. However, the U.S. government, never formally ratified the treaty, although the Chinook upheld their obligations.

On Friday, November 18, the Pre-conquest Indigenous Cultures & its Aftermath (PICA) Conference held its last day with a theme exploring The Struggle for Indigenous Communities for Self Determination. PICA celebrates the similarities and nuances among Asian, Latinos, and Indigenous groups and is a collaboration between the American Ethnic Studies Department— University of Washington, OCA—Greater Seattle, Duwamish Tribe, Chinook Tribe, Chinese American Citizen Alliance, and more. The day started off with a tour of the The Duwamish tribe are the First People Burke Museum, followed by a screening of the City of Seattle, Mercer Island, of the Promised Land, and a cultural presentation by the Duwamish and Chinook Renton, Bellevue, Tukwila, and much of King County. In 1855, representatives from Tribe. the Duwamish, Suquamish, Snoqualmie, The Promise Land follows the Duwamish Snohomish, Lummi, Skagit, Swinomish, and Chinook tribe as they fight for the other tribes, and Territorial Governor Isaac restoration of treaty rights that have been Steven signed the Treaty of Point Elliott. long denied. Exploring the relationship The Treaty of Point Elliott guaranteed between the federal government and fishing rights and reservations to the tribes. indigenous tribes, Promised Land examines However, the U.S. government did not how the United States government and fulfill its commitments to the Duwamish society treats tribal sovereignty.

under the Point Elliott Treaty, and did not signed treaties, helped white settlers, and received a reservation. lost their land. The Duwamish and Chinook The lack of federal recognition of are not necessarily asking for money, Duwamish and Chinook sovereignty is reparations, or assisted resources. Rather, even more striking in Seattle and Pacific both tribes ask for the federal government Northwest. Seattle is named after a to recognize that they exist and uphold the Duwamish chief, Chief Si’ahk. Cities and treaties that both governments signed. towns throughout the Pacific Northwest Promised Land was screened at the are in Chinuk Wawa and Lushootseed, the following film festivals and is recognized in region’s indigenous language. the film community: Promised Land interviewed former Representatives Brian Baird (WA-3rd District) and Jim McDermott (WA-7th) who advocated for federal recognition of the Chinook and Duwamish tribe. In 2001, toward the end of the Clinton administration, the United States recognized the Duwamish tribe. However, during the Bush administration, the government withdrew its recognition of the Duwamish tribe, citing procedural errors. However, without Baird or McDermott in Congress, it is uncertain if the Duwamish and Chinook will have an ally in government or how close they will be to receiving federal recognition.

• Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking, 10th Annual LA Skins Fest • Official selection for the 41st Annual American Indian Film Festival • Northwest Film Forum’s 19th Local Sightings Film Festival • 12th Annual Ellensburg Film Festival • 5th Annual Social Justice Film Festival

With recent events in the Standing Rock protest against the North Dakota Access Pipeline, indigenous rights continue to be violated throughout the United States.

Indigenous identity and sovereignty is a Both the Duwamish and Chinook tribes social justice issue and we should address. have governing structures. These tribes Whose land do we inhabit and how do we right these wrongs?

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017 — 7

IE ARTS

The Boat Rocker: Fiction, the press and the meaning of ‘Polity’

By Maisy Chan IE Contributor I always take notice of Ha Jin’s writings ever since, by surprise, I read his debut novel Waiting. The fictional “testimonial of sorts” of a love story in a dying culture has its intimacy about ideology, human relations, and what love and marriage signal in that novel.

But then this kind of affective waning of moods bespeaks of many “dying” cultures.

I recommend Jin’s new novel, The Boat Rocker, for several reasons.

First, the novel is a break-out comedy about journalism, more specifically, internet Chinese-American journalism. We have to consider factors about and opinions on free press in China and in the United States.

Second, for those who also track the career of Jin as a writer, Jin has always been a “serious” author. His “seriousness” bites you in short fiction like the well-known short story, “The Bridegroom,” in Jin’s first collection of short stories with that title.

Third, I think of a readership who might come away from a read of this novel with a sense that the story may just be ‘raucous’.

That may very well be the intent. Deviously considered.

Let’s take a comparison. In the short story, “The Bridegroom,” the main character—the bridegroom—is treated unjustly by the street police in a town he travels to shortly after he marries. The bridegroom potentially spreads hepatitis in the food stands of the open market in that town in order to get even with the authority.

The Boat Rocker seems similar.

Feng Danlin, the protagonist, is a journalist and columnist at the online GNA—”Global News Agency” for the “Chinese diaspora” living in the U.S. and elsewhere—and a jilted husband in a though short-lived but a marriage nonetheless, and in the end, a foe

against the ways the press works in today’s economically “hybrid capitalist” China. If the stories appear similar, how does getting even get going in this case of The Boat Rocker?

Think of Feng Danlin. How does he fulfill the role of a protagonist? How does he come up to measure as a character with his negative commentaries on Asian women? In contrast, how has he so deftly merged the East and West with his appreciation for Western opera and the symphonies of Brahms? I do not think these are minor details, but are integral to who Feng Danlin is under Ha Jin’s construction.

The main event of the novel curls inside a love-hate knot of romantic relations.

Maybe I am taking up Feng Danlin’s ex-wife Yan Haili’s writing style. The main event appears as an announcement in the China press that Haili has published a romance novel, Love and Death in September, at the cusp of the fourth anniversary of 9/11 in America.

Haili’s novel introduces a pair of newlyweds at 9/11, a duo of characters, an American husband and a Chinese wife. Haili insists that the novel is “autobiographical,” claiming she is the living, true heroine in Love and Death in September. In Haili’s novel Love and Death in September, the husband is one of the death tolls on 9/11.

For fictional devices, Ha Jin—the author of the real novel The Boat Rocker—dazzlingly re-fashions the literary trope of “a novel within a novel” into “a novel about a novel.”

The schadenfreude, the gallows’ humor, lays upon the 9/11 attack a critical comic view that would be difficult to pull off by anyone, a challenge Jin confronts in remembering 9/11 as part of the domain of his novel.

Mambo in Chinatown: Dancing between Eastern and Western cultures

By Maisy Chan IE Contributor

A book review feeds upon the book being reviewed. In Mambo in Chinatown, author Jean Kwok takes us on an excursion.

We visit Chinatown and places in the New York City backdrop, all woven into the small world that surrounds the main character, Charlie Wong. Charlie is the daughter of a Chinatown noodlemaker father and a ballerina mother from the Beijing Ballet Company. The novel’s premise is a longed for mother who has passed away, leaving Charlie at just 14-years of age. The mother is longed for because the novel makes it plain that Charlie misses her mom at many points in the story. Charlie inherits her mother’s passion for dance.

The family—Charlie, Lisa, and Pa— lives in Chinatown. Charlie has been an underachiever in school while Lisa, her beloved sister who is 11 years younger, is a modeled bright student.

The novel starts with Charlie at 22-yearsold, a dishwasher in a Chinatown restaurant and landing a new job as a front-desk receptionist at a ballroom dance studio on the Upper East Side. This small world is changed by the dance studio like soup feeding hunger, but an illness that befalls Lisa turns the milieu upside down.

Kwok’s detailed language glides from atop over the ancient Chinese medicine used to treat Lisa.

Potions made of critters and methods bordering physical and mind traditions like Tai Chi and Qiqong, and the interplay in Kwok’s novel of Chinese medicine and “witchery,” unusual factors that pique the ordinary eye, represent Charlie’s ChineseAmerican world in a strange light.

“Mambo” is a Latin dance.

Mambo in Chinatown opens the window into a young woman’s heart. The myriad of names that fills up the novel with minor but noteworthy characters choreographs a full dance cast to present Kwok’s “funny” character— Charlie Wong.

Through his investigations, Feng Danlin, Jin’s protagonist, finds that this “autobiography” is a lie to make Haili an author sensation, especially that Haili’s American husband is still living all during this protracted wrangling between Haili’s book publicity and Feng Danlin’s online columns.

There is a weakness in Ha Jin’s novel to be considered. The schadenfreude turns the chord of the novel on the American experience during 9/11. The chimera of delivering the right tone for the profound sadness and dark humor for respect may elude the efforts to achieve it.

What does the book title insinuate? Feng Danlin has the name “boat rocker” thrown at him several times in the novel.

Haili herself contemptuously calls Feng Danlin “the boat rocker.” By the “boat,” Haili narrows down the extent of Feng’s world to her vanity over her book project.

The relationship between Haili and Feng is tried, bitter, acrimonious and unrelenting. Would Feng Danlin have given praises had Haili’s so-called novel was any good? Feng Danlin’s acrid criticism against her novel sets the stage for revenge in the relationship of a man against a woman, in particular, casting himself against Haili’s novel and a Chinese machinery that makes her novel possible.

Ha Jin endows in Haili a China with the chaos of an iron-clad state seeking control of

a messy, rapid bastion of growth, a world that defies just protection for a fair chance for all of its citizenry?

The Boat Rocker gives us a sometimes Dickens-like tiff between two entities disillusioned with one another. The novel tries the relationship between Feng Danlin and the Chinese government. Feng has left China. He has reached American citizenship. But he still lives and writes in the world of an individual against a Chinese government’s clenched fist to make sense of the creativity of literature and the ideals of a free press for an ideal journalist.

If I were to pose questions to the author Ha Jin, I would ask these questions: Does The Boat Rocker’s comical tie on the reader find its precursor in that acerbic short story “The Bridegroom”?

What kind of reactions do you expect from younger generations of readership in China right now? Likewise, what would you like to bring to light to the “younger” generations of readers in the United States about this in/between land of Feng Danlin, a member of the global press, straddling America and China in one swoop?

Do you feel comfortable with the label of “expatriate”?

Coming away from reading The Boat Rocker, I would like to see how Jin and his other readers feel about the line that is subjectively and objectively drawn between fiction and the press, all that we hear of reporting about the politics of the world.

8 — January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE COMMUNITY

The IE’s 2017 Northwest Guide to Lunar New Year OCA—GREATER SEATTLE 2017 Golden Circle Awards Thursday, February 2 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Joy Palace Restaurant 6030 MLK Jr. Way S Seattle, WA 98118 This year’s Golden Circle Award honorees include Van Sar, Velma Veloria, Ron and Lynette Consego, and the Tsutakawa family. OCA members: $26. Non-members: $50. Table of 10: $260. Contact Siyuan Liu at lius27@uw.edu for more information. *** AAJA Lunar New Year Banquet Saturday, Januar y 21 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

China Harbor Restaurant 2040 Westlake Ave. N. Seattle, WA 98109 Ring in the year of the Rooster with Seattle Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association’s annual banquet. There will be live performances as well as a silent auction.

Proceeds of the auction will benefit the chapter’s general fund.

All ages welcome. It is not necessary to be Asian or a journalist to attend. Discounted pre-sale tickets will be available until January 20 at 11:59 p.m. After that, tickets will be $40 for members, $50 for non-members, and $25 for students. There is free parking in front of the restaurant. For tickets, visit http:// aajalny2017.bpt.me. *** UWAJIMAYA The following event happens at Uwajimaya locations in Seattle, Renton, Bellevue, and Beaverton.

Lunar New Year Sale & Red Envelope Giveaway January 18 to January 31, 2016 Presenting family and friends with red envelopes containing lucky money is a tradition of Lunar New Year. In honor of Lunar New Year, Uwajimaya will be handing out lucky red envelopes to customers who spend $30 or more (limit one per person, per day and while supplies last) during its Lunar New Year Sale. Open your lucky red envelope to reveal your special prize. *** United States Postal Service First issuing of the Forever Rooster Stamp Thursday, January 5, 2017 11:30 a.m.

Wing Luke Museum 719 South King Street Seattle, WA 98104 Free for the public, including admission to the museum Special presentation for the tenth of twelve stamps celebrating the lunar new year. In attendance will be Greg G. Graves of the united States Postal Service, Yibo Lu of the Chinese Radio Seattle’s CRS Office, Beth Takekawa of the Wing Luke Museum, Ron Chew of Chew Communications, and Assunta Ng of the Seattle Chinese Post and Northwest Asian Weekly. The event occurs on the first free Thursday for the Wing Luke Museum. ***

Art by: Raychelle Duazo

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HEALTH SERVICES ICHS Lunar New Year 5K Sunday, February 26, 2017 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Shoreline Interurban Trail $30 before February 25 / $40 Race day For seniors 60 to 69: $25 before February 25 Registration is free for children 12 and under and seniors over 70.

Online registration closes on February 25 at 3pm Take part in ICHS’s Lunar New Year 5K run/walk on Sunday, February 26, 2017 at the Shoreline Interurban Trail. Register at https://www.ichs.com/make-a-gift/lunarnew-year-5k-registration/.

Schedule: 8:00 a.m. – Registration begins 9:15 a.m. – Welcome and pre-race briefing 9:30 a.m. – Runners begin 9:35 a.m. – Walkers and leashed pets begin 10:30 a.m. – Announcement of winners *** CHINATOWN/INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT Seattle’s Annual Lunar New Year Festival Saturday, January 21, 2017 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Hing Hay Park 423 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104 Admission Free $3 food walk The Chinatown/International District Lunar New Year Festival encompasses a little bit of all Asian cultures—Chinese lion dances, dances from the Philippines, China, and other countries, Taiko drumming from Japan, and even a bit of Bollywood might be in the mix.

Equally as diverse is the delicious range of foods available for tasting. ChinatownInternational District restaurants usually open their doors for Lunar New Year and offer affordable tastes of select menu items.

The sixth annual Children’s parade and costume contest will be at 1:30 p.m. so kids can show off their best cultural New Year’s outfit. More information at http://cidbia.org/ events/lunar-new-year/. *** ASIAN PACIFIC CULTURAL CENTER 19th Annual New Year Celebration Saturday, February 11, 2017 Doors open at 10:30 a.m.

Programs from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

Tacoma Dome Exhibition Hall

2727 E.D Street, Tacoma, WA 98421 Free admission This year’s event celebrates Guam and there will be over 70 booths of food, drinks, cultural arts, retail booths, games, and crafts from Asian Pacific countries. *** SEATTLE CENTER Tet Festival: Vietnamese Lunar New Year Saturday, January 21, 2017 and Sunday January 22, 2017 305 Harrison St, Seattle, WA 98109 Explore and experience the cultural roots and contemporary influences of Vietnam through live performances, hands-on activities, foods, crafts, games, martial arts, and a lively marketplace. The Lunar New Year Celebration welcomes the return of spring and chases out evil spirits with the traditional roaring lion dance and the crackle of firecrackers. Revisit one thousand years of Vietnamese history at this festive New Year

celebration. Presented by Tết in Seattle. For more information, visit tetinseattle.org. *** THE GREATER SEATTLE CHINESE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Celebrating the Year of the Monkey Thursday, February 9, 2017 China Harbor Restaurant 2040 Westlake Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109 Individual ticket $65 before February 1, $75 after February 1 Corporate table: $1,000 It will be a night filled with good food, networking, and new friends. Learn about the Chamber’s review of 2015 and goals for 2016. Reception begins at 5:30 p.m. and dinner begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are available at seattlechinesechamber.org or by calling 206-552-0818.

More events to be listed online at iexaminer.org and in the next issue.

Please send your events to editor@ iexaminer.org.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017 — 9

IE NEWS

Two-year battle with cancer ends for Seattle activist Alan Sugiyama

By Ron Chew IE Contributor Alan Sugiyama, long-time Seattle community activist and former executive director of the Executive Development Institute (EDI), died on January 2 at the age of 67 after a valiant two-year public battle with cancer.

“To my dad, family and community were the very most important things,” Sugiyama’s eldest daughter, Mari, said shortly after her father’s death. “My sister and I were always meeting people we were distantly related to countless people he worked with in the community. We’re grateful that all of them kept dad in their thoughts and prayers during his struggle with cancer.

“I remember that his favorite quote was, ‘Right on to the Right On.’ That was his mantra. I used to ask him, ‘What does that mean?’ I now understand that it was his way of saying that we should not be afraid to tackle the challenges in front of us. We shouldn’t be scared. That’s how he approached his cancer. Just tackle it head on.”

Sugiyama’s younger daughter Alysa An event was held to honor Al Sugiyama at Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church auditorium on Sunday, September 13, 2015. • Photo by Diana J. Lee added that she learned from her father the value of always “fighting for what is right was endless, and he instilled in me the place on the Interurban Trail in Shoreline Julie Pham said she had the pleasure of and helping those in need.” importance of remaining hopeful and on February 26, 2017. He continued to do hosting two separate group dinners with Sugiyama, an outspoken champion of upbeat. ‘Chemotherapy is our friend,’ Al this even after he entered the hospital last Al at her home. The first time, she said, she asked each guest to share a story about affirmative action and increased funding told me several times, ‘Keep your eyes on month, shortly before he died. support for communities of color, is the prize. It’s okay to feel down, but I want Sugiyama was raised in the Central an Asian American role model. “I made perhaps best known for the 30 years he you to rebound and continue the fight.’

Area and attended Garfield High the mistake of letting Al go first,” she spent as founder and director of the Center “Every text message I received from School. In 1971, he helped organize recalled. “Because he was such a gifted for Career Alternatives (CCA), a multi- him in the months following included the Oriental Student Union at Seattle storyteller, we ended up listening to him ethnic job training program serving low- some form of encouragement. Even when Central Community College, pushing for two hours recount the history of the income residents in King and Snohomish facing a terrible obstacle, Al was thinking successfully for establishment of an Asian Asian American Civil Rights Movement.

Counties. After “retiring” from CCA, of other people. I’m determined to American studies program. One year later, “By the second dinner, I had learned Sugiyama went on to head up the continue to use the gifts of encouragement he teamed up with several other student my lesson. This time, I went around and Executive Development Institute (EDI) and positivity that I was so lucky to have activists to start the Asian Family Affair, asked the six guests to share a bit about to pursue his interest in helping train and received from him.” a newspaper funded through the Asian themselves and then to ask Al a question, mentor a new generation of Asian Pacific Even as Sugiyama underwent Student Coalition at the University of but Al couldn’t say anything until the end.

American leaders. aggressive rounds of chemotherapy, Washington. The paper, which published Of course, Al couldn’t help himself and In February of 2015, Sugiyama stepped which dramatically shrank the tumors continuously until 1985, provided a started interrupting after the fourth guest. back from his leadership of EDI to focus in his esophagus and pancreas, he kept voice for Asian Americans seeking their He was such a talker. And we all loved his energies on an unexpected personal to a full schedule, actively participating identity, rediscovering their history, and listening to him because he had the best stories.” challenge: the discovery of cancer in his in the monthly meetings of the Asian advocating for community needs. esophagus and pancreas.

Pacific Directors Coalition and other Sugiyama established CCA in 1979 In late November of 2016, Sugiyama’s In talking openly about his cancer— community functions. In the summer of after working at two job agencies—Seattle battle with cancer took a dramatic turn and enlisting the support of friends in his 2015, he joined with others in leading Opportunities Industrialization Center and for the worse when he collapsed while care—he sought to dispel myths about protests against a hookah bar that had Employment Opportunities Center—and in Hawai‘i on a trip. Doctors discovered the disease and to help others facing been a magnet for gun violence that had realizing that there was an urgent need to that the cancer had spread to his brain. similar battles with cancer. Sugiyama was just taken the life of beloved International create a similar organization for the Asian He returned home to Seattle, spending American community. After serving as the much of his final month at Swedish honored on February 7 with a lifetime District medic Donnie Chin. achievement in a moving ceremony On February 7, 2016, he gathered dynamic and charismatic director of CCA Hospital, where his condition continued at the annual banquet of the Greater his energy—and a circle of friends— for three decades, Sugiyama stepped down to deteriorate. He passed away shortly after noon on January 2, surrounded by Seattle Chapter of OCA—Asian Pacific to participate in the first annual Lunar from the helm in 2010.

Advocates. On September 13, several Year 5k walk and run in Bellevue to In 1989, Sugiyama took on a new family members and a small group of hundred people packed into the Blaine raise money for uncompensated care for challenge in the education arena. He lifelong friends.

United Memorial Methodist Church to International District Community Health was elected to the Seattle School Board, Sugiyama was preceded in death by celebrate “Superman” Al’s tenacity and to Services (ICHS). He managed to outpace serving two four-year terms. As the his sister Carole Burrus; and his former praise his lifelong commitment to social several of his friends, who had a difficult first Asian American board member, he wife Kathy Tagawa. He is survived by justice. time keeping up with him. The Seattle advocated for staff diversity and bilingual his brothers Steve, Glenn and Dick; daughters Mari Sugiyama (husband Kristina Logsdon said Al called Channel filmed Sugiyama at the event, education. producing a short piece on his life for her right after she underwent her first In recent years, many young emerging Adam Woolverton) and Alysa Sugiyama; chemotherapy session in August of CityStream, which aired in August. community leaders looked to Sugiyama and granddaughter Kaia Woolverton. At 2015. “In typical Al fashion, he called Al had already begun gathering friends for guidance and inspiration, eager to press time, the family had not yet finalized to impart some knowledge and to lift to join him in the second annual ICHS hear about his past involvement in social details on a memorial program. my spirits,” she said. “His positivity Lunar New Year 5k, scheduled to take justice causes.

10 — January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE COMMUNITY

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

January 20, 201

Announcements

Apply for Seattle JACL Scholarships Japanese American Citizens League— Seattle Chapter (Seattle JACL) is offering a total of $16,000 in scholarships for six incoming and/or current college students.

Interested candidates can apply at http:// www.seattlejacl.org/scholarships from now until March 27. Face-to-face interviews will be held on April 8, and then successful candidates will receive their award at a luncheon on April 22, 2017.

“In addition to honoring the legacy of our ancestors and other Asian Pacific American pioneers, JACL aims to continually support the next generation of leaders in all areas,” said Seattle Chapter President Sarah Baker. “Investing in young people is critical for a future that can sustain social justice for Asian Americans, and for all people.”

Applicants must have attended or will be graduating from the Seattle Public Schools.

Applicants must be applying or be enrolled in a publicly funded school in Washington State, such as a community college, a public technical school, or a Washington university. Minimum 2.5 GPA required.

ReACT Theatre’s Prelude to a Kiss is a diverse un

in Community Policing. The Task 2017 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Nisei Force examined Washington’s laws and Veterans Hall (1212 S King St, Seattle, practices regarding the use of deadly WA 98144). The community meeting is force by police officers. The community co-hosted by CAPAA, Commission on The Commission on Asian Pacific

By Roxanne Ray ���plus years saidparticipants �aand with the talent pool hadGovernor’s available, and work wi will ago,� inform about in, Hispanic Affairs, andwethe American Affairs (CAPAA) is inviting meeting vid Hsieh, ReACT Theatre’s it just made sense to kick off our new season production,� IE Contributor work of the task force and its final Office of Indian Affairs. An additional the public to a community conversation theArtistic Director. “It has alwith this show,� Hsieh said� The meeting will meeting will be held on January 5 at It isn’t just and report about the JointReACT Legislative Thirdback time’s a charm—so Theatre recommendations. ways been a popular success Hsieh will again serve as director, but this that is new, take place on Wednesday, Taskhopes Forceason there�ount Use of�raig Deadly Force they Lucas�s ���� for us, and many who have January 4, Emerald Queen Casino in Fife.

Final recommendations on the use of deadly force in community policing

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INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017 — 11

IE COMMUNITY

Susie Lee: Siren online dating app a game-changer we did. And ... texting someone, ‘How do you feel about white privilege?’ is a very hard thing to ask. But if the host asked that question to everybody, it’s a very different dynamic,” Lee said.

By Alia Marsha IE Assistant Editor If you are a woman, imagine a place where you are able to meet people online and feel that you are not subjected to overwhelming, unwanted male gaze.

This is a world that Susie Lee has created with her team, and it is an online dating app called Siren.

Siren seeks to turn the current online dating culture upside down: your profile is not static, you add to it by answering the Question of the Day (QOOTD) which shows your personality; women are allowed to blur their photos; you do not “match” with anybody, you make a “connection.” The overarching idea is to make online dating feel less like “shopping for humans,” as Lee put it.

Long before Lee co-founded and became CEO of Siren and before she moved to Seattle in the mid ’90s, she was a die-hard East Coast fan and a high school chemistry teacher in New York City. She then transitioned her career into digital art, though her original entry into art was through ceramic and clay. In a way, this is what made creating Siren possible.

“If you work in clay you really do believe you can change the world, because you have this lump of thing that you’re suddenly molding into something you want,” Lee said. “But I moved into digital art because I like the idea of things changing ... and mutating and being a cutting-edge thing. I’m very used to willing something into existence.”

Siren sees itself as a “a relaxed, conversation community that sets the tone for discovery, safety, and respect.” In light of the murder of Ingrid Lyne, having an online dating space that is safe for women becomes more urgent. Through her research of popular dating apps such as Tinder before launching Siren, she noticed the flaws of their model. Notably, many online dating apps and websites are created by men.

Siren co-founder Susie Lee speaks at TEDxRainier. • Courtesy Photo

In 2013, Lee bought her first others she does not have are central to smartphones where she discovered the success of her projects, including apps through observing her friends’ Siren. interaction with their devices.

Siren’s most unique feature is “I was like, ‘What are those squares? its QOOTD, which functions as a Those squares seem like websites,’” she “home” page. Siren approaches the said. “Then I was like, ‘Oh I get it! I local creative types—writers, actors, said, these squares are important to musicians, and others—and has them people. I’m gonna make one of those ask a question for users to answer. The squares.’” questions range from “How many cats This, coupled with hearing and is too many cats?” to ones about racism experiencing first-hand how awful and privilege. Here, the goal is to get online dating could be, especially for users talking and meeting people who women, inspired Lee to create Siren are interesting. It’s akin to a classroom with her co-founder, Katrina Hess. discussion facilitated by an instructor.

Lee also said that working initially in “For me it’s very difficult, for digital art put her in a crossroad where example, to show someone’s humor collaboration and communication on a static profile. It’s very difficult to with people with skills in coding and ask someone a question on racism, but

“If you think about it, the idea that you’re shopping for humans the way you shop for shoes, it’s not surprising to think that this is how people are treating each other,” Lee said. “It’s not that meeting people should be work.

It should be fun, it should be exciting and intriguing. But like anything that’s meaningful, you put a little effort into it.”

CAPE Project is a forum connecting and engaging innovative entrepreneurs by sharing stories of their entrepreneurial journey. It’s a growing community of diverse entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors with connections to the Asia Pacific Rim community. CAPE Project is an initiative launched by Hing Hay Coworks, a program of the Seattle Chinatown-ID Preservation and Development Authority. For more information, visit capeproject.org.

Announcements Lift (discounted public transportation card), Utility Discount Program, and information about wage theft and unfair Seattle United for Immigrant and employment practices.

Refugee Families will be offering free To qualify for these City of Seattle legal services and information on Friday, programs, you will need a photo ID and January 20, 2017 at McCaw Hall in proof of income such as the following: Seattle Center (321 Mercer St. Seattle, • Paycheck stubs/ Employer statement WA 98109). showing GROSS earnings You can get help applying for citizenship • DSHS award letters (TANF, GAU/ from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Immigration GAX) attorneys and experts will help you fill • Child support document out your application for citizenship.

• Social Security/SSI award letter/ There will be three information sessions Survivor benefits starting at 3:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m., and 7:00 • Pensions/Annuity/IRA, Interest & p.m. about learning about your rights Dividends as an immigrant. Find out what to do if • Labor and Industry (L&I) statement Immigration and Customs Enforcement • Student financial aid and tuition (ICE) agents come to your door and how to protect your children and family. statement Information about other immigration • Rental/investment property topics and legal help will be available income (Provide a copy of lease/rental from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. agreement.)

City of Seattle representatives will More information can be found at also be available to talk about ORCA seattle.gov/iandraffairs.

Seattle United for Immigrant and Refugee Families on January 20

Following these activities there will be a group discussion, games, trivia, and a free meal. The event is free to all teens and Seattle Parks and Recreation invites the community participants and will include public to join a youth-organized march food and live music. to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on 206 Forward-Youth Advocates of Saturday, January 14. Participants will Seattle will also be hosting a poster gather at 11:00 a.m. at Martin Luther making pajama party on Friday, January King, Jr. Memorial Park (2200 Martin 6 from 5 to 7 p.m. at Rainier Beach Luther King, Jr. Way, 98144) and march Community Center (8825 Rainier Ave. S). to Rainier Community Center (4600 38th The public is invited to attend to create Ave. S, 98118). custom posters to be used in the MLK The theme of Seattle Parks and march on January 14.

Recreation’s Teen Program’s 2017 annual youth march is Honor the Cause: First Class Citizenship for all Mankind. The goal for the march is to celebrate the contributions Seattle youth make in creating a better city and to honor the work that youth do to honor Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream.

Youth to lead annual MLK march on January 14

At the event, participants will hear from keynote speaker Eddie Rye, Jr. and everyone will have the opportunity to participate in three different workshops.

View more community announcements online at iexaminer.org. To submit your announcement, email editor@iexaminer.org.

12 — January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE ARTS

The man who brought the kulintang to America

By Alan Chong Lau IE Arts Editor It was in the late 1970s and I was new to Seattle. I remember walking on campus with jazz musician Bob Antolin who was at that time enrolled in a Master’s Program in music at the University of Washington. We had talked about collaborating together doing my poetry with his music. As we entered the library, Bob spied a thin, small, brown man wearing a stylish hat pushing a cart full of books into the elevator. Bob ran over to the man and exchanged pleasantries and when he returned, he told me, “That’s Danny. He’s a master of the kulintang and an artist-in-residence in our ethnomusicology program. At the time, I was totally ignorant. I didn’t know what “ethnomusicology” was and I certainly had no clue what a kulintang could be.

Now I have learned that this great musician, Danongan “Danny” Sibay Kalanduyan died in late September 2016 in California. Danny was born in 1947 in the fishing village of Datu Plang in the Cotabato area of the Mindanao region of the Southern Philippines.

He was raised in a traditional musical upbringing in a culture steeped in maguindanao tribal traditions. As he told the NEA when he received an NEA National Heritage Fellowship: “If you were born in my village you’d hear no

translated means “golden sound moving” and it is a row of brass and bronze gongs graduated in pitch and hit with two sticks of soft wood. Related to the Indonesian gamelan, it was thought to have come from China in the third century. Today, it is rooted exclusively in the Muslim cultures of Mindanao and Maguindanao.

Danongan “Danny” Sibay Kalanduyan

Western music, just traditional music.

And the music was everywhere and for everyone—not just for entertainment, but also as an accompaniment to rituals and ceremonies. I learned the music through exposure, through listening.”

Kalanduyan learned the music as a child at his mother’s side. He learned to play the kulintang, the gong and drum ensemble indigenous to the Sulu and Mindanao islands in the Southern Philippines and northern Borneo. Kulintang literally

Kulintang Arts of San Francisco. The kulintang had mass appeal among young Filipino Americans because its pre-colonial, pre-Hispanic, pre-Muslim roots made it seem somehow more authentic as an indigenous music of the Philippines. Just as the taiko tradition drew young Japanese Americans, the The young Kaladuyan learned all the kulintang served as a cultural icon for instruments in the ensemble under the pan-Filipino American identity. tutelage of his grandmother, father, uncles, Kalanduyan was a musical pioneer who and cousins. He became so proficient that through his teaching and performing, he won islandwide competitions and was brought a unique musical tradition to recognized as a master musician.

America. Hopefully now that he has In 1971 he toured the Far East with planted a seed, the tradition will grow the Darangan Cultural Troupe. Dr. and prosper in foreign soil encouraged Robert Garfias is recognized as one by his many colleagues and students. A of the pioneers in the study of ethnic memorial fund for Danongan Kalanduyan music and culture now referred to as has been set up to help his family with the field of ethnomusicology. He helped funeral expenses. Go to www.gofundme. start the department at the University com/dannykalanduyan if you wish to of Washington and he was actively help. A two-day memorial to celebrate looking for master musicians of ethnic and honor his life and contributions was traditions who he could bring on campus held on November 5 and 6 at Bayanihan to teach and perform. In 1976, he used a Community Center in San Francisco.

Rockefeller grant to bring Kalanduyan to Below you will find remembrances by the University of Washington as an artist- his former Seattle students, Bob Antolin in-residency. He formed a local kulintang and Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo, who ensemble comprised of students and originally invited him to the Bay Area went on to complete a masters degree in to teach workshops and lead a kulintang ethnomusicology. Word quickly spread ensemble. Information for this article up and down the West Coast about this was taken from a National Endowment master musician and in 1984, he was for the Arts newsletter and an article on invited to the Bay Area where he became Inquierer.net by Wilfred Galila for which the musical director of the Kalilang I give my thanks.

Remembering Danny Kalanduyan: ‘Tones, Rhythms and Pure Energy’

By Bob Antolin Guest Contributor I first met Danny at the University of Washington’s School of Music, Department of Ethnomusicology, as a graduate ethno student, learning the art of Kulintang. Kulintang is a gong music tradition found in the Southern Philippines and all along that region extending to Indonesia and Bali. The tones, rhythms, and pure energy radiating from this music drew me in.

Danny had quite a flare and facility on the instrument that transcended his mortal soul. He was one of the artists-in-residence in the ethno department brought in by Professor Robert Garfias, who was the founder of the Ethnomusicology Department at UW in the early 1960s. Danny’s gentle demeanor and willingness to share his music culture was quite refreshing. He was enjoyable to be around. As the master-to-student relationship began we soon became friends.

He lived in the same university-run apartments as I did during that time and we soon began to hang outside of the class regimen. We had similar interests in sports. There was a boxing exhibition at the Seattle Center Arena that we attended and enjoyed. My dad, as with every other Filipino male of his generation, was a boxing fan.

I learned to appreciate it at a very young age. There was a Golden Glove lightweight champion, an Olympichopeful from Tacoma, that we had a particular interest in watching.

Danny’s insights to American culture was interesting. As an observer from the outside, he noticed everyday American things with wonder. I think he was living in Seattle for only two years when I met him. We had fun observing cultural differences.

Danny’s music is very intense and the energy and rhythms are like shoutout choruses of a hard-hitting blues.

The music is mesmerizing when the energy is at its peak. Danny brought that energy and spirit to the Seattle area and impacted a population in its

wake. I am one of those that was blessed to be around such a master musician and to be able to feel his spirit for the music.

I recently wrote a composition dedicated to Nigerian guitarist/ vocalist/bandleader King Sunny Ade titled, “King Sunny’s Bounce” (https://soundcloud.com/ br ight moments/ k i ng-su n nysbounce-12-29-13). The melody is a minor pentatonic melody that somewhat resembles melodies for the kulintang. The rhythmic variations to the melody is similar to the rhythmic variations found in the melodies of the kulintang.

Yes, Danny had an influence to that melody on that song. I last talked with him over the phone earlier this year. He was planning to come up to Seattle for a show in the early summer.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to see him. Danny always carried himself with dignity. I appreciated that character in him. Danny was a gentleman! He left a legacy ...

Remembering a kulintang master

By Robert Kikuchi-Yngojo Guest Contributor I was first introduced to my study of traditional Filipino kulintang in 1978 through my involvement with Sining Bayan, a FilAm political theater group based in San Francisco. However at the time all we had for sources were recordings. Soon after that I was connected with master musician Danny Kalanduyan amongst other kulintang musicians and made preparations for my music travel to Mindanao in 1980 to immerse himself in the Kulintang tradition of the Southern Philippines.

Upon returning in 1981, along with my wife, Nancy Wang, we established a kulintang performance school and company.

With a California Arts Council artists-incommunity grant, we additionally introduced and taught the Southern Kulintang music and dance tradition in Filipino communities of the Bay Area, including to Pilipino youth. Having remembered the excellent teaching of master Danny Kalanduyan, his depth of knowledge and eagerness to impart his tradition to all willing to learn, we applied for an NEA Mentorship grant.

Through this funding we brought Danny to San Francisco in 1983/84 to supplement my teaching, as well as to perform as a guest with our company Kalilang Kulintang Ensemble, the first such company in Northern California. Danny never returned to Washington state, establishing full-time residence in San Francisco. The rest is history.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017 — 13

IE ARTS

Danny Kalanduyan was a kind and caring friend

By Terada Yoshitaka Guest Contributor Like most of his friends and former students, I first could not believe the news that Danny Kalanduyan was no more. I could not respond to the news for some time because I did not want to believe it. He was one of my first teachers and a classmate in ethnomusicology at the University of Washington, and a very close friend before he moved to San Francisco in 1985.

It was in the fall of 1977 when I first met Danny. I had heard that a musician from the southern Philippines was teaching the gong and drum ensemble known as kulintang at the university and decided to visit his class just to see what it was like. After a brief greeting, Danny abruptly handed me the babandil (the medium-size gong to keep time) to play a simple rhythm, and without much explanation music began. Overwhelmed by the quick turn of events and the voluminous sound coming out of other instruments, I simply tried to play the rhythm as steadily as possible. Ever since this unexpected initiation, my life has been so much richer with the joy of playing this music and I am eternally grateful for Danny to initiate and navigate my life-long musical journey.

Danongan “Danny” Sibay Kalanduyan. • Courtesy Photo

He enjoyed humor and told me many in Mindanao and we were advised humorous stories from back home, not to stay overnight in small towns many involving music. and villages for security reasons. We As my interest in kulintang music stayed in a hotel in Cotabato, provincial grew, I decided to analyze the music in capital city, and made frequent daytrips addition to learning how to play it. For to Datu Piang, his hometown where my master’s thesis, I chose gandingan, many excellent musicians lived. Even a set of four hanging gongs and one of in Cotabato city, Danny would not let the five instruments of the kulintang me go outside of the hotel alone. We ensemble, in which Danny specialized documented musicians of all ages and as a soloist and competed with rival specializations, but decided to focus on musicians before moving to the United the older musicians who had distinct Kulintang is a form of community States. His skills for improvisation were styles of playing instruments and music where anybody can participate flawless and breathtaking. Every time I singing, different from those of younger irrespective of age, gender, and the saw him go deeply into his solo, I felt so generation to which Danny belonged. level of expertise. I particularly enjoy blessed to be able to witness the work of When we had to endure with a great deal of musical interaction a genius being unfolded right before my uncomfortable situations on this between players. Playing dabakan own eyes and ears. My academic side of trip, he would say, “Charge it to your (drum) to accompanying Danny on interest was to discover the hidden theory experience.” Now I realize that is what other instruments was my favorite of kulintang music which had been orally he was saying to himself all along during role in the ensemble and I had many handed down but at the same time I was his long journey from the Philippines to blissful moments when he went off hoping that a close analysis of his playing Seattle and to San Francisco. I know to play something extraordinary. I will give me hints to be a better player he had to face challenging moments owe Danny almost everything I know myself. He was happy to collaborate and experiences of discomfort due to about the kulintang music as played with my project and extremely generous cultural differences, some of which I

by Magindanao people who live in with his time. I recorded many samples shared myself. the western part of Mindanao. I soon of his performance, which I notated and became a member of his student analyzed with many hours of working ensemble and performed many times together. With the completion of the thesis, both on campus and beyond.

I am not sure if I became a better player Danny and I shared the joy and agony of living in the United States as recent arrivals from Asia and I think that brought us closer. When he lived in Seattle, we spent a lot of time together, not just playing music but did many things outside campus such as squid fishing and cooking. We also shared many personal stories and private thoughts, including some tragic events during the dictatorial regime under Marcos.

As widely publicized, Danny reached the zenith as a musician when he received the prestigious Heritage Award in 1995 from the National Endowment for the Arts as the first Filipino to have the honor. With an unshakable reputation as a master musician and teacher, Danny was surrounded by many dedicated students and friends in the Bay Area and had very active performance schedule.

I am certain he was content with his achievements and the public recognition he had received, but I also sensed that he was missing the scholarly activity, the kind in which he was engaged as a student of ethnomusicology. I believe that Danny enjoyed our research trip in 1993 and we discussed the possibility of doing follow up research in Cotabato. I was waiting for the right time, which I should not have done in retrospect.

Toward the end of his life, he visited the Philippines more often and even built a house to retire in. His final plan never materialized and the circle remains incomplete. I only regret I did not have much time together for the past 10 years or so excepting occasional online communications.

Danny was an extraordinary performer by any account. He was one of the most talented musicians I have ever encountered, regardless of genres.

His speed and precision in playing music was spectacular, his musical imagination extraordinary. In the history of Philippine music, he will be remembered, along with Usopay Cadar, as a master musician who contributed greatly to the dissemination of kulintang music in North America and beyond, but I remember him mostly as a gentle, kind and caring friend who happened to be a great musician.

Terada Yoshitaka is a professor at National Museum of Ethnology, Japan.

but the findings made me appreciate the complexity of his musicianship more deeply than before.

In 1993, Danny and I managed to secure funds to do research in his home province of Cotabato in Mindanao Island and we spent six weeks documenting music of all kinds.

Danny introduced me to so many of his relatives and friends who were all competent musicians, and I will never forget the experience of playing music together with them. Looking back, this trip deepened my understanding of kulintang music, especially the contexts for music making and the diversity of playing styles in Mindanao.

Danny also had a lighter and funloving side. When I first had coffee with Danny, I was shocked to see him pour eight packets of sugar into a small cup.

I would tell him that taking that much sugar will ruin his health, and at the next occasion he grabbed only four packets It was a time when the “peace and said, “See? I am cutting down on and order” was an imminent issue sugar” with a very mischievous grin.

Danny Kalanduyan, Bob Antolin, and Terada Yoshitaka playing together. • Courtesy Photo

14 — January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017

Arts & Culture Asia Pacific Cultural Center 4851 So. Tacoma Way Tacoma, WA 98409 Ph: 253-383-3900 Fx: 253-292-1551 faalua@comcast.net www.asiapacificculturalcenter.org Bridging communities and generations through arts, culture, education and business.

Civil Rights & Advocacy Organization of Chinese Americans Asian Pacific American Advocates Greater Seattle Chapter P.O. Box 14141 Seattle, WA 98114 www.ocaseattle.org

OCA—Greater Seattle Chapter was formed in 1995 and since that time it has been serving the Greater Seattle Chinese and Asian Pacific American community as well as other communities in the Pacific Northwest.

It is recognized in the local community for its advocacy of civil and voting rights as well as its sponsorship of community activities and events.

Education Denise Louie Education Center 206-767-8223 info@deniselouie.org www.deniselouie.org

Offering home visiting services for children birth to 3 and full & part-day multicultural preschool education for ages 3 to 5 in the International District, Beacon Hill and Rainier Beach.

Homelessness Services

COMMUNITY RESOURCE DIRECTORY

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

Housing Services InterIm Community Development Association 310 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104 Ph: 206-624-1802 Services: 601 S King St, Ph: 206-623-5132 Interimicda.org Multilingual community building: housing & parking, housing/asset counseling, projects, teen leadership and gardening programs.

Kawabe Memorial House 221 18th Ave S Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-322-4550 connie.devaney@gmail.com We provide affordable, safe, culturally sensitive housing and support services to people aged 62 and older.

Seattle Chinatown/International District Preservation and Development Authority ph: 206-624-8929 fx: 206-467-6376 info@scidpda.org Housing, property management and community development.

Immigration Services Fearless Asians for Immigration Reforms (FAIR!) 206-578-1255 Info@ItShouldBeFair.com www.ItShouldBeFair.com

Free and confidential support for undocumented Asians and Pacific Islanders. Workshops, financial assistance, legal help, scholarships, DACA renewals, and consultations for service providers. Benefits include: community support, and opportunities for work permits, $$ for school, and protection from deportation.

Professional & Leadership Development

Executive Development Institute 310 – 120th Ave NE. Suite A102 Bellevue, WA Ph: 425-467-9365 edi@ediorg.org • www.ediorg.org EDI offers culturally relevant leadership development programs.

WE MAKE LEADERS Fostering future leaders through education, networking and community NAAAP Seattle services for Asian American Queen Anne Station professionals and entreP.O. Box 19888 preneurs.

Seattle, WA 98109 Facebook: NAAAP-Seattle info@naaapseattle.org Twitter: twitter.com/naaapwww.naaapseattle.org seattle

Senior Services

The Kin On Team is ready to serve YOU! www.kinon.org

info@youthcare.org www.youthcare.org

Working to prevent and end youth homelessness with services including meals, shelter, housing, job training, education, and more.

HomeSight 5117 Rainier Ave S Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-723-4355 fx: 206-760-4210 www.homesightwa.org NMLS#49289 HomeSight creates homeownership opportunities through first mortgage lending, down payment assistance, real estate development, homebuyer education, and counseling.

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Southeast Seattle Senior Center 4655 S. Holly St., Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-722-0317 fax: 206-722-2768 kateh@seniorservices.org www.sessc.org Daytime activities center providing activities social services, trips, and community for seniors and South Seattle neighbors. We have weaving, Tai Chi, indoor beach-ball, yoga, dance, senior-oriented computer classes, trips to the casino, and serve scratch cooked lunch. Open Monday through Friday, 8:30-4. Our thrift store next door is open Mon-Fri 10-2, Sat 10-4. This sweet center has services and fun for the health and well-being of boomers and beyond. Check us out on Facebook or our website.

Social & Health Services Asian Counseling & Referral Service 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-695-7600 fx: 206-695-7606 events@acrs.org www.acrs.org ACRS offers multilingual, behavioral health and social services to Asian Pacific Americans and other low-income people in King County.

APICAT 601 S King St. Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-682-1668 www.apicat.org Addressing tobacco, marijuana prevention and control and other health disparities in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner.

Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs GA Bldg., 210 11th Ave SW, Suite 301A Olympia, WA 98504 ph: (360) 725-5667 www.facebook.com/wacapaa capaa@capaa.wa.gov www.capaa.wa.gov Statewide liaison between government and APA communities. Monitors and informs the public about legislative issues.

YouthCare 2500 NE 54th Street Seattle, WA 98105 206-694-4500

Homeownership Services

Senior Services

Washington New Americans Program OneAmerica 1225 S. Weller St., Suite 430 Seattle, WA 98144 Are you a lawful permanent resident? The Washington New Americans program can help you complete your application for U.S. citizenship. Low-cost and free services available – please call our hotline or visit www.wanewamericans.org.

Phone: 1-877-926-3924 Email: wna@weareoneamerica.org Website: www.wanewamericans.org

Legal Services

Public Interest Law Group, PLLC 705 Second Avenue, Suite 1000, Seattle WA 98104 206-838-1800 info@pilg.org www.pilg.org PILG attorneys Hank Balson, Wendy Chen, and Nancy Chupp provide information, advice, and representation in areas such as employment discrimination, unpaid wages, and other violations of workers’ rights.

Cathay Post #186 of The American Legion Supporting veterans for over 70 years Accepting new members—contact us today to learn more! (206) 355-4422 P.O. Box 3281 Seattle, WA 98144-3281 cathaypost@hotmail.com

Keiro Northwest 1601 E Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98122 ph: 206-323-7100 www.keironorthwest.org rehabilitation care | skilled nursing | assisted living | home care | senior day care | meal delivery | transportation | continuing education | catering services

Legacy House

803 South Lane Street Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-292-5184 fx: 206-838-3057 info@legacyhouse.org www.scidpda.org/programs/legacyhouse. aspx Services offered: Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, meal programs for low-income seniors.

Chinese Information & Service Center 611 S Lane St, Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-624-5633 fax: 206-624-5634 info@cisc-seattle.org www.cisc-seattle.org Creating opportunities for Asian immigrants and their families to succeed by helping them make the transition to a new life while keeping later generations in touch with their rich heritage.

Want to join the Community Resource Directory?

Contact lexi@iexaminer.org

COMMUNITY RESOURCE DIRECTORY

Social & Health Services

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017 — 15

Blurry by Meredith Li-Vollmer Since 1935

Tai Tung Restaurant International District Medical & Dental Clinic 720 8th Avenue S, Seattle, WA 98114 ph: 206-788-3700 email: info@ichs.com website: www.ichs.com

Banquet Facilities - Catering - Delivery

Bellevue Medical & Dental Clinic 1050 140th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA 98005 ph: 425-373-3000 Shoreline Medical & Dental Clinic 16549 Aurora Avenue N, Shoreline, WA 98133 ph: 206-533-2600 Holly Park Medical & Dental Clinic 3815 S Othello St, Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-788-3500 ICHS is a non-profit medical and dental center that provides health care to low income Asian, Pacific Islanders, immigrants and refugees in Washington State.

7301 Beacon Ave S Seattle, WA 98108 ph: 206-587-3735 fax: 206-748-0282 www.idicseniorcenter.org info@idicseniorcenter.org IDIC is a nonprofit human services organization that offers wellness and social service programs to Filipinos and API communities.

Parking & Transportation Services 206-624-3426 transia@aol.com Merchants Parking provides convenient and affordable community parking. Transia provides community transportation: para-transportation services, shuttle services, and field trips in and out of Chinatown/International District, and King County.

Come Enjoy the Oldest Chinese Restaurant in Town!

655 S King St, Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 622-7372 Mon-Thurs 11am-10:30pm Fri-Sat 11am-12am Sun 11am-10pm

Visit iexaminer.org!

In October 2016, the Seattle/King County Clinic provided free medical, dental and vision care to 4,492 patients over four days. This giant free clinic is produced by 3,947 volunteers who donate their time to provide a full range of free dental, vision and medical care to underserved and vulnerable populations.

This year, a dozen comics journalists attended the Clinic and collected patient stories to illustrate the need in the community and what’s driving people to a free clinic. The project is supported by Public Health—Seattle & King County and the Seattle Center Foundation to promote public discussion about health disparities and the challenges people face in accessing health care every day.

Answers to this puzzle are on Wednesday, January 18.

16 — January 4, 2017 – January 17, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

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