2 — November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE OPINION
Asian American entertainers helped me claim my identity By Candace Kwan IE Contributor “You only like them for their looks!” “Yeah, because I buy their album to listen to their face.” Seeing an Internet meme with the above dialogue made my day—the latter phrase has now become my go-to retort. Yes, I admit I’m a huge fangirl. And I only operate under two states of mind regarding people in the public eye: I’m either apathetic or utterly obsessed. When it comes to a select few Asian American entertainers, it’s usually the latter for me . . . and for good reason. My obsession with Asian American entertainers started when I was five years old. My Dad took me to see Mulan and it all snowballed from there. Sure, Mulan isn’t an Asian American entertainer, but I identified so strongly with her character as she was one of the first people I remember seeing onscreen that looked like me. Having
grown up in Butte, Montana, there weren’t many Asian Americans in my life, much less visible in mainstream forms of media. Despite moving to Hong Kong when I was in elementary school, I didn’t stop yearning to see Asian Americans on TV. Although I loved, and still love Mulan, I didn’t find someone to look up to (in real life) until I stumbled upon an article on ChineseAmerican rapper MC Jin, who is best known for winning seven rap battles on the BET network’s flagship show 106 & Park. I had never heard of an Asian American rapper before MC Jin. Seeing someone I could identify with who was accepted by the media and deemed “cool” by so many media outlets changed the way I viewed the media, and in turn, myself. I immediately connected to a song by MC Jin titled “ABC” (short for Americanborn Chinese) in which he addressed his Asian American identity outright and showed that he was not ashamed to be part of both cultures. In the song, rapped mostly in Cantonese, MC Jin calls out his experiences with internalized racism, when people would doubt his cultural heritage because of his American influences. Roughly translated, Jin raps: “You say I’m not officially Chinese. Who are you? In the eyes of foreigners I am yellow skinned, just like you. Even though we come from two different worlds. But it’s pretty much the same, so don’t treat me otherwise (literally, ‘don’t step on me’).” Listening to someone rap about the same feelings I had about my identity was pivotal toward my gradual acceptance of belonging to both cultures. As a freelance journalist in Hong Kong, I was able to meet MC Jin and other Asian American entertainers such as Far East Movement, Ryan Higa, Kina Grannis, and David Choi. Being a fan has changed my life in more ways than one. These Asian American faces are partly the reason why I’m double-majoring in Journalism and American Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington.
Elementary-school-aged Candace Kwan (front) dressed as Mulan. • Courtesy Photo
IE STAFF
Established in 1974, the International Examiner is the only non-profit pan-Asian American media organization in the country. Named after the International District in Seattle, the “IE” strives to create awareness within and for our APA communities. 622 South Washington Street, Seattle, WA 98104. (206) 6243925. iexaminer@iexaminer.org.
I identify with Asian Americans in the media not only because they look like me,
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Journalist Candace Kwan (right) with Chinese American rapper MC Jin (Left) • Courtesy Photo
but because their journeys to find a place in the entertainment industry remind me of my own journey to find my place in the world (not just as an Asian American, but as someone who is simply “growing up”). I wouldn’t be as comfortable with my identify as I am today without these people to look up to. With the visibility of Asian American artists and entertainers emerging from platforms like YouTube, I can finally say with conviction that I am far from alone. I sometimes wish I would have understood
that much earlier in my life. But if I did, I doubt I would have bothered to seek out newer forms of media. These feelings have allowed me to observe Asian Americans taking great strides in both traditional and new forms of media and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Candace Kwan is a sophomore at the University of Washington majoring in journalism and Asian American studies. She writes a column for South China Morning Post’s Young Post.
CORRECTIONS: The correct price of individual tickets to the 2013 Reader’s Choice Awards is $60. The printed November 6, 2013 addition of the International Examiner, incorrectly listed the price of individual tickets as $50. The sponsorship information was also inaccurate in the print edition. For correct sponsorship prices, please email advertising@iexaminer.org. Also, for clarification, one of the raffle prizes is Microsoft 2013, not Office 365 as was pictured.
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INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013 — 3
IE OPINION TYPHOON HAIYAN INFO, HOW TO HELP USAID/CIDI: U.S. agency leads disaster relief IE News Services On November 8, Typhoon Haiyan made landfall in the central Philippines, triggering heavy rains that caused widespread flooding and landslides, particularly in East Samar and Leyte provinces. The U.S. government is providing $20 million in immediate humanitarian assistance to benefit typhoon-affected populations, including the provision of emergency shelter, food assistance, relief commodities, and water, sanitation, and hygiene support.
A destroyed house on the outskirts of Tacloban on Leyte island. This region was the worst affected by the typhoon, causing widespread damage and loss of life. Caritas is responding by distributing food, shelter, hygiene kits and cooking utensils. • Photo by Eoghan Rice
Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda): Business as usual cannot continue By Chera Amlag & Roger Rigor IE Contributors The devastation unleashed by Typhoon Haiyan is now making itself unbearably clear. The world has begun tuning in while massive, worldwide relief efforts are at fever pitch. Images impart a tragedy that can only be attributed to nature’s powerful disdain over what has been an on-going debate on climate change and global warming. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was conclusive in their assessment that the current level of carbon emission is due to human activities, and not a cyclic pattern of nature, as other camps are claiming. The unprecedented rate of increase in carbon emission is the reason for global warming, which in turn, is closely related to climate change. Scientists worldwide are in full agreement, even though the data record is short, that global warming is the “likely cause” of major typhoons and hurricanes that the world has witnessed these past years. Climate and environmental scientists are replete with evidences of the current trend on global warming: the ever-increasing rate of melting of the Greenland ice sheet and mountain glaciers, ocean acidification, the denudation of the north-latitude forests by invading pests from warmer climates, higher incidences of forest fires, increasing areas of drought and the water crises, and many more. Typhoon Haiyan reminds us what typhoon events in that part of the world are going to be like. Perhaps, hurricane events in this part of the world as well, as what Katrina and Sandy were. This epochal crisis is currently centered on climate change and global warming. The mind-set of ‘business-as-usual’ in the context of fossil fuel burning should now be addressed in the arena of national and international political debates. Agriculturally-based
countries in Asia have a lot to fight for in this debate since it has been the industrially-based nations who are the biggest emitters of carbon dioxide. On December 2012, at Doha, Qatar, then Philippine representative to the 18th United Nations Climate Change Conference, Naderev “Yeb” Saño, made a stirring and emotional appeal to the gathering of nations on how climate change is affecting underdeveloped countries like the Philippines. Only a few days prior to his privileged speech, the province of Davao on the southernmost island of Mindanao was reeling from the onslaught of Typhoon Bopha, the “strongest typhoon” to ever hit that part of the country. Hundreds of thousands left homeless, hundreds dead, he directed his attention especially to developed nations to make a stand against the havoc of global warming and climate change: “If not now, then when? If not here, then where?”
The UN Climate Change Summit in Warsaw, Poland, is reconvening this week where Mr. Saño has expressed his intention to go on a hunger strike if his appeal remains ineffective.
For information provided by the federal government on how to aid those affected by Typhoon Haiyan, visit the Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI) website at cidi.org. CIDI was created to educate the public about the advantages of giving monetary donations to relief organizations and the downside of donating unsolicited material goods.
Local Filipino groups collect aid PIN@Y sa Seattle GABRIELA USA is collecting and remitting monetary donations locally and partnering with the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) and the Bayanihan Relief campaign to accept online donations. Donations can be made through
NAFCON’s Paypal account at http://tinyurl. com/bayanihanreliefeffort. Checks can be made payable to “St. George Fontana.” Write “NAFCON Bayanihan Relief” on the memo line. Checks can be mailed to: Pin@y Sa Seattle ATTN: Katrina Pestano c/o Filipino Community Center 5740 Martin Luther King Jr. Way Seattle, WA 98118 Include your return address with your donation. For qualifying tax-deductible donations, email trea@nafconusa.org for necessary documentation. “Besides donations, people are also looking for the medical supplies that our exposurists will be bringing with them,” said Jill Mangaliman, a volunteer with PIN@Y. “Tents are in great need right now.”
Comcast offers free calls to Philippines To help unite families and friends in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan, Comcast will provide free calls to the Philippines for its 10.5 million Xfinity Voice residential customers nationwide. This applies to calls made to the Philippines by customers from November 8 through November 22. Credits and waived fees will be automatic, and no additional steps are required by customers. Comcast will cover fees for calls made to both landline and mobile phones. Comcast’s subscriber terms and conditions otherwise apply.
For more information, visit: nafconusa.org cidi.org philippinesusa.org/haiyan pinaynews.wordpress.com
relief.anakbayan.net umcor.org whitehouse.gov/typhoon www.redcross.org.ph
Haiyan by the numbers Islands in the Philippines: 7,107 MPH max winds from Haiyan: 195
It’s been just less than a year. Instead of hundreds of thousands, we now are looking in the millions with thousands expected to have perished. It cannot be “business-as-usual.” The issue of global warming due to the over emission of carbon dioxide, is now both a question of political will and environmental sustainability. Typhoon Haiyan is a wakeup call. The time to act is now. The options are not only catastrophic; it clearly spells an ominous future on Humanity.
Death toll: 3,976
A previous version of this article appeared at SeattleGlobalist.com.
International aid recieved: $126.8 million
Chera Amlag and Roger Rigor are part of the Philippine-US Solidarity Organization (PUSO). Founded in Seattle in 2002, PUSO works to educate and organize against U.S. imperialism in the Philippines.
Injuries: 18,175 Missing: 1,590 People displaced: 3.95 million People affected: 10.17 million Information provided by the Embassy of the Philippines as of Sunday, November 17, 2013.
4 — November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE NEWS ANNOUNCEMENTS
Help shape Hing Hay Park renovation
the growing economy of Pioneer Square and the Chinatown/International District.
HSD was established by the Washington State Legislature to benefit Seattle neighborhoods affected by the development and operations of professional sports stadiums.
IE News Services
The purpose of HSD is to protect and preserve the unique character of the Pioneer Square and the International District neighborhoods; stimulate and support neighborhood commercial interests and economic activity; reduce future residential and small-business displacement created by external pressures such as encroaching development, stadium events, and public policy decisions; and mitigate the adverse effects of future construction and ongoing operations of major public facilities.
Seattle Parks and Recreation will be discussing with the public a project to expand Hing Hay Park. The project’s first public meeting happens on Thursday, November 21, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the International District/Chinatown Community Center The project will extend Hing Hay Park (423 Maynard Ave. S) to include the site of the current post office (414 6th Ave. S) and make some renovations to the existing park. Seattle Parks said this meeting gives the community an opportunity to share ideas and offer input on the additional park space. Seattle Parks staff will be at the meeting to discuss the project and answer questions.
Hing Hay Park, International District, Seattle, Washington. • Photo by Joe Mabel
Lecture features journalist Andrew Lam
Historic South Downtown Annual neighborhood mixer Thursday, November 21 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Eastern Café 510 Maynard Ave. S Seattle, WA 98104
typically holds three meetings to ensure community involvement. Subsequent public meetings will be held Tuesday, January 21 and Tuesday, February 25. As part of this project, Seattle Parks will survey neighbors Vietnamese American journalist and writer and conduct outreach at local events and Andrew Lam will be speaking as part of a meetings. The design team of SvR (a local fi rm) and free lecture series on Thursday, November 21 Turenscape (a Beijing-based fi rm) will bring Hing Hay Park project meeting from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. at The Black Box an international perspective to the project. Theatre at Edmonds Community College. Thursday, November 21 The 2008 Parks and Green Spaces Levy 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. Lam left Vietnam with his family during the allocates $3 million to plan, design, and ID/Chinatown Community Center fall of Saigon in April 1975. He attended the 719 8th Ave. S. construct the Hing Hay Park expansion. The Filipino Community of Seattle University of California, Berkeley, where he Seattle, WA 98104 continues to fundraise for the people of Bohol, majored in biochemistry. He soon abandoned For each major development or renovation plans for medical school and entered a creative Philippines who were devastated by the project, Seattle Parks and Recreation writing program at San Francisco State earthquake that hit the island on October 15. University. A fundraising dinner and dance part of In 2005, Lam published a collection of “Bangon BOHOL!” happens on Friday, essays, Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the November 22 at the Filipino Community Vietnamese Diaspora, about the problem Center. Music will be provided by Boy of identity as a Vietnamese living in the Pangilinan of Retrozone. United States. Lam received the PEN Open All proceeds will go directly to Bohol Book Award (formerly known as the Beyond through ABS-CBN Foundation’s “Sagip Margins Award) in 2006 for the collection. Kapamilya.” For those unable to attend, cash He is a regular contributor to National Public donations can be dropped off at the Filipino Radio’s “All Things Considered.” Community Center. His second book, East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres, is a meditation on east “Bangon BOHOL!” fundraiser and west relations, and how Asian immigration Friday, November 22 at 6:00 p.m. changed the west. Birds of Paradise Lost, his Filipino Community Center third book, is a collection of short stories about 5740 Martin Luther King Jr Way Vietnamese newcomers struggling to remake Seattle, WA 98118 their lives in the San Francisco Bay after a long, painful exodus from Vietnam. Lam blogs regularly on Huffington Post. Seattle Parks acquired the post office property in 2007 with funding from the Pro Parks Levy. The United States Postal Service will continue to lease the site while it conducts its own public process to relocate within the Chinatown/International District.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY 11AM – 3PM
In addition to our regular menu of Chinese wok specials, Vietnamese pho and fresh Japanese sushi, find delicious Chinese dim sum every Saturday and Sunday at Asian Restaurant, “8” from 11am – 3pm. Your dim sum, your delight! Menu items subject to change without notice. See Restaurant “8” for details. Management reserves all rights.
Bohol fundraiser at Filipino Community Center
Andrew Lam lecture Thursday, November 21 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. The Black Box Theare Edmonds Community College 20310 68th Ave W. Lynnwood, WA 98036
Learn more about Chinatown/ID’s growing economy at history mixer Historic South Downtown (HSD) is holding its annual neighborhood mixer on Thursday, November 21 from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Eastern Café. (510 Maynard Ave. S).
St. Jude hosts familyfriendly walk for cancer
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is currently reaching out to Seattle APIs to raise cancer awareness. St. Jude is a pediatric cancer research center dedicated to treating childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases worldwide. On Saturday, November 23, the greater Seattle community is invited to the 5th annual “Give thanks. Walk.” The free, family-friendly 5K walk will coincide with the joint efforts of 75 other communities nationwide. For more information, givethankswalk.org.
visit
Give Thanks. Walk. Saturday, November 23 at 7:30 a.m. Next 50 Plaza at Seattle Center The mixer will feature complimentary 305 Harrison St. drinks and food as well as information about Seattle, WA 98109
www.
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013 — 5
IE NEWS
Asian American students overcome adversity, receive NAAAP honors By James Tabafunda
these stereotypes and that I’m not who these stereotypes are and that I’m my own person.”
IE Contributor
Garcia, a senior at Franklin High School in Seattle, is class president and has held the leadership position for the last four years. She is also president of her school’s Key Club.
The lavish flapper dresses, feathered headpieces, and long-stringed, beaded necklaces featured in last spring’s The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio became reality for the Seattle chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP Seattle).
“I am a multi-cultural person,” Garcia said. “I am Mexican and Filipino, and it’s really hard in the Seattle area to figure out who I am or to figure out my goals in life and receiving this scholarship has helped me.”
With its members dressed in 1922 garb at the Westin Bellevue, NAAAP Seattle honored three high school students with scholarships at its 34th Annual Gala and Scholarship Reception on November 1. Sponsored in part by MultiCare, a health organization based in Tacoma, the event drew 110 people. The NAAAP organization was founded in 1982, and has 28 chapters across North America. Part of NAAAP’s mission is to “cultivate and empower leaders for professional excellence.” Over the past 10 years, NAAAP’s Seattle chapter has awarded over $40,000 in scholarships to 20 young Asian American leaders seeking opportunities in higher education. Co-emcees Catherine Bugayong and Owen Lei welcomed NAAAP Seattle members and guests to an evening filled with both silent and live auctions, story sharing among attendees, and a dessert dash.
Truc Hang is the associate director of Kollaboration Seattle, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering Asian American and Pacific Islander entertainers in the Pacific Northwest. After NAAAP Seattle’s silent auction closed, he gave the keynote speech on empowerment. Born and raised in Utah, Hang said he grew up in an area with very little diversity.
Left to Right: Michelle Pham, Anwell Wang, NAAAP Seattle scholarship chair Louisa Lambert, and Kirsten Garcia. • Photo by James Tabafunda
Wang, a senior at the International Community School in Kirkland, plans to study computer science. He started his own app business and did research at the California Institute of Technology last summer.
the National Honor Society and Key Club International and volunteers for Tet in Seattle, an annual Vietnamese festival that celebrates Lunar New Year.
“Through the arts, we can inspire and motivate the talented individuals within our own community to share their passions, whatever they may be: singing, dancing, the medical field, or even engineering,” Hang said. In the closing remarks, Hang also took a moment to speak directly to the three scholarship winners.
“Thank you,” Hang said to the students. “It’s through your hard work and your dedication to “It’s kind of hard growing up, being doing good that you prove that there is hope for The night focused on overcoming the adversity faced by Asian Americans laying “I’m incredibly honored to be here today,” an Asian American, because you have to a better tomorrow, that you are the change that the groundwork so that future leaders can Wang said. “The fact that I’m present in this fight against stereotypes like that we have this world needs, and that change is coming make bigger impacts for the community. room with so many talented leaders in the accents or that we’re all smart,” Pham said. sooner rather than later.” “Applying for this scholarship and receiving For additional information about NAAAP Seattle City Council candidate Albert Shen, business world and the community is truly this scholarship means that I’m just more than amazing. To me, growing up in America as Seattle, visit seattle.naaap.org. who was invited to speak at the Gala, called for Asian Americans to do better as a community an Asian American has been kind of difficult because it’s hard to find proper role models to by not playing it safe and by taking action. look up to.” “You have to step forward, and you have to Wang commended NAAAP for helping to rock the boat,” Shen told the audience. encourage leadership for people of different Louisa Lambert, NAAAP Seattle’s cultures and diverse backgrounds. scholarship chair, introduced the scholarship Pham, a senior at Highline High School winners: Anwell Wang, Michelle Pham, and in Burien, is interested in engineering and Kirsten Garcia. Each received a NAAAP design and hopes to attend the University of Seattle certificate and a $2,500 scholarship. Washington. She took part in Washington “I have the privilege of introducing some State’s Running Start Program, which allows exceptional students tonight,” Lambert said. public high school juniors and seniors enroll “They’re involved in their schools, and they in college courses for both high school really have the potential to fulfill NAAAP’s and college credit. Pham is also active in mission to make future leaders.” Guests go ‘Gatsby’ at NAAAP Seattle’s 34th Annual Gala and Scholarship Reception on November 1. • Photo by James Tabafunda
Sawant elected to Seattle City Council, commits to $15 minimum wage IE News Services On Friday, November 15, Seattle Central Community College economics professor Kshama Sawant officially won the nonpartisan race for Seattle City Council Position 2 when her opponent, 16-year incumbent Richard Conlin, formally conceded. “Unfortunately, it appears that my opponent has received a greater number of votes, and I am formally conceding the election to Ms. Sawant,” Conlin said in a statement Friday. “I hope that she will serve the people of Seattle effectively during her time in office.”
chasm between the super-rich and the rest of us,” Sawant said in a statement Friday. “The turnaround of the ballot count in my campaign’s favor is a stunning mandate to move ahead with raising Seattle’s minimum wage to $15/hour. A majority of voters cast ballots for my campaign which did not take a dime of corporate money, yet succeeded through grassroots activism.”
Some media outlets had initially counted out Sawant following the first ballot counts after the November 5 election day. Sawant’s campaign held steady and watched the votes slowly overtake Conlin in the ten-day stretch At the time of Conlin’s concession, Sawant to victory. had tallied 88,222 votes compared to Conlin’s Sawant campaigned on establishing a $15/ 86,582 votes. hour minimum wage, creating a “millionaire’s” “These exciting results show a majority of tax on those earning more than $1 million a voters are fed up with the corporate politicians year to fund mass transit and education, and who have presided over the widening improving affordable housing and rent control.
Ciy Councilmember Richard Conlin (right) and then-challenger Kshama Sawant (left) at the ACRS building on October 11. • File Photo
6 — November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE NEWS
Photo by Joerite
Yes on 522 concedes, vows to return in 2016 IE News Services
The fight for mandatory labeling of genetically engineered food is not over, according to the people behind the Yes on 522 campaign. Under Initiative 522 (I-522), genetically engineered foods or foods containing genetically engineered ingredients would have been required to be labeled noting that the food or processed food has been genetically engineered. The Yes on 522 campaign acknowledged defeat Friday, November 15. “Thank you to everyone who voted, volunteered, donated, and supported this effort,” said Yes on 522 co-chair Trudy Bialic in a statement. “There was lower than expected voter turnout this year. Despite being outspent three to one, we are projecting winning 49 percent of the vote. We are disappointed with the results, but the polling is clear that Washingtonians support labeling and believe they have a right to know. This fight isn’t over. We will be back in 2016 to challenge and defeat the outof-state corporations standing in the way of our right to know.” As of Saturday, November 16, 889,086 Washington voters (51.21 percent) voted “no” on the measure while 846,975 voters (48.79 percent) voted “yes” on the measure. “This is a clear victory for Washington consumers, taxpayers, and family farmers across our state,” said Dana Bieber, spokesperson for No on 522, in a statement last week. “Washington voters have soundly rejected this badly written and deceptive initiative.” Over $33 million was donated to the campaign against I-522 compared with over $9 million for the campaign in favor of GMO labeling, according to Responsible Choices, a non-partisan nonprofit organization. The group’s mission is to educate and inform Washington State voters about who is funding initiatives and the impact of ballot measures on citizens and state and local governments. King County voters were in favor of I-522 with 316,524 “yes” votes (59.37 percent) and 216,626 “no” votes (40.63 percent), as of Saturday, November 16.
Seattle World School is a culturally and linguistically diverse school for newcomer secondary students. • Courtesy Photo
School board set to vote on the future of Seattle World School Friends of Seattle World School IE Contributor Supporters of the Seattle World School (SWS) are up in arms over a School Board proposal to move the school from its current Central District home at Meany Middle School to Van Asselt Elementary School in Southeast Seattle.
to develop TT Minor as a neighborhood elementary school rather than the permanent home for SWS. At the same time, SWS would be moved to Van Asselt for two years until another permanent site is located.
According to SWS supporters, this proposal would amount to a “broken promise” to the school and its supporters, who have waited patiently for many years. Additionally, they Since its founding in 1980, the SWS has say, a move to Van Asselt would put the school been moved five times from one interim out of reach of many students, including 22 location to another with the promise of a percent who live in the north end and would permanent location always deferred into have to spend up to two hours to reach the the future. SWS, formerly known as the school by bus. The new location is also Secondary Bilingual Orientation Center, expected to greatly diminish the current pool is one of only a few schools nation-wide of volunteers, most of whom travel from North designed as a preliminary educational portal and Central Seattle. through which immigrant and refugee middle International Community Health Services and high school students can learn English (ICHS) has operated a school-based clinic at while they transition into the public schools. SWS since 2011. Teresita Batayola, CEO of Current enrollment is at 250 and expected to ICHS, said: “This proposed action is a slap in reach 450 to 550 in five years. the face of those who have worked so long and Last year, the School Board and the public approved a levy which included funds to reopen the boarded-up TT Minor Elementary School, at 17th and Union, as a permanent home for SWS, allowing SWS to finally achieve some stability and plan for future growth as a fullfledged high school.
hard on behalf of our immigrant and refugee students. SWS was promised a permanent home in the Central District and the School Board should live up to their commitment.”
But in an unexpected development, the School Board is considering a proposal led by School Board Director Kay Smith-Blum
For more information, contact María G. Ramírez, chair of Friends of Seattle World School, at (206) 218-9650.
The School Board is expected to discuss and vote on Smith-Blum’s proposal on November 20 at the Stanford Center at 4:30 p.m.
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013 — 7
IE NEWS
Low-income families facing austere conditions after food-stamp cuts By Melanie Eng UW News Lab More low-income Washington families than ever before will go hungry in 2014 due to a $5 billion funding cut to the nation’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which provides food assistance to one in seven American households, according to Christina Wong, public policy manager for Northwest Harvest. Cuts to SNAP went into effect November 1 when the 2009 economic stimulus package—which boosted it temporarily— expired. As a result, Washington state will lose $114 million in federal funding for food assistance over the next year. This means the estimated 1.1 million Washington state residents who rely on food stamps to feed their families will face a decrease between $130 and $430 of their annual grocery budget starting this month. For a four-person household with a net income of less than $25,000 per year (the maximum salary to qualify for food stamps), this is a substantial loss that will slash up to five monthly meals.
the lowest income bracket, according to Wong. “The economic recovery has helped those on the cusp of hunger and poverty avoid that pitfall,” she said. “But it’s done very little to change what’s happening to the people who are the most vulnerable and the most hungry.” Wong said Washington state’s comparatively regressive tax system— the most extreme in the entire country— is partly to blame for food insecurity levels that failed to improve along with the economy. This is because marginal increases in gross income make little difference when poor households are forced to hand over the same disproportionately large chunk of their paycheck to the government; the amount of money left for food is still inadequate. “What jobs [lower income] people are getting in this economy, it’s still not paying them enough to meet all their household needs,” she said.
Wong also cited Washington’s “abysmal” participation rate in other federal nutrition programs (especially those aimed at feeding low-income youth) Overall, 47 million meals will be taken as a contributing factor to statewide away from needy Washington families in hunger. 2014, Wong said. Organizations like NW Harvest are Food security nation-wide is further now mobilizing to help food banks threatened by a GOP-crafted farm bill and other anti-hunger resources brace looming in Congress that would slash themselves for an influx of demand. They another $40 billion from SNAP over the are also working to educate lower-income next five years. communities about maximizing their “With so many people going hungry in remaining benefits. this day and age, it’s just unfathomable Food banks will have a particularly to me that anyone can think about taking difficult time meeting clients’ needs this away tools to fight that,” said Wong. month, since they’ve only had about two Northwest Harvest is a hunger relief weeks to adapt to a dramatic increase in organization that works with nearly 300 clientele, Wong said. food banks across Washington state. It’s Plus, the drop in SNAP funding arrived just one of several anti-hunger agencies in “just in time for Thanksgiving.” the state struggling to manage the dramatic But according to Wong, there is “no increase in food bank clients this month. possible way” that food banks can According to Wong, decreased funding completely make up for the nation’s No. 1 for SNAP is arriving at a time when food anti-hunger tool being downsized by billions banks in the state already are dealing of dollars. She said if the GOP farm bill with heavily strained resources. Families passes and funding is slashed even further, who received full SNAP benefits prior to every single food bank in the nation would November 1 still required extra assistance need to somehow double its budget over the from food banks to put meals on the table. next year to even begin to compensate. “Those clients are already at our food The fear of such an outcome is fueling banks’ doors,” Wong said. “[Budget cuts] fervent legislative lobbying by anti-hunger will only deepen need even more, because organizations to prevent further SNAP there will be no other alternative.” cuts from passing in Congress. NW Despite the recovering state of the Harvest is also fighting to expand the economy, Washington currently ranks 15th state’s emergency food assistance program in the nation for hunger—with particularly by $1 million to help mitigate losses in high levels of food insecurity plaguing federal funding.
Volunteers from Bertschi School bag beans with Northwest Harvest. • Courtesy Photo
According to Wong, this translates to 3 million meals potentially restored to low-income families in Washington—a “drop in the bucket” when compared to an overall loss of 47 million meals, but still a boon to food banks struggling to cope with “tremendous strain.”
“SNAP is our frontline defense against hunger,” she said. “There’s a pretty dismal outlook [for the future of food security] without it.” Melanie Eng is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.
Snapshots in Time Filipino activist Primitivo Mijares is interviewed while testifying at an immigration hearing in 1976 for two Filipina maids threatened with deportation. Mijares spoke of the lack of due process under the Marcos regime and his belief that the maids would be persecuted upon their return to the Philippines for abandoning their jobs with the Philippines Consul General in Seattle. Himself an asylum seeker from the regime he criticized, Mijares was forcibly returned to his homeland the following year where he then disappeared. He is widely believed to have been murdered by Marcos supporters. (q.v. IE, April 1976) • Photo, Elaine Ko, 1976.
8 — November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE COMMUNITY
Whatʼs your dish?
Extra spicy Beef Hot Soup from Boiling Point. Bubbling to the brim with nappa, vermicelli, sliced beef, enoki Mushroom, tomato, firm tofu, tempura, corn, meatball, kamaboko, fried tofu skin, imitation crabstick. Be sure to ask for lots of water. A lunch for $11.99.
Boiling Point
610 5th Ave. S. Seattle, WA 98104 Hours: Monday to Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.
Two custard buns, two baked BBQ buns, four shrimp dumplings, and four Sui Mai to go at 60 cents each from Dim Sum King. Good food when you’re on the run at a good price.
Din Tai Fung has been perfecting the art of dumplings for decades. • Courtesy Photo
Legendary dumpling house comes to UW district
Dim Sum King
617 S. Jackson St. Seattle, WA 98104 Hours: Open everyday from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. (206) 682-2823 dimsumkingseattle.com
Snapshots in Time
Share your own snapshots in time with IE readers. Send in a memorable photo that you have taken and a message granting the IE permission to publish the photo to editor@iexaminer.org with the subject line “Snapshots in Time.”
By IE Staff The exact science of a Din Tai Fung dumpling can be boiled down to months and grams: six months of rigorous chef training to master precisely 21 grams of dumpling perfection. Each xiao long bao dumpling is made to order with a uniform weight of dough (5 grams) flattened and artfully pinched together to wrap the savory meat morsel inside (16 grams). The calculated experimentation took the Din Tai Fung family far over the decades since the company began in 1958. Their restaurant has been lauded in media worldwide since the 1990s, and now stretches across the globe to open branches in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and the United States.
David Wasielewski Yang brought the legacy to the Northwest in 2011 as owner of Din Tai Fung Dumpling House in Bellevue, and he will be taking on an exciting calculated venture in opening a second Seattle dumpling house in Seattle’s University Village before the end of 2013 — a restaurant that will have more than 8,000 square feet to add to the Bellevue location’s approximate 7,000.
Children take a bite during Philippines Independence Day celebrations in the International District. • Undated Photo by Mike Kozu
“After a couple years of pretty steady business, Seattle would be a good opportunity for us,” Yang said. “Part of the excitement of opening the second store is gathering everything we’ve learned the past couple years and applying it at the new location.”
Yang
This includes ways of making the restaurant more efficient. Though it’s a good sign that customers will still wait more than an hour to eat at the dumpling house, Yang doesn’t want customers to wait any longer than 45 minutes. “[Opening the second store] can alleviate some of the wait time for guests here, and tackle a new market,” he said.
The University of Washington (UW) alumni and Seattle University Albers Business School graduate said that Din Tai Fung is assessing new ways to introduce the product to this market, and also hopes that it will give his loyal Eastside patronage a reason to cross the 520 bridge—something that will reduce wait time at both locations.
“They’re very excited for us,” Yang noted “I hope that our Seattle store will be as of his Bellevue following. successful as their Bellevue store,” Yang said. Yang is grateful to his patronage and Din Three years after opening, shoppers on the Tai Fung founders Yang Bingyi and Lai second level of Bellevue’s Lincoln Square can Penmei for their support over the years. He still see lines far outside the dumpling house. calls Yang and Lai his family. Since the Bellevue branch is one of only three “They gave me the opportunity to have a U.S. locations (the other two are in Arcadia, shout out here,” he said. “[The Din Tai Fung California), many of Yang’s customers come founders] were very supportive of opening from as far as Vancouver, B.C. and Portland, the second store as well. It’s been a really Oregon, he said. The timing is just right to positive relationship so far.” open a second store.
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INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013 — 9
IE COMMUNITY
Shanik offers homestyle comfort and world reknowned food. • Photo by Jessica Aceti
Best Indian restaurant in the world? By Josie Keeney Courtesy of Seattleite.com If you’re looking for Indian food, Shanik is the real deal. And the real deal happens to be very vegan friendly.
As owner, Meeru Dhalwala candidly explains, you will never feel like a moron when you walk into her restaurant. Unless of course you’re acting like a moron (and dietary choices or restrictions certainly are not on her list of things that qualify someone as a moron). Having been vegetarian for seventeen years of her life, Dhawala understands how difficult it can be (and how rude people can act) when you try to order something that’s not listed on the menu, and she has gone to great lengths to ensure anyone who sits down to eat at one of her three restaurants will feel as comfortable as she does in her own home. She not only has a very accommodating philosophy, but she has hand crafted all the modifications of her dishes to ensure you aren’t just getting some throwntogether vegan, dairy-free or fill in the blankfree version, but you are getting a vegan, dairyfree or fill in the blank-free dish that tastes as good, if not better, than the original.
rice, extra water, extra chapati, and then some more extra rice. The spicy flavors are so good you’ll endure the pain far longer than you and your mouth agreed to. And every time it gets to be just too much, you’ll do a little one-two ricewater combo and get back on the wagon. It’s a dangerous and thrilling cycle. Actually, I don’t think it’s dangerous at all. Unless of course you are deathly allergic to rice and water. Grilled Vegetables $20
The grilled vegetables are so much more than their name gives them credit for. Served over brown rice and green lentils and surrounded by a sauce for the ages, this delicious pool of naturally-vegan love is so rich, so hearty, you’ll forget you’re eating vegan food altogether and simply basque in its boldness. I wanted to dip everything on the table in this sauce. That was until I realized how much food we ordered. I only have so much love to give, and so much stomach to fill. I was forced to move on to another dish. Oh, but I’ll be back.
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Kale and jackfruit curry $16
This lightly sweet curry features cauliflower, potatoes, kale, slivered almonds and jackfruit, a fibrous asian fruit said to have the flavor of an apple, banana, pinneapple and mango combined … and also said to be my favorite part of the dish. Its sweetness did not display itself in short, pungent punches like pineapple on pizza, but rather by spreading its love throughout the dish in a delicately balanced way, perfectly complementing the depth of spice in the curry.
Many of the ingredients and traditions used at Shanik have been passed on to Dhalwala from her mother. For instance, the chai tea served before your meal is the same chai she learned to make for her mother as a ten-yearold girl. The myriad of spices you’ll taste in every dish are roasted and ground the same way her mother would, filling the entire house with the smell of cumin every Saturday as far Everything you will see, smell and taste back as she can remember. Are you starting to at Shanik is thoughtfully crafted. From the believe that this really is the real deal? Good. handmade wheat crisps in the papri chaat, to Shanik is Dhawala’s third restaurant. Vij’s, the blue and gold color palette of the restaurant, her first endeavor located in Vancouver, has to the menus, hand-written by Dhawala herself. been written up in the New York Times as one It is by no accident that the restaurant bursts of the finest Indian restaurants in the world. with the warmth and comfort she felt from her Did you hear that? In the WORLD. When mother growing up. I’d say we are all lucky to asked about her decision to expand to Seattle, be invited into such a delicious part of her life. her answer was part impulse, part responsible My ordering tip: Start with the papri chaat mother. She knew she would want to be present and end with the coconut-roohafza pudding. as much as possible while her third baby grew The middle is up to you. But if it weren’t up to up. And flying across the country wouldn’t you, I would order the roasted vegetables, the make that very easy. So thanks to the geography jackfruit curry and the chickpea samosas. gods, Seattle now gets to enjoy cooking from one of the best chefs in the WORLD. Shanik 500 Terry Avenue North Located in South Lake Union, Shanik’s Seattle, WA 98109 exquisite design and complex flavors will keep 206-486-6884 your eyes and mouth happy as a clam. Well, a shanikrestaurant.com clam made of fire—the spice level at Shanik is anything but Americanized. So if you’re a more on Pacifi c Northwest dining, travel, fashion, pansy like me, don’t hesitate to ask for extra For entertainment, and events, visit Seattleite.com.
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10 — November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE ARTS
Smoke & Pickles tells a story of life, food, and graffiti By Soyon Im IE Contributor
What do food and graffiti have in common? Nothing, you might think, until you read Smoke & Pickles, by Edward Lee, a chef who compares the impermanence of a meal to the impermanence of graffiti. A Korean American raised in Brooklyn, Lee writes that graffiti was his “first cuisine,” and recalls going around the city with an older truant, spray painting walls while dodging authorities. “Graffiti’s never supposed to last. How many remember the art on the L train or a mural on 145th Street? The hardest things to hold on to in life are the ones that want to disappear.” Twenty years later, as he’s enjoying a grand meal with another chef, he realizes that the food will become a memory, “soon to be painted over by another meal.”
Perhaps that’s one reason Lee wrote the hefty, hard-covered cookbook, and created something a little more permanent, even though the Internet has increasingly become the go-to source for recipes. Smoke & Pickles proves itself to be much more than a typical cookbook. Lee is a very good writer, and in his pages, even a simple, everyday staple becomes deeply appetizing as he encourages us to make rice in a cast-iron skillet to achieve three distinct layers: paper-thin skin on top, fluffy rice in the middle, and a crunchy layer of toasted rice on the bottom.
Photo from Smoke & Pickles by Edward Lee, published by Artisan, a division of Workman Publishing Company, Inc. Copyright © 2013 by Edward Lee
More appealing are the sumptuous photographs and recipes that expand the traditions of American cuisine. Disparate ingredients come together in dishes like collards and kimchi, cola ham hocks with miso glaze, chicken fried pork steak with ramen crust and buttermilk pepper gravy, braised beef kalbi with edamame hummus, and many other interesting concoctions. But whatever you do, don’t call the food “fusion,” as Lee can’t stand that word. “It implies a kind of culinary racism, suggesting that foods from Eastern cultures are so radically different that they need to be artificially introduced or ‘fused’ with Western cuisines to give them legitimacy,” he writes. Whether or not one agrees with that statement, Lee’s wonderful book gives lots of inspiration to try new things in the kitchen.
which attracted hipsters and celebrities— Lee takes the seductive element further and his eventual move to Louisville, KY, as he writes that as a teen, he’d peek into where he matured as a chef and continues issues of Gourmet “like they were Playboy, to live today. lusting after lamb roasts.” Later on, he says It’s hard not to be charmed as the that it’s “super sexy” when the yolk of an 13-year-old Lee convinces his parents to egg breaks over a plate of steak tartare.
take him to a fancy restaurant instead of sending him to baseball camp. It was a meal that would change the course of his life, and he recalls the sauce that was served, a rémoulade that was “creamy, crunchy, sweet, and sour…. Somewhere in the folds of that little brain of mine, Each section of the book begins with something clicked, and I knew I would personal stories of Lee’s childhood, his spend the rest of my life chasing the training in France, his first years running seduction of food.” a restaurant in Manhattan—a BBQ joint
After moving to Kentucky, Lee became more involved in the farm-to-table movement, but not just in the feel-good aspects of growing organic vegetables or building relationships with local farmers. One chapter describes his first time visiting a slaughterhouse, where he participates in the killing of more than 30 pigs. It’s a thoughtfully written section, and it’s laudable that Lee shares the experience, knowing that some readers would be repelled.
Smoke & Pickles
Korean taco guru Roy Choi tells his story through food By Nina F. Ichikawa IE Contributor “A whole generation of Korean immigrants and their American born children could have lived and died in the United States without anyone knowing they had been here. I could not let that happen.” So wrote Kim Ronyoung, author of the classic novel Clay Walls. I thought of her book while reading Roy Choi’s L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food, which screams from every page: “I’m here! Don’t forget me!” Choi is widely known as the proprietor of Kogi BBQ, a Korean-Mexican taco truck company. Choi’s Korean tacos are sold from a fleet of trucks canvassing the multicultural breadth of Southern California and have spawned a generation of imitators. While people may not get what made Kogi L.A. Son BBQ the massive success it is today, L.A. Son up (his general approach to life and food). He reveals how. And it’s much more complicated doesn’t edit out the unsavory bits, and makes than you might think. sure to include a recipe to remember things by. With surprising efficiency (credit to coA stint as a country club cook leads to a club authors Tien Nguyen and Natasha Phan), each sandwich recipe. Mexican kitchen co-workers chapter details a different twist in Choi’s life, teach Choi how to make birria with freshlywith recipes to match. Choi is honest about his killed goat. When he hits rock bottom due to ups and downs, but does try to spice things various addictions, his parents nurse him back
to health with abalone porridge and kimchi stew. Those recipes are shared, too. Following his kimchi-fueled recovery, Choi studied at the Culinary Institute of America and worked his way up the ladder at top restaurants in the United States and abroad. Choi has found a niche in making recipes as low-cost and flexible as possible. “You can have almost no money and still have enough to live off this stuff for weeks, months, years,” Choi wrote about an instant ramen recipe with American cheese. Yes, he includes a teased-up ramen pack recipe in a 340-page fullcolor cookbook, and I love him for it. Besides the ramen recipe, the book is not gimmicky and includes solid recipes for everyday carne asada, Caesar salad and something called “$4 Spaghetti That Tastes Almost As Good As The $24 Spaghetti.” L.A. Son’s recipes remind me of old Japanese American community cookbooks with recipes for Chinese chicken salad, pancit, and macaroni casseroles. They are faithful to who we lived with, worked alongside, learned from, and most importantly, cooked and ate with. Choi follows this long tradition of Asian American food, which is indebted to neighbors and redolent of prosperity and privation.
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013 — 11
IE ARTS
An extreme close-up of mouth-watering chicken adobo on white rice. • Photo by CapitalCRUZ
Eating Asian America investigates the connections between race and taste By Christopher B. Patterson IE Contributor
“You’re not Korean if you can’t eat kimchi.” “If your mom didn’t make adobo, you’re not Filipino.” Since Asian migrants first arrived in the United States, their identities were tethered to the food they ate. Whether as laborers who were stereotyped for only eating rice, or as farmers, cooks, and servers who helped produce “authentic” and Eating Asian America “exotic” cuisines for white customers, Asian Americans have been perceived by the tastes and smells associated with their communities.
and superficial celebration of difference, thus permitting consumers to ignore political issues that pertain to Asian American people. The twenty essays in the collection thus consider how Asian American identity has been characterized by foods perceived as exotic (“spicy”), disgusting (“oily”), or dangerous (“dogmeat”).
The anthology represents the multidisciplinary reach of Asian American Studies, beginning with stories of agricultural and food-service labor. The essays then consider how imperialism and war have contributed to popular tastes and production, and then reflect upon how food has both solidified and unsettled Asian American identity. The anthology ends with essays on Asian American personhood and examinations of food in literature, art, and film.
The essays themselves are readable and concise. Each scholar, whose works may appear opaque in scholarly journals, are here successful in reaching a very large audience, from Asian American scholars to those simply interested in The popularity of Asian foods has also food histories and identity. Yet this ambitious provided Asian migrants with ways of project can come with its weaknesses, as some incorporating themselves within America’s chapters feel far less critical than others. While Main Street. Restaurants sell foods like chop the main goal of the anthology is to disrupt a suey and fortune cookies as authentically “superficial multiculturalism” that celebrates Chinese, though such foods likely originated difference through ingestion, some essays seem in the U.S. Indeed, the “authenticity” of such to join this celebration in applauding the recent cuisines has often been their most marketable acceptance of Asian food by American culture, feature. Even the taste of a perfectly sliced while other essays are more critical of the vexed piece of sashimi may lose its luster if the chef contemporary perceptions of Asian foods. is not really “Asian.” The anthology’s weaknesses however The collection of essays, Eating Asian are redeemed in its impressive consistency America: A Food Studies Reader, is a reminder and logical arrangement, which uses the that our perception of Asian food has come less critical chapters to set up a firm basis from a complex overlapping of historical and for later chapters to critique and dismantle. political forces, which have defined Asian Dawn Mabalon, René Orquiza, and Martin American identity and made Asian food a Manalansan’s chapters are all heavily informed marketable means of consuming (and ingesting) by each other, and give multiple dimensions an “exotic” commodity. As the editors Robert to the history, production, and consumption Ji-Song Ku, Martin F. Manalansan, and Anita of Filipino foods. Mabalon’s chapter argues Mannur state in the introduction, the pleasures that the food Filipino immigrants cooked of eating Asian food has encouraged a naïve
and ate were elements of survival, and were very different from foods in the Philippines. Yet these foods also helped form a collective Filipina/o American identity, so that later generations attached these Americanized Filipina/o foods to “memory, cultural pride, and family” (171).
Orquiza’s chapter deepens Mabalon’s ideas by considering the Philippines in the colonial period, when Americans used education, advertising and cookbooks to “Americanize the Filipino palate,” (177). Depicting Western food as a mark of refinement, American colonials shaped Philippine identity as lacking in the perfection of the West, thus encouraging more Filipinas/os to migrate. Manalansan’s chapter builds off Mabalon’s and Orquiza’s to ask why some immigrant food has been categorized as “authentic” and “ethnic,” while others like pizza, tacos, chips and hamburgers, are seen as all-American (291). In response, Manalansan conjures ways of depicting foods to create “an uncomfortable encounter with inauthenticity” (297). Other chapters expand our perceptions of Asian foods by examining how taste and pleasure have also impacted notions of whiteness and queer desire. Mark Padoongpatt’s chapter considers the popularity of Asian dishes during the Cold War in white households, where ingesting Asian foods made look-alike housewives appear more unique and adventurous. Anita Mannur’s chapter examines how the kitchen can yield same-sex intimacy in South Asian literature and film (393).
The authors featured in Eating Asian America represent a shift in how perceptions of Asianness are understood. They push readers to go beyond visual perceptions of race such as skin, face, and body, and to consider how identities continue to be formed through taste and smell. Edited By Robert Ji-Song Ku, Martin F. Manalansan, and Anita Mannur—New York University Press.
12 — November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE ARTS
Amy Tan’s Valley of Amazement reaches vast expanse, satisfies I
Tamiko Nimura IE Contributor
give my right hand to the Occidentals and my left to the Orientals, hoping that between them they will not utterly destroy the insignificant “connecting link.” —Sui Sin Far, “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian” (1890)
In the late 19th-century, interracial marriages were largely taboo, and Eurasian children were “bastards” without a place to belong. Using scenes from her own life, the Chinese Canadian writer Sui Sin Far carved a liminal “connecting link” space in her essay, “Leaves from the Mental Portfolio of a Eurasian” (1890). Fast forward just 20 years later to the chronological setting of Amy Tan’s latest novel, The Valley of Amazement. Readers who identify with the fiercely independent speaker of Far’s essay will be drawn to the similarlyminded protagonist of Tan’s novel, Violet. Consciously or not, Tan’s novel seems to pick up the spirit of Far’s essay and carry it forward, testing “Occidentals” and “Orientals” once again to see if they have gained any tolerance for Eurasian children, the “connecting links.” Despite history, laws, and cultural edicts, both Far and Violet must search for a strong sense of self, and must find the inner strength and resources to rescue themselves repeatedly.
courtesan houses to remote Chinese villages, and from San Francisco to the Hudson Valley of New York. Valley was inspired by a newspaper photo of Tan’s greataunt, captioned “one of the 10 great Shanghai Tan beauties,” or courtesans from the early 20th century. Despite Tan’s professed reluctance to write bedroom scenes earlier in her career, the novel’s subject matter necessitates many bedroom scenes, which range skillfully from the clinical to the sensual and erotic. Although the jacket copy describes Valley as the story of a mother and daughter, the emotional core of the novel belongs primarily to Violet, the half-Chinese, halfwhite daughter of an American madam who runs a courtesan house in Shanghai. After a series of betrayals, Violet becomes a “virgin courtesan” herself, forced to navigate the worlds of courtesan politics, business deals, and the permeable boundary between the two. Other characters share the spotlight for a chapter or two, including a memorable tutorial on courtesanship from Violet’s mentor Magic Gourd. As with previous novels, including her best-known The Joy Luck Club, Tan is at her best detailing the trauma of parental abandonment and the complex joy of reunion.
Those who have been waiting for Tan’s novel, her first in eight years, will not be disappointed. Tan revisits familiar emotional territory from previous novels, exploring the complexity of mother-daughter bonds, but with an epic setting spanning the first few decades of the 20th century and several different cities. Tan also uses the titular landscape Violet’s lifelong search for her “happier self” painting deftly as a symbol of Violet’s takes her from the chambers of Shanghai lifelong search for the right perspective and sense of identity. The painting appears in several chapters, each time marked with a new patina of meaning. “Was the painting meant to depict a feeling of hope or was it hopelessness? Were you supposed to be standing on the cliff [in the painting] charged with bravery or trembling in dread of what awaited you? … You could not see the painting both ways at the same time. You had to choose which one it was originally meant to be. How would you know which was right unless you were the one who had painted it?”
The Valley of Amazement
What’s your dish? The IE wants to know what your favorite dish is in the International District. 1) Take a pic. 2) Say what it is, where you got it, and how much it costs. 3) Send it in to editor@iexaminer.org with the subject line “ID Dish.”
The novel is expansive, using multiple narrators, locations, and time periods, sometimes within chapters. A reader might wish for a few more section breaks, a little more white space—smoother, more consistent cues—in order to keep up with all of these factors. However, this is a small dissonant note within the overall satisfying emotional chords that Tan’s novel strikes.
Eunice Kim, Tessellation, Monoprint © 2013 Eunice Kim
Visual Ritualism: Monoprints dot Korean artist’s memory Minh Nguyen IE Contributor
At a cursory glance, Eunice Kim’s prints are a convergence of soothing dots, arranged in various patterns. However, the aesthetic interplays in the collagraphs are, according to Kim, both individual and collective—dualisms of “structure and chance.”
The prints were part of Kim’s New Collagraph Monoprints exhibition, which was on display at Davidson Galleries last month. While the exhibit is closed, Kim’s works continue to be available for viewing at the gallery by request. Kim, a designer and illustrator, said her works are informed by her memories, particularly of a childhood in Korea. Kim’s collagraphs are rhythmic and patient and conjure the ritual and meditation of repetition. “The work lives in imagery, but the work is abstract in nature,” Kim said.
Within the abstract aesthetic lie concrete and tangible experiences, she explained.
“For example, when I was growing up, nearly every night for the first ten years of my life when my grandmother raised me, I would fall asleep to her Buddhist prayer chants, which I found extremely comforting,” Kim said. “Every night she would say her prayers, and that ritualistic repetition is echoed in the repetitive dot marks that are the building blocks of my nature imagery. ... There’s a persistence of memory, whether it be cognitive, sensory, or even visceral, and I think it wants to be expressed. So these dot marks are what come to me most naturally.” Both the audial and the visual memories of Kim’s grandmother are reflected in Kim’s aesthetic.
Kim discovered a penchant for the technique of collagraph printmaking while in college. She said that the collagraph has historical connections to Washington. The word “collagraph” was coined in the 1950s by an artist named Glen Alps, who taught at the University of Washington, and who Kim attributes responsibility for disseminating the art form. Construction of collagraph plate begins with clear acrylic sheets and the administration of modeling paste. In Kim’s case, it is the patient administration of a single dot, decided on a whim at a time, using squeeze bottles. The dot marks are then shaped to a height optimal for the printing process that Kim compares to sanding and polishing by achieving on each dot a clean, planar top profile, which Kim tests with her fingertips. The plate is then printed in a technique called intaglio. Ink application is accomplished with a soft dabber rolled out of synthetic felt. For plate wiping, Kim uses smooth newsprint. The process itself requires attentiveness and deliberation. Kim said she finds resonance in the collagraph process.
“Its strength lies in its physicality and the experimental nature,” Kim said. “Something about the process-oriented nature of the medium sort of aligned me with my intentions, because my desire is to explore processes and materials in depth.”
As for the dot marks, Kim said they are one of the most basic units of visual language to work with and that she likes their neutrality. A large part of Kim’s work is inspired by methods of non-toxic art-making in a medium that Kim said can be very hazardous.
“With artists in general, we are not very cognizant of the hazards of our practice,” Kim said of Italio techniques, nitric acids, and hydrochloric acids. “For the last 10 years or so I’ve been working in non-toxic techniques, really for myself. I want to keep making art, and also to demonstrate that it can be done. To be clear, there is no such Kim recalls her young self studying the thing as a completely non-toxic process. The ceiling tiles comprised of abstract graphic goal is to raise awareness to minimize hazard elements and comparing and contrasting the and impact.” subtle variations. For more information, visit www. davidsongalleries.com. “Grandmother’s room, the social center and heart of the home, was furnished entirely with traditional Korean lacquer pieces ornamented with mother-of-pearl inlays that were visual and formalistic references that hearken back to those objects that comprised my physical environment,” Kim said.
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INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013 — 13
IE ARTS
13 epic API films to look out for By Yayoi L. Winfrey IE Contributer
Movies from the Asian/Pacific Rim have become more available in the U.S. in recent years. Here’s a capsule of some recently screened selections from the 2013 Hawai’i International Film Festival in October. Most can be found online, at your local video store, or at a future screening near you. Happy viewing!
I
For more information on these and other great API films, visit hiff.org.
100 days | 104 min.
n 100 Days, Bo Dan (Sze-Ming Lu) lives a high-tech life in the city, stringing along his highmaintenance girlfriend like a fashion accessory. When his mother dies, he returns to the small island where he was raised and learns that Taiwanese tradition dictates he marry within 100 days of her death. Frantically searching for a cell phone signal in the remote village, he misses the romantic signals emitted by his childhood girlfriend—on the verge of being married herself.
A
A Touch of Sin | 135 min.
n intense drama with powerful performances about four people driven to fight back, A Touch of Sin features some squeamishly bloody scenes. Dahai (Wu Jiang) vocalizes his dissatisfaction to his party leader over corruption at the mine where they work. But his voice remains unheard until he backs it up with a weapon. Conversely, San (Wang Baoqiang) uses his to rob the rich. Spa worker Zheng Xiaoyu (Zhao Tao) fends off both her boyfriend’s wife and customers who are convinced she’s a prostitute. And, a young man from the country (Luo Lanshan) is disillusioned by work in the city. With its Cannes award-winning screenplay based on real events about justice, this film remarkably passed by Chinese censors.
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Mt. Zion | 96 min.
rom New Zealand, comes Mt. Zion, a story about a community of Maori potato laborers in 1979 Pukekohe. When young Turei (StanWalker) decides he’d rather play music, his father (Temuera Morrison) is furious. But Turei’s idol, Bob Marley, is searching for a band to open his upcoming Aotearoa concert, and Turei and his mates want the gig. The culture of camaraderie and original music are captivating.
The Last Supper | 107 min.
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A Tale of Samurai Cooking | 130 min.
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t’s a perfect match of samurai swords and sushi in this pleasant period piece. In A Tale of Samurai Cooking: A True Love Story, Yasunobu’s (Kora Kengo) utter failure at cooking is unacceptable because he’s heir to his samurai father’s high-level chef position. Realizing his boy isn’t cut out for cooking, dad arranges for him to marry the lower-status and divorced Oharu (Ueto Aya) to teach him the ways of the kitchen.
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Ilo Ilo | 99 min.
n Ilo Ilo, Filipina maid Terry (Angeli Bayani) is outsourced to work for a family in Singapore during the 1997 financial crisis. Immediately, pregnant wife Hwee Leng (Yeo Yann Yann) demands her passport, commanding her to speak only English. From there, the level of disrespect grows with young son Jiale (Koh Jia Ler) chiming in with verbal abuse. Meanwhile father Keng Teck Lim (Chen Tian Wen) hides the fact that he’s lost his job. Director Anthony Chen won the Camera d’or at Cannes for this excellent study of classism.
he family that plays together may stay together, but members of the Korean Boomerang Family don’t play fair. Lazy, former gangbanger In-mo (Park Haeil) lives alone with mom (Youn Yuh-jung) until sister MiYoun (Kong Hyo-jin) moves in with her sulky teenager. And, when brother Han-mo (Yoon Je-moon) arrives after a failed career in filmmaking, tension explodes in funny, but inexplicably violent ways.
Oshin | 107 min.
ased on a popular Japanese TV series broadcast 30 years ago, Oshin is the tender tale of a young girl sold into servitude. Oshin (adorable Hamada Kokone) may be mistreated by elitists, but she never loses courage or love for her mother. Sent away to work at age 7, Oshin struggles through icy winters, hard labor, and separation from her family. Friendship with a fugitive hunter leads to tragedy, but Oshin remains inspired in this subtle salute to feminism.
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The Kiyosu Conference | 135 min.
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Zone Pro Site | 145 min.
ollowing the forced suicide of samurai lord Oda Nobunaga, Japan’s first group meeting is arranged to name his successor. The Kiyosu Conference is told with sassy, droll humor, but unless well-versed in Japanese feudal history, one could get lost in its crowd of historical characters. Yo Oizumu plays the most comical Hideyoshi ever seen onscreen.
Boomerang Family | 112 min.
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Mourning Recipe | 129 min.
ourning Recipe features excellent performances of believable characters. While Yuriko (Nagasaku Hiromi) is heartbroken over her inability to conceive, her philandering husband impregnates his lover. In the middle of this crisis, Yuriko learns that her stepmother has suddenly died leaving her father in a deep depression. Arriving home, she’s shocked by the appearance of a wayward girl offering a recipe book for living. This diverse Japanese film features a Japanese-Brazilian character, hula, and Hawaiian Queen Lili’uokalani’s song “Aloha Oe.”
Kon-Shin | 134 min.
oday’s popular sumo matches feature wellpaid wrestlers, but the sport started out as a religious rite. In Kon-Shin, a tournament held every 20 years in remote Okinoshima becomes the battleground for Hideaki (Sho Aoyagi) to prove himself to his second wife, fearful daughter, estranged family and the villagers he once abandoned.
one Pro Site: The Movable Feast showcases the traditional Taiwanese outdoor banquet or “bandoh.” After Master Fly Spirit dies, daughter Wan (Kimi Hsia) comes home as a failed model chased by debt collectors. Joining her stepmother, they prepare for a bandoh contest. Handsome but tricky Ah-hai (Yo Yang) appears, offering expertise as a food doctor.
he story of how the Han became the largest ethnic group on the planet today begins with a dying emperor (Liu Ye) recalling his friendshipturned-rivalry with Lord Yu (Daniel Wu) and General Xin (Chang Chen). This riveting, yet sometimes repulsive, tale is told in The Last Supper by director Lu Chan (City of Life and Death) with a Kurosawaesque approach employing dreams and nightmares.
A
The Rocket | 96 min.
fter a boy is born alongside his dead twin, his grandmother urges his mother to destroy him. Believing he’s cursed, the villagers shun him and, after being displaced by a new dam, they all become refugees. When a tragedy befalls the family, 10 year-old Ahlo (Sitthiphon Disamoe) is further alienated until he meets Kia and her eccentric Uncle Purple. Learning about a competition for creating and shooting rockets to gods to make it rain, Ahlo decides to enter. Featuring the lush Laos countryside, The Rocket rocks.
14 — November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
IE COMMUNITY RESOURCE DIRECTORY Arts & Culture
Professional & Leadership Development
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.
1300 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98101 Ph: 206-654-3209 Fx: 206-654-3135 SAM connects art to life through special exhibitions, educational programs and installations drawn from its collection of approximately 25,000 objects. Through its three sites, SAM presents global perspectives, making the arts a part of everyday life for people of all ages, interests, backgrounds and cultures.
Education 3327 Beacon Ave S. Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-725-9740 info@deniselouie.org www.deniselouie.org Multicultural preschool ages 3-5 years old. Now enrolling Private Pay full-day ($900/mo) and part-day classes ($500/mo) with locations at ID, Beacon Hill, and Rainier Beach. P.O. Box 16016 Seattle, WA 98116 info@vnsf.org www.vnsf.org VNSF enables underprivileged students in Viet Nam to achieve success and happiness through education. We are looking for volunteers and board members to join the team and make a difference in the lives of kids in Vietnam.
Housing & Neighborhood Planning HomeSight 5117 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-723-4355 fx: 206-760-4210 www.homesightwa.org HomeSight creates homeownership opportunities through real estate development, home buyer education and counseling, and lending.
601 S King St. Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-682-1668 website www.apicat.org Address tobacco control and other health justice issues in the Asian American/Pacific Islander communities. Executive Development Institute 310 – 120th Ave NE. Suite A102 Bellevue, WA Ph. 425-467-9365 • Fax: 425-467-1244 Email: edi@ediorg.org • Website: www.ediorg.org EDI offers culturally relevant leadership development programs.
WE MAKE LEADERS Queen Anne Station, P.O. Box 19888, Seattle, WA 98109 info@naaapseattle.org, www.naaapseattle.org Fostering future leaders through education, networking and community services for Asian American professionals and entrepreneurs. Facebook: NAAAP-Seattle Twitter: twitter.com/naaapseattle
Senior Services
221 18th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-322-4550 fx: 206-329-3330 connie.devaney@gmail.com We provided affordable housing and support services to people over 62 years of age. Lunch is served 7 days per week to people over 60 years of age for a $3 donation. 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.
Don’t get take-out! Have it Delivered!
PO Box 14047, Seattle WA 98114 (206) 325.0325 (Helpline) info@apichaya.org www. apichaya.org API Chaya is dedicated to serving survivors of domestic violence, sexual violence and human trafficking in the Asian, South Asian and Pacific Islander communities. We offer multi-lingual services that are free and confidential.
Chinese Information and 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 CISC helps Asian immigrants make the transition to a new life while keeping later generations on touch with their rich heritage.
Community Care Network of Kin On
815 S Weller St, Suite 212, Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-652-2330 fx: 206-652-2344 contact@kinon.org www.kinon.org Provides home care, home health, Alzheimer’s and caregiver support, community education and chronic care management. Coordinates medical supply delivery. Installs Personal emergency Response systems. Serves the Chinese/Asian community in King County.
Kin On Health Care Center
4416 S Brandon St, Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-721-3630 fx: 206-721-3626 contact@kinon.org www.kinon.org A 100-bed, Medicare and Medicaid certified, not-for-profit skilled nursing facility focused on meeting the long term care needs of the Chinese/Asian community members.
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 Description of organization/services offered: Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, meal programs for low-income seniors. Medicaid accepted.
National Asian Pacific Center on Aging InterIm Community Development Association 310 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-624-1802 fx: 206-624-5859 info@interimicda.org www.interimicda.org Affordable housing development, multi-lingual low-income housing outreach, rental information, financial literacy, neighborhood planning and outreach for APAs, immigrants and refugees.
Social & Health Services
Senior Community Service Employment Program ph: 206-322-5272 fx: 206-322-5387 www.napca.org Part-time training program for low income Asian Pacific Islanders age 55+ in Seattle/ King & Pierce Counties.
1601 E Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98122 ph: 206-323-7100 fx: 206-325-1502 www.nikkeiconcerns.org Rehabilitation & care center; assisted living community; senior activity program; continuing education.
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 lowincome people in King County.
International District Medical & Dental Clinic 720 8th Ave S, Suite 100, Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-788-3700 Holly Park Medical & Dental Clinic 3815 S Othello St, 2nd Floor, Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-788-3500 Bellevue Medical & Dental Clinic Coming in 2013! Shoreline Medical & Dental Clinic Coming in 2014! We are a nonprofit health center offering affordable health care services, including primary care, dental, behavioral health, pharmacy, laboratory, acupuncture, and health education.
Seattle Rotary Club Bill Nagel Meets Every Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. New Hong Kong Restaurant Bill.nagel@gmail.com http://www.seattleidrotary.org/ Improve the local community by engaging activities such as community improvement projects, scholarship opportunities, and undertakings that promote education.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER FOR $35/YEAR FOR 24 ISSUES! Please mail a check for $35 to the International Examiner or donate to: 622 S. Washington St., Seattle, WA 98104.Thank you for your contribution.
1501 N 45th St, Seattle, WA 98103 ph: 206-694-6700 fx: 206-694-6777 info@solid-ground.org www.solid-ground.org
Our programs help people meet their immediate needs and gain the skills and resources needed to reach solid ground and achieve their dreams. ph: 206-624-3426
www.merchants-parking-transia. org
Merchants Parking provides
convenient & affordable community parking. Transia provides community transportation: para-transit van services, shuttle services and field trips in & out of Chinatown/International District & South King County.
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Get the plan that fits Call Healthy Options at 1-800-562-3022. Choose Amerigroup.
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013 — 15
IE COMMUNITY Special thanks to our sponsors:
International Examiner Readerʼs Choice Awards 2013 Filipino Community Center 5740 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. Seattle, WA 98118
From last yearʼs event:
Thursday, December 5, 2013 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tickets: Full-Table (10 seats) $600 Individual (1 Seat) $60 Student (1 Seat) $35 Sponsorship starts at $1,000
Photo by Amanda Roth
In August, the International Examiner gave its readers the opportunity to recognize their local favorites. Readers voted throughout the month of August and early September. In honor of those reader-chosen businesses, organizations, and individuals, a celebratory 4th Annual RCA dinner will be held on Thursday, December 5th. Save the date!
Photo by Dave Greer
For tickets, visit iexaminer.org/rca2013.
Photo by Ava Van
Purchase raffle tickets at the dinner for a chance to win some awesome prizes! One raffle ticket for $20 or three tickets for $30. Winners must be present at the time of drawing to win. Prizes include an Acer Netbook donated by Comcast, Microsoft Office 2013, and a food and vintage wine package.
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Favorite Local Artist: Alan Lau
Favorite Local Author/Writer: Eric Liu Favorite API Festival: Bon Odori
Favorite Local Hip Hop Artist: Macklemore Favorite Local Photographer: Dean Wong Favorite API Comedian: Margaret Cho
NIGHTLIFE & RECREATION Favorite Happy Hour: Wasabi Bistro
Favorite Karaoke Hotspot: Bush Garden Restaurant
Favorite Casino to Indulge: Snoqualmie Casino
Favorite Indian Restaurant: Cedar’s Restaurant on Brooklyn
Favorite Mentor: Ron Chew
Favorite Bubble Tea Café: Oasis Tea Zone
Favorite Local Political Figure: Bob Hasegawa
Favorite Coffee Shop/Tea House: Panama Hotel Tea & Coffee House
Best Sushi Restaurant: Daimonji Sushi and Grill
Best Korean BBQ Restaurant: Palace BBQ Korean Bar & Grill Best Dim Sum: Jade Garden
Favorite Local Chef: Tom Douglas Favorite Bakery: Bakery Nouveau
Favorite Chinese Restaurant: Tai Tung
Favorite Asian-Fusion Restaurant: Wild Ginger Favorite Seafood Restaurant: Ho Ho Seafood Restaurant
Favorite Hangout Spot: Eastern Cafe
Favorite Local Winery: Chateau St. Michelle Winery
FOOD & DRINKS
PEOPLE & PLACES
Favorite Vietnamese Restaurant: Tamarind Tree Favorite Thai Restaurant: Thai Curry Simple
Favorite Local Journalist: Lori Matsukawa, KING 5 News Anchor and Reporter Favorite Empowered Youth: Julie Pham
Favorite Volunteer: Howard Wu (NAAAP)
Favorite Activist or Engaged Citizen: Linh Thai Favorite Philanthropist: Jerry Lee
Favorite Entrepreneur/Business Owner: Tomio Moriguchi, Chairman of Uwajimaya Favorite Local Sports Figure: Russell Wilson
Favorite Community College: Seattle Central Community College Favorite University: UW Seattle
Favorite Educator/Teacher: Connie So
Favorite Executive Director of a Non Profit: Diane Narasaki, Executive Director of Asian Counseling and Referral Services (ACRS) Favorite CEO: Yale Wong, CEO and Founder of General Biodiesel
Most Inspirational Speaker: Ron Sims, former King County Executive
BUSINESSES & SERVICES Favorite Asian-Owned Start-Up: TD Wang
Favorite Corporate Giver to Asian American Causes: Comcast Favorite Mom & Pop Business: Phnom Penh Noodle House
Favorite Health Organization/Business: International Community Health Services (ICHS) Favorite Asian Owned Green Business: General Biodiesel Favorite API Senior Organization: Nikkei Concerns
Favorite Professional Association: National Association of Asian American Professionals-Seattle (NAAAP-Seattle) Favorite API Youth Group or Organization: Lambda Phi Epsilon
Favorite Cultural Preservation Institution: Wing Luke Asian Museum Favorite API Advocacy Organization: Asian Pacific Islander Coalition (APIC) of Washington
HONORABLE MENTION (2ND PLACE IN TWO CATEGORIES OR MORE!) Favorite Hang Out Spot and Mom & Pop Shop: World Pizza
16 — November 20, 2013 – December 3, 2013
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
AT SNOQUALMIE CASINO WE HAVE 6 GREAT DINING OPTIONS, INCLUDING 12 MOONS ASIAN BISTRO.
At 12 Moons we have a cultural interplay of cuisines. We have taken some of the best flavors of East Asian culture and cuisine and infused with American individuality and a bit of panache.
WE ’ LL DRIVE. YO U P LAY.
SEE THE CRESCENT CLUB FOR ROUTES & SCHEDULES!
For Information & Reservations, call:
1-800-254-3423 or visit snocasinoexpress.com
I-90 EAST TO EXIT 27 • I-90 WEST EXIT 31 SNOQUALMIE, WA • 425.888.1234 SNOCASINO.COM
– SEATTLE’S CLOSEST CASINO –