December 21, 2016 International Examiner

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017 — 1

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New 14-story residential development Communities rise against project in the CID raises concerns

By Chetanya Robinson IE Staff Writer Community members in the Chinatown International District (CID) are concerned about the possible impacts of a huge construction project planned for the intersection of 8th Avenue and Lane Street.

The Spring Hill Mariott Suites project will be built on the site of the King’s Hookah Lounge and the defunct Repographics Northwest company. At 14 stories, it will be about twice as tall as the next tallest buildings in the CID, according to Michael Omura, Project Development Manager at the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda). The project will contain a restaurant, a 158-room hotel, 103 The Spring Hill Mariott Suites project at 8th Avenue and Lane Street will contain a restaurant, a 158-room apartments and 20 condo units, as well as hotel, 103 apartments, and 20 condo units. • Photo by Chetanya Robinson parking space for 175 vehicles. land was acquired by the developers, the Chew said losing the opportunity The project is undergoing multiple ICHS healthcare nonprofit was hoping to to develop the site for ICHS was reviews after the developer’s land develop the site as an expansion that could a huge blow for the community. use application was accepted by the offer healthcare, and possibly housing. “This particular project I think is Seattle Department of Construction and Chew and other community members heartbreaking in many respects,” he discussed this possibility, conducted a said. “We lost one of our community Inspections.

Ron Chew, foundation director feasibility study and waited for the city to members, Donnie Chin as a result of of International Community Health provide funding to develop the site before DEVELOPMENT: Continued on page 4 . . .

Services (ICHS), said that before the being outbid by the developers in 2014.

Post election: API millennials find silver lining

By Kelsey Hamlin IE Contributor It’s been two months since the polls flew in for our president-elect. Monday, the electoral college gathered to cast votes for their state, which finalizes the presidency.

For many Asian Pacific Islander millennials who, like most of the world, did not foresee a Trump victory, the weeks following the election have been filled with fear and anxiety. Heading into 2017, API millennials say they are over the initial shock and more determined to speak out.

“I didn’t really think much [about politics] to be honest,” said Liem Nguyen, a 22-year-old Vietnamese American. “I thought Hillary [Clinton] was going to win for sure. … In the past I didn’t really care about this stuff. I didn’t really see myself represented.”

Liem Nguyen. • Photo by Kelsey Hamlin

Liem said he questioned how his community was connected to anything political, and if the elections would impact their daily lives. As it turns out, the answer isn’t what he expected.

On election day, Liem said he aloofly checked the New York Times polling map expecting to see most states blue. He thought it’d be fun. Then four or five hours

went by. He started getting worried, and when he realized Trump could win, Liem pulled out his calculator.

“It was stressful,” Liem said. “It seemed weird that [Trump] would get so many votes and the states were turning red. It’s not real. I felt anxious throughout the whole thing.”

When Trump ultimately won, Liem experienced an overflow of Facebook reaction—a notable pattern that all of the people interviewed for this article recounted. But contrary to many white liberal’s feeds, Liem’s was full of encouragement.

“A lot of people reacted in a positive way,” he said. “Everyone was on Facebook and everyone was watching, so it felt like I was a part of the process.

MILLENNIALS: Continued on page 6 . . .

the tide of Islamaphobia:

Even with worry, there is empowered action

By Kamna Shastri IE Contributor University of Washington student Nasro Hassan suffered severe bruising and a concussion after a man smashed a glass bottle into her face. The attack happened on November 15 around 5:00 p.m. in a heavily populated outdoor space on UW’s Seattle campus as Hassan was passing through.

Hassan is Somali American and wears a hijab. While her assailant’s motives haven’t been determined, Hassan’s visibility as a Muslim suggests the incident could have been a hate crime.

UW students were not notified about the incident through the campus security alert system. UW police told Muslim Student Association (MSA) members the reason for this was that the case did not fit terms of aggravated assault by knife, gun, or serrated object in order for students to be sent a “Timely Warning” under the terms of the Department of Education’s Clery Act, a consumer protection law passed in 1990 that requires all colleges and universities who receive federal funding to share information about crime on campus and inform the public of crime in or around campus. This discrepancy raised concern amongst Muslim students, but has also spearheaded collaboration between administration and students to design a better system to deal with bias related crime.

The incident happened days after election results announced that Donald Trump would succeed President Barack Obama. Within 10 days of election day, 900 hate crimes were reported nationwide, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Social media posts flurried with accounts of hate acts and racial slurs, women shared stories of having their ISLAMAPHOBIA: Continued on page 3 . . .

2 — December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE OPINION

Brenda Xu: Art, music is key in connecting and healing people in a chaotic time

By Ben Henry IE Columnist Brenda Xu had a plan.

The sultry-voiced Seattle singer/songwriter had an album she was itching to get out. To raise the money needed to cover production costs, she planned to launch a fundraising campaign in early November. But, with the election coming, Xu was waiting for things to quiet down first.

And then, Donald Trump happened.

Turns out, the election didn’t just shake things up politically. Xu—who has toured extensively, charted in the top 200 CMJ non-commercial radio charts, and had a song featured on the MTV show Awkward—was left in a quandary.

“After the election, most of the people I know were heartbroken and donating to all these charities,” Xu said. “I also didn’t want to potentially take money away from these charities, because I was wondering if there was more immediate need for people to donate to these causes instead of a music campaign.”

Faced with this dilemma, Xu—who was one of the featured artists at the past two “Rock4Rice” events raising funds for the Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS)—reached out to some community leaders to get their input. “It was important for me to have community support if I were to launch,” she said.

Shortly after Election Day, Xu described what she was struggling with.

“On the one hand, I think art/music could play an important part in connecting and healing people in this chaotic time,” she told me as she was considering what to do next. “On the other hand, I could see a more immediate need to contribute to and focus on social justice issues right now. Would launching this be an irresponsible move because it might divert funds away from more pressing social issues? I just want to make a responsible decision with these priorities in mind.”

But Xu said she heard nothing but support from community leaders, and that there

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was still a need for music and art. “That was heartening to hear,” she said.

Also, as a result of the election, Xu’s evocative, haunting voice is starting to extend beyond your speakers. Xu said she traditionally has not been too politically outspoken, choosing instead to focus on using her lush sonic canvass to elicit powerful emotions from the listener. But, after the election, Xu says it is imperative for artists to speak their minds.

“It’s too important to not be political,” she said. “With Obama becoming president, liberals had this idea that we would make progress, and civil rights, social justice, that it was just a given, that we would make progress in those areas.

“Hillary [Clinton] losing was a shock to everyone because all the polls said she was way ahead. People thought that they didn’t need to go to the polls and didn’t need to talk to their friends and family that they needed to go to the polls. The outcome of the election was a wake-up call that we cannot just sit on our laurels, that we have to keep fighting for social justice.”

Election or not, Brenda’s music needs to come out. In fact, facing what surely will be a difficult four years, we need her music now, more than ever.

Here’s more from my interview with Brenda Xu. Ben Henry: I love the story you tell on your Kickstarter page about your first musical experience nervously debuting at a school talent show. Is that when you discovered you wanted to make a life out of making music?

Brenda Xu: Doing a campaign like this forces you to think about the past and write something from a very real place. That was the moment that I realized that playing music was something special. It took many twists and turns; it definitely wasn’t linear. I didn’t start playing open mics until I graduated college.

Henry: You describe yourself as an introvert. What made you pick up the guitar in the first place?

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Musician Brenda Xu. • Photo by Brighton Lacey Photography

Xu: It was hearing songs that I liked on the radio and wanting to play them.

Henry: What is the inspiration for your songs?

Xu: I usually start with just a feeling, and one image I have in my head. I start with a chord progression usually and improvise lyrics and melody from there.

Henry: You say on your fundraising page that you want to explore the medium of video. What are some concepts you are planning?

Xu: It adds another dimension to the music. It can convey emotion in different ways than music by itself. Two of the videos will have a visceral feeling, time-lapsed shots with other images superimposed. We’re going to edit it in a way that is going to emphasize the structure of a song and the different movements in a song, represent the dynamics of a song.

Another one is going to be animated.

The artist I’ll be working with, Vikram Madan, has vast body of work of paintings and drawings and murals. Very whimsical pieces. I have always wanted to collaborate with an animated artist, because I love animation. And that is a side of me that I haven’t been able to express with my very

EDITOR IN CHIEF Travis Quezon editor@iexaminer.org

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DISTRIBUTORS Joshua Kelso Makayla Dorn Maryross Olanday Tiger Song Rachtha Danh

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STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Isaac Liu STAFF WRITER Chetanya Robinson CONTRIBUTORS Kamna Shastri Kelsey Hamlin Ben Henry Adrienne Ip Tamiko Nimura Roxanne Ray Carina A. Del Rosario Nalini Iyer Fei Wu Huang Misa Shikuma Jennifer pang Nan Ma

serious songs. So, adding that whimsical element is a dream come true, combining the cutesy side of my personality and my somber music.

Henry: Your music has been featured on TV and seems to translate well. What interests you about video as a medium?

Xu: It would be a dream to have one of my songs on like Grey’s Anatomy, or a really artistic film. The music is such an integral part of a film. For a long time I’ve thought it would be so cool if one of my songs could add to a really fantastic film in some way.

Henry: You have donated your talents to raise money for ACRS. What’s special about our Asian/Pacific Islander community here in Seattle?

Xu: I took a tour of ACRS with Candace [Inagi, ACRS Development Director] last year. That really opened my eyes to a lot of the services the organization offers that I didn’t even know about. In addition to being a food bank and counseling, they also help immigrants with resettlement every step of the way.

Candace mentioned that they talked to parents who had just come here about how the school system is, how it’s really different from their home country. I thought it was really awesome, because my parents could use that to avoid a lot of embarrassing situations.

I was born in Harbin, China, and grew up in Southern California. I moved to Seattle six years ago. The cultural differences growing up … I’m a first-generation immigrant, came here when I was really young.

There were things that I didn’t know how to explain to them. If they had had access to a place like ACRS, it would have been really helpful.

Visit Brenda Xu’s online fundraiser on Kickstarter at tiny.cc/BrendaXuKickstarter.

This project will only be funded if at least $6,000 is pledged by Sunday, Jan. 1, 2017, at 11:00 p.m. An album release party will take place in February, date and location TBA. For more information, visit brendaxu. com.

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INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017 — 3

IE NEWS

Threat of hate crimes highlights urgency for community leaders . . . ISLAMAPHOBIA: Continued from page 1

hijabs pulled and being yelled at during their regular morning commutes. Media outlets also reported an increase in crimes against Muslims.

Referring to the UW incident, UW Muslim Students Association (MSA) copresident Mina Sultana said: “I think it sort of made everyone realize that these hate crimes aren’t just happening in other states, in other campuses, they are happening on our own campus.”

The Council for American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) Washington chapter reported 2015 as a record year for antiMuslim attacks. The organization received one-to-two reports per day while FBI records indicated a 67% increase in anti-Muslim attacks that year since 2001. The trend continued into 2016, with over 25 anti-Muslim motivated crimes in Washington state reported to CAIR WA. CAIR considers any incident where attackers expressed sentiments against Muslims as “anti-Muslim” regardless of the victim’s religious affinity.

“We’ve been getting calls from parents asking whether it’s safe to have their children going to school after a breaking news story,” said Arsalan Bukhari, executive director of CAIR-WA. “We always remind them that their job is to tell their children that they have the right to be fully American and fully practicing Muslims and follow their dreams.”

None of this is new. The hostility and hate that has been thrown at Muslim Americans, and other vulnerable groups over the past election cycle is a continuation of xenophobic ideologies that have persisted in the United States, particularly since 9/11. But Sultana worries that Trump’s election runs the risk of normalizing exclusionary, racist ideology and rhetoric. “[Before the election] I think as a society … we understood that vocally saying something racist [or] Islamophobia or doing something that might be considered hate action is not okay,” Sultana said.

“But I think since the election, since we are seeing the man who has the highest power in our country sort of repeating these things, it almost makes it okay… for that type of speech to happen publicly.”

Muslim students at the University of Washington are anxious following the possible hate crime. Sultana said that the MSA is working with UW administrators to help create a more effective and safe campus for students. “Honestly we are all here to get a degree and to have this anxiety all the time is not okay,” she said.

Affecting any community perceived to be Muslim Bukhari mentioned that even those who are simply perceived to be Muslim can be negatively affected by anti-Muslim hostility. Among CAIR-WA’s collected reports from 2016 is a crime where a man came in to an Indian American family’s home, yelled racial slurs, and threatened the family with a knife.

On November 28, CAIR-Washington director Arsalan Bukhari, with interfaith leaders, speaks about an attack on a Muslim student at UW. • Photo Courtesy of CAIR-Washington

Jaswinder Singh, chairman of the Gurudwara Sikh Center Seattle in Bothell, a place of worship for those practicing Sikhism, said he hasn’t experienced anything since the election.

“Luckily we live in an area where … the community is a little more diverse,” Singh said. “So far, I haven’t run into anything.”

Singh said he is well-aware that Sikhs are at risk of becoming crime targets due to people mistakenly identifying them as Muslims due to their appearance and the visibility of the traditional turban worn by men.

“People are in general … [are] a little bit nervous but just because Mr. Trump is kind of a very unusual candidate for the office,” Singh said. “But I guess we are all in it together, hoping for the best.”

Om Dwivedi, a leader in the Hindu community in the greater Seattle area, said he hasn’t noticed aggression towards the Hindu community recently. However, a latent sense of worry does exist.

“People … are worried about this country, they are worried about the world politics,” Dwivedi said. “They are worried about everything right now because everything is in the dark right now.”

The Hindu Temple and Cultural Center in Bothell (HTCC), one of the first and largest Hindu temples in the area, has no barrier separating it from the street. This is purposeful; the temple is meant to be an open and welcoming space for the public. But the HTCC has had incidents of vandalism and graffiti in the past.

In early 2015, temple members found graffiti on the temple walls, and the words “Muslims get out” were written on the wall of a nearby junior high school.

Shortly thereafter, temples in Kent suffered a similar fate; windows were shattered, and the word “FEAR” was spray-painted beside a swastika.

The HTCC in Bothell has security cameras set up, and Singh said that the Gurudwara installed an upgraded security system before the election to keep an eye out for suspicious activity “Time will tell,” Singh said of what the future holds.

Dwivedi sees a silver lining even in the uncertainty of our current political climate. He sees it as the public’s responsibility to think critically about right and wrong in as unbiased a way as possible. “Something is happening and it is the responsibility of the people of this country to stand up, speak up. If we don’t speak up, something will go wrong,” he said.

Muslim and non-Muslim communities are making every effort to remain empowered and work toward political protection for vulnerable groups.

“We are seeing from Seattle to Spokane to the Tri-cities … that American Muslims are part of society and are contributing every day,” Bukhari said. “And [they are] ready to use their intellect and their engagement in society to educate others about American Muslims.”

Locally and nationally, CAIR is working to create a plan that responds to potential executive orders and other legislation that would undermine civil rights for Muslim Americans.

Policy-based action are on front lines of the UW MSA as well, especially with the lack of a timely warning following the November incident. The MSA is working on “putting in the framework so if someone faces that kind of discrimination they can find the right resources,” Sultana said.

Next time a case like Hassan’s happens, Sultana hopes that the school will have a better way of notifying students and an effective policy with steps to address

bias-motivated incidents. CAIR-WA is also working with the MSA and UW on these efforts.

These actions have been spearheaded by the Muslim community, but both Bukhari and Sultana emphasize how important it is for allies to step in.

“The goal is to not only humanize Muslims, but also make it the norm that we are just your average students, your average coworkers,” Sultana said. That image needs to replace the false, hostile staple impression of Muslims that has been used by politicians and media alike.

Changing the narrative about Muslims and minorities means publicly and vocally condemning biased acts and hateful speech. Bukhari said that being public and vocal means speech must be put to action, whether that be through a video, a letter to the editor, or in everyday conversation.

Sultana also explained that the MSA has teamed up with other student organizations. “We’ve tried to collaborate a lot more with … other minority groups [on campus] that have been facing similar issues and just be there for each other in solidarity and I think together we have a stronger, louder voice on campus,” Sultana said.

Mobilizing allies across cultural and religious boundaries has proven to be essential after the election.

In the meantime, the situation after the election has been both harrowing and a sort of “reality check,” according to Sultana. The threat of hate crimes and anxiety highlights the urgency for continued social justice, interfaith, and racial equity efforts. For example, Bukhari cited an increase in volunteer applications addressed to CAIR and acts of goodwill from churches. As worried as people are, they are energized and are galvanizing to make tangible change.

4 — December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE NEWS

UW budget cuts put The Seattle Globalist into financial crisis

By Alia Marsha IE Assistant Editor The award-winning online publication The Seattle Globalist has launched a campaign dubbed #PowerYourMedia in an effort to save the nonprofit in the face of budget cuts at the University of Washington Department of Communication, where the Globalist cofounders teach part-time. The support from the department, including office space and equipments, made up about 50% of the Globalist’s operating budget.

To sustain its programs in the coming year, the Globalist needs to raise $5,000 in monthly donations by the end of 2016.

Globalist staffers who worked parttime as faculty members at UW include Jessica Partnow, Alex Stonehill, and Sarah Stuteville, who have been artists in residence in the Department of Communication. For four years, they have relied on their teaching salaries to sustain the Seattle Globalist. But when they were told that the university was ending their artist in residencies two years early starting next academic year, the publication has had to reach out to the community for support.

Their short-term solution to keep the publication going at some capacity is by raising $5,000 in monthly subscriptions by the end of this month.

‘What do we have to do to actually make this work?’ Because it’s not working right now, not really. Not on the money side of things,” Stuteville said.

local-to-global perspective. Sixty-seven percent of its writers are people of color, 73% women, and 45% immigrants or firstgeneration Americans.

David Domke, the chair of the UW Department of Communications, said that there might be some teaching opportunities for co-founders of the Seattle Globalist, but the department will not be able to hire them and other parttime faculty members as much anymore.

Seattle Globalist co-founder and creative director Domke said that the decrease in tuition Sarah Stuteville. • Courtesy Photo is one reason for budget cuts that not Stuteville said the #PowerYourMedia only affect the department but also other campaign is not to replace their salaries departments in the College of Arts and from the UW. In fact, the goal amount of Sciences. the campaign will not be enough for the “A lot of the instruction in the college Seattle Globalist to run the way it was of arts and sciences—the part of the when it had full funding. Stuteville said university we’re located in—is funded it will likely fund “one-and-a-half” staff by tuition dollars,” Domke said. “And positions, some community engagement the tuition reduction that has occurred programs, and some educational in the last two years for in-state students programs. are great, but they kind of have this ripple Before this financial crisis, the Global- effect where there’s just less instructional ist had a yearly youth apprenticeship pro- dollars.” gram, bimonthly community workshops, Domke said that full-time faculty and was run by five staff members. members will be expected to teach more, “I think we’re doing the best work though he predicted a 10-to-15% cut in the we’ve ever done right now. [We are] in amount of classes taught. the biggest crisis we’ve ever faced, but At the time of this writing, the in some ways that’s the exact moment to #PowerYourMedia campaign has reached stare clear-eyed at our organization, at its halfway mark. our profession, at the economic models The Seattle Globalist is known for its that are and aren’t sustaining it and say, diverse writers, training programs, and

Stuteville said that her light bulb moment came after she mentored one young writer from the first batch of Seattle Globalist apprentices in 2012, Liliana Caracoza. After completing a six-months’ journalism training and reporting on issues pertaining to her community for the Globalist, Caracoza fundraised for a trip to Mexico and produced a now awardwinning documentary of her reporting there. Since then, Stuteville said it became clear that education and training are essential to the publication.

“I don’t think right now people see the work of big media and news institutions as serving their community so they don’t wanna pay for it. But I think with the Globalist, you do see that,” Stuteville said.

“So hopefully [people] will be willing to support it.”

On December 29, the Seattle Globalist is hosting an end-of-year film showing party at the Northwest Film Forum.

Seattle Globalist subscribers drink for free at the event. For more information, visit seattleglobalist.com.

Disclaimer: Alia Marsha was a 2015 youth apprentice and is a regular contributor for the Seattle Globalist.

Gentrification, traffic remains a concern for neighborhood residents . . . DEVELOPMENT: Continued from page 1

some activity that happened in a space which we want to hopefully improve. And we wanted to be the players in making that happen. It doesn’t mean that we have to be part of every project that happens, but we lost Donnie, we lost a property that could have been a nice adjunct to what’s already going on at ID Village Square. That said, the developers are nice people, they seem like they have some vision and want to help the neighborhood.”

Still, Chew and others have concerns about how the project might affect the patients who rely on ICHS health services.

“We have ten thousand patients who migrate in and out of our clinic and we’re concerned first and foremost for those folks we currently serve,” Chew said. “We want to make sure they’re not displaced, that they have safe entry and access.”

Omura of SCIDpda said that the site will see traffic, both during construction and after the 175 parking lots are constructed.

This might be a problem for ICHS, which relies on the street as a drop-off area for the elderly and young children.

“There’s already a lot of traffic in that area, congestion right now, that is really bad for folks going to ICHS,” said Jamie Lee, IDEA Space Manager at SCIDpda.

Another concern is the street frontage of the project, Omura said. This will likely

include a garage drop-off and entrance to the residential area. “We don’t think that that contributes much to the activation of that intersection, and so we’re kind of concerned about that,” he said.

In terms of the pedestrian environment such an entrance won’t contribute much to the neighborhood, Lee explained. “You’re just gonna have residents coming in and out, so it’s not gonna actually enliven or make the area more vibrant,” she said.

Gentrification is always a concern in the CID, according to Maiko Winkler-Chin, Executive Director of SCIDpda, and large projects like this one can raise concerns about the changes it might bring. But at the same time, she said, neighborhood residents want more market-rate housing in the neighborhood, so that people from a variety of incomes can live there.

Most other property owners in the CID neighborhood are members of the community, Winkler-Chin said. Changing ownership patterns in the neighborhood could have a huge impact.

“There’s a sense of commitment to the neighborhood,” she said. “But trying to contact a real estate investment trust that may be located in a different country or a different time zone—how do we find them, how do we let them know about neighborhood initiatives?”

Because of how the CID is zoned, it’s inevitable that more tall buildings will spring up, Omura and Lee said.

“We know that development’s coming, we know it’s happening,” Lee said. “So it’s like, what we would like to see and how we can kind of guide the conversation around it?”

While he agrees that change in the neighborhood is inevitable, Chew sees the project as a source of concern both for its massive scale and the possible future it represents for the neighborhood.

“This particular project I think has triggered a lot of, I would say, anxiety by folks who’ve been active in this neighborhood for a long time,” Chew said.

“We’re at a crossroads, because we know the neighborhood’s gonna change. We want and I think accept that there will be new players in the mix acquiring and redeveloping spaces for community use. That’s the nature of a community and neighborhood—it always thrives because it evolves.”

But certain changes raise key questions, especially in a neighborhood with such a strong sense of community as the CID, Chew said. “What kind of new neighbors will we have? This particular project has been a little bit troubling to us because it feels kind of like a project that looks inward rather than connecting with the community around it.”

In a neighborhood with community parks, community centers, a libraryc and health clinic, Chew said he hopes new residents can be part of the community by, for example,

coming to the park. “They shouldn’t simply be self-enclosed inside the structure with their own parking and interior green spaces, but they should be contributing something to the larger neighborhood. So that’s part of the conversation I think we’re having, both with this developer as well as with future developers.”

The recent acquisition of Bush Garden by developers, and its transition as a business, is another symbolic loss in the neighborhood, Winkler-Chin said. And it’s one that brings to mind “Uncle” Bob Santos, a welcoming face of the neighborhood, who wanted to work with community members to develop the site of the King’s Hookah Bar. “Having that loss with all of this is, I think emotionally somewhat difficult,” Winkler-Chin said. “And you are playing out in this greater bubble of displacement and gentrification and who’s buying the real estate, and just this real unsettling moment in this city’s history.”

“I think in the end it’s the spirit of the place that we want to preserve,” Chew said.

“People who made this place, who we still think about and want to preserve some core of what they would have wanted.”

And, Winkler-Chin adds, “Understanding that the future’s right there too. It’s a balance.”

Disclosure: Ron Chew is the board president of the International Examiner.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017 — 5

IE NEWS

González: Seattle should be a leader on serving immigrants

By Alia Marsha IE Assistant Editor On December 14, Councilmember Lorena González hosted an immigration and refugee roundtable discussion in response to the presidential election.

Councilmember González was joined by 16 leaders of community-based organizations such as Asian Counseling & Referral Services, CASA Latina, and Coalition of Immigrants, Refugees, and Communities of Color. The International Examiner spoke with Councilmember González about the result of the discussion and what the City of Seattle is planning to do to protect immigrant and refugee communities.

International Examiner: What Seattle City Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez speaks at a rally for immigrant rights at City Hall on November are some of the fears that were 9, 2016. (Back, left to right: Abdullahi Jama, Congresswoman-elect Pramila Jayapal, Nicole Grant). • Photo discussed in terms of what the Trump by Lexi Potter administration would do to immigrants years that would expand the citizenship information from the U.S. Census Bureau. and refugees? workshop that the Office of Immigrant When we did our analysis and looked Councilmember Lorena González: and Refugee Affairs (OIRA) is doing. So into that information deeper, we actually They have concerns about, for example, we’ll be able to help up to 1,000 people, learned that 68% of Cambodian residents what happens if a parent is detained which is double of what we’ve been able have a high school degree or higher and that number for Vietnamese residents is by [U.S. Immigration and Customs to do this year.

Enforcement]? What happens to their The second thing is that we need to 71%. So there is a disparity for example in children? We’ve heard examples of verbal get resources for community-based the API community. This information is hate crimes that have been occurring organizations so they could do legal important for us to understand because it within the community, so you know, clinics and provide legal services to informs how it is we invest our dollars and being told to go back to their country, people who might end up getting caught what kind of policies we’re going to pass. for example. Or being treated differently up in the immigration system or the because you’re wearing a hijab. We heard criminal justice system to make sure their IE: What do you think the Asian of a woman who was driving to work legal rights are protected. and Pacific Islander community should who was wearing the hijab and somebody The third thing we heard is that know about the work that the City of was trying to drive her off the road. We also heard a woman at the University of there’s an incredible need to get accurate Seattle is doing right now?

Washington who had a bottle thrown at information to the immigrant and refugee community about what is and isn’t her face. happening. So there’s a strong desire from We just heard a lot of stories about a the community for the city to fund some lot of verbal incidents of hate. And we know-your-rights workshop and and how heard from folks who represent kids. In we can use technology to disseminate that particular talking about children who information even more broadly. have been experiencing bullying because IE News Services Lastly I’d say that what really came of their race and ethnicity and religion. It was a good opportunity for us at the round up was the call for the city to be a leader The Low Income Housing Institute table to sort of talk about the experiences in the region on these issues. I have a (LIHI) will receive approximately $6.4 in our community, and that really paved strong interest on how can we come million from the City of Seattle and $1 the way for us to have a conversation up with regional strategy around these million from King County for projects about what these communities and issues related to immigrants and refugees in Little Saigon and Lake City. organizations think the city needs to do in and oppose Trump administration. In order to make sure we have a welcoming other words how do we as the City of Little Saigon Housing city and that we are truly protecting Seattle bring along cities like Bellevue, Located at 1253 S. Jackson, Little our immigrant and refugee community Shoreline, Tukwila, Federal Way in this Saigon Housing will be built on the effort to make sure we’re protecting members. former site of the old Washington our immigrant and refugee community IE: What is plan to protect the rights because we know they sometimes live Alarm Building, a mid-block location and safety of immigrants and refugees? here and sometimes they just work here. just west of the gateway to the Seattle International District, at the intersection González: We’re formulating the plan So it’s really important for us to recognize of Rainier Avenue S., 12th Avenue, and actively as part of the roundtable today. that we have a very mobile immigrant and S. Jackson Street. This location sits on One of my values is to make sure an refugee community. the First Hill Streetcar line and within action plan is informed and informed IE: Another part of the event this walking distance of Sound Transit and by the community actually needs so for morning was on data disaggregation in Link Light Rail. me it was really important to have the our community. What were some of the roundtable discussion where we could key findings?

LIHI said it looks forward to working hear directly from the community what with InterIm CDA/International District González: What we find is what it is they need in the effort to protect the Housing Alliance, SCIDPDA (Seattle rights of immigrants and refugees. What we thought we would find. When you Chinatown International District Public we’ve heard today were three things that look at the data in just the broad race Development Authority), and Friends and ethnic categories, you don’t see were pretty concrete. of Little Saigon to market the project’s the real disparities that exist in those rental units and commercial spaces to One was to continue doing the communities. One of the examples is the surrounding community. citizenship workshop that the city is that 87% of Asian Americans obtain a doing. I was able to successfully add high school degree or higher. That’s the $3,000 to the budget for the next two

González: We are going to continue to engage these community leaders to best identify how we can serve the needs of our immigrants and refugee communities. We heard from Dorothy Wong today from the Chinese Information and Service [Center] and she strongly recommended, and Diana Narasaki from ACRS concurred, that we fund “know your rights” workshops, that we standoff a public service announcement campaign to make sure we’re disseminating accurate information in a way that is culturally accessible which is really important, as you know. So it’ll be the challenge for the city to make sure not only are we getting correct information about impending laws or incidents we’re hearing about in the community, but we need to make sure we’re getting those information quickly and in a way that communities can understand it.

IE: This focus about accurate information, does it have anything to do with the amount of fake news stories circulating during the presidential election campaigns, for example?

González: As you know particularly in non-English-speaking communities, misinformation can really spread like wildfire. We need to make sure we provide accurate information to our community so that the fears of the community are managed, as opposed to being fed. Getting out accurate information as a trusted news source that is culturally digestible and understandable I think is going to be the critical services the city can and should provide.

LIHI’s Little Saigon Housing receives funding Little Saigon Housing is a mixedused six-story building on a lot of 12,768 square feet. Once complete, the project will offer a total of 75,470 square feet including residential, commercial, and office spaces. LIHI is building neighborhood retail along S. Jackson Street in an effort to respond to the community need for commercial space within reach of small businesses that are local and culturally responsive.

The project also includes the new office for LIHI’s central administrative functions. Runberg Architecture Group is overseeing the design. .

“We hope that some of the small businesses being displaced by new large scale development elsewhere in Little Saigon could come here,” said LIHI executive director Sharon Lee. “The 70 affordable apartments would be marketed to the Vietnamese and API community and benefit families with children, seniors, couples and singles. Our offices would be housed behind the retail and our staff would patronize businesses and restaurants in the area and contribute to the sense of community.”

6 — December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE NEWS

Millennials: Post-election worries turning to action, conversation . . . MILLENNIALS: Continued from page 1

I wasn’t alone, I was chatting with my friends from two different states, international students.”

Liem voted for Clinton. Trump, he said, seemed like a reality TV character.

“So I was anxious,” Liem said, “because it was becoming a reality, and I couldn’t grab all of that.”

Liem pondered about the way national media portrayed Trump’s inevitable loss, by which Liem openly admitted to being affected. If a Trump presidency wasn’t a possibility, he wasn’t going to worry about it. But in the aftermath, Liem said he is paying attention to Trump’s decisions and actions. He’s been closely following Trump’s cabinet picks. Where following politics felt forced before, Liem said it now feels very natural.

“I feel like we should stay calm,” Liem said, noting Van Jone’s dialogue on CNN. Jones espouses that the American public should heal themselves and come together.

“When we take action, it has to come from the heart, a place of calmness, of authenticity,” Liem said, urging people to not be reactive. “And I think that’s powerful.”

This election was a transitioning point for many young people, he said.

“The political elite need to somehow capture this,” Liem said, “take advantage of this new movement, people who are beginning to care, beginning to see the reality of it. Somehow involve them, which I think they are starting to do.”

Crystal Song, a Korean American, also said Trump’s impending win wasn’t on her radar. Following the election, Crystal said her Facebook feed was divided.

Many of her Facebook friends are friends from high school, Crystal said, who are predominantly Republican, white, and upper-middle class.

“They’re not seeing [the election results] in a framework as with someone who’s a minority would see it,” Crystal said. “I’ve got one part of my Facebook friends saying it’s horrible, and then another part saying it’s not that bad at all and supporting Trump outright. It’s conflicting and I’m confused. I’m trying to stay objective. I don’t want to hate Trump just to hate Trump. I want to because there are legitimate reasons to be fearful of him.”

Crystal said her family members defend Trump by taking things out of context, like how Trump paid women more than Clinton’s campaign, to make it seem like he is a good president. While the statement alone is true, Trump still paid those women 35% less than his staffed men. And outside of his campaign, Trump’s Casino records show he staffs less women, according to a Mother Jones report.

“So there’s maybe good things you could say about him,” Crystal said, “but that doesn’t really make everything else okay.”

Unlike Liem, Crystal said that in order to function, she feels she has to stop thinking about the presidency, although she admits it might not be the best way to approach things.

“I mean there’s not really a lot you can do,” Crystal said. “There’s no chance the electoral college will swing completely in favor of Hillary Clinton. This is happening.”

And while she thinks Trump will get impeached due to his conflicts of interest around business and politics, Crystal said Vice President-elect Mike Pence is perhaps much more terrifying when it comes to human rights.

“The racism that has been rooted in this history is going to become more tangible because of [Trump’s] presidency,” Crystal said, noting reports of a rise in hate crime since the presidential campaign.

“A couple weeks ago, I was shopping at an outlet with my mom, and I heard this white guy yelling at this Asian lady ‘go back to Asia.’”

Crystal said that while hearing racist comments isn’t anything new, it was very different in that moment because her mom, a first generation immigrant, was there.

“It just makes me fearful that I can’t protect the people that are at risk of being targeted,” she said.

Crystal supported Bernie Sanders’ run for president. She said she was frustrated with how the Democratic Party has not been listening to young voters. “The DNC needs to get its head out of its ass,” Crystal said.

She said the hardest part of Trump’s victory for her is her faith in the election process, how over two million of the popular votes didn’t count because of the electoral college.

“I feel like that’s a really clear, explicit implication of ‘your vote really doesn’t matter,’” Crystal said. “This election really destroyed the fundamental concepts of democracy and what democracy’s supposed to be.”

Crystal said she worries about how it will affect future voters. But she also said this election may show how much the political system needs to change, and something will take shape.

Cheuk-Ning Li. • Photo by Kelsey Hamlin

Cheuk-Ning Li, a 20-year-old Chinese American, also said she didn’t foresee Trump’s win.

“I started going on Facebook and I saw the results that were coming in,” CheukNing said. “I was just devastated. It caught me off guard.”

She said she kept asking herself, “What are we going to do now? He’s a huge liar and said all these awful things.”

Since the election, Cheuk-Ning has been trying to get more involved in community organizing, and building support networks. In addition, she hopes to strengthen the public’s analysis of what’s happening.

Cheuk-Ning said she was surprised by how many other people were grieving like she was.

“I think before Trump was elected, we tended to do this thing where we would find our own echo chambers and keep within those circles,” she said, adding that the idea of tossing out someone else’s opinion alone is very concerning. “The mentality of the disposability of people is a symptom of capitalism that we can just throw people away.”

Cheuk-Ning has been having hard discussions with more conservative family members, and urges others to do the same. She also said that the American public in general is very susceptible and vulnerable to media. However, she’s had more problems with the well-intentioned people just now realizing niceness isn’t enough, citing #AllLivesMatter and the

Crystal Song. • Photo by Kelsey Hamlin

“color-blind” concept for skin tone. People shouldn’t just be looking at the extremes of white supremacy, but also at the lessdirectly-racist folks, she said.

“The average person doesn’t like to thinking about politics,” Cheuk-Ning said, calling for a change in mindset. “They see it as a separate realm than seeing it as, ‘Oh this impacts my life.’”

Cheuk-Ning said many Asian American immigrants come from places where they don’t trust the government, and have a mentality of survival. “But it’s more than just about your own family,” she said, noting that while family is important, it shouldn’t be paramount. “It’s an eitherme-or-them mentality. There’s no us.”

She said connections between people who don’t agree with each other are a necessity.

“There’s a lot of work to be done,” Cheuk-Ning said. “The silver lining here is that more people are having their eyes open to the racism that’s so prevalent in this country. It’s less easy to ignore now than it was before.”

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017 — 7

IE ARTS

Author Alex Kuo examines the power of language

By Adrienne Ip IE Contributor Alex Kuo is a creative outlier whose latest novel, shanghai. shanghai. shanghai, highlights the roles that fiction, nonfiction, and language play within the context of state censorship and cultural privilege. As its back cover summarizes, the novel’s unorthodox format “avoids conventional narrative techniques; instead it focuses on episodic and interconnected moments revolving in a Shanghai between its foreign-occupied 1939, state-occupied 1989, and the self-occupied present in a Möbius loop, sometimes in the same sentence ...” To achieve this effect, shanghai utilizes multi-colored typefaces, photographs, diagrams, interior commentary, shifting tenses, and the main character’s underground writing.

Ge is the novel’s protagonist. He is an outspoken but conflicted journalist who travels throughout China, writing about film, music, and cultural trends. He is often shadowed by his capitalist wife, Kuifang, and remotely controlled by his boss, “Mr. Editor.” Along the way, Ge interviews various characters, both real and imagined, as he mind-trips between different periods in China’s history.

The frustrated Ge riffs on pop culture (Gone With the Wind, Django Unchained) and historical figures and events, but various levels of censorship keep his larger ambitions in check. To subvert these control mechanisms, Ge publishes his more controversial work under the names Ah Zee and Renyuan.

A recurring theme in shanghai is the manipulation of historical memory. The motivating issue that drives Ge is China’s state censorship, which freezes out competing fictions and nonfictions so that only one official

“truth” remains. To illustrate this idea, Ge references Jeff Widener’s 1989 Tiananmen Square photograph, in which a man stands in defiant resignation before an array of army tanks. The photograph’s official story masks multiple stories about “Tank Man,” some of which may be true or false, but none of which may be spoken aloud. By bombarding the reader with a multitude of interlinked narratives, ideas, and themes, Ge rebels against this restrictive environment, but at great risk to himself.

Unconstrained by rules or formality, Ge’s multiple narratives reflect Kuo’s belief that language has the power to “divulge, interpret, and explode, in a tense that is the present, the past, and the future all at once …” Conversely, the power to control language is the power to control history, which reduces human potential to its lowest common denominator.

As such, Kuo’s focus on state censorship is a valid concern: people are routinely punished for voicing ideas outside of China’s imposed political dictates.

The recent disappearances of several Hong Kong booksellers, reported in the news earlier this year, infuse shanghai with a topical urgency. At the same time, Kuo has had a long-standing interest in how individuals navigate authoritarian structures, both in their daily lives and in the midst of larger historical upheavals. Whether intentional or not, the themes in shanghai echo ongoing conversations that Kuo began many years ago in his previously published work, particularly in his 2002 collection, Lipstick and Other Stories.

Astute readers will be more impressed by this thematic continuity than by the author’s claim that he ‘translated’ shanghai on Ge’s behalf, or that it has been published in four separate editions.

In fact, I intended to admonish Kuo for crafting a largely self-referential novel, an interesting thought experiment overloaded with gimmicks yet absent of structure or discipline. But Kuo addressed my graduate-level concerns with some Ph.D.-level admonitions of his own, all of which are contained within the text itself. As Ge declares, “I was talking to everyone about why I can’t do fiction. Too much emphasis on form, I need more space. … And besides, where does the idea of form come from? … Don’t they see, they’re telling us what to do, taking away our space for invention and room for making beautiful new things?”

Kuo probes these artistic contradictions through Ge, who wavers between writing fictions disguised as truth (i.e., his journalistic puff pieces), and writing deep truths disguised as fiction, which could lead to his arrest. This conflict is central to Ge’s ambivalence about his work as a popular journalist versus his underground fiction “that’s not been seeing much print …” Ge is influenced by Simon Ortiz’s essay in which Ortiz declares, “‘If it’s fiction, you better believe it,’” and by his own growing cynicism that “journalism at its best is only a narcotic used to reassure the middle class that everything in their world is okay and that they can continue to go shopping …”

Shanghai’s experimental format is accessible but challenging. Kuo embeds multiple meanings, contradictions, and playful provocations into every aspect of this meta-novel, right down to his author’s note, where he teases, “none of it happened, but all of it is true … this imagined author [Ge] wrote this novel, at least most of it …” In shanghai, Kuo enlists his readers to actively decipher a large, complicated puzzle about the nature and power of language. We are the Möbius loop that Kuo refers to, because we complete the circle by

reflecting his novel back into the marketplace of ideas.

With this in mind, I fixated on a late chapter where Ge is arrested and interrogated, but treats the event as another outlet for expressing his controversial opinions. I was reminded of Ge’s Kafkaesque story about a news anchor named Shun Min, who after being questioned by party officials, noticed that “everything on the outside had entirely disappeared … everything except for his exact double, another Shun Min, walking up the sidewalk to the building as if it too had disappeared. He knew this to be true, he said to himself, because he could tell this story now in the first person, a choice he did not have yesterday.” Is this Ge’s way of informing the reader that he, too, was disappeared by Chinese authorities and, in his confinement, finally has the freedom to mind-publish what he thinks, via Alex Kuo’s “translation”?

If so, Ge’s time slips, unexpurgated observations, and whimsical encounters are his way of defying the system. My evidence is that the chapter seemed tonally out of place with the rest of the novel. Therefore, it must be true: shanghai is Ge’s fever dream. And now I feel deeply for Ge: his fussy, interior monologues, his glamorous outings with Kuifang, and his incessant complaints about the elusive Mr. Editor, are Ge’s way of coping with the crushing weight of imprisonment.

And yet I know my theory cannot be true, because when I read the novel again, the detainment chapter does not seem out of place at all. I question my interpretation of Kuo’s reality, Ge’s reality, and my own as well. Or, as Ge muses, “Too many competing domains and simultaneous realities to sort through right now.” For the time being, the Möbius loop is closed, and the circle is complete.

Chris Higashi reflects on a life in books, her next chapter

By Tamiko Nimura IE Contributor Seven months after retiring from the Seattle Public Library, Chris Higashi is still getting mail there.

“Two cards just came in,” she says over coffee at Amandine in Capitol Hill. People are still sending her thank-you cards for her years of work with the Library, particularly as program manager of the Washington Center for the Book.

“I was so very lucky to love the work I did,” she marvels. “I’ve been showered with appreciation. But my work wasn’t about me—it was about the experiences that people brought and came to the events, about the writers. It was about the impact on people’s lives.”

“It’s a gift,” Higashi says, that she gets to hear from people about the impact of her career. People regularly stop her on the streets, she says, to give her a hug, to talk about a Library event they’d attended, or remember a ceremony for the Washington State Book Awards.

A self-proclaimed auto-didact (a “college dropout,” she says, somewhat ruefully), she’s learned her world vividly and voraciously through reading. Although she was an avid reader as a child growing up in Seattle, Higashi’s career was not always in books. She managed the offices for two Seattle law firms, where she gained experience in writing, proofreading, and project management—all skills that would eventually serve her well at the Seattle Public Library. She liked her work enough: “They were good people, working for good causes,” she says—but something

Chris Higashi, Program Manager of Washington Center for the Book, Seattle Public Library, Seattle, Washington • Photo by Joe Mabel

was missing. The unexpected tragic death of one of her colleagues sent her to “run away” to Hawai‘i for a short time, in shock. She returned to Seattle and found her “refuge” at Elliott Bay Books in the early 1990s, when it was still located in Pioneer Square. “I thought I was always going to be there,” she says now.

“Everyone talked about books all the time.”

Eventually former lawyer colleagues helped to recruit her from Elliott Bay to work in office management again. She worked as an executive assistant at the Library for a year. “I was depressed,” she says, “because nobody really talked about books.” She made friends with the new Deputy City Librarian, though.

Then SPL hired Nancy Pearl from Tulsa as City Librarian. Pearl came with “her many talents,” Higashi says, “but she didn’t know Seattle.” Higashi did. They became friends.

Together the two of them developed the program “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book,” which became “Seattle Reads” and has been

successfully duplicated in other cities around the nation.

In 1989, Seattle applied for funding to have a full-time coordinator for the Washington Center for the Book, housed at the Library.

They already had a coordinator, but that person had to split those duties with other responsibilities. Higashi saw a need for a full-time coordinator. “Seattle was already on the book tour circuit,” she says. “We already supported these book tours with special collections that we’d lend to book groups, to individuals.” Higashi and her colleagues hoped for programming that would provide broader community reach, particularly at the branch libraries.

The programming underwent some funding shifts, but Higashi and the Library were able to create new events—films, panel discussions, conversations between visiting authors and local writers about the same theme.

“I wanted [the events] to put the book in context, help the readers understand more,” she explains. “They were not always wellattended, but for the people who came, the events did exactly what we wanted to do.” To connect everyone to the book under discussion, that is. Authors would visit for as many as five days at a time, connected to larger and smaller events throughout Seattle libraries.

Higashi accompanied the writers through most of their visits.

Higashi cites BOOK-IT Repertory Theater as a powerful force in these events. These events provide dramatic readings of portions of a book, often stopping at a pivotal point.

“It brought a different audience to the events,” she says, “but it also opened up different conversations.” Her favorite events have included

authors such as Greg Martin, Isabel Allende, and Julie Otsuka. Martin’s event, a performance of his memoir Stories for Boys was especially moving, even to the author. “[Martin] came up to the podium at the end of the performance,” Higashi remembers, “and he was in tears. ‘I wrote those words,’ he said, ‘but my heart hurts so bad.”

Higashi also recalls Otsuka’s event for When The Emperor Was Divine at the Beacon Hill branch. It was moderated by Densho’s Tom Ikeda and attended by many Japanese Americans, including Bainbridge Island resident Fumiko Hayashida. Ikeda asked them to stand and be recognized, and many were also in tears.

“It’s easy for people to talk about building community,” Higashi now reflects, “but we really did it. Everything was free and open to the public.” She talks about the community with respect, as an entity that she feels privileged to have served. “Those people you hear about who only read one book a year,” she muses, “I don’t know how [they] navigate the world [without reading].”

And so she’s off to travel for a little while, using the time to enjoy her new chapter and reflect on her next steps. But books will always remain part of the picture. She’s been a visible figure in Seattle for so long, and she’s attended a few readings since retiring. But it’s still a bit difficult to think about attending Library events. Still recovering from her injury (a fractured femur) in April 2016, she remembers that she’ll “just have to do it all a little slower.”

One of her first stops on her travels? The Jaipur Literature Festival in India.

8 — December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE ARTS

Diana Huey: Little Mermaid role is a dream come true

By Roxanne Ray IE Contributor Disney and the winter holiday season have long brought extra light to the dark season, and the 5th Avenue Theatre is joining in the festivities with The Little Mermaid.

Actor Diana Huey, raised in Washington state, is enjoying playing the title role in this production. “It’s a dream come true to get to do this show,” Huey said. “The Little Mermaid was my favorite Disney movie as a kid and I grew up watching the movie over and over again, singing every song and pretending to be Ariel.”

After a Disney-filled childhood, Huey decided to take the next step. “I first got into the arts in middle school,” she said.

“They did a musical every year and in 6th grade I got into Oliver, and I was pickpocket number 47 from the left, but it was so much fun and I definitely got bit by the acting bug.”

The formative experiences continued as Huey approached adulthood. “Later in high school, at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, we did a production of Les Mis and I got to play Eponine, which was such a dream role,” she said. “It was that specific experience that made me go ‘I don’t want to just study music, I really have to also study theatre.’”

But Huey’s big role in The Little Mermaid didn’t come easily or immediately. “Last year around this time I was unemployed,”

Diana Huey as The Little Mermaid. •Courtesy Photo

she said. “I had just come off of a show and didn’t really do a full production for a full year.”

This is typical of the actor’s life, even now that Huey has moved to New York.

“There are only so many jobs available compared to how many actors there are, so you’re always fighting for those jobs” Huey said. “I love doing the workshops and readings and concerts in New York, but it’s so hot and cold.”

Huey’s schedule is definitely hot now.

“This rehearsal process was fast and furious because half the cast had already done the show in previous productions,” she said.

“For those of us that were new, we were just swimming along trying to keep up.”

For Huey, this has meant 12-hour workdays. “We would rehearse from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the rehearsal hall and then go up to the stage to practice flying from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.,” she said. “It was an intense process, but so much fun.”

The flying element of the performances is key to the show’s atmosphere. “To make it look like we’re swimming, we’re flying,” Huey said. “We’re wearing harnesses and are swimming through the air on wires, so it makes the whole stage look like the deep, deep ocean.”

Huey reports that this was one of the biggest challenges during the rehearsal process. “It’s become second nature now, but it was really hard to incorporate during rehearsals,” she said. “We’d get notes like, ‘Don’t forget to swim! Don’t forget you’re swimming!’ It felt very weird at the time, but doing those things to make it look like our world is underwater makes a huge difference to the audience.”

The audience is a key focal point for Huey. “What’s cool about this show, because it’s a show for families and it’s a beloved movie and a musical, any time it starts to feel monotonous I think about those girls and the kids that show up in their costumes and are seeing it for the first time,” she said. “That’s really all you need—giving them everything you’ve got, because they deserve it.”

Monotony could be a concern, because The Little Mermaid is expected to tour for a full year. “It’s tricky, but I’m so excited to tour,” Huey said. “I’ve never done anything this long before, so I think it’ll be really fun and exciting to see cities that I would have never seen before.”

She reports having strong support for this career choice. “My boyfriend is great,” she said. “He’s in New York and he’s planning to visit as much as possible and using the opportunity to travel as well.”

The itinerant lifestyle has required Huey to develop new strategies to maintain her health and energy. “I’ve definitely gotten into a routine,” she said. “I get 8-10 hours of sleep, then I get up and workout to get my body ready and the blood flowing and help sweat things out of my system, then I warm up for about 30 minutes to an hour in the shower.”

But Huey says that the grueling schedule is certainly better than the alternative.

“Anytime I get tired, I’m going to remember how frustrating it was when I wasn’t working,” she said.

She wants to take this gratitude and project it outward to her spectators. “I love showing the audience that anyone can be a Disney princess, they can be anything they want to be, and dreams come true!”

The Little Mermaid runs from November 23 to December 31, at The 5th Avenue Theatre, 1308 Fifth Avenue, Seattle. For more information, visit www.5thavenue.org.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017 — 9

IE ARTS

Scammers posing as Seattle City Light employees, targeting elderly, businesses

By Travis Quezon

IE Editor in Chief A restaurant owner in the Chinatown International District recently received a call from a con artist claiming to be from Seattle City Light. They altered the caller ID to make it look like the call was coming from the Seattle City Light customer call center at (206) 6843000. The caller said there was a problem with a payment on the account and that a crew was on its way to disconnect power if the bill was not paid immediately.

The caller then instructed the restaurant owner to obtain a prepaid debit card to make the payment. When the restaurant owner called back to a different phone number and gave the prepaid debit card number, they called him a second time and said that wasn’t enough and sent him back to get another one, which he did.

By this point, the restaurant owner was starting to think something was wrong and contacted Seattle City Light directly. While he was at the Seattle City Light service desk talking with a representative, the scammer called back a third time. When the man handed the phone to the real Seattle City Light agent, the caller hung up. The phone number was quickly disconnected.

Seattle City Light is trying to get the word out to the community about tactics like these being used by scammers. Elderly, non-English speaking customers and business owners have been common targets. The International Examiner caught up with Seattle City Light spokesperson Scott Thomsen about what to look out for.

Thomsen: That would be a better question for the Seattle Police Department.

There are many scammers out there.

This is a technique they continue to use because the threat of cutting off someone’s electricity is so powerful.

IE: What would you say are the key things people should most keep an eye out for? And what should people do once they realize they’ve been approached by a scammer?

Thomsen: First, Seattle City Light will never demand payment over the phone. If someone calls you demanding money, it’s a scam.

If there ever is a problem with falling behind on payments, City Light will contact you in writing twice before disconnecting power. If you ever have a question about your account, call us directly at (206) 684-3000.

Finally, credit card companies have gotten much better with fraud detection.

That’s why the scammers want you to use a pre-paid debit card, which is almost like handing cash to someone.

That’s a dead giveaway that the caller is a con artist.

If you are approached by a scammer, get as much information as you can, then contact the police department.

IE: What’s it going to take in the bigger picture to address the scams?

Thomsen: Education and awareness.

The scammers are not going to quit.

Each of us needs to recognize this and protect ourselves. Don’t become their next victim.

IE: What else should our readers know?

International Examiner: Why have Thomsen: High pressure tactics are a scammers been targeting elderly, non-English speaking customers and key part of how scammers operate. If you business owners? What makes them ever feel pressured to make an immediate payment, it’s probably a scam. vulnerable?

For more information, visit www.

Scott Thomsen: Scammers succeed seattle.gov/light/EndScams. by confusing people. They’re very good at making things sound urgent and official. And they will take advantage of any edge they can get, such as the added challenge of a person’s limited English or the pressure a business owner feels to stay open in the middle of a busy day.

IE: Do you know much about the scammers themselves? Who are they and where do they come from? Is it a large organized effort or are they mostly individuals using the same technique to scam people?

SPOT IT

SCAM ALERT

Scammers nation-wide are posing as utility employees and are using fear and pressure to scam utility customers. Seattle City Light says the key to preventing future attacks is being able to recognize the warning signs.

• Scammers posing as utility employees are contacting City Light customers mainly by phone • Scammers are threatening to shutoff power if payments are not immediately made • Scammers are pressuring customers to obtain pre-paid credit cards to make immediate payments • Scammers are targeting businesses, non-English speaking and elderly customers • Caller ID from scammers closely resembles that of Seattle City Light

Seattle City Light follows specific protocol when receiving payments or notifying a customer when we will shut off power.

Seattle City Light Employees will: • Never call, email, or make a home visit requesting an immediate payment.

• Never call on the weekend • Never call to request credit card, banking, or financial information • Never email you to request credit card, banking, or financial information • Never request credit card banking or financial information during a home visit • Never shutoff service without providing written warning in advance • Always provide Employee Identification

10 — December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE ARTS

Shaun Tan sparks imagination with Singing Bones

By Carina A. del Rosario IE Contributor

Author Neil Gaiman writes in the book’s foreword: “His sculptures suggest, they do not describe. They imply, they do not deliniate. They are, in themselves, stories: not the frozen moments in time that a classical illustration needs to be. These are something new, something deeper. They do not look like moments of the stories; instead, they feel like the stories themselves.”

How do you spark someone’s imagination? How do you rouse them from their everyday way of looking at something, to see something both familiar and strange?

Shaun Tan can do this. The artist and writer has captivated readers of all ages and around the world with The Lost Thing, The Red Tree, The Rabbits, Rules of Summer, and The Arrival, a wordless, timeless story about leaving/ fleeing and finding oneself a stranger in a strange land. His latest offering is The Singing Bones, inspired by the Grimm’s Tales.

Brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm collected and published these folk and fairy tales over 200 years ago, and the stories have been translated into 160 languages and dialects. They have been told, revised, adapted, embellished and told again and again. Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, and so many others have been imbedded into our psyche by all the retellings, engraved in rigid detail by Disney.

In Singing Bones, Tan does something quite profound—and elemental. He squishes these fixed images in his hands, and forms and carves them into simple yet evocative shapes that allow us to gaze upon these familiar characters anew. He was inspired by Inuit stone carvings and pre-Columbian clay figurines to mold papier-mache and clay into creations that seem fresh and ancient at the same time.

What if this were true and possible in the stories we tell today? Could our imaginations be sparked into empathy?

Could we be coaxed into looking at people both familiar and different in such a way that we connect to their heart?

In visual form, Tan does what great poets do: hone a story into its essence. Rapunzel becomes both forlorn child and tower, long strips of yellow cascading down from her bent head to her round base. Cinderella, so named because she was made to sleep next to the hearth, in the ashes, is rendered as another tall cylinder, this time with a blackened top and at the base, an indentation, in which a golden face rests. A solid black form is both wolf and bed, upon which stands a tiny figure with a red pointy cap.

That’s what I had in mind when I went into journalism over 25 years ago.

I wanted to broaden people’s ways of seeing and understanding. I wanted to shape the ways people thought about each other and the influence of government and public policies in our lives. But while many journalists’ and writers’ intent is to center human stories, people’s hearts can still get lost from being overwrought.

Worse, they can be pared down into easy archetypes and stereotypes and our way of reading them becomes fixed like an old Disney movie. We become further polarized rather than drawn closer together.

The tales’ texts are also presented in short form, their heart printed in just a few sentences. With the barest of strokes, both text and sculpture conjure so much emotion, action, life. You are given just what you need to make of it what you will.

Right now, we need more stories, more art that squishes those rigid ways of seeing, thinking and relating. We need our imaginations sparked, our hard edges burned away. And out of the fire, may we come away holding our humanity again.

We must share these novels about war and children so young readers may ponder history

By Nalini Iyer IE Contributor How do we tell children stories about war? How do we share stories about those children who have survived war? In an era of devastating warfare and a global refugee crisis, both S.N. Senzai’s Saving Kabul Corner and Mike Masilamani’s Th3 8OY WHO 5P3AKS 1N NUM83R5 write about war, violence, refugees, and resilience.

They take completely different approaches and each is compelling in its own way.

Senzai’s novel Saving Kabul Corner tells the story of two Afghan immigrant families in California, the Shinwaris and the Ghilzai s, who own rival grocery stores in the same strip mall. Both families have roots in the same village in Afghanistan and a long running family feud. The story is told from the perspective of Ariana, a middle schooler, who is coping with the arrival

of her cousin Laila and their family from Afghanistan. Laila’s family has fled the war but her father still works as an army interpreter in Taliban controlled territory.

Every story of IEDs and ambushes has the family deeply worried for the safety of Laila’s father. Ariana struggles to balance compassion with the many irritations of having a cousin who seems perfect because she speaks Pashto, can cook Afghan foods, and is loved by all.

As the cousins get to know one another and return to school with their Afghan friend, Mariam, who also has survived the trauma of war, they meet a new boy in class, Wali Ghilzai, whose family owns the rival business that threatens the Shinwaris economic security. However, mysterious crimes affecting both businesses such as break-ins, a fire, and defecting bakers lead the kids to determine that neither family is guilty but that both are being manipulated by some larger greedy interests. The youngsters join forces to solve the mystery, bring about justice, and reunite their families.

This is a novel that speaks to the consequences of the long war in Afghanistan on multiple generations of an immigrant family. It also speaks to the difficulties kids face with ethnocentrism, Islamophobia, and cultural trauma. Woven through all this is a light hearted, feel good story of immigrant grit and community friendships.

The novel offers young American readers an opportunity to understand Afghan immigrant culture and to recognize that many immigrants have come to the United States because of complex geopolitical

situations. This is a much needed narrative in a time when we in the United States have to grapple with anti-immigrant sentiments and Islamophobia.

Th3 8OY WHO 5P3AK5 1N NUM83R5 is a brilliant, darkly satirical fable based on the Sri Lankan civil war. While this narrative is illustrated and told in simple language that seems targeted at young readers, I can’t help but feel that the real audience for this fable is adult readers. The seemingly simple narrative is layered with so many meanings that the book requires several readings to unpack.

Set in the Island of Short Memories, the novel tells the story of the Boy who Speaks in Numbers when everyone else around him speaks in colors. He lives in Kettle camp, a refugee camp, which looks like “a tin-pot kingdom run by a tin-pot dictator” because his Small Village of Fat Hopes was destroyed by bombs and only

he and his uncle survive but his uncle is now speechless. His friend is a Constantly Complaining Cow and the camp is run by an Important Aunty who breaks out in pimples and speaks in chaotic rhymes that mix up familiar nursery rhymes. The only recreation is Silly Cricket at which the boy is surprisingly good and so is spared from being disappeared or recruited by the rebel child soldiers. He can play in the World Series of Silly Cricket and win the day.

Along the way, he joins the Traveling Refugee Circus and becomes an act in it along with the Complaining Cow with whom he is now reunited. Thus, the story continues darkly until one day the Civil War of Lies comes to an abrupt end because “The bullets run out before the lies do.” The boy is set up as a candidate for elections but it is rigged and so he loses, but the Complaining Cow no longer has time for the Traveling Circus because she is the Minister for Complaining Affairs. An awful rain arrives that wipes out everything except the ugly tree that now blossoms with flowering questions—thus ends this dark novel about the absurdity of war, the absence of resolutions and closures, and the way politics erases history. A nightmarish narrative for the not so young. Brilliantly illustrated in red ink by Matthew Frame, this fable is a must read.

Two very different novels about war and children with two very different narrative approaches that seek to memorialize war and trauma from the perspective of children. For these reasons, we must share them with our young readers so they may ponder history.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017 — 11

IE ARTS

Children’s books hold truth, magic in lessons learned

By Fei Wu Huang IE Contributor

themselves from being outsiders to being everyday locals through everyday interactions with family members and locals. Hee Jun’s nostalgia of home quickly dissipates when he gets invited to a friend’s home and discovers something all too familiar in his backyard. A Piece of Home goes full circle when Hee Jun surprises his grandmother with a little gift given to him by his new friend to remind them that home is never too far away. ***

A Morning with Grandpa celebrates loved ones Sylvia Liu gives readers a wonderful glimpse of the special relationship between grandparents and grandchildren in her new children’s book A Morning with Grandpa.

The bond between Mei Mei and Gong Gong is entertaining and shows us that we’re never too young or too old to learn from one another.

On a crisp sunny morning, Mei Mei watches her grandpa outside practicing his tai chi.

Fascinated by all the hand and leg motions, Mei Mei doesn’t hesitate to join the fun. Mei Mei soon realizes how hard leaning something new can be, but her grandpa helps turn the difficult situation into a sweet and memorable one. Filled with excitement to have her grandpa by her side, her hands glide through the air and she doesn’t hesitate to add a little flavor and technique of her own to the age-old tradition.

The excitement doesn’t stop there as Mei Mei also ends up sharing some yoga poses with her grandfather that she learned at school.

Gong Gong has similar difficulties in learning all the twists and turns of yoga, seeing through the generation gap shared between himself and his granddaughter. Yet, through these gentle exercises, each has something meaningful to teach the other, just as culture is passed from one generation to the next.

A Morning with Grandpa reminds readers of the importance of being with loved ones.

Although learning new things can be challenging, the characters celebrate their experiences, allowing the time they spend together and the things they share bring them closer. ***

A Piece of Home shares immigrant stories It’s not easy to leave a place you’ve known your entire life and begin again in a foreign land. Jeri Watts and Hyewon Yum’s animated book, A Piece of Home, tackles this reality that many immigrants face—trying to find a delicate balance between fitting in to a new culture, while hanging on to and cherishing your own heritage.

This artistic and crafty book invites us into the lives of a Korean family as they journey from their Korean homeland to West Virginia.

Moving to a new place many miles away, the family comes to realize that West Virginia is nothing like it was back home. The whole family longs for the comforts of home as they are forced to assimilate into American culture.

The main character, Hee Jun, realizes that he does not look like everybody else and cannot understand the English language in school.

At the same time, his outgoing grandmother becomes more refrained and keeps to herself, sitting on the doorsteps of the house.

As the days become weeks and the weeks become months, the family slowly transforms

All About China is a handson learning experience Take your mind on a whirlwind tour of China’s fascinating history and culture in All About China, by writer Allison Branscomb and illustrator Lin Wang. Branscomb introduces us to a huge diversity of elements that make up Chinese culture and gives us an opportunity to witness all of the moments that make China what it is today. In one moment, we might find ourselves singing along in one of China’s favorite folk songs, while in another we might find ourselves learning about China’s history that stretches all the way back to ancient times. Immersed in an overflow of detailed information and colorful pictures, this children’s book provides readers a nice balance between simple facts, storytelling, and activities as there is always something new to be learned and discovered on every single page. The author brings to our attention many different cultural topics such as the vast variety of tasty food and the importance of dining etiquette. Did you know that it is impolite to point chopsticks or the spout of the teapot at someone? What makes this book unique is how readers get to be interactive and hands on—there are opportunities to do craft work such as writing calligraphy and brush painting. This comprehensive book is a real treasure waiting to be discovered and a real treat for both kids and parents alike. ***

the boldness of the selection of colors used.

The animals as well as the backgrounds are illustrated with bold, simple shapes rendered in a clean, limited color palette that is sure to please the eye. This short but sweet book is a playful celebration of bottoms of all shapes and sizes that will have parents and babies giggling with every turn of the page. ***

Elephant in the Dark revives classic parable Inspired by a Rumi poem based on the parable of “The Blind Men and the Elephant,” Mina Javaherbin’s Elephant in the Dark offers a lively take on a classic story about the folly of a limited perspective.

In this version of the tale, a merchant brings a huge animal back from his homeland of India and stashes it away in the confines of his home and away from all of the villagers. Lo and behold, rumors circulate around the village about Ahmad and the mysterious creature that he has hidden away. Sparked by their curiosity and interest, many of the villagers decide that it is in their best interest to take matters into their own hands and do a little investigating. One by one they all take turns sneaking into Ahmad’s dark barn to touch different parts of the creature to get a feel of what this creature might be. Was it a creature that could bite your hand if you went near it? Or is it a creature that had wings and could fly?

Does the creature make a hissing noise like a snake? As each member takes turns coming back out to reveal what they have discovered, all of them find themselves at odds with how different all of their findings were. Having jumped to various conclusions, they begin arguing into the night that their ideas are the correct ones.

As morning arrives and the sun is beaming in the sky, the creature that is hidden in Ahmad’s barn is revealed to the villagers.

Still seen arguing and fighting, they failed to realize that they were all right but all wrong at the same time and it is not until the end of the story that all of them learn a good lesson in always looking at the whole picture before drawing conclusions. ***

Bum Bum a comical crowd pleaser The rear end grabs the spotlight in Taro Miura’s Bum Bum, a short and comical read aloud book that is sure to be a crowd pleaser.

Bum Bum is an easy to read book especially for young toddlers that focuses on using repetition of the same phrase at the turn of the page following each character’s picture. Each creature gets introduced to us in a simplistic yet inviting picture that seems so innocent at first glance. But as the pages are turned the creatures show a more comical side to them by revealing what their mamas gave them.

By showcasing an array of creatures and their unique and distinguishing characteristic, their bum bums bring out the laughter in all of us.

From the bum bums of a duck, pig, elephant, and a monkey, Miura uses a simple concept of shapes to point out the similarities and differences in all of us. Even though the book lacks text, it makes up for it not only through the silliness of the pictures itself, but also by

What Do You Do with an Idea? is magical Kobi Yamada’s award winning children’s book What Do You Do with an Idea? reminds readers of the importance of ideas and why we should not give up on them. Told in the first person, this notion is well represented in this story that highlights the mental struggle of a curious little boy who is placed in a situation that we can all relate to, where moments of self-doubt turn into moments of confidence and joy. Appearing out of nowhere, an idea that came in the form of a bright and colorful egg adorned with a golden crown becomes the center of attention for the little one. There was no explanation as to why it appeared or why it

remained. Feeling overwhelmed and uncomfortable at the nature of the situation, the boy became disinterested very quickly and tries to deny its very existence by simply walking away. Little does he know that the persistent idea is right there behind him every step of the way. After toiling with the idea for some time, the boy realized that the idea wasn’t just any ordinary thing but something that was magical. He decides to feed it and give it attention, and, as a result, the idea starts to grow. As he starts believing more in his idea, he decides that it is time to show it to others only to be criticized for how silly it is. Not deterred by their comments, the boy decides to continue to nurture it and soon, the idea becomes more than he could ever imagine. ***

The Story I’ll Tell filled with joy and tears Author Nancy Tupper Ling brings together the heartwarming story of adoption in The Story I’ll Tell, where a mother narrates how her adoptive son came to her. Seeing that there will come a day when her son will ask her where he came from, an adoptive mother imagines all of the stories she’ll get to tell her son about how he came to be a part of the family. In her imagination, the adoptive mother spins many elaborate tales about his origin and before long, her tales takes us on many wild journeys and adventures through many different settings. She also imagines her son being brought to her by an angel in one tale, while in another, he is found floating to shore on a massive wave. There’s even a tale of her saving her son from a dragon queen. Through these tales, it becomes clear each one contains a small kernel of truth that pieces together the baby’s journey into her arms. As the tales come to an end, she knows that she will be ready to tell him the most beautiful tale of them all. A tale that is not only filled with joy and tears but a tale that shows how families can come together in so many different ways. ***

You Look Yummy reveals meaning of family You Look Yummy by Tatsuya Miyanishi and Yasuko Kimura follows a heartwarming story of a hatchling dino who’s egg rolled away from his mother during an earthquake. Displaced and scared out of his own mind, he encounters the unlikeliest of friends in a Tyrannosaurus Rex. When the two companions meet up for the very first time, it becomes a case of mistaken identity as the little Ankylosaurus believes that the T-Rex to be his father. Playing off the Ankylosaurus’s innocence and confusion, the first and only intention on the T-Rex’s mind was going to be eating the little dinosaur.

“You look Yummy!” he says. Catching the T-Rex off guard, the little Ankylosaurus grabs onto his leg and calls the T-Rex daddy as the Ankylosaurus realizes that the T-Rex knew his name. Realizing what had just happened, the T-Rex’s heart melts by this loving gesture and his attitude quickly changes. Knowing what’s at stake for the little one, he embraces the opportunity to protect him from all of the dangers of the world. As their relationship grows, it is not long before the T-Rex begins to realize the reality of it all as both of them are complete opposites of each other. The baby won’t grow up to be like him, nor is he his real daddy. Eventually coming to terms with what’s best for the little Ankylosaurus, the T-Rex tricks the baby to race him to the top of the mountain where he eventually finds his real family. As the two companions go their separate ways, their roles in this book reveals to us the meaning of family.

12 — December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE ARTS

North Korean defectors share gripping stories of struggle

By Misa Shikuma IE Contributor In Every Falling Star by Sungju Lee and Susan McClelland and In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park, two brave North Korean defectors share their stories in memoirs that illustrate the inhumanity of the Kim family regime and its failure to provide basic necessities to its citizens, and the terrible lengths and drastic measures that are taken to escape.

Life was pretty good for Lee, co-author of Every Falling Star, up until his tenth birthday. His father had a prominent government job, so he and his parents lived in relative affluence in Pyongyang, the capital city. One day, upon returning home from tae kwon do practice, his parents inform him that they are taking a trip to the countryside; in reality, as he later learns, his father has been outed by the regime with the punishment of the entire family being sent to live in squalor and poverty. At the time, however, Lee simply believes that the diversion is temporary.

As time passes, his father’s savings dwindle, and the trio reverts to foraging for food while slowly starving, the boy begins to realize that the privileged life he knew is gone forever. Their meager shelter and worn clothing are no match for the harsh winters. Lee’s father eventually leaves with the intention of crossing the border into China, promising to return with gifts and supplies. The excursion was meant to last a week; he never returns.

Desperate for food, Lee’s mother makes plans to visit relatives in a nearby town, leaving one night when the boy is asleep. Sadly, child abandonment in the rural parts of the country is not uncommon.

Lee joins up with some boys from the local school, and for the next several years the gang is his family. They steal from markets to survive, get involved in black market trade, and protect each other from rival gangs and prowling officials threatening to send them to forced labor camps. The author’s accounts from this period are purely dystopian—horrifying, even, in detail. En route to a new town to hit, Lee encounters his grandfather by chance in a train station. The elderly doctor has been looking for him ever since the family was relegated from Pyongyang, and has set in motion the expensive and painstaking process of having Lee smuggled across the border.

Painful as it is to leave behind the brotherhood that kept him alive after his parents left, Lee recognizes that his years of living on the run have all but robbed him of his humanity. At age 16 he reaches South Korea, and is reunited with his long-lost father; the two continue to look for his mother, but thus far remain unsuccessful.

In contrast to Lee’s experience, Yeonmi Park’s family was never able to achieve much prominence due to the rigid class system.

Growing up with younger sister Eunmi, the girls have as good a childhood as can be expected. Their father finds success for a time smuggling goods back and forth to China, until he is caught and arrested. Eventually he is returned to the family, but as Park recalls in In Order to Survive, he was never quite the same after.

Desperation sets in on the family, though Eunmi is the first to talk of leaving the country; someone she knows has a connection with a woman who can sneak people across

Turning Japanese a fresh take on hapa identity crisis

the border. She goes first; Park and her mother follow not long after, despite being unable to confirm Eunmi’s safety and whereabouts.

In 20/20 hindsight, Park recognizes the naïveté inherent to being indoctrinated by nothing but propaganda from childhood; at the time, however, none of the women have any idea that they are merely exchanging one version of hell for another—human traffickers await them on the other side of the border, not freedom.

As awful as Lee’s ordeal is, Park’s memoir, specifically the time she spent in China before safely reaching South Korea, speaks to a set of experiences, struggles, and fears that men hardly ever encounter. Immediately upon reaching Chinese soil, the trafficker demands Park. Her mother sacrifices herself for her daughter; the man rapes her, out of sight but within earshot of Park. This becomes their reality, and that for many North Korean women—being passed off from broker to broker, exchanged and sexually assaulted, until ultimately being sold to a local Chinese man in search of a wife. The resulting marriages are often abusive.

Park’s mother is sold to a rural family, but Park evades that fate by making herself into an invaluable assistant to the lead trafficker in the area. With his help, they are eventually able to “buy” back her mother, and even bring her father over, though he succumbs to cancer not long after. Like the other women who chose the same escape route to China, Park and her mother are unable to get good jobs because of their undocumented status.

Chinese officials are unsympathetic, and deport defectors so as not to disrupt political relations with North Korea.

Picture books help keep culture and history present

By Misa Shikuma IE Contributor

limited Japanese skills, the clients are more interested in speaking English.

By Jennifer Pang IE Contributor

Humorous, biting, and excruciatingly honest at times, MariNaomi’s graphic memoir Turning Japanese is a fresh take on the hapa identity crisis and the throes of young adulthood. Set in the mid-1990s, when the author was in her early 20s, Book One opens with a devastating breakup and the ensuing move from San Francisco to San Jose, where she meets her next partner, Giuseppe.

As dissatisfaction with the hostessing gig culminates with a decline in mental and physical health, MariNaomi becomes fixated on going to Japan, her mother’s homeland. With Giuseppe in tow, she heads to Tokyo at the invitation of a former co-hostess. Book Two follows their time abroad, as they explore. MariNaomi takes another hostess job at a bar, and reconnects with her Japanese relatives.

In a constantly changing world where technology beckons to us nearly every minute of everyday, both picture books What Was It Like, Mr. Emperor? and All About the Philippines ask us to sit down with a physical object and engage in learning about where we came from.

Through Gieuseppe’s ex, MariNaomi is introduced to the lucrative job of hostessing at a local Japanese bar. The role, which seems simple and innocent at the outset, becomes something more akin to modern day geishahood. At the bar, which caters to middle-aged Japanese men, hostesses are expected to chat up the clients and encourage them to keep ordering rounds of drinks. Over time, though, the girls forge relationships with the regulars, acting as part-girlfriend, part-therapist. It’s a faux intimacy that the author, at least initially, struggles to come to terms with. And though one of the first draws of the job was for her to have a space to practice her

Ever candid about her struggles and experiences, MariNaomi proves adept at conveying the camaraderie and sisterhood that bonds the hostesses in an occasionally unsavory environment, as well as the ironic sense of otherness that plague those of Japanese descent when visiting the homeland.

Trying to get in touch with one’s heritage is never easy, especially when the language barrier is so high.

Despite centering on a turbulent period of the author’s life, Turning Japanese remains highly relatable for anyone who has dealt with feeling adrift in life, love and identity.

Having made some money through being camera girls, mother and daughter decide to journey to Mongolia with the help of a Christian missionary group. Theirs is one of the last envoys to go before the operation gets shut down. After days of spiritual preparation, the group is dropped off in the Gobi desert, left to trek the rest of the way across the border with minimal supplies. Despite the odds, the group reaches Mongolia and are held at a facility in Ulaanbaatar before deportation to South Korea. Once there, the difficult process of assimilation begins.

Although Lee and Park’s experiences both within and beyond North Korea differ, their stories represent adjacent facets of the same prism. Even as the reality of the state they were raised to love crumbles before their very eyes, cognitive dissonance prevails.

Grim and searing as these memoirs are, they also share the common threads of love, hope, and family, creating stories that are ultimately uplifting and inspirational. Against all odds, Lee reunites with his father; Park and her mother with Eunmi. Another sobering fact is that, even with government assistance, a large achievement gap persists between defectors and locals. Yet both authors have defied all expectation, going on to successes in higher education (despite testing well below grade level upon arrival in South Korea) and honing their political voices to become prominent public speakers and advocates.

In the face of a roiling world political climate, Every Falling Star and In Order to Survive are more than worthy of being shared, not just because of their storytelling merit but also to inspire readers to effect change in their everyday lives.

All About the Philippines is part of a Tuttle series that highlights stories, songs, crafts, and games for kids to learn about other parts of the world. Author Gidget Roceles Jimenez and illustrator Corazon Dandan-Albano both live with their families in the Philippines, so it’s hard to dispute their cultural and social understanding of the area.

We meet three cousins: Mary, Jaime, and Ari whose mothers are sisters, yet, they represent a few of the communities that can be found on the islands. They even call it out, “Together, we are a perfect blend, just like the Filipino people.” In a post-2016 election world, it’s refreshing to see a basic culture and education book like All About the Philippines acknowledge and celebrate the different cus-

toms, languages, and everyday worlds of each character.

This book would be great for a family to read together—as it has both engaging, but short bursts of content and fun, inviting pictures. All About the Philippines touches on food, holidays, games, and even includes a few recipes.

While All About the Philippines focuses on different aspects of the present-day life of children, What Was It Like, Mr. Emperor? aims to make the past relevant and accessible to today’s youth. Part of the series We All Live in the Forbidden City that were previously released in China, What Was It Like, Mr. Emperor? highlights many different aspects of Chinese royal history, such as an overview of emperor duties, distinguishing characteristics of the major emperors, and glimpses of everyday life at court.

This book is fun to look at and is filled with lots of interesting, digestible tidbits. What Was It Like, Mrw Emperor? is most suitable for a family with an intention of sharing their history with their kids or for upper elementary students with a passion for history.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017 — 13

IE NEWS

Picture books to delight the youngest of readers

By Nan Ma IE Contributor With its delightfully bright colors and large, geometric-shaped characters, There, There by Taro Miura seamlessly combines the teaching of animal sounds with the learning of emotion and empathy. The board book begins with the conventional introduction of animal sounds: “Frog says … Chicken says …” But the lesson on sounds soon takes on narrative form as the animals begin to imitate the crying of a young child. The child, in turn, soothes the animals with the magic words “there, there.” Miura’s charming book is a lesson on compassion in disguise. ***

The Only Child, Guojing’s impressive debut tells a poignant story of loneliness, longing and familial love. When a young child is left alone at home, isolation and boredom soon propel her to leave her city apartment to visit her grandmother. When she falls asleep on the bus and gets lost, she befriends a magical stag in the woods, and the two embark on an enchanting journey in which they encounter other fantastical creatures. Set against the backdrop of China’s one-child policy, this wordless picture book/graphic novel tenderly renders the emotional and imaginative world of a child through intricate, extraordinarily detailed illustrations and exceptional composition and pacing. On the first two pages, nine panels of exquisite illustration of the child’s family life (a tabletop clock, a wooden stag figurine, the child yawning happily while standing next to her mother, the mother pausing at the threshold of the apartment door on her way out) are juxtaposed against a blown-up drawing of the child’s slightly hunched back facing us while

her face, not seen by us, faces the shut door.

The stark contrast between the two pages acutely accentuates the child’s sadness. Reminiscent of classics such as Raymond Briggs’s The Snowman, this gorgeous, captivating book will resonate with readers of all ages. *** Is Mommy? (written by Victoria Chang and illustrated by Marla Frazee) is a delightful book in which a gaggle of mischievous tots is each asked the question with the refrain “is mommy …” followed by contrasting descriptors such as tall or short, pretty or ugly, nice or mean. The tots shout out the less favorable descriptor in the pair with irrepressible pleasure. But when asked if they love their “short, ugly, mean, boring, old, messy mommy,” the answer is an unequivocal, enthusiastic “yes!”

Chang’s funny, heart-warming text paired with Frazee’s whimsical illustrations in which the mothers are taller replicas of their tots is uproariously fun and captivating. *** In Salina Yoon’s Be a Friend, a boy named Dennis communicates through miming rather than speaking, but his unique way of expressing himself often leaves him feeling isolated and invisible. One day an observant classmate reciprocates Dennis’s pantomimes, and soon, Dennis finds himself surrounded by new friends. A seasoned picture book writer and illustrator, Yoon creates a heartwarming story about embracing individuality and difference and the empowering nature of friendship. *** In Friends, by Aiko Ikegami, a young girl moves to a new country and finds herself different and alone in her new surroundings. Recess and lunch become especially trying times, as she longs for companionship. One day, a squirrel visits her, and soon more animal and kid friends come along. New friendship is developed through the communal partaking of food and play. Aiko Ikegami masterfully uses color to convey the mood of the story—the story gradually moves from a gray landscape to warm colors as the girl makes new friends.

The soft texture of the illustrations has a pleasing effect on the composition. ***

copter and drops presents through the window. At each of the houses that he visits, he looks through a die-cut frame to determine the identity of its resident. As a result, case after case of mistaken identity paired with mismatching gift ensues. Despite the mismatch, the recipients of the gifts find joy in what they have received and come together to celebrate.

A joyful and subtle tale about gratitude and the joy of sharing. Young children may also be delighted by the way Presents through the Window: A Taro Gomi Christmas Book (writWhen snow falls, a young boy ventures ten and illustrated by Taro Gomi, translated by outside with his sled and is soon joyfully im- Tadashi Yoshida) invites interaction through mersed in a rich winter landscape. In Yuki the sense of mystery produced by the die-cuts.

Kaneko’s Into the Snow, an intricate depiction *** of a child’s curiosity and sense of adventure combined with Saito’s rich-textured illustraThrough lush illustrations, This is Our tions will remind the readers the simple plea- Baby, Born Today (written by Varsha Bajaj, sures of childhood. A perfect snow day book. illustrated by Eliza Wheeler) joyously celebrates the birth of an elephant and the idea *** that it takes a village to raise a child. From the Chirri & Chirra (written and illustrated by loving mother to the shade of a Banyan tree, Kaya Doi, translated by Yuki Kaneko) is ena character or element of the world that is inchanting. In this exquisitely illustrated book, tricately connected to the caring and growth twin girls Chirri and Chirra go on a magical of the baby elephant in introduced. The final bike ride in the woods, where their five senspread shows the entire community rejoicing tences are awakened through simple pleasures at the miracle of birth. This heartwarming that range from sipping on clover blossom tea book will remind readers of the interconnectin the forest café to munching on soy roll with edness of our existence and how beautiful it is chestnut jam to swimming in the forest pond. to be part of a loving community.

Doi has created a lush landscape and heart*** warming storyline that will leave a lasting impression on readers of all ages. *** Mirim Seo’s craft kit, Sew Spectacular Adorable Animals, is what its name suggests: adorable. This delightful kit comes with a sturdy paper box that contains 12 animal cards, 6 embroidery skeins (in the shapes of animals that match with the animal cards), 1 blunt needle, 1 pushpin, and an easy-to-follow instruction booklet. The only slight drawback is that the kit does not come with the buttons Baby Reindeer: Finger Puppet Book (ilthat may be used to make the eyes of the anilustrated by Yu-Hsuan Huang) captures the mals. Overall, this kit is delightful and will daily routine of a baby reindeer in a delightmake a great Christmas gift that the whole ful winter landscape. Young children will be family can enjoy. charmed by the reindeer puppet that threads *** the pages of the book. A great holiday gift for In this modern day Christmas story, Santa, the youngest readers. sans reindeers and sleight, arrives in a heli-

Recent picture books fit for the young, or young-at-heart

By Tamiko Nimura IE Contributor

If your young reader wants to experience the wonder of a first snow, explore lands beyond oceans, meet other avid readers, see “The Little Mermaid” anew, or simply tuck their favorite animals into bed, look no farther. This season, you can choose from these recent picture book releases.

For early readers, one of my new favorite picture books is First Snow, by debut author/illustrator Bomi Park: a delight from beginning to end. It’s reminiscent of Ezra Jack Keats’s classic book The Snowy Day, but with a tricolor design (black and white charcoal drawings with red accents) that allows the reader’s wonder to unfurl slowly as they follow a cherubic young Asian girl’s first experience with snow.

Over the Ocean by Taro Gomi was originally published in 1979 in Japanese, but Chronicle Books has just

Photo by Tamiko Nimura

published a 2016 English translation. It’s a beautiful tribute to a child’s inquiring and adventurous spirit. Gomi’s signature use of vibrant watercolors lends itself especially to this celebration of exploration and wonder.

Though my eight-year-old daughter is probably a little old for this book, she loved the translated Everyone Says Goodnight, by Japanese author and illustrator Hiroyuki Arai. Originally published in 2014 in Japanese as “Oyasumi Nasai,” this is a simple get

ready for bedtime book: a cut-page layout allows children to “tuck in” their favorite teddy bear, little bunny, little kitty, and so on. A small plot twist near the end might even create some bedtime giggles.

As a lifelong grownup-avid reader, I sympathized with the little boy in The Good Little Book by Kyo Maclear. It’s partly about what happens when a little boy loses a “good little book” that feels especially written for him. Marion Arbona’s bold surreal illustrations might appeal especially to reluctant readers who are boys—the Good Little Book competes with other books like “redolent of stinky socks” for attention.

Maclear, a British/Japanese Canadian author, seems to have written this one for those of us who are readers for life.

On Maclear’s website (kyomaclearkids. com), she writes, “I think, if asked, most devoted readers would be able to pinpoint the ‘spark book’ that ignited their love of reading. I wanted to write a

book about that spark, that electric first love.” And Maclear’s text captures that moment beautifully, as the boy finds his Good Little Book and “[the] silence of reading slowly [fills] the room.”

Finally, for older readers, art lovers, and the young-at-heart, I’m still reveling in a new publication of The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen and the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark has published an artbook-worthy version of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale, in an uncanny collaboration across countries and time. Graphic designer Marie D’Origny Lübecker has paired Kusama’s psychedelic pen and acrylic illustrations (from Kusama’s series “Love Forever”) with Jean Herscholt’s 1949 translation of Andersen’s original text. The result is stunning, a vision that takes us under a black-and-white sea, filled with disembodied eyes, hypnotic faces, and strings of pearls.

14 — December 21, 2016 – January 3, 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

Housing Services

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

Professional & Leadership Development

Senior Services Legacy House

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.

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.

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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.

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

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.

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 Horizon House 900 University St Seattle, WA 98101 ph: 206-382-3100 fx: 206-382-3213 marketinginfo@horizonhouse.org www.horizonhouse.org A welcoming community in downtown Seattle, offering seniors vibrant activities, independent or assisted living, and memory care.

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.

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.

Homeownership Services 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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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.

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

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

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.

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

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.

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December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017 — 15

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

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Answers to this puzzle are on Wednesday, January 4.

16 — December 21, 2016 – January 3, 2017

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