LAPS X IMAGO MAY 2023
Imago: A Tatler Publication
FIGURES ON THE FRONT COVER
Anna May Wong (1905 - 1961) was a Chinese American actress who became the first Asian American Hollywood movie star in the silent film era. She appeared in over 60 films throughout her career, paving the way for future generations of Asian American actors and actresses. Chien-Shiung Wu (1912 - 1997) was a Chinese American physicist known as the “First Lady of Physics” for her pioneering work on beta decay and the Wu experiment. Dalip Singh Saund (1899 - 1973) was the first Sikh and Asian American to serve in the U. S. Congress. Born in Amritsar, India, he immigrated to the U. S., became a citizen, and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1956, where he represented California’s 29th district. Haing Somnang Ngor (1940 - 1996) was a Cambodian American gynecologist and obstetrician who survived the Khmer Rouge regime and won an Academy Award for his debut performance in the 1984 film “The Killing Fields.” Patsy Mink (1927 - 2002) was a trailblazing Japanese American politician and attorney who represented Hawaii in the U. S. House of Representatives for 24 years. The first woman of color to be elected to Congress, she tirelessly advocated for civil rights, women’s rights, and education.
LAPS X IMAGO MAY 2023
Lakeside School’s Arts & Literary Magazine Issue 36
LAPS X IMAGO LAPS Leaders
IMAGO Editors
Ky C. ’23
Zora S. ’23
Laura H. ’23
Aaron Z. ’23
Michelle Y. ’23
Eliot A-y-A ’24
Rebecca Y. ’23
Angelina P. ’24
Minoo J. ’24
Rahul S. ’24
Sephina P. ’24
Issue Editor
Lexi L. ’25
Minoo J. ’24
LAPS Advisors
Design Chief
Kevin Kimura
Audrey D. ’24
Lu Yang
Designers
Jiabang Wu
Eliot A-y-A ’24 Eric A. ’24 Angelique G. ’24 Betsy A. ’25 Cailyn C. ’26 IMAGO Advisors Lindsay Aegerter Jim Collins
Imago: A Tatler publication Printed by Minuteman Press, North Seattle Imago, May 2023, Issue 36
LAPS X IMAGO
Letter —— “Hot Pot” “Filipino Christmas” “Night Market” “Hong Kong, 2018” “WWII” —— Contributors
The Lakeside Asian Pacific Students affinity group aims to support Asian American and Pacific Islander students in our community and celebrate and raise awareness of various Asian cultures and API identity through informal discussions, volunteer work, and social events. Imago edits, designs, and publishes an arts & literary magazine for Lakeside School to showcase and foster student arts culture.
LETTER FROM THE EDITORS Every May, Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is celebrated in the United States to recognize the legacy contributions of these communities. It’s a time to reflect on the cultural identities and personal values we’ve inherited and incorporated into our lives. But a celebration of our history also begs the age-old question: who are we and where do we come from? In this collection of short stories stylized as manga panels, LAPS x IMAGO hopes to explore our members’ interpretations of generational heritage. For our front and back covers, respectively, Zara Z. ’24 illustrated AAPI pioneers who made history and portraits of those who are taking up those initiatives today and looking toward the future. Between the covers, our characters are found navigating their own paths through past and present as they investigate personal experiences and familial memories. We hope the issue helps illuminate the multitudes of identities present in our community, in food and familiar places, history and holiday celebrations. Our art is a vision for the future: while sharing a comfort meal of hot pot after time apart, we tell tales and reminisce with those we call family.
Ky C. ’23, Laura H. ’23, Michelle Y. ’23, Rebecca Y. ’23, Minoo J. ’24, Sephina P. ’24, Lexi L. ’25 LAPS Leaders
So what do you guys want to order?
I heard the tom yum soup was goOd!
They have ube cheEsecake here!
Dang, I misS this. Where I live now, there aren’t any Asian restaurants around...
I’m so glad I have people to share this foOd with.
We haven’t seEn each other in so long…
Yeah! Remember those dinNer gatherings our parents made us go to, with aunts and uncles we didn’t know, but they somehow knew us?
But I kinda misS them, in a way.
Eating Asian foOd with other Asian Americans feEls so familiar somehow.
They were so awkward…
Being Asian American —
it’s like we’re one big family.
One snowy Christmas Eve, a ferRy floats steadily from SeatTle to Bremerton. Traveling from home to somewhere seEmingly far away. A place with people from a difFerent culture…
“Filipino Christmas”
…and my younger brother — ofF on an adventure together.
LoOk! a seagulL!
wheEe !!!
me, the older sister
met grandma,
AtTention: COming to shore.
How are you guys? How was your trip? When we arRived, we gathered our belongings,
We’re goOd, Lola!
CelL phone? Check! DufFel bag? Check!
|9
and hit the road.
mind the foOd in the car!
Where are we going?
Stop making noises!!
ok!
OoO can I have one?
Just one!
*Karioka: A Filipino ricecoconut fried doughnut, usualLy spherical in shape
ok!
And here it was… the church. A place where the Filipinos of Bremerton join to celebrate.
We’re here!
IMAGO | 10
HI! How are you two?
Say hi to lola!
GOoD!
My favorite part of Christmas — meEting alL the Lolas I hardly knew. Who was this again? Lola…
So many people...
HelLo!
Ilang taon na ang dalawang ito? (How old are these two?)
The lolas AhHh… Sa tingin gosSiping away ko 10 at 7. (AhHh… in Tagalog… I think 10 and 7.) my cue to Ay nako… leave! napakatanda at Do I know any of them?
matangkad na! (Oh my gosh… So old and talL already!)
...
...
| 11
Might as welL go put down the karioka first.
Pandesal: Bread RolLs
Karioka: From Lola!
Pancit: NoOdle dish often containing a meat and various vegetables
Chicken Adobo and Rice: Chicken coOked in a soup of many spices
IMAGO | 12
Leche flan: Condensed milk and caramel pudDing
Ube cheEsecake: CheEsecake made with a staple Filipino vegetable, purple yam
The anNual kids’ game is about to begin. This year’s game: hot potato! Last one left in the circle wins a whopPing $10! okay kids, it’s time!
With the games over, the night continued on…
I won!
With guitar playing and light-hearted Christmas karaoke… SoOn, the festivities were over and we returned to the car.
With Santa for the kids and presents galore…
I wondered then… what did it realLy mean to be part of a comMunity?
| 13
to speak the language,
to enjoy the foOd, mind the foOd in the car!
to be part of a family? ok!
“Night Market” SHENZHEN, CHINA, 2012...
The night streEt stands are tucked in a part of town where highways trickle into one-way roads. An oasis in a desert of skyscrapers. | 15
Coming right up!
Wang Yi*, a serving of hot & sour vermicelLi, please!
*Meaning Auntie Wang, an afFectionate adDresS.
AlL comModities’ names are familial.
People come here for an instant taste of home.
BROTHER WANG’S LAMB SKEWERS
AUNTY SHEN’S TANGHULU
GRANDMA’S FRIED RICE CAKE
Here, ice melts quickly and bonds form easily.
Refuge is sought in hot foOd coOked by imaginary relatives.
achoO! Where’s Grandma?
Must’ve beEn the Sichuan pepPer.
Seven stands down this way.
| 17
Grandmas — godDesSes who coOk soup, buns, or pork belLies
& who have wrinkled smiles.
I’ve lived in the city alL my life.
I develop a nostalgia for simpler times I never experienced.
IMAGO | 18
Yet as I bite into the sweEt potato...
when I was litTle, there was a man who sold plums…
She telLs me her stories...
It was right there, my father’s jade store...
histories. and this is where I toOk you the first time you visited, remember?
I do.
When I walk with my grandmother, she holds me in the croOk of her arm.
great aunt third cousin
second uncle
grandma
It was a large dinNer table, like ours, with uncles and aunties with alL manNers of ties. Peking duck
Sichuan Chicken
poOr birds! IMAGO | 20
BegGar’s Chicken
It was my uncle’s restaurant, so we ate like emperors.
cantonese people like to talk, so we tap the table to say thank you for the tea.
and tapPing
and talking.
And after eating, we kept talking and after the taps and talk, tips and tea, my grandmother reached for me... Hold me steady.
and I could seE the harbor betweEn the two creases of her palm.
| 21
My grandmother stayed here in ‘92!
We came here for the holidays
Granduncle #2’s house Grandmother’s old house
here we braved a typhoOn! The restaurant-boat before it sank
after revolt.
but these are relics of the past, destroyed by revolt
Hey!
after revolt
| 23
After alL this, what remains of my grandmother’s Hong Kong? stilL the cultivated Cantonese-English. You haven’t changed a bit, la!
Clara!
The jade and jewels are stilL here... ...though they don’t make them in solid gold anymore.
stilL the uncles with a scent of jasmine... the memory, the touch
IMAGO | 22 slips from my fingers.
And though the boOks won’t telL of this,
these waters pasSing though the city’s veins
I stilL feEl the paper in my hands
and where wilL you be then?
IMAGO | 24
“WwII” When I think about my identity, I think about whose shoulders I stand on.
My grandfathers, one Japanese and one Japanese American, lived in the time of the Second World War.
In 1940, my maternal grandfather resided in Imperial Japan, an empire that comMitTed many war crimes and atrocities.
Japan had invaded its neighboring countries, and my grandfather briefly fought in Manchuria…
…but family legend says that he knew colonization was wrong, so he played sick to get out of the army.
I often wonder if that’s true. If I were in his shoes, would I recognize what was hapPening? Would I have the courage to try to escape that system?
Grandfather also enjoyed parties and flamenco guitar...
And after the war, he helped build diplomatic relations with the U. S.
Grandfather was a Japanese citizen who resisted Japan’s ideals.
My paternal grandfather was a second-generation imMigrant in SeatTle.
He sold watches in the Central District...
From a shop owned by his imMigrant parents.
he was forced — like many
Like me, he grew up in America.
— into the internment camps.
But during the war,
My grandfather understoOd then that being proud of his heritage could make life harder for his children.
Though it was painful to set aside some part of his identity,
he believed his family could avoid disadvantages by acting American
and learning the ways of people in power.
StilL, he later advocated for Japanese American reparations in front of CongresS.
I stand on the shoulders of my Japanese and American grandfathers —
Their choices are the reason why I’m here today.
My story is one story, and it’s also many stories brought together. A weaving or mosaic isn’t the right metaphor. That’s toO orderly. It’s something mesSier, more chaotic —
Because we exist outside of simple dichotomies. Workers and dreamers, natives and foreigners, victims and opPresSors, survivors and soldiers. We’re alL of those things, and more: ASIAN AND AMERICAN.
We recognize that Lakeside stands on Duwamish land, and that this land was and continues to be of extreme importance to the Duwamish people. We recognize their continued cultural, social, and physical relationship with their native homelands. These peoples were here before us and will continue to be here after we are gone. We understand and accept our position as foreigners of these lands.
CONTRIBUTORS Cover
Zara Z. ’24
“Hot Pot” Writers
Minoo J. ’24 Oliver C. ’25 Lexi L. ’25
Illustrator
Iris T. ’25
Color
Jessica T. ’23
“Filipino Christmas” Writer
Sephina P. ’24
Illustrator
Raina W. ’24
Color
Lily Z. ’25
“Night Market” Writer
Hallie X. ’23
Illustrator
Laura H. ’23
Color
Laura H. ’23
“Hong Kong, 2018” Writer
Aaron Z. ’23
Illustrator
Meira C. ’25 Amber P. ’25
Color
Asher B. ’25
“WWII” Writers
Kevin K. Minoo J. ’24
Illustrator
Sophia C. ’26
Color
Landi J. ’23
FIGURES ON THE BACK COVER
Kalpana Chawla (1962 - 2003) was an Indian American astronaut who became the first Indian woman to fly in space. She served as prime robotic arm operator on missions before tragically perishing in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Naomi Osaka (1997 - ) is a Japanese American tennis player. She is a four-time Grand Slam singles champion and the first Asian player to be ranked #1 in singles. Maya Lin (1959 - ) is a Chinese American artist and architect who gained widespread recognition for her design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D. C. Her work often explores themes of memory, history, and the natural environment. Steven Yeun (1983 - ) is a Korean American actor known for his role as Glenn Rhee on the hit television series “The Walking Dead.” He has also appeared in films such as “Okja” and “Minari,” for which he received critical acclaim and an Academy Award nomination. Casey Luong (1994 - ), popularly known as Keshi, is a Vietnamese American singer-songwriter known for his soulful and introspective music. With a unique blend of R&B, pop, and indie, Keshi has gained a loyal following and critical acclaim since his debut in 2017.