VOL 38 NO 47 | NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

PRSRT STD U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 746 Seattle, WA

VOL 38 NO 47 NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

South Korean helps Sounders win MLS Cup

FREE 37 YEARS YOUR VOICE

Keiro to be demolished, replaced by multi-use building, application shows

The Layup Drill

Courtesy of Sounders FC

By Mahlon Meyer NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Coach Brian Schmetzer raising the cup along with his team

By Jason Cruz NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Welcome to another edition of The Layup Drill. In this edition, see SPORTS on 16

The Keiro Rehabilitation and Care Center (KRCC) has been sold to a Bellevue-based real estate company that plans to demolish the nursing home and construct a multi-use building in its place, according to the attorney for Keiro and an application obtained by the Northwest Asian Weekly.

“In order to cover the expenses of closing the facility and to support its remaining programs, Keiro has entered into a binding agreement with an unrelated party to sell the former KRCC property, located at 1601 East Yesler Way, at or above its appraised fair market value,” wrote David A. Lawson, an attorney at Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, in response to the more than half a dozen letters and emails sent to the attorney general.

In response to an email from Northwest Asian Weekly, Lawson added that “the deal has not yet closed,” meaning the money and property have

Keiro property on 1601 East Yesler Way

not yet changed ownership.

“In a typical real estate transaction, there are several weeks between the signing of a purchase and sale agreement, and the actual closing of the sale,” he wrote. see KEIRO on 12

By Staff NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Satpal Sidhu

Satpal Sidhu edged out Tony Larson to be Whatcom County’s next County Executive with 51 percent of the vote (Larson had 48 percent).

Sidhu wrote in a Nov. 9 email, “During this campaign, I had the opportunity to speak with thousands of people from all corners of the

county and listen to their concerns. It was a valuable learning experience and I will bring that with me to this office.”

Satpal grew up in India and worked in Canada before moving to Whatcom County in 1988. He and his wife Mundir, married for 40 years, have lived in Lynden for 30 years. They have three sons.

Satpal has been on the Whatcom County

Tết founders inspired to foster community through Tết in Seattle

Linh Thai

Minh-Duc Nguyen

By Kai Curry NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY The founders of Tết in Seattle had a dream. To complement multiple cityand region-wide Tết celebrations, they wanted one large annual festival at the Seattle Center. In 1997, this dream

■

Sinh Tran

Quang Pham

became a reality when, in partnership with Seattle Center Festál, the first Tết in Seattle event took place.

Tết in Seattle founders, representatives from four organizations—the Vietnamese Student Association at the see TẾT on 13

Council since 2015. He speaks four languages, was a Fulbright Scholar, and has substantial experience as a professional engineer, senior business executive, and Dean of Engineering at Bellingham Technical College.

Satpal is also a founding member of the Meridian Public Schools Foundation and currently serves on the board of the Whatcom Community College Foundation. 

Phamily business

Pho Bac sibling entrepreneurs on their family’s legacy, moving forward, and mental health

By Stacy Nguyen NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY Some years ago, Khoa Pham was battling this sense of complacency. He was working in his family’s business, Pho Bac, a local chain of Vietnamese restaurants that focuses on Vietnam’s most recognizable food. He was doing the same things that he remembered his parents doing when he was a child.

He’d come into work and got ticked over what he viewed as “things going to shit.”

“I was like, ‘Why is this thing broken, and why did no one call me about it? Where’s the receipt for this?’”

“It is easy to lose focus when you have a lot going on around you,” he said.

“Complacency was a big thing,” Yenvy added. “There was no purpose. We were coasting.”

So Khoa approached Yenvy and another one see PHO BAC on 15

Photo by Stacy Nguyen

Photo from votesatpalsidhu.com

Satpal Sidhu elected Whatcom County Executive

The Pham siblings, who own and operate their family's Pho Bac restaurants. From left: Yenvy Pham, Quynh-Vy Pham, and Khoa Pham.

412 Maynard Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98104 • t. 206.223.5559 • f. 206.223.0626 • editor@nwasianweekly.com • ads@nwasianweekly.com • www.nwasianweekly.com

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asianweekly northwest

NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

37 YEARS

■ NAMES IN THE NEWS

Norman Mineta documentary screening

Remembering the Vietnam War

Marianne Bautista

Dr. Julie Pham (right) and supporters.

Photo by Assunta Ng

Participants got to learn more about how South Vietnamese immigrants remember the Vietnam War through stories and love songs.

The event was held on Nov. 10 at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute.

Dr. Julie Pham, Quoc Bao Pham, and Professor Quyen Di all shared their stories, and Melanie Nga, a popular Vietnamese singer, sang songs about the war.

The conversations were in both Vietnamese and English. Participants also enjoyed food sponsored by Pho Bac. The event was organized by Northwest Vietnamese News. 

Norman Mineta (center)

The University of Washington hosted a special event with Norman Mineta on Nov. 10, featuring a special screening of the documentary, “Norman Mineta and His Legacy: An American Story.”

Miss Washington USA Teen Marianne Bautista

Teen USA 2020 on Nov. 3 at the Highline Performing Arts Center in Burien.

A native of Renton, Bautista attends Phillips Academy and is a coxswain for the men’s crew team.

She’s involved with the school’s community engagement program and civic clubs, and she mentors kids and volunteers for various nonprofits.

Bautista is an award-winning classical singer who has performed at Carnegie Hall. Some of her interests include ballet, piano, and musical theatre.

She will represent Washington for the title of Miss Teen USA 2020. 

Halloween Safety Awareness

The Seattle Chinatown Block Watch held its second annual Halloween Safety Awareness on Oct. 31.

Block watch volunteers visited 15 businesses, passing out candy to visitors, passers-by, and trick or treaters. 

Photo provided by Tim Lee

Kshama Sawant declared victory against challenger Egan Orion in a tight Seattle City Council race for the District 3 seat.

Orion, who lost by 1,500 votes, conceded on Nov. 12.

Sawant ran a “not-forsale” campaign that pitted her against Amazon and Kshama Sawant other big corporations.

“It looks like our movement has won, and defended our socialist City Council seat for working people against the richest man in the world,” Sawant said at a news conference, taking a dig at Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Sawant grew up in Mumbai and moved to Seattle in 2006. She became a U.S. citizen in 2010. 

In addition, there was a discussion with the former U.S. Secretary of Commerce and former U.S. Secretary of Transportation, along with co-producers of the documentary.

The film details Mineta’s upbringing and his family’s removal to a World War II mass-incarceration camp. 

Photo by George Liu

Kshama Sawant wins re-election

Tim Lee (right) and Susan Lee (in the police costume).

Marianne Bautista was crowned Miss Washington

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■ COMMUNITY NEWS Washington voters reject affirmative action referendum

BY ASSOCIATED PRESS OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington voters have narrowly rejected a ballot measure seeking to reinstate the use of affirmative action in state employment, contracting and admission to public colleges and universities.

Referendum 88 was rejected on Nov. 12

by 50.4 percent of voters with a margin of just over 13,000 votes. Counties in voteby-mail Washington had been updating their tallies daily since the Nov. 5 election.

Civil rights lawyer Yvonne Kinoshita Ward said, “Despite a multimillion-dollar campaign by powerful insiders, voters turned out in surprisingly high numbers to reject racial discrimination when

granting jobs, school admissions, and contracts. Washington voters affirmed that human dignity means judging each of us by the content of our character rather than the color of our skin.”

The measure asked voters whether they wanted to approve or reject Initiative 1000, which was passed by the Legislature in April. I-1000

amended current statutes that prohibit state government from discriminating against or giving preferential treatment to individuals or groups based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in public employment, public education, or public contracting. see REF 88 on 12

Boeing settles with 4 families of Lion Air crash victims SEATTLE — The families of four victims in the 2018 Lion Air plane crash that killed 189 people have reached a settlement with Boeing, Seattle’s Herrmann Law Group said.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed into the Java Sea shortly after taking off from Jakarta on Oct. 29, 2018.

Four months later, another Boeing 737 Max 8 crashed on a flight from Addis Ababa in Ethiopia under similar circumstances. As a result, the aircraft was grounded worldwide.

Herrmann Law, which has an office in Seattle’s International District, represents 46 of the victim families in the Lion Air crash. Negotiations with

Boeing on the pending cases are ongoing. The firm also represents four victims in the Ethiopian Airlines crash.

Charles Herrmann, owner of Herrmann Law said, “The only way corporations learn a lesson, is when victim families receive large payments from lawsuits.”

Attorney Mark Lindquist has been working with Herrmann on the case. He said, “Our goals are justice for our clients, accountability for Boeing, and safer skies for everyone.”

The settlements were announced late last month, just before the one-year anniversary of the crash, and as the Indonesian government issued a final report on the accident. The findings were highly critical of Boeing.

“The final report essentially confirms that Boeing’s actions moved from simple negligence in the first place to intentional misconduct as they tried to conceal their errors,” said Herrmann. “Boeing hid the MCAS (computer program) from the airlines and the pilots by removing notice and instruction on the MCAS from the manuals and even hid from the FAA the quadrupling of its power. Without proper training, the pilots didn’t know how to react. It was as though they were fighting a ghost.”

Investigators were also critical of the Federal Aviation Administration for serious failures in safety oversight. 

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asianweekly northwest

NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

37 YEARS

■ NATIONAL NEWS

Screenwriters Chung, Pillai get career jumpstart with film academy honor BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Five emerging screenwriters—including two Asians—gained the film academy’s stamp of admission into Hollywood with help from an ensemble of actors that included Tyrese Gibson and Amandla Stenberg.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored each screenwriter at the Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting awards and presentation on Nov. 7. The five individuals each received $35,000 fellowships and had their work brought to life through live readings by Gibson, Stenberg, Rosa Salazar, and Wes Studi.

The event was held at the academy’s headquarters in Beverly Hills, California.

The five screenplays selected include: Aaron Chung’s “Princess Vietnam,’’ Karen McDermott’s “Lullabies of La Jaula,’’ Renee Pillai’s “Boy With Kite,’’ Sean Malcolm’s “Mother’’ and Walter McKnight’s “Street Rat Allie Punches Her Ticket.’’

“I want to write scripts in Hollywood. What kind of fool would want to do that?’’ asked Pillai, sarcastically, while pointing at herself before the audience burst into laughter. She is the first Nicholl fellow from Malaysia and faced a series of obstacles that almost kept her from

Danny Moloshok/Invision/AP

By JONATHAN LANDRUM Jr. AP ENTERTAINMENT WRITER

From left: Nicholl fellows Karen McDermott, Aaron Chung, Walker McKnight, Renee Pillai, and Sean Malcolm.

attending the event.

Pillai applied for her U.S. visa, was told the earliest appointment she could get would be the day after the ceremony. But a fellowship official contacted the cultural affairs office at the U.S. Embassy in Kuala Lumpur on Pillai’s behalf, arranging a meeting to appeal to the consul general to expedite her visa request Pillai then drove two hours to Kuala Lumpur to attend the granted interview, with only the $160 donated by her friends to pay the visa application fee. She ultimately obtained the visa and took 30 hours to travel by air from Malaysia to Los Angeles—that included layovers in

China and Seattle.

“If it wasn’t for the academy and my friends, I wouldn’t be here,’’ she said. “I would’ve missed out (on) not only this ceremony, but also the seminars and preparations for the life you want to live. This is the start of my career.’’

Winners will receive guidance from academy members as they complete a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year. The winning screenplays were chosen from just over 7,300 submissions.

Since 1986, the competition has awarded hundreds of fellowships, aiming to identify and encourage talented new screenwriters. The academy says it doesn’t acquire rights to screenwriters’ work and doesn’t involve itself commercially in the completion of scripts.

Past fellows include writer-director Allison Anders, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Jeffrey Eugenides and Oscar-winning screenwriter Susannah Grant (“Erin Brockovich’’). The films “Finding Forrester’’ and “Transformers: Age of Extinction’’ were also written by past Nicholl fellows.

Chung gave a heartfelt speech that nearly left Salazar in tears. He said he wants to show how people aren’t that different from each other.

“I want to connect everyone’s problems and beliefs together just to show how much we are the same,’’ he said. 

Split Supreme Court appears ready to allow Trump to end DACA The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Sharply at odds with liberal justices, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed ready on Nov. 12 to allow the Trump administration to abolish protections that permit 660,000 immigrants to work in the U.S., free from the threat of deportation.

That outcome would “destroy lives,” declared Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the court’s liberals who repeatedly suggested the administration has not adequately justified its decision to end the seven-yearold Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Nor has it taken sufficient account of the

personal, economic and social disruption that might result, they said.

But there did not appear to be any support among the five conservatives for blocking the administration. The nine-member court’s decision is expected by June, at the height of the 2020 presidential campaign.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson released a statement on Nov. 12 after argument before the Supreme Court.

“Nearly 18,000 Dreamers live and work in Washington, and they make our communities stronger.”

President Donald Trump said on Twitter that DACA recipients shouldn’t despair if the justices side with him,

pledging that “a deal will be made with the Dems for them to stay!” But Trump’s past promises to work with Democrats on a legislative solution for these immigrants have led nowhere.

The president also said in his tweet that many program participants, brought to the U.S. as children and now here illegally, are “far from ‘angels,'” and he falsely claimed that “some are very tough, hardened criminals.”

The program bars anyone with a felony conviction from participating, and serious misdemeanors may also bar eligibility.

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NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

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Hockey commentator Don Cherry fired for rant over immigrants

By ROB GILLIES ASSOCIATED PRESS TORONTO (AP) — Don Cherry, Canada’s most polarizing, flamboyant and opinionated hockey commentator, was fired on Nov. 11 for calling immigrants “you people’’ in a television rant in which he said new immigrants are not honoring the country’s fallen soldiers.

Rogers Sportsnet President Bart Yabsley

Don Cherry

announced the decision in a statement following discussions with the 85-year-old broadcaster.

“It has been decided it is the right time for him to immediately step down,’’ Yabsley said. “During the broadcast, he made divisive remarks that do not represent our values or what we stand for.’’

Cherry derided immigrants by saying, “You people ... you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple bucks for a poppy or something like that,’’ Cherry

said in a Nov. 9 broadcast. “These guys paid for your way of life that you enjoy in Canada, these guys paid the biggest price.’’

The tradition of wearing poppies in Canada honors the country’s war dead on Remembrance Day, which was observed on Nov. 11.

Cherry has provided commentary following the first intermission of “Hockey Night in Canada’’ see CHERRY on 12

China’s Alibaba, JD report booming Singles Day sales

By JOE McDONALD AP BUSINESS WRITER BEIJING (AP) — Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com reported nearly $70 billion in sales on Singles Day, an annual marketing event that is the world’s busiest online shopping day.

The day was a temporary relief to retailers that face fading demand as Chinese consumers tighten their belts, anxious over slowing economic growth and the tariff war

with Washington.

University students created Singles Day in the 1990s as an alternative to Valentine’s Day for people without romantic partners. Alibaba adopted it as a marketing tool a decade ago.

Rivals including JD.com, China’s biggest online direct retailer, and electronics seller Suning joined in. The tactic has caught on in other Asian countries, too.

The creators picked Nov. 11 because the date is written with four singles - “11 11.’’

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NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

37 YEARS

■ COMMUNITY CALENDAR NOV THROUGH JAN 11, 2020 ART EXHIBITION, “BRIGHTER FUTURE” Top floor, Arts at King Street Station, 303 S. Jackson St., Seattle Free admission seattle.gov/arts

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U.S.-JAPAN FRIENDSHIP COMING OF AGE CELEBRATION Bellevue College 1-3:30 p.m. japaneseinamerica.org

UW STUDY ABROAD FAIR Husky Union Building 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

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NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

YOUR VOICE

■ SPORTS

asianweekly northwest

Chhun hopes to make pro wrestling “Classic”

Cody Chhun grew up watching professional wrestling with his grandfather and uncles.

The 22-year-old is now a professional wrestler himself. In fact, the Cambodian American admits his mother isn’t a fan of his career choice.

“You’re going to get hurt,” she warned.

Although scripted, professional wrestling includes physical moves with the potential of injury. Thus far, Chhun hasn’t had any severe injuries in his four years of professional wrestling.

Despite watching it with him while he was young, Chhun admits that his grandfather is worried that he’ll get hurt in the ring.

Chhun’s parents immigrated to the United States in the 1970s during the rule of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. While he still is close to his family, he hopes that they will one day fully support his dreams.

Professional wrestling’s popularity has risen in the past several years with the Fox Network, now showing a two-hour professional wrestling show on Friday nights. World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the biggest promoter in the industry, is a publicly-traded company and many of the professional wrestlers, such as Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena, have gone on to have successful movie careers. Independent wrestling shows have popped up across the nation and they have become popular with a young fan base. Various shows can be

Courtesy of Defy Wrestling

By Jason Cruz NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Cody Chhun

seen on television as well as online. While professional wrestling may be pegged as “scripted fighting,” most shows stress the athletic part of the spectacle over the aspect of it not being real.

Chhun was an amateur wrestler at Global Connections High School (formerly known as Tyee High School) in the SeaTac area.

He didn’t win a single match. But Chhun’s time on the mat would turn out to help him later. Upon graduation, Chhun skipped college and took time off to figure out what he wanted to do with his life. He saw the popularity of professional wrestling and thought he would give it a shot. He did some research and found the Buddy Wayne Academy in Edmonds, a well-respected school for pro-wrestling hopefuls. The school helps pro wrestlers learn how to

fall, hit, and put on a show in the ring.

Chhun recalls “disappearing” from friends and family on Wednesday nights so he could train. He wanted it to be a secret with the hopes of one day appearing on television to show his parents. After just 6 months of training, Chhun got his chance at an event in Seattle.

“I wore a stereotypical Asian outfit,” Chhun described of his muay thai shorts and a face mask. “It was a rush,” he said of performing in front of a live audience. “I felt like a star.”

Chhun was hooked and he’s been wrestling for the last four years. He mainly wrestles in the Pacific Northwest, but recently, he ventured to Southern California to appear on a card featuring young prospects and loved the experience.

7

Chhun’s sisters discovered his secret when they stumbled upon some YouTube videos of his matches.

As a professional wrestler, Chhun has to find promoters that are willing to hire him to appear at events. The process isn’t glamorous for those relatively new to the business like Chhun. He’s been a regular at Defy Wrestling, a Seattle-based promotion that holds monthly shows in Seattle and Portland.

“A guy like Cody, he has a lot of natural charisma and he’s had that...for a long time,” said Defy promoter Matt Farmer. “It’s kind of finding a way for that charisma to show.

So you maybe give them hints or notes on how to amplify that.”

Chhun’s nickname, “Classic,” is based on his ability to make a mistake with some of the basic moves in professional wrestling.

His instructor used to call the basic mishaps a “Classic” Chhun move. The name was catchy enough that it stuck with Chhun and he uses it when he’s announced entering the ring. In a nod to his heritage, he wears trunks with a depiction of the Angkor Wat temple, as well as script in Cambodian.

Chhun has had a brush with WWE on a couple of occasions, as he’s been involved during the promotion’s shows when it made its tour through the Northwest. One day, he dreams of making it to the WWE or one of the other national promoters and working full-time as a professional wrestler.

“I don’t know any famous Cambodian people,” said Chhun. “I hope to make it.”  Jason can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly.com.

8

asianweekly northwest

NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

37 YEARS

■ AT THE MOVIES

‘Last Christmas’ is bananas

and there’s a 50 percent chance you will like it!

By Stacy Nguyen NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

I really love and hate what they are doing with movie trailers these days. Gone are the days when movie trailers basically gave you an accurate idea of what a movie is about, replaced by these two-minute light shows of cobbled-together scenes that make you think stuff like, oh, cool, another Christmas movie about a manic mess of a woman who can’t get her sh*t together even though she’s super white and super attractive.

So “Last Christmas” is kind of about that —but also had a surprising bit more depth! It’s directed by one of my faves, Paul Feig (“Bridesmaids,” “Spy,” “Ghostbusters”), and was co-written by one of my ultimates, two-time Oscar winner Emma Thompson, who also acts in the film—both of whom imbued what is typically a saccharine genre of movies with offbeat, genuinely funny moments . . . and some dark sadness.

If you think that’s a weird tone for a rom-com Christmas movie—dude, you are right. “Last Christmas” is a little bonkers.

“Last Christmas” stars Emilia Clarke (“Game of Thrones,” Mother of Dragons) and Henry Golding (“Crazy Rich Asians”). Clarke’s character Kate is a mess of a human being who is a wannabe singer who works at a year-round Christmas store. She drinks a lot. She sleeps around with strange men she barely knows. Her eyeliner gets smeared a lot. She keeps showing up late to work and her boss doesn’t fire her, which I think is crazy.

And she carries with her, this pervasive sense of sadness.

Golding’s character is her love interest.

Tom is straight up really annoying at the beginning of the movie. He’s hyper and excessively positive. He does obnoxiously quirky stuff like tell our girl to constantly “look up” because she doesn’t know what she’s missing from her life unless she opens her eyes and takes a look around.

Over the course of the movie, they fall in love and, due to Tom’s influence, Kate starts making healthy and positive changes in her life.

Rounding out the cast is Thompson as Kate’s mom Petra, who is a refugee and immigrant from Yugoslavia, and Michelle Yeoh as “Santa” (not even her real name in the movie; it’s a gimmick name because her real Chinese name is hard to pronounce).

The strength of “Last Christmas” lies in its charming leads, especially Clarke who spends the entire movie skirting awfully close to the edge of melodramatic trope, but magically stops herself from crossing the line. Ultimately, she comes across as charming and interesting enough. I look forward to seeing her in more starring roles.

Golding is pretty dashing—and like I said, it was super annoying at the beginning. But he wore me down as the movie progressed, and I think it’s because he’s charismatic and fun to watch.

The love story that unfolds over the course of the movie is one that is fairly quiet

and restrained. It’s not a love story with epic public confessions and declarations —and that feels very Feig-ian.

There’s also a plot twist that comes with the final act. I can’t tell you about it because I don’t want to be a jerk, but it’s an important plot twist—and how you feel about this twist will be the difference between you totally hating and disregarding this movie —or leaving the theater going, “That was alright!”

The weak points in this film is the uneven tone and its flat politicizing.

“Last Christmas” is a strangely sad movie—sad enough that I think it will prevent people from repeatedly rewatching it, which is a bizarre filmmaking choice because I feel like the goal with Christmas movies is making them deeply rewatchable. “Last Christmas” initially has some “Love Actually” vibes due to its English setting and cast—but it ultimately shoots itself in the face with the narrative decisions that play out onscreen.

The Petra character and the immigrant-refugee identity she represents is both interesting and a little one-dimensional. They push liberal pontificating on Brexit in this movie, man. And I’m not saying, hey, never ever talk about the intersection of Brexit and immigration in movies. I’m more saying, it’s weird to do it in a Christmas movie that is also a love story.

The treatment feels artificially heavy-handed and white-guilt-y and white-self-righteous and white-peopleproblems-y.

Another weak point for me (don’t hate me for saying this!) is Michelle Yeoh’s character, Santa, who is Kate’s boss.

Santa is a fussy Chinese lady who is blunt and hard on the outside, but who is also secretly soft on the inside. I dunno if it’s the dialogue or the direction or if it’s maybe that Yeoh is not a great comedy actor (yet!?), but I found Santa to be a hollow character that is just a stereotype of a cranky Chinese lady— rather than an actual believable human being.

I talked to my friends who watched this movie, and they all really liked

Santa though, so what do I know! (I feel so bad over not being impressed with Yeoh!)

For those who go to the movies just a few times a year, I say skip “Last Christmas” in theaters and wait for it to be streamable or rentable. For those who have money to burn and go to see movies all the time and

don’t need to watch award-winners all the time and are fans of George Michael, dude, try “Last Christmas.” There are a lot of George Michael songs in it.  Stacy can be reached at stacy@nwasianweekly.com.

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NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

YOUR VOICE

■ ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

asianweekly northwest

9

George Li: Classical pianist prodigy, pushing forward

By Andrew Hamlin NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY If you want to make it to the top, you have to start small. Award-winning Chinese American pianist George Li knows that from personal experience.

“I was 4 and a half years old when I started [playing piano],” remembered Li, guesting with the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra on Nov. 23. “One memory that stood out was when I was young playing a simple four-hand piece with my teacher.

I messed up and had to stop, but I was unfazed and asked to start over again, and managed to play through the second time.”

Li grew up in Boston, and his parents are both Chinese. He grew up with stories of their struggles during the Cultural Revolution and felt lucky to be far removed from all that, although he did visit China twice as a child. He’s fluent in English and French. When asked if he speaks Chinese, he chuckled, “kind of.”

As for music, that was always a great love.

“I remember listening to music ever since I was a baby. My older sister used to play the piano, and my parents loved classical music, so it was always around me from a very young age.”

Li idolized the Russian prodigy pianist Evgeny Kissin. His own childhood teachers included the famous Chinese

George Li

pianist Yin Chenzong, Korean pianist Wha Kyung Byun, and American pianist Russell Sherman.

Yin helped him with developing deep musicianship, and finding “ways to sing on the piano.” Byun and Sherman taught him to make a feedback loop of listening intently to what he plays, conceptualizing his goals inside his head, and focusing intently to make the playing match the inner goals. But he’s also grateful to his very first piano teacher, Dorothy Shi, for teaching him the technical foundations

that made everything else possible.

At age 9, he made his professional debut with the Xiamen Philharmonic, based in the Chinese city of Xiamen, and widely considered one of the country’s best orchestras.

“It was quite stressful, as it was the first time I was playing with a professional orchestra, in front of many fervent music lovers. I’ve always enjoyed the opportunity to perform on stage, so luckily I don’t have to worry as much about stage fright. However, when I

do feel the stress, I try to keep a strict routine on the day of a concert so that I feel comfortable and stay relaxed.”

Performing, especially as a child, involved mastery over great stress. But Li quickly evolved a pattern of keeping a strict routine on the day of a show, which allows him to feel calm and in control.

He’s also a great believer in naps. A nap before a concert revitalizes him.

Li’s many awards include a first prize at the Cooper International Piano Competition at Oberlin College, Ohio; a shared second prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition; a shared Gilmore Young Artist Award (distinguishing himself as the youngestever recipient); and an Avery Fisher Career Grant, awarded to outstanding classical instrumentalists. He’s proudest of the Tchaikovsky Competition medal, noting that he spent an entire year working on that repertoire.

He also performed before President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama in 2011. “I never expected such a moment could happen to me,” he recalled. “I felt like I was in a trance that whole day. They are such warm and kind people.”

For the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Sarah Ioannides, he’ll perform Rachmaninoff’s Piano see LI on 14

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asianweekly northwest

NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

37 YEARS

■ PUBLISHER’S BLOG

From unknown to Port Commissioner

Photo by George Liu

Photo by Assunta Ng

How and why Cho won big in the election

Sam Cho (left) and Norman Mineta (right) holding a copy of the documentary “Norman Mineta and His Legacy: An American Story,” at the University of Washington on Nov. 10.

The Cho family. From left: Willy (brother), Kathy (mom), Sam, and Charlie (dad) at the Eastern Cafe.

By Assunta Ng NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Indeed, Cho knocked on about 10,000 doors, raised more money (about $140,000), and received far more endorsements. Cho said he received the sole endorsement of 12 legislative districts while his opponent had only two, and Cho had the support of 12 labor unions. His opponent had none.

Several months ago, when candidate Sam Cho’s name was mentioned, people likely responded, “Sam who?”

On Nov. 5, Cho won his first ever run for elected office as the Port of Seattle’s youngest commissioner, beating his opponent, Grant Degginger, 63, former Bellevue mayor who is more than twice his age. Cho’s final vote count was 60 percent—over 322,000 people voted for not only an unknown, but a new kid in politics. In the primary election, Cho beat out seven other candidates.

Cho, 29, will be the only person of color on the five-member Commission.

He is only the third Asian American to win a countywide race, including former governor and King County Executive Gary Locke and Lloyd Hara, the first Asian American Port commissioner elected in 2005.

Cho’s campaign is a good case study for an underdog and anyone who is interested in running for political office.

If you have a dream and are scared to pursue it because of obstacles, use Cho as an example to inspire you.

Although the commissioner’s job is part-time, it is a powerful position. As a major landowner, the Port is a big player in Washington state’s economy, overseeing cargo, national and international trade, SeaTac Airport, all the cruise terminals, and maritime industries.

Former U.S. Cabinet Secretary Norm Mineta is “thrilled that Sam won. I am not surprised.” Mineta, whom Cho considers a mentor, was in Seattle on Nov. 10.

“Sam is very precise and methodical about the way he does things.”

To understand why Cho won, you have to examine the odds against him and how he managed to overcome them.

Asian families are skeptical of kids going into politics

When the election results were released on Nov. 5, Cho’s parents were emotional. They cried, hugged, and were excited at Cho’s election night party at the Eastern Cafe. The initial return put him ahead with 56 percent of the vote.

However, Cho’s mother recalled that she was skeptical at first. Although she encouraged her two sons to have dreams and do what would make them happy, she told them they could do anything except go into politics.

So when Cho said he wanted to run for the Port commissioner seat, she told him not to rush, and take time to “think and wait for a week.” After a week, Cho hadn’t wavered. So his mother and family decided to support him.

The right message

“Yes, we can” was Barack Obama’s message when he first jumped into the presidential race, and it instantly gained traction. So did Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again.” Andrew Yang’s slogan is just as intriguing, “Make America Think Harder.”

Cho’s slogan is “A Port for the People.”

He campaigned on the message, “that the Port of Seattle should serve the people of Seattle.” It resonated with many voters who don’t even know what the Port of Seattle does. Cho makes voters realize that they can benefit from the Port’s wellbeing.

The right resume

Cho capitalized on the national political climate in the midst of Trump’s trade war, to emphasize the need for someone at the Port who understood international trade and exports. He is the only one with export experience, shipping 2.5 million pounds of vacuumpacked eggs in refrigerated containers to Korea due to an egg shortage during the bird flu epidemic in 2017.

It was Cho’s first time running for office, but he is not a political novice.

He has worked for President Obama, and state Sen. Bob Hasegawa, speaks strongly about Cho’s knowledge in federal and state government. With a B.A. in International Studies from American University, and a M.Sc. in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics, his educational background is a plus.

Work hard and smart

When Cho first thought about running, his mentor and former boss, Hasegawa, told him, “The key to winning was to outwork my opponent.”

The right strategies

What does the endorsement of a legislative district mean, as opposed to an

individual endorser? It means the whole district will campaign on Cho’s behalf, he would receive more money in support, and he would receive more potential votes. Most importantly, those districts’ endorsements would bring in more human capital, such as manpower, advice, and other services. It forced his opponent to spend more money on expensive mailings, see CHO on 16

NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

YOUR VOICE

■ LETTER

asianweekly northwest

11

Time to celebrate?

By Hiroshi Eto

The stereotype of the quiet and demure Asian is bothersome to be sure.

People expect Asians to be quiet and compliant. We often get ‘mansplaining’ about Asian virtues of not tooting our own horn or how the nail that Hiroshi Eto sticks up gets hammered down. If I were to point to a ‘cause’, I would say the unlawful arrest of Japanese Americans and placement into concentration camps forced a generation to suppress everything Japanese within them and become quietly ‘American’.

In some ways, we became our own Japanese American experience deniers.

Perhaps quietly, but there have been Japanese Americans who accomplished great things and leveraged enough political clout to obtain a presidential apology and federally funded reparations for those who were unlawfully imprisoned. These early families built the Sakura Square, Little Tokyo, Japan Town, Keiro, Keiro Northwest, Oto’s, Uwajimaya, etc. It is a legacy

worth celebrating, but the memorializing tributes seem few and far between the Norman Mineta International Airport and Daniel Inouye International Airport.

Rather than sell Keiro in Los Angeles for failure to finance an ethnocentric theme no longer required by a dispersed and assimilated Japanese American community, how wonderful would it have been to see a Sadao Munemori Veterans Nursing Home? If you ask, “Who is Sadao Munemori?” that makes the point that it would be wonderful to know the first Japanese American Medal of Honor winner, as much as we might know Colonel Ellison Onizuka or Four Star General Eric Shinseki. It would have been wonderful if the naming resulted in a broader revenue stream from multiple demographics that would allow many more to appreciate a part of the Japanese American experience. If Keiro Northwest became the William Nakamura International District Nursing Home, would people know that he was a Seattle-born Medal of Honor winner who enlisted out of the Minidoka concentration camp to die in Castellina, Italy? It could just as easily have been renamed for the founders to serve as a celebratory expression to

generations of people and future immigrants about what can be accomplished in the land of opportunity. What they did to allow our aging pioneers to spend their last days in a culturally familiar setting was a blessing that is deserving of being immortalized.

Our children should not have to wait to go to a university and delve deeply into Asian American studies to know there was only one Asian American receiving the Medal of Honor in the Korean War. He was Hiroshi Miyamura who came out of tiny Gallup, N.M. to personally receive his honor from President Dwight D. Eisenhower. I’m sure there is no Keiro Southwest in Gallup, but wouldn’t it be nice for more people to know about his part in our Japanese American experience?

If we want to be embraced as part of the American experience, we may need to learn to be proud about ourselves a bit more first.  Eto is a member of the Federal Way Public Schools Board of Directors. This letter reflects his personal opinion as a community member.

■ NATIONAL NEWS

Survey: Asians favor Biden, Warren over Yang A recent informal survey by the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) found that Asian Amercians favor Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren over Andrew Yang.

The group released the nonscientific survey of 500 voters across Virginia, Texas, and Pennsylvania after the Nov. 5 general election. A representative of AALDEF said Biden and Warren performed best among Democrats because they have platforms that tap into the community’s priorities.

SINGLES DAY from 5 JD.com said its sales were $29.1 billion.

Alibaba kicked off the event the night of Nov. 10 with a concert by Taylor Swift at a Shanghai stadium.

E-commerce grew rapidly in China due to a lack of traditional retailing networks and government efforts to promote internet use.

The country has the biggest online population with more than 800 million web users.

Alibaba, JD.com, Baidu and other internet giants have expanded into consumer finance, entertainment, and offline retailing.

This was Alibaba’s first Singles Day since its founder, Jack Ma, stepped down as chairman in September. He stayed on as a member of the Alibaba Partnership, a 36-member group with the right to nominate a majority of the company’s board of directors.

E-commerce has created some of China’s biggest fortunes.

Ma, 55, is China’s richest entrepreneur with a net worth of $39 billion, according to the Hurun Report, which tracks the country’s wealthy.

Colin Huang of Pinduoduo was No. 7 on Hurun’s list at $19 billion.

Zhang Jindong of Suning was No. 15 at $14 billion and Richard Liu of JD.com was No. 28 at $11 billion.

Last year, Alibaba reported Singles Day sales of $30.8 billion, or

“The top issues for Asian American voters typically include health care and education, among other issues, and these two candidates are focused on those issues,” said Jerry Vattamala, the organization’s Democracy Program director. He added that Asian Americans were “strongly in favor” of the Obama administration, which has helped Biden, the former vice president.

In Virginia, where Asian Americans voted overwhelmingly Democratic, President Donald Trump still ranked better than Yang, based on the survey.

more than 13 times its daily average of about $2.3 billion.

Suning said sales of smartphones and other electronics passed $160 million in the first minute after midnight. The company said later sales were up 86 percent over 2018’s Singles Day but gave no total.

Dangdang, an online book retailer, said it sold 6.8 million copies in the first hour.

All three candidates will appear in the fifth Democratic debate scheduled for Nov. 20 along with Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and billionaire activist Tom Seyer.

The debate, held in Atlanta, will run from 6 to 8 p.m.

Pacific time, and will be co-hosted by The Washington Post and MSNBC. 

Chinese online spending is growing faster than total retail sales but also is weakening as economic growth decelerates. Growth declined to a multi-decade low of 6 percent over a year earlier in the quarter ending in September.

Online sales of goods rose 16.8 percent over a year earlier in the first nine months of 2019 to $825 billion, according to official data.

That was more than double the 8.2 percent growth rate for total consumer spending but down from an average of about 30 percent in recent years.

E-commerce made up 19.5 percent of Chinese consumer spending, compared with about 11 percent of spending for American consumers. 

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asianweekly northwest

NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

KEIRO from 1 A preliminary application for a site visit obtained by a community member and shared with the Northwest Asian Weekly showed that the new owner of the property is Shelter Holdings, LLC, a real estate company based in Bellevue.

Its principals are listed on the Washington Secretary of State Business Registration as Gary Young and Jeffrey Gow. Gow is the chairman and founder of Northwest Bank. He was previously the CEO of Polygon Homes, where Young was an executive, according to the Seattle Times.

As of press time, attempts to reach both were unsuccessful.

The application states that the Keiro building will be demolished and a multi-use building with retail on the ground floor and parking underneath will be built.

The Department of Construction and Inspections, in a phone call, confirmed the ownership and scope of the project.

The apparently sudden sale could raise questions about the transparency of the board, a concern that has been heard from community members at least since the closure of Keiro was announced in May. In recent months, the board has insisted that revealing details of ongoing negotiations would jeopardize them and could seriously damage plans to salvage Nikkei Manor, the assisted living community.

Salvaging Nikkei Manor is essential, the board has contended, because Keiro has undercharged its residents for years and is severely in need of upgrades. But members of the community with parents at Nikkei Manor say that the prices charged there are comparable with other assisted living communities around the region.

Terry Yoshikawa, whose mother lives at Nikkei Manor, said he pays $7,300 a month for a single room.

Furthermore, Yoshikawa points to the long waiting list for Nikkei Manor as proof the facility is sustainable.

“Nikkei Manor doesn’t need help, they could upgrade it, but they said they had 191 people on the waiting list,” he said. “With that many people on the waiting list, why are they complaining?”

Among those who wrote to the attorney general, several contend that what they describe as a “secretive” selling process raises questions about whether the board has been able to secure the best price for the property.

“If you had a property, you would want to attract as many buyers as you could, because the more buyers that were available to you, you would know you were getting

REF 88 from 3 The measure would have allowed the consideration of being part of a minority group to be a contributing factor for a qualified applicant.

Along with race, sex, and ethnicity, the measure allowed for consideration of age, disability and honorable discharge or military status. It would have prohibited using factors such as race as the sole qualifier and banned mandatory quotas but would have allowed state agencies and public colleges and universities to establish diversity goals and timelines. A commission would have been created to direct and oversee compliance.

I-1000 was supposed to take effect in July but was put on hold after opponents collected enough signatures to force a referendum.

The measure was losing in all but four of the state’s 39 counties, but strong support in King County—the state’s most populous—had kept the

the best value for it,” said Jim Trieste, a financier who regularly visited friends at Keiro over the past decade.

“If you were putting your house up for sale, you wouldn’t just sell it to the first person that came along, and in this case, it appears that’s what happened,” he said.

On the other hand, it was not clear if the sale of Keiro was part of a time-sensitive deal with Transforming Age (TA), a Bellevue-based nonprofit that the Keiro board was considering partnering with. But this seemed unlikely, according to recent statements from the Keiro board and the timing of the deal.

On Sep. 19, at a Nikkei Manor Family Forum, the board indicated that TA was not involved in any sense with the disposition of the Keiro KRCC building.

According to minutes of the meeting obtained by Northwest Asian Weekly, Keiro staff said that the fate of the Keiro building had not even been a subject of discussion with TA. “They have been focusing on how to come in and support [Nikkei Manor]’s operations. Nearly all discussion has been about [Nikkei Manor]. We have not gotten to discussion about 1601 Yesler building with TA,” said the board, according to the minutes.

But less than two weeks later, on Sep. 30, the permit for the sale of Keiro to Shelter Holdings was signed. The Keiro board and Keiro CEO Bridgette Takeuchi turned down requests for comments for this article.

Still, in an email on Sep. 29, Takeuchi implied that Keiro would run out of money relatively soon, creating an “urgency” to make decisions. “[Keiro] has been very clear since the first Town Hall that I was a part of (January 2018) that we didn’t have a long runway,” she wrote. “There is urgency because we have been out of time for a while and we need to make decisions.”

Moreover, Keiro has stated that its reason for not filling recently empty rooms in Nikkei Manor was lack of absolute certainty over the future of the assisted living facility. With the sale of the nursing home, Keiro will begin to admit residents, signaling that Nikkei Manor will remain open for the foreseeable future, according to Lawson.

“Keiro now expects to continue operating Nikkei Manor, and has already begun evaluating new applicants for beds,” he wrote in his email to complainants.

“Keiro will begin admitting residents upon receipt of the sale proceeds from the 1601 East Yesler property,” he wrote.

Yoshikawa insisted that the community would be

margin close.

Washington is one of eight states—including California, Florida, and Oklahoma—that ban affirmative action in state government and public colleges and universities, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Washington’s ban came with 1998’s Initiative 200, which was approved by 58 percent of voters.

A 2017 opinion by the state attorney general said that I-200 “does not categorically prohibit all race- and sex-conscious actions regarding state contracting,” stating it only prohibits situations where race or gender is used to select a less qualified contractor over a more qualified one.

Proponents of I-1000 said the amendment to the law was still needed to clarify what state agencies and universities can do to diversify their workforce.

Opponents of the change argued the measure would have led to even more inequality. 

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37 YEARS better served if the Keiro building, rather than being demolished and replaced, were converted and upgraded into senior housing. Yoshikawa said it would not be difficult to find investors for such a project. Since the land is owned by Keiro, he said, “Technically, they could get a loan for the project with the land as collateral.”

“That way, the ownership would stay with Keiro, but the way they’re doing it, it’s gone,” he said.

An architect that has reviewed the layout of Keiro said that it would be possible to preserve the majority of the original building and add a new building to create a complex of senior housing units.

“The major difference would be you get to keep Keiro as senior housing, and there would be more units to maximize the use of the site,” said Hui Tian, owner of Studio 19.

Tian has worked on similar projects, such as a site in Belltown that joined a landmark building with a new addition with a glass atrium. She is currently undertaking several construction projects for Yoshikawa.

Yoshikawa said his opposition arises out of a sense of injustice. He thinks that with the impending sale of Keiro, many community donations and contributions in time and volunteer work over the decades are being lost.

“I’m mad because my parents’ generation and their parents’ generation financed this thing,” he said. “That is what angers me.”

In her Sep. 29 email, Takeuchi wrote that ongoing criticism and questioning may have originated from the guilt previous leaders of Keiro felt over letting the nursing home fall into financial arrears over many years.

“I believe these personal attacks to make myself or my team out as the bad guys is really a reflection of the individual’s guilt. Guilt of how they treated us knowing that we were here jeopardizing our own family’s financial security, guilt that they behaved in ways FOR YEARS that put us in this position, guilt that they knew this was coming for years and they did not do anything,” she wrote.

“The current Board of Directors and management have busted their butts trying to mitigate and remediate this continued unprofessional behavior that lacked compassion. Those of us left will walk away with our heads held high, that despite the continued bombs thrown our way, we did the best with what we could do with what we were given. And that we did it ethically and with compassion. Real Kimochi,” she wrote.  Mahlon can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly.com.

CHERRY from 5 for more than three decades.

Known for his outlandish suits, Cherry often mangled the names of foreign-born players over the years and occasionally weighed in with thoughts on politics.

“Don is synonymous with hockey and has played an integral role in growing the game,’’ Yabsley said “We would like to thank Don for his contributions to hockey and sports broadcasting in Canada.’’

Cherry has not apologized for his remarks. Longtime segment co-host Ron MacLean apologized. MacLean didn’t object to Cherry’s remarks during the broadcast and gave Cherry a thumbs-up during the broadcast.

“I know what I said and I meant it. Everybody in Canada should wear a poppy to honor our fallen soldiers,’’ Cherry told the Toronto Sun newspaper. No explanation was provided for his “you people’’ comment.

The Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council said it was so overloaded with complaints about the segment that it exceeded the organization’s technical processing capacity.

Cherry’s remarks prompted Canadian Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan, who is Sikh, and Toronto Mayor John Tory to say that Cherry’s remarks were wrong. Tory said Cherry was “way off base to question the devotion of newer Canadians.’’

Before beginning his life in front of the camera in 1980, Cherry was a rugged defenseman and career minor leaguer.

He played all of one game in the NHL—a playoff game with the Boston Bruins, with whom he won coach of the year honors in 1976.

His presence on “Hockey Night in Canada’’ hasn’t been the only contentious part of the broadcast. Chinese technology giant Huawei is a major sponsor and its red fan-shaped logo is plastered prominently on the set.

The cheery corporate message contrasts with the standoff over the arrest in Canada of Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. warrant. In apparent retaliation, China detained two Canadians and plans to execute a third— heavy-handed tactics that give Huawei’s sponsorship a surreal quality on “Hockey Night in Canada.’’ 

NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

YOUR VOICE

■ ASTROLOGY

asianweekly northwest

13

Predictions and advice for the week of November 16–22, 2019

By Sun Lee Chang Rat — Appeal to your better nature as the impact of doing so will benefit you in the long run.

Dragon — Don’t be afraid to take yourself to the next level. You are more prepared and ready than you think.

Monkey — When reconciling an inherently messy matter, expect it to be all over the place before you are able to make order from chaos.

Ox — Misplaced loyalty could be holding you back, especially if you are using it as an excuse to avoid moving forward.

Snake — Convincing the entire group to go along could be a tall order. Focus your efforts on the key individuals for maximum impact.

Rooster — Your natural talent combined with solid practice is hard to beat. Keep up the latter to become an even more formidable competitor.

Tiger — As much as you want to intervene, wait for an invitation or you risk being rebuffed for interfering.

Horse — Thinking a few steps ahead has been a good strategy, but do leave some room for flexibility.

Dog — You will get much further being upfront as opposed to beating around the bush, which is important if you are short on time.

Rabbit — A recent experience has opened your eyes to a wider array of possibilities, some of which could lead to a profitable venture.

Goat — You don’t need to open the gates to all.

Be selective about who is worthy of your time and consideration.

Pig — Keenly aware of the practical considerations that abound, you are able to navigate expertly to push through your agenda.

WHAT’S YOUR ANIMAL SIGN? RAT 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008 OX 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009 TIGER 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010 RABBIT 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011 DRAGON 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012 SNAKE 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 HORSE 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014 GOAT 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 MONKEY 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016 ROOSTER 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 DOG 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018 PIG 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019

*The year ends on the first new moon of the following year. For those born in January and February, please take care when determining your sign.

TẾT from 1 University of Washington (VSA-UW), Mot Dau Noi (Helping Link), Hoi Vo Thuat Thieu Nien Tacoma, and Lien Doan Huong Dao Viet Hung (Vietnamese Overseas Scouts Troop 286)—came together in 1996.

Co-founder Minh-Duc Nguyen said, “As the former UW Asian Commission, Director, I had the opportunity to organize Asian Week in Seattle. After seeing how much people appreciated the diversity of culture and art, I had a dream to introduce the Vietnamese New Year to the larger community so that they could learn about us beyond the Vietnam War.” Quang Pham, another co-founder, was serving as the president of VSA-UW at that time.

“Our Vietnamese communities are spread out all over western Washington.

We wanted Tết in Seattle to bring all Vietnamese people together, as well as the community at-large.”

“Seattle is a big metropolitan city… and it is home to the fourth largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam,” said Nguyen. “Furthermore, Tết is such a big celebration in the Vietnamese culture, as much as Thanksgiving and New Year put together, it deserves to be highlighted as a major event in the city.”

Tết occurs on the first day of the Lunar New Year, and is celebrated over a period of several days. As with other Lunar New Year traditions, Tết is a time when people resolve the previous year’s conflicts, seek blessings for the coming year, and gather

together with family and friends to share good food and good times.

“Tết is the most celebrated holiday, a national holiday, celebrated for days,” said Sinh Tran, one of the representatives from Troop 286. “Family members gather to wish each other health, prosperity, and celebrate a new year, a new age. It was very important to us founders to keep the tradition alive and promote this rich cultural celebration to other communities.”

“Tết in Seattle brings people together to celebrate the Vietnamese culture, irrespective of age, religion, origin, sex, politics, etc.” said Pham. Tran emphasized as well the importance of sharing Tết among not only the Vietnamese population, but also with the city and state as a whole.

Tran also expressed that “the idea is to preserve and promote and for the younger generations to learn more about the Vietnamese culture.” Tran commented that whereas the founders had difficulties, especially at the beginning, the younger generations have different challenges—learning the culture as well as the language, since Vietnamese is now a second or third language for their children and grandchildren. Tết in Seattle, with its festivities centered around food, fashion, art, and entertainment, is a way to brush up on many aspects of Vietnamese culture.

Getting together for Tết is also a time to remember shared experiences and stories. Pham, who now lives in Austin, Texas, came to the United States in 1987 after escaping from Vietnam by boat and spending a year in a refugee camp in the Philippines. Tran’s family also escaped

DACA from 4 Some DACA recipients, commonly known as “Dreamers,” were in the courtroom for the arguments, and many people camped out in front of the court for days for a chance at some of the few seats available. The term comes from never-passed proposals in Congress called the DREAM Act. The high court arguments did not involve any discussion of individual DACA recipients or Trump’s claims. Instead the focus was on whether either of two administration rationales for ending DACA, begun under President Barack Obama, was enough.

Vietnam by boat. After seven days crossing the ocean to the Philippines and two years living in the refugee camps there, his family settled in Longview, Wash. in 1981.

Tết can be a time to celebrate how far we have come.

Tran, Pham, and Nguyen remembered what it was like getting ready for the first Tết in Seattle festival.

“There’s a saying in Vietnamese, ‘Vạn sự khởi đầu nan’, which means everything has a difficult beginning,” said Nguyen.

“This goes for Tết in Seattle as we had to start from scratch. Although we had some help with the venue, we needed to do fundraising, getting various organizations, churches, temples involved with food, performance, promotion, etc. The hardest part was explaining the importance of not isolating our community but to bring better understanding.”

“Tết is a big celebration for all Vietnamese communities, so most would have their own Tết celebration event. It was challenging to coalesce others to participate in Tết in Seattle,” recalled Pham. In the beginning, arranging food service was particularly difficult as many local Vietnamese restaurants did not have off-site equipment or manpower that could make food for such a large gathering, not to mention the fact that they are already busy during Lunar New Year at their restaurants.

“Food is a major part of the celebration and we are proud to introduce Vietnamese cultural foods to other communities,” said Tran.

Nowadays, participants are more

Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh were among the justices who indicated that the administration has provided sufficient reason for doing away with the program. Kavanaugh referred to Nielsen’s memo at one point as “a very considered decision.” Roberts suggested that worries that DACA is not legal might be enough to support ending it.

Roberts, who could hold the pivotal vote on the court, aimed his few questions at lawyers representing DACA recipients and their supporters. He did not seriously question the administration’s argument.

Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito raised questions about whether courts should even be reviewing

accustomed to what is required, and the community at large has come to look forward to the annual celebration at Seattle Center. The success of Tết has been very gratifying for the founders.

The biggest reward, the founders agree, is passing on Tết to the next generation.

“We have passed on the baton to others after the first several years of our involvement,” Pham shared. VSA-UW remains involved in Tết in Seattle, as do Vietnamese and Vietnamese American students at Seattle University. The founders continue to act as advisors when needed. “We are fortunate that the younger generation took over and is keeping the momentum going,” said Tran.

Anyone can volunteer to help with Tết in Seattle. In reflecting upon his own valuable experience with the founders, Tran highly recommended doing so: “Volunteering is always rewarding. I learned a lot from doing this. It’s been many years, and I can remember the long hours we spent and the challenges we faced, but the reward is real.

I hope Tết in Seattle will keep going for a long time.”  The Tết founders will be honored at the Top Contributors award dinner on Dec. 6 at China Harbor Restaurant in Seattle, from 6–9 p.m. To purchase tickets, go to topcontributors2019.bpt.me.

For more information about Tết in Seattle, or to volunteer, please visit tetinseattle.org.

Kai can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly.com.

the executive branch’s discretionary decisions.

Sotomayor made the only direct reference to Trump, saying he told DACA recipients “that they were safe under him and that he would find a way to keep them here. And so he hasn’t.”

Solicitor General Noel Francisco, representing the administration, asserted that the administration has taken responsibility for its decision and is relying on more than merely its belief that DACA is illegal. The administration has the authority to end DACA, even if it’s legal, because it’s bad policy, he said. “We own this,” Francisco said. 

14

asianweekly northwest

NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

37 YEARS

SOLUTION from SUDOKU on page 6.

LI from 9 Concerto No. 3 in D minor. The piece is one of the most famous and popular concertos in the piano literature, in part because of the many heart-wrenching melodies and harmonies. Its climaxes are deeply felt and incredible.

It also happens to be one of the most challenging pieces to play, partly due to the sheer amount of notes, and a marathon-like feel, a contest of stamina.

When asked about his thoughts on Asians and Asian Americans in classical music, Li sounds a hopeful note.

“I think it’s amazing to have so many Asian performers rising up in the music scene. It makes me feel proud to be Asian, but also as an Asian American growing up, I can

say that learning piano has taught me many things outside of music, including the valuable lesson of discipline, dedication, and perseverance in approaching anything you do.

“I hope this love for classical music can only grow, and that we can help continue to spread the appreciation of classical music throughout the world.”  George Li plays with the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra on Nov. 23rd, at the Pantages Theater, 901 Broadway in Tacoma. For prices and other details, visit symphonytacoma.org.

Andrew can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly.com.

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NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

YOUR VOICE PHO BAC from 1 of his sisters, Quynh-Vy. He told them that the surrounding Little Saigon neighborhood has changed a lot over the years.

He asked them what they thought about remodeling one of their restaurants.

His sisters both said, “Okay.”

Beginnings

Pho Bac was founded in 1982 by Theresa Cat Vu and Augustine Nien Pham, who arrived in the States just a year prior, in October of 1981. It was the first time Theresa and Augustine experienced a winter that was cold.

Theresa and Augustine were already married, already a family, and living in what was then Saigon. They had a little coffee shop together that was frequented by members of the military. It was this experience that they took with them after they fled Vietnam, bided time in a Phillipine refugee camp, and then landed in Seattle.

In the beginning—to get by, Augustine worked at A La Francaise, a bakery in Pike Place Market that has since closed.

Theresa worked as a seamstress and also in a sandwich shop—not making banh mi, the Vietnamese sandwiches that she grew up with, but making American submarine sandwiches.

It took them a year to both realize that they really did not like working for other people. They remembered how it felt— the autonomy and the control they had— when they had their coffee shop in Saigon.

Theresa liked to throw parties—big ones that pulled in the entire community, which at that time in the early 1980s in Seattle, was small and tight-knit.

“She’s very inventive, a mass feeder,” said Yenvy.

Theresa and Augustine parlayed their strengths into a business. They eyed a building—what is now famously known as “the boat”—a tight nautical-shaped building in the apex of a triangular lot on the corner of South Jackson Street and Rainier Avenue South.

Before the boat was the boat, it was an insurance office. Upon taking over the space—which had no real kitchen—Theresa and Augustine pragmatically decided to lean on what they thought was their new strength and new history: they opened an American submarine shop. It turned out, they didn’t go back far enough.

“On weekends, Vietnamese people would come over after church and say, ‘I miss pho,’” said Khoa.

So pragmatically—because it was what their people were asking for—the couple started offering pho.

At the time, the surrounding area was really blue collar—mixed. Theresa and Augustine had their share of Vietnamese customers, sure, but they also had their constituent of American-born customers. These customers saw the Vietnamese customers ordering just the soup and not subs, so the American-borns started requesting pho, too.

“The building was very small,” said Quynh-Vy. “The kitchen was so tight,” said Khoa.

“It wasn’t built as a kitchen, so they would make pho at home, and they would bring it up every day.”

Second gen leadership

Khoa, Yenvy, and Quynh-Vy now actively run the family business. All three have the same personality type: They are all very opinionated and vocal in opinion-giving—but they also are not passive aggressive or too prideful. Their communication style involves yelling at each other—and then getting over it.

They all also tend to be ‘ideas’ people —ideas are easy to come by for them, and they have huge ones—it is execution that they stumble in.

“We’re so laid back,” Khoa says, smil-

ing. “We like to kick it a lot. There’s no sense of urgency sometimes. Sometimes [to my sisters], I’m like, ‘Hey man, let’s get this going here.’”

The remodel of the Jackson Street location of Pho Bac was the hardest project they ever did together. Khoa thinks that their ambition got in the way—they wanted to do so much but sometimes when they got the thing they thought they wanted, they had a hard time committing to it—or it just didn’t work. Yenvy said that at one point, they had an espresso machine that was labor intensive as hell. That expensive machine was scratched after three months.

“We’re good at cutting our losses fast,” said Khoa.

The output of all their trial and error is a restaurant that opened on New Years, 2018. They opened somewhat impulsively—just because they felt like it was time.

They placed an ad requesting that servers show up on that day and at a specified time. Eleven servers showed up.

And then customers showed up—and kept showing up, even though the three didn’t officially announce that they were open for business. They were slammed, and it was hectic and stressful. Their point of sales machine wasn’t even working. By 9 p.m., they were exhausted and decided to just close up—and not work the next day.

In the course of turning off the open sign, they figured out that they had never even turned on the open sign to begin with. Their customers just organically found them.

That night was kind of prophetic. Because they have been busy ever since. Because Pho Bac Sup Shop gets write-ups in local and national media all the time.

Because now they regularly get double the amount of customers that exhausted them to closure on that first night.

Lessons

Four months before they opened Pho Bac Sup Shop—and a long while before that—Yenvy was struggling. Emotionally and psychologically, she took a dip four months before opening. During construction and remodeling, though, she was hypomanic.

“I was nuts,” she explained efficiently. “I was not focused, I kind of felt this superiority over everything—transcending emotions and time and space.

I had this God complex.”

And her dip was the complete opposite of that. It was a void of nothingness.

“I didn’t feel anything,” she said. “And I didn’t know what was wrong. But I was very vocal that something was wrong with me. I had this huge guilt all the time for not contributing enough—I didn’t want to get out of bed. I was like, ‘What the f*** am I doing?’ It was Thanksgiving. I went to Whistler. I hit rock bottom.

I just didn’t move. I just cried all the time.

It was intense. And at the same time, I was opening this restaurant.”

So Yenvy went to a psychiatrist, the same one that her mom went to. There, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which is something both her mom and Khoa has.

The process of finding the right medication mix was slow for her—it took time to test the efficacy of different medications. She was depressed when Pho Bac Sup Shop opened—and anxious, which she thought was strange because she typically had not suffered from anxiety or insecurities in the past.

There were days she could not get up, so there were days she didn’t come into work. There were also days when she did work at the new restaurant, but didn’t talk to anyone at all.

“I was faking it until I made it,” said Yenvy. “Without doing that, I would’ve been depressed longer. I would’ve dwelled in my own self-pity. With Sup Shop opening during that time, it really pushed my boundaries in dealing with mental illness.”

It took a few months for her to start feeling better—around April 2018.

How-to

Theresa and Augustine have five kids who are all now in their 30s and 40s. Theresa and Augustine, with their Western names, gave all their kids Vietnamese names: Yenvy (Yen-Vy), Khoa, Quynh-Vy, Tu-Vy, and Vy. Their kids say they were born into this —born into the restaurant life. Their house was filled with restaurant supplies when they were growing up. Their toys were boxes of dried pho noodles, boxes that they made houses and fortresses out of.

Ironically, Vy and Tu-Vy, the two that probably put in the most hours at the restaurant growing up, ended up finding and being accomplished in their respective careers outside of the family business.

It was Yenvy, Khoa, and Quynh-Vy who ended up staying in it. Their dispositions—their big ideas, fiery personalities, impulsivity, the spurts of huge productivity coupled with lulls of chill lack of urgency—lends itself to huge creativity. They, like their parents, are serial entrepreneurs.

They all have multiple projects running —personal projects, side projects. Some of these projects they are keeping close to the vest, probably letting them bake for a little longer before disclosing. They are working toward centralizing the production of their pho, for one, to be able to expand their family business even further and possibly open more locations. They are also looking at different sectors, not just food and hospitality. Yenvy is looking at nonprofit, maybe philanthropy. There might be something related to coffee in the works as well as activating a creative space.

“It never stops,” said Quynh-Vy. The three can be really relaxed about their own successes, shrugging it off. They all dwell in the belief of doing versus talking or pontificating. They all like to solve prob-

asianweekly northwest

15

lems. They work well as a unit, playing to their different strengths. Khoa looks after the overall business and the creative focus of their brand. Yenvy and Quynh-Vy face outwardly more—they are people persons— they are also executors who get things done.

Yenvy handles staffing, because Khoa has a hard time firing people.

“I hate firing people!” he said. “Yenvy can fire people left and right, on the spot.

But I will be thinking about it all day, writing it down, articulating how am I going to tell people that I have to let them go.”

Because they are sometimes shaky in planning and preparation, they happen to be really great at improvising and rolling with the punches, which they have found to be a strength in their work—both their restaurant work and community work.

“People should have fun in work!” said Yenvy, when pressed to give advice to people starting out in entrepreneurship. “Don’t work 24/7. Don’t take things to heart. Things happen all the time. Just find solutions and move on! Don’t be a whiner! Don’t bitch! Be flexible!”

Khoa and Quynh-Vy have finance degrees. Yenvy has degrees in economics and Spanish. Khoa does not think that a college degree necessarily matters that much in entrepreneurship.

“Don’t talk about it—just do it,” he said. “Just stop talking. Just do it. Just make a decision—and just try it. You can go make a thousand lists of ideas, but it doesn’t matter if you’re not doing. Just take steps towards progress.”  Learn more about Pho Bac at thephobac. com. The Pham siblings are also among our 2019 Top Contributors honorees, celebrated at a dinner on Dec. 6. Buy tickets at topcontributors2019.bpt.me.

Stacy can be reached at stacy@nwasianweekly.com.

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asianweekly northwest

NOVEMBER 16 – NOVEMBER 22, 2019

37 YEARS

CHO from 10

Photo by Assunta Ng

which he sent out five times. Most voters don’t read those colored beautiful mailings, as they are considered to be propaganda of the candidates.

Bellevue vs. South Seattle

“From a political strategy standpoint, it was clear from the primary election that my opponent would take East King County, while I would hold onto Seattle,” said Cho. “Therefore, the battleground between us was South King County (SeaTac, Burien, De Moines, Federal Way, etc).

These are also communities most disproportionately affected by the expansion of SeaTac Airport. Norman Mineta told me that a good politician always has a big ear and a small mouth. I took that advice to heart and throughout the campaign, I took the time to genuinely listen to the concerns of voters in South King County.

Simply taking the time to listen to them made a major difference and put me over the edge.”

Korean vs. Chinese community

From left: Grant Degginger, Sam Cho, and Michael Itti at the Oct. 9 API Candidates Forum

and the Hong Kong community might not show up due to the difference in political stance. The recent Hong Kong protests would also cause a rift between Hong Kong and China’s immigrants.

I am glad Cho doesn’t have the same baggage as a Chinese American candidate.

Cho’s support from the Korean community was amazing. During the election night party, four Korean media organizations and numerous Korean community leaders were present. Their support for Cho was unwavering and unconditional. The community united behind him, exhibiting nothing but pride. You might think, there’s nothing unusual about that, since Cho is a second-generation Korean American.

But I can’t say that about the Chinese community.

The trouble is, they don’t look at the big picture, they take things personally. For instance, if they disagree with certain Chinese American candidates, they don’t try to work with them. They recruited another Chinese American candidate to run against him or her.

It happened twice in the Bellevue City Council. Not only is it polarizing due to culture and languages (over 100 dialects) in the Chinese immigrant community, their political differences are uncompromising. If the candidate or his parents are from China, the Taiwanese

The Asian American vote

SPORTS from 1

Oakland Athletics, Atlanta Braves, and Washington Nationals. Suzuki previously played with the Nationals in 2012 and returned this past season.

Although one of its members decided not to make the customary trip to the White House to visit the president, many did. Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle decided not to attend due to the divisiveness the president has caused based on his policies and his derogatory remarks about others. But Suzuki attended and perhaps went over and above the call. He put on a “Make America Great Again” hat and thanked President Trump for the invitation to the White House and his leadership. Trump gave him an awkward hug.

In the past, several teams have declined a White House invitation, a custom in American culture. Most notably, the Golden State Warriors refused due to Trump’s polarizing personality.

we take a look at the Sounders winning another MLS Cup, Kurt Suzuki’s White House appearance, and the China-NBA issues.

Seattle celebrates Sounders’ 2nd MLS cup

Thousands of fans gathered across downtown Seattle on Nov. 12 to celebrate the Seattle Sounders’ MLS Cup victory and championship. It began at Westlake Park and ended with a rally at Seattle Center.

The Sounders won its second MLS Cup, the championship game for Major League Soccer, on Nov. 10 against the Toronto FC. All three times have come up against Toronto FC. It was the first time that the MLS Cup was at CenturyLink Field.

South Korea’s Kim Kee-Hee has been a part of the Sounders’ surge to the finals. He started the final match against Toronto FC. The center-back helped the Sounders upset the LAFC in Los Angeles, 3-1, to make it to the MLS Cup. LAFC was the top MLS team in the regular season and was one of the favorites to win it all this year.

“I didn’t speak English well at the time, but I speak soccer,” said Kim, 30, about his move to Seattle and the transition to play in the United States. “Soccer is one language,” noting that he could communicate through the universal language of the sport, despite the fact that he did not have a command of the English language.

The 69,274 fans in attendance was a record for CenturyLink Field, the largest crowd to see a soccer match in Seattle.

Suzuki dons MAGA hat during White House visit

The Washington Nationals franchise earned its first World Series Championship by beating the Houston Astros in 7 games (4-3). The win leaves the Seattle Mariners as the only franchise in Major League Baseball that hasn’t made it to a World Series. The Nationals were underdogs heading into the series against the Astros.

The team came back from a 19-win and 31-loss record back in May to make it to the playoffs, beat the team with the most wins in the regular season this year, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and make it to the World Series.

One of the contributors of the team was Kurt Suzuki.

The veteran catcher played most of his career with the

“I believe that being Asian American helped me in my race,” Cho said. “I was able to campaign on promoting diversity at the Port of Seattle. My candidacy also galvanized the Korean American and AAPI base to both donate and vote.”

Cho made a huge statement by holding his election night party in the International District (ID). The Port Commissioner is a countywide seat. He could have had his party in any of the 39 cities in King County, including Federal Way and Lynnwood, which have big Korean populations. Or, where he lives, Kirkland. But he picked the ID. “You have to go to where your people are,” Cho said.

The ID is where Asian Americans’ history and heritage began, and also where many Asian organizations are based. The ID is an identity and cultural center for Asian Americans.

Most people would dismiss Asian American votes

NBA deals with aftermath of GM’s tweet

The NBA season started this past October and immediately was embroiled in controversy when Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey tweeted support for protesters in Hong Kong. The original protests in Hong Kong came over a proposed law that would allow extradition to China under certain circumstances. Many believed that the law would lead to unfair trials and sentences. This offended China at a time when the NBA was scheduled to play preseason games in the country.

The NBA has partnered with China and sees the country as a huge source of revenue. According to a report from Yahoo! Sports, China is the most significant growth market for the NBA. But, with Morey’s tweet, which he deleted after backlash, the Chinese government and its businesses were not amused.

This caused some NBA stars, who have business dealings with China, to walk back any inference of support for those in Hong Kong that support a sovereign state. James Harden and Russell Westbrook of the Houston Rockets expressed their support for China as both stars have business interests in the country.

Harden, with Westbrook standing next to him during an interview session with reporters this past October, stated, “We apologize. You know, we love China. We love playing there.” A lot of the top NBA stars visit China on tours in support of the NBA and their own business brands.

The NBA, the most forward-thinking league of the

right away because traditionally, the percentage of Asian Americans voting is not high. But lately, many Asian groups have been educating the Asian community tirelessly about political participation.

It does produce some results, especially among the immigrant community. Asian Americans are the largest minority in King County. The Asian vote can make a difference. Cho is a familiar last name in the Chinese and Korean community. By far, Cho has no controversy.

His education background appeals to Asian Americans who value education. Asian Americans can sense a connection and would be willing and even eager to support another Asian like Cho. And he has repeatedly emphasized his family’s immigrant background and the need for diversity on the Port Commission.

The right endorsers

At the API Candidates Forum on Oct. 9 in the ID, Cho was asked about his API endorsers, and he named former U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke first, and two others who are also well-known. The audience was a little surprised, but delighted. Everybody in the audience knew who Locke was. Quickly, Cho’s credibility was enhanced, especially for those who had not met him before. Maybe, less than half of the audience knew who his opponent’s three Asian endorsers were.

Asking for help

When I first chatted with Cho months ago, I was impressed with his direct approach. As usual, I asked candidates if they had questions at the end of the interview. Never had I met an Asian candidate who asked me if I could connect him with some key Asian American leaders. I did help him make the connections.

In life, if you want something, all you need to do is ask.

You get nothing if you keep your mouth closed.  Assunta can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.

major sports, remained mute about the issues with China.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stated that the league took a “fairly dramatic” business hit as a result of the comment made by Morey. The Houston Rockets seemed the most affected. China Central Television stopped airing Rockets games, Tencent stopped streaming games, and Alibaba pulled Rockets merchandise from its online NBA store. In addition, shoe sponsor, Anta, stopped talking about renewing sneaker deals for some of its NBA players that wore the brand.

Some of the most outspoken NBA players and coaches towed the company line about the situation in China, which seems to infer that they were either told to refrain from criticism, or believed they should not speak out and did not want to stir further controversy. Notably, LeBron James, known for not backing away from controversial social issues, punted on his chance to speak out about Hong Kong, citing it as complicated.

“I felt like with this particular situation, it was something that not only was I not informed enough about, I just felt like it was something that not myself and my teammates or our organization had enough information to event talk about it at that point in time, and we still feel the same way,” James told reporters. He noted that Morey’s tweet was “either misinformed or not really educated on the situation.” James also spoke to the fact that the Lakers and Brooklyn Nets were in China at the time of the tweet by Morey supporting the Hong Kong protestors. He noted that there could have been punitive ramifications against the teams by China while there. In response, protesters in Hong Kong burned LeBron James jerseys for his comments.

Former NBA player Shaquille O’Neal was the biggest voice in support of Morey speaking out about the issue citing that “Daryl Morey was right.” On the kickoff show to celebrate opening night of the NBA, O’Neal did not mince words.

“We as American people do a lot of business in China. They know and understand our values and we understand their values. One of our best values here in America is free speech,” O’Neal added, “We’re allowed to say what we want to say and we are allowed to speak up about injustices and that’s just how it goes. And if people don’t understand that, that’s something they have to deal with.”  Jason can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly.com.