VOL 33 NO 13 | MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

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32 YEARS YOUR VOICE

DIVERSITY High school students vie for scholarships » P. 5

One woman’s journey from Vietnam to US She wanted her son to know.

So at various points throughout her day, Julie Loan Ky Alexander, familiar to a generation of Monroe residents as the soft-spoken woman with the Vietnamese accent behind the counter at the Monroe Post Office, started writing her memories down.

Over several years, she related the memories of school years during which she passed bodies of townspeople in the street, of the grim post-war years and the struggle not to starve, the lucky break that gave her a college education, and another that brought her to the United States, from where she supported nearly an entire

community, to the 2009 voyage that finally fulfilled her father’s last wish.

Originally, she only intended her memoir as a way to explain to her son and perhaps a few other relatives why she had come to America. But her husband, an enterprising inventor and businessman, saw a greater potential in her work, and he encouraged her to find a publisher.

It didn’t take long. The second publisher to view it snapped it up, and in February, her book, “A Rose on the Steel Ground,” was released.

Photo by Polly Keary

By Polly Keary The Monroe Monitor

After the war

During the Vietnam war, above ground, the rural district {see ALEXANDER cont’d on page 15}

Julie Alexander, well-known to most Monroe residents from her 17-year post at the Monroe Post Office, and her husband, Rick, celebrate the recent release of her book, “A Rose on the Steel Ground,” which details the surprising and often harrowing journey that brought her to America, and finally to Monroe.

Nomura explores her roots Solemsaas finalist through choreography, dance in NSCC prez search

By Alia Marsha Northwest Asian Weekly

{see NOMURA cont’d on page 13}

Photo by Sue Misao/NWAW

For its second season, the Seattle dance group Relay Dance Collective travels back to their roots as inspiration for “Beginnings,” featuring repertory works by 30 dancers and choreographers. Dancer and co-founder of the group Gabrielle Kazuko Nomura uses this opportunity to tell the story of her origins as a Japanese American through her piece “Farewell shikata ga nai.”

Both of Nomura’s great-grandparents were sent to internment camps. Her grandfather was even born in one. Nomura said that she has always known about this part of her family history, but it was not always easy to accept it. Choreographing the dance piece is one way of coming to terms with what happened to her family and the Japanese American community during the Japanese American incarceration in World War II. Nomura grew up listening to her grandfather’s stories about the camps. These stories have inspired her so much that a recording of her grandfather’s Dharma messages will be played as part of the piece. Having these personal elements are also, however, what makes it challenging to put together Gabrielle Nomura, left, and Sierra Keith rehearse for “Beginnings.”

It would be an “honor” and a “homecoming” for Rachel Solemsaas to be selected as the president of North Seattle Community College.

That’s what Solemsaas said when she was named as one of four finalists for the position.

Solemsaas received her master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington and her doctorate in education from Washington State University.

She is currently vice president for finance and administrative services at Truckee Meadows Community College in Reno, Nev. Before that, she served in administrative services at Bellevue College, as vice president of finance and operations at Edmonds Community College, and as chief financial officer at King County Department of Community and Human Services.

Thirty candidates applied for the North Seattle position, and seven made it to the semi-finalist

Rachel Solemsaas

list. Of the 30 applicants, five were women and nine were persons of color, according to NSCC. The other three finalists are Warren J. Brown, Ed.D., executive vice president for instruction and {see SOLEMSAAS cont’d on page 13}

The Inside Story EDUCATION H-1B visas for students » P. 4

■

WORLD Hong Kong dock strike works » P. 8

MUSIC Wanting Q at the Triple Door » P. 9

COMMENTARY China & Gary Locke » P. 11

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

asianweekly northwest

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MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

■ NAMES IN THE NEWS Photo courtesy of UW Foster School of Business

Social entrepreneurs awarded The annual UW Foster School of Business Global Social Entrepreneurship Competition (GSEC) is an international competition in which students from around the world present business solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges — including poverty, health, and development. This year’s competition featured 19 semi-finalist teams from Bangladesh, Hong Tanmay Telang, left, and Tran Trang Kong, Nigeria, Pakistan, of Fargreen Rwanda, Philippines, Uganda, and the United States — including two UW teams—competing for $40,000 in prizes. The winners were announced at a celebration dinner on Feb. 27.

The grand prize — $12,500 — went to Tanmay Telang and Tran Trang of Colorado State University for their project Fargreen, which uses zero waste farming technology to convert rice straw waste into a product that can be used for mushroom farming and the production of bio fertilizers in Vietnam.

The team AYUDA Food Aid from Ataneo de Manila University, Philippines, took both the Rotary prize ($2,500) and the Global Health prize ($10,000) for producing nutrition-dense ready-to-eat food bars for disaster victims. 

Astoria honors Chinese history Astoria, Ore. is honoring the “true history of the many contributions from Chinese pioneers not properly included in Astoria’s history” with the grand opening of the Garden of Surging Waves Park on May 17. Construction began in April 2012. The park has been open to the public since

Garden of Surging Waves in Astoria, Ore.

February this year, but all the artwork and other features have not been in place until recently.

“This wonderful park will forever tell the important stories, benefits, and projects provided by the Chinese community,” said Mayor Willis L. Van Dusen. The park is located at the corner of Duane Street and 11th Street in downtown Astoria. 

Seattle’s ID is one of top five Chinatowns in United States Citing its diverse community of Chinese, Filipino, Japanese, and Vietnamese neighbors and merchants, USA Today placed Seattle’s Chinatown/International District in the top five Chinatowns in the country. Communities were ranked according to quality of authentic dining options, size, cultural experiences available, and whether a visitor will feel like they’ve left the United States as they explore the neighborhood. Named highlights included Hing Hay Park, the Wing Luke Museum, Uwajimaya supermarket and food court, Mike’s Noodle House, Red Lantern restaurant, and Yummy House Bakery.

San Francisco, New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia

Hing Hay Park in Seattle

also made it in the top five. 

Dr. Sun gets in ‘Who’s Who’ Guan-Cheng Sun of Seattle has been included in the Strathmore’s Who’s Who Worldwide Edition for his outstanding contributions and achievements in the field of education.

Dr. Sun is the executive director at the Institute of Qigong and Integrative Medicine, a nonprofit institute offering Guan-Cheng Sun Yi Ren Qigong educational programs. He developed specific medical Qigong methods for healing type-2 diabetes, chronic low back pain, preventing cancer reoccurrence, and other common health problems. He is a research scientist and adjunct faculty member at Bastyr University in Kenmore. He earned his Ph.D. in molecular genetics from the Graduate University of Advanced Studies, Kanagawa, Japan in 1993. 

Send your exciting news to editor@nwasianweekly.com.

32 YEARS YOUR VOICE

■ health Tooth tip: Unleash the power of the tiny string

By Washington Dental Service Foundation Good oral health is a critical part of your overall health. Oral disease is preventable if you follow these simple steps: Brush twice a day, eat tooth-friendly snacks (including fruits, vegetable, and cheese), get regular oral health checkups, and floss daily.

Flossing every day is important for good oral health.

While a toothbrush cleans the surface of your teeth, flossing removes what lurks in between and under the gum line. All the grooming in the world won’t help if you have a piece of spinach stuck in your teeth or if you have bad breath because of a gum infection.

Daily flossing and brushing helps you look and feel better by preventing cavities and gum infections, keeping your breath fresh and helping you look younger (by helping to prevent gums from receding).

Flossing is easy. It only takes a couple of minutes — less time than it takes to shave or apply mascara.

Flossing saves you money. Every cavity prevented saves you more than $2,000 over a lifetime.

Of all the jars, bottles, and tubes in your medicine

cabinet, dental floss may be the most powerful beauty and health product not being used frequently enough.

Flossing is like yoga and exercise. It improves whole body health. Flossing at least once a day reduces the potential for infections, not only in your mouth but elsewhere in your body.

When fragments or bits of food are left to fester, infections and gum disease can follow. Gum disease not only means swollen, bleeding gums, but it can lead to chronic inflammation. And that has been linked to diabetes and cardiovascular problems, such as heart disease, blockages of blood vessels, and strokes.

Flossing is also a daily beauty and grooming tool that helps you look younger. Unhealthy teeth and receding gums are noticeable signs of aging that can be easily avoided.

Take care of your teeth and gums by wrapping them in a floss embrace every day. Your oral and overall health will improve – and so will your breath.  To learn about more about protecting your oral health, visit TheMightyMouth.org.

■ COMMUNITY NEWS

MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

APIs encouraged to sign up for health care before March 31 deadline According to a new report released by the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services, eight out of 10 (1.6 million) uninsured Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs) may be eligible for coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace and could qualify for Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), or tax credits to help with the cost of premiums.

Nationwide, about 798,000 uninsured AANHPI’s may be eligible for coverage through

Medicaid or the CHIP. States have new opportunities to expand Medicaid coverage to include Americans with family incomes at or below 133 percent of the federal poverty level (generally $31,322 for a family of four in 2013). This expansion includes adults without dependent children living at home, who have not previously been eligible.

People can sign up any hour of the day, seven days a week, at HealthCare.gov or 1-800318-2596. Find in-person help at localhelp.healthcare.gov. 

CISC offers after-school meals

Apply for API student journalist scholarships

The Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC) announced its sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Child and Adult Care Food Program administered by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

Meals will be made available to enrolled children at no separate charge without regard to race, color, national origin, gender, age, or disability. Parental

The Seattle chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) is accepting applications from student members in Washington state for two scholarships — the Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarship and the Founders’ Scholarship.

The Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarship awards up to $2,500 to students who intend to pursue careers in journalism. Eligible applicants are students who will attend a college or university in Washington state in the fall and Washington state residents or seniors attending a high school in Washington who will attend an accredited college or

income determines the amount of money OSPI will reimburse institutions to provide meals to enrolled children.

The monthly incomeeligibility guidelines listed below are used to determine the reimbursement from OSPI.  Meals will be provided at the CISC After-School Program, 611 S. Lane Street, Seattle. For more information, call 206-624-5633.

■ arts & entertainment

3

university in the fall.

The Founders’ scholarship was established in 2000 to honor Frank Abe, Ron Chew, and Lori Matsukawa, who founded the AAJA Seattle chapter in 1985. This scholarship covers the student registration fee for the 2014 National Convention, which will be held Aug. 13 through Aug. 16 in Washington D.C. A small stipend for travel and accommodations is available.  The deadline for applications is May 1, 2014.

For more information, visit www.aajaseattle.org/ scholarships.

Asian art on display at the Frye Asian traditional painting and calligraphy — to create the series of more than 100 works later called the Peking Drawings.

Seen together as a group and alongside examples of Qi’s paintings, as they are for the first time in this exhibition, suggests the importance of China in Noguchi’s artistic formation.

“Tamanishiki” (“The Wrestler”) by Isamu Noguchi

The Frye Art Museum in Seattle is currently exhibiting “Isamu Noguchi and Qu Baishi: Beijing 1930” and “Mark Tobey and Teng Baiye: Seattle/Shanghai.”

The show by Noguchi and Baishi is an exploration of artistic and intellectual exchanges between American sculptor, landscape architect, and furniture designer Isamu Noguchi (1904–1988) and Qi Baishi (1864–1957), now considered one of the most important Chinese artists of the twentieth century. The work of Noguchi has long been associated with Japan. His introduction to ancient sculpture and garden design traditions during a stay in Japan in 1931 is thought of as a turning point in his early career. Lesser known is the story of Noguchi’s six transformative months in

Left: “Li Tieguai” by Qi Baishi. Right: “Cranes and Pine Tree” by Teng Baiye

Beijing from July 1930 to January 1931, when Sotokichi Katsuizumi (1889–1985), a Japanese businessman and collector of Chinese paintings, introduced him to Qi Baishi. Noguchi spoke no Chinese and Qi spoke no English, but they formed a friendship and Noguchi began to study with the master ink painter.

Under Qi’s influence, Noguchi took up brush, ink, and paper — the key tools of East

The exhibition work by Mark Tobey and Teng Baiye, Seattle/Shanghai, is the first exhibition in the United States to explore artistic and intellectual exchanges between American artist Mark Tobey (1890–1976) and his Chinese contemporary Teng Baiye (1900–1980). The two met in the 1920s, when Teng moved to Seattle to study sculpture and complete a master’s degree at the University of Washington.

During this period, Tobey studied calligraphy with Teng, and the two artists formed a deep friendship. In 1934, Tobey visited Teng in Shanghai and soon thereafter embarked on his seminal white writing paintings, works considered by Western critics to be indebted to his study of calligraphy, ink painting, and the Bahá’í faith. It was a time of revolutionary sensations, Tobey would later say, when the old and the new were in battle and his angle of vision was shifting.

The exhibition considers Teng’s influence

as both a cultural interpreter and an artistic practitioner on the development of Tobey’s distinctive artistic practice and —through Tobey— on the discourse on abstraction in midcentury American art. Whether Tobey’s work had remained “American” or become “oriental” was a subject of debate among contemporary observers in the United States. Merrill Rueppel, the director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, wrote in 1968 that Tobey was “never for one moment anything but an American,” explaining that he had “taken the calligraphy of the orient and made it the foundation of his own art without becoming oriental.” Similarly, William Seitz, curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, wrote that in Tobey’s work “the Eastern dragon had been harnessed to Western dynamism.”

In China, similar questions regarding the extent of foreign influence on the work of Teng Baiye were raised. After 1949, and especially during the Cultural Revolution, Teng’s paintings were denounced as spiritual pollution. He was condemned to manual labor and few of his paintings survived.  Both exhibitions are on view until May 25.

The Frye Museum is located at 704 Terry Ave., Seattle. For more information, call 206-622-9250.

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MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

■ education H-1B visas bring international students one step closer to the American Dream

By Celine Djohan Northwest Asian Weekly In hopes of landing a permanent position at a local technology manufacturing company, one of William Takdir Jaya’s many responsibilities is to commute to work at 6 a.m.

The 23-year-old, a fresh graduate from the University of Washington’s Foster Business School, said he arrives early because he needs to go “above and beyond” to impress an employer who holds the golden ticket to his future: an H-1B visa.

With graduation just around the corner, international residents on student visas are currently deciding whether to apply for Optional Practical Training provided by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

This program allows international students to extend their stay in the United States for three months after graduation as they look for employment. Students who are hired are allowed to stay and work while waiting for extensions on their visas.

In other words, they want a permanent job.

But there is a catch. There is a cap of 65,000 applicants who can apply, and some companies are not willing to renew international students’ visas because it is costly. Corporations pay an initial fee of

$2,000 to sponsor one student.

“After working for three months in Terex Co., I went to my manager to ask for an extension for my visa, as I plan on working there permanently,” said Jaya.

“However, when I started working, I had to put in way more effort than the locals to prove to my managers that I am worth it.”

With rising unemployment rates, it is difficult for locals to find jobs, let alone international students.

“Who wouldn’t want to live in America

and get a taste of the American Dream?

That’s the reason why I came here to finish my degree,” said Guillermo Ochovo, 24, who graduated from UW’s College of Engineering in 2013. “I did take engineering in college though, and barely slept in the four years I was at the UW.” According to an article written on Computerworld, the OPT program initially allowed only students in the STEM fields — science, technology, engineering, and math — to apply. In 2012, President

Barack Obama expanded the number of eligible fields of study by about 90, giving more chances for foreign students to stay in the United States.

The program was criticized for taking jobs from American citizens. Jaya disagreed.

“I don’t think we are taking jobs from the locals,” said Jaya. “For instance, the UW College of Computer Science and Engineering only admits 30 to 35 students per year. A company like Amazon definitely hires more than 35 students in a year.”

When looking for a company to work for, Jaya suggests applying at international companies, which have good health plans and incentives, and are more likely to renew visas.

UW’s Assistant Director and International Student adviser Machelle Allman said that it is hard for a foreign student to succeed in the United States, primarily because the government expects students to head back home after completing their education.

“Students need to plan ahead,” said Allman. “Be sure to make minimum mistakes in the whole process to avoid complications, or even deportation if they are denied.”  Celine Djohan can be reached at info@ nwasianweekly.com.

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32 YEARS YOUR VOICE

■ education

MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

5

Diversity Makes a Difference —Part 3—

Compiled by Sue Misao Northwest Asian Weekly The Northwest Weekly’s Asian Diversity Makes a Difference scholarship program celebrates high school students from Western Washington — nominated by teachers, counselors, principals, and community members — who encourage and actively promote diversity.

From these nominations, a judging panel will choose five winners who will each receive $1,000 scholarships, and five additional finalists who will each receive $200 scholarships. The scholarships honor young people who take action to increase cross-cultural understanding and awareness in the community. These scholarships have been awarded every year since 1994.

The Diversity Makes a Difference awards dinner will be held on Friday, March 28, at the New Hong Kong Restaurant.

Bryan Contreras

Caleb Walin

Charly Nelson

Christopher Adams

Courtney Vu

Daniel Kim

Gary Wang

Genevieve Macdonald

Hannah Stulberg

James Nelson

Josh Bean

Juliana Da Cruz

This is the third of a four-part series.

Bryan Contreras Edmonds-Woodway High School Working towards a full International Baccalaureate diploma, Bryan Contreras has a “true passion for success, a growing natural leadership ability, and a dedication to academics,” says his teacher David Quinn.

Bryan applied his learned leadership skills in becoming a mentor for middle school students all over the district in a one-day event called La Chispa. “In this event, we teach Hispanic students how to come out of their comfort zone and become leaders,” said Bryan. “They have inspired me to keep growing as a leader.”

Caleb Walin Issaquah High School Caleb Walin is “an outstanding student and active community leader,” said his former teacher Sara Loudon. “He is an advocate of the oppressed and a friend to all, regardless of their background and

Katherine Chun

Kevin Dominguez Sosa

beliefs.”

Each summer, Caleb participates in a mission trip with Sacred Road Missions, traveling to the White Swan Indian Reservation in Yakima and the Warm Spring Indian Reservation in Madras, Ore., where he provides manual labor, day care, and ministry.

“Exposure to other races assists me in seeing a different perspective in the way I do things,” wrote Caleb.

Charly Nelson Issaquah High School “Throughout her entire high school career, I’ve observed Charly’s excitement for life, learning, and the people around her,” said teacher Erin Connolly. Charly takes Leadership class, is a cheerleader,

McDonalds franchise head will be speaker at student diversity dinner

By Staff Northwest Asian Weekly The Northwest Asian Weekly’s Diversity Makes a Difference scholarship program celebrates high school students from Western Washington — nominated by teachers, counselors, principals, and community members — who encourage and actively promote diversity.

From these nominations — 62 in all — a judging panel will choose five top applicants to each receive $1,000 scholarships, and five additional finalists who will each receive $200 scholarships.

The scholarships honor young people who take action to increase cross-cultural understanding and awareness in their communities. These scholarships have been awarded every year since 1994.

Nicolas Garcia

Nicolas Tonel

and has taken college courses through Bellevue College, all while working parttime and learning Spanish.

“Diversity is important because it teaches people to open up their minds and hearts to learn from people who are considered different,” wrote Charly.

Christopher Adams O’Dea High School Christopher has been a member of his school’s Social Justice team, and has worked with Habitat for Humanity and a homeless shelter.

“What made Chris stand out to me was the choices he made when his character was tested younger than it should have been,” said his teacher David Olinger. “Chris not only overcame his own obstacles, he

became an example of courage to his peers.”

Chris also participates in the Young Executives of Color program at the University of Washington.

“When we take the time to get to know and accept the culture of others,” he wrote, “we will come to understand the actions they take that are different than actions we would take.”

Courtney Vu Issaquah High School Her parents’ escape from Vietnam has been Courtney’s greatest motivator, she said, “urging me to work hard and succeed to honor my parents’ sacrifices.”

One project that her teacher, Keri Dean, was particularly impressed with was a large-scale research project on the Scottsboro Trial in the 1030s. “Courtney’s diligent nature ensured that she always met and exceeded assignment requirements,” said Dean, who was also impressed by Courtney’s analytical skills throughout the project.

Courtney is captain of the drill team, {see DIVERSITY cont’d on page 12}

Assunta Ng

Account Executives

Sue Misao

rebecca@nwasianweekly.com

Han Bui

kelly@nwasianweekly.com

Publisher assunta@nwasianweekly.com Editor editor@nwasianweekly.com Layout Editor/Webmaster han@nwasianweekly.com

Rebecca Ip Kelly Liao John Liu

john@nwasianweekly.com

Stacy Nguyen Editorial Consultant

David Santillanes

Tina Young

The “Diversity Makes a Difference” awards dinner will be held on Friday, March 28, at the New Hong Kong Restaurant.

The dinner’s keynote speaker will be M. David Santillanes, Jr., president of D. Lark, Inc. a franchisee of McDonald’s Corp operating eight restaurants in Seattle and {see MCDONALDS cont’d on page 11}

The only weekly English-language newspaper serving Washington’s Asian community. The NW Asian Weekly has one simple goal: “To empower the Asian community.”

The Editorial Board reserves the right to reject any advertisement, letter or article.

Subscriptions cost $30 for 52 weeks of the NW Asian Weekly and $25 for 52 weeks of the Seattle Chinese Post. The NW Asian Weekly owns the copyright for all its content. All rights reserved. No part of this paper may be reprinted without permission.

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asianweekly northwest

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MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

■ COMMUNITY CALENDAR THU 3/20

INFO: 206-215-4800

WHAT: Vietnamese Friendship Association benefit dinner WHERE: University of Washington HUB Ballroom WHEN: 7 p.m. (Cocktail hour begins at 6 p.m.)

COST: $100 (VIP tickets $150) INFO: 206-760-1573

WHAT: Movie night with martial arts film “Somtum” (Muay Thai Gian) WHERE: Asia Pacific Cultural Center, 4851 S. Tacoma Way, Tacoma WHEN: 7 p.m.

COST: Free INFO: 253-383-3900

WHAT: Filipino Arts Relief Fund & Benefit for Typhoon Haiyan survivors WHERE: The Belltown Pub, 2322 1st Ave., Seattle WHEN: 5–9 p.m.

COST: $20 INFO: 206-448-6210 WHAT: “Celebrate Asia” with the Seattle Symphony WHERE: Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., Seattle WHEN: 6:30 p.m. pre-concert performances; 7:30 p.m. concert COST: $19–$76

FRI 3/21 WHAT: Japanese American Citizens League 92nd annual banquet WHERE: Seattle University, Campion Ballroom, 11th Ave., Seattle WHEN: 6–9 p.m.

COST: $50–$90 INFO: 805-225-3169

SAT 3/22 WHAT: King County Library

■ briefly

Courtesy of Philharmonia Northwest

Celebrate Asia at the symphony

Julia Tai

Explore the diverse musical traditions of Asia in an “East-meets-West” concert when the Seattle Symphony presents the sixth annual “Celebrate Asia” performance on Friday, March 21 at Benaroya Hall.

The concert celebrates the cultures of China, Vietnam, and Japan, conducted by Julia Tai. Featured performers include Haochen Zhang on piano, Nguyen Thanh Thuy on dan tranh, Ngo Tra My on dan bau, and Stefan Ostersjo on ti ba, banjo, and guitar.

Pre-concert performances begin at 6:30 p.m. in the Samuel & Althea Stroum grand lobby with the Chaopraya Ensemble, Kalahi Philippine Dance Company, Northwest Kung Fu and Fitness, and more.

The main concert, starting at 7:30 p.m., will offer the world premier of “Three Film Scores for String Orchestra” by Toru Takesmitsu, winner of the Celebrate Asia Composition Competition; the world premier of “A Piece for Vietnamese and Western Plucked Instruments and String Orchestra” by Richard Karpen; and a “Piano Concerto in A Minor” by Grieg.  Tickets are $19–$76, available at www. celebrateasia.org. For more information, call 206-215-4747.

System “Literary Lions Gala” with keynote by author Amy Tan WHERE: Hyatt Regency, 900 Bellevue Way N.E., Bellevue WHEN: 6–9 p.m.

COST: $200 INFO: www.kcls.org/ literarylions WHAT: 5K Superhero Run WHERE: White Center Heights Park, Seattle WHEN: 9–11 a.m.

COST: $25–$35 (free for ages 10 and under) to benefit White Center CDA, the YES Foundation of White Center, and White Center Food Bank INFO: www.facebook.com/ WhiteCenter5kWalkRun WHAT: “Cursing at the Screen Yet Can’t Look Away: Watching Korean TV Drama” lecture by Bonnie Tilland WHERE: Seattle Asian Art Museum, 1400 E. Prospect St.,

Seattle WHEN: 9:30–11 a.m.

COST: $5–$10 INFO: 206-654-3100

SUN 3/23 WHAT: Asia Business Dinner Round Table WHERE: Imperial Garden Seafood Restaurant, 18230 E. Valley Hwy. Ste. 116, Kent WHEN: 5:45-8 p.m.

COST: $30/person INFO: 425-656-0999 WHAT: A banquet fundraiser for Congressman Mike Honda WHERE: House of Hong, 409 8th Ave. S., Seattle WHEN: 6:30-8:30 p.m.

RSVP: bobhasegawa2012@ gmail.com

TUE 3/25 WHAT: Asia Business Dinner

Round Table WHERE: Imperial Garden Seafood Restaurant, 18230 E. Valley Hwy. Ste. 116, Kent WHEN: 5:45-8 p.m.

INFO: 425-656-0999, tiangreatwallmall@gmail.com WHAT: Singer/songwriter/ keyboardist Wanting performs with Dawen Wang WHERE: The Triple Door, 216 Union St., Seattle WHEN: 8 p.m.

COST: $25 INFO: 206-838-4333 WHAT: Ask the Mayor, live audience and focus on minimum wage WHERE: Seattle City Hall’s Bertha Knight Landes Room, 600 Fourth Ave., Seattle WHEN: 7 p.m.

REGISTER: www.askthemayor. eventbrite.com INFO: 206-684-8821

■ at the movies

“The Wind Rises”

By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Master animator and director Hayao Miyazaki, co-founder of Studio Ghibli and the man who introduced anime features in America, has declared that “The Wind Rises,” a fictionalized biography of airplane designer Jiro Horikoshi, will be his last film. It is also his first and only film not explicitly directed at a child audience, and it’s garnered some controversy. Nevertheless, it was the highest-grossing film in Japan last year, and earned an Academy Award nomination for “Best Animated Feature” (losing to “Frozen” from Walt Disney Pictures, the same folks distributing “The Wind Rises” in America).

The film does, however, handle its subject matter with much of the same amazingly childlike wonder and awe found in Miyazaki’s earlier films. Derived from a manga from the filmmaker (in turn based loosely on a short story by Tatsuo Hori), the young Jiro (voiced in English by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) slips in and out of dreams, always involving flight. During one such windy dream, he finds himself with a companion — the Italian plane designer Giovanni Battista Caproni.

Caproni (Stanley Tucci) calls Jiro “Japanese Boy.” He seems amused that they’re sharing a dream. But Jiro confesses that he’s always dreamed of designing planes. Caproni counsels Jiro that he’s on the right path, but has a lot of hard work ahead.

Jiro grows up in the early 20th century, trying to find his way through hard economic times in Japan. He’s caught in an earthquake, train crash, and subsequent fire, which, thanks to Miyazaki’s imagination, looks more like one of the dreams. And indeed, throughout the film, the animator skillfully plays on the edge between the real world and the dream world. Jiro lives mostly inside his own head, but he’s

skillful enough to put his dreams down on paper, for others to take up.

The earthquake (modeled on Japan’s Great Kanto Earthquake of 1924) allows him to meet Naoko Satomi (Emily Blunt), and it’s love at first sight. Unfortunately, young Jiro loses her in the chaos almost as soon as he meets her.

Jiro works feverishly on aircraft design, dodges upper management, and dreams of seeing his creations in actual flight. Through it all, he dreams of being back with Naoko. When he finally finds her, she’s sick with tuberculosis and suspects she doesn’t have long to live.

But that doesn’t stop them from loving.

In real life, it was Jiro himself who was frequently sick — one of several liberties that Miyazaki takes with the truth. Jiro and Caproni commiserate with each other that the military is often the only way to realize their dreams. Neither of them likes war, but they accept it as a grim fact of life. And Jiro’s masterwork, the Mitsubishi A6AM Zero, or “Zero” for short, did become an amazing dogfighting plane for the Japanese.

For what it’s worth, the real Jiro felt the war could not be won by his side. In diary entries written during the war, published

in 1956, excerpted from Wikipedia, he writes: “… the majority of us who had truly understood the awesome industrial strength of the United States never really believed that Japan would win this war.

We were convinced that surely our government had in mind some diplomatic measures, which would bring the conflict to a halt before the situation became catastrophic for Japan. But now, bereft of any strong government move to seek a diplomatic way out, we are being driven to doom. Japan is being destroyed. I cannot do other but to blame the military hierarchy and the blind politicians in power for dragging Japan into this hellish cauldron of defeat.”

Harsh words, especially for a man charged with helping Japan win. Wise words. And not the words you’d expect from Miyazaki’s rendition of Jiro, who’s always mentally, and spiritually, in the clouds. The animator delivers an exhilarating ride for the senses, and a love soliloquy to dreams, but at the cost of the painful, gritty, and undreamy truth.  “The Wind Rises” is currently playing in theatres in and around Seattle. Check local listings for venues, prices, and show times.

Andrew Hamlin can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

32 YEARS YOUR VOICE

MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

7

asianweekly northwest

8

MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

■ WORLD NEWS

Hong Kong dock workers shut down port, win raises

By Jane Mee Wong Northwest Asian Weekly

Eight months ago, dock workers at Hong Kong’s Kwai Chung terminal went on a historic 40-day strike. Faced with declining wages since 1995 and difficult working conditions, the workers — members of the Hong Kong Dock Workers Union (HKDWU) — withheld their labor and shut down the world’s third largest container port.

“Stevedore work in Hong Kong is traditionally coolie work. This means it is casualized with no job security,” said Wong Loy, an organizer with the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU). He has been supporting the dock workers in their union organizing efforts.

Stevedore work involves the loading and unloading of ships that enter into the ports.

Other forms of labor at the docks include crane operators and truck drivers, as well as checkers — individuals who check the container box number on board.

“Even though the ports are very modernized and automated, the people working there are hired on a daily and casualized basis,” said Wong.

Stephen Chan, a dock worker for 18 years and former president of the Hong Kong Dock Workers Union, agreed.

Stephen Chan, left, and Wong Loy with the Hong Kong Dock Workers Union flag.

“We get called on daily. There are no set schedules. For example, you can get a call tonight saying you have a 24-hour shift tomorrow. We cannot plan our days.”

During the 24-hour shifts, Chan said, there are no mandated rest periods.

“We arrange it with each other to take

break times,” Chan said. “There is no official rest time from the company.

So every worker has to look after their brothers. We get very close.”

The bond and trust built among the workers has been central to keeping them united throughout the 40-day strike.

Private wealth Unlike many ports around the world which are owned by local governments, the Hong Kong port is completely privatized.

The British colonial government did not invest in the port infrastructure, leaving its development to the market economy.

Kwai Chung Terminal, Hong Kong’s only container port, has nine terminals, of which Hong Kong International Terminal (HIT) is the majority shareholder. HIT is owned by Li Ka Shing, the richest man in Asia, whose net worth is USD $32 billion.

Li’s wealth stands in stark contrast to those who work at the port terminals.

“Our wages have gone down since 1995.

Back then, we made HK $1560 (USD $200) for a 24-hour shift. In 2003, during the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak, we took a huge pay cut. Back then, every boss tried to make use of the crisis to cut our benefits. They transferred the cost of the crisis to the workers. We made as little as HK $1,060 (USD $135) for a 24-hour shift. It is very hard to survive with this pay,” said Chan.

“But we went on strike, not because of the wage cuts. We made about HKD $1,320 (USD $170) for a 24-hour shift before the {see HONG KONG cont’d on page 14}

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32 YEARS YOUR VOICE

MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

■ arts & entertainment

9

Wanting: Singer, songwriter, composer, and keyboardist performs at the Triple Door What age and which instruments?

I started to play piano at 6 years old.

However, I didn’t start writing and playing my own music until I was 21.

By Andrew Hamlin Northwest Asian Weekly Singer/songwriter/keyboardist Wanting Qu, generally known as “Wanting,” had a long trip to North American audiences and to North America itself. She was born and raised in Harbin, the largest city in northeast China. She performs Tuesday, March 25, at the Triple Door in downtown Seattle.

“My earliest memories of Harbin,” Wanting recalls, “involve the winter time.

The winters are very cold there. I remember slipping and falling as the streets were so icy, snowball fights, ice skating, and other outdoor activities in the snow.”

Wanting arrived in Toronto, Canada, at the age of 16. She recalls “a lot of insecurities and questions in my head about the future,” she said. “Where am I going to be? What am I going to become? What is going to happen?

How long does it take? Lots of questions. My life was a big question mark.”

Cultural differences made it hard for her to feel at ease, she said. “Different values, different standards, different customs, and different ways of thinking, etc. I also sensed a lot of pressure coming from my mom and dad back home in China. I wanted to please them, but I also needed to do what I wanted.

There was definitely a lot of struggling, mainly mind struggles. Of course I had to learn how to do things on my own… carry groceries, cook for myself, deal with utilities, learn how to cope with loneliness, etc… yeah, I grew up really fast!”

She was already fluent in English, having

You earned a business degree before deciding to go into music full time. How difficult was it to make that decision?

What led to your final decision?

After four years, I realized I didn’t want to be in business. I wanted to instead pursue my music career. These years, however, were not a waste as they brought me to the realization of what I really wanted and needed to do.

Of the awards you’ve won, which are you most proud of and why?

The awards I am most proud of are the ones for Best Singer/Songwriter, Best Composer, and Fan’s Choice.

Wanting Q

studied the language since age 6. “I loved the sound of English right from the start, as I have an ear for pitch and melody — the English language appealed to me that way and I enjoyed it. I am fluent in two languages (Chinese and English) and speak a little French and a little Japanese.

You sing in English and Chinese. How do you go about deciding which language in which to sing a song?

The language is determined by where the story or inspiration took place, i.e., if the story took place in a North American environment, then the song would probably be written in English.

This week, Wanting Q agreed to be interviewed by Northwest Asian Weekly.

What are your secrets for composing in general?

To live my life and to always write from the heart.

When did you first begin to play music?

When did you visit Seattle for the first

time, and what are your impressions of it generally, music wise, and otherwise?

I first visited Seattle in 2004. I associate Seattle with the Gorge, where I saw Lilith Fair one year. I would love to play at the Gorge some day.

How does your second album differ from your first?

My new album has more attitude and is much more mature. Working with Ron [Aniello, an American record producer] — writing and working on arrangements together — much more time was spent on this second record and the writing. I am very proud of my second album also because I feel it truly represents and shows a different side of me.

How were your appointed the first-ever tourist ambassador for Vancouver? What are your duties and how has that job gone?

Tourism Vancouver approached me. Even though I am originally from China, they consider me a true Vancouverite — and so do I. They know I speak about Vancouverites from the heart.

What are your plans for the immediate future and your long-term plans?

Immediate future is the Finish North American tour! Long term is to write more music, play more shows, and live my life.  Andrew Hamlin can be reached at info@ nwasianweekly.com.

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MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

OPINION

■ editorial

Cold as ICE: Don’t separate families

There’s nothing like a hunger strike to get your attention, such as the one staged by detainees at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma that began March 7.

Depending on who you believe, 1,200 prisoners (according to detainee advocates) or 750 of them (according to ICE) stopped eating, drawing national attention to their demands for the right to post bonds, an end to deportation for parents and citizens’ spouses, faster resolutions, better food, more pay for the work they do, cheaper food in the commissary, better treatment, and end to deportations altogether. If you ask for eight things, maybe you’ll get one of them — likely the smallest one.

The strike was inspired by family members and supporters

Photo: Thomas Sorenes/The News Tribune

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

— From “The New Colossus”

by American poet Emma Lazarus, engraved on the Statue of Liberty Demonstrators opposing deportations hold up signs while chanting in English and Spanish outside of the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma in March 2013.

who were protesting deportations outside the prison with signs reading “End human rights abuse” and “Don’t separate families.”

As of March 18, the number of strikers under medical observation had dwindled to two, and each of those had eaten occasionally, according to ICE public affairs officer Andrew Munoz.

“Several issues that have been brought to management’s attention are being addressed, including adding more items to the commissary list and exploring ways to reduce prices,” Munoz stated.

In another statement, ICE officials stated, “There have been no punitive actions taken against individuals who are participating in the protest,” meaning at this

■ publisher’s blog

point, no forced feeding has occurred. If ICE’s medical staff thinks a hunger striker’s life or long-term health is at risk, it has to seek a court order before administering any involuntary feeding, according to the agency’s 2008 Performance Based National Detention Standards. If a court says it has no jurisdiction, or if a hospital refuses to force feed a prisoner, ICE “may consider other action if the hunger strike is still ongoing.” It doesn’t say what the “other action” would be. The ACLU has said it will provide legal representation to the detainees if ICE does pursue a court order to force feed.

The undocumented are good for business in so many ways.

They provide cheap labor, they

pay taxes for services they will never receive, and, when finally detained, they provide a profitable income for private prisons.

The Tacoma detention center is owned by the GEO Group, Inc., a billion-dollar corporation that calls itself “the world’s leading provider of correctional, detention, and community reentry services with 98 facilities, approximately 77,000 beds, and 18,000 employees around the globe.”

According to a March 12 Labor Notes interview with immigrants rights lawyer Maru Mora Villalpando of Latino Advocacy, GEO Group reportedly receives $120 to $160 per detainee per day.

And according to several other news reports, detainees are fed either milk and potatoes, or milk and oatmeal, plus whatever they can purchase in the commissary, where items reportedly cost about $5 each, which apparently is equal to what a detainee earns working at the center in a week.

If true, it sounds like a pretty inexpensive and extremely bland meal to serve to a population comprising mostly Mexicans.

Stalling on immigration reform also translates into good money for GEO, which reportedly has friends in high places. According to a June 4, 2013 report by Lee

Fang in The Nation, GEO Group promised “that it would not lobby in any way over the immigration reform debate.” A subsequent disclosure, reported Fang, showed that the Geo Group paid an “elite team of federal lobbyists” to influence comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

This is not surprising. It’s just sad that this particular form of corporate greed is so dependent upon the suffering of those who weren’t lucky enough to be born in a land of plenty.

Immigration is such a complex, messy issue, with millions of undocumented people already here, most with tangled ties to both legal and illegal family members.

Many have built American lives that may be meager, but are better and safer than in their home countries.

On the “Hunger Striker’s Demands” Facebook page, it states, “We believe that we deserve the opportunity to demonstrate that we want to be in this country legally and to contribute to this country.” Of course it makes sense that people born here get to be here, no questions asked, without having to demonstrate anything. That’s a birthright. But it won’t hurt to scoot over, just a little, inside our golden doors. ­

Photo from KOMO-TV

Helicopter tragedy hits home for journalists

Scene of Tuesday’s helicopter crash near the Seattle Center

The KOMO-TV helicopter crash near the Seattle Center on Tuesday, resulting in the death of the pilot and photojournalist, troubles me.

I never really liked flying in helicopters. I did it once when we flew to see Alaska’s glaciers. I didn’t even have time to realize that I was scared at the time, as hopping on the flight was a last-minute idea. Yet, whenever I thought about it, I became nervous. Never again, I told myself.

Since 2004, there were 500 deaths in 1,600 helicopter crashes, according to a recent National Transportation and Safety Board report.

Interestingly, the concept of the helicopter actually originates from China in 400 B.C. Unsung heroes You never know why and how you are connected in the community. But we are all interconnected. Think about the

news you watch on KOMO-TV. It’s not just the faces you see on camera — it’s also the people behind the camera who help bring the stories alive. These photojournalists are unsung heroes, who spice up the reporters’ storytelling with drama, history, wits, and suspense to enhance the viewers’ imagination.

I thought I didn’t know the two victims at first. Then an email came, reminding me that at the Women of Color Empowered lunch not too long ago I met the wife of the deceased pilot, Gary Pfitzner. Though no one had ever introduced me to the other victim, Bill Strothman, I recalled seeing him when we were covering news. He was one of our respected and dedicated colleagues in the journalism business. He died on his way to an assignment. If there were any consolation, it would be that he died doing what he loved to do — pursuing his passion for journalism.

From toy to helicopter The helicopter is an amazing flying machine — it can land vertically. It’s said that it took more than a thousand years to evolve from China’s invention of a bamboo flying toy (a bamboo copter with a stick attached) into the present sophisticated engine for the vehicle. It wasn’t until 1480 that Leonardo da Vinci created a design for the machine.

Then 300 years passed with Russian, British, and French versions, and, after another 100 years, the American Thomas Edison designed his own flight machine.

Helicopter safety Owned by Helicopter Inc., the helicopter, which crashed on March 18 was an 11-year-old Eurocopter model. It was used for many news organizations. KING-TV and KOMO-

Chinese bamboo flying toy

TV shared the expense of running the helicopter for assignments. The plane was a temporary replacement while the other helicopter was being Gary Pfitzner (left) and Bill upgraded and repaired.

Strothman Experts say if you ride a helicopter and you hear something is not sounding right, feel something is not right, or the weather is not good, you should get out immediately. We send our condolences to the families and friends of Gary Pfitzner and Bill Strothman, and wishes for a speedy recovery to Richard Newman, who was injured by the crash. 

Want to get the inside scoop on the latest happenings of Seattle’s Asian American community?

Follow Publisher Assunta Ng’s blog at nwasianweekly.com under the Opinion section.

32 YEARS YOUR VOICE

■ commentary

11

MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

OPINION

China’s awkward banana slip

By Eric Liu Special For Northwest Asian Weekly

Eric Liu

A few days ago in Beijing, as Gary Locke wrapped up his tenure as United States Ambassador to China, he was lambasted in a Chinese state media editorial. The piece called Locke a “guide dog” and said he had stirred an “evil wind.” Worst of all, it called him

a “banana.”

As in yellow on the outside and white on the inside. It’s a slur, akin to “Oreo” for African Americans or “coconut” for Hispanics, used by people of a given ethnic group to judge another member of that group for being insufficiently, well, ethnic. The point of saying a person of color is “white inside” is to accuse him of being a race traitor, ashamed, or in denial of his or her true heritage.

In this case, the idea was that Locke, of Chinese descent, wasn’t Chinese enough. Why? He couldn’t speak the language. Oh, and he apparently didn’t do the bidding of China’s leaders, choosing instead to go to Tibet, work with dissident human rights activists, point out smog levels in Beijing, and generally represent the interests and values of the United States.

That’s what the editorialist meant when he called Locke a banana. Many Chinese citizens disavowed the slur, calling it an embarrassment. But what it revealed was that despite modernization and burgeoning wealth — or perhaps because of them — China still has a fragile identity. (And America still has some advantages.)

Let’s start with the fact that the editorial was published in an organ of state media. It got attention because in a country {MCDONALDS cont’d from page 5} two in Bellevue.

Santillanes began his training to become a McDonald’s franchisee in 1997.

He was certified an owner/operator in the McDonald’s system May 1998 and purchased his first two restaurants in Denver three months later.

After four years in Denver, he relocated to Seattle with the purchase of four restaurants in 2002.

Prior to McDonald’s, David was the

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where the government controls the press, editorials are assumed to express the views of top national leaders.

They may not, in fact. It’s quite possible this particular opinion writer was just an individual. But in the absence of a free press, who can really tell?

This is the price of propaganda. No one believes what you say, but they believe you meant to say it.

A second notable aspect of the banana rant was that it completely conflated ethnicity and nationality, and in a particularly Chinese way. The Han Chinese are the overwhelmingly dominant ethnic group of China, and their ethnocentrism frames Chinese political culture.

(Just ask Tibetans.) It also fuels the nationalism behind China’s territorial disputes with Japan and other Asian nations.

So the premise of the banana comment was that someone of Chinese ethnicity, wherever he or she may live, should be considered Chinese to the core and therefore in the end loyal to the Chinese nation.

Of course, that’s a notion white Americans have often used to justify mistreatment of “indelibly alien” Chinese immigrants, whether during the era of Chinese exclusion in the late 19th century or the persecution of Wen Ho Lee at the turn of this one.

But it’s as wrong now as then and as wrong here as there. Even if Locke could speak perfect Mandarin, even if he could read the Chinese classics and write calligraphy, this Eagle Scout, child of public housing, prosecutor, state legislator, governor, Cabinet secretary, and diplomat was made in America.

Whether Locke is “Chinese enough” is for him and his family to judge, not for any other Chinese American, much less an apparatchik in China. But there can be no doubt that Locke is plenty American, and that’s really what stuck in the craw of some commentators in China.

president of Vista Verde Corporation, a fullservice funeral company in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. He served as director of the Office of Tourism and Travel for the State of New Mexico from 1975 to 1980.

Santillanes is currently a member of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Rainier Valley Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Seattle Association, Seattle Police Foundation Board, and the Board of the Ronald McDonald House Charities.

He also serves on several leadership teams within the McDonald’s system, including

Ultimately, the banana rant reminds us that the United States, for all its manifest failings and its continuing racial tensions, remains exceptional in its capacity to synthesize the people of the world into new hybrids. Which is also why the United States, for all of its economic troubles and relative geopolitical decline, retains a competitive edge over rising powers like China.

To put it very simply, America makes Chinese Americans, but China does not — and does not particularly want to — make American Chinese.

It’s in America’s operating system to welcome an immigrant who becomes a houseboy and to make it possible for that immigrant’s grandson to hold high public office. This is the Locke family arc, truly American.

It’s not so much in China’s operating system to welcome an immigrant — whether ethnic Chinese or not, however steeped in Chinese civilization — and make it possible for her family to be seen as truly Chinese.

When operatives in China call Locke a banana, they assume, wrongly, that to be American is to be white.

America is not white anymore. It never really was. China may be four times more populous than America. But America is many times more diverse, intermingled, open, and adaptive than China.

I’m proud to be Chinese American — proficient in Chinese culture, fluent in American life. Call me what you will. I like my country’s chances.  Eric Liu is the founder of Citizen University and the author of several books, including “The Gardens of Democracy” and “The Accidental Asian.” He served as a White House speechwriter and policy adviser for President Bill Clinton. Follow him on Twitter @ericpliu.

Originally published by CNN.com 3/4/2013.

president of the Western Washington Operators Association.

David earned his MS in public administration from the University of New Mexico and his BS in business from the University of Albuquerque. He is married with two sons, Russel, of New York City, and Kurtis, currently of Tokyo, Japan.

The emcee for the Diversity dinner will be Tina Young, director of multicultural services at Seattle Central Community College, where she is tasked with implementing services and projects

that promote diversity on campus, and conducting research on institutional practices concerning retention and success of students of color and other under represented student populations.

Young has served on the Seattle Women’s Commission, on the board for Living Voices, and has been a long-time member, supporter and fund-raiser for the Wing Luke Asian Museum and Childhaven.  Staff can be reached nwasianweekly.com.

at

info@

asianweekly northwest

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MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

{DIVERSITY cont’d from page 5} is Spirit Commissioner of the ASB, and participates in the National Honor Society and Key Club.

“Diversity is crucial,” writes Courtney, “as it teaches us to learn from one another, to look from different perspectives, and respect others and yourself. Embracing all our differences is what will propel us into our future.”

Daniel Kim Issaquah High School Daniel has served as president of Teens for Global Health and captain of the junior varsity tennis team. He also participates in the school district’s orchestra.

“His academic resume, analytical abilities, and contributions to class all bode well for his success,” wrote his teacher Keri Dean. “Daniel was also a valuable member of the classroom community because of his diligent work with others during peer revision of essays and small group discussion activities.”

As the son of immigrants, Daniel has often had to navigate through customs and traditions new to his family.

“A first-hand witness to awkward incidents that may arise in a diverse setting,” wrote Daniel, “I’ve become more conscientious of the differences the unique individuals that comprise our society have. Diversity is a key component in teaching people to respect others.”

Gary Wang Inglemoor High School Gary is vice president of the Future Business Leaders of America, and is an officer in the Honor Society, DECA, and ASB. He volunteers as a tutor to his peers.

“Gary has the skills to take charge and to know when to share the responsibility and not overwhelm himself with the task,” said his adviser Jan Fitzgerald.

“When diverse minds come together, their collaborations have often provided the world with some of the most unique and important discoveries, innovations, and ideas that have ever been known,” Gary wrote. “I hold a firm belief that one of my main duties in life is to inspire and support diversity in every way that I can.”

Genevieve Macdonald Issaquah High School Genevieve is the personification of diversity. “Tracing my lineage, one would find an alloy of Cantonese and Ning Bo, as well as remnants of European heritage diluted by generations in America, which consist of Irish, Scottish, and a dash of French,” she wrote.

Genevieve is a creative and eager learner, says her teacher Lena Jones.

“Genevieve’s motivation in class comes from her innate, genuine interest in gaining knowledge and understanding how the world works,” said Jones.

“I hope to continue to incorporate my personal diversity into my life and wish to explore the beauty of language, dialects, and accents. With these linguistic tools, I can explore cultures and parts of the world that I haven’t even heard of yet.”

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Hannah Stulberg Issaquah High School Hannah is not just a talented scholar, says her teacher Kristi Hardy. She is also involved in the National Honor Society, DECA, and the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, in which she has served as chapter director, regional director, chapter president, and regional president. “She has also given back to her community through tutoring and assisting with art therapy programs,” said Hardy.

“Diversity is a journey, not a destination,” wrote Hannah. “But in a society where diversity is celebrated, anything is possible.”

James Nelson Issaquah High School “James is heavily involved in extracurricular activities, including National Honor Society, ASB, and Eagle Crew (a club that welcomes and mentors freshmen),” said his teacher Kristi Hardy. “I have seen him interact with his peers in a graceful and caring manner, and he seems to befriend everyone. He is present at almost every sporting event and is known to have a lot of school spirit.”

“Diversity is so important because it helps us to understand other perspectives, to broaden our own, and to fully experience and educate ourselves,” wrote James.

Josh Bean Issaquah High School “A natural leader, Josh’s personal qualities are equally impressive,” says his teacher Vail Crain Baxter. “Even though Josh quickly understands the material, he takes the time to make sure his classmates also understand.”

Josh is involved with his school’s lacrosse and swim teams, the National Honor Society, and peer tutoring. He was awarded Student of the Month for both school spirit and math, and is a Commended National Merit Scholar and an AP Scholar with Honor.

“Diversity is about how you make your community a more interesting place,” says Josh. “Whether it is a rich foreign heritage or a musical talent, diversity is everywhere and we all bring something to the table to help develop interesting and thriving communities.

Juliana Da Cruz Issaquah High School Juliana is inspired by her heritage and the struggles of her father to escape a harsh and tragic life in Brazil.

“He applied himself, and earned scholarship after scholarship to study in the U.S.” she wrote. “That is my heritage. It is hard work and drive and determination and resilience. It is a reminder of the potency of gratitude, hope, and ambition. It is a pair of rough and cracked hands.”

“Among Juliana’s numerous strengths are her dedication to academics and ability to work with and improve those around her,” said her teacher Benjamin Reed, “all while embracing her cultural heritage. Juliana has distanced herself from her peers, at a high school with very high academic standards, in these and many other areas.”

Katherine Chun Issaquah High School “Katherine successfully juggles the demands of a rigorous academic schedule with ambitious extracurricular activities,” said her teacher Marianne Null.

Katherine has worked with Bogey Bear Junior Golf Foundation, is a Distinguished Scholar Athlete, a member of the school band, class council secretary, and volunteers with the Key Club and National Honor Society.

“People tend to forget about things when they are not confronted with it often, and that includes appreciation for other races,” wrote Katherine. “Diversity is the solution.

Diversity is our opportunity to remind ourselves to be open minded and understanding.”

Kevin Dominguez Sosa Inglemoor High School “Kevin is very personable and social, and I can tell he will be successful in any field he chooses to pursue,” said his school counselor Bryan McNeil. “His work ethic will be an additional asset that serves him well.”

Kevin hopes to pursue a degree in engineering.

“Diversity is important to increase the knowledge of the people and community about other countries, religions, and cultures, said Kevin. “Also to make society a little bit more expanded, with a lot of variety, not always the same, that’s what makes our country so special and unique. The country is full with immigrants or non-American citizens and that make things different.”

Nicolas Garcia O’Dea High School “I do not have a single origin that I can trace my ancestors to, but many,” wrote Nicolas Garcia. “This is why diversity, being different, is important to me.

Without diversity, I wouldn’t exist. I am literally a product of diversity.”

Nic has a true passion to help others, said his school’s assistant principal, Jeanne Eulberg. He participates in band, as well as challenging himself with the most demanding curriculum. “He works very hard to be successful and he has a great work ethic,” said Eulberg.

Nicolas Tonel O’Dea High School “Having different cultures around us allows us to grow in many different ways,” wrote Nicolas. “We are able to learn from other people’s experiences and stories and compare them to our own. Diversity helps us to realize that we all aren’t that different.”

Family is very important to Nicolas and he spends a lot of his free time doing sports and other activities with them.

“He is a wonderful young man with high moral standards from which he never deviates,” said assistance principal Jeanne Eulberg.  Sue Misao can be reached at editor@nwasianweekly. com.

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32 YEARS YOUR VOICE

■ astrology

MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

13

For the week of March 22–March 28, 2014

By Sun Lee Chang

Ox — In the heat of the moment, you may say something that you don’t really mean. Hold your tongue until you have had a chance to calm down.

Dragon — You know when you have reached your limit. Consider stopping soon, so that you don’t wind up with regrets later on.

Monkey — Just because others decide to be petty doesn’t mean that you have to sink to their level. Stay true to your own standards.

Snake — Can’t keep your mind off that treat you declined earlier? Reward yourself in a different way.

Tiger — Do you feel as though you are not being heard? Perhaps it is because both sides are too busy talking over each other.

Horse — Any lingering doubts should be resolved shortly. For better or worse, at least you will know what is coming down the pike.

Rooster — The closer you look, the more blemishes you will find. Taking in the view from a few steps back might not be a bad idea.

Rabbit — No matter what the gift or occasion is, it is worth the time and effort to ensure that the packaging is appealing.

Goat — It is time for you to go, but you are not ready to leave yet. An extended stay can be arranged if you are flexible about the details.

Rat — Separating fact from fiction isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Trust your instincts on this one.

Dog — As important as it is to start the day off right, it is also crucial to end on a good note. Treat yourself to a balanced dinner and don’t go to bed too late.

Pig — Settling in to a new routine can be a little tricky. Give it some time and you will soon be in the swing of things.

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 Monkey 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004 Rooster 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005 Dog 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006 Pig 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007

*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.

{NOMURA cont’d from page 1} this story.

“It’s hard putting yourself out there and trying to translate an idea that works on your body and put it on someone else’s body,” she said. “It just takes lots of guts and willingness to be bold and put yourself out there.”

For many, the stories of Japanese Americans are underrepresented in mainstream history resources. A lot of students have to settle for a tiny paragraph at the end of the World War II chapter of their textbooks. While Nomura’s piece intends to speak her mind about the subject as an artist, and educate and raise awareness about Japanese American history, it can be seen as an attempt to fill the gaps in mainstream sources of the history of Japanese Americans. As a fifth generation Japanese American who also identifies as hapa or mixed race — “I’m actually white, Japanese, and Filipino,” she said proudly — she feels comfortable talking about her family’s past.

“Many people in my generation are more willing to talk about it than our grandparents and our great-grandparents,” she said. “I think a lot of the reason they’re conflicted is because they were having a lot of pressure to assimilate and to let go of their ‘Asianness’ and ‘Japaneseness.’”

Nomura started taking dance seriously at age 4 with classical ballet before moving

on to other styles of dance, such as modern and jazz. Although she thought about continuing her dance career in New York, she chose to stay close to home and family, attending Western Washington University to study journalism. Since then, she has been continuously switching gears between dancing and writing.

“I am and will always consider myself a dancer first,” she said. “I believe that I can do dance and journalism to the best of my ability. I don’t feel like either one has to be sacrificed.”

Nomura received grants for this project from the City of Seattle smART Ventures program and the Seattle Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League, of which she is also a board member. The 18-minute interdisciplinary piece will feature five dancers, two actors, a child actress, and Seattle Kokon Taiko led by Stanley Shikuma.

“Beginnings” will be performed at the Theater of Puget Sound from April 11 through April 13, the Cherry Blossom Festival on April 27, API Heritage Month on May 4, the Wing Luke Asian American Museum on June 27, and the 92nd Annual Japanese American Citizens League Banquet at Seattle University on March 21. 

{SOLEMSAAS cont’d from page 1} student services at Seattle Central Community College; Daryl Campbell, J.D., interim president of Shoreline Community College; and Richard Penny, Ph.D., M.B.A., vice chancellor for advancement and external relations at University of Washington Bothell.

Solemsaas, who is of Filipino descent, is the only woman and also the only Asian American out of four the finalists.

The new president replaces former President Mark Mitsui, who left the college last summer to become deputy assistant secretary for community colleges in the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, D.C. Mary Ellen O’Keeffe, Ed.D, has filled in as interim president.

Seattle Community Colleges chancellor Dr. Jill Wakefield is expected to announce the new president in April. The new president will assume the position on July 1. 

Alia Marsha can be reached at info@ nwasianweekly.com.

King County Invitation to Bid Project: KC Parks 2014 On-Call Paving, Contract No. C00899C14 Sealed Bid Time/Date: 1:00 p.m., April 10, 2014 Location Due: King County Procurement & Contract Services Section, Contracts Counter, 3rd Floor, 401 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104 Engineer’s Estimate: $1,000,000.00 Scope of Work: The work under this contract will require that the Contractor will be able to mobilize and perform asphalt paving repair and improvement work on the KC Parks Regional Trail System and parking lot facilities within the parks system. The work primarily includes, but is not limited to asphalt overlay paving, asphalt patching and repair as well as asphalt tack and seal coating. Other potential tasks required by this contract would include excavation and placement of pavement sub-base materials, concrete sidewalk repair, asphalt grinding, utility frame adjustments and wheel stop placements.

Work site: King County, Washington.

The work performed under this Contract shall not exceed $1,000,000.00 and the initial Contract Time shall not exceed 365 calendar days from the date of Contract execution by the County. The County does not guarantee any minimum amount of work or that

the dollar amount of the Work Orders issued will total $1,000,000.00 during the duration of this Contract.

At the County’s sole discretion, this Contract may be extended for one additional year or until the Not to Exceed Contract Price is reached, whichever occurs first. In no event shall the Contract Time be greater than two years from the date of Contract execution by the County.

Contact Information: Mary Lee, Contract Specialist, 206-263-9381, TTY Relay: 711, Fax: 206-296-7675, or email: mary.lee@kingcounty.gov.

A bidder may be asked to put a question in writing.

No verbal answers by any County personnel or its agents and consultants will be binding on the County.

Pre-Bid Conference: Neither a pre-bid conference nor a site tour are scheduled.

Subcontracting Opportunities: Asphalt Grinding and Excavation, Apprenticeship Requirements: No minimum Apprentice Utilization Requirement.

SCS Utilization Requirements: No minimum SCS Utilization Requirement.

Bid Bond: Not less than five percent (5%) of the Total Bid Price

Bid Documents: Electronic copies of the plans, specifications, reference documents, and any addenda for this solicitation are available on the King County Procurement website shown below. Printed documents may also be ordered by contacting United Reprographics at 206-382-1177. Copies of documents are not available for purchase from King County, but are available for review M – F 8:00 a.m.

– 5:00 p.m. at the Contracts Counter: Chinook Bldg, 3rd Floor 401 Fifth Avenue Seattle, WA 98104.

To receive email notifications of addenda or other important information concerning this solicitation, you must register to be a planholder under the “Solicitations” tab at the following internet link: Website: http://www.kingcounty.gov/procurement/ This information is available in alternate formats for individuals with disabilities upon advance request by calling 206-263-9400, TTY Relay: 711.

Notes: Bids received after Sealed Bid Time will not be considered. Bidders accept all risks of late delivery, regardless of fault. King County is not responsible for any costs incurred in response to this Invitation to Bid.

asianweekly northwest

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MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

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Have a story idea that you think would fit perfectly in Northwest Asian Weekly? We want to know about it.

Send it to us at newstips@nwasianweekly.c om. {HONG KONG cont’d from page 8} strike. We went on strike because when the bosses started doing well, they did not share their wealth with us. Even though they wanted us to take a pay cut during the economic crisis.”

For the 2013 fiscal year, Cheong Kong Holdings net profit was HKD $35.26 billion (USD $4.54 billion).

Public support The dock worker’s strike was also significant for the

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huge level of support it received from the Hong Kong public. The strike fund of the HKDWU grew near HKD $3.9 million through public and international donations, including support from maritime unions in Australia and the United States.

For 20 days, dock workers and their supporters surrounded the Cheong Kong office building in the Central Business District in Hong Kong. Their daily occupation received a lot of support from the public.

Youth from local universities and high schools helped to coordinate these actions.

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“We got a lot of support because there are many working class people in Hong Kong who face similar situations as us. They too, have been suppressed for a long time,” said Chan.

For its organizing efforts, the HKDWU was slapped with an injunction from the courts that they were trespassing the private property of Cheong Kong Holdings. The organizers challenged the injunction, claiming that public areas could be used for demonstrations.

“The strike had two levels of struggle. One level of it was a fight for the dockers’ pay raise. Another level of it was a struggle for the usage of public space in Hong Kong and the right to demonstrate,” said Wong.

The social movement in Hong Kong appears to be part of a wave of global actions aimed at the reclamation of public space, ranging from Egypt’s Tahrir Square, the Occupy movements in the United States, and Taksim Square protests in Turkey. Apart from their occupation of public spaces, these movements share the involvement of enthusiastic and politically motivated youth to speak out on a broad set of issues related to economic inequality.

At the end of the 40-day strike, the HKDWU achieved a 9.8 percent pay raise for all workers on the docks. Their membership also increased two-fold with 700 members.

“We have a lot more work to do,” said Chan. “We have to organize the unorganized workers.”  Stephen Chan and Wong Loy will present “All on the Same Ocean” in a talk on April 10 at the International District/Chinatown Community Center at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call 206233-0042.

Jane Mee Wong can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com

32 YEARS YOUR VOICE

{ALEXANDER cont’d from page 1} of Cu Chi outside Saigon was Americanheld.

But underground existed a virtual hidden city, and that belonged to the Viet Cong. A maze of tunnels stretching from Saigon to Cambodia, it contained living quarters, field hospitals, storage rooms, and hundreds of kilometers of secret passages from which fighters would erupt at night to terrorize their opponents.

The effort to infiltrate and eradicate the narrow, dark, and heavily booby-trapped tunnels yielded some of the most traumatized veterans in the American military, and nothing ever succeeded.

So the military decided to rain firepower on the region instead, leading the region to become what the authors of the most definitive book on the area, “The Tunnels of Cu Chi,” called “the most bombed, shelled, gassed, defoliated, and generally devastated area in the history of warfare.”

It was there that Alexander grew up.

Nights often found her family huddled underneath the house in a tunnel, listening to battles rage above. Most days, on her way to school, Alexander saw the bodies of the combatants killed the night before stacked in a pile in the street.

But as traumatic as the war years were, the worst came when the war ended and the communist government took over. It is during that period that Alexander’s book opens.

“The whole world turned upside-down,” she said.

At first, many celebrated the communist victory. But soon, reality revealed itself to be much different than what was expected.

The new government stripped citizens of wealth, literally bulldozing Alexander’s family store.

Soon the family was starving. Her parents and their eight children foraged for food every day. Alexander was determined to save her family. Her academic ability opened a rare opportunity. Of more than 100,000 students screened by the government, she was one of 300 selected for a college scholarship, and she earned a master’s degree in accounting.

Just as her studies came to an end, her father died, but not before extracting from her a promise — that one day she would visit his family in China and tell them that he had loved them.

Coming to America

After graduating in 1987, Alexander was assigned a job by the government, as all students were. She went to work for a

large and successful company. The money she earned supported the family, but then the economy worsened in the 1990s. The company teetered toward collapse.

Alexander decided to try her fortunes in America.

“I heard people say that money grows on trees in America,” she said.

She took an unusual route to emigration.

She married one of the many people born to a Vietnamese mother and an American soldier, called Amerasians in Vietnam, where they were savagely mistreated and often sold as slaves.

She and her new husband applied for permission to emigrate. When the government found out, Alexander was viewed as a traitor to her country, and fired from her job.

When she and her husband finally were granted an interview with Immigration, she was desperately ill.

“I felt like crawling across the floor because I was so weak with so many emotions,” she wrote in her book. “My hands were shaking and my eyes blurred. I thought I was about to collapse from my fever and headache…I absolutely had to go to America.”

When their application was approved, she fell to her knees in the hall, crying in joy.

They boarded a flight to San Francisco with no idea where their final destination would be, and arrived in March 1993.

A new country

That destination turned out to be Fargo, N.D., where a family had offered to sponsor Alexander and her husband. The day they arrived, the city was waist-deep in show, the first snow she had ever seen.

She quickly learned that her master’s degree in accounting was worthless in the United States. And, in spite of the fact that her English was better than most other immigrants, it wasn’t deemed good enough to qualify her to work anywhere at all, even in fast food.

Her marriage fell apart, as well.

In despair, she considered returning to Vietnam. But a distant relative in another part of the country convinced her to try a new location.

“I saved all the money I could and bought a bus ticket,” she said.

In June 1993, she arrived in Seattle. And that was a whole new world. “I had found my dreamland,” she wrote.

Drawing on her skills in the restaurant business from her childhood, as well as her ability to do advanced accounting, she went to work for the owner of Seattle’s China Harbor restaurant.

MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014

There were 26 people in her extended family, and she supported them all. Living in low-income housing, she sent every spare cent to her family. That represented the difference between living and dying for her large family. While working full-time, Alexander enrolled at Shoreline Community College, studying nursing and improving her English. It was there she acquired the name Julie, which most people know her as today.

“My first friend in college was named Julie,” she remembered with a smile. “I asked my teacher to give me a name that would be easier to say for Americans, and she asked what name I liked. And I said I liked ‘Julie.’”

A new family

Working and attending school, Alexander was living on four hours of sleep a day, and her health began to suffer again.

But then she spotted an ad in the Northwest Asian Weekly, written in Chinese. An American man was looking for an Asian friend to help him access Asian manufacturing plants for an invention.

She responded, and met a tall, dark-haired man named Rick Alexander. Worried by rumors she’d heard about the behavior of some American men, Alexander demanded he prove he wasn’t married.

“I had to go to the courthouse to prove I was single,” Rick remembered, chuckling.

Two month later, they were married. Within a year they had a child.

A year later, things in their lives took a radical turn for the better. His contracting business grew, and Alexander finally got a job that ensured her family would have all they needed, working as a clerk at the Post Office in Monroe.

Fulfilling a last wish

Alexander’s long struggle has all paid off now.

Her son, now 16, is a good student and speaks three languages.

Rick willingly took up responsibility for

helping her family get through the hard times, eventually buying land in Vietnam and building two homes there to house them all.

Alexander still assists her family in Vietnam. But the economy there has improved, and many have found jobs. They no longer live in fear of starvation.

She loves her job in Monroe, where she is a familiar face to an entire generation of residents after 16 years.

“Everywhere I go, the kids come up and say, ‘Hello, Julie,’” she said. “It’s a little overwhelming. Everyone knows me! I love the people in this town. Every single one of them.”

And in 2009, she fulfilled her father’s last request, traveling to China to meet his family there.

It was after that trip that Alexander began writing her book. Encouraged by her husband, she sent it to two publishers, and the second one, a small publisher of Christian books, inspired by the quiet faith Julie references periodically throughout the book, offered her a contract.

The book was released last month, and soon she will appear at local book signings.

Today, when she and Rick visit her homeland, they are greeted as near-royalty.

“She should be the queen of Vietnam,” Rick said emphatically. “She is the only reason they all survived. Now, when we show up, the whole town comes out, and everyone is just rejoicing. And we have a dinner and roast a couple of pigs.”

People often approach her, saying they want to go to America to become rich like her.

It makes her angry sometimes, she said, when they act as if her success was merely the result of a plane ticket to a new country, instead of the decades-long ordeal it was.

“I tell them, it’s not easy,” she said. “They don’t know how hard I struggled.”  “A Rose on the Steel Ground” by Julie Loan Ky Alexander can be found at Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

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asianweekly northwest

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MARCH 22 – MARCH 28, 2014