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Fri | January 27, 2006
next meeting
The next meeting will be on Saturday, February 11th.
Posted by Lily at 05:43 PM
Sat | January 21, 2006
Charles Kim
I had an English teacher in high school who one day handed out small notebooks to everyone, called them journals and told us we could write anything we wanted in them as long as it was more than one page and that we wrote something new every week. Like a diary? No. Couldn’t be too private or personal or pornographic because she was going to read it and grade it and for the length of the assignment we would be chosen at random to read an entry. I started doing it. Kept it up. On the day she called on me. I was ready. I wrote a story about a baseball player, standing in the outfield beneath a high fly ball at the bottom of the 9th inning at the World Series, bases loaded, two men out, deciding game. For twelve pages I described the thoughts running through his head as the ball plunged toward him. It began with the fear of letting the ball drop, which he had never let happen before in his dazzling career, but knew full well that there was always a first time. It ended with what he imagined he would be thinking at the end of his life, on his deathbed, as he looked back upon this day. Whether he actually caught the ball or not, I decided to leave out. The story was called “Pressure”. It was both personal and private because it expressed pressures in my own life at the time, straight A’s, perfect SAT scores, Ivy League schools, doctor or lawyer, dropping the ball. But, as instructed, it was not a diary entry. It was fiction. And writing it made me feel better about things. When the assignment ended, she encouraged us all to keep writing, not just for grades, for teachers, for money, for notoriety. But to keep writing for ourselves. More than 25 years later I still do. And will never stop. One of my favorite quotes is, “Learn as much by writing as by reading.” A quote by Lord Acton, the 19h century historian who was the same guy who said, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” I also enjoy films, music, and books. Good books I’ve read recently: “The Sportswriter” and “Independence Day” both by Richard Ford. “Atonement”, “Black Dog” and “Saturday” by Ian McEwen. “Underworld” by Don DeLillo. “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo. “Life of Pi” by Yan Martel. And I recently discovered Stephen Dixon by way of “Phone Rings”. I’m also a fan of Bukowski, Hubert Selby, Jr., Philip K. Dick and William Gibson. My favorite Asian American novel is “Face” by Aimee E. Liu.
Posted by Charles at 01:04 AM | Comments (6)
Fri | January 20, 2006
Jan 15 meeting
date: Sunday, January 15
time: 1:00 pm
place: New York Public Library, 5th Av. and 41st St.
attendees: Chee-Ming Hung, Charles Kim, Shalene Monahan, John Ming Lee, Tsz Fong, Lily Huang, Andrew Wu
The NYPL was given a chance at redemption and it translated beautifully. It will definitely be a site for future meetings. There were no new prompts, but I brought old agendas whose prompts constituted a variety of ideas.
Posted by Lily at 10:00 AM
Tue | January 17, 2006
Chee-Ming Hung: Name Calling
I've walked up to Asians, introduced myself as Chee-Ming, and in the silence of them figuring out what the hell I just said, have added, "it's German."
1 in 4 fall for it. These people are retarded.
1 in 4 refer to me the rest of the time as "Jimmy," which sounds similar in loud and dance beat-friendly surroundings, so they are excused. It was a nickname I incorporated briefly in my life, during a time when being more American to white America was as appealing as an all-you-can-eat pie buffet. This change was not excusable. Please forgive me.
The rest of this focus group (2 out of 4) simply do what I expect most to do: ignore it. They will then introduce me to others as 'you' or 'this guy' until I explain myself again, flash a business card, or write my name on the blackboard, in big cursive letters, for all to observe and remark with, "Oh, I thought it was C-H-I. Weird."
No one gets it fully, and that suits me just fine.
It is a name given to me at birth, one which will be taken to my grave (Gee, I hope that never happens!), and will be questioned during every first impression in-between. I am proud of it, and enjoy the idea of people who have never met me mistaking me for either a mainland Chinaman with half my teeth missing, or a girl.
That's it. Thanks for coming. Now off you go.
Posted by Chee-Ming at 07:19 PM | Comments (11)
Mon | January 09, 2006
next meeting
Sunday, January 15
1 PM
New York Public Library
The Asian & Middle Eastern Division
5th Avenue by 42nd St.
Directions:
From the main foyer, take the stairs to the left. Go up one flight of stairs only. There is a hall to the right with open arches facing the front of the building. In fact if you look up as you walk in you will see these arches.
In the middle of this hall on the left is another hall, marked by a sign that says "Asian & Middle Eastern Division." There are tables visible from this junction, and that is where the meeting will be.
Posted by Lily at 03:55 PM
Sat | January 07, 2006
Gift Culture
This prompt was taken from the GRE issue essay topics pool. The idea is to take a position on the statement and "present your perspective" on the issue.
"To truly understand your own culture—no matter how you define it—requires personal knowledge of at least one other culture, one that is distinctly different from your own."
As a person of Asian descent raised amidst American culture, I have much first-hand experience with cross-cultural disconnections. Much of what I know about Asian culture comes from trying to understand why my instinctive behavior is so dysfunctional in American society. It is true that to understand what something is, you must understand what it is not.
Intuitively, I have a reflexive desire to give gifts to others. This differs from the massive stint of gift-giving which occurs around the holiday season in the United States. It is common in Asian culture to give small gifts, which may not be very special or remarkable, and which are given almost in passing-- for no particular memorable occasion. They are given "just because." Moreover, whereas holiday gifts are often given with the understanding that the person is also going to give you something, these gifts are given freely, with no obligation to reciprocate.
How do I know that gift-giving is an aspect of Asian culture? I have never been told. I learned from my experience with both cultures. The most extended example is a friend I had once, in college. I realized that I gave her a lot of gifts, and she never gave me anything. She simply never thought to. I perceived this pattern in my experience with others, also.
Specifically, I learned from the dysfunctionality of gift-giving between myself (a person of Asian culture), and persons of American culture. Gift-giving "works" in an Asian society because not only do you give things to people, but people give things to you. Although there is no formal or specific obligation to reciprocate, there is a general, open-ended tendency to do so. Otherwise, you give and give, and never get anything back, and something falls out of the equation.
From this I can also extrapolate something more general about Asian culture-- it is oriented towards the other, with a consideration for the others' needs, that is absent in American culture. In Asian culture you look out for others and they look out for you. In American culture, you must take care of yourself.
From personal experience with the differences between cultures, I am able to understand and operate more effectively in both.
Posted by Lily at 01:35 PM | Comments (72)
