INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
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November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017 — 1
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FREE EST. 1974—SEATTLE VOLUME 44, NUMBER 21 — November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017 THE NEWSPAPER OF THE CHINATOWN INTERNATIONAL DISTRICT & ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDER COMMUNITIES OF THE NORTHWEST
Congressional Gold Medal: Filipino veterans honored Photo by Marissa Alves
2 — November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
OPINION
Chinese immigrant’s story displays generational and political gaps, challenges of public trust facing China By Chris Juergens IE Columnist On a recent meeting at a Pacific Northwest Starbucks, Hua Zhang, an immigrant from China to the United States, said he is grateful for the rule of law and individual rights afforded him as a naturalized U.S. citizen. While not an overtly political person, he was detained arbitrarily for being a passive spectator at a pre-Tiananmen democracy rally in the 1980s. Coming to the United States in the early 1990s, he lived for a brief time in China after the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. Witnessing the government’s authoritarian approach after the massacre in maintaining control left him weary to live in China again (it must be noted, however, that his plans to leave China were made prior to the massacre itself). In the late 1990s, he considered moving back to China given the increasing economic opportunity. The freedom and protection of individual rights in the United States, however, was a major pull to remain a resident of the United States. Zhang, as a graduate of a prestigious Chinese university and currently a working professional in the Pacific Northwest, also stated that he possibly could have made more money in China. In the early 1990s, China’s economy began to take off and economic opportunities abounded. Moreover, while he is a strong English speaker, Zhang believes that not being able to speak his native tongue at work has held him back. When Zhang meets friends from university who stayed in China, almost all are economically better off than he and serving in high positions in Chinese industry and government. However, Zhang would not trade his middle-class American life for his friends’ lives because “to get to high positions in government or industry in China, one most likely would have to
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Established in 1974, the International Examiner is the only non-profit pan-Asian and Pacific Islander American media organization in the country. Named after the International District in Seattle, the “IE” strives to create awareness within and for our APA communities. 409 Maynard Ave. S. #203, Seattle, WA 98104. (206) 624-3925. iexaminer@iexaminer.org.
be bribed and even possibly ‘kill’ to get there.” He pities his friends because “it must weigh on their consciences what they have done to get where they are.” Moreover, his friends are undoubtedly “beholden to the government” for their positions. According to Zhang, the Chinese government can literally take away the wealth and power of anyone who does not bend to their will. In the United States, his modest house and wealth are his and no government can take that away from him.
Despite this, Zhang’s father is not willing to listen to criticism about the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). His uncritical acceptance of the CCP is a testament as much to China’s closed political system as it is to an unwillingness to confront the contradictions in a political system Zhang’s father helped create. As a veteran of the Korean War who went to military school and worked for the Chinese government, Zhang’s father’s education and career left no room for Zhang’s take on his friends’ dissent. predicament is confirmed by the exodus Zhang’s father also sees the United of Chinese money from China to the States as an enemy and does not United States. The reasons of Chinese believe China should have freedom capital flight range from fears about of speech or democracy. His father the future of the Chinese economy to sees the lack of democratic freedom a desire by wealthy Chinese to live in China as a worthy price for in less polluted nations. However, a maintaining national unity and lesser discussed reason is that those stability. National unity and stability in powerful positions in Chinese are necessary, according to Zhang’s government and industry fear that father, because China is under threat their assets may be confiscated in the from the United States. The United event of changing political winds. As States is trying to subvert China’s discussed by zerohedge.com’s Tyler rise as a major world power. Durden, Luo Yu, the son of a former Zhang stated that he “feels sorry chief of staff of China’s military, said for his father” who was “thoroughly China’s most politically powerful brainwashed.” As a result, Zhang has families had been transferring money struggled to have conversations with his out of the country for some time. father that hint at challenging official “They don’t believe they will hold on Chinese Communist Party dogma. to power long enough—sooner or later An emigrant with U.S. citizenship, they would collapse,” said Mr. Luo, a Zhang has no need to uphold a vision former colonel in the Chinese Army. “So they transfer their money.” Chen Jiang, a Chinese citizen and former researcher for an American media outlet in China, confirmed that many wealthy Chinese believe their positions to be precarious. “Chinese people remember the upheavals of the Mao years and more recently how the government can move against enemies without restraint. The government is an arbitrary force in China that is not constrained by laws and is often used by individuals to take out their enemies.”
IE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ron Chew, President Gary Iwamoto, Secretary Arlene Oki, At-Large Jordan Wong, At-Large Peggy Lynch, At-Large Nam Le, At-Large COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER Lexi Potter lexi@iexaminer.org
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that upholds the righteousness of the CCP. He also has access to critical information that is censored and suppressed in China that allow him space to create his own opinions. Tellingly, when first asked to be interviewed, Zhang was extremely reticent. He was worried about how his views on China’s government might impact his ability to obtain a Chinese visa in the future. He asked that the Examiner use a pseudonym and made clear he did not want the interview taped. The extent to which Zhang’s children’s generation—both in China and the United States—continue to follow the corrupt ways to rise to wealth and power, leave China completely for safety, and speak out openly without fear (or despite fear) of reprisal will be a major determinant in the future of China’s politics.
Correction In the October 4, 2017 issue of the International Examiner, the Pathways to Health column titled, “The health of our community begins with a vote,” was supposed to be titled, “Many still need help understanding health insurance.” The IE regrets the error.
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CONTRIBUTORS Chris Juergens Leilani Leach Chi-Wei Chia Rachel Ferro Hazel Lozano Cindy Domingo Marissa Alves Aya Bisbee
Chizu Omori Susan Kunimatsu Maisy Chan Bunthay Cheam
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COMMUNITY VOICES
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017 — 3
Many Asian Americans don’t know they have diabetes I’ve eaten the same food my whole life and doesn’t happen overnight and it’s important I don’t know how to cook and eat anything to understand that patients don’t come in else. I don’t like the taste of anything else.” here with just diabetes. They come in with International Community Health Services many other issues such as high cholesterol, (ICHS) nutritionist Aliya Haq understands hypertension, heart disease and other this dilemma all too well. “Cultural habits quality of life issues.”
Pathways to Health By International Community Health Services May, who does not wish to use her real name, felt tired and sluggish for months but didn’t think she needed to see a doctor. “Who doesn’t feel tired?” she asked. “I thought it would just go away and I wouldn’t have to think about it.” Her symptoms did not go away and a visit to the doctor revealed a life-changing diagnosis of type 2 diabetes. “I couldn’t believe it when the doctor told me I had it,” said May, a 53-year-old woman of Chinese decent. “I felt scared and angry that this was happening to me and I was worried for my family. Being sick is expensive in America.” According to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in 2016, Asian Americans are 10% more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes than Caucasian Americans. According to research released from the National Institutes of Health and the CDC in 2015, more than half of Asian Americans with the condition are unaware. Silence, a lack of awareness and late onset of symptoms until other health problems emerge conspire to create a silent killer. May had not known of the CDC’s recommendation that people 45 years of age and older regularly check their blood sugar levels. According to the CDC, diabetes is a long-lasting disease that affects how the body turns food into energy. A person has the disease when blood glucose or blood sugar levels are too high. Neglecting to control blood sugar levels can cause long-
and foods are hard to change,’ she said. “I “I’m trying to eat good healthy food and understand that food is a social thing and I I walk every day for as long as I can,” said don’t just give a leaflet on healthy eating and May, ”I know I have to get more exercise to ask them to eat more vegetables and stop stay healthy.” eating white rice.” November is American Diabetes Month, Lifestyle changes can dramatically make when communities across the country a difference in quality of life for patients bring attention to diabetes and its impact as well as their families. In addition to on millions of Americans. For more medication, altering diet and increasing information about diabetes screenings, Alya Haq, nutrition services supervisor at International activity are the best practices for diabetes contact a health care provider at a nearby management. According to a 2013 Johns ICHS clinic, or call: 206-788-3650. Community Health Services. • Courtesy Photo Hopkins study, losing 10% of body weight term organ damage and other health issues. can reduce the risk of developing type 2 About ICHS Ignoring diabetes can lead to serious diabetes by 85%. Founded in 1973, ICHS is a nonmedical conditions such as cardiovascular The diagnosis can be overwhelming and profit community health center offering disease, kidney disorders, diabetic foot and many people walk away in fear, Haq said. affordable primary medical and dental eye disorders, and other health issues. “I spend 75% of my time listening to them,” care, acupuncture, laboratory, pharmacy, Family history, obesity, diet and an she confirmed. “I think this is the key to behavioral health, WIC, and health inactive lifestyle are contributing factors. understanding their lifestyle and ensuring education services. ICHS’ four full-service medical, dental, and vision clinics—located “I didn’t think I was overweight and their compliance.” I eat food cooked at home, but my sugar Haq acknowledges success takes time and in Seattle’s International District and Holly number was high,” said May. The number effort, as well as collaboration between the Park neighborhoods; and in the cities of May is referring to is the result of the A1C patient and their medical team. “We have Bellevue and Shoreline—serve nearly test, a common blood test used in diagnosis. to work together to be more effective and 29,000 patients each year. As the only Having a normal body weight can delay a better benefit the patient,” said Haq. “It’s so community health center in Washington diagnosis. For decades, doctors have used important. Knowledge and information are primarily serving Asians and Pacific Body Mass Index (BMI) as a calculator for the best tools against this disease. Together Islanders, ICHS provides care in over 50 languages and dialects annually. ICHS obesity, a major risk factor for this disease. we can make a difference.” is committed to improving the health of Asian Americans tend to have lower BMI The payoffs of proactive diabetes medically-underserved communities by than their American peers, which can screening and management are tangible. providing affordable and in-language health obscure other risk factors. care. For more information, please visit: “I had a patient whose A1C numbers “It’s hard,” said May. “The doctor told www.ichs.com. dropped from 11.7 to 5.7,” she said. “He was me to change what I eat. How can I do that? so happy that he was dancing in my office. It
‘At 66 I feel the best I ever have’ By International Community Health Services
Maria Teresa Diaz had been feeling lethargic and low for a while. A busy grandmother in her mid-60s, she spent years looking after others, often neglecting her own health. She had gotten used to being overweight and hadn’t felt the need to change. “I had been feeling really low and down in the dumps. I had no energy and just had no life in me,” she said. A trip to the doctor led to harsh and eyeopening news. He told Maria that, unless she made some big changes, she could expect to have a heart attack within 10 years. She was pre-diabetic and needed to watch her heart health. She left his office determined to turn her life around. “I have three beautiful grandchildren and all I could think in the doctor’s office was that I wanted to live for them,” she said. “I’ve worked too hard to die young.” Maria began almost immediately with new habits and a new routine. “I started going to the UW weight clinic near U Village and asked to see a counselor and nutritionist,” she said. “I couldn’t do it without them and they really supported me.”
Maria Teresa Diaz found diet and exercise are good medicine against diabetes. • Courtesy Photo
Armed with nutrition information and assistance, Maria joined the YMCA in Shoreline and started working out. Soon she was a regular, making new friends and enjoying a revived social life around working out. “In the beginning it was hard,” she admits. “Change is never easy.” The new lifestyle grew on her and became routine. Today, Maria attends water aerobics in the morning and then lifts weights in the evening. “I am so motivated by the trainer there,” she said, praising his empathy as
someone who had also lost weight and overcome health issues. With the purchase of a home blood glucose testing kit, Maria made sure to check her numbers and weigh herself every three weeks at the clinic. Her efforts have paid off and in just over a year she has lost 20 lbs. ”More important than the weight, my sugar number is at 85,” she said proudly, referring to her blood glucose levels. “It was much higher before.”
Maria says the results are worth the effort. More energy has given her a new lease on life and is helping her keep up with her grandkids, “I was so happy and I could move about faster.” Maria has advice for people who are at the beginning of her journey, “Stop feeling sorry for yourself and making excuses. We didn’t get overweight overnight and we aren’t going to lose it overnight.” She laughs, “I’m addicted to it now. Even if I’m sick I still go to work out.” Maria has become her own best advocate at the International Community Health Services (ICHS) Shoreline Clinic, where she is seen by the nutritionist and works with a medical team to keep her health in check. “My plan is to get off blood pressure medication,” she said. “At 66, I feel the best I ever have.” Maria’s story is a reminder of the impact diet and exercise have on quality of life. She is happy knowing she now has plenty of time to enjoy her grandchildren. “I don’t deny myself the good things,” Maria said, laughing. “I just have them in moderation. I feel so alive.”
4 — November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
Announcements ‘Duterte’s War’ discussion happens on ‘Living Dangerously: Investigative November 22 Reporting from Marcos to Duterte’ on “Duterte’s War: Discussing the Current November 2 Crisis in the Philippines and Beyond” happens on Wednesday, November 22 at 7:00 p.m. at Third Place Books-Seward Park (5041 Wilson Ave. S, Seattle WA). The evening also marks the launch of two new books: Motherless Tongues and A Time to Rise. The discussion features authors Cindy Domingo and Vincente Rafael.
Youth Leadership Seminar Series on November 18 The Youth Leadership Seminar Series presents “Nonprofits–Leadership and Advocacy for Social Justice on Saturday, November 18 from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Keiro Northwest Rehabilitation & Care Center, Garden and Kimochi Rooms (1601 E Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98144). The seminar looks at the basics of a 501(c)(3) organization and the “do’s and don’ts” of political advocacy for a non-profit organization (NPO). What is non-political? What is non-partisan? What are the IRS requirements and State of Washington statutes governing 501(c)(3) groups? What are limitations on fundraising? When can a 501(c) (3) be liable in fundraising events or volunteer events? Continental Breakfast and Lunch provided. Free, but prior registration required. Register at jaclleadershipnonprofits.eventbrite.com.
New Holly Voting Party on November 3 A New Holly Voting Party happens on Friday, November 3 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at New Holly Gathering Hall (7054 32nd Ave. S, Seattle, WA). Bring your ballots, all are welcome. Interpretation is available in many languages. Music, dancing, food, and fun for all ages. The event is a place to celebrate voter engagement and democracy. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/ events/1945216872425790.
Award winning journalist and Philippine author Raissa Robles will speak at “Living Dangerously: Investigative Reporting from Marcos to Duterte” on Thursday, November 2 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Filipino Community Center (5740 Martin Luther King Jr. Way South, Seattle, WA).
International Special Review District Board announces candidates for annual election The 2017 International Special Review District (ISRD) Board election will be held on Tuesday, November 21, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Bush Asia Hotel (409 Maynard Avenue South) in the plaza-level meeting room. Two candidates are seeking Position #1 for a Business Owner, Property Owner, or Employee: David Leong is a business owner and kung fu and lion dance instructor with a 40+ year history in the neighborhood. He was the Greater Seattle Chinese Chamber of Commerce President in 2016 and helped start the New Chinese American Chamber of Commerce. Kevin Man is an employee of a development company based in the Chinatown International District. He is of Chinese decent and has lived in the Puget Sound region for over 30 years. He is interested in bringing his financial and accounting background to the work of the Board and supporting the Asian culture of the Chinatown International District. One candidate is seeking Position #2 for Resident, Tenant, or Community Participant: Russ Williams works for a general contracting firm, based out of Little Saigon. He believes that preservation is beneficial for preserving a community’s culture, as well as its local economy, and that historic buildings help to maintain a sense of permanency and heritage for the Chinatown International District.
One candidate is seeking Position #4 for Resident, Tenant or Community Participant: Tom Cheng is a member of the Bing Kung Family Association and an honorary advisor to the Chong Wa Benevolent Association board. He owned and operated a business in the neighborhood for over 25 years. He previously served on the ISRD Board in 2004-2005.
COMMUNITY
NEWS
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017 — 5
Candidates for mayor, City Council, and the Port present their platforms for the API community By Leilani Leach IE Contributor
Gonzalez said single-family housing was not the solution for housing affordability, while Murakami said “tearing down carbon-neutral homes that are well-built is not the answer.”
Civic leaders and members of the Asian Pacific Islander (API) community filled Nagomi Tea House on October 12 to hear local candidates’ appeals before the November 7 general election.
“Developers should serve us, we should not be serving developers,” Murakami said.
The API Candidates Forum was moderated by KIRO TV’s Deedee Sun and emceed by community leader Maria Batayola. Translation was provided in Mandarin, Cantonese, and Vietnamese.
Port Commission Candidates for three open Port of Seattle Commission seats highlighted their positions on economic growth, sustainability, and immigration, while focusing on the Port’s role in creating jobs and fueling the economy.
Mayoral candidates Cary Moon and Jenny Durkan presented their visions for the city and how they would tackle issues facing the API community.
“Everyone in King County pays taxes into the Port; everyone should share in Port prosperity,” said Position 3 incumbent John Creighton.
They both emphasized the importance of affordable housing, particularly for seniors, and encouraging small business development. Each also advocated for greater representation of the API community in city leadership.
The two candidates for mayor: Jenny Durkan (left) and Cary Moon (right) • Photo by Leilani Leach
“I want people around me as mayor While working on the Pioneer Square who are going to reflect this city and these neighborhood plan, Moon said she realized communities,” Durkan said. that the Chinatown International District is Moon said there is an imbalance of “the most diverse, most precious, and most power across Seattle and a need for greater at-risk” of Seattle’s neighborhoods. representation across gender, class, and “If we get [the solutions] right here, we race, particularly for the API community. can get them right everywhere,” she said. “You’ve been locked out of power too City Council Position 8 long,” she said. Jon Grant and Teresa Mosqueda are When given the opportunity to ask her opponent a question, Durkan asked competing for City Council Position Moon what she would do to find the 8, an at-large position representing the killer of Donnie Chin, the beloved entire city rather than one district. The founder of the International District seat was vacated by Tim Burgess when Emergency Center, who was shot and he announced he was retiring (Burgess has since assumed the role of mayor killed two years ago. after former mayor Ed Murray’s resigned Moon said the police needed to listen following allegations of child sexual to the community and make them feel abuse). heard, and to share more info on the Grant emphasized the need for bold investigation. She said she’d double down policies to address inequality and on outreach. Mosqueda pushed for community-led Moon also said there needed to be a change by people with lived experience unified police precinct, rather than the of the issues, highlighting her own current situation, with two police precincts experience as a woman of color. splitting the neighborhood, one covering Grant wants to require developers to set Chinatown International District and the aside 25 percent of new development as other covering Little Saigon. affordable. This is a large increase from the Durkan said she’d push for a larger current Mandatory Housing Affordability reward for information on Chin’s killer, plan, in which only seven percent of and distribute flyers in multiple languages. housing in the CID would be set aside as And she’d expect police to review the affordable. investigation’s status and brief her within “The city’s affordable housing plan is not her first few weeks in office. affordable to this community,” Grant said. “This community lost a lot in public Mosqueda spoke about her work with safety, and we have to make up that The American Federation of Labor and difference,” Durkan said. Congress of Industrial Organizations The candidates challenged each other (AFL-CIO), and said she wanted to create on who was better prepared to lead a health plan for everyone, regardless of the city, with Durkan highlighting her citizenship status, while also improving experience with Seattle law enforcement access to child care. issues, such as the consent decree she “It’s about how we address the inequity in helped implement while she was U.S. education, in health outcomes, in opportunity Attorney for Western Washington, and Moon focusing on her urban planning in our community,” Mosqueda said. experience.
City Council Position 9
He said a second regional airport is needed for cargo, and that federal restrictions on Port money needed to be changed by Congress in order to make it easier to invest in the surrounding community.
His opponent Ryan Calkins said the Pat Murakami is challenging Lorena Port can facilitate immigration, and he González for City Council Position 9, would like to make it a sanctuary port. also an at-large position. He said the region needs more high-speed Murakami focused on housing rail, and to not be as reliant on short-haul affordability and public safety, while flights. Referencing the Sound Transit light González highlighted her work for rail expansion, he said “that discussion immigrants. needs to start a generation before.” Seattle only has 60 percent as many For Position 4, Ahmed Abdi is police officers as a city its size should, challenging incumbent Stephanie González said. Bowman. She also said city policies need to Abdi said he’s running because the Port change, such as how street improvements has for a “long time neglected the people are funded, comparing the current [who] live around airport’s values and process to The Hunger Games. needs.” González said she wanted to double Position 1 candidate Preeti Shridhar the legal defense fund for those facing was absent and represented by her deportation. campaign manager against opponent “I’m the proud daughter of Peter Steinbrueck. immigrants,” she said. The general election is on November 7.
Candidates for Port of Seattle Commissioner Position 4, one of three open Port Commission seats on the ballot: Ahmed Abdi (left) and Stephanie Bowman (right) • Photo by Leilani Leach
6 — November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
NEWS
LimeBike founder reflects on success of bike sharing network By Rachel Ferro UW Newslab In just five months since their first market launch at University of Carolina, Greensboro, dockless bike sharing company LimeBike has amassed over 300,000 registered users in 20 city and university markets. Bike share programs with parking stations known as docks charge cities up to $5,000 per bike for installation and maintenance. This also results in limited docks and fewer accessible bikes. Eliminating docks makes it free for cities to implement bike sharing programs, and by doing so, LimeBike has seen massive growth in its national markets, with Seattle being the leader, according to co-founder and CEO Toby Sun. What began as two college friends’ idea to make American bike sharing more affordable and accessible became a multi-million-dollar business with plans for global expansion. After working together for three years at Kinzon Capital doing international investments, co-founders and University of California Berkeley alumni and Brad Bao and Toby Sun realized the demand to expand dockless bike sharing in the United States. “Brad and I first started as two crazy guys trying to figure out what can we do in the U.S. market,” Sun said. “We did investments in both the U.S. and Chinese markets and we got an opportunity to build our knowledge base by learning the two.” The first bike sharing program began in 2007 in Paris and since then, the programs have become increasingly popular in international markets. China alone currently has 16 million bikes deployed from 70 companies. LimeBike is learning from the global experience of dockless bike sharing, according to Director of Marketing and Communications Jack Song. The Asian market provides a prime example for the company to localize to the
UW student Margeurite Henderson rides a LimeBike on campus. • Photo by Rachel Ferro
United States with adjustments to mechanics in the bikes like basket and pedal size and tires that do not go flat. It has been a six-year journey in creating the business for Sun, Bao, and co-founders Charlie Gao and Adam Zhang. Yet in less than a year of operation, LimeBike has managed 50 percent growth on a weekly basis, according to Song. At their current growth rate and if expansion is executed according to the company’s plans, the business will serve as the largest dockless bike share program in North America by this time next year. By the end of 2017, LimeBike plans to increase their bicycle fleet by 50,000-70,000 in over 30 American locations with more than $62 million in total funding and is projecting global expansion in 2018. The bright green fleet are eight-gear bicycles with a GPS system, 3G connectivity, a basket, solar panel, and an anti-theft lock with an alarm system. The price to ride is set at $1 for 30 minutes or 50 cents for students.
GPS tracking through the smartphone application allows riders to locate the nearest bike to their specific location and be able to pick up and drop off bikes virtually anywhere. Accessibility was the key for Sun in the startup stages of the business. As an avid bike rider as a child and throughout his college years, he found it impossible to transport a bike in high density areas. Sun explained that the LimeBike team faces barriers every day with increasing accessibility, both with mechanics and allowing customers to obtain a ride in as few taps as possible on the application. “A lot of people think bikes are a no-brainer. It turns out this is not the case especially for hardware. We’ve done many variations and adjust to customers’ needs,” Sun said. University of Washington is one of eight universities that currently serve as a market for the company. “You can’t go more than a couple of blocks in Seattle without seeing a LimeBike,” said University of Washington student Thu Aung said. “They’re becoming a household name at this point.” The Seattle market alone has seen multiple expansions since LimeBike’s launch in July 2017 when 500 bikes were deployed. One month later the fleet grew to 1,000 and currently there are 2,500 operational bicycles in the greater Seattle area. “I have been obsessed with this great city, observing so many kinds of people applying to our Seattle office, Seattle operations team, and a lot of young professionals riding our bikes increasing green transportation and changing the landscape,” Sun said. In March of this past year, Seattle’s former docked bike sharing program, Pronto, was shut down due to low ridership and high costs of expansion for the city to install new parking stations. This left a hole in the market for competitors who were willing to troubleshoot its flaws.
“Both the city and LimeBike have the intent to do better,” Sun said. “Seattle was a stand out market with their commitment to working on bike projects. We can definitely do better than what Pronto has done before, we overcome a lot of challenges that they had faced: coverage, bike deployment, and mobility.” Sun explained that LimeBike provides anonymous data to the cities they are employed in. The data notes where riders pick up and drop off bikes as well as where they ride and what are popular routes to allow those cities to know in what areas to increase accessibility for commuters. Seattle neighborhoods that have seen high ridership had never before been considered areas with mass demand for greater bike access. Sun used Columbia City and the University of Washington as examples of places the city is looking into expanding bike lanes and developing safer infrastructure for bikers. “We want to provide as many bikes as Seattle needs. This is a huge market with so many demands, it can easily fit 20,000 bikes if not more, but we are taking a careful approach and expanding by demand,” Sun said. LimeBike has now provided over half of a million trips total in all 20 nationwide markets and numbers are likely to rise as they plan to launch in one or two new markets per week for the remainder of 2017, according to Song. Responding to the company’s incredible success, Sun offers advice on what he has taken away from being a young entrepreneur in an ever-expanding market. “I think this is a great era in time for entrepreneurs,” Sun said. “Technology has been evolving so fast and there are so many things we can improve for people and for enterprises. If new professionals want to create their own business this is the time. Find out what motivates you and what you can do better based on your own story.”
ACLF helps to empower future API leaders By Chi-Wei Chia UW Newslab The Asian Pacific Islander Community Leadership Foundation (ACLF) was created to help prepare API leaders to find careers in government, give voice to the underserved API community, and fight against poverty. Compared to the general population, the API community has seen a much steeper increase in poverty in recent years. Between 2007 and 2014, APIs in the U.S. saw a 50-percent increase in poverty, according to a 2016 report from The National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement. The increase was 71 percent in the Pacific Islander community, From 2012 to 2015, the number of APIs in the United States living in poverty had increased by about 1.4 million, according to data from the United States Census Bureau. ACLF is a community-based nonprofit organization founded in 1998, with the mission to support and empower the Asian Pacific Islander community in matters of civic engagement, social justice, community empowerment, and public service. ACLF’s Community Leadership Program is a six-month program that holds bi-weekly sessions and workshops with retreats at the beginning, middle, and end.
The organization and the program were started to address a lack of API presence in local government. “Back at the time, [with] a lot of the government division in Olympia, there was no representation by the APIs,” said Randon Aea, Board Chair of the ACLF. The lack of representation meant the community’s needs were often not being met. A group of API leaders, including CEO of Keiro Northwest Jeffrey Hattori, Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council Diana Sheythe, and Former member of Washington State Representatives Kip Tokuda, recognized this problem and founded the ACLF and started the Community Leadership Program to way to give more representation to the API community and ready those future leaders for jobs in the government. Over the years, although the foundation’s mission of training API leaders for government jobs hasn’t changed, the purpose of the program expanded to also training them for jobs in nonprofit and for-profit organizations and in all sectors of the community, said Aea. “Our vision and strategy are more holistic now, to think beyond just political power, but community power, community voice,” said Justin Chan, an ACLF board member who participated in the Community Leadership Program in 2011.
“It’s about empowering our future leaders in the communities, through their identities as Asian Pacific Islander to better understand different styles of communication, different styles of leadership, and different styles of power that should be embraced as an Asian Pacific Islander,” said Chan. Brandon Hadi, a current member of the program, said he got to know more about himself and bond with his peers at the ACLF opening retreat. The retreats allow the cohort to get away for a weekend and engage in selfknowledge and group activities. “That identity development has been instrumental for my leadership development, which I think is often overlooked in leadership programs,” said Hadi. The program encourages cohorts to reach out to the community with workshops and group projects so they can build a more personal relationship with the community. “I have a much stronger sense of the world not because of the workshops and top-down knowledge or definitions, but because the program challenges you to live it,” said Hadi. The program also encourages cohorts to be open-minded and embrace different styles of leadership that don’t necessarily reflect their own perspectives or values. “I learned new approaches to leadership, how to account for my own internal biases,
how to build and participate in a team, the problems that can arise in a group project, and the unique challenges involved in being a leader for the Asian and Pacific Islander communities,” said Joseph Lachman, one of the current members of the program. Other than self-identity development and community outreach, community mentorship is also a key way of training and empowering the API community, said Chan. Former Washington State Representative Kip Tokuda, who died in 2013, was one of the founding members of the ACLF. “[Tokuda] was all about coaching and mentoring and paving the way and paying forward for the future generation,” said Chan. Learning the history of the community and wisdom from the elders of the community, and passing that knowledge on to the next generation is a big part of what the leadership program is about, said Chan. However, the foundation also challenges the cohorts to start building and passing on their own story and narrative. “We’re helping our cohorts to understand how they can be the next Kip Tokuda, and to not just pass on the history, but to help them understand what true leadership means to them,” said Chan. “Kip Tokuda left a really enduring legacy that we, as the board of directors, hope to continue.”
COMMUNITY
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017 — 7
8 — November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
NEWS COMMENTARY
Filipino WWII veterans receive Congressional Gold Medal By Cindy Domingo IE Contributor U.S. history is full of broken promises made especially to people of color. Last week, Congress took another step in the right direction to make good on a promise to 250,000 Filipino World War II veterans who fought alongside U.S. Armed Forces in the Philippines. I was honored to be amongst those in attendance with my niece and nephew to receive my father’s long awaited recognition and medal. In all, over 30 people made up the Washington state delegation led by retired Brigadier General Oscar Hillman, Thelma Sevilla, and Zenaida Crisostomo Slemp. In a moving and emotional ceremony on October 25, members of Congress presented the Congressional Gold Medal (CGM) to these veterans, 70 years after the promise to treat them as U.S. veterans, with full benefits and U.S. citizenship, was rescinded by Congress and signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The CGM is the highest civilian award presented by Congress, along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to persons “who have performed an achievement that has an impact on American history and culture that is likely to be recognized as a major achievement in the recipient’s field long after the achievement.” Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) referred to these veterans as “great liberators” and in presenting the medal stated that, “Let this ceremony serve to ensure that those who fought for freedom are never forgotten and are always remembered.” Leadership of Congress presenting also included House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Senator Mazie Hirono, Democratic Senator from Hawai‘i and sponsor of the bill that resulted in the CGM detailed the long road for recognition of the Filipino veterans. She concluded that, “Their story of struggle and perseverance have touched so many of us in Washington, and that’s why so many of us fought so hard to award the Filipino veterans of WWII the CGM. ... It is our responsibility as public servants and Americans to honor each veteran in the same way that they honored our country.” Hirono acknowledged the role of the late Senator Daniel Inouye, a WWII veteran who served with the Japanese American 442nd U.S. Regimental Combat Team, in
Congress presented the Congressional Gold Medal to Filipino World War II veterans on October 25, 2017. • Photo by Marissa Alves
championing the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Act that resulted in monetary payment to these veterans for their service. Representative Tulsi Gabbard from the 2nd District of Hawai‘i and prime sponsor of the house bill for the CGM, acknowledged the grassroots movement that led to the CGM. She recognized Retired Army Major General Antonio Taguba, whose father was also a WWII Filipino veteran, the Filipino Veterans Recognition, and Education Project, and families of the veterans. However, it was 100-year-old Filipino veteran Celestino Almeda who captured the hearts and minds of those at the Emancipation Hall ceremony in the Capitol and received a standing ovation when he announced his name and age. Walking from his wheelchair armed only with his cane, Almeda climbed the steps to the podium assisted by a soldier. With his head barely visible, Almeda’s strong voice spoke for the handful of live veterans and the many who could not be there and those who had passed away waiting for recognition. “After the war, thousands of us felt underappreciated and unrecognized for fighting for our country. I wondered why and what else could we have done in defeating the enemy, in defending the United States of America and bringing victory during a long war in the Philippines. But we stand loyal to our country, relied on our faith and prayer. We thank the lord for watching over us during this long ordeal,” Almeda stated. Almeda’s own petition for veteran’s benefits was just recently certified by the Veterans Administration after
Cindy Domingo and Petra Ruiz, who was only 14 years old when she volunteered for a Philippine-type ROTC during World War II. • Courtesy Photo
long being denied because of insufficient evidence of his service. Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin told the audience at the CGM ceremony that he directed his staff to review the records and decided to award Almeda the one-time payment of $15,000 under the Filipino Veterans Equity Compensation Act. The CGM ceremony was followed a couple of hours later with the awarding of individual bronze replicas to 21 live veterans, ranging in age from late 80s to 100 years old, and close to 400 medals to attending families of deceased Filipino veterans. Dean Delen, who was on our bus, carried out his service in Batangas, Philippines and had just celebrated his 92nd birthday. He was accompanied by his proud grandson and daughter. Delen traveled from San Francisco but had also lived for many years in Puyallup, WA. As he descended from the bus, he waved to all of us and said in his native tongue, “God bless you and God bless all of this country.” Amongst the live veterans honored were five women. Petra Ruiz traveled from Oklahoma with her two daughters Maria Ruiz and Grace Pascuale. Petra was only 14 years old when she volunteered for a Philippine-type ROTC. Her daughter stated that Petra’s choices were glee club or the ROTC program—Petra decided she didn’t want to sing. At age 15, the war broke out and Petra served as a nurse taking care of the wounded. Petra never talked much about the war and her experiences, according to her daughters, and as I talked with family
members of other soldiers, I surmised this was common in most veterans’ families. One can only imagine the trauma that these soldiers, most in their teens and early 20s, suffered. The medals presented at the individual awards ceremony only represented a fraction of the possible recipients. Many veterans were too fragile to travel and so regions around the country will hold local awards ceremonies. Most Filipinos know very little about the awards. The waitress at the Ritz Carleton Hotel’s espresso bar wondered why there were so many Filipinos in the hotel. After one of the organizers of the event told her about the CGM, she revealed that her father was a WWII Filipino veteran, a Purple Heart Medal awardee, and that she was able to come to the U.S. because of his service. Another woman, Blesilda Lim from Maryland, found out about the CGM ceremony a week before and successfully pleaded with Taguba and other organizers to allow her father to attend and receive his medal. The ceremonies were attended by over 600 people and while most were joyous at the occasions, I am still haunted by Maria who was seated at our table. As the evening banquet proceeded, Maria placed her father’s picture on the banquet table and stared at it most of the evening. She told me her father, Rafael, passed away in September at the age of 94. All evening I knew what was in her mind and towards the end of the evening we embraced at the back of the room crying— saying to each other how we missed our fathers and that we wished they were here. It was a bittersweet victory as it had taken so long and her father did not live to see a promise made good. Only about 16,000 to 17,000 Filipino WWII veterans are still alive. Each day their numbers dwindle. U.S. history is filled with broken promises. On my last day in D.C., I went to the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I read that during the 1776 American Revolution, the Patriots promised the slaves their freedom if they fought side by side with them. But as we all know, the slaves were not given their freedom until almost 100 years later and they are still fighting for their 40 acres and a mule. For more information on the Filipino WWII Vets, visit www.filvets.org or contact Region 8 Coordinators for the local awards ceremonies.
The CGM is the highest civilian award presented by Congress, along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. • Photo by Marissa Alves
NEWS COMMENTARY
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
On October 25, 2017, members of Congress presented the Congressional Gold Medal (CGM) to Filipino World War II veterans, 70 years after the promise to treat them as U.S. veterans, with full benefits and U.S. citizenship, was rescinded by Congress and signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. • Photo by Marissa Alves
November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017 — 9
Congress took another step in the right direction to make good on a promise to 250,000 Filipino World War II veterans who fought alongside U.S. Armed Forces in the Philippines. The ceremonies were attended by over 600 people • Photo by Marissa Alves
10 — November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017
NEWS
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
Ahmed Abdi wants to make Port of Seattle work for low-income families By Chetanya Robinson IE Assistant Editor
leadership—which is why I’m running. More specifically, as Port Commissioner I will work on establishing systems that ensure the timely, accurate, and consistent release of the Port’s financial and operations information.
Ahmed Abdi is running for Position 3 on the Port of Seattle Commission, against incumbent Stephanie Bowman. It’s his first political race. A refugee from Somalia, Abdi worked on the campaign to bring the $15 minimum wage to SeaTac. He works as Outreach Manager at the Fair Work Center and is on the board of the Seattle Housing Authority. The International Examiner conducted a Q&A with Abdi over email.
IE: How do you see the Port impacting marginalized communities in Seattle, including low income people and communities of color? AA: It’s easy to underestimate the effects of the Port’s decisions on the daily lives of everyone in King County. The Port Commission has a say in who gets hired at the airport and Port of Seattle properties; what rights those employees have; and the environmental standards Seattle will hold big corporations to. People who are affected by these decisions are disproportionately low-income, people of color, and immigrants, whether they are port workers or families who live near port properties. After years of experience organizing for labor rights and because of my own identities, I am in a unique position to bring an understanding of their needs to the Port.
International Examiner: This is your first time running for office— why did you choose to run for Port Commissioner? Ahmed Abdi: I first interacted with the Port Commission while working as an organizer for Working Washington on SeaTac’s $15 minimum wage. I was surprised and disappointed to encounter a group of people who seemed uninterested in the rights of low-wage workers. Port Commissioners opposed what we were campaigning so hard for, doing everything they could to take away fair wages, family leave, and other protections from airport workers. I wanted to run for Port Commissioner to help make the Port work for low-income families, not against them. IE: What are some important things you think people need to understand about the Port of Seattle? AA: It’s important to understand what a huge interest big business have in maintaining the status quo at the Port of Seattle. For example, my opponent’s campaign has received thousands of dollars from Alaska Airlines, Delta Airlines, shipping companies, and their CEOs. They know that if I’m elected as Port Commissioner, I will push the Port to stop allowing them to underpay their workers and harm our environment.
IE: What do you consider the key issues at the Port of Seattle, and how would you bring about change to them? AA: Two key issues I see at the Port are workers’ rights and environmental protections. The most important way to generate progress on both fronts will be to encourage and respond to constituent voices. For me, this means creating an enforcement committee to make sure employers in SeaTac, especially at the
IE: You’ve been attending a lot of Asian Pacific Islander (API) community events and reaching out to community leaders. What’s an example of something that you’ve Ahmed Abdi • Courtesy Photo learned about the community in your airport, are following the new laws. It outreach? means convening community meetings AA: The most important issues that I for projects like the Duwamish River have heard from API community leaders cleanup so that environmental justice are; the high rate of unemployment organizations, community members, particularly those who live in the South and small businesses can have a say in end and lack of opportunities among the process. the API community which is common IE: How would you work to fight the to all community of color, and I believe longstanding issue of corruption in that needs to change. We need to have policies that give priority to people of the Port? color that the Port needs to adopt and I AA: On a large scale, changing this will make sure that happens. pattern means changing the Port’s
Monthly Health Tip from Amerigroup Tip: Getting Active
• Balance energy calories with activity calo• Limit TV, computer and video game time ries. The energy you get from foods and bev- to a total of one to two hours per day. EncourYour health matters! The International erages should equal the calories you burn in age physical activity instead. Examiner and Amerigroup are partner- activity every day. • Park the car in a spot farther away from ing to bring you monthly health tips from • Increase household activities (e.g., walk- the store or your office and walk. Dr. Shawn Akavan. ing the dog, dusting, vacuuming and garden• Take the stairs instead of the elevator. • Move more. Try to get between 30 ing). These activities are good ways to burn and 60 minutes of physical activity every calories. • Get off the bus one stop earlier and walk day. Several 10 to 15 minute sessions of the rest of the way. • Include an activity like hiking or bike ridmoderate activity each day add up. • Walk to do errands. ing when you go on vacation. • Include regular physical activity into • Be a role model for your children. Do • Use an exercise machine or lift weights your daily routine. something active every day. while watching television. • Move more. Walking is an easy way Amerigroup recommends you write down to be more active every day. For Parents: all of your health questions. Be sure to ask • Make playtime with your family more ac- your doctor for the best nutrition advice for tive by shooting hoops or walking to the park. you and your family. Thank you for being an Amerigroup Washington, Inc. member.
Shawn Akavan, MD, MBA, CPE Medical Director Amerigroup Washington
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November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017 — 11
‘Camouflage Net Project’ brings light to injustice By Aya Bisbee IE Contributor Tara Tamaribuchi draws inspiration from her personal experiences, her life as a mother, and her ancestral history in her art practice. Growing up, Tamaribuchi heard stories about her father being born in “camp,” but did not learn about the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese and Japanese-Americans until she was around 10 years old at the height of the movement for redress. She recalls searching for books at the public library and reading all four books on Japanese-American Incarceration available at the University of California, Irvine, and then going to her family to ask about it.
are all interconnected. If there are a lot of different people under the net, there is a sense of oneness and looking from the outside, there is a sense of visual oneness.”
“Camouflage Net Project” is showing at Seattle Center Sculpture Walk • Courtesy Photo
people “working with their hands and crafting things” in camps. During the war, camouflage nets were used by the military. For her recent installation, “Camouflage Net Project,” Tamaribuchi recreated a camouflage net, weaving colorful pieces of tanmono kimono fabric instead of the dusty strips of hemp once woven into nets by Japanese-American incarcerees working in camouflage net factories. She said: “I decided to use the kimono fabric because I knew that my obaachan had a sense of shame from having been in the camp. So I felt like using the When Tamaribuchi got the opportunity to kimono fabric was kind of sending a message be featured in the Seattle Center Sculpture to her to take pride in her heritage.” Walk, she was thinking about the 75th In addition to being Japanese-Chineseanniversary of Executive Order 9066 as well as the election of the current president, and American, Tamaribuchi spoke about the how to make sense of and respond to the many centrality of being Buddhist in her work. “I changes and injustices playing out daily. After was taking it from a Buddhist perspective coming across photos taken by Dorothea of the interconnectedness of the universe Lange of incarcerees weaving camouflage and how everyone is all interconnected with nets in the Manzanar concentration camp, each other. I was thinking about a lot of the Tamaribuchi was fascinated to see images of federal discrimination that’s been going on the past year and reminding us all that we When talking about camp, Tamaribuchi’s obaachan (grandmother), reluctant to speak about her painful experience, would say, “It was a nightmare and I’m glad it’s over, so let’s not talk about it anymore.” Her obaachan had two children while in camp and had many other family members to care for. Tamaribuchi described the sense of shame her obaachan carried from the camp experience and now as a mother herself, she said, “especially after the experience of being pregnant, I just couldn’t believe she had done that twice in camp.”
The installation is mounted within a glass walkway and happens to mimic the form of a barrack. Standing within the walkway, surrounded by a net of kimono fabric, I reflect upon my personal family history and my great aunt, Chiyo, who was incarcerated at Santa Anita Assembly Center where she recalls helping to weave camouflage nets and recounts the memory of the dusty, smelly fabric that was used. I am reminded of the experiences of my ancestors which I will never fully know, and I reflect upon the lasting relevance of our history in present day battles for social justice. In viewing the piece, individuals will engage with their personal histories in different ways. Tamaribuchi emphasized her appreciation of public art: “It engages with everyone. The more traditional part of the art scene is the gallery scene, and a lot of people don’t make it out to that. And also as a parent, I know a lot of families don’t get to engage with art. There are so many artists in Seattle who are making work and people don’t get to see all the culture that’s happening in the city. I like to work on public art as a mom because I would like to engage with a whole crosssection.” While camouflage nets were once used to hide and to be used in times of war and conflict, Tamaribuchi’s “Camouflage Net Project” serves to bring light to injustices of the past and draw connections between us. Tamaribuchi’s ‘Camouflage Net Project’ will be showing in the Seattle Center Sculpture Walk just northeast of the International Fountain through December 2017.
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12 — November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017
INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER
ARTS
Abid’s ‘Searching for Home’ reveals the plight of refugee women and children By Susan Kunimatsu IE Contributor “I feel as an artist, my goal is to raise awareness through my work and discuss issues that are often overlooked. Whatever people don’t want to talk about in society is what I want to bring out through my practice.” —Humaira Abid The purpose of art is to communicate: to share the beauty of an object or place, to convey a feeling, to rally around a cause, to remember a person, to tell a story. Artists create because they have something to say. Humaira Abid has made it her business to speak for those who are not being heard. Growing up in Pakistan, she had to fight for the right to follow her passion: to study art in college and pursue it as a career. She had to push back against her family’s expectations and the role society defined for her as a woman. Later, as a wife, she endured three miscarriages in order to become a mother. Out of these experiences came an empathy for the struggles of all women, that she expresses in her art. The seven works in Searching for Home, her current show at the Bellevue Arts Museum, illuminate the plight of women and children who flee their own countries; the threats that drive them out; and the dangers they encounter as refugees. Each installation is composed of lifesize wood sculptures modeled on real objects: suitcases, shoes, bricks, toys. The wood is bare except for strategically placed stains. In this show, there is a lot of red, alluding to the violence that refugees suffer. “I use a lot of symbols in my work,” Abid says. In “The World is NOT Perfect,” shoes, clothes, and cell phones stand in for
Searching for Home, by Humaira Abid. Pine wood and red stain. • Photo by Adeel Ahmed
the people that wore them, now scattered in a pile of bricks in the aftermath of some unnamed tragedy. In “The Stains Are Forever,” babies’ pacifiers, some stained red, represent the children killed in a mass shooting at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan in 2014. But a sweeper seems to be pushing them into the past. Then there are the lines of ants that meander across several of the installations. “Ants are hardworking. They are always moving and migrating. They are often found with things that are dead or decaying,” Abid explains. But their presence is insidiously thoughtprovoking. “A lot of my work is objects you recognize… the ants make you think. Their presence starts a conversation.” Abid’s other discipline is painting in the traditional Mughal style: delicately detailed miniature portraits that introduce
real people into her installations. “Fragments of Home Left Behind” presents five of these portraits, hung askew on a bullet-pocked wall. They depict children photographed in various refugee camps. Traditional Mughal painters approach their subjects indirectly, in profile or three-quarter view; these children gaze straight at the viewer. Abid chose children close in age to her daughter. “Some I felt were talking to me,” she says. “Their expressions speak a lot.” in “This World is Beautiful, and Dangerous Too,” Abid’s own daughter is portrayed in a garden that, on closer inspection, is full of thorny cactuses. The painting is mounted on the seat of a swing suspended above a child’s pair of bloody shoes. Abid saw a photo of the shoes, which belonged to the only girl killed in the 2014 Peshawar massacre, a sixyear-old on her first day of school.
“Anything that happens in another country could happen here,” she thought at the time. “It could have been my daughter.” All of Abid’s choices as an artist are conscious expressions of her ideas. She chose wood as a medium and sculpture as a discipline because both are more often associated with men’s work and, as a female artist, she wanted to claim them. Her work is beautiful and accessible; her virtuoso technique and the hyper-realistic level of detail in her sculptures draw viewers in. Her choice of objects and images and her use of color make them think. Abid moved to the Pacific Northwest from Pakistan 10 years ago, after marrying a man whose career is based here. Although it was her choice to move, she has an immigrant’s empathy for her subjects. She continues to spend time and maintain studio space in both countries. She has a more elaborate workshop and uses other woodworkers’ facilities in Pakistan, where both space and labor are less expensive. But she doesn’t own a lot of tools or a stockpile of wood. “I don’t want tools or materials to dictate what I make. I don’t want it [the wood] to tell me what I should make out of it,” she states. “I don’t have a fixed approach. I want each piece to challenge me. When I have a challenge, I go find a solution.” ‘Searching for Home’ is on view at the Bellevue Arts Museum through March 25, 2018. Humaira Abid will give an artist talk on November 4 at 2:00 p.m. at the museum. Other educational events are planned throughout the show’s run. Visit www.bellevuearts.org for more information.
Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant is an enigma and an allegory By Maisy Chan IE Contributor The Buried Giant by the Japanese-born British writer Kazuo Ishiguro has been impressive in its extensive reception by reviewers in Britain and in the United States. Ishiguro’s earlier novels and short fiction flit between European and Japanese landscapes. The Buried Giant is set in the rise of Western Civilization in Britain, in pre-historic BC time, just after the Iron Age during which the use of iron was popularized and became prevalent. And the novel follows the journey of an elderly Briton couple, Axl and Beatrice, living in caves, in catacombs of chambers called “warrens,” where a small community of Briton families gather. The Asian element in this novel proper is, first, that the author, Ishiguro, is of Japanese descent and this new novel sheds light on several of his earlier works in which he digs the depths of WWII and post-WWII Asia. Second, the novel is an allegory, metaphoric. The story in the novel runs on many themes. Take one on “memory and forgetting.” In the warrens and everywhere
else, Axl and Beatrice travel to seek their lost son the memory of whom the couple struggle to remember, people are forgetful. They lack memories not just of distant past events, but even something that may have happened only an hour ago. Axl and Beatrice do wonder how they and others in this predicament can function at all.
An allegory perhaps owns its “moral.” The narrator hovers above the novel almost in apology and guilt, “I am sorry to paint such a picture of our country at that time, but there you are.” The narration may seem to be action-adventures, but it is a sense of plight that befalls Axl and Beatrice from place to place, one challenge after How memory and forgetting together another. Memory and forgetting appear to would play out each other is integral to be the human dilemma, and this theme is many of Ishiguro’s fictional writings, a story worth telling. whether it is the residual marks of WWII In the allegory, glorious creatures, in Japan in An Artist of the Floating World, a bit magical like other sorts of British or the interplay of the mind to understand creatures—Harry Potter’s world— and the grasp of a place in another fictional emerge, creatures like ogres, monks, world in The Unconsoled. she-dragon, knight, warrior, Sir Gawain In an allegory, there are symbols. of the King Arthur legend, humans— The Buried Giant is a hill, a grave of a Saxons and Britons. They are the cast of “buried giant,” an unusual creature, just the novel. Yet the creatures as such do right outside of the warrens right at the not dwell in a Harry Potter world. The outset of Axl and Beatrice’s journey. This charming cast would work, if not for buried giant is the “past” that they cannot the people trapped in the “treachery” remember, but also the past that hangs and betrayal of the fabled war between on them in dread and doom. When they the Saxons and the Britons in Ishiguro’s and unraveled, The Buried Giant may be go past the buried giant, they track their imagined realm just following the King an intended journey of the human will way into the past. The fog and the “mist” Arthur epoch. to know and to remember. As the novel that circumscribe this whole country As Ishiguro’s fictional narratives draws interests in its inventiveness, it present the “forgetfulness” of the human always compel the mind to work— also refrains from the depths of other of creatures who prod on in these territories. complex, layered fiction to be consumed Ishiguro’s masterworks.
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November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017 — 13
Flashpoint in U.S.-Cambodia Repatriation Agreement has origins in work by grassroots groups By Bunthay Cheam IE Contributor On October 17, the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), a leading advocate organization for people of Southeast Asian descent, issued a press release stating that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had initiated a mass national roundup with over 100 individuals of Cambodian heritage being detained over the last several weeks. Most of the individuals detained arrived in the United States as child refugees, escaping the Cambodian Genocide. Most had never set foot in Cambodia itself. These individuals “came into contact with the criminal justice system before their families could naturalize,” a change 1Love Movement and 1Love Cambodia met with Cambodia government officials in November 2016. • Photo in status that would’ve rendered them courtesy of 1Love Movement immune to deportation according to its cooperation in helping find remains commit to a global movement that sees federal immigration law. of U.S. servicemen killed during the strategy beyond the United States.” This mass roundup follows a series of Vietnam War. Chandara Tep, a deportee, grew up exchanges between the United States and While the repatriation agreement in Modesto California and was part of Cambodia, which began with Cambodia’s halt in issuing travel documents necessary between the United States and Cambodia the delegation that met with Cambodian for individuals that the United States has been in effect since 2002, a November government officials that resulted in deemed deportable. Citing humanitarian 2016 meeting between the Right2Return the task force creation. “Waiting on concerns, Cambodian officials are delegation, headed by U.S.-based 1Love deportation is very stressful. It stays on seeking a revision to the Memorandum Movement and Cambodia based 1Love your mind constantly. ... You will feel it of Understanding (MOU) around the Cambodia, and Cambodian government in your sleep you will feel it with your repatriation agreement as a reason for the officials changed its trajectory. A collective families and friends,” Tep said, reflecting of representatives from the Interior Ministry, on how a change in the repatriation halt in issuing travel documents. Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the Justice agreement may affect the psyche of “Some deportees have wives and Ministry participated in this meeting and at potential deportees. children. Even though [they] are not it’s conclusion, a task force was formed to “I feel great about it, for all the people American, they still have houses and revisit the repatriation agreement. that potentially get to stay in the U.S.,” families, and it [is] like taking them away “It was such a huge opportunity to says Sophat Penh about the travel ban. from their families,” Khieu Samphan, be able to sit with the task force that “I just want them to stop tearing families an Interior Ministry spokesperson, told the Voice of Cambodia. “We are only has formed to revise the repatriation apart.” Penh was deported in 2014 and agreement,” 1Love’s Mia-lia Kiernan grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota. Since requesting for a negotiation.” said in an NBC film documenting the arriving in Cambodia, he has been In response, the Trump administration U.S.-based advocacy groups engaging involved with Tiny Toones, an artsissued a travel ban on Cambodian Foreign Cambodian government officials in late based NGO supporting at-risk youth in Ministry officials and their families. On 2016. Kiernan’s organization decided to Cambodia, and works as a maitre d’ at August 24, the Washington Post reported change tactics after years of deadlock The Cool Lounge, a restaurant in Phnom that the United States had imposed visa working to change policy from within the Penh’s Tuol Tom Poung neighborhood sanctions on four countries, including United States. “We just basically stopped that was created in part to help fund the Cambodia, in an attempt to force these thinking about the United States as the work that Tiny Toones does. countries to take in or increase the amount center of the earth, right? I think that When asked about how Cambodian of deportees repatriated. we’ve done ... was basically say, ‘We’re government officials would react to visa In turn, Prime Minister Hun Sen not going to do that anymore,’ and there’s sanctions from the United States, Penh countered that Cambodia would suspend other ways to make change and that we
said: “I don’t know how long it would last though because it’s affecting high level government officials.” With the recent roundup in motion, it seems as if those fears have come true. As the latest nationwide sweep progresses, many things remain uncertain. The SEARAC press release notes that “it is unclear how many of these individuals will be deported to Cambodia.” Those caught up in the round up are being transferred to Adelanto Detention Facility in southern California with Cambodian consulate interviews currently taking place. In reaction to this roundup, many grassroots groups advocating on behalf of potential deportees including SEARAC have created portals of resources that can help those seeking counsel on their cases. Peter See, a Formerly Incarceration Group Healing Together (FIGHT) representative and member of the 2016 delegation, hopes governments on both sides see beyond deportation as a pawn in a geopolitical chess match, “Halting the deportation of the Cambodian refugees is a big step towards a much bigger goal,” he said. “This is not only a political issue, but an issue for (affecting) families all across the U.S.” The following are two ways you can help: 1. If you or someone you know is impacted by the recent rounds-ups, please consider filling out SEARAC’s advocacy intake form so we can help direct you to appropriate resources. Please consider sharing your story to shine a light on the devastating impact of deportation on families. 2. Add your name to this sign-on form to voice your support for the individuals and families who are currently facing deportation. Here is a link to the SEARAC statement: www.searac.org/new/press-release-over100-cambodian-americans-roundeddeportation
‘Something from Nothing’ exhibit shows what was lost in Japanese incarceration By Chizu Omori IE Contributor Something From Nothing: Art and Handcrafted Objects From America’s Concentration Camps is an exhibit at the Thatcher Gallery on the campus of the University of San Francisco. This show’s director, Glori Simmons, said that this is “the culmination of nearly a decade of collaboration between the University of San Francisco and the National Japanese American Historical Society.” Students from Architecture and Community Design first worked on this with the objective of studying the preservation of historical sites but with a new program, the Museum Studies Program, started in 2013, a project to digitize NJAHS’s extensive collection of camp artifacts, was begun. This exhibit was organized to bring over 100 objects from NJAHS’ extensive collection to campus as a student project.
signing of the logo, panels, labels and photographs, the presentation of the objects, engaging over 80 students in the construction of the exhibit. The goal was to demonstrate how much was lost by the Japanese community and how camp inmates used creative means to “remake home.” Many classes were organized such as art classes from wood carving to painting, often taught by artists and professionals. The exhibit was extended to include artwork from contemporary artists and object which were not made in camp but were taken in, such as a wooden butsudan, circa 1918, and saved over decades. Where possible, the objects had a known history, and were part of donated collections.
In order to contextualize this exhibit, reproductions of documents such as the Executive Order 9066, President Franklin Roosevelt’s order which set in motion the Prof. Stuart McKee’s class, Exhibition incarceration of 120,000 American JapaDesign, utilized student projects in the de- nese, were included. There is a blueprint of
camp Minidoka’s construction plan, and a copy of the infamous loyalty questionnaire. But for the most part, the objects are handcrafted or painted, and it is clear that the work was not consciously made to be art. Humble objects, such as “geta”, wooden clogs, baskets, a sushi press, were made for use. The “from nothing” part becomes manifest in the materials used. Baskets were woven from onion sack material or crepe paper. Carved wooden objects such as trays, or name plates, were made from crates. Little pieces of jewelry were constructed using shells collected from the surrounding environment. Nevertheless, the objects are imbued with charm and beauty, and the intent of the makers to add their own touch is very evident.
er, and lovely Japanese dolls. With over 100 objects, the collection as a whole enables the viewer to get a glimpse of life within the camps. It was a bleak landscape and the barracks prison-like, but the inmates made it somewhat bearable by using what they had or could find, to make things that helped soften the harshness.
A series of programs were also part of the exhibit, bringing together survivors, lawyers from the Korematsu case, and museum experts. Simmons said that students on campus were especially engaged, writing articles and op-ed pieces, as well as making the connection from this history to contemporary times with the recent threats to American Muslims and the controversy over DACA, providing for much discussion Many of the paintings and carvings were and a learning experience for public and made by people who had never been artists, students. but turned to those activities when the enThis exhibit will be in display until mid forced idleness and isolation gave them time November. to fill. Some truly remarkable pieces were made, such as a model of a Japanese freight-
14 — November 1, 2017 – November 14, 2017
Arts & Culture Asia Pacific Cultural Center 4851 So. Tacoma Way Tacoma, WA 98409 Ph: 253-383-3900 Fx: 253-292-1551 faalua@comcast.net www.asiapacificculturalcenter.org Bridging communities and generations through arts, culture, education and business.
Friends of Asian Art Association (FA3) P.O. Box 15404 Seattle, WA 98115 206-522-5438 friendsofasianart2@gmail.com www.friendsofasianart.org To advance understanding, appreciation and support for Asian arts and cultures, the Friends of Asian Art Association provides and supports programs, activities and materials that reflect the arts and cultures of countries that make up the broad and diverse spectrum of Asia.
Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington 1414 S Weller Street Seattle, WA 98144 Ph: 206-568-7114 admin@jcccw.org www.jcccw.org JCCCW is committed to preserving, promoting, and sharing Japanese and Japanese American culture and heritage. Programs: Japanese Language School | Cultural Events | Library | Resale Store | Internship & Volunteer Opportunities | Historical Exhibitions | Rental Space RAJANA Society Seattle, WA 206-979-3206 sameth@rajanasociety.org
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Hope of Another Spring is a treasure trove of Japanese American history By Tamiko Nimura IE Contributor Several hundred pages, many in full color, cloth bound. Watercolor paintings of Seattle landscapes, annotated sketches, self-portraits. At first glance The Hope of Another Spring: Takuichi Fujii, Artist and Wartime Witness by Barbara Johns might look like an art book, but it’s not. Or rather, it’s not just that. The Hope of Another Spring is the story of a collection of artworks and artifacts, rarely seen outside the artist’s family—until now. It includes many annotated and translated selections from “MINIDOKA XX,” Fujita’s diary. (According to an end note, publication of the complete diary is also in the works with a different press.) It’s a carefully piecedtogether biography of this artist by art historian Barbara Johns, as well as an artist statement. A highly readable series of studies, also by Johns, placing the artist’s career in context with his wartime incarceration and his place in American modernist art history of the Pacific Northwest. And it’s an offering of full color reproductions of Fujii’s watercolor paintings, demonstrating Fujii’s views of Seattle as well as of camp. In 1942, Issei Takuichi Fujita and his family owned the Mary Rose Florist in Seattle. It was the third of three family businesses in America that he and his wife had operated, the first being a stall in Pike Place Market and the second a wholesale and retail fish business. After a time in Chicago, he and his wife Fusano then returned to Seattle, where she started their most successful business, the flower shop at Twelfth and Yesler. The shop on “Yesla,” as Fujita calls it, is the first page of “MINIDOKA XX,” an astonishing visual chronicle of Fujita’s journey from 1942 Seattle to Camp
Takuichi Fujii. • Courtesy Photo
Harmony, the temporary “assembly center” in Puyallup, to the concentration camp in Minidoka, Idaho. Fujii was also an artist— one of three Nikkei painters selected for the Northwest Annual exhibition at the Art Institute of Seattle in 1930. He left very few personal papers, very few written records about his inner thoughts or feelings. But he did leave a diary, as well as a few watercolor paintings. Those works, especially the diary, have been largely unseen outside of Fujii’s family until recently. A welcome addition is a more personal introduction to the artist’s diary, provided by Fujii’s grandson, Sandy Kita—art historian and co-translator of the diary from Japanese with Reverend Shojo Honda—which gives a nuanced scholarly discussion of Fujii’s influences from Japanese art, art history, and culture. Kita’s discussion of the diary as an “art diary” (e-nikki) and “travel diary” (tabi-
nikki) places the diary in a context of Japanese art history. Equally interesting is Kita’s reflections on his grandfather as a person, who he calls his “first painting teacher.” “I learned [from him] that things could have meanings that were more important than the things themselves,” Kita says, and shows us how this philosophy carries into his grandfather’s diary as well as art itself. The diary, “MINIDOKA XX,” offers an important look into the everyday nittygritty details of camp life. Several selfportraits appear, some with wry captions. “Hard at it, then?” remarks the caption of Fuji in his crowded barrack, sketching, with the barbed wire fence outside. “Raising the national flag” is an entry that speaks volumes in itself; the crowd of Nikkei inmates (with their backs turned to us) is the most prominent feature of the sketch; the barbed wire fences point
straight to an American flag, wrapped dejectedly around the flagpole. The Hope of Another Spring nicely complements other UW Press offerings in Asian American studies, such as Johns’s previous work Signs of Home (which includes the written diary of Issei artist Kamekichi Tokita) and Miné Okubo’s graphic novel Nisei Daughter. Comparison and contrast with another Issei painter, Chiura Obata, also come to mind. However, as noted historian Roger Daniels says in his Foreword, this book offers the most extensive visual record of incarceration from an Issei (rather than a Nisei) perspective. As of this writing, the Press does not plan to release the book in paperback, but may consider doing so if the hardback sales go well, says UW Press Marketing Director Rachael Levay. (The $40 price tag is more than reasonable for a hardcover art book.) Nevertheless, The Hope of Another Spring is a treasure trove for anyone who is interested in Japanese American history, art history, family artifacts, American modernist art, and transpacific Asian/American influences.
Fig-2-7 from The Hope of Another Spring
‘Witness to Wartime’ exhibit of Takuichi Fujii’s work is enlightening By Tamiko Nimura IE Contributor It’s camp as you have probably not seen it before. Even for people steeped in camp history, even for a region as rich in Japanese American history as the Pacific Northwest, the Washington State History Museum exhibit of Issei artist Takuichi Fujii’s work “Witness to Wartime” is a treasure. The exhibit provides a variety of new and moving vistas on both Japanese American art and history in Seattle and Minidoka. Curated by Seattle art historian Barbara Johns and designed by History Museum Director of Audience Engagement MaryMikel Stump, “Witness to Wartime: Witness to Wartime: Rare Issei Portraits of Seattle, Puyallup, Minidoka is a beautiful example of art treated as history, and history treated as art. Many of the works are on view to the public for the first time, and this is the exhibit’s first stop on a nationwide tour—it is not to be missed. “It’s taken a village,” says Johns, who first encountered Fujii’s work during her doctoral dissertation at the University of Washington. She cites her partnerships with Stump and the History Museum, with the University of Washington Press, with local historian Michael Sullivan, and with Fujii’s grandson Sandy and wife Terry Kita as crucial elements in making this first exhibit a reality. The Kitas visited the exhibit opening in September, where Sandy Kita showed mu-
seum visitors the cardboard box that contained itself contains many watercolor paintings of his grandfather’s paintings, stored first in his camp life—many more than are in the accommother’s house and then in his own house for panying UW Press book, The Hope of Anothdecades. (Fujii left about half a dozen photos, er Spring (reviewed in this issue). Those who no other personal papers or correspondence.) may be accustomed to seeing these scenes in A historian of Japanese art, Kita grew up with sepia will find the bursts of vivid color starhis grandfather in a Chicago house, then inher- tling. ited his grandfather’s work after his mother. Fujii’s self-portraits, both as watercolor His wife Terry kept searching for more infor- paintings and as pages within his sketch diary, mation about his grandfather are moving. Some of the paintings and came into contact with are on corrugated cardboard, which Barbara Johns through the Johns believes (but has been unable Wing Luke Asian Museum, to prove) means they were produced which owns one of Fujii’s in camp, at around the same time paintings. Johns traveled to as other work that Fujii has done on the East Coast to see what the the same medium. Fujii’s modernKitas had. She was both “asist perspectives on wartime Seattle, tonished” and “elated,” to see Camp Harmony, and Minidoka as the collection she says now in well as his repeated sketches of the a phone interview. Once she “Instructions to Persons Of Japanese saw it, she knew that it had to Ancestry” poster on a country fence be an exhibition. The Kitas are also included. agreed. A page from MINIDOKA XX Two small galleries at the HisTakuichi Fujii was an Istory Museum contain “Witness to sei artist and businessman in pre-World War Wartime” in its current phase. Both have II Seattle. His work is notable for several walls painted in a vibrant grayish blue which reasons. He was one of several Issei modern- beautifully complements the simple light ist painters, so his paintings show us Camp wooden frames that Johns and Stump have Harmony and Minidoka in vibrant color. The chosen to mount Fujii’s artwork. The gallerdiary is itself the most complete account of in- ies are small, but so are many of the paintings carceration from an Issei to date, according to and the sketches selected from Fujii’s diary, noted historian Roger Daniels in his introduc- which he titled, “MINIDOKA XX.” The extion to Johns’s book. Comparisons might be hibit occupies two small galleries in the Hisdrawn to Miné Okubo’s graphic novel Citizen tory Museum. In the left-hand room, Johns 13660, but for sheer volume and completeness, introduces us to Fujii through a series of wanot to mention from an Issei perspective, Fu- tercolor paintings, including some wood carvjii’s diary is unmatched. Moreover, the exhibit ings, a self-portrait, and a portrait of a “high
school girl” (one of Fujii’s daughters). The right-hand room is a larger room: one with the portfolio which contained the paintings, selected pages from the diary, and more watercolor paintings. The room also includes a digital version of the nearly 400-page diary that viewers can scroll through, complete with Fujii’s handwritten captions in Japanese. The scale of the galleries is intentional, according to History Museum staff member MaryMikel Stump, who worked closely with Johns to mount the exhibit. “We both felt that the intimacy of the smaller galleries was right for Fujii’s work and the content of exhibition. The spaces, due to their scale, have a sense of confinement to them.” The smaller scale of the galleries also allows viewers to see the the work up close, which Stump calls “intimate” and “immediate.” Johns hopes that Fujii’s vibrant, extensive and closeup views of incarceration will educate people around the country about the reality of Japanese American incarceration. “Many people still may not know [that camp] happened,” she says. “And the more we know about it, the better we understand the vulnerability of people in this situation.” ‘Witness to Wartime: The Painted Diaries of Takuichi Fujii’ is at the Washington State History Museum (1911 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma) through January 1, 2018, The museum is open Tuesday–Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. For more information, visit www.washingtonhistory. org.