Monthly Archives: May 2009

Dengue Fever’s effortless grace in “Sleepwalking through the Mekong” epitomizes Asian American synthesis

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Dengue Fever, an Asian American band featuring a Cambodian American singer and European American musicians.

I loved watching Dengue Fever’s new documentary, “Sleepwalking through the Mekong,” and listening to the great music by the band as well as some of its antecedents collected on the soundtrack.

I’ve written about Dengue Fever before, but didn’t get a chance to see the show when they played Denver on a tour. So I’m glad this documentary has been released.

The film follows the band on a 2006 visit to Cambodia, where singer Chhom Nimol was born. She moved to the U.S. where she was discovered singing in a karaoke bar in Long Beach, south of LA, by the Holtzman brother, Zac and Ethan. The Holtzmans had fallen in love with old recordings of Cambodian pop and rock music during a trip to Southeast Asia and had decided to perform that music in America.

Since they — and the rest of the band — are white, they went in search of someone who could sing in the Cambodian language, Khmer, and came across Nimol, who’s an enchanting singer with a strong voice and an undeniable beauty that practically glows whenever the camera focuses on her.

Together, over four albums, two EPs and now this documentary film, the group has recorded a body of work that’s consistently interesting, compelling and challenging, with its dreamy mix of psychedelia, folk-rock, surf music and Cambodian melodies.

The end result, for me, is a perfect expression of that tired cliche, “East meets West,” or better yet, a reflection of one aspect of Asian America.


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PostMimi: send a postcard with your Asian American secret

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Psst… listen… do you want to know a secret? Fans of the ongoing art project “PostSecret” will be happy to see that an Asian American version of the idea has just launched.

Like the original, PostMimi is a site that invites Asian Americans to send in postcards expressing a secret (“mimi” means “secret” in Chinese). Well, I think the point is to have postcards but it looks like the site’s already getting just emails with text.

Here’s what Karen, the founder of PostMimi, has to say in her introductory blog post:

“MiMi” is the Chinese word for “secret.” What’s yours? Share your inner happiness, joys, sorrows, triumphs, and frustrations in being an Asian-American today. Sometimes, other people just don’t “get it,” but we can help each other.

NOTE(s): Do not think that your MiMi’s HAVE to be culturally related. Just make what comes organically. Your background and culture already colors how you perceive everything. Also, if you are not Asian-American, but have something to contribute, submissions from ALL people are welcome.

I would also like to encourage people to create response PostMiMi’s (aka Holler Back MiMi’s) to any that are posted on the blog. The goal is to get a dialogue going through pictures and words.

E-mail your lovely, thought-provoking, Asian-American creations to:
postmimi.blogspot@gmail.com.

or, they can be mailed to:

PostMiMi
Apt. 206
3215 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21218

All postcards will be kept anonymous.

I’ll have to think a bit about what secret I want to share… how about you?

Ronald Takaki, pioneering Asian American historian, 1939-2009

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Historian and author Ronald Takaki, who died May 26, 2009There are very few non-fiction books that I would insist that anyone interested in Asian American history and culture must read. There are other important books, but these are the ones that have helped me form my sense of identity as an Asian American.

They include Helen Zia’s “Asian American Dreams,” Bill Hosokawa’s “Nisei: The Quiet Americans,” Phoebe Eng’s “Warrior Lessons,” Ben Fong-Torres’ “The Rice Room” and Ronald Takaki’s “Strangers from a Different Shore.”

Ronald Takaki, who wrote or co-authored more than a dozen books about Asian American identity and race in America, passed away May 26, too young at the age of 70. His landmark book, “Strangers from a Different Shore” was the one that helped me understand the historical flow of Asians to the United States, ethnic group by ethnic groups, and their struggles to be accepted by their new country. If Bill Hosokawa’s “Nisei” helped me realize who I was as a Japanese American, Takaki, along with Helen Zia’s “Asian American Dreams,” helped me figure out my place in a larger context.
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Tammy and Victor Jih winners of “The Amazing Race” 14th season

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The brother and sister team of Tammy and Victor Jih were winners of season 14 of It’s been a few weeks since this happened; I meant to write about it earlier, but better late than never, right? Asian Americans are finally getting more exposure on the TV screen, both in roles that don’t require FoB accents (that’s “fresh of the boat,” for those of you new to the expression), and also in reality TV shows. Apolo Anton Ohno and Kristi Yamaguchi were “Dancing with the Stars” champions (and Carrie Ann Inaba is the best of the show’s three judges). Each of the three seasons of “America’s Best Dance Crew” has seen groups with mostly Asian American members as its champions. Yul Kwon beat out competitors to win “Survivor: Cook Islands.” (Yul will be a guest on visualizAsian.com’s AAPI Empowerment Series on June 9.)

Now, congratulations are due to the Chinese American brother-and-sister team of Tammy and Victor Jih for being crowned champions of “The Amazing Race 14.”
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visualizAsian.com: a new site that celebrates Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

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Secretary Norman Mineta Erin and I are launching a new site this week, visualizAsian.com, that will celebrate the accomplishments of Asian American Pacific Islanders with live audio interviews conducted over a conference phone line that will also be streamed live on a webcast, and then will be playable online afterwards.

We’re pleased to announce the debut interview will be with Norman Mineta, the former Secretary of Transportation and a longtime public servant.

This interview is particularly perfect because we’re doing it on May 21, while it’s still Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Not only is Mineta the first Asian American to be appointed to a Cabinet position (Secretary of Commerce under Bill Clinton) and the longest-serving Secretary of Transportation in U.S. history (under George Bush), he was also a co-sponsor, along with Congressman Frank Horton (R-NY) of both the 1978 House Resolution establishing Pacific/Asian Heritage Week and the 1992 bill that expanded the week into “Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.”

His years in political office came in contrast to his childhood experience, imprisoned during World War II in a Japanese American internment camp.

Mineta was born in San Jose, California, to Japanese immigrant parents who were not allowed to become U.S. citizens at that time. During WWII the Mineta family was interned in the Heart Mountain internment camp near Cody, Wyoming, along with thousands of other Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans.

Here’s how the visualizAsian.com interviews will work: notable AAPIs will be interviewed via a conference call and streamed live online — it’s like the new evolution of talk radio — and the calls will be archived online. You can submit questions to the interviewee before and during the interview, through a form on the website. You’ll need to register for the calls to listen, submit questions or replay, and if you dial in, long distance charges may apply (the interview’s completely free on the webcast, of course).

We’re excited about these interviews, which we’re calling the Asian American Empowerment Series. visualizAsian.com’s goal is to feature free interviews with leading Asian American Pacific Islanders from politics, pop culture, business and more, as a way to inspire and empower other AAPIs to follow in their footsteps. The next interview’s already scheduled for June 2 with author and activist Phoebe Eng, and future interviews will include actor and activist Tamlyn Tomita, “Survivor: Cook Islands” winner Yul Kwon and journalist/activist Helen Zia.

We decided to start visualizAsian.com because we’re still largely invisible within the American mainstream. We’re doing much better in entertainment — we’re on a lot more TV shows, for instance, and though not the lead character, we’re playing more and more strong support characters. We’re visible in the news media to an extent, and now we’re much more visible in the highest levels of government. But there aren’t enough of us in politics, or in the media, to where decision-makers know about the AAPI community on a consistent basis. We have the highest percentage of college degrees of all minority groups, but represent only a tiny fraction of executive-level management in coprorate America.

What’s with that? We think that by promoting and celebrating those of us who accomplish great things in their lives, others of us will become inspired and empowered to follow in their footsteps. Erin often paraphrases a quote from Phoebe Eng from her terrific (and inspiring book, “Warrior Lessons:” “Growing up Asian in America is like looking in the mirror and not seeing any reflection.”

It’s time to shine a light on ourselves so we can finally see how great we are.

If you can think of other notable AAPIs, let us know, and we’ll try to track them down for future interviews!