According to author, D.J. Maeda, “…the four major themes of this book (are) Asian American struggles with and against whiteness, the emergence of Asian American identity in relation to blackness, transnational sympathies with Asians in Asia constructed through opposition to the war in Viet Nam, and the cultural formation of Asian American identity.” Maeda continues [...]
In Jeff Talarigo’s novel “The Ginseng Hunter”, a solitary man becomes reluctantly involved in the lives of North Koreans who have illegally entered China. Though his reluctance soon recedes, it is replaced by a moral discomfort that becomes especially acute as his relationships with these strangers become more personal. In this novel, quiet contradictions abound. [...]
Bruce and Ju-Chan Fulton of Seattle are the award-winning translators of numerous volumes of modern Korean fiction. Most recently, the Fultons have received the prestigious literary translation prize from the Daesan Foundation for “There a Petal Silently Falls: Three Stories” by Ch’oe Yun (Columbia University Press, 2008). Here, we interview them. Q: You have translated [...]
Korea is no stranger to traumatic events. From Mongol subjugation during the Koryo Dynasty to cultural genocide by the Japanese in the twentieth century, Korea has experienced horrors that have affected people long after the traumas have passed. So pervasive have these traumas been that a word has been coined to describe the emotional turmoil [...]
Azby Brown, whose “The Very Small House” was reviewed in the International Examiner in 2005 has come out with another gem. In “Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green from Traditional Japan” (Kodansha International) Brown points to the past to show how we can live happy, fulfilled and responsible lives today. In my mind Azby Brown [...]
Among the requirements of the “Young Adult” – or “YA” – category of “juvenile literature” are that there be an older teenage protagonist; and that sex, drug use and language be strictly limited. So, why is the “m__f__” word there in Peter Bacho’s new YA novel, “Leaving Yesler”? “For the most part, I refrain from [...]
Love can be found in the fidelity to daily details in “7 Continents 9 Lives” (Bowery Books 2010), by Fay Chiang, a genre-defying collection of poems, prose poems, journal entries and dramatic monologues that includes work from the poet’s previous two volumes published by Sunbury Press. It’s a brave, beautiful, compassionate, harrowing, imperfect and impossibly [...]
Grotesque, from the Old Italian grottesca (feminine of grottesco, from grotta), literally means “cave painting”. It refers to a style of art that blends human and animal forms, resulting in a fantastical distortion of the natural into a caricature of itself. It usually portrays something absurd or terrifyingly ugly. Sandra Lim’s first book of poems, [...]
“No man is an island.” John Donne (1572-1631) On January 20, 2009, Hawaii unwittingly became the focus of the nation when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. Obama was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, and although he has undoubtedly had a remarkable influence on the country so [...]
When Yao Ming’s Houston Rockets came to visit the Seattle Sonics in his rookie season, a Chinese basketball tournament was being held in town and hundreds of Chinese, some of them quite tall, were in attendance to cheer on their hero. Long before Yao came along, there were young Chinese men and women who learned [...]
This is the most exquisite and elegantly designed catalogue of Mariko Mori I have ever seen. The pure white square book box and book cover almost cautions me to put on white gloves. There is no printed word at the beginning but the pages start with silvery pale photos of sacred ancient sites from various [...]
What would you risk for love? “Steer Toward Rock”, Fae Myenne Ng’s latest novel, asks exactly this. Fifteen years after her critically acclaimed first novel “Bone” was released, Ng has captivated us again with another beautiful and well-written novel. A haunting, brave story about courage and unrequited love and desire, loyalty and family, this is [...]
“Shopping for Sabzi” is a debut collection of short stories by Nitin Deckha who was born in England, raised in Canada and educated in the United States. His transnational experiences are reflected in the dozen stories in this collection. Many of his South Asian characters are transnational subjects who are negotiating multiple cultural and social [...]
Eight years ago, Filipino American Rex Navarrete had to make one of the biggest decisions of his life. Pursue a career in the educational health field or follow his dream to make audiences laugh? Inspired by the likes of George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Brian Regan and Chris Rock, Rex Navarrete followed his heart and never [...]
An in depth list of upcoming Arts Events happening around Seattle.
In Cultural Transcendence, five Asian American artists bring distinctly individual styles to installation art, pushing new media forward in an intriguing way. Lost and Found, 2004. Horatio Law. “Lost and Found” by Horatio Hung-Yan Law is a lovely first course. On a delicate screen on one end of the room, the faces of Chinese children [...]
Even if you’re not an architect, you likely know the names Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, and Otto Wagner – the well-known titans of the International Style of modern architecture that defined the 1920s and 30s. Professor Ken Tadashi Oshima, an associate professor at the University of Washington’s Department of Architecture, traces the careers of three [...]
Kensuke Yamada’s Art Patti Warashina’s Art Relatively new to the figurative sculpture scene, Kensuke Yamada’s 20-piece collection at Catherine Person Gallery (running through June 26 in the Pioneer District) features several wall mounted heads resembling masks and sculpture capturing human interaction and movement. Whether it be a girl astride her companion’s back in “Piggyback Ride” [...]
Everything you need to know about local arts.
Everything you need to know about Asian films at SIFF.
Perhaps it’s because I lived on Ka’iulani Avenue in Waikiki that the princess for whom the street is named captivates me. While studying Hawai’ian language at ‘Iolani Palace in Honolulu, I’d sit in the same gazebo where she once sat, on the palace’s expansive grounds, wondering how she felt experiencing the end of Hawai’ian sovereignty [...]
The Asian Pacific Directors Coalition in partnership with Seattle Center Festal, presented the Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month Celebration on May 2 at the Seattle Center. The celebration included a children’s API Heritage Month art contest. The four top winners are featured. Congratulations to the winners!
Nin Truong from Philip Thangsombat on Vimeo. Nin Truong is just like any Seattleite — he loves his coffee, spending time outdoors, and indulging in the arts. Having worked for several design studios in Seattle, he realized a typical job wasn’t suited for him. He set out to pursue his own line of work and [...]
Veteran documentary filmmaker Loni Ding passed away in February. Her career as an independent filmmaker, university professor and television producer spanned decades. Her numerous film and television projects garnered over 15 awards and fellowships. Best known for the award-winning documentary, “The Color of Honor: The Japanese American Soldiers During World War II”, her film that [...]
When I met Loni there were only a handful of Asian American films at the time and of course, Loni was a prominent figure in any study of them. Ron Chew gave me the privilege of hooking up with Loni to plan her itinerary of interviews and visits whenever she came to Seattle. Each call [...]
This macho-mad movie includes an icily gorgeous bounty hunter (who shoots while standing up on his horse), an attractive but demonic gang leader with a hideous temper, and a goofy train robber on a motor scooter (miraculously dodging every bullet flying directly at him). Together, these three are the good, bad, and weird. Although ostensibly [...]
The next performance of Pork Filled Players, an Asian Pacific Islander comedy troupe, is more sizzlin’ than fresh bacon on a frying pan. With subjects ranging from stereotypes of Asian Pacific Islanders to the absurdity of heterosexual norms, the show will feature skits that are themed around pulp movies of the past. Even though the [...]
Highlights Visual Arts Performing Arts Film/Media Written Arts Art News/ Opportunites Highlights Michelle Cruz Skinner, a Filipino American writer from Hawai’i reads from her new book of short stories entitled “In The Company of Strangers” (Bamboo Ridge Press) on Tuesday, May 18 at 7 p.m. Author R. Zamora Linmark describes the book as “deceptively simple [...]
Atul Gawande’s list of accomplishments is stunning. He is an endocrine and general surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Associate Professsor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, a MacArthur Fellow, a contributor to The New Yorker and author of three best- selling books. His first book, “Complications”, was a [...]
Amy: Your new book of poems is The Ginkgo Light. Many of the poems in the book feel panoramic to me. Diverse speakers cast their eyes over various landscapes, in many different senses of the word. The poems contain geographical landscapes of natural scenery; domestic landscapes that illustrate dynamics between lovers or family members; internal [...]
