February is my favorite

month (wish me happy birth-

day on the 6th) and it is non-

stop activity for AAA. We

will be collaborating with

Asian Multicultural Council

on the Lunar New Year Cele-

bration on Feb. 7th. Then we

will sponsor Assembly

Speaker Lela Lee (creator of

Angry Little Girls) on Feb

11th. At the end of the

month, we bring author Jenni-

fer 8. Lee, author of the

"Fortune Cookie Chronicles",

to Wash U with CSA and

Culinary Arts Society. See

you there!

AAA elections will take place

in early March. I encourage

all of you to consider running

for our open positions. Best

of luck to the new AAA

President and Exec. Board.

You’ll be great!

Hello, hello! It's been terrific

serving as your AAA presi-

dent this year. I've enjoyed

getting to know many of you

through AAA events and

even non-AAA events. I've

learned a lot about myself

during college and AAA has

had a lot to do with this

growing process. As the

daughter of a Chinese-Filipino

immigrant and a first-

generation Chinese Ameri-

can, I've had a unique experi-

ence growing up. I can ap-

preciate the pride of being

born American yet connected

to my father's immigrant

hopes and desires. When it

comes down to merging my

American and Asian selves,

I've concluded that there IS

an Asian American identity,

and I’m creating it.

Thanks to everyone who was

able to attend the AAA/

HKSA Lunar New Year Ban-

quet. It was great fun and

food!

As President Obama begins

his term, it will be exciting to

see the changes that will oc-

cur in this country. In the

newsletter, we spotlight

some of the Asian American

leaders who will have a key

role in this change. There is

also an interesting article

from the New York Times

about the diversity of the

President’s family and what it

might mean for us as Ameri-

cans.

The Lunar New Year is al-

ways something that I look

forward to. In a country

where Asian customs are

severely underappreciated,

this holiday gives me an op-

portunity to get in touch

with my roots.

As an Asian-American, I am

simultaneously immersed in

both cultures. My daily rou-

tine involves the likes of

football Sundays, hip-hop

playlists, and an uncanny af-

fection for urban American

culture. From dawn until

dusk every day, I and the

roughly 300 million other

citizens that reside in this

nation are exposed to this

supposedly forward-looking

way of life. While I am not

against this (I am a huge pro-

ponent actually), I realize

that this poses a huge barrier

to entry for other forms of

civilization. In fact, there are

times where I am so numb to

alternative life styles that I

completely neglect the fact

that I am Chinese by birth.

However, as I view life as full

of surprises, the shock of

Greetings From Your AAA Prez Sarah Wong

Reflections Upon Chinese New Year Charles Qiao

February 2009 Volume 2, Issue 6

AAA Executive Board

2008-2009

President Sarah Wong

External VP Alex Lin

Internal VP Jeff Lin

Treasurer Charles Qiao

Secretary Alice Gu

PR Yena Kwon

PR Marina Cheung

Historian Andrew Shaw

Fresh. Rep Amy Lam

Fresh. Rep Brandon Lee

Fresh. Rep Patrick Ng

Upcoming

Events:

Sat. Feb. 7th

AMC Lunar New

Year Celebration

Mudd Lounge

6 pm

Wed. Feb. 11th

Assembly Speaker

Lela Lee

“My Culture Is Pop

Culture”

Graham Chapel

4 pm

Sat. Feb 27th

Jennifer 8. Lee

Fortune Cookie

Chronicles

Umrath Lounge

Time TBA

Asian American Association

Newsletter

Continue on pg. 2

YouTube Pick of the Month

Amazing Art must See 60th

Narcissus Pageant

Lunar New Year: Reaching Back to Asian Roots Patrick Ng

REFLECTIONS from pg. 1 returning to my heritage

makes things all the more

pleasant.

This past Sunday, I

went to a Chinese

restaurant for dim

sum with a couple of

friends to celebrate

the New Year. After

having attended an

American university

(especially one in the

Midwest) for such an

extended period of

time, this visit all but

made me nostalgic to a

point of regret. The food

and the restaurant itself

plus all the people in it

reminded of the signifi-

cance of being Asian.

What really put me over

the top and drove me to

become a more devout

zhongguo ren (Chinese

person) were the rituals.

Upon leaving the establish-

ment, my friends and I

were instantly met with

the familiar sound of

drums and cymbals. Sure

enough it was accompa-

nied by the customary

combination of fireworks

and lion dancing.

I don’t really understand

why this episode stood

apart from all others but

I am nothing but grateful

for the experience. It

really allowed me to

gauge myself as to where

I stand as Chinese indi-

vidual. I am by no means

a perfect practitioner but

I see myself as well on my

way to leading a balanced

lifestyle where I can em-

brace both cultures.

When this day finally

comes, I will able to re-

lieve myself of the sense

of negligence.

nia, treat Lunar New Year

like a second Christmas,

mixing in lanterns and

mooncake from the Mid

Autumn festival as well as

gifts in the form of red

envelopes with pocket

money. The family at-

tended local celebrations

with lion dancing and

beauty pageants, and

Sophie even wore a tradi-

tional Vietnamese ao dai

dress. In a sense, Linda and

Steve Larson have also

helped facilitate the gather-

ing of extended family dur-

ing Lunar New Year, taking

Sophie to meet her birth

mother in Vietnam. As

more American families

adopt children of Asian

descent, perhaps they can

also follow the Larson's

example as a way to pass

on Asian culture to their

children.

In preparing and participat-

ing in celebrating the pas-

sage, Lunar New Year also

provides an opportunity

for Asian Americans to

reconnect back with the

cultures of their ancestors

through traditional cuisines

and customs. For children

of Asian descent adopted

by American families, the

celebration of Lunar New

Year is even more vital to

reconnecting with one's

culture. To many of these

children, like Sadie and

Sophie Larson, adoptive

sisters born in China and

Vietnam, the prospect of

Lunar New Year provides

an extra spark to delve

into the culture of their

countries of origin. The

Larsons, who hail from

Lake Arrowhead, Califor-

A S I A N A M E R I C A N A S S O C I A T I O N

Join the

“Asian American

Association”

Facebook Group!

Become a AAA

Member Today!

Contact

aaa@sugroups.wustl.edu

Oh, To Look Like Lucy Liu Sarah Wong

P A G E 3 Volume 2, Issue 6

Cosmetic surgery has soared to

new heights in the last decade...

especially for racial and ethnic

minorities. But while white

women are receiving liposuction,

breast augmentation, and wrinkle

removal procedures, Asian

American women are getting eye-

lid surgery, nasal implants, and

nasal tip refinement procedures.

Unlike the demands of white

women, the procedures that

Asian American women demand

are targeting distinct racial mark-

ers, their "small, narrow" eyes

and "flat" nose. Their hope is

that the "double-eyelid" surgery

will make their eyes appear larger

and nasal surgeries will make

their noses more prominent.

Asian American stereotypes of

"passivity, dullness, and lack of

sociability" are linked to genetic

features that Asian women hope

will be broken with a change in

their external appearance to look

"less Asian". The attempts to not

appear "sleepy", "dull", or

"passive" stem from racial ideol-

ogy that creates negative associa-

tions; Asians are not thought to

be creative or sociable. Con-

sumer society, dominantly West-

ernized in culture, has perpetu-

ated an image of beauty, "white

beauty". Not only are these ide-

ologies believed in the United

States, but also in Asia. It does

not help that the medical commu-

nity and consumer-oriented soci-

ety continue to reinforce these

stereotypes.

Ideologies are hard to beak. The

lack of Asian Americans in the

media, gives the average Asian

American only one or two images

of what a beautiful Asian should

look like (i.e. Lucy Liu). On the

other hand, we are bombarded

with multiple images of Caucasian

women who are beautiful,

sociable, creative, dynamic,

strong, and all of the above.

This is what we want to be.

But wait, aren't we already?

The only way to break these

trends is to realize the fal-

lacy of the stereotype. I am

not "sleepy", "dull", or

"passive". I make music vid-

eos, sing aloud in my car,

collect gnomes...AND I look

Asian. This is the first step.

And there are plenty of Asian

American role models leading the

way. The Asian Americans Who

Are Making Waves featured in this

newsletter are breaking the

stereotypes in grand fashion.

Sources:

Kaw, Eugenia. “Medicalization of Racial

Features: Asian-American Women and Cos-metic Surgery”. The Politics of Women’s

Bodies. Ed. Rose Weitz. 2003.

Music Review: Albums the Grammys Forgot Sarah Wong

On February 8th, the recording industry will

award top honors by presenting the Grammy

Awards. However, I have a hard time finding

my favorites on the nomination list. Here are

some of my top notable albums of 2008 that

should have made the list.

Greg Laswell

has been a gift to

me and TV

shows alike. His

newest album

Three Flights From

Alto Nido has

many strong

songs such as “Comes and Goes”, “The

One I Love”, and “I’d Be Lying”. But basi-

cally, the whole album rocks.

I haven’t heard music as fresh and creative

Consumer society,

dominantly

Westernized in

culture, has

perpetuated an

image of beauty,

"white beauty"

as Santogold’s

self titled album

in a long time.

Her study of

African drum-

ming has helped

her create a

sound that

blends rock, reggae and R&B. “L.E.S.

Artistes” and “You’ll Find A Way” are

my favorite tracks.

Most known for

her song

“Breathe Me”,

Sia released her

strongest album

entitled Some

People Have Real

Problems. Her songs are diverse with

beautiful tracks like “Soon We’ll Be

Found” and upbeat tracks like “The Girl

You Lost to Cocaine” comprising a

noteworthy album. She’s also quite an

entertaining performer.

MGMT hit it big this past year with

their debut album Oracular Spectacular.

The duo’s indie electronic sound is

unlike anything else out there right now.

“Kids” is my fa-

vorite but

“Electric Feel” is

also a great track

(Katy Perry does

a respectable

cover of it on

YouTube).

Asian Americans Who Are Making Waves Compiled By Sarah Wong

P A G E 4

A S I A N A M E R I C A N A S S O C I A T I O N

Lela Lee is a Korean American actress and cartoonist, and the creator

of the comic strip and animated cartoons Kim, the Angry Little Asian Girl

and Angry Little Girls.

Born in Las Angeles, California, Lee grew up in suburban San Dimas, and

cites her traditional Korean upbringing while growing up in an area with

few other Asian Americans as a central influence in her work. Angry Little

Girls was developed from Kim, the Angry Little Asian Girl, a character she

developed in 1994 when she was a sophomore at UC Berkeley.

She is also a film and television actress, with roles in the 1998 film Yellow

and the 2002 film Better Luck Tomorrow. She was a series regular in the

short-lived Sci Fi Channel series Tremors, and had a recurring guest role

on NBC's Scrubs.

When Lela is not acting, she draws her weekly comic strip "Angry Little

Girls." She has three anthology comic books by the same title available at

all major book stores. She also oversees all aspects of the Angry Little

Girls licensing which includes tote bags, t-shirts, magnets, and more...

Jason Wu was born in Taipei, Taiwan and later moved to Vancouver, Brit-

ish Columbia. He decided to become a fashion designer while spending his senior year of high school in Paris, and later interned with Narciso Rodri-

guez.

Wu launched his ready to wear line of clothes with earnings from his years of doll designs. His first full collection debuted in 2006 and won the Fashion

Group International's Rising Star award in 2008. In 2008 he was nominated for the Vogue Fashion Fund award. Bruce Weber shot the designer for W

magazine's "Summer Camp" portfolio last July.

Wu's early clients included Ivana Trump, January Jones, and Amber Valletta. Michelle Obama was introduced to Wu by André Leon Talley, Vogue

Magazine's editor-at-large, who had been advising the future First Family on their appearance. Michelle wore one of his dresses for a segment on Bar-

bara Walters Special shortly before the November 2008 election, prompt-ing many in the media to consider her his "career-launcher". She wore an-other, a custom-designed one-shoulder, floor-length white chiffon gown, at

the inaugural balls on the night of President Barack Obama's inauguration.

Wu is currently based in Manhattan.

Lela Lee

Jason Wu

http://www.angrylittlegirls.com/

http://www.jasonwustudio.com/

Asian Americans Who Are Making Waves Compiled By Sarah Wong

P A G E 5 V O L U M E 2 , I S S U E 6

Jennifer 8. Lee is a Chinese American New York Times reporter for

the Metro section. She was born in New York City.

Lee was not given a middle name at birth and chose her own middle name

later. She chose "8" as a teenager because of the prevalence of her first

name. It was in her teen years that she also began a life-long obsession

with food. For many Chinese, the number eight symbolizes prosperity and

good luck.

Lee graduated from Hunter College High School and Harvard College

(class of 1999). She interned at The Washington Post, The Wall Street Jour-

nal, The Boston Globe, Newsday and The New York Times while working on

her applied mathematics and economics degree and writing for The Har-

vard Crimson. She joined the Times in 2001, one and a half years after

graduating from Harvard.

Lee wrote a book about the history of Chinese food in the USA and

around the world, titled The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, documenting the

process on her blog. Warner Books editor Jonathan Karp struck a deal

with Lee to write a book about "how Chinese food is more all-American

than apple pie."

Chinese American Producer Dave Liang introduces Western

pop and electronica lovers to the sound of Asia by fusing tradi-

tional Chinese instrumentation with contemporary hip hop and

electronic music with his Shanghai Restoration Project.

The Shanghai Restoration Project’s first eponymous release was

inspired by the Shanghai jazz bands of the 1930s. The release

gained recognition globally, rising to the top 10 in several elec-

tronic charts, including Amazon, iTunes, and MSN Music. The

first track from the debut album, "Introduction (1936)," was se-

lected as the theme song for a worldwide TV advertising cam-

paign for Kenzo Parfums (a division of Louis Vuitton) in early

2007. Other tracks have been featured in promotional campaigns

for Microsoft, Rhapsody, TiVo, and SanDisk. In 2007, SRP part-

nered with China Records (the Chinese government's record

label) to release Remixed and Restored, a project remixing se-

lect classic Chinese hits from 1930s Shanghai. The group is cur-

rently signed to Warner Music's Independent Label Group.

SRP just released a new album entitled ZODIAC.

Dave Liang

Jennifer 8. Lee

http://shanghairestorationproject.com/

http://www.fortunecookiechronicles.com/

A S I A N A M E R I C A N A S S O C I A T I O N

from scratch, with best-selling books and long-

shot runs for office, leaving his relatives aston-

ished at where he has brought them.

“It is so mind-boggling that there is a black

president,” Craig Robinson, Mrs. Obama’s

brother, said in an interview. “Then you layer

on top of it that I am related to him? And then

you layer on top of that that it’s my brother-in-

law? That is so overwhelming, I can’t hardly

think about it.”

Though Mr. Obama is the son of a black Ken-

yan, he has some conventionally presidential

roots on his white mother’s side: abolitionists

who, according to family legend, were chased

out of Missouri, a slave state; Midwesterners

who weathered the Depression; even a handful

of distant ancestors who fought in the Revolu-

tionary War. (Ever since he became a United

States senator, the Sons of the American Revo-

lution has tried to recruit him. )

But far less has been known about Mrs.

Obama’s roots — even by the first lady herself.

Growing up on the South Side of Chicago, “it

was sort of passed-down folklore that so-and-

so was related to so-and-so and their mother

and father was a slave,” Mr. Robinson said.

Drawing on old census data, family records and

interviews, it is clear that Mrs. Obama is indeed

the descendant of slaves and a daughter of the

Great Migration, the mass movement of Afri-

can-Americans northward in the first half of

the 20th century in search of opportunity. Mrs.

Obama’s family found it, but not without out-

size measures of adversity and disappointment

along the way.

Read the rest of this article at www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON — The president’s elderly

step grandmother brought him an oxtail fly

whisk, a mark of power at home in Kenya.

Cousins journeyed from the South Carolina

town where the first lady’s great-great-

grandfather was born into slavery, while the

rabbi in the family came from the synagogue

where he had been commemorating Martin

Luther King’s Birthday. The president and

first lady’s siblings were there, too, of

course: his Indonesian-American half-sister,

who brought her Chinese-Canadian husband,

and her brother, a black man with a white

wife.

When President Barack Obama was sworn

in on Tuesday, he was surrounded by an extended clan that would have shocked past

generations of Americans and instantly re-

drew the image of a first family for future

ones.

As they convened to take their family’s final

step in its journey from Africa and into the

White House, the group seemed as if it had

stepped out of the pages of Mr. Obama’s

memoir — no longer the disparate kin of a

young man wondering how he fit in, but the

embodiment of a new president’s promise of

change.

For well over two centuries, the United

States has been vastly more diverse than its

ruling families. Now the Obama family has

flipped that around, with a Technicolor cast

that looks almost nothing like their over-

whelmingly white, overwhelmingly Protes-

tant predecessors in the role. The family that

produced Barack and Michelle Obama is

black and white and Asian, Christian, Muslim

and Jewish. They speak English; Indonesian;

French; Cantonese; German; Hebrew; Afri-

can languages including Swahili, Luo and Igbo;

and even a few phrases of Gullah, the Creole

dialect of the South Carolina Lowcountry.

Very few are wealthy, and some — like

Sarah Obama, the stepgrandmother who

only recently got electricity and running

water in her metal-roofed shack — are quite

poor.

“Our family is new in terms of the White House, but I don’t think it’s new in terms of

the country,” Maya Soetoro-Ng, the presi-

dent’s younger half-sister, said last week. “I

don’t think the White House has always

reflected the textures and flavors of this

country.”

Though the world is recognizing the inaugu-

ration of the first African-American presi-

dent, the story is a more complex narrative,

about immigration, social mobility and the

desegregation of one of the last divided insti-

tutions in American life: the family. It is a tale

of self-determination, full of refusals to fol-

low the tracks laid by history or religion or

parentage.

Mr. Obama follows the second President

Bush, who had a presidential son’s self-

assured grip on power. Aside from a top-

quality education, the new president came to

politics with none of his predecessor’s ad-

vantages: no famous last name, no deep-

pocketed parents to finance early forays into

politics and, in fact, not much of a father at

all. So Mr. Obama built his political career

Nation’s Many Faces in Extended First Family By Jodi Kantor

Published: January 20, 2009

Obama’s People In December and early January, the photographer Nadav Kander shot 52 portraits of

Obama’s top advisors, aides and members of his

incoming administration. Three Asian Americans are featured here.

P A G E 7 Volume 2, Issue 6

Eugene Kang, 24

Special Assistant to the President

Worked for the Obama campaign in the political division. In

2005, as a senior at the University of Michigan, Kang ran for City

Council in Ann Arbor, promising to be "the student voice," and

was narrowly defeated. He will be special assistant to the presi-

dent.

Eric K. Shinseki, 66 Veterans Affairs Secre-

tary-Designate

A four-star general, served two combat tours in Viet-

nam, losing part of a foot in battle. In 2003 he left

his position as the Army chief of staff after clashing

with the Bush administra-tion, saying that the Iraq

invasion would require

"several hundred thousand troops." He is the secre-

tary-designate of the Vet-erans Affairs Department.

Steven Chu, 60

Energy Secretary-Designate

A physics and molecular biology professor at the University of Cali-

fornia- Berkeley; won the Noble Prize in Physics in 1997 for re-

search in laser cooling and the trapping of atoms. He has been the

director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory since 2004

and the Energy Secretary-Designate.

AAA in January!

AAA Newsletter Edited By Sarah Wong

Lela Lee

4 p.m. Wednesday, February 11th Graham Chapel

Through her cartoons, short films, and Web comic series, Lee has

found creative outlets for expressing her feelings as a minority in

America. Lee also is an actress, and has appeared on television hits

such as Scrubs. Her talk, called "My Culture Is Pop Culture," is

sponsored by the Asian American Association.

One woman. One great mystery.

One consuming obsession. 40,000 restaurants.

There are more Chinese restaurants in this

country than McDonalds, Burger King and Ken-tucky Fried Chicken combined.

In The Fortune Cookie Chronicles,

author Jennifer 8. Lee takes readers

on a remarkable journey that is both

foreign and familiar: penetrating this

subculture by traveling the world (and

almost every American state) in her

quest to understand Chinese food and

the people who make it.

The book is a tribute to immigrants

and to America. If our benchmark for Americanness is

apple pie, ask yourself, how often do you eat apple pie?

Now how often do you eat Chinese food?

AAA along with Chinese Students Assoc. and

Culinary Arts Society present an evening with

author Jennifer 8. Lee. Mark your calendars

for Feb. 27th!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

AAA/HKSA Lunar New

Year Banquet

Books available in the Wash U

Bookstore!

Meet & Greet, Booksigning

following talk