September 2, 2015 International Examiner

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER September 2, 2015 – September 15, 2015 — 1

By Chetanya RobinsonIE Staff Writer

Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced August 28 that he will not move forward with planned enforcement actions against the city’s hookah lounges that were to begin August 31. The announcement came after a meeting with the lounge owners, the City Attorney’s Offi ce, and the Offi ce for Civil Rights, and follows almost a month of protests over the mayor’s original plan to shut down all illegally operating hookah lounges in the city.

The mayor stressed that although none of the city’s 11 hookah lounges will be shut down, they will need to start following the laws banning smoking in public places and places of employment (something the hookah lounges in Seattle tried to circumvent by claiming to be private clubs). Ten of the 11 lounges were issued fi nes for violation of the law, and will be

inspected regularly to make sure they’re complying with the laws.

The mayor said his decision came from learning more about how enforcement of the law would have an impact on the businesses, most of which are East African-owned and serve a diverse clientele.

Action against hookah lounges called racistThe mayor’s initial announcement on

August 3 that the city and King County would collaborate on action against Seattle’s hookah bars was met with protest over what many saw as unfair, even racist enforcement of the law.

During the public comment period at the city council meeting on August 10, Nabil Mohammed, owner of the Medina Hookah Lounge, said blaming the hookah

Mayor halts plan to target hookah lounges,

community leaders react

Adam Burkepile, a local software developer, said before the City Council that hookah bars were instrumental in his effort to quit drinking. Burkepile, along with other professionals, also use the bars as a place to conduct business. • Photo by Goorish Wibneh/Seattle Globalist

PRSRT STDU.S. POSTAGEPAIDSEATTLE, WAPermit No. 2393

Seattle’s Asian Pacifi c Islander newspaper for over 40 years First and third Wednesdays each month.

So long to Hongʼs Garden | Page 4

. . . HOOKAH: Continued on page 3

By Izumi HansenIE Assistant News Editor

A new election cycle has ushered in potential for drastic changes in Seattle and King County as the results of the primary were fi nalized in mid-August.

Just near 25 percent of voters in King County returned their ballots for the primary. In Seattle, District 3—containing the Central District, International District, and Mt. Baker—had the highest return rate of 36 percent of registered voters.

District 1, comprised of Southwest Seattle from West Seattle to Fauntleroy, contained nine candidates, the largest number for all positions. Nick Licata staffer Lisa Herbold and Joe McDermott staffer Shannon Braddock will move on to the general election.

Incumbent Bruce Harrell garnered 62 percent of the votes in District 2. Community organizer Tammy Morales will face him in November to represent the district, which constitutes Southwest Seattle from Columbia City to Rainier Beach.

In District 3, the newest councilmember Kshama Sawant, elected in 2013, won over half of the votes while Urban League President Pamela Banks came in second with a third of the votes.

Rob Johnson, executive director of Transportation Choices Coalition, and advocate Michael Maddux will continue to the general election for District 4. This district stretches from Wallingford to Sand Point and contains large, distinct age groups, making this a diffi cult race. Current councilmember Jean Godden came in third for this race and will not continue to the general election.

North Seattle’s District 5 was another tough race, with eight candidates and no incumbent. Tribal lawyer Debora Juarez

General Election candidates fi nalized

District 3 has highest return rateand Rev. Sandy Brown will be running for the seat in the primary, having garnered 39 percent and 20 percent of the votes respectively.

Ballard community leader Catherine Weatbrook will run against incumbent Mike O’Brian for District 6 come November. O’Brian received 59 percent of votes while Weatbrook received 22 percent of votes from the neighborhoods in Northeast Seattle.

The race for District 7, encompassing Queen Anne and Downtown Seattle, will be between incumbent Sally Bagshaw, who won the primary with over three-thirds of the votes, and resident Deborah Zech-Artis.

Finishing the last two council positions, both at-large, will be John Grant, executive director of Tenants Union, against incumbent Tim Burgess and Lorena Gonzalez, former legal counsel to Mayor Ed Murray, against Bill Bradburd, former chair of the Seattle Neighborhoods Coalition.

Elections for the Port of Seattle, which had a fl urry of issues this year including leasing space for Shell oil rigs, were less heated. Commissioner Position 2 saw incumbent Courtney Gregoire win the primary by a landslide. Goodspaceguy came second with nine percent.

Commissioner Position 5 will be between environmental consultant Fred Felleman and Marion Yoshino, former Normandy Park councilmember. The candidates respectively garnered 25 percent and 18 percent of the votes to beat out seven other candidates.

Registration for the general election closes Oct. 5 and the general election is Nov. 3. To register, visit http://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/myvote/olvr.html.

2 — September 2, 2015 – September 15, 2015 INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE OPINION

IESTAFF

Established in 1974, the International Examiner is the only non-profi t pan-Asian 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. [email protected].

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The following is a letter from community leader “Uncle” Bob Santos, addressed to the late Donnie Chin:

Hi Donnie,I’ve always wanted to write you to thank

you for all the good times, rough times, and everything in between. I knew your dad, Don Chin, when he served as acting director of Inter*Im just before I was hired in 1972.

He was serving as president of the Seattle Chinatown Chamber of Commerce during the decades leading up to the development of the Kingdome in the early ’70s. I loved visiting your Mom at the store because she was always so supportive of our work at Inter*Im. You and Dean Wong used to run the streets of Chinatown International District (CID) and I think you guys were wearing a red star at the time, which pissed off some of the businesses in the Chinatown core.

When you two started the International District Emergency Center (IDEC), the neighborhood was undergoing drastic change. The two major highways were just being planned and built and King County was planning to build the multipurpose Kingdome.

The neighborhood residents, many of them limited or non-English speaking Asians, were alarmed at the rate of development surrounding them. You made life easier for them when you would provide much needed advice on how to access services—i.e. medical as well as social services. And you began to provide fi rst aid and support services when they were needed.

In those early years, the IDEC became the “go-to guys” and you started to emerge as the heart and soul of the Center, our Donnie, our fi rst responder.

Call 911, there’s khaki covered Donnie followed by black uniformed medics and guys in blue. But you were usually there fi rst and you always came back. You and the

From Uncle Bob Santos:A letter to Donnie Chin

young Asian activists from the International District Youth Council (IDYC) started the fi rst neighborhood food bank.

I remember when I worked with you for the fi rst time in the mid ’70s when the Wing Luke Auction was held at Chong

Wa hall. That fi rst auction was held on a cold blustery night in mid-November with patrons of the arts wearing coats throughout the night. I was recruited by Tommy Quan to

bartend. Get’em loaded and they’ll bid high. Next year same actors but this time you turned up the heat in Chong Wa hall as high as it would go.

Patrons shed their coats and because IDEC was in charge of the coat check room, you made enough money to buy much needed equipment.

During a period throughout the ’70s when gangs were forming in both the Chinese and Filipino sectors, shootouts were almost common and we would see you arrive through the gunsmoke to aide the victims, but you always came back and things in our world continued on.

You and the troops at IDEC were present and provided security at all Chinatown International District events or I might add Asian Pacifi c American events through the city, the birthday parties at Century Ballroom, Ghetto Olympics at Daybreakstar Center, fi re watch at the Milwaukee Hotel, political fundraisers at every neighborhood restaurant, the parades, street fairs, and 40 years as security at the annual pig roasts in the Danny Woo Garden.

Will we miss you if you’re not there and will our world continue on? Well! You never came back after your last run and our world, as we lived it, will never be the same.

Uncle Bob

Chin

Letter to the Editor

Gun violence and crime all around Seattle, or even King County, has aroused much concern to many people. As a long time member of the Chinatown/International District Neighborhood Block Watch, may I express my thoughts in this matter? The Block Watch was started back in 2008, under the sponsorship of the former mayor. The cosponsor is SCIDpda, which provides a place for the gathering of Block Watch members and also recruits and provides its staff to lead the Block Watch.

At fi rst, some senior offi cers from the Seattle Police Department came to give us some rough ideas of how SPD operates. For example, they explained how the 911 function works and how we can report crime to the police quickly instead of taking actions ourselves.

At fi rst, the Block Watch took place twice a week: Tuesday and Thursday in the evenings. Then, it was reduced to only once a week: on Tuesdays. Block Watch members included both young and old, some lived in the neighborhood, some did not. Even after I moved to Renton, I still took part in the Block Watch, which takes about one hour.

In the beginning, the Block Watch was led by a police offi cer who taught us how to look for anything suspicious. We patrolled around the International District. When we suspected anything, we would report to our team leader, who would then note it down and report it to the Police. In an urgent situation, we would immediately contact the SPD.

On the surface, the purpose of this Block Watch may not seem great. What is the use of walking just one hour a week? Yet the effect is after the walk.

Since the members nearly all live or work in this district, and with their experience in Block Watch, we have built up a watchful eye even when we are not doing the Block Watch. There have been many times that our members have reported crime to the SPD when they are not on Block Watch hour. This is the aim of the Block Watch.

During the Donnie Chin memorial gathering on Saturday, August 15, I had a chance to speak to SPD Chief Kathleen O’Toole. She knows about the Block Watch. I suggested to her to gradually expand this Block Watch Project to all districts. This would help the SPD put more watchful eyes in Seattle’s neighborhoods.

Yet, to do this, we have to face two problems. First, how do we build up the Block Watch in other districts? Here in Chinatown we have the SCIDpda to help organize the team, provide staff, and allocate a gathering place. In other districts, volunteers may have to rely on the community centers to organize. This effort needs government support. We hope the mayor and police chief will sit down together and discuss this. Imagine, when every district has a neighborhood block watch and citizens are always on alert and can give a helpful hand to the SPD, what a peaceful city Seattle will become.

Second, we need more young people to join the neighborhood block watch effort, as youngsters are more alert than old people like me. To recruit more young people, we need the help of the police, the Seattle school district, and community colleges. Maybe students can get credit for participating.

T.W.Renton, WA

Block Watch: We need more eyes to look after our neighborhoods


IE NEWS

lounges for crime was unfair, and called on the city to address the problem of crime in the ID directly.

“The closure of hookah lounges is orchestrated to make the mayor appear decisive about ending violence without addressing the actual issue,” Mohammed said. “We came to this country to better our lives. The way the mayor has rushed making the announcement without considering the Racial Equity Tool makes it look like what our parents have experienced back home, which is undemocratic.”

Mohammed was followed by Gerald Hankerson, president of the Seattle/King County NAACP and president of NAACP for Alaska, Oregon, and Washington, who went further, accusing the city of disproportionately targeting black businesses.

“It’s sad actually that we can sit here and talk about a decision that’s made by someone that claims to be a progressive in a largely liberal city, coming up with a plan to eliminate black-owned businesses while half the city is fighting against gentrification and elimination of black businesses statewide,” he said.

API leaders react to mayor’s change of heart

The mayor’s original decision came after protests calling for the closure of King’s Hookah Lounge following the murder of Donnie Chin in the International District on July 23. King’s Hookah Lounge is across the street from Legacy House, a retirement home in the ID, and had been receiving complaints for years. Chin had been outspoken about the problems he saw with

the lounge, and lost his life in the vicinity of the area.

According to API community leader Bob Santos, who organized two protests in the ID which brought the attention of the mayor, ID residents have long complained about noise late at night from King’s Hookah Lounge clientele and shootings in the area. Santos said he still would like for the city to take action against King’s Hookah Lounge. “The owners of this lounge either need to move this business to another location far from a residential zone or just close up,” Santos said in an email.

Neighborhood community members said that while they support small businesses, they will speak out against any business that creates problems for its neighbors and attracts bad elements to a residential area.

Teresita Batayola, CEO of International Community Health Services (ICHS) wrote a letter August 17 to the City Council supporting the mayor’s initial August 3 decision to take action against the two lounges in the ID, which she described as a “blight” in the community.

ICHS Foundation director Ron Chew said that ICHS still supports taking action to close hookah lounges in the neighborhood.

“We’re supportive of small businesses, we believe that immigrant small businesses are the lifeblood of our community,” Chew said, “but when two businesses have a track record of being very bad neighbors and attracting bad elements, particularly to a residential area where we operate, we’ll speak out.”

API community leader Frank Irigon said the mayor’s reversal on taking action against all hookah lounges in the city is reasonable. Irigon was one of several community leaders who marched in protest of King’s Hookah Lounge presence in the neighborhood,

but he said he never anticipated that the mayor would try to close down all lounges in the city.

“I was for closing down the hookah bar, but I wasn’t in favor of closing down all the hookah bars,” he said. “I didn’t know that was part of the package, if you close down one you close them all.”

This sentiment was echoed by Santos. His aim was to close King’s Hookah Lounge, he said, but he had no interest in closing Medina Hookah Lounge, also in the ID, or, for that matter, any others in the city.

“I have no problem with the [Medina] Hookah Lounge located at 8th and South Dearborn Street,” Santos said in an email. “In fact during the two marches organized a month ago to focus on the closure of King Lounge, the protesters bypassed the lounge at 8th and Dearborn.”

When asked if he had plans to organize more protests now that King’s Hookah Lounge would not be targeted for closure by the city, Santos said he is waiting to see what further actions the city will take.

Irigon said he is still in favor of closing the King’s lounge, as long as the owner is fairly compensated.

But after learning that hookah lounges could still find a way to operate by transitioning to using steam stones, and would probably stay open for the time being, Irigon said he believes it’s important that the ID community work together with hookah lounge owners.

Irigon and other community leaders met with hookah lounge owners, including Mohammed, at the IDEA space in the ID to discuss ways the lounges could be better neighbors. Mohammed told Irigon

he had learned more about the ID community as a result of the controversy, and wanted to get involved more.

Irigon said welcoming East Africans into the ID is simply fulfilling the ID’s name: the International District.

“This is what it’s all about—you have small business people trying to achieve their American dream,” Irigon said, “and whether it’s a hookah bar or whether it’s a laundry business or a restaurant, they’re all trying to do the same as our predecessors did trying to make a living here in America. This is one thing that maybe many of us forgot, that is what the International District is all about—it’s not just Chinatown, it’s Chinatown International District.”

The city’s new strategyThe Office of Economic Development has

been instructed by the mayor to work with hookah lounge owners to provide technical assistance concerning compliance with city, county, and state law. In addition, Seattle’s Office for Civil Rights has begun utilizing the City’s Racial Equity Toolkit to analyze potential hookah lounge regulations and the public health and safety impact of those businesses on their employees, patrons, and neighborhoods in which they operate, the city said in a statement.

The city also said that while business licenses of hookah lounges will not be revoked for public health violations, periodic inspections may occur to ensure compliance with current law. In the meantime, the city is developing a regulatory business license that is being considered by the mayor and the Seattle City Attorney. A regulatory license would be able to address public health and safety concerns including operating hours, age restrictions, and security requirements, among others.

. . . HOOKAH: Continued from page 1

IE News Services

Located at 4th Avenue South and Main Street in the International District, Hirabayashi Place is a 95-unit affordable housing development. Studios, one-bedroom apartments, and two-bedroom apartments are available for households making between 40 percent and 60 percent of the area median income. Hirabayashi Place is scheduled to be completed for move in by late December 2015.

To live at Hirabayashi Place, each household member 18 and over must pass the background screening as well as qualify for the units based on the income levels set aside by the property funders.

Applications were made available on August 25. The application packet consists of a Resident Eligibility Application (REA) and Screening Application. Applications are available online at HirabayashiPlace.com; by visiting the temporary leasing office located in the InterIm Community Development Association at 310 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104; or by calling the leasing office at (206) 331-2517 for an application to be mailed to you.

Applications will be accepted into the property’s application lottery through September 15, 2015. Each household member 18 and over will need to submit a separate Resident Eligibility Application (REA) and Screening Form. Applications will be accepted as long as they are dropped off or post-marked by September 15, 2015.

Applications must be sealed and dropped off at:

ATTN: HIRABAYASHI PLACE310 Maynard Ave SSeattle, WA 98104 or mailed to: ATTN: HIRABAYASHI PLACEPO Box 2170Lynnwood, WA 98036Lotteries are held during the initial

application process to ensure that all applicants are given an equal opportunity to obtain an affordable apartment. Applications are randomly selected and numbered in order of selection.

For more information, visit HirabayashiPlace.com or call the leasing office at (206) 331-2517.

Hirabayashi Place: Resident applications due September 15

Rendering of Hirabayashi Place. Designed by Mithun, to be built at 424 South Main Street. • Courtesy Image


IE COMMUNITY

Faye Hong’s family owned and operated the iconic Atlas Café from 1956 to 1983, on the corner of Maynard and King. Faye then opened the House of Hong and ran it from 1983 to 1992, when he retired and sold it. He then “un-retired” and Hong’s Garden Restaurant, in Renton, was open from 1994 till Saturday, August 29 for 21 years. • Photo by Jeff Hanada

So long to Hong’s Garden:Faye Hong retires after storied restaurant career

By Ron ChewIE Contributor

On Saturday, August 29, Hong’s Garden Restaurant in Renton closed after 21 years as a popular go-to restaurant for nearby Boeing workers and families craving home-style Chinese cuisine outside the International District.

Owner Faye Hong, who turns 74 on September 20, was matter-of-fact about the closure, noting that his original plan was to retire much sooner. Hong established the restaurant in a strip mall near the Renton Airport in 1994 at a time when other businesses in close proximity were bustling.

“I’ve been doing this for too long,” Hong said in an interview the day after the restaurant closed. The soft-spoken Hong sounded especially fatigued after a busy final week. “I’ve got to start looking out for myself.” Hong, who still looks deceptively young for his age, said he’s eager to spend some down time. He said he wants to manage his chronic diabetes, exercise, and try to lose weight. “I can still work twice as fast as two of my employees in the kitchen, but I don’t want to keep doing this,” he said. “I’ve got to rest up.”

Hong’s retirement will also provide a welcome break for his wife Janie, a perennial fixture at the restaurant’s front

counter. Meanwhile, Hong’s daughter, Melinda, who worked as a waitress and cashier, will look for other employment.

The restaurant’s closure has been received with great sadness by regular customers who came to rely on the speedy take-out service, delicious dim sum lunch choices, and classic Cantonese fare. “For the last 10 days, all the loyal customers have been coming in,” Hong said. “They heard I’m retiring. In fact, some have come in for four straight days.”

Hong said that in the past seven or eight years, The Landing, the upscale Renton development on the south shore of Lake Washington, had drained potential customers and traffic away from his business, prompting a downward spiral. During the past year-and-a-half, he had been trying unsuccessfully to sell the restaurant.

“I enjoyed it for the first 10 years,” Hong said. “But last few years have been kind of hard. I’ve been losing money. The rent structure is too high.”

Hong, a well-respected leader in the Chinatown-International District community for decades, has been in the restaurant business since 1956 when his father, Hong Louie, opened a tiny, but very popular eatery, the Atlas Café, on the corner of Maynard Avenue and South King

Street. At the time, Faye, a 14-year-old student at Franklin High School, washed dishes and helped out in the kitchen after school. He learned the restaurant trade from the bottom up, working alongside his father and mother and his younger siblings James, Hugo, and Susan.

After the Atlas Café closed in 1983, Faye opened the House of Hong on Eighth Avenue and South Jackson Street, at the former location of Officemporium, an office supply store. Hong purchased the property from the late Danny Woo, a prominent Chinatown business leader. But just three months after the new restaurant opened to flocks of customers, an arsonist torched the business, burning it to the ground. Hong, who had relied on a Small Business Administration loan to start up, was desperate. “It was the lowest point in my life,” he recounted. “I didn’t have any money. I had put all my money into the loan. I owed the bank so much. I hardly had any money to live on. We rebuilt it in exactly 120 days. But not too long after that, the Wah Mee massacre took place and it affected people coming down to the area.”

Despite this inauspicious beginning, the House of Hong quickly established

itself as one of the staple restaurants in the region, not only holding onto the loyal customers who migrated over from the iconic Atlas Café, but drawing additional downtown workers to the International District for lunch and families from the Eastside for dinner.

Faye operated the House of Hong until 1994 when he sold the flourishing business. He retired at the age of 51. “I was working too hard,” he said. “I was putting in 14 hours a day, six-and-a-half days a week.” He added that his partnership with his brother, Hugo, was not going well, helping push his decision to retire. “I didn’t want to run the restaurant anymore,” he said.

Hong’s retirement turned out to be short-lived. After he sold the House of Hong, some of his former employees coaxed him into starting another restaurant: “They said, ‘Start a smaller one. We’ll work for you. You don’t have to work so hard. You just have to manage it.’”

Hong then began looking for a location to start anew. As he drove around Renton, he spotted a brand new strip mall that had been built on the site of an old Black Angus Steakhouse that Hong used to patronize during the 1970s while he was working at Boeing. “I thought this

HONG: Continued on page 5 . . .


IE COMMUNITY

would be a good place to open a restaurant,” he said. “There was heavy traffi c on that intersection.”

“I got quite a few people that used to work for me to join me at the new place,” Hong said. “I told a couple of them, ‘Why don’t you guys invest in this restaurant, too? Put in whatever you can, and then I’ll put up the rest.’ Three of them invested. We started it. They got their money back within a year.”

Hong said he had originally planned to sell the restaurant to one of the partners after fi ve years, but no one stepped forward. “After working for about 10 years, and no one wants to buy the place, I got stuck with it,” he said. “Two of them retired. One stayed with me and he’s going to retire now. So I got stuck for 21 years. My fi ve year plan turned into 21 years.”

Despite the closure of Hong’s Garden Restaurant, Hong intends to continue his numerous community activities. He serves on the board of directors of Kin On and has been a leader in the Seattle Hop Sing Tong and the Lee Family Association.

More recently, Hong has been involved in the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Statue Foundation, established just last year. Hong, who helped raise money to erect the Chinatown Gate at Fifth Avenue and South King Street, says he wants to build on that success by placing a statue of the late Chinese political leader in a visible public location nearby. Hong said the group has already raised $22,000, with an additional state allocation of $10,000 recently approved. “We’re just trying to fi nd a place to put it up now,” Hong said.

. . . HONG: Continued from page 4

Faye Hong originally planned to run Hong’s Garden Restaurant for only fi ve years. • Photo by Jeff Hanada

Comcast external affairs manager Diem Ly speaks at a Hing Hay Coworks event on August 19, 2015. Comcast is a sponsor of Hing Hay Coworks, a collaborative work space serving freelancers, boutique fi rms, and start-ups in SCIDpda’s Bush Asia Center. Ly said that Hing Hay Coworks, since its inception, has always been “about building community.” • Photo by Travis Quezon


IE COMMUNITY

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By Alia MarshaIE Contributor

Christina Enriquez stood on the corner of 5th Avenue and Weller Street next to an electrical-box-turned-memorial site for her late son. As strangers stopped by and looked curiously, Christina began to tell them the story of her son’s life and death, and her fight to make the streets in the International District safe.

Christina’s son, Benito “Benny” Enriquez, was kicked to death near the entrance of Uwajimaya a month ago by a stranger who is still on the loose. Surveillance tapes that caught the suspect and his female companion were too blurry to identify. Benny’s family and friends who regularly speak with investigators on the case are still unable to find answers and justice for him, Christina said. Almost immediately after the incident, Christina started going to the memorial site and staying there for three hours almost every evening after she gets off from her full-time job as a public health nurse in Auburn.

“He came to me about 24 hours after his death,” said Christina. “I knew it was him—I could feel it was him and the message I received was that one, his daughters have to go to college, that’s not an option, and two, that I have to help to make the streets safe.”

Christina said she then decided to start a nonprofit organization called Safe Streets 4 Kids. She has decided to make her campaign “valid” and search

Remembering Benny Enriquez: One mother turning grief into activism

for grants so that she will be taken seriously by the International District community and public officials.

“They have to listen to nonprofits, but they don’t have to listen to emotional, crying mothers,” Christina explained to a friend. “The reason why I call it ‘Safe Streets 4 Kids’ is because every person is a child of someone. I thought I can try to apply for a grant so we can have [promotional items], organize weekly neighborhood walks, I want to start here in Chinatown and go to Central District, Capitol Hill, everywhere!”

Christina has worked with the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) and Neighborhood Block Watch and was able to put up a banner with information and stills from surveillance tapes on the wall of Uwajimaya. So far, Christina said that she has been able to earn the ear and support from various local politicians in Seattle and Auburn. However, she found it frustrating to get people in positions of power to help her make changes to the safety of International District streets.

“They always say, ‘I’m sorry for your loss,’ but OK, let’s get over being sorry for my loss and let’s take action. Let’s change the streets,” Christina said. “My dream is to have regular community meetings, [figure out] how to break the codes of silence, how to talk to the communities who don’t speak English, how to report suspicious activities when you’re an undocumented citizen, et cetera.”

Besides Christina, Benny left two young daughters and his girlfriend of more than

one year, Nicole Magee. Last Thursday, Magee mostly stood quietly in tears while Christina talked to strangers not only about her loss, but also about her campaign. Magee and Benny met at Rainer School, a rehabilitation center for adults with developmental disabilities in Buckley, Washington, where she is an attendant counselor and he a nurse.

Christina said that she raised Benny in the International District, where he learned how to use chopsticks before knives and forks. So it was baffling for her, that he should die in the place where he felt safest. At 6’4 and 240 lbs., Christina said everyone thought Benny would have no problem taking care of himself, but she said the incident just shows how unpredictable life is and unsafe the streets of the International District and Seattle in general are.

“I always tell him to smile, because he’s a big person. I didn’t want him to intimidate anyone,” Christina said, looking lovingly at the pictures of Benny smiling on his memorial site.

Almost every night returning to Benny’s memorial, Christina would find additional things that people left, ranging from candles to different foods to flowers. On Saturday, September 5, John and Linda Soriano of SCIDpda and Block Watch will perform a Native American blessing on Benny’s memorial site.

“At the end of the day, I just hope to bring awareness and to make his death count,” Christina said.

At a memorial for her son Benny Enriquez, Christina Enriquez (right) speaks with Israel Tellez and his daughter (center). • Photo by Alia Marsha


IE ARTS

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By Shin Yu PaiIE Contributor

Market Street: A Chinese Woman in Harbin will likely appeal to a narrow audience of readers—namely Chinese literature afi cionados who are already familiar with Xiao Hong’s work as a novelist, or those with specifi c interests in literary translation. Published after her fi rst book, The Field of Life and Death, the thinly disguised fi ctional work, documents the two impoverished years from 1932 to 1934 that Xiao Hong spent living in the Russian-infl uenced city of Harbin, following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

As ethnic minorities in Japanese-occupied Harbin, writers Qiao Yin and Langhua struggle to survive. The book opens with a violent altercation between Langhua and the couple’s Russian landlord, who reports the pair to the police after an unsuccessful attempt to collect overdue rent. An uneasy tension underlies much of the book—Qiao Ying and Langhua live in a constant

UW Press reissues Xiao Hong’s literary autobiographystate of fear heightened by the insecurity and hostility brought on by the occupation.

In order to earn a meager income, Langhua accepts occasional work as a tutor, faking expertise in medicine, martial arts, and philosophy. But confronted with poverty, the pair is forced to beg money and eventually pawn Qiao Yin’s coat to pay for food. Langhua is depicted as stingy, proud, and unstable, in contrast to Qiao Yin’s more resourceful character. She borrows money from a former teacher, takes on her own students, and fi nds the couple temporary work painting ads for a movie house.

The instability of the couple’s economic condition brings out the worst in their relationship—with Langhua largely coming across as a

selfi sh, pompous ass. In a seemingly carefree scene, after the couple

publish a book together, the lovers celebrate by going boating on the river. When Langhua’s shirt fl oats away, he dives into the river to retrieve it and fi nds a dead fi sh. He insists that they bring it home. Before dining on the fi sh that he tells Qiao Yin to fry up, Langhua declares, “I’m treating you to this fi sh dinner.”

Socially isolated, the couple joins a band of Chinese artists that meets in secret. The group reads and stages plays, puts on salons, and provides the young writers with a community that supports their creative and political interests. But Qiao Yin and Langhua openly criticize the Japanese in their writing and the publication of their book threatens

the safety of their community. The troupe disbands when military police and secret agents round up members of the group—eventually, the couple choose to fl ee the city.

First published in 1986, the UW edition of Market Street includes a new preface by translator Howard Goldblatt who has translated Xiao Hong’s entire corpus. Written before Xiao Hong’s rise to literary fame for her masterpiece Tales of Hulan River, Market Street is completely unlike her autobiographical novel of rural village life. Episodic and discontinuous in its narrative, with few clues to the characters’ pasts, Market Street may disappoint the audience expectations of those readers only acquainted with the author’s fi ctional work. Yet, the impressionistic style and psychological explorations of gender roles in Market Street, combined with the ability to impart the cultural and socio-political tensions preceding the second Sino-Japanese War, make it a worthwhile read.


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By Ron ChewIE Contributor

After retiring from a 36-year career as a forester working to protect the public lands of the Pacific Northwest, Dale Hom has re-turned to his boyhood passion of drawing.

This past summer, the Seattle native took to pen and paper to create a graphic novel that poignantly captures the bittersweet nos-talgia of growing up in Southeast Seattle in the early 1960s. He’s hoping to find a local publisher by the end of the year and move on to his next project: a graphic novel on early Chinese pioneers of the rural West.

“After a full career in public service, I thought it would be good to turn on the creative side of my brain,” Hom said. “As a child, I was always encour-aged to have a pen in my hands. My parents thought

this would keep me occupied and out of mis-chief. So I would draw to my heart’s content.

“I used to watch Brakeman Bill on TV. He would have a drawing exercise on his show. He’d have a flip chart and he would draw a picture of his Crazy Donkey. I saw how easily he did that and I thought I could do that, too.”

Hom’s recently completed graphic novel focuses on Chinese American fifth grader Wallace, who spends the summer of 1961 in the comfort of familiar neighborhood haunts such as Owens Pharmacy at the Beacon Av-enue junction (hunting for the latest comic books), Sick’s Seattle Stadium (watching Seattle Rainiers baseball with his Japanese American friend), and in Chinatown at the Yick Fung Company (shopping with his fa-ther). Like many a child of that era, Wallace struggles with fulfilling the high academic expectations of parents and endures the re-current sting of racial taunts. But he also finds carefree pleasure in the comfort of sports, music, comics, and other adolescent pastimes. In the quick span of a summer, Wallace comes to understand—through a first time excursion into Ballard—a little more about the world beyond his narrow childhood stereotypes.

Hom has titled the graphic novel, “Walk Don’t Run,” after the iconic hit song by the Tacoma group, The Ventures. “This is right in step with the setting of the book,” Hom explained. “It would have been what we would have heard on the radio.”

Hom said the graphic novel isn’t auto-biographical, but admitted that it does bear “some resemblance” to his own life. “It’s more like a montage of stories that I heard in the neighborhood when I was growing up,” he said. “It’s a slice of life during a time period that I can relate to – the pre-Civil Rights era.

Hom, a graduate of Cleveland High School, said he frequented Owens Drugs

Chinese American forester creates graphic novel about growing up on Beacon Hill

From Walk Don’t Run, by Dale Hom.

on “The Hill” from an early age. “They had Archie, Veronica, Sad Sack, Superman, Batman, Walt Disney comics, all the su-perheroes of the time,” Hom said. “I would pick up a comic book and a candy bar for a quarter.”

In high school, Hom decided to pursue art as an elective rather than “shop,” the more popular choice among fellow stu-dents. Hom’s older brother, Wayne, even-tually pursued a commercial art career. Hom’s professional path, however, took him into forestry. But he always main-tained a side interest in cartooning.

Even though Hom made his career mark as conservation advocate and a high-ranking Asian American Forest Service supervi-sor—helping educate the public about the archeological history of early Asian Ameri-can rural settlers—he found opportunities to sketch. In the mid-1980s, he did some weekly editorial cartooning for small week-ly newspapers in Alaska, in Seward and Cor-dova, for which he won press club awards. He also produced illustrations for govern-ment documents.

Hom admits that he’s had to make some adjustments during his late-life return to drawing: “It’s been a lot of fun, but it took

me a little bit to warm up the pen and be-come familiar with the tools. I’m really technologically challenged. I do everything the old-fashioned way—with the rapido-graph pen, markers, straight-edge and a lot of erasers.”

Hom, who retired from the Forest Service in June, 2012, said his graphic novel would likely be a “great surprise” to his former co-workers. “They probably were not privy to

knowing about this urban kid growing up in Seattle,” says Hom. “The ones who might enjoy the graphic novel would be the Asian American Forest Service employees. I’m not so sure the rank and file folks would be able to relate to it.”

Aleta Eng, partnership specialist for the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, credits Hom as a role model and mentor who paved the way for younger Asian Pa-cific Americans to pursue careers in public service in rural settings. Eng, like Hom, grew up on Beacon Hill. But even she was surprised to hear about Hom’s graphic nov-el. “I really didn’t know much about this ar-tistic side,” Eng said. “I’m sure others didn’t know either.”

Hom said he believes there are “several layers” of audiences for his graphic novel. “There’s the baby boomers who grew up in Seattle who would recognize the neighbor-hood places,” he said. “The story might also appeal even to kids today. There are still plenty of immigrant families with strong di-verse cultural differences who face the same types of conflicts that this character goes through.”

Next up, Hom says he’d like to create a graphic novel on early Chinese settlers in the Northwest. The venue, he says, will be the Kam Wah Chung & Co., a Chinese pio-neer store in John Day, Oregon, dating back to the late 1800s. The store, now preserved as a museum, is a national historic landmark. “Here, my motivation is just to expose gen-eral audiences and Asian Americans to the contributions that Chinese pioneers have made in building the West,” he said. “I’m fortunate in that I have enough connections with archeologists and historians that I’ll be able to rely on them to help provide facts and ideas for me.”

Hom said he’s also fortunate that his wife, Rebecca, is a performing artist and profes-sional storyteller. “She looks at what I’ve done,” he said. “She provides good feedback. Her being a storyteller—I guess maybe some of that rubbed off on me, too.”

Hom


IE ARTS

Thank You!Thank you to the community for the tremendous outpouring of love and support

shown for Donnie Chin since his death on July 23, 2015.Donnie was a beloved son, brother, nephew, cousin, friend, mentor, surrogate father

and uncle to hundreds of people in the Chinatown/International District and beyond, for close to half a century.

Thank you to the organizers and more than 100 volunteers who put on the special events to honor Donnie: The Candlelight Vigil on July 26, The Thank You Donnie Chin: A Community BBQ on July 28, and Honoring Donnie Chin, a celebration of his life and legacy on August 15.

Thank you also for the beautiful flowers, notes and artwork you left in front of our family store, Sun May Company, in his memory.

Although Donnie would be embarrassed by all of the attention, he would be pleased to know that you appreciated his devotion to his community and years of dedicated service. He deeply cherished your love and friendship.

We are grateful to The Seattle Fire Department and The Seattle Police Department for their incredible show of support to honor Donnie as one of their own.

We would like to express our deepest gratitude to the community for honoring Donnie and helping us during this difficult time.

— The Family of Donnie Chin

Pho

to b

y R

ick

Won

g

By Ken MochizukiIE Contributor

The Speakers Bureau of the Nisei Veterans Committee Foundation (NVCF)maintains a list of Nisei who go out and speak about their experiences—mostly at schools—of being forcibly confined in American camps and/or serving in the U.S. military during World War II.

With those Nisei speakers now aging or with health concerns, retired Seattle Schools and Seattle University educator/administrator Lawrence Matsuda pro-posed an idea to NVCF to compensate: a graphic novel.

“I explained that a graphic novel was like a bound comic book that could be housed in school libraries and other libraries and catalogued whereas comic books could not,” Matsuda said. “This would be a good way to reach the student audiences.”

NVCF, an educational arm of Seattle’s Nisei Veterans Committee, collaborated with the Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience and secured a grant from the Japanese American Confinement Sites Grant Program of the U.S. National Park Service to produce the graphic novel.

The result is the over 200-page Fighting For America: Nisei Soldiers, written by Matsuda and illustrated by Matt Sasaki. It features the World War II forced confinement and combat experiences of six World War II veterans with Pacific Northwest ties who were selected by NVCF:

• Shiro Kashino, a legendary local hero with the famed all-Japanese American 442nd Regimental Combat Team, was wounded six times in combat, yet still

served with the 442nd till the end of the war;

• Frank Nishimura fought in all of the 442nd’s major campaigns and suffered a lifelong loss of hearing due to an exploding German grenade;

• Jimmie Kanaya, a 442nd medic, was captured by the Germans, became a prisoner of war until being liberated by American forces, and went on to become a career U.S. Army officer;

• Roy Matsumoto, a member of the Military Intelligence Service assigned as battlefield interpreters in the Pacific, fought with the famed Merrill’s Marauders in Burma and was inducted into the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame;

• Tosh Yasutake, a combat medic, served with the 442nd for the duration of the war and was wounded by shrapnel from a German artillery shell blast;

• Teruyuki “Turk” Suzuki, a veteran of the 442nd’s signature “Lost Battalion” campaign in France, became a casualty due to severe trench foot.

Aside from Kashino, who passed away in 1997, Matsuda interviewed the five other veterans (Matsumoto later died in 2014). He also researched video, Internet, and written works about the veterans. The author of two books of poetry and whose works were featured in numerous periodicals, websites, exhibits and a dance performance, Matsuda found working on a graphic novel to be a different experience due to “pictures and then words.”

“I wrote the words, checked the details with the vets, described a picture that would correspond to each narrative section in a graphic novel frame and made those suggestions to Matt to draw,” he said.

“He returned the drawings and I would edit the words when placed with the pictures. For example, in my descriptive narrative to Matt, I wrote, ‘They marched up a hill.’ When the picture came back with them marching, I deleted that narrative line since it was now obvious because of the illustration. So, I wrote about 160 narrative frame pieces and 160 descriptions of what the pictures might look like to Matt so he could draw it.

“After the first drafts were drawn and combined with the narratives, I shared each draft chapter with the actual veteran for review and corrections. Overall, the book was not my work alone, but was a partnership involving the veterans, me, Matt, and Cassie [Chinn, deputy director] at Wing Luke, who was in charge of the project and did the editing.”

Sasaki, a sign painter, created explosive, quasi-abstract illustrations by using “a Whiteboard and markers to conceptualize, and a Wacom tablet and Photoshop to create the final images,” he

said. “I had never done a graphic novel. I had to Google what the definition of a graphic novel was. I would say the ‘style’ developed organically, kind of like a weed growing in the crack of your driveway.”

Appropriate for ages 9 and above, Matsuda concluded: “Above all, this is an American story.”

“It is an important part of American history,” he said, “and it needs to take its proper place in history and not be omitted or become a footnote.”

The book release signing and program for Fighting For America: Nisei Soldiers takes place on September 12, 2015, at 1:00 p.m. at the Nisei Veterans Committee Memorial Hall, 1212 S. King St., Seattle, Wash., wingluke.org/fighting-for-america

Teacher Workshop and Curriculum Training will be held on October 10, 2015 also at the Hall from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

This graphic novel tells the story of six brave and courageous Nisei soldiers from the Pacific Northwest who proved their loyalty and made a significant mark in American history.

Nisei Soldiers: Graphic novel preserves stories for future audiences


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By Roxanne RayIE Contributor

Collaboration is the watchword in the upcoming co-production between Azeotrope and ACT Theatre of Don Nguyen’s play Sound.

The show presents the challenges of navigating both deaf and hearing cultures within a single family near Martha’s Vineyard, and is bilingual in American Sign Language and spoken English, augmented by super titles and listening devices.

Nguyen originally developed his play while immersed in that local context. “I was on a writers’ retreat on Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Massachusetts in 2010,” Nguyen said. “It was there that I discovered, in the early 18th century, the island had the highest concentration of Deaf people in the entire country.”

The island’s unique legacy was compelling to Nguyen. “The unusually high concentration of Deaf islanders attracted Alexander Graham Bell to the island, where he conducted many interviews with the Deaf islanders,“ he said. “He believed Martha’s Vineyard held the key to the cause of deafness, and finding that cause would eventually lead to finding a ‘cure’ for it. I found the history of this island fascinating and started sketching out a story for it.”

This story was the first of many versions of Sound. “I initially wrote it for the Civilians, an investigative theatre company in New York,” Nguyen said. “Their aesthetic is documentary style theatre, so the play initially consisted of lots of research and recreating scenes from Alexander Graham Bell’s notes about the islanders as well as his actual letters to his wife Mabel, who was deaf.”

But as Nguyen was to discover, this initial draft was only the beginning of a long project of development over time and in many places. “I sometimes joke that you could probably write a play about how this play changed over time,” Nguyen said. “It was through the development of Sound over these many years that I have made the personal connections to the Deaf community that, in turn, have helped

shape the play into what it is today.”Later drafts moved Bell from serving as

the protagonist in the play to a supporting character. “As I did more research on Bell, I discovered what an immensely antagonistic relationship he had with the Deaf community,” Nguyen said.

Although Nguyen himself is not deaf and, prior to working on Sound, had no connection to the Deaf community, he decided to explore the community’s views more deeply. “Bell viewed deafness as a disability, and what I learned through my research is that the Deaf do not view themselves that way,” Nguyen said. “They are proud of their deafness.”

Nguyen found that the Deaf community has been subject to experiences common to other American minorities. “I started learning about hearing privilege and how we (the hearing) take sound for granted and how we impose a certain attitude on deafness based on our hearing privilege, which gives the hearing an inaccurate perspective on the Deaf community,” he said.

The play now places the Deaf experience centerstage, with subsequent productions relying on the expertise of those with experience with ASL and the Deaf community. At the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, Nguyen worked with two key individuals. “Karen Altree Piemme, who knows ASL and has worked with the Deaf community, served as our dramaturg,” Nguyen said. “JAC Cook, a renowned Deaf community activist and artist, served as our ASL director.”

Both roles were key to the success of Nguyen’s revised play. “Karen’s role was more of a traditional dramaturg, tracking the storytelling beats of the play, but through the lens of her personal experience with Deaf culture,” he said. “JAC worked on making sure the script translated properly, given the difference in syntax between ASL and spoken English.”

Beyond strict translation, Nguyen emphasized that Cook provided input for the play itself. “JAC was also a great resource in making sure we told the story of the Deaf experience accurately,” he said. “She was our barometer for keeping

an equitable perspective of the Deaf community. Together, their contributions to Sound were invaluable.”

Even with these contributions, audience reactions led to still more learning opportunities. “Last year at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival, we had two talkbacks with a nice mix of Deaf and hearing audiences,” Nguyen said. “The discussions about the play were energetic, passionate, and fairly blunt.”

Reception of the play was different among the hearing and Deaf communities. “Many in the hearing audience found the play fascinating and illuminating of Deaf culture,” he said. “On the other hand, many Deaf audience members took issue with the play in terms of how it portrayed Alexander Graham Bell as a sympathetic character, which surprised me because I thought I had shown the offensive nature of Bell’s perspective on Deaf culture.”

This led to further steps in Nguyen’s creative process. “I realized that even though I understood the Deaf experience on an intellectual level, I could never understand it on a personal level, and therefore made some well intentioned yet naive assumptions about the Deaf community in the play,” Nguyen said. “It was a hard but necessary experience for me.”

That experience has continued for Nguyen in preparation for the Seattle presentation of Sound, which is co-directed by Azeotrope founding director Desdemona Chiang alongside Howie Seago, a Deaf theatre artist who is in charge of the ASL translation as well as collaborating on overall directing choices.

Azeotrope first collaborated with ACT Theatre in 2012, and was excited

to propose Sound for possible co-presentation. “I first came across this play when I was on a selection committee for a new play festival in San Francisco, and was just floored by it,” Chiang said. “I’ve always been interested in stories about underrepresented people in society, and after I met Howie (which was in 2010 when we worked together at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival), I became aware of just how invisible Deaf culture was.”

Seago was also enthusiastic about coming on board for the project. “There is a great need for more plays about or related to Deafness,” he said. “I am thrilled to work with Don Nguyen for the first time and hope it won’t be the last.”

In his work as co-director, Seago has also advised Nguyen on key aspects of the script. “He is aware that his writing or concepts may not always be appropriate from the Deaf perspective and sometimes may be awkward or impossible to translate into ASL,” Seago said of Nguyen. “He is the most approachable playwright I have ever worked with.”

Chiang also lauds Nguyen’s cooperation during the rehearsal process. “Don has spent the last few months rewriting the play, which has changed drastically since the first version I read a year ago,” she said. “He has been tremendously flexible in this process, and even now with him back in New York, we still send notes back and forth and are skyping him into run-throughs so he can stay connected with us.”

Seago and Chiang have also developed a rapport as co-directors. “We divide scenes based on the content and cast involved,”

Promotional art for Sound at ACT Theatre.

Don Nguyen reaches out to Deaf community in Sound

SOUND: Continued on page 11 . . .


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To RSVP, visit http://goo.gl/forms/Uds1NOSSke

Seago said. “Des is responsible for the overall design and does the basic blocking while I work on the translations from English to ASL.”

But Seago and Chiang report that their work also overlaps a great deal. “After Des has worked a scene, I review it for refi ning the translations and suggested blocking adjustments,” he said. “For example, re-locating signer(s) to different stage positions so we can see them better and directing them to use the downstage hand for clarity of signs.”

Chiang agreed. “Co-directing is always tricky, because at some point, there is bound to be disagreement on something,” she said. “I haven’t co-directed since college, and I vowed never to do it again, because I didn’t want to be at the mercy of someone else’s ideas. But this is completely different. As a hearing person, I have to take a backseat on this one. It’s not my story, it’s not my culture.”

She described the creative process in the rehearsal room as one that requires recognizing the privilege of majority culture. “I’m an ally and a supporter on this project,” she said. “So when I block a scene and Howie has a note that something isn’t working, I can’t get defensive and say, ‘well, it’s because… etc. etc.,’ because that’s what privilege is. It’s the self-declared right to tell someone else’s story because you have agency. And just because I can doesn’t mean I should.”

Chiang and Seago also insisted that everyone involved in the production learn at least some of both communication methods. “Every hearing person who is working on this show has some degree of ASL exposure and can at least fi ngerspell,” Chiang said. “The barrier in a bilingual process is communication, and if you want to make that easier in rehearsal, you fi nd time and energy early on to learn the other language.”

Both co-directors hope that their efforts will allow this show to communicate across barriers. “There are very few theatre artists and technicians who can sign, but we’ve managed to fi nd them and put them in this room,” Chiang said.

Seago added, “We want every performance to be accessible for both Deaf and hearing audiences.”

The entire artistic team will again soon be present together at ACT. While no talkbacks are currently scheduled on the ACT webpage, Nguyen enjoyed his fi rst visit ever to Seattle to attend the fi rst two weeks of rehearsals, and he looks forward to attending Sound’s fi rst weekend of performances.

Sound runs from September 9 to October 4, at ACT Theatre, 700 Union Street, Seattle. For tickets and more information, visit www.acttheatre.org.

. . . SOUND: Continued from page 10

By Shin Yu PaiIE Contributor

After a decade of living in Asia, American musician Scott Ezell moved to Taiwan’s remote Pacifi c coast in 2002, where he takes up residence amongst members of the Open Circle Tribe—a loose confederation of aboriginal woodcarvers and artists—before his deportation two years later for performing without a permit at the legendary Dulan Sugar Factory. A romanticized account of booze-fueled bohemian life on the margins, A Far Corner: Life and Art with the Open Circle Tribe will likely appeal to academics more than general audiences, if there is any value to be derived at all.

Ezell decamps from Taipei to Dulan, a coastal community, where as the sole American, he fi nds acceptance of his work and a sense of home. In a comic scene that distills Taiwanese manners and generational differences, Ezell describes his efforts to secure a lease on an abandoned farmhouse. Farmer Huang, a local resident, discourages Ezell from renting a property that he considers haunted and refuses to make the necessary introductions to the landowner. But Huang’s son casually intervenes, causing his father to lose face, and sets the deal in motion. Ezell secures a lease on the farmhouse and sets up the analog recording studio where he produces his album Ocean Hieroglyphics.

Scattered throughout Ezell’s book are extensive academic passages contextualizing the history, social, and linguistic status of Taiwan’s aboriginal people from Puyama, Paiwan, Tao, and Ami tribal groups. Refl ecting on the similarities between the aboriginals and Native Americans in the Pacifi c Northwest and beyond, the author fi nds affi nity with his band of tribal artists, who “had left ‘home’ with a desire to reinhabit, rediscover, or create an identity more genuine to them. The marginal regions of eastern Taiwan held the possibility of self-determination that was diffi cult to cultivate elsewhere in contemporary Taiwan.”

While Ezell shows some understanding of Taiwan’s colonial history, particularly as it relates to tribal peoples, A Far Corner also chronicles Ezell’s sexual dalliances with a number of local women, which feels evocative of other colonialisms—i.e. the painter Paul Gauguin’s residence in Tahiti. Ezell secretly juggles two women—Ming-sho and Diva—who ultimately become best friends and learn the truth about Ezell. Both end their intimate relationships with him. Writing on his relationship with women, Ezell refl ects, “I was at least as full of shit as anyone, and my balance or detachment with respect to her [Diva] was only due to the remoteness with which I insulated

Scott Ezell’s A Far Corner a better fi t for academics than general audiences

myself, unwilling or unable to share my emotional or physical space with another. Unable, in other words, to open the heart.”

Ezell never pretends to be an ethnographer in A Far Corner, painting only a picture of what it was like to “be there” in Dulan, during the height of the Open Circle Tribe’s artistic activity. But like an ethnography, Ezell’s narrative ventures into self-refl exiveness of his position as insider and outsider in a close-knit tribal community. Ezell experiences the death of members of his artistic community, but turns away from the privilege and responsibility of grieving with the tribe. After helping to reclaim his friend’s corpse from the morgue, Ezell hitchhikes to Dulan stinking of sweat and beer and rot and sorrow, traumatizing the family who offer him a ride. He can’t imagine being buried in Dulan. But the circumstances of his abrupt departure create a nostalgia and unfulfi lled longing.

At its center, A Far Corner belongs to the category of exile literature. Ezell writes,

“Exile may be the only door to the pantheon, though you’ll likely be dead before they let you in.” Ezell’s memoir serves as a document of his inclusion in a major international art movement—but his book lacks the open heart of other books on exile experience in Taiwan, like Mike O’Connor’s The Basin.

Ezell acknowledges O’Connor, who published several of Ezell’s poetry collections under his Empty Bowl imprint in Port Townsend. He also gives a nod to Chinese translator and essayist Red Pine (Bill Porter), who lived in Taiwan for years. (Ezell inherited Porter’s used tatami mats.)

But aesthetic associations don’t elevate Ezell’s effort into a transformative work. A Far

Corner lacks the elegance and skill inherent to authors like O’Connor who write tenderly and eloquently of Taiwan in the spirit of the T’ang Dynasty poets, integrating the heart of the people and the textures and vibrations of a fully lived experience into a work that pushes beyond cultural tourism, or ethnographic musings, into literature.

Dulan stinking of sweat and beer and rot and Corner lacks the elegance and skill inherent Corner lacks the elegance and skill inherent Corner


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By Jessica DavisIE Contributor

Incorporating his passion for both classical music and hip hop, composer/pianist JooWan Kim will bring an innovative sound to Seattle in his upcoming performance at the Barboza on September 5.

Born and raised in South Korea, Kim, now 37, had ambitions as a child to become a classical musician. At the age of 20, he immigrated to the United States to study classical music. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston and The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, majoring in classical composition. It was while he attended graduate school that Kim had an urge to try something new, pushing the boundaries of hip hop.

“Hip-Hop speaks to me in a very special way,” said Kim. “It is still relatively young and has great flexibility and enormous growth potential. In addition, it is vigorous and replete with anti-establishment sentiment.”

Kim first became acquainted with hip hop while sitting in the back seat of a friend’s car.

“I believe it was a Dre track. That track impressed me a lot and [I] started listening to more Dr. Dre,” said Kim. “Then N.W.A. happened to me. When I heard ‘F- the Police,’ I was completely converted. It was Dr. Dre that baptized me into the river of hip-hop making me born again as a hip-hop composer.”

Five years ago, Kim developed Ensemble Mik Nawooj (Kim’s name spelled backward), a hip-hop orchestra which consists of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, drum set, bass, two emcees, and a lyric soprano. The group music written by Kim, the group’s music director.

“To be clear, I’m not doing classical music with elements of hip-hop music or merging classical music and hip-hop to bridge some sort of nebulous gap, etc.,” said Kim. “I’m making hip-hop music using a certain portion of classical techniques which I feel are compatible with the genre.”

Kim and Ensemble Mik Nawooj, will embark on their first tour to the Pacific Northwest, including his upcoming performance in Seattle.

“This is our first year to venture out of the San Francisco Bay Area we are based in,” he said. “We’re very excited to play in Seattle.”

Currently, the group has a studio album available on iTunes, Spotify, Bandcamp, etc. called “Ensemble Mik Nawooj: A Hip-Hop Orchestra” and established itself last year as a performing arts non-profit. In October, the group plans to record its second album, which will include deconstructions of classic hip-hop tracks from the Wu-Tang Clan and Snoop Dogg, a tribute piece to late hip hop artist J Dilla, and more.

Ensemble Mik Nawooj performs on September 5 at Barboza, 925 E. Pike St. For more information, visit www.thebarboza.com and www.ensemblemiknawooj.com.

JooWan Kim mixes classical music, hip-hop

Kim

By Yayoi L. WinfreyIE Contributor

Following the first interminable minutes of complete darkness accompanied by the aggravating sounds of grinding metal, the viewer is rewarded with a most riveting doc-umentary in The Iron Ministry. Director J.P. Sniadecki spent three years filming on trains in China and edited the footage to resemble one long train ride. The result is a glimpse into the lives of ordinary people engaged in the most amazing activities you’ve never seen on a train; like hanging and curing slabs of butchered meat. The dangling carcasses may as well be wet laundry for all their non-chalance about it.

Able to train his camera on his subjects in a way that’s never intrusive yet highly inti-mate, Sniadecki extracts compelling infor-mation from them. They tell him everything; like the guy who blabs about how bad the communist government is then thinks to ask Sniadecki, who’s fluent in Mandarin, if his camera is on. A cynical boy impersonates an announcer by loudly informing passen-gers to bring bombs aboard “for the nation’s population control policy.” And, there’s an intriguing conversation among some Han Chinese about their religion. Meanwhile, a vendor deftly maneuvers a cart down crowd-ed, trash-strewn aisles, selling snacks and repeating the same dismal news to inquiring passengers: Yes, he is out of instant noodles. While weary women discuss factory jobs where they’re overworked and underpaid, another talks about a 7th century prophecy that foretold “iron birds and iron clad hors-es”—airplanes and trains.

Sniadecki’s intuitive style captures all these magical moments and more as the

Films: Iron Ministry, Spinning, Sword“iron clad horses” clang and chug their way towards multiple destinies.

‘The Iron Ministry’ shows through Sep-tember 3 at Grand Illusion Cinema.

An upbeat, jazzy take on the world of young athletes vying for a shot at the Olympics is told in the documentary Top Spin. Tightly directed, it features Cali-fornia table tennis champions Ariel Hs-ing and Lily Zhang, among others. As the camera follows the teenagers in high school, followed by training for 4 to 5 hours a day, it’s clear that competition sports exacts a toll.

Ariel Hsing doesn’t have a “Tiger Mom”; she has a “Tiger Dad” who’s proud to admit it. Besides editing downloaded videos so he can watch how other ping-pong players win, he also pours over psychology books. Still, a lot of firsts are achieved, like being the youngest U.S. player at the Olympics. But the cost is missing out on school events like proms and graduations.

Accompanied by diagrams and expla-nations of various team trials, the film makes it easy to understand the game of ping-pong as featured in the Olympics. In-terviews with family members, teachers, coaches, classmates and friends provide a complete picture of the players, both on and off the court.

Not everyone gets to pursue their dreams, says one parent in defense of the constant training and traveling of the children. But to whom do those dreams belong—to the kids or their achievement-oriented parents?

‘Top Spin’ shows from September 4 to 10 at Grand Illusion Cinema.

In Memories of the Swordhen Hong-yi (Kim Go-eun), makes a startling discov-ery about her birth parents, she’s enraged. Expertly trained in the art of sword fight-ing by her blind but gifted mother, Sul-rang (Jeon Do-yeon), Hong-yi is shocked upon learning her true identity and sets out to exact revenge.

During the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392), a trio of warriors known as The Three Great Swords plots a revolution to put riches into the hands of commoners. But a betrayal leads to death for one, im-pacting his daughter’s, Hong-Yi’s, future.

While this lushly photographed, stylish action film is lovely to watch, the story de-mands a lot of attention with its complex twists, turns and flashbacks. Often bloody and violent, the movie features panoramic shots of flying stunts, period costumes and an Arabian Market with Muslim vendors. Lee Byung-hun (The Good, The Bad, The Weird) is masterful as the deceitful and insatiable Duk-gi (later renamed Yu-baek). One moment, the actor’s angry eyes flash with fury and the next, they brim with tears. Jeon Do-yeon as Sul-rang is also exceptional, pretending to care about Yu-baek while despising him. But the star that should burn the brightest (Hong-yi) falls short with her hysterics. As a po-tential assassin, she fails to conquer the emotional outbursts that prevent her from fighting her best. Seemingly, she’s learned little from her clever mother, a woman Yu-baek calls “the best tea maker” and who can still seduce him decades later with a steaming cup of it.

‘Memories of the Sword” shows Sep-tember 3 at AMC Loews Alderwood Mall, Century Federal Way.


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The CIDBIA is hiring for an Executive Director!

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Please send resume and cover letter to [email protected] by 5pm, Friday, September 18, 2015.

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Announcements

8th Annual Aki Matsuri at

Bellevue CollegeIE News Services

The 18th Annual Japanese Cultural Arts Event (Aki Matsuri) happens Saturday, September 12 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 13 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at Bellevue College (3000 Landerholm Circle SE, Bellevue, WA 98007).

The two-day program includes martial arts demonstrations, on-stage performing arts, fi ne art and craft exhibit booths, Japan Business Fair Exhibits, Yatai (food kiosks), puppet shows, hands-on workshops (origami, taiko drumming, calligraphy), and more.

The Mikoshi from Tsubaki Grand Shrine of America will be on display during the two-day event. From noon on Saturday, there will be a Shinto ceremony to purify the Omikoshi followed by the Omikoshi Junkou carrying festival in the campus courtyards. Participating matsuri visitors will experience the spirit of matsuri.

Three artisans from Gifu-ken will demonstrate the crafting process of Wagasa. In addition, Edo (Tokyo) Yuzen-Zome, Rou Shippō, and Ikkan-bari artists from Japan will host a hands-on workshop. For more info, visit www.enma.org.

Helping Link has been serving the Viet-namese-American immigrant community for 22 years. At this year’s gala, Helping Link will celebrate the theme of “The Pow-er of Inspiration” to support their educa-tional programs that empower individuals to fulfi ll their potential.

Helping Link’s 22nd Anniversary Gala happens September 20, 2015 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Mercer Island Community Center, 8236 SE 24th St., Mercer Island. VIP Tickets are $125 per person. General Admission tickets are $85 per person.

A VIP cocktail reception happens from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. There will also be a silent auction, cake dash, and semi-formal dinner. For more information, visit helping-link.org.

Helping Link celebrates power

of inspiration


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Community Care Network of Kin On815 S Weller St, Suite 212, Seattle, WA 98104ph: 206-652-2330 fx: [email protected] www.kinon.orgProvides home care, Alzheimer’s and caregiver support, com-munity education and chronic care management; coordinates medical supply delivery for Asian/Chinese seniors and families in King County.

Kin On Health Care Center 4416 S Brandon St, Seattle, WA 98118ph: 206-721-3630 fx: [email protected] www.kinon.orgA 100-bed, Medicare and Medicaid certified, not-for-profit skilled nursing facility offering long-term skilled nursing and short-term rehab care for Asian/Chinese seniors.

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[email protected] www.deniselouie.orgMulticultural preschool ages 3-5 years old. Now enrolling Private Pay full-day ($900/mo) and part-day classes ($500/mo) with locations at ID, Beacon Hill, and Rainier Beach.

3327 Beacon Ave S.Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-725-9740

Education

Housing & Neighborhood Planning

HomeSight5117 Rainier Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118ph: 206-723-4355 fx: 206-760-4210www.homesightwa.org

HomeSight creates homeownership opportunities through real estate development, home buyer education and counseling, and lending.

InterIm Community Development Association310 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104Ph: 206.624-1802 Services: 601 S King St, Ph: 206. 623-5132Interimicda.orgMultilingual community building: housing & parking, housing/asset counseling, projects, teen leadership and gardening programs.

Asia Pacific Cultural Center4851 So. Tacoma WayTacoma, WA 98409Ph: 253-383-3900Fx: 253-292-1551faalua@comcast.netwww.asiapacificculturalcenter.orgBridging communities and generations through arts, culture, education and business.

Kawabe Memorial House221 18th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-322-4550 fx: [email protected] provide affordable, safe, culturally sensitive housing and support services to people aged 62 and older.

Address tobacco control and other health justice issues in the Asian American/Pacific Islander communities.

601 S King St.Seattle, WA 98104ph: 206-682-1668 website www.apicat.org

Asian Counseling & Referral Service3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S, Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-695-7600 fx: [email protected] www.acrs.orgACRS offers multilingual, behavioral health and social services to Asian Pacific Americans and other low-income people in King County.

1601 E Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98122ph: 206-323-7100 www.nikkeiconcerns.orgrehabilitation care | skilled nursing | assisted living | home/community-based services | senior social activities | meal delivery | transportation | continuing education | catering services

Legacy House803 South Lane Street Seattle, WA 98104ph: 206-292-5184 fx: [email protected] www.scidpda.org/programs/legacyhouse.aspx

Description of organization/services offered: Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, meal programs for low-income seniors. Medicaid accepted.

Senior Services

WE MAKE LEADERS

Queen Anne Station, P.O. Box 19888, Seattle, WA [email protected], www.naaapseattle.orgFostering future leaders through education, networking and community services for Asian American professionals and entrepreneurs.Facebook: NAAAP-Seattle Twitter: twitter.com/naaapseattle

Social & Health Services

Chinese Information & Service Center611 S Lane St, Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-624-5633 fax: [email protected] www.cisc-seattle.org

Creating opportunities for Asian immigrants and their families to succeed by helping them make the transition to a new life while keeping later generations in touch with their rich heritage.

International District Medical & Dental Clinic720 8th Avenue S, Seattle, WA 98114 ph: 206-788-3700email: [email protected] website: www.ichs.com

Bellevue Medical & Dental Clinic1050 140th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA 98005ph: 425-373-3000

Shoreline Medical & Dental Clinic16549 Aurora Avenue N, Shoreline, WA 98133ph: 206-533-2600

Holly Park Medical & Dental Clinic3815 S Othello St, Seattle, WA 98118ph: 206-788-3500

ICHS is a non-profit medical and dental center that provides health care to low income Asian, Pacific Islanders, immigrants and refugees in Washington State.

Seattle Chinatown/International District Preservation and Development Authorityph: 206-624-8929 fx: 206-467-6376 [email protected]

Housing, property management and community development.

Executive Development Institute310 – 120th Ave NE. Suite A102 Bellevue, WA Ph. 425-467-9365 • Fax: 425-467-1244Email: [email protected] • Website: www.ediorg.orgEDI offers culturally relevant leadership development programs.

Professional & Leadership Development

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ph: 206-624-3426 www.merchants-parking-transia.org

Merchants Parking provides convenient & affordable community parking. Transia provides community transportation: para-transit van services, shuttle services and field trips in & out of Chinatown/International District & South King County.

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Senior Services

Horizon House900 University St Seattle, WA 98101 ph: 206-382-3100 fx: [email protected]

www.horizonhouse.orgA welcoming community in downtown Seattle, offering seniors vibrant activities, independent or assisted living, and memory care.

FAIR! ph: 206-578-1255 [email protected]

FAIR! provides undocumented Asians and Pacific Islanders with access to free immigration services, legal services & financial assistance, with translators available upon request.

Agape Senior Group Activity Center36405 Cedar St, Suite UTacoma, WA 98409ph: 253-212-3957 [email protected]

Japanese Language School for Children on Saturdays. Activities/Programs for all ages. Programs include Calligraphy Class, Chiropractic Taiso, iPad & Computer Classes, and more! Join us and make new friends!

IDIC is a nonprofit human services organization that offers wellness and social service programs to Filipinos and API communities.

7301 Beacon Ave SSeattle, WA 98108ph: 206-587-3735fax: 206-748-0282 [email protected]

Southeast Seattle Senior Center4655 S. Holly St., Seattle, WA 98118ph: 206-722-0317 fax: [email protected] www.sessc.orgDaytime activities center providing activities social services, trips, and community for seniors and South Seattle neighbors. We have weaving, Tai Chi, indoor beach-ball, yoga, dance, senior-oriented computer classes, trips to the casino, and serve scratch cooked lunch. Open Monday through Friday, 8:30-4. Our thrift store next door is open Mon-Fri 10-2, Sat 10-4. This sweet center has services and fun for the health and well-being of boomers and beyond. Check us out on Facebook or our website.

2500 NE 54th StreetSeattle, WA 98105ph: 206-694-4500 [email protected]

Working to prevent and end youth homelessness with services including meals, shelter, housing, job training, education, and more.

Organization of Chinese AmericansAsian Pacific American AdvocatesGreater Seattle ChapterP.O. Box 14141Seattle, WA 98114 www.ocaseattle.org

OCA—Greater Seattle Chapter was formed in 1995 and since that time it has been serving the Greater Seattle Chinese and Asian Pacific American community as well as other communities in the Pacific Northwest. It is recognized in the local community for its advocacy of civil and voting rights as well as its sponsorship of community activities and events.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER September 2, 2015 – September 15, 2015 — 15ADVERTISEMENT

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A Culinary Journey

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Saturday, October 3, 2015The Westin Bellevue | 5:30-9 p.m.

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UMUSUNA: MEMORIES BEFORE HISTORY - NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE -

“ONE OF THE MOST ORIGINAL AND STARTLINGdance theater groups to be seen.”

—The New York Times

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September 2, 2015 International Examiner