Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout
Students from UCLA, in an apparent response to Alexandra Wallace’s anti-Asian YouTube rant, started a Chinese food delivery service called “Ching Chong Ling Long,” reported the LA Weekly blog. Operating in partnership with The Palace Restaurant in Brentwood, Calif., the UCLA students said, yes, the name is indeed an overt reference to Wallace’s mock of the Asian language in her video which became a rallying call earlier this year for the API community.
The venture came about when Rachel Lee, owner of The Palace, heard about UCLA Munchies, a service run by four students who delivered snacks like burritos and ramen to the dorms into the wee hours of the morning. Sensing an opportunity to better serve the local community — and expand her business — Ms. Lee contacted UCLA Munchies and Ching Chong Ling Long Gourmet Takeout was born. Does anyone think this is a questionable name?
A Refugee Family’s Fight for Happiness Ends in Tragedy
The Asian American blog, AngryAsianMan.com, featured a news story out of New York on the Seo family, who are four refugees from North Korea. After escaping one of the most oppressive, isolated nations in the world, and settling in the United States a year and a half ago, their journey ended in tragedy, according to police, in an apparent murder-suicide.
On June 18, police found the body of Won Kyung Seo hanging in the upstairs apartment of his family’s home. His wife, Young Hwa Kim, had fatal stab wounds. One of their sons found their bodies and police say it was an apparent murder-suicide. Mr. Seo attended Rochester Onnuri Church and according to Pastor Jin Kyu Kim, Mr. Seo’s two sons, both in their twenties, escaped to China first. Mr. Seo and his wife followed soon after. The family reunited and was able to get refugee status and move to the United States. The blogger commented: “As I found out more and more about the Seos, I couldn’t help but think ‘Why?’ They had made it so far and escaped a country with one of the most brutal totalitarian governments. They had a chance for a new life so why did it have to end this way?”
Minority Babies the New Majority
For the first time, minorities make up a majority of babies in the U.S., part of a sweeping race change and a growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and predominantly minority youths that could reshape government policies, reported the Associated Press.
Demographers say the numbers provide the clearest confirmation yet of a changing social order, one in which racial and ethnic minorities will become the U.S. majority by mid-century. The preliminary figures are based on an analysis of the Current Population Survey as well as the 2009 American Community Survey, which sampled 3 million U.S. households to determine that whites made up 51 percent of babies younger than 2. After taking into account a larger-than-expected jump in the minority child population in the 2010 Census, the share of white babies falls below 50 percent. Twelve states and the District of Columbia now have white populations below 50 percent among children under age 5 — Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Maryland, Georgia, New Jersey, New York and Mississippi. That’s up from six states and the District of Columbia in 2000. By contrast, whites make up the vast majority of older Americans — 80 percent of seniors 65 and older and roughly 73 percent of people ages 45-64. Many states with high percentages of white seniors also have particularly large shares of minority children, including Arizona, Nevada, California, Texas and Florida.
Asian New Yorkers Seek Power to Match Numbers
The New York Times recently covered the upsurge in numbers on New York City’s Asian population, due to results from the 2010 Census and the West Coast’s numbers are no where near the Big Apple’s. According to new Census figures, for the first time, the city’s Asian population now tops one million — nearly 1 in 8 New Yorkers — which is more than the Asian population in the cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles combined.
These new numbers bolster the push for more political representation, government assistance and public recognition. Community advocates believe a community that’s a million strong should have the comparable power and resources that reflect such a significant slice of the pie. The Census shows a striking 32 percent increase in New York’s Asian population since 2000, making it the city’s fastest-growing racial group by far.
The Times reports that as the number of Asians has soared, scores of groups that have long operated independently, or at odds, have begun pulling together into pan-Asian coalitions in recent years, particularly as younger generations and newer arrivals see the advantages of unifying. But making that happen is not easy, as the city’s Asians are extremely diverse: APIs in New York trace their roots to dozens of countries and languages; historic rivalries exist among native countries; well-established organizations can be hesitant to share hard-won gains; and some groups can feel muscled aside or ignored.
On the Anniversary of Vincent Chin’s Murder, CAPAC Denounces Explosion of Anti-Chinese Campaign Ads
On the 29th anniversary of the racially motivated murder of Vincent Chin, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) is speaking out against a growing trend of anti-Chinese rhetoric in political ads — China’s economic might seems to be candidates’ favorite boogeyman of the moment. There was an increase in these kinds of ads during the last election cycle — Chinese language and imagery used to portray candidates as sympathetic to China at the expense of American interests. The latest ad from Nevada congressional candidate, Mark Amodei features Chinese soldiers marching on the U.S. capitol. Last year, the New York Times estimated that 29 such ads were released in one week alone, and that tens of millions of dollars have been spent on these types of attacks. The Washington Post reported that over 250 anti-China ads were aired during the 2010 campaign cycle.
Vincent Chin died on June 23, 1982, after he was brutally beaten with a baseball bat by two Detroit auto-workers who verbally accused him of being the reason they were out of work. The incident took place during a period of heightened anti-Japanese sentiments when the rise of the Japanese auto-industry was seen as the cause of U.S. job losses. Chin, a Chinese American, was mistaken as being Japanese by his attackers, neither of whom received any jail time for the murder.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA), CAPAC Chairwoman: “More and more candidates are resorting to these cheap scare tactics to score political points. They need to understand just how dangerous this language can be for Asian Pacific Americans, especially today … this rampant scapegoating can escalate into real violence against our communities.”
Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), CAPAC Chair Emeritus: “… Much progress has been made since Vincent’s death, yet we still live in an America where it is very possible to be the victim of racially motivated crime. This is why I am especially saddened to see a growing trend of anti-Chinese rhetoric across the country, especially by those who seek political office. As a Japanese American who was held in an internment camp during World War II because of my ethnic heritage, I know how damaging it can be when leaders make policy based upon misconceptions and stereotypes.”
Rep. David Wu (D-OR): “I am deeply disturbed by the xenophobic implications of recent political ads that use China as a scapegoat to discuss the U.S. economy. Given our country’s dark history of anti-Chinese discrimination — from the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act to the racially-motivated murder of Vincent Chin exactly 100 years later — these fear-mongering ads have potentially dangerous consequences, especially for Asian Pacific Americans.
Award-Winning Journalist Reveals His Secret as an Undocumented Immigrant
A Pulitzer Prize-winning Filipino American journalist recently came clean with a secret he had been covering up his whole life: he is an undocumented immigrant. In a New York Times Magazine essay, Jose Antonio Vargas, whose mother sent him from the Philippines to live with his grandparents in California when he was 12, says he’s tired of running, tired of living in fear, and is coming forward with this story to urge Congress to pass the DREAM Act, which would open a path to citizenship for people like him if they go to college or serve in the military.
Vargas writes in the New York Times Magazine: “I convinced myself that if I worked enough, if I achieved enough, I would be rewarded with citizenship.”
Vargas continues that he’s lived the American Dream, graduating from college and enjoying a career as a successful journalist interviewing some of the most famous people in the country.
“But I am still an undocumented immigrant,” Vargas continues. “And that means living a different kind of reality. It means rarely trusting people, even those closest to me, with who I really am. It means keeping my family photos in a shoebox rather than displaying them on shelves in my home, so friends don’t ask about them. It means reluctantly, even painfully, doing things I know are wrong and unlawful. And it has meant relying on a sort of 21st-century underground railroad of supporters, people who took an interest in my future and took risks for me.” Vargas has launched a campaign called Define American to use stories of immigrants like him to urge Congress and the Obama administration to pursue immigration reform.
More Koreans Stay Unmarried for Life
Over half of Seoul residents between the ages of 30 and 34 are unmarried, according to the Seoul Metropolitan Government, reported the Associated Press. The 431,847 singles between 30 to 34 in the capital who were unmarried as of last year accounted for 50.4 percent of that age group. Of all Seoulites in their 30s, 38 percent are unmarried.
The main reasons for staying single include difficulty finding well-paying permanent jobs, insufficient earning power, under-education, over-education and a lack of desire to marry. There appears to be a clear trend away from marriage. Among those in their 50s 239,707 (135,246 men and 104,461 women) were unmarried, a 3.9-fold increase from 10 years ago when there were only 61,176. But among those over 50 only one out of 100 has never been married. For those between 45 and 49 the unmarried rate is one of every 20. But among those between 40 and 44, it’s one out of every 10.
“We are seeing more men with temporary jobs, and income levels among women are rising, which prompts more people to avoid marriage,” said Cho Nam-hoon, a chair professor at Hanyang University. “We’re going to see a faster growth in the number of people who stay single for life.”
Among people in their 50s, there was a disproportionate number of men with low educational levels and women with very high educational levels. Among men with only an elementary education, 2.8 percent are single, while only 1.1 percent are single among those with master’s degree and PhDs. Among women, only 1.36 percent with elementary educations are unmarried, while the unmarried percentage is 9.7 percent for those with master’s degree and 14.7 percent for those with doctorates.
