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JUNE 29, 2022
Hello, everyone!
In Sacramento, California, legislation to include more AAPI history in textbooks is getting blocked by an Asian politician.
Assemblymember Jim Nielsen (R-4th District) wrote the bill and at a recent hearing, Sen. Richard Pan (D-6th District), the chair of the AAPI Legislative Caucus opposed the bill, questioning its efficacy in making “substantive change."
Many supporters of the bill are worried that partisan interests are getting ahead of social progress, gathering in front of the capitol to protest the stalemate. Currently, the bill sits in the Assembly Education Committee. If it does not pass, the bill will die there.
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Race in America
California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta announced during a news conference on Tuesday that anti-Asian hate crimes surged 177% in 2021 compared to the last year.
The announcement was part of an overall update on crime in California which saw 1,763 hate crimes reported in 2021, a 33% increase from 2020. Bonta says the figure is comparable to the numbers seen post 9/11 in 2001. He also cites former President Trump’s “bigoted words” causing a “flood” of racial animosity.
To combat these numbers, Bonta also announced a statewide hate crime coordinator position within California’s Department of Justice.
MSNBC’s Alex Wagner, a Burmese American, will now be your 9 p.m. host, four days a week.
Wagner will be replacing Rachel Maddow, a decision made by MSNBC President Rashida Jones in an effort to pull in perspective and expertise. Jones explained that Wagner, who returned to MSNBC as a senior political analyst and guest anchor, “knows politics. She knows everything from foreign policy to culture.”
In Indianapolis, the first LGBTQ+ AAPI Pride Ball is taking place this weekend.
The Philippine Cultural Community Center is hosting the ball to celebrate ethnic heritage and LGBTQ+ identities. As the first pride event catered to celebrating LGBTQ+ AAPI residents, organizers hope that community members can find solace and representation despite rejection, erasure and violence that they may experience day-to-day.
The celebration aims to bring cultures together from the entire continent, reaching from West Asia to Southeast Asia. The event is open to all as a safe space and there will be good food.
In Other Asian News
Commissioner Brendan Carr of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is calling on Google and Apple to pull TikTok off their app stores. He says the Chinese company behind it, ByteDance, cannot be trusted.
On Tuesday, Carr published a passionately scathing open letter to the industry giants from his Twitter account. Citing multiple examples of data-hungry behavior, as well as data leaks from previous reporting, Carr claims that repeated abuse of user data puts the app out of compliance with app store policies and poses a “an unacceptable national security risk.”
Google and Apple did not respond to his statements, but TikTok offered to “engage with lawmakers to set the record straight regarding…misleading reporting.”
In Tokyo, transgender activists organized a rally to raise awareness for legal legitimacy and identity-based discrimination.
The protest, sponsored by Transgender Japan and ArienaiDemo matched the Tokyo Pride parade on June 26, to amplify the work to liberate LGBTQ+ people in Japan. Trans activists from both advocacy groups explained the legal difficulties that trans individuals go through to change basic gender-affirming information and highlighted the near-impossibility of accessing gender-affirming healthcare in the nation.
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Food
Taiwanese American chefs are telling their stories through their interpretations of Taiwanese fried chicken.
Chefs like David Kuo grew up eating both Church’s fried chicken in California and yan su ji boneless popcorn chicken, garbed in crispy fried basil leaves. Kuo takes these food memories and manifests them into a popcorn quail dish at his restaurant, named Little Fatty, in Los Angeles. For chef Eric Sze, Vietnamese restaurant Madame Vo in New York City and a Taipei McDonald’s fried chicken sandwich dish inspire his Notorious T.F.C. sandwich, lathered with sticks of pickled carrot and daikon.
According to co-author Katy Hui-wen Hung of “A Culinary History of Taipei,” Taiwanese fried chicken gained popularity back in the 1970s and ‘80s with yan su ji in the night markets and the arrival of the Taiwanese chain TKK Fried Chicken. Just as the chickens were popped in oil, KFC chains popped up all over Taiwan and helped cement the street food’s prevalence in the ‘80s too.
Zomi food, dishes from the ethnic minority group rooted in Myanmar and India will shine this year at the Zomi Khawmpi conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tulsa serves as home for the largest population of Zomi people, about 7,000 to 9,000, in the U.S. The conference is a celebration and preservation of Zomi culture through food. Dishes like lothang kang, vegetables cooked in one of Zomi’s cardinal spices, garlic, conveys an origin in cool mountain climates stocked with potato and corn.
Many Zomi people are refugees escaping religious persecution for their Christian beliefs and authoritarian rule in Myanmar and India. Thousands of Zomi still reside in refugee camps in Malaysia, India and Thailand. Sharing their food is their way of telling their often forgotten stories to not only people outside their community but also the generations of Zomi that will come after.
What else is on our minds?
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