Sharkbites Newsletter

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AUGUST 16, 2022


Hello, everyone!

In Hawai’i’s second congressional district, Jill Tokuda won the Democratic primary.


Previously a state senator from the Congressional Progressive Caucus,
Tokuda pulled through her race and defeated her top rival, Patrick Branco. She is expected to win against Joe Akana, the winner of the Republican primary, this fall. While Tokuda and Branco’s policies were pretty similar on subjects of gun control and abortion rights, the contest came down to who would advocate stronger for those causes in Washington.

Throughout the race, Tokuda was criticized for receiving a previous endorsement from the National Rifle Association (NRA), and ended up spending more than a million dollars in this year’s campaign.

Tokuda’s win is accompanied by other victories by other candidates for various districts and positions, all of which
can be tracked here.

Jill Tokuda speaks to KITV reporter at a school event. She wears multiple leis around her neck.

Image: KITV

Spotlight 💡

Any fan of Ghibli Studio movies will immediately recognize the emotional soundtracks that pair with stunning visuals, created by none other than composer Joe Hisaishi, whose real name is Mamoru Fujisawa. 


For Hisaishi, all his compositions rest on emotion and experience. Even in his live concerts, he would make tweaks to his music to offer audiences a new experience. The thing that makes Hisaishi stand out as an artist and master of his craft is his ability to rely on the audience and put trust in their interpretation of the material in front of them. Instead of reinforcing the character traits or using music to elicit emotions when the plot may demand it, he opts to let the music just exist. Emotions will come naturally.

According to the pianist, “the music does not need to match every character,” explaining that “at the very deepest of a movie, the music doesn’t need to tell anything related to the character or even the feelings” because there is “already something that the audience might be feeling just watching the film.”

Joe Hisaishi talks about his musical process in his studio. He wears a black suit jacket and a black t-shirt.

Race in America 🌎

In 2020, Asian Americans mobilized to promote voter turnout and prove their political influence in elections.
Will this year’s midterm elections show the same energy?

In Georgia, the Asian American voter base is feeling more nervous about upcoming elections, with public safety on the forefront of many residents’ minds. Moreover,
voters are concerned about the neglect they feel on a national scale in U.S. politics. Asian Americans feel as if they’re not prioritized during campaign seasons, which only led to further disinterest and apathy towards the Democratic party.

This pattern is not just evidenced in Georgia. In fact, many local and national elections will see a shift in voter behavior due to this underlying sentiment. Without the proper engagement, Asian American communities are not willing to stay loyal to a certain party, and that strong, reliable voter base can turn against a candidate.

 

...


The number of LGBTQ+ AAPI candidates running for office has doubled since 2018. The reasons they’re coming out to represent their community are numerous, but a few representatives are sharing their personal reasons for their service.

Janani Ramachandran, an openly-gay South Asian running for Oakland city council this year, is one of those candidates. If she wins her upcoming race, she will be the first South Asian and first LGBTQ+ council member in California. For Sam Park, the first openly-gay East Asian lawmaker in Georgia’s state legislature, conservative barriers which made politics initially “inaccessible” to him have since become more crucial in changing the political landscape for AAPI candidates.

According to the Victory Fund, this year there are 47 LGBTQ+ Asian Americans on nationwide ballots, which addresses a significant issue of representation for constituencies in the U.S. that are fearful of not only anti-Asian hate crimes, but also anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.

In Other Asian News 🗞

It’s been a year since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.
While Taliban supporters are grateful for the regime, life for many varies in degrees of comfort and prosperity.


Since the takeover, the Taliban government has mobilized infrastructure and energy projects at a seemingly much faster rate than the Republic, raising a total of $2.5 billion and growing through shipping large amounts of coal to Pakistan. However, families who lost siblings, children and parents in the same struggle are still grieving and finding purpose in their losses.

Then, on a wider economic level, Western countries that cut off their aid to the nation contributed to the tumbling destitution that left residents malnourished, unpaid, starving, jobless and unable to access funds. Girls and young women are forced out of school and into more stringent rules on decorum and freedom, and while there is pushback from within the regime itself, hardliners from the senior Taliban officials continue to uphold the ban.

 

...


The anniversary of Japan’s WWII surrender always comes with a hope for more accountability, and yet often provides disappointment.

This year, it is no different. Many members of Prime Minister Kishida’s cabinet did visit the Shrine while Kishida abstained. While he reiterated Japan’s continued resignation of belligerency,
his decision to send an offering to Yasukuni Shrine and honor the 2.5 million WWII Japanese soldiers, including 14 convicted war criminals like General Hideki Tojo, proved to only incense international and domestic communities.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks on the anniversary of Japan's surrender in WWII. He wears a ceremonial suit with a blue ribbon as he delivers remarks.
Image: CNA

Photographer Tsukasa Yajima, who documented the women trafficked during WWII by Imperial Japan, uncovered a financial scandal within the House of Sharing, an organization dedicated to caring for the elderly victims, in South Korea.

Yajima, who runs the House’s international outreach program, along with six other women, accused the organization of abusing the funds and keeping the victims in substandard housing while funneling that money toward a luxury nursing home for richer clients and enriching South Korea’s influential Buddhist order, the Jogye.

This accusation led to criminal indictments against the organization, but lawsuits for defamation and spreading false rumors were also filed against Yajima and the six women. Similarly, the backlash against his ethnicity being in a South Korean facility meant for women exploited by the Japanese government were also raised. However, Yajima remains adamant: “It’s important to preserve the House of Sharing as a place of historical and educational value​, as wartime sexual violence against women​ continues to happen ​in today’s world, in places like Ukraine. Their plan to turn it into a common nursing home is a project of eradicating history.”

Film, Food and Music 📺

A film on Netflix called “Darlings” garnered the largest global opening for a non-English Indian film over the past weekend.

It stars Bollywood talents Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah and Vijay Varma.
The plot tackles domestic violence and centers around a young couple that falls in love, but the husband eventually abuses the wife. Later, the situation is reversed. Due to this, men’s rights activists protested the film for its depiction of violence against men, with some calling Bhatt “the Indian Amber Heard”.  

Actors in the Hindi film, "Darlings," stare at each other in love.

Image: Netflix India

James Beard award-winning Vietnamese chef Charles Phan will reintroduce his restaurant concept Rice and Bones.

The eatery is currently located at the University of California Berkeley campus and will go through a menu overhaul. On August 16, Phan will
implement a new menu of rotating rice trays featuring different kinds of rice paired with different proteins and vegetables. Options could include meyer lemon chicken with lemons preserved from a year ago, and long-grain basmati rice or lemongrass roasted pork on a bed of broken rice.

...


BLACKPINK will make their U.S. award show debut at the 2022 Video Music Awards on August 28, performing their soon-to-be-released song “Pink Venom.”

They are also nominated for the best metaverse performance for their virtual concert collaboration with PUBG Mobile. Thai member Lisa is nominated as well for best K-pop song for her solo “Lalisa,” making her the first K-pop soloist and female K-pop idol to be nominated.

What else is on our minds? 🧠
 

  • What does a united China look like? Here is a breakdown and analysis of the kind of political, economic, and cultural vision China wants for their future reunification with Taiwan. 

  • Michelle Yeoh has received her honorary doctorate and gave a powerful speech saying, among other things, “Telling stories is a privilege none of us should take for granted.” 

  • The royal mail is issuing stamps featuring characters from the “Transformers” franchise.

  • A Chinese museum has disclosed the names of over 400 members of Unit 731, a Japanese biological and chemical warfare unit that tortured and murdered dozens of people during WWII.

  • Loudspeakers will return to Hanoi, Vietnam and will be used by government officials for state proclamations, even though residents think it’s a “stupid” decision.

What’s your favorite type of rice?

Daniel likes fried rice, most sushi rice, basmati rice, bomba rice for paella and arborio rice for risotto. I dislike brown rice and cauliflower rice. 

I like all rice. All rice is good rice, in my opinion.

Sincerely, Mya Sato and Daniel Anderson 

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