‘Parasite’ on South Korean class divide + California cheongsam e-commerce store: Your AAPI newsletter
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It is Wednesday, Feb. 12, and this is The Sacramento Bee’s AAPI weekly newsletter, brought to you by yours truly.
Here’s a recap on the stories I recently covered and issues I’m following:
South Korean film “Parasite” stunned the audience with an adrenaline-inducing plot that weaves between two families at a house of jaw-dropping aesthetics. One family owns the house, the other works in it. The film highlights the reality of the class divide on housing, job and education in South Korea – “notorious problems that the South Korean government and society could not resolve for many years,” said June Hee Kwon, assistant professor at Sacramento State University’s Asian Studies program.
In the words of University of California, Davis, professor Kyu Hyun Kim, those born into poor families “could not rise up the ladder of social mobility, no matter how hard they try.” Many younger people felt boxed in by expectations and the inability to attain them, he said.
Vivian Chan shared her story and business philosophy behind East Meets Dress, an e-commerce store that designs and makes modern cheongsams for brides, which she co-founded with her best friend Jenn Qiao. Chan was Qiao’s maid of honor at her wedding, and Qiao could not find the ideal cheongsam to honor her Asian American heritage from sketchy stores on Alibaba or stores ran by grandmas in Chinatown. The founders are based in the Bay Area and the store provides free shipping around the world, including Sacramento of course.
In other news
Asian American and Pacific Islander women have to work this far into the year to earn the same amount that white men earned in 2019 alone, due to gender pay gap, and for other women of color, even further into 2020 [CNN]
Members of Wisconsin’s Hmong community are speaking out after reports that the Trump administration is seeking the ability to deport thousands of Hmong residents to Laos [Wisconsin Public Radio]
Asians worldwide share examples of coronavirus-related xenophobia on social media [NBC News]
U.S. citizen mistakenly targeted for deportation returns home [San Francisco Chronicle]
Elderly residents fighting closure of Little Saigon mobile home park notch a victory [Los Angeles Times]
The Wall Street Journal criticized for op-ed using the phrase “sick man of Asia,” which has been historically used to perpetuate the stereotype that Chinese people were disease-ridden and unclean [NBC News]
Asian American members of the “Bong-hive” share significance of “Parasite” win to their identity and family bonding [NBC News]
For things to do in Sacramento and beyond, celebrate Chinese New Year in Locke this weekend. The event starts at noon Saturday on Main Street with lion dance performances, martial arts demonstrations, tea presentation and more.
The third annual Chinese American pilgrimage in the historic old Marysville Chinatown with walking tours and workshops on Feb. 22 and 23.
A Densho oral history workshop will be held Feb. 29 at Sacramento Buddhist Church. Executive director Tom Ikeda will discuss the techniques and process on how to do an oral history interview to interview area Japanese Americans about their experiences during World War II incarceration.
Mark your calendars for poet Monica Sok’s upcoming tour to launch her book “A Nail The Evening Hangs On.” She will visit the Sacramento Poetry Center on March 16 at 7:30pm.
Have you faced racist or xenophobic reactions due to the coronavirus outbreak? Send your story to me at tyu@sacbee.com.
That’s it for this week’s newsletter. Thank you for reading!
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This story was originally published February 12, 2020 at 9:25 AM.