Asian concert + Punjabi farmers’ protest + Jews and Christmas Chinese food: Your AAPI newsletter

It is Thursday, Dec. 10, and this is The Sacramento Bee’s AAPI weekly newsletter.

Here’s a recap of the stories I’ve covered and ones I’m following:

This Saturday, six artists of Asian American descent will perform in Kollaboration’s 20th anniversary concert, hosted virtually for the first time.

“I’ve been missing being on the stage,” said Ruby Ibarra, a Bay Area rapper who is part of this year’s performance lineup. “To be able to be part of this and to have that sense of feeling of performing again … it’s refreshing and exciting and thrilling.”

The nonprofit organization has been known for providing many emerging Asian American artists over the years with a major platform early in their careers, such as rapper and Golden Globe-nominated actress Awkwafina and comedian Ali Wong. This year’s lineup will feature Ibarra, singer-songwriter Megan Lee, musician and YouTuber David Choi, singer-songwriter CLARA, former Jabbawockeez member Ben Chung, and violinist Jason Yang, all performing remotely over Zoom.

“We want everybody who is interested in watching these performances to come kick it,” said Kollaboration board member and former executive director Minji Chang.

A link to RSVP for Kollaboration’s 20th anniversary concert can be found through eventbrite.com. It’s scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 12, from 3 to 5 p.m.

Hundreds of protesters drove in a massive car rally from the Bay Area and the Central Valley to Oakland on Saturday morning to protest new agricultural laws in India that many fear will harm Punjabi farmers’ profits.

Multiple car rallies organized by the nonprofit Sikh American organization Jakara Movement were launched from seven cities including Yuba City, Sacramento, Bakersfield and Fresno. Protesters drove to the Indian Consulate in San Francisco to circle the building, honking horns and waving signs, before returning to Oakland’s Middle Harbor Shoreline Park for a rally.

“To show solidarity for international movements is incredibly critical,” said Deep Singh, executive director of the Jakara Movement. “(Agriculture is part of) the livelihoods for a lot of Punjabis and Sikhs in the U.S.”

The protest was the latest in a series of worldwide uprisings against India’s new agricultural laws. Under the country’s previous laws, farmers were offered a guaranteed minimum price for certain crops and sold their goods through a government auction system.

This system had restrictions on what companies could purchase goods through the auction, and prices were capped for essential items. The new laws deregulate this market, allowing farmers to sell their goods to anyone for any price, but eliminating the minimum standard price previously guaranteed.

Gov. Gavin Newsom nominated Judge Truc T. Do on Tuesday as the associate justice for California’s Fourth District Court of Appeal. If confirmed, Do will become the first Asian American to serve on the court, which covers six southern California counties.

“This historic nomination brings the state closer to our goal of representing the diversity of California’s vibrant communities at every level of state government,” Newsom said in a statement. “I am confident that Judge Do will be an exemplary addition to the Fourth District Court of Appeal.”

Do, 49, was the first Vietnamese American judge to be appointed to San Diego County Superior Court in 2018. She was also a deputy district attorney at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office from 1999 to 2009, and is a graduate of Stanford Law School.

For many Jews, Christmas is a time to go out for Chinese food, followed by a trip to the movie theater. Why and how did this become a thing?

Many Jewish residents across the Sacramento and Central Valley area offered their own theories, such as the fact that Chinese food rarely mixes dairy and meat, which is against kosher rules. Others said Chinese restaurants are simply often the only places open Christmas Day.

Not every Jew observes this modern tradition — in fact, several people who spoke with The Bee said they had only recently started doing so. But all agreed that it is a well-known quirk, an unexpected custom many Jews said they’ve done for so long that they’ve forgotten why and how their families started.

“There’s a sense like, ‘Well, you need something to do, right?’” said Congregation Bet Haverim Rabbi Greg Wolfe in Davis. “Walking around Christmas, the streets are pretty quiet … It makes sense that we would create something that would fill that void.”

Several also pointed to the sense of community that stems from creating traditions that buck predominant cultural norms, a unity derived from the acknowledgment of cultural differences.

“There’s the feeling of doing something different,” Biale said. “When we get together, there’s a sense that … we’re doing our thing. They’re doing their thing, we’re doing our thing.”

In other news

• ‘The business is going to die.’ Sacramento hair and nail salons brace for COVID shutdown [The Sacramento Bee]
• Asian American And Pacific Islander Turnout Helped Hand Biden Georgia [NPR]
• New stamps honor Japanese American vets, Chinese American physicist [NBC News]
• Chinatown Businesses Face a Particularly Brutal Winter [Bloomberg News]
• After swearing in of new members, Chao Wu becomes first Asian American to serve as Howard school board chair [The Baltimore Sun]
• Asian American leaders press Biden for more diverse Cabinet picks [The Washington Post]
• ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ turns 20: Why Jen Yu is the Asian heroine we’re still looking for [USA TODAY]
• Asian American lawmakers want more representation in Biden’s Cabinet [Vox]
• Opinion: Republicans are winning over Asian immigrants like my father. Here’s why [The Guardian]
• Opinion: As a Punjabi-American girl, she changed schools, then saw Fresno’s race and class divide [The Fresno Bee]

This week in AAPI pop culture

The first season of “House of Ho,” a reality TV series following the lives of a multi-generational, multi-billionaire Vietnamese American family in Houston, airs tonight on HBO Max.

Marketed as a “Crazy Rich Asians”-inspired show, the eight episodes document the daily comings and goings of patriarch Binh Ho, matriarch Hue Ho, eldest child and only daughter Judy Ho, son Washington Ho and wife Lesley Ho, Aunt Tina and cousin Sammy. According to the trailer that aired last month, Binh and Hue came to America as refugees, settling in Houston before finding billions in banking and investments.

Here’s a golden line from Judy in the trailer: “My family is Vietnamese, but loves being American. My brothers are named Washington and Reagan. I was a disappointment because I was a girl, so I’m named Judy.”

If the trailer is anything to go by, this show promises to be steeped in standard-issue reality TV drama as well as a healthy dose of culture clash, parental guilt and wild aunties. I will be watching gleefully.

Got a story suggestion? Please reach out to me at awong@sacbee.com.

That’s it for this week’s newsletter. Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

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