Yee Wants GOP Included in Asian American Caucus
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Republican Assemblymens Alan Nakanishi, of Lodi, and Van Tran, of Garden Grove, are asking to be admitted to the Legislature’s Asian Pacific Islander Caucus, currently made up of all Democrats.
“It’s very partisan,” Nakanishi told the Stockton Record. “They talk about equality, but then they exclude us.”
The state Legislature includes three Asian American Republicans — Nakanishi, Tran and hapa Shirley Horton of Bonita — and Nakanishi wants Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to open the caucus or give them money to form a Republican version.
“I think the caucus represents only 50 percent — if that — of the (Asian) constituency,” Tran said.
Caucus Chairwoman Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) said having Republican members would prevent the caucus from taking a stand on some issues, but fellow Democrat Leland Yee, of San Francisco, disagreed.
“If this caucus is going to represent all the Asians, then it is extremely important for the Republican Asians to be involved,” Yee said. “There are partisan issues that enter into the (Asian) caucus. My argument is that we should work them out.”
SoCal Arrests for Smuggling Faux Cigarettes, Shoes
LOS ANGELES — Seven men were arrested in connection with the smuggling of millions of dollars’ worth of counterfeit cigarettes and athletic shoes into the Port of Los Angeles.
Authorities had confiscated four shipping containers each packed with 50,000 cartons of Marlboro-brand and Chinese-made cigarettes and a separate container holding nearly 10,000 pairs of Nike shoes, all from China, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The seven are alleged ringleader Alan Hwang, 40, of Temple City; Ching Yu Guo, 28, of Rosemead; Ly Trinh Hinh, 39, of San Gabriel; Yan Jun Ji, 33, of Rosemead; Jimmy Yip, 37, of Hacienda Heights; Ching Tang Chang, 34, of Diamond Bar; and Sal Anthony Salazar, 23, of Alhambra.
California stood to lose more than $1.6 million and the federal government about $700,000 in tobacco tax revenues, authorities said.
CAIS Only Elementary School Winner of Goldman
Chinese American International School (CAIS) in San Francisco was named one of six winners of the Goldman Sachs Foundation Prizes for Excellence in International Education. The school received a $25,000 award at a ceremony last month in Washington, D.C.
“We awarded a prize to Chinese American International School because it exemplifies the type of excellence in international education we are trying to promote. Its bilingual and bicultural immersion program serves as a role model for other schools,” said Stephanie Bell-Rose, president of the foundation.
Chinese American International School was the only elementary-middle school, the only independent school and the only immersion school to receive the award.
CAIS enrolls about 360 students and was founded in 1981 by a multiethnic group of parents, educators and civic leaders. The school’s mission is to emphasize academic excellence, moral character and international perspective through immersion in American and Chinese culture and language.
Coming Out and Being Accepted
EVENT: “Coming Out to Your Asian and Pacific Islander Family: The Importance of Family Acceptance and Social Support,” presented by Belinda Dronkers-Laureta
BACKGROUND: This year’s conference theme is “Sex and the City of God: Intimacy and Wholeness.”
INTERESTING: The conference explores why sexuality has often been used as a platform for harm.
DETAILS: Jan. 24 - 27, 2005, First Congressional Church, 2345 Channing Way, Berkeley, Calif., (510) 849-8274 or www.psr.edu.
‘Amerasia’ Features Mine Okubo
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center’s Amerasia Journal pays tribute to the life, art and work of artist Mine Okubo, who died at age 88 in New York City, where she lived and worked for half a century.
Guest editors and professors Elena Tajima Creef of Wellesley College and Greg Robinson of Université du Quebec, Montreal, have gathered together an artistic and literary portfolio consisting of Okubo’s own artistic credo.
Okubo is best known for her 1946 book Citizen 13660, featuring text and drawings about Japanese American internment camps. The first-person eyewitness accounts of the author’s own time in the camp established a special claim to truth and authenticity and helped reshape the general public’s perception of wartime events.
The issue is available from the UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press or at www.sscnet.ucla.edu/aasc.
Arkansas Mural Headed to L.A.’s J-A Museum
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A mural created by Little Rock Parkview High School students, with help from Japanese American internment-camp survivors, is scheduled to become part of the Los Angeles-based Japanese American National Museum’s permanent collection.
The work will hang alongside canvases that were created 60 years ago to make a mural that adorned the walls of the southeast Arkansas Rohwer Relocation Center.
The original canvases were created by Japanese American teenagers sent to the barbed-wire-enclosed internment camp between 1942 and 1945.
Art teacher Amanda Linn said her students sympathized with the story of the Japanese American teenagers from 60 years ago.
“I asked them how they would feel if they had to leave everything behind and had no idea where they were going, if they weren’t able to graduate high school in their hometown,” she said.