The Synergy of a Symphony
January 28, 2005
It is always surprising for us to witness the evolution of Asian America. The impact that Asians continue to make on this country is deep and unpredictable. We were reminded of this recently with the blossoming of the San Francisco Symphony’s annual Chinese New Year concert. This year, the concert features music written and played by Asian Americans – dually targeting a mainstream audience and our community. On the one hand, it is meant to be a way of drawing in more Asian Americans into a mainstream cultural institution. At the same time it also serves to introduce the Symphony’s traditional listeners to distinctly Asian sounds.
What really struck us though was Chairwoman Jessa Wu’s comment that the concert will also introduce “many of our American-born Chinese young people to some of the traditional activities of Chinese New Years.”
Imagine that: Using the Symphony, one of America’s most time-honored institutions, to teach Asian Americans about their Asian heritage; through an American medium we reinforce and articulate our Asian heritage and our Asian American identity. It is a stunning example of America’s diversity in action.
No longer is Asian culture transmitted solely within ethnic enclaves like Japantown or Little Saigon, or Asian language newspapers or family associations. Yes, those areas remain our community’s font of strength and vitality. But we are not limited there anymore. Our culture is being spread in countless other ways, everyday and everywhere, all across America.
This is the evolution of Asian America. It includes not only Asians in America, but everyone and everything touched and affected by America’s Asian heritage.
As members of our community, we are particularly proud of Jessa Wu, and her husband Tommy and United Commercial Bank. Their leadership and sponsorship is leading the San Francisco Symphony into new territory.
But we also welcome into the fold the Symphony’s resident conductor Edwin Outwater and the Symphony’s board president John Goldman. By participating in this event and partaking of Asian culture they are some of the newest members of the ever-growing Asian America.
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