HISTORIC MEETING: Last Sunday’s historic face-to-face for two big city mayors of Chinese heritage came at a diplomatic courtesy call in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Carnelian by the Bay welcome dinner. Mayors Han Zheng of Shanghai and Ed Lee of San Francisco celebrated the 31stanniversary of the SF-Shanghai Sister City Committee at events hosted by Sister City Chair James Fang with emcee and TRI Commercial principal Anton Qiu…Fang’s bridge-building predecessors include pioneering Supervisors Tom Hsieh and Gordon Lau, clothier and business leader Walter Fong….
Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee conclude Courtesy Call meeting at the Mandarin Oriental San Francisco Hotel. Lee's wife Anita accompanies them.
HONORING HIS HONOR: Appearing for the historic Han-Lee summit, former mayors Willie Brown and Frank Jordan, former US Secretary of State George Shultz with Board of Supervisor President David Chiu, Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting, Peking University trustee Florence Fang, Chinese Chamber of Commerce’s Rose Pak (on crutches with an assist from Asian Arts Commissioner Goretti Lui and a Shaklee executive), United Airlines government affairs exec and former Clinton cabinet official Melinda Yee Franklin, former City Administrator Bill Lee, ex-gubernatorial appointments secretary Ronald Wong, incoming SF Association of Realtors president Jeffrey Woo, local APAPA chapter president James Yu, Chinese Counsel General Gao Zhansheng with Andrew and Hazel Lee crooning I Left My Heart in San Francisco and My Chinese Heart respectively in English and Chinese…
UP AND COMERS: Forging people-to-people relationships, the respective mayors have emerged as national figures like Sister City founder and US Senator Dianne Feinstein, California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom and senior statesman Willie Brown and their Shanghai counterparts, China President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and Vice Premier Huang Ju…Where will Mayors Lee and Han end up?
NEW JERSEYS: Mayor Han was honored with a framed SF Giants championship jersey number 31 on the Sister City’s 31st anniversary while Bay Area’s Marvell co-founder Weili Dai received jersey number 30 for her ubiquitously worldwide green PC chips and leading SF Week green forum and exhibit on behalf of San Francisco, the only official American city represented at the World Expo. Dai came on the 30th anniversary of the Sister City founding and her arrival in SF from Shanghai. Upon receiving the baseball jersey, she noted she’s also quite a hoopster…
BRIDGE BUILDING: Bistroman Eric Chung’s (also of Lot 46) Carnelian by the Bay was the historic venue, in front of Ferry Plaza with grand views of the Bay Bridge being rebuilt by SF-headquartered and Sister City supporter TY Lin International with Shanghai steel…Serenading the mayors were St. Mary’s Chinese Girls’ Drum and Bell Corps who in June 2010 ushered Mayor Newsom’s arrival in Shanghai for SF Week on the Corps 70th anniversaries…
Columnist and event emcee Emil Guillermo explains the Potstickers Eating Contest rules. Standing behind are contestants Steve Ngo, Otto Lee, Jeffrey Fang, Ross Mirkarimi, James Fang and Paul Miyamoto.
COOL HAND POTSTICKERS: What Cool Hand Luke did for Paul Newman’s career, will it do for the first annual “potstickers” potsticker eating contestants? The AsianWeek Foundation’s “official” Sept. 21 results for a three minute gyoza gorging drill: 10 – Japantown Supervisor and Sheriff candidate Ross Mirkarimi, 17 – City College trustee Steve Ngo, 22 – BART Director James Fang, 23 – Sheriff candidate and Captain Paul Miyamoto, 24 –Sunnyvale Councilmember Otto Lee… With the “Golden Potsticker” awarded for a grand total of 26 to Jeffrey Fang, SF City College student trustee unrelated to James and Ted Fang. View photos from the event at the AsianWeek Foundation Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.217646421631394.57478.128135897249114&l=93926a2077…
COINCIDINK: The contest – emceed by columnist Emil Guillermo – ironically coincided with the SF Democratic Party’s mayoral endorsement revote after this column helped stir the ire of Asian Pacific American (APA) political and business leaders. However, still not one APA endorsed for mayor…In town for the League of California Cities conference and expo, Iraq veteran Otto Lee strolled into the event and got drafted as a contestant…
Sunnyvale Councilman Otto Lee chows down during the Potstickers Eating Contest on Sept. 21. Photos by Francis Ng.
HARVARD OF THE OUTER MISSION: Billed as a Sheriff candidates eating contest, it had SF City College undertones with College Board member Ngo chowing down at the trough with trustee Lawrence Wong’s ringer in student trustee Fang pleading poverty for a free potsticker meal from the Foundation, host of the benefit for this column… Like Jeff, James Fang and I were once student trustees mentored by former College Board members Julie Tang and Lillian Sing, also attending the benefit…
PARTY SMOOTCHING: While Democrats will not recommend any APA as a third mayoral candidate, the SF Republican Party – led by its first APA chair in Harmeet Dhillon – have endorsed independent and former supervisor Tony Hall for mayor. Short of an official endorsement, the party only encouraged members to “support” Democrat and Mayor Ed Lee who did not seek the party’s endorsement. There’s concern that the party’s endorsement is a kiss of death among voters, a tactic exploited by Democrat and mayoral candidate Dennis Herrera in his 2001 defeat of Democrat Jim Lazarus for SF City Attorney. Herrera’s hammering away, but Mayor Willie Brown (a Democrat and bane of statewide GOP) proved the SF Republican Party’s endorsement helped in beating former Board President Tom Ammiano in 1999…A Better Chinatown Tomorrow founder and Republican Wilma Pang did not receive the mayoral party nod…
JEFF’S FAVORITE COLOR: The Green Party recommended Democrat and Public Defender Jeff Adachi for its third ranking for mayor after respectively ranking Green and playwright Terry Baum and Democrat John Avalos…
FOG AND HOSES: New trend – APA female power women representing foggy districts and guys with hoses. Assembly Speaker John Perez will officiate as “sheriff” at the November western wedding of Assembly Speaker pro Tem Fiona Ma and Jason Hodge, a Ventura County firefighter, which came after the social note that Ma’s Sunset District 4 successor, Supervisor Carmen Chu and San Francisco firefighter Scott Hua are engaged…
MISS ME?: Email Samson Wong at potsticker@prodigy.net.
Veteran columnist has appeared in up to 450,000 households weekly in the SF Independent, Examiner (2000-04) and AsianWeek since 1996. As Editor-in-Chief (2003-07), AsianWeek and Samson received wide recognition from the California Legislature, New American Media, League of Women Voters, GLAAD, Organization of Chinese Americans, SPUR and APA civic groups. Thru the SF Citizens Advisory Committee on Elections, SF Elections Task Force and Chinese American Voters Education Committee, Wong helped boost APA influence from 25,000 in the 1980s to over 50,000 voters by the early 1990s. 
