Activism & Community
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This past Wednesday, June 4, marked the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Massacre, when the Chinese government ordered the Red Army to open fire on unarmed students and democracy supporters in Tiananmen Square. This is a piece I originally submitted to the Asian American Literary Review’s recent anthology on Asian American art and activism in
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When Curtis Chin (founder of the Asian American Writer’s Workshop) asked me to submit something to an anthology he was putting together about Asian American activism in the 90s, I was very flattered. It had been a while since I’ve attempted to write anything “creatively”. I joke now that the goal was to “sell the
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Last weekend marked the 30th Anniversary of the murder of Vincent Chin. The week that lead up to it was filled with posts from across the blogosphere about Vincent and the legacy of how little Judge Kaufman valued the life of a Chinese American versus the lives of the two white men murdered who him.
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Writing about Romeo and Juliet, got me thinking about Tony and Maria. Thinking about Tony and Maria got me thinking about Maria’s brother, Bernardo and his girlfriend (and Maria’s surrogate sister), Anita . Thinking about Anita started Rita Moreno singing in my head : “I like to be in America, everything for free in America…”
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There’s a curious lyric right after the famous opening lines of the Talking Heads song, “Once In A Lifetime.” Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down… It’s curious because when you think of “letting the days go by,” you think of “going with the flow,” you think of “floating.” This lyric
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There are two interesting Chinese documentaries streaming on Netflix right now: Weijun Chen’s Please Vote for Me (2007) and Lixin Fan’s Last Train Home (2010). In Chen’s movie, a third grade class experiences democracy firsthand when they hold an election for “Class Monitor.” Fan’s Last Train Home uses the difficulties of securing a train home
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Right around the fifth paragraph of Marie Lee’s op-ed in the New York Times To Sir With Love started playing in my head. It’s right around there she introduces us to Ms. Leibfried, her high school English teacher. It is Ms. Leibfried who “appeared at a critical juncture” in Marie’s life and gave her the
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I remember my first Amazon purchase. It was also my first Internet purchase. My curiosity was stirred by something I had read about Brion Gysin’s book, The Last Museum, and I wanted to read the book for myself. The problem was that The Last Museum was not available through the public library or in any
Vincent Young 