< Next | Previous >

I recently learned Big Uncle and Second Uncle (my mother’s brothers) are working on the family tree and some documents have been circulating between them. Although I attended a one-night Chinese geneology seminar at the VPL over the summer, I have no idea what Chinese family tree and history documents are like. There was the family tree page, of course, with the names of all my male ancestors dating back six generations. There were also pages and pages of a poem or story that Second Uncle, a …

I paused for a long time outside the T&T Supermarket entrance taking in the super-cute kawaii poster of something resembling a mushroom soldier with a big green cap surrounded by mini soldiers in different national dress.
To celebrate Dragon Boat Festival 2010 (June 16), T&T created 12 flavours of 糭子(simplified: 粽子; English/Pinyin: zhong zi), glutinous rice bundles wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. Aside from regular Chinese varieties with fine differences to represent China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, more exotic creations represent Asian countries like Korea(kimchi and seafood), India (curry …

Have I told you yet about that funny, funny episode when I endeavoured to formally learn Mandarin a few years ago?
Vancouver, being the special city it is, commonly offers two flavours of introductory Mandarin classes. The first is that class where on day one, you learn basics like sounding out “bo po mo fo” and how to count; students start knowing nothing about the Chinese language. The second type of course is named something like “Introduction to Mandarin for Cantonese Speakers” where it is assumed you have a firm grasp of …

I am hoping that the title of this post binds me to publishing this entry this year… it could very easily languish in my Drafts like many other well-intentioned blog posts. Afterall, the Vancouver Asian Film Festival starts today….
Today, we’re going back to that comment made by our New York host that was just a fact of life for her but, for me, it might be the catalyst of enlightenment… of sorts. She had observed how Asian diaspora/pride/identity crisis is so pronounced where she now lives compared to what she …

Each year, the “release” of the VAFF (Vancouver Asian Film Festival) schedule is like mini-Christmas to me as I peruse the highly manageable list of films screening over the four-day festival. Each year, I identify at least two films I want to watch and for the past two years, I have managed to watch none during the festival run. Each year, I’m tempted to blather about how appreciative I am about living in a city that has an Asian Film Festival but I’ll refrain and just tell you about the …

I know how to pick ‘em. Cancelled shows, that is. I’ve picked several losers in the past few years to start watching only to see them get canceled shortly after. Meanwhile, NPY’s picked star shows like Heroes, Lost, and So You Think You Can Dance (maybe the reality show doesn’t count). I’ve picked the likes of Lipstick Jungle, What About Brian, Beautiful People, and Moonlight.
So I am quite familiar with the feeling one is left with–dangling–when a show ends in its prime, without running its course.
I had also blogged about …

Just in case we are not aware of it, Angry Asian Man takes it upon himself to alert you to the Asian contestants in some reality shows even when it is apparent he does not watch them himself (SYTYCD s05, SYTYCD s04). It’s always interesting to me to note when there is an under- or overrepresentation of Asians in a competition compared to general demographics. And if they deserve it, I’ll root for them staying in the competition as long as possible.
NPY and I rapidly gave up on watching So …

There’s a style of Cantonese dining that I have never heard of taking place at the places I go to. Su told us about da lang and recommended Neptune Wonton Noodles in Richmond since we were passing through on our way home from a day trip to the States. If one of us should not want to have da lang, there were usual Chinese food options.
Da lang is a late night dining option that seems to be a meal centered around a big communal bowl of congee. Neptune is apparently …

I wanted to add my thoughts to the lackluster, non-existent debate* swirling around the July 16 episode of “So You Think You Can Dance” when ten dancers remained: five guys and five girls. The night before, to show off their talents in smaller groups, the girls performed a group number together and the guys did one later in the show. The girls’ number was a sassy, athletic, graceful, exhilerating Bollywood number. The guys closed out the show with an acrobatic and athletic African dance routine. I fully enjoyed the Indian-style …

Sometimes I feel like I do not need to live in Vancouver to “keep in touch with my culture”; except for the personal touch of being in a city that is about 15% Chinese, a lot of my daily fix comes through the Internet and other widely available resources.
With the magic of RSS feeds piped through Google Reader, I get sufficiently bombarded with Asian information from the few feeds I subscribe to.
It seems the longest-standing pillar of blog-style Asian-American information is Angry Asian Man and NPY has noticed how much stuff I’ve seen …