I find several things especially life affirming. These include the butterfly rush from a somersault, when a curtain rises on a stage production, and when a story goes to press. Also when I get to the grocery store and find avocados or good chocolate on sale. Now I can add one more. Recording for radio! Continue reading “Reading on the Radio”
Tag: Chinese American
I Have Dual Ethnicity and Double Vision, Superman is Chinese, and Other Revelations
Dropping a note to say I’m alive. And, “Hi!”
The last few weeks I’ve been absent from the internet but present in the world, trekking from Colorado to Wyoming, Washington to Oregon. Except for when I was reading exceptional things. Here are a few… Continue reading “I Have Dual Ethnicity and Double Vision, Superman is Chinese, and Other Revelations”
Encouraging words
Last week I met a woman who traveled from Thailand to Canada and the U.S. where she pursued her education 25 years ago. She had no intention to stay, but did. It was overseas that she ended up connecting with her Chinese roots.
Now a cultural director at the Wo Hing Museum in Maui’s historic town of Lahaina, Busaba Yip Douglas offered this: “I don’t need Ancestry.com. If we have a good relationship with your ancestors, we don’t have to search for them. They will come to us at the right time, and with the right people.”
Aliens in America by Sandra Tsing Loh
Delivered in three outrageously funny monologues, Sandra Tsing Loh’s “Aliens in America” makes the alien feel familiar. Image courtesy: Amazon
One audio story told in three monologues, Sandra Tsing Loh’s “Aliens in America” pulls into focus a childhood with her Chinese father and German mother in Southern California.
“I guess a man looks better in a Buick than he ought,” Loh recalls of the fateful day when her parents first met. “Especially when it’s surrounded by Southern California in the ’50s, a palm-fringed, swimming pool-dotted utopia lit by a sun so bright you actually start to hallucinate.”
Thus starts a relationship between a German woman who survived WWII bombings and a Chinese man who’d been orphaned in Shanghai. Having survived tough circumstances and given them up for cheerier ones in the U.S. is where their similarities end. Their odd union eventually leads to two daughters, including Loh and her sister Kaitlin, and innumerable family clashes. Continue reading “Aliens in America by Sandra Tsing Loh”
The Joy Luck Club: A Novel by Amy Tan
“The Joy Luck Club” by Amy Tan elegantly weaves together the stories of Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters. | Image courtesy: Novelr
As a child, I’d curl up next to Mom on the couch and she’d read to me aloud. There was a constant stream of stories and picture books. One rested on a high shelf next to the fire place out of reach. Gorgeous swoops of color swirled over its cover sleeve. With its hardback, I knew it was special. It turned out to be “The Moon Lady,” and that’s how I came to know Amy Tan and my first Asian American writer.
Now more than two decades later, I turn to her first novel.
My copy of the The Joy Luck Club is dogeared and battered. Whoever had it before me, likely my parents, loved and read it well. As did I when I read it before Christmas. Continue reading “The Joy Luck Club: A Novel by Amy Tan”
My friend wrote a book!
Who’s that? Student Barney Scollan taking on Bruce Lee in San Francisco. Image courtesy: University of Nebraska Press
Brag moment: I’ve had the great fortune to help my rockstar friend with his rockstar book and it’s featured in the latest issue of the University of Nebraska Press catalog (see page 5).
Charlie and I met working at the Half Moon Bay Review. A talented photographer, he provided pictures as I provided words and together we made hundreds of stories.
Since then he’s been writing one of his own. A big one — a biography on one of the most influential players in media and martial arts, not to mention Asian America. If you haven’t met him already, meet him now. It’s Bruce Lee!
“Striking Distance: Bruce Lee and the Dawn of Martial Arts in America” is Charles Russo’s first book. Yes, I’m biased because I’m so very proud of him, but even if I weren’t I’d still be swept up in it because it tells a colorful, ambitiously researched tale that touches on so many fascinating topics. If you’re interested in…
– Martial arts
– Bruce Lee
– The San Francisco Bay Area
– American history
– The Asian American experience
– Really cool pop culture
… Give it a gander!
About the Silk Knots project
Silk Knots is brought to you by mixed-race journalist Sara Hayden. The project’s mission is to document and preserve the lived experiences and histories of people, especially Asian American and Pacific Islander folks, whose stories have been previously under represented, misrepresented, and/or under acknowledged across the American West.
I love the power of stories as a way to create and connect community. My favorites are those that zero in on humanity and culture, appearing in the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Half Moon Bay Review, Peninsula Press, Resonate, and more. Below are stories about the Asian American experience. If you’re interested in being featured or have a story tip, contact me here.
Mirror (2021 film)
Bad Repertory Theatre
A short autobiographical documentary: With moves across states and travels abroad, Sara Hayden must leave and return to find home. “Mirror” is her story about growing up mixed race and finding her place in the world.
Interview: Peilin Chou’s “Over the Moon” shows the impossible’s possible
Resonate
Netflix producer Peilin Chou sheds light on her career and latest film. From growing up in Northern California’s Walnut Creek to finding her calling in Los Angeles, Peilin Chou’s roots in the entertainment industry run deep.
Gig Review: Kyungso Park and Andy Sheppard Live at the Royal Albert Hall, London
Resonate
Musician Kyungso Park is a pioneer. Armed with a gayageum, a stringed instrument that lays flat like a zither on a tilted table, she transforms traditional sounds from her native South Korea into contemporary explorations. Listeners are invited for the evocative journey.
Regular Blend
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What is it like to grow up in a pressure cooker environment? How does it feel to immigrate and start life anew? Why do people shoot for the American Dream? Find out from people who have centered their lives in Silicon Valley and created a culture all their own. A multimedia experience.
Unpacking 26 Seconds with Decades of History
Half Moon Bay Review
This is a story told in five parts. The first is about hate speech that fired off at a stoplight. The next is an attempt to understand what could be happening on a deeper level. The next is a historic timeline that shows why what happened could have happened. Then there’s an explanation for what the law has to say about such encounters. The last piece is my personal response.
Film Review: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead – Steve Aoki
Resonate
A desire to carry the weight of the family name drives Steve Aoki to stand out in the Netflix documentary ‘I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead’.
Shaved Snow in Mountain View
Peninsula Press, SF Gate
Food is a portal to the world and a connection to culture as demonstrated by Snozen, a cafe in Mountain View. Video and radio feature.
Learning the ABCs of Being ABC
Half Moon Bay Review
How do you celebrate Chinese New Year when you’re mixed? Write your own rules. A personal essay in which Sara Hayden reflects on her experiences with the Lunar New Year.
A Healing Kind of Needlework
Half Moon Bay Review
Mark Takata started work as an athletic trainer for the San Francisco 49ers in 1987 and discovered the value of acupuncture shortly after.
Noble Silence
Half Moon Bay Review
Buddhist classes on California’s Coastside uphold Burmese tradition.
‘Love, InshAllah’
SF Gate, San Francisco Chronicle
Friends Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi decided that they needed a space for American Muslim women to honestly voice their romantic experiences. The result? Sassy, sexy and humorous stories contributed by 25 women document anything from arranged marriage to first lesbian love and much, much more.
Language of Love
The Daily Californian
Inspired by a true story, Sumi, a Japanese woman, and James, an African American man, fall in love. They don’t speak each other’s native language, but find universal connection through communication and conflict. A podcast and written review of an experimental reading of the play “Yohen” written by Philip Kan Gotanda at the Durham Studio Theater in Berkeley, Calif.
Remembering Racism that Changed the Coast
Half Moon Bay Review
Naomi Patridge, who was the first Asian American woman elected to serve in San Mateo County and spent seven terms as mayor of Half Moon Bay, Calif., remembers her time spent at the Tanforan Race Track temporary “internment camp” as a child. Following an executive order issued by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Patridge her Japanese American family, along with 122,000 other innocent people, were removed from their homes and incarcerated in WWII.
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In addition to producing original pieces on the Asian American experience, Sara is committed to helping others share stories that have diverse perspectives. To that end she’s helped authors with the following books:
The Silk Knots Project 