This week's Asian American history adventure is a visit to the Formosa Cafe, a Chinese American fusion cafe and bar in West Hollywood, which first opened in 1939. Located across from the then Samuel Goldwyn studio, stars like Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart, James Dean, John Wayne, Ava Gardner, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley regularly popped …
Continue reading Meet Me at the Formosa: A Chinese American Hollywood History Adventure
Forty-two – it’s the answer to life, the universe, and everything[i]. It’s also my new lucky number -- the number of queries I wrote before signing a book publishing contract. Most Hero's Journeys start with a starry-eyed protagonist like Frodo Baggins, Harry Potter, or Luke Skywalker, but mine starts as a 55-year-old dance instructor with …
Continue reading How I Survived My Debut Book Publishing Journey at 55 Years Old
For the Lunar New Year month, I am reading books by Asian authors. First up is More Than One Child: Memoirs of an Illegal Daughter by Shen Yang. It tells of the author's life growing up in 1990s China as an "excess child" during its One-Child-Policy years.Between 1980-2015, the government implemented the One-Child-Policy out of …
Continue reading Book Review: More Than One Child, Memoirs of an Illegal Daughter
Lunar New Year is upon us! On February 1st, we enter Year of the Tiger. My mother, Yee King Ying, grew up in the village of Tai Ting Pong (Dajingbang in Mandarin), Guangdong Province, in the 1930s. This is how she recalls celebrating. Spring festival was a chance to clear away the old and outworn …
Continue reading How Mom Celebrated Lunar New Year in the 1930s in Guangdong Province, China
What if you could learn about an ancient tradition, enjoy a delicious dessert, and turn an ordinary evening into a fairytale? You can with the Autumn Moon Festival, a holiday born of legend. It traditionally falls on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month or mid-September to early October on the Gregorian calendar. In …
Maybe you're seeking respite from the summer heat. Maybe you'd like to pretend you're in the Halls of Moria in the Lord of the Rings. Or maybe you want to hike through miles of graffiti art. Whatever your reason for coming, the Donner Pass Train Tunnels near Truckee, California, offer a fascinating and sometimes heartbreaking …
Continue reading Hiking the Donner Pass Train Tunnels, a Triumph and Tragedy of Immigrant Grit
Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh In February 2021, I had the great pleasure of signing a contract to publish my narrative non-fiction debut, My Name Is King Ying, with a small press publisher. I had two offers, and …
Continue reading One Writer’s Journey through the Dauntless Dunes
My eldest graduated high school in May. It was a touch bittersweet -- the first time we had been back to campus in over a year except for two curbside pick-ups of textbooks. The year began frantically with virtual college tours, SAT preparation, and the crafting of essays for university applications. At the same time, …
Continue reading Bittersweet School Year and Finding a Way to Dream Again
It’s Asian Heritage Month, and the Chinese Historical Society of America (CHSA) in San Francisco is finally able to reopen at 50% capacity. To celebrate, CHSA is hosting a community event this Saturday, May 29th, from 8 to 10:30 pm. The event is a chance to view the exhibition Chinese American: Exclusion/Inclusion and see the …
Continue reading How CHSA Works to Combat Racism and Violence Through Soft Power
These days, headlines are filled with stories of anti-Asian violence and harassment. One video that particularly affected me was of an attack on a 65-year-old Filipino Woman near Times Square, where security guards standing within feet of her failed to intervene while a man kicked and stomped on her, yelling, “You don’t belong here.”Subsequently, Andrew …
Continue reading Don’t Let Anyone Sow Division Between the Races