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Chinatown Resident Letter

Posted by Adam Cheung on February 08, 2017

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Uncle Frank's Tai Chi Tips

When I was doing Crime watch somehow one of the older American guys who would later learn from me was talking about whether Uncle Frank did Martial Arts. Now this is actually more than just American Stereotyping. Some Asians may groan and say, "Just because a person is Asian and is old doesn't mean they know Kung Fu."

But look, if you were to make a movie about the Drama in Chinatown, and it was made in Hong Kong.. frankly all the powers that be would have superhuman Kung Fu as well as their mental strategies and political pull. This is because, Jin Yong wrote a lot of novels where the people in these political positions had secret and powerful Kung Fu. Part of it is just for entertainment.

Plus, Chinese people like to explain greatness through practice. Training done after birth. Whereas Americans like to explain it through Divine right or genes. I.e. you are great because it is something you are born with and this power cannot be taught.

So the explanation for Uncle Fr…

Gourmet China House with Showa students

Grace really wanted to try this new restaurant and so we decided to go with our Showa friendship circle students. Grace picked them up in the car while I biked in. I arrived first on my slow bike because parking is quite difficult to find in Chinatown. The down side was that I was wet. When I came in I spoke Chinese which had a curious effect. Then I recognized one for the waters as someone I had taught Kung Fu too. We spoke in English. "Hey you know he speaks "Bak wah""
" yeah I know him."
Side note, people calle Cantonese "Bak Wah." or Bak language. I don't think it is the same Bak as white. I was recently reading something historical about why it was called Bak Wah... and forgot to write it down. That's worth a post on its own.
In any case when my family finally arrived I started telling the Showa students various stories about Chinatown. Mainly because we could see Hung Mun across the street. And Sun Yat Sen stayed thee hiding fo…

Dem Rep Tackey Chan's Bill H.3361

In January of this year, Democratic House Representative Tackey Chan of Quincy, MA, proposed Bill H.3361.
The text states: “SECTION 1. Notwithstanding any General Law or Special Law to the contrary, all state agencies, quasi-state agencies, entities created by state statute and sub-divisions of state agencies shall identify Asian American and Pacific Islanders as defined by the United States Census Bureau in all data collected as part any and all types of data collection, reporting or verification; provided further that, the five largest Asian American and Pacific Islander ethnic groups residing in the Commonwealth shall have individually reported data as part of the total Asian American Pacific Islander reporting.”
What this means: census documents, job applications, passports and other personal ID documents will identify Asian Americans - which they already do - but break them down into one of the five largest groups, such as Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Korean and Pacific Islanders (Ma…

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