Overseas Chinese Web Guide

Category: Culture

  • Sony Dream Machine ICF-C218

    I was looking for a cheap alarm clock. Real cheap. I found the Sony FM / AM Clock Radio Dream Machine on Amazon for $11.00. Yes, that cheap. Who needs a stereo alarm clock that plays CDs? Anyways, their marketers are good. On Amazon, the product is called an Automatic Time Set Clock Radio. That’s just what I need, not that I don’t know how to set the time to a clock radio. But, it’s really a drag to reset the time whenever a power outage occurs. Sometimes, it’s really simpler to wait until 12 midnight, pull the plug, and re-insert with the time magically set correctly. Voila! Of course, it didn’t make sense to me that a clock that featured “automatic time set” would also include “battery backup ensures correct time.” If the clock automatically set the time, why would I need a battery backup?

    Here’s why. On the box, “Automatic Time Set” has a footnote. Uh, that wasn’t on the Amazon web site. It says, “The current EST/EDT (Eastern Standard/Daylight Saving Time) has initially been preset at the factory.” So, the Sony Dream Machine is not one of those high tech clocks that are synchronized to the NIST Radio Station WWVB. And, if the power goes out, the clock radio needs the battery backup to kick in because that automatic time set is a one-time only deal.

  • Dennis Kucinich Pick-Up Line

    I stopped by the local farmers market this morning and was bombarded by all the political activists hawking their own candidates. Among the Democrats, representatives from Hillary, Obama and Kucinich were present. For the Republicans, I only spotted the Ron Paul contingent. For the most part, all the reps kept to themselves, except for the Kucinich supporter. His pick-up line was a question asking whether I supported the war. I was going to say that I supported the war before I was against it, but I bit my tongue.

    The truth is that the war doesn’t affect me. There may have been a time, say 40 years ago, when everyone watched the coverage of the Vietnam war on the evening news and had friends or family members involuntarily serving in the Armed Forces. But, that day is not today. First, the end of the draft cut most of our ties to the Armed Forces. I don’t have a close stake in the war because there is no threat of being called up. I check the scores every morning to see how my sports teams are doing. I don’t check every day, week or month to see how we are doing in Iraq. In traditional warfare, the civilian population could tell who was winning or losing the war. In modern warfare, I can’t tell whether we are winning or losing in Iraq. I have no idea whether the surge is working or not. Iraq is pretty much like gymnastics or ice skating. It’s totally subjective and you see what you want to see.

    The other matter is that news is so personalized today. I subscribe to the news feeds that interest me. You won’t find an Iraq War RSS feed in my reader. So, I know everything that is happening in the world except what happened in Iraq yesterday, last week or last month. And I am fine with that.

  • Chinatown, 1925

    TIME Magazine: Tong. Western Union operators in Boston were puzzled, last week, by a number of enigmatic telegrams sent from their station to various parts of the U. S. The messages appeared, at first glance, to be in code, but a closer scrutiny revealed that they were merely lists of names—Chinese names.

    The above passage comes from the September 7, 1925 issue of TIME Magazine. It contains one of the earliest references to Chinatown in TIME Magazine and describes a tong war between the Hip Sings and the On Leongs.

  • Chinese History From a Western Perspective

    Time: Second Thoughts on the Chairman. Not even Mao was perfect, it turns out. Propped up by two solicitous aides, Ye Jianying, 81, the venerable chairman of the National People’s Congress, tottered up to the rostrum last week to deliver the keynote speech for China’s 30th anniversary celebration.

    If you are ever curious about how the West perceives China, head over to TIME Magazine. For example, if you search for Liu Shaoqi, TIME will return results from its historical archives. The earliest reference to Liu Shaoqi comes from October 14, 1979. You can then sort the results by newest, oldest or relevance, or even refine your search by date.

  • Happy Moon Festival

    Hope you all were able to enjoy the Moon Festival with your family members. I couldn’t figure out how to take a photo of the full moon, so I looked it up online. I set the Nikon D50 to manual, then set the ISO to 200, aperture to f/16 and shutter speed to 1/200. Worked like a charm.

    To change the ISO, press the ISO button and turn the right-hand dial until it displays 200.

    To change the aperture, press the +/- button and turn the right-hand dial until it displays F16.

    To change the shutter speed, press the shutter release lightly, and turn the right-hand dial until it reads 200. So combined with the above settings, you should see 200 F16.

  • The Long Tail of Mooncakes

    mooncakes.jpgIn preparation for the Mid-Autumn Festival, I bought some moon cakes from my local Asian supermarket. Usually, I’m not a big fan of moon cakes because I don’t like the dried yolk in the middle and I’m not too hot on the traditional flavors. So, while shopping around, I came across of box of tea-flavored moon cakes. Green tea anyone? I love the green tea smoothie at Jamba Juice and I also love green tea ice cream. And, the green tea moon cakes did not disappoint. Absolutely delicious. The oolong tea moon cakes and jasmine tea moon cakes were equally well-received. That’s the long tail at work. A flavor for anyone and everyone, even for me.

  • Chinese Recipes

    wai-sek-hong.jpgWhile searching for some recipes for a Memorial Day weekend cookout, i came across Hearth and Home, a blog that has quite a collection of recipes with photos! It predominantly features a mix of Chinese, Western and Singaporean/Indonesian/Malaysian dishes. I lump that last group together because I am not sophisticated enough to differentiate them. Besides, all restaurants I go to that offer cuisine from that region inevitably serves dishes from all three countries. Anyways, the reason this blog stood out is because it offers recipes for many favorite foods of mine, which I have not been able to locate in any Chinese cookbooks, including Wu Xi Spareribs and Polo Buns, which is more commonly referred to as Pineapple Buns.

    For the longest time, I was also searching for a recipe for Pipa Tofu. The funny thing, I found it in a recipe book that I have owned for over 15 years. Except that it was titled Shrimp and Tofu Dumpling. Now, how am I supposed to realize that Shrimp and Tofu Dumpling is Pipa Tofu. That’s why I like cookbooks with both English and Chinese titles, as well as photos.

  • Left Behind

    Los Angeles Times: Taishan’s U.S. Well Runs Dry. Down a narrow red dirt road past rice paddies, water buffaloes and abandoned farmhouses is the dab-sized town of Wo Hing. Locals know it as Lop Cham Kee village, or Los Angeles village.

    The LA Times ran an interesting article about Toisan (Taishan) that deals with the nexus between the Overseas Chinese and those left behind. I remember my first visit to the place where my ancestors came from. In my case, it was a village in Xinhui, instead of Taishan. My first thought was that I should be deeply grateful that those that came before me had left the Chinese countryside long ago. Leaving your ancestral home is never an easy decision. Fortunately, all the difficult decisions and heavy lifting were done by others.

    For recent immigrants, if you still have a brother or sister in China, what will become of them or their offspring. In 50 years, when you become a grandparent, what impressions will your grandchildren have when they go to China and visit their granduncle or grandaunt.

  • In Search of Roots

    in-search-of-roots.jpgAs a child, Chinese New Year was a time to receive red envelopes (红包) and eat sticky rice cake (年糕) or nian gao. It is quite easy to be a child during Chinese New Year. However, what about the adults? Whatever customs we picked up, if any, from our parents, one day, each of us will have to decide what customs and traditions we pass on to our sons and daughters.

    How appropriate it was then for the San Francisco Chronicle to cover a program called In Search of Roots, run by the Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco. The program is open to Chinese Americans from 16–25 years of age with families originating in the counties of the Pearl River Delta region in Guangdong province. The program offers interns an opportunity research their ancestry and complete a pilgrimage to Guangdong to visit their ancestral village.

    The Chronicle also featured a companion video to the article. And, of course, you can find program highlights on YouTube as well.

    In Search of Roots 2004 Trailer:

    From Guangzhou TV (in Cantonese):

    Considering all the resources that Chinese Americans have today, I hope that 2–3 generations down the line, our descendants will have more materials to trace their lineage if they choose to do so. So, if you are spending time with family during this Chinese New Year, please take some time to note down or record their stories.

  • A Working Parent’s Lament

    Has e-mail replaced
    the intimate face-to-face,
    Do online chats end
    with a paternal embrace,
    Will our children learn
    if they are not within sight,
    Can we really know
    whether their mood’s dark or bright.