Chinese lions are popping up with Lunar New Year celebrations in the United States. This is a LEGO model, made in 2008. While San Francisco police officers have their own lion dance group, this model is not related to their activities. Image source: "Big Daddy" Nelson's Chinese Lion Dance photostream on flickr
I was scanning the online photo gallery at SFGate of Saturday’s Lunar New Year parade in San Francisco when one caption caught my eye.
It sat under a San Francisco Chronicle photograph of a blue-and-gold Chinese dragon making its way down Kearney Street for the city’s annual event.
The caption referred to the “San Francisco Police Department Lion Troupe.”
Angel Island served as a stopping point for scores of immigrants, many Chinese and including my relatives, from 1910 to 1940.
Keep in mind that the Chinese Exclusion Acts – which limited the Chinese who could enter the United States to certain categories – existed from the 1880s until the 1940s, just before after World War II started.
Some immigrants were sent back home. Others received the green light from federal immigration officials to move to the U.S. mainland. Many spent long periods of time on Angel Island, not knowing their fate.
Ben Chinn studied art in Paris from 1950 to 1951. He also captured slices of daily life, including "Rainy Paris Street," with his cameras. Photo credit: Copyright 2009 Benjamen Chinn Estate
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When my mom sent me links to photographer Ben Chinn’s work and a Wikipedia site recently, I stopped to give his black-and-white images of San Francisco and Paris some thought.
I’m neither an artist nor a professional photographer. But like many people, I enjoy seeing life around me.
Here we had a man, who was born on April 30, 1921 in San Francisco’s Chinatown. He studied photography, traveled the world and sought a visual slice of genuine life – often on the streets. I could relate in many ways.
Chinn, who passed away on April 25, 2009 at the age of 87, brought out his cameras largely on the streets of San Francisco and Paris to document what he witnessed.
At Grant Avenue and Pacific Avenue in San Francisco in 1970. Photo credit: Copyright Dave Glass (Dizzy Atmosphere on flickr)
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In terms of pure visuals, the Chinatown Time Travel USA photostream on flickr offers a captivating array of photographs and postcards that document these neighborhoods.
Many of the more than 500 images are from San Francisco and Los Angeles.
For those familiar with the Chinese in America, the visuals can jog memories, prompt nods of recognition and spur questions.
For those who aren’t as familiar but are interested in these neighborhoods, the images make for a starting point to seek out narratives to give context.
The other day, my cousin Julie forwarded a link for the photostream’s slideshow after she heard about it from her relative.
Designer Maya Lin recently talked about how people marveled that she’s from Athens, Ohio.
For a while, my father’s family – originally from Southern China – lived in Augusta, Ga. because there was a need decades ago for people to build canals. A relative went there to work.
When I studied in China, I met ethnic Chinese who called the Maldives, the group of atolls in the Indian Ocean, their new home.
The book, published last year, marks his third about Chinese American history and families. One central theme in Chopsticks, he says, is the universal theme of persistence.
The creative brains behind this gem of a trailer are filmmakers Richard Wong and Wayne Wang.
It succeeds on many levels, including the opening scene, playfulness the participants exhibit, colors and shading and juxtaposition next to Chinatown workers in New York City.
And did you catch that guy on guitar? And how the woman keeps her arms crossed in the beginning?Â
If you’re going to be in New York City on Sept. 28, drop by Tribeca Cinemas at 54 Varick St. to catch this short and others at the Chinatown Film Project.
The newly-expanded Museum of Chinese in America is sponsoring the event which features prominent filmmakers.
The Museum of Chinese in America opened its doors in Manhattan’s Chinatown in 1980 as a grassroots organization dedicated largely to preserving immigrant stories.
On Tuesday, supporters and designer Maya Lin will usher in a new phase in its history of documenting, interpreting and explaining by welcoming guests to its new 14,000-square-foot home.
Located at 215 Centre St., the museum - which reportedly cost $8 million – faces Manhattan’s Chinatown and incorporates modern lines in its entrance as well as an untouched, sky-lit courtyard in what was a machine shop.
Considered the father of aviation in China, Feng Ru was the first person to fly a self-propelled, mechanized airplane on the U.S. West Coast - on Sept. 21, 1909. Photo source: earlyaviators.com
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The name Feng Ru might not ring a historic bell in the United States.
But as author Bill Wong, who is my uncle, points out, the Chinese-born inventor who once lived in Oakland, Calif. holds a high place among aviators, historians and ordinary people in China – especially as his 100-year-old accomplishment is remembered.
On Sept. 21, 1909, Feng became the first person to fly a self-propelled, mechanized airplane – a biplane – on the U.S. West Coast. He was only 26.
He accomplished this feat over the skies of Piedmont and Oakland, two cities east of San Francisco. He brainstormed and tinkered in a tiny work area in Oakland’s Chinatown or in space in the area.
Community members and historians will gather Saturday at 1 p.m. at Laney College, 900 Fallon St. in Oakland, to remember Feng’s contributions to aviation history. As part of the ceremony, a bronze bust of Feng will be presented.
The free public reception starts at 7 p.m. at the museum, located at 719 S. King St.
If you can’t make the reception, the show will open Friday and run through April 18.
Shimomura, a third-generation Japanese American, deals with stereotypes and how people perceive race. One central theme of the show is ”Always a Foreigner.”
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