the bảohouse

My Little Life Milestones 2011–2012

Sun, 26 Feb 2012 19:54:00 -0800

Always take the time to reflect on what you’ve been able to achieve every year since you were born. And then be thankful that you managed to pull it off. For 2011–2012, I managed to accomplish things that I could be proud of looking back:

Start this Tumblr in July last year and post ~225 entries so far, with 5,168 visits, 3,367 unique visitors, and 10,829 page views. I hope my thoughtful writing (from thoughtful actions) can exceed that achievement for the next year. My best article was Making Your Custom-Domain Tumblr a Little More Robust.
Founded CayDa Foundation with Quyen Mai and TheAnh Truong. I released 6 statistical tables on the Vietnamese American community, compiled a list of Vietnamese American scholarships for my younger peers, and revamped and rebranded our first program, EM Radio. Also wrote two endearing letters of recommendations for our first two interns of the CayDa Summer Internship. I don’t write those too often.
Served as Steering Committee Member of the Community Organizing Track of the inaugural National Summit of Vietnamese American Leaders held July 2011.
Hosted my second workshop ever, Leadership Retention: Friendships for Life at the NEUVSA Conference. It was much better than my first workshop I did at a UVSA Summit where I bored everyone to death. In my second workshop, there were still people yawning, but less so than my first. At least I managed to learn a lot from my peer Dat Nguyen of New Orleans to make the workshop more engaging.
Became a participant of SEARAC’s Leadership Advocacy Training program in New Orleans. I have now put my advocacy training to work, working on Santa Clara County Vietnamese Health Master Plan.
That same weekend of the advocacy training, I attended VAYLA-NO’s 5th Anniversary Gala after having contributed marketing collateral design services to their cause pro bono, valued at probably $1500.
Became a member of the Taproot Foundation to professionalize pro bono service.
Became the first elected Secretary of the Berryessa Business Association.
Served as a member of UVSA Refresh Committee and painstakingly reviewed their Constitution. You have to be a sadomasochist to be proud of doing this. There is a reason why I don’t recommend starting a brand new organization to most people.
Came out financially (if somewhat modestly) net-positive after a weekend retreat at South Lake Tahoe with UVSA Refresh Committee folks. That beat my previous record of being net-neutral at Las Vegas last year.
Chose 14 people who are important in my life. Found meaning in close friendships.
Became a parent of Blueprint, the traveling blue bear born out of UNAVSA Conference held at Denver. He has 20 parents, and we’re supposed to fight over legal custody at the next conference in July 2012 in Minneapolis.
Attended the Advancing Justice Conference held in San Francisco in October.
Caught an independent play of Lily Bee in November in San Jose. She’s the only musician I came out to see for the entire year.
Made my first comic strip, Hương.
Finally put my YouTube to good use, creating Top Asian American Song charts and Vietnamese American musician lists.
Started a Vietnamese Folklore Database, and added 12 articles.

I think looking back, I can say I did quite a bit this past year. I think this upcoming year, I’m going to change the way I record my milestones that really emphasizes that my accomplishments are really shared accomplishments with close friends; that the things I do is to make myself happy and to impact those around me.

I can’t believe I’m 30 now.

Interesting, so she works in San Francisco...

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 22:42:27 -0800

Interesting, so she works in San Francisco now.

surnameviet:

Technologist and CEO of Emotiv Lifescience Tan Le on her immigration story:

“If there is a sinew in our family, it runs through the women. Given who we were and how life had shaped us, we can now see that the men that might have came into our lives would have thwarted us, defeat would have come too easily. Now I would like to have my own children and I wonder about the boat. Who could ever wish it on their own? Yet I am afraid of privilege… Can I give them a bow in their lives, dipping bravely into each wave? The unperturbed and steady beat of the engine, the vast horizon that guarantees nothing? I don’t know. But if I could see it, and see them safely through, I would.”

The Fields of Gold That Once Lined My Neighborhood

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 09:55:00 -0800

When Toyota announced its decision to close its Fremont Nummi plant back in 2009, this caused a great deal of concern for the local workers, residents, and all the stakeholders of that industry. It provided jobs for 4,700, and many smaller businesses, such as suppliers and repair shops, depended on Nummi being operational for their living. Luckily Tesla Motors took over Nummi (now called the Tesla Factory) which focused on electric cars.

While Nummi’s closing made headline news, it was really a symptom of a larger trend that was happening in my region. Many companies, especially high-tech companies, have closed shop and moved elsewhere. The business parks that line my Lundy Avenue used to be filled with semiconductor companies and their electronic design firms and suppliers. Now I see a Scientology church, a park converted into a retail plaza filled with mom & pops, and plenty of buildings with signs saying they are available for lease.

I’m not saying mom & pop shops are bad. But if you think about it, the high-tech industry exported products so that they can sell around the world and bring in wealth into my area. Mom & pop shops import goods (and therefore export money) to people not in the region. That’s good for the exporters, but if San Jose doesn’t export enough, then it’s like eating out more on a credit card tab than your ability to pay it down each month. There has to be a balance.

Corporations, to me, are double-edged swords. On the one hand, they often have the ability to produce complex products/services that smaller businesses might not be able to do, such as Nummi being able to mass produce automobiles. But on the other hand, you are also beholden to shareholders who may not (or often not) live in your community. So while corporations give the people in your community something to do (which is better than being unemployed), ultimately you are exporting wealth to someone not in your community. The exception to this, of course, would be a corporation whose shareholders largely comprise members of your community. Although Walmart—which my friend Huy loves to hate on—provides cheap goods for the many families whose budgets are tight, it ultimately enriches its shareholders living abroad.

It’s for that reason that I also worry about what will happen to one of the largest job-providers in my area, Cisco, when they decide that another area of the world has the brains to what our local brains do, but for cheaper (in fact they already built out a campus in India and are planning to have 20% of its leadership there). I’m sure Cisco doesn’t do any of its manufacturing here; it’s technical support might already be shifted to call centers elsewhere. So what’s left? Research & development, analysts, accountants, and sales probably. How long is that going to last? Cisco’s market capitalization went from $500 billion in 2000 to $94 billion in 2011.

So that begs the question, and is the reason why I joined the Berryessa Business Association, which is “What can we help our businesses produce that people outside of Berryessa / Silicon Valley are willing to buy? How can we recycle wealth in our communities?” Starting a ton of restaurants in our area doesn’t address that problem. However, not unless the restaurant plans to sell its franchise abroad.

I’ve been pondering this question and keeping a look out for ideas. Clean/green technology seems to be the new champion. Unfortunately, Berryessa hasn’t been able to get any new contracts for development in that field. Good for the Bay Area, just not my neighbors in particular. I have to keep searching.

In some ways I love being among innovative people, especially those who develop microenterprises, because if innovation is disruptive, then I have to wonder how we can disrupt overseas migration of wealth. For example, my friend knows someone who was able to come up with a healthier way to cook chicken that has the consistency of fried chicken, but without using oil! It’s utterly brilliant!

So now, even though my neighborhood is now filled with developed homes and business parks, as a child growing up in Berryessa I still remember the vast golden fields and orchards that stretched for miles that surrounded my neighborhood. And before I knew it, the view of golden fields became a view of neighbors and high-tech businesses. Now many of those businesses are gone. I want to chart the destiny of the place I call home, and not leave it to chance. For the many new folks I now call neighbors, their livelihood depends on having a vibrant Berryessa. The Berryessa Business Association, which was only founded in December 2010, is long overdue. It’s time to take our community back!

Pantless ao dai? Doesn’t that remind you of modern...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 22:03:00 -0800

Pantless ao dai? Doesn’t that remind you of modern qipao/cheongsam that are also pantless? Vietnamese patriots would be uncomfortable being synonymized with being Chinese (given the history of oppression by the Chinese upon the Vietnamese for centuries), but I’m not sure they would necessarily see it that way at first glance of this. I think the discomfort you have is related more to the idea that the qipao is related to Suzie Wong, who was the archetype of sexual objectification of Asian women in Western media. But if this was taken in Vietnam, and they want to have their sexual revolution, then who am I to judge? Vietnam has a dichotomous relationship with sexuality; it strives for public conservatism but can be fairly liberal (especially with the younger generation) beneath the state-regulated propaganda machine and the religious institutions.

drvy:

sexualization of our Ao Dai’s?

While it’s not on the level of american women as geishas in thigh high in kimono’s, boob-popping gypsies , and Native American princess (I know it’s a broad term) with stilettos, there’s still something problematic about portraying our modest outfit as sexual fantasy. It’s a dress with so much history and culture I iunno about seeing it in this light, as if being pantless is the only way for society to look at a woman’s body. i mean, men arent expected to walk around in sky high shorts for us to find em attractive.

i cant quite articulate what’s wrong…so if you’ve pinpointed it let me know!

Like a Boss! Secretary of the young Berryessa Business...

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:06:00 -0800

Like a Boss! Secretary of the young Berryessa Business Association, San Jose, California.

When I redid this logo in 2007, it was more of a whim, as I was...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:00:00 -0800

When I redid this logo in 2007, it was more of a whim, as I was helping create a Vietnamese social networking site, YouViet, although the project was eventually scrapped (in any case, OneVietnam has done what we could not). Just about late last year, 2011, I saw that Lên Đường (literally meaning “on the road”) updated their website and using this logo (albeit, a non-gradient version, and purple for unknown reasons, probably to match the website template theme). If I had known they were going to use this logo, I would have spent a little more time on it, as I intended to put the world map on the surface of the blue sphere. Well, good to know my work is finally being put to use, even if it’s 4 years later.

uyenp: Mr. Cao Goes to Washington, a documentary by S. Leo...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:50:19 -0800

uyenp:

Mr. Cao Goes to Washington, a documentary by S. Leo Chiang premieres in San Francisco on March 10.

http://festival.caamedia.org/30/guide/program/mr-cao-goes-to-washington/

Haha, oh Google Chrome. I don’t need to translate my...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:39:00 -0800

Haha, oh Google Chrome. I don’t need to translate my friends!

Top Health Concerns for San Jose’s Vietnamese Community | State of Health Blog from KQED News

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:37:42 -0800

Top Health Concerns for San Jose’s Vietnamese Community | State of Health Blog from KQED News:

As far as Liver cancer is concerned, a Hep B Free Campaign is kicking off on March 9. Although the advisory committee of community leaders who helped with the Vietnamese health assessment report proposed a Vietnamese Health Task Force, my inquiry with Dave Cortese’s office suggested that no such organizing is taking place. I’m hoping the Heb B Free Campaign is a chance to seed such an initiative.

uyenp:

1. Health insurance

2. Liver cancer

3. Mental health stigmas

Immigrant Workers At SF Restaurant Awarded $316K In Wage Theft Case « CBS San Francisco

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:13:00 -0800

Immigrant Workers At SF Restaurant Awarded $316K In Wage Theft Case « CBS San Francisco:

SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – A group of immigrants who worked at a Vietnamese restaurant in San Francisco’s Richmond District have been awarded more than $300,000 in a major wage theft case.

Luong Vuong was a waiter for more than a year at the Pho Clement restaurant. He said through a translator on Wednesday that he came forward in August after working 12.5 hour days, 6 to 7 days a week without tips or breaks for about $5 an hour.

"In 2011, more than 2 in 3 Vietnamese young adults who participated in an online survey (69%)..."

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:22:00 -0800

“In 2011, more than 2 in 3 Vietnamese young adults who participated in an online survey (69%) reported that emotions interfered with their activities some (53%) or a lot (16%) in the past 12 months. Of those who said that emotions interfered with their daily life some or a lot, only 28% felt they needed to see a mental health professional within the past 12 months.”

- Santa Clara County Public Health Department, 2011 Vietnamese Young Adult Online Survey

Women of color in science & medicine rock! TED Talks: Quyen...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:10:00 -0800

Women of color in science & medicine rock!

TED Talks: Quyen Nguyen on Color-coded surgery

Dr. Quyen Nguyen’s research (working with Roger Tsien, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry) is focused on the development of fluorescently labeled probes for molecular navigation during surgery. Their first collaborative effort yielded a “smart” probe that makes tumors margins fluoresce, or “glow” and thus easier for surgeons to see and remove accurately during surgery. Their most recent joint effort resulted in another type of probe that can make nerves “glow” during surgery, thus helping surgeons repair injured nerves and avoid inadvertent injury.

She is a professor of surgery and director of the Facial Nerve Clinic at the University of California, San Diego.

CayDa Foundation: Vietnamese American Entrepreneurship Survey

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:01:07 -0800

CayDa Foundation: Vietnamese American Entrepreneurship Survey:

caydafoundation:

This is a project by a Viet professor at HEC Montreal University, Canada to study Vietnamese business and entrepreneurial behavior. We are focusing on Viet American businesses for this survey.

By studying Vietnamese American business management style and entrepreneurial behavior, this study seeks…

CayDa Foundation: First National Conference on Vietnamese American and API Mental Health

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:57:19 -0800

CayDa Foundation: First National Conference on Vietnamese American and API Mental Health:

caydafoundation:

Calling for all interested mental health & human services professionals interested in/ working with the API (esp. the Vietnamese-American) population to stay tune for the 1st National Conference on Vietnamese-American and API mental health services, treatment approaches and current issues. The…

I remember bumping into a Muslim woman, Vân-Anh Thanh, who spoke...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:40:00 -0800

I remember bumping into a Muslim woman, Vân-Anh Thanh, who spoke fluent Vietnamese, during the evening in downtown San Jose following a film festival many years ago. I thought she was Vietnamese. Turns out she’s actually Chăm. Chăm is an ethnic minority, and there’s a large community in Vietnam. Needless to say, I was utterly fascinated with her. You don’t meet too many Muslims who speak Vietnamese. But it was only later I found out that she was Chăm, which again, you don’t meet too many of. My best friend Huy only discovered his Chăm heritage only recently (one of his great grandparents is Chăm).

DiaCRITICS has a good article on the whole history on the Chăm people, “Bearing The Weight of History: A Young Chăm Woman’s Story.” Knowing the Vietnamese have long oppressed these people, as they once had their own kingdom, Champa, until the kingdom of Đại Việt (aka Vietnam) annexed them completely by the 18th century, I am particularly mindful to respect their right to self-determination, and to ask how they identify themselves. If they don’t want to be called Vietnamese, I wouldn’t be surprised, but I’d respect their identification regardless.

This YouTube video was a Chăm culture event in San Jose, evidence that there is an organized population of Chăm Americans in my hometown. The Wikipedia article on Chăm people says there is an estimated 3,000 Chăm living in the United States, although I suspect there are many who might have Chăm lineage but do not know or identify as such, perhaps identifying as being Vietnamese, Khmer, or Thai. Also, I’m not sure where they get the numbers from, as there is no source notation.

Yes, they do have their own language, and a great many are Muslims.

Simply Smile, a short film produced by NDTeam Productions...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:35:00 -0800

Simply Smile, a short film produced by NDTeam Productions and ChiliChopstickz Production. German language with English subtitles. Written and Directed by Chon-Dat Nguyen. Co-Directed by Khoi Chau. Featuring Thao Nguyen, Thien-Dang Nguyen, Khoi Chau, Nam Truong, Truong Thi Au, Phuong Linh. Music by Quang Thi Nguyen and Vincent Lee, ”This Boy” by Vincent Lee and Chad Grossman (Original by James Morrison).

The film is a heartwarming scene of a boy who comes to the rescue of a girl after seeing her ex-boyfriend bully her in front of the ex’s new girlfriend. I guess love speaks all languages. Yes, I’m planning on annoying my Vietnamese-German-American friends with this like a little kid who just found gifts under the Christmas tree. I find it fascinating to see assimilated Vietnamese in other countries; the whole Vietnamese-American identity duality isn’t unique to Americans.

Thuy My Pham, a Vietnamese German, performs...

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 04:21:00 -0800

Thuy My Pham, a Vietnamese German, performs “Careless” written by Thuy My Pham and Philipp Fritsche. The music video was directed by NDTeam Productions (Khoi Chau, Tien Ho, Philipp Horst, Simon Csengeri).

This looks like her first music video. I couldn’t find any other videos or songs except a cover she did, “My Love” by Justin Timberlake.

Vietnamese American English Singer-Songwriters

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 01:02:00 -0800

Vietnamese American English Singer-Songwriters:

Here is my feeble attempt to put together a sample of Vietnamese American English Singer-Songwriters on YouTube. I know there are a few that I once found that I no longer remember their name, because they exist under band names, so it makes them hard to find.

When Jøna Nguyen asked me about artists I could recommend for the UNAVSA Conference he’s helping with, I braindumped all the names I could think of. UNAVSA is an umbrella organization of Vietnamese Student Associations.

Kym Pham is my muse. She founded the Vietnamese American Student Conference (VASCON) at Austin, Texas in 2005. It was her team that had the idea to bring together independent Vietnamese American singer-songwriters and next generation artists/performers that really raised the bar for conference entertainment programming for a Vietnamese American youth conference. UNAVSA actually followed VASCON’s lead on that, up until VASCON dissolved a few years ago, as the two organizations’ conferences overlapped so much as to be unnecessary duplicates.

Since 2005, when VASCON had its first conference, while UNAVSA was running for its second year, the number of discovered musicians seemed to feel slow. I mean, you could find performers to do covers. But you’d be hard-pressed to find singer-songwriters in English; in Vietnamese it’s not so bad since they get swept up by the major Vietnamese American record labels anyway. All the ones I knew from these conferences had already played at least once at Southern California’s Tet Festival. Half of them are probably already Kristine Sa’s friends, as she likes to feature them on her vlog.

Didn’t realize this film, Bang Bang (2011), was about a...

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:33:00 -0800

Didn’t realize this film, Bang Bang (2011), was about a Vietnamese American protagonist, and starring Thai Ngo, who is more well-known by his music name, Thai Viet G, one of the few Vietnamese American English rappers that I know.

Justin is a troubled teen looking for a way out of the gang life. His best friend Charlie is a rich Taiwanese kid who lives in the nice part of town. Justin runs away from home after a fight with his mom and takes refuge at Charlie’s house while Charlie’s parents are away on a prolonged business trip.

The murder of a fellow gang member avalanches into a full blown war with a rival gang. Caught in the midst of teenage angst, gang life, and alienation, the two friends find themselves heading down two different paths of life.

I Didn't Know I Was Vietnamese

Mon, 20 Feb 2012 06:38:00 -0800

My cousin posted this on his Facebook the other day:

Being a senior this year makes me regret not ever maintaining a Vietnamese identity and keep a steady vocabulary of Vietnamese words or staying in Vietnamese school. I will have nothing of my cultural identity to pass onto and of my children if I ever had children. If I had kids, what would I tell them? That I was white-washed? People see me, they don’t know my name, they guess Chinese, Filipino, Cambodian.

No. I’m Vietnamese, and I’m not ashamed to be one.

A goal of mine is to sit down one day and listen to my parents tell me of my roots; where they came from and where my ancestors came from. I want to pass down their stories.

Dear cousin,

I didn’t really become aware of being Vietnamese until I got into college, even though in elementary school all the way into high school, I had many opportunities to talk about my family being from Vietnam and talking about some of the Vietnamese things my family did together. But being aware of Vietnamese customs is not the same as being aware of your identity as a Vietnamese person. How can I explain this? I’ll try…

In high school and prior, when I was with my family and some close friends who were Vietnamese, we didn’t talk about being Vietnamese. Computers, yes. What’s for dinner, sure. But being Vietnamese was taken for granted; I mean, why would we need to? I guess I had it easier, since nobody asked me what ethnicity I was, probably because when I was with other students, we would talk about homework, when the next club activity was going to be held, pirating music on AOL chatrooms (you kids have it easy nowadays with broadband internet), and which cute girls we got to talk to. Ethnicity, for me, didn’t feel like it had any role in high school life. But if people wanted to share it, as we did in English class and during “International Day” at school, it was more like people telling stories about their experiences shared with their family. When I hung out with the honor students, they spoke about the good experiences they had with family. When I was with the average-GPA kids, we talked silly things, like prom or who was on their matchmaker compatibility list; ethnicity wasn’t very interesting to talk about.

But I remember there were dangerous kids, especially ones who may have been involved in Vietnamese gangs. I knew they were Vietnamese. And I knew I was Vietnamese. But the way you reconciled it back then was to call them “fobs”. They weren’t me, because they spoke with a thick accent, and they are troublemakers. It was a disgusting period of my life to dissociate myself from others that way, but that is the truth. Just as anyone invents slurs to debase another person’s ethnicity, even within an ethnicity, we invent derogatory terms to hate another person we don’t like.

So just because those kids and I are both Vietnamese, I didn’t relate with them. That has to do with identity. Instead, I thought about Vietnamese as it relates to what I did with my family, meaning a focus more on customs and traditions.

When I got to college, UCLA, I started hanging out with the Vietnamese Student Union (VSU). I did try other clubs as well, but there were two events that affected me and made me more involved with VSU. The first was the Vietnamese Culture Night, where they enacted a story about Trọng Thủy and Mỵ Châu, star-crossed lovers. That was more of a personal interest in hearing Vietnamese folktales for the first time. But the second event was their Black April Commemoration. We held a candlelight vigil to commemorate the struggle and sacrifice of many of our family members, as well as those who did not survive, to escape the Vietnamese government’s brutal Communist regime.

In high school, the only stories I ever knew about Vietnamese people were ones involving my family. The other Vietnamese were simply “fobs”, and I shut myself out from their stories. But after Black April, I confronted the realization that the Vietnam War was a huge tragedy for us all.

Since then, I have sought to understand how families are affected by the legacy of the Vietnam War. I came across a beautiful poet when I organized a national Vietnamese American student conference, uNAVSA, at San Jose State University, 2006. Her name is Jennii Le, and she performed a piece, I Am Not Vietnamese, which sent chills all over my body when I heard it.

I remember crying after seeing the short film by Ham Tran, Ngày Giỗ, or The Anniversary. It resonated with me on several levels. First, I cried because it was brother pit against brother during the Vietnam War. But it reminded me of the verbal/emotional abuse I incited on my brother. And it also reminded me of the standoff I had between myself and “fobs”. In a way, I am like the monk in the film who spends the rest of his life repenting for the suffering he caused to others and to himself.

Last year I randomly bumped into one of the “dangerous fobs” I mentioned earlier from high school. He was selling shoes at a mall, trying to make ends meet to raise his three kids along with his wife. I was really happy to meet him. I don’t think there’s any point in telling him about what I thought about him in high school, but the reason why I’m so involved in Vietnamese community organizing, the reason why I smiled when I met him, was because I felt like he and I were both Vietnamese, as if I could call him my brother and not be bothered by it, because I knew our history. We may have ended up in different paths in life, but I could have been him. I could have been him. In a sense, we’re cut differently from the same cloth.

And so, cousin, if there’s anything I want you to remember, is that passing Vietnamese traditions and customs onto your children is nice, but not nearly as important as teaching them how to love another Vietnamese person like a brother or sister.