Inspired by Chicken Satay
My grandparents talked about astrology during our last WeChat call, and all the affirmation I needed was that "you're very much an Aries" (白羊座) 😌 FYI I didn't even bring it up first; they were just analyzing my personality.
That's so interesting because 1. I don't know what Aries traits are, 2. I don't think my grandparents have ever heard about astrology, and 3. I once asked my mother what time of day I was born and she replied with "why" and I told her it was about astrology and then she went down a huge rabbit-hole looking at "saggitarius traits" and sent me 10 different screenshots
Prompt: if you were to talk with your grandparents, what's a topic you want to chat about that you never previously brought up?
My answer: literally anything that's not about school or work or small talk
Also, if you have local elections coming up, be sure to check out who's running and plan to vote!
Love,
💌 Jamie & Melinda
News
👩🏻⚖️ In late Sept, the Senate confirmed Florence Pan as the first Asian American woman to serve on the D.C. federal court! She had been nominated back in 2016 by Obama, she wasn't confirmed.
🔥 The City Council of San Jose, CA just passed a resolution apologizing for "an act of arson in 1887 that destroyed its Chinatown, devastating the city’s Chinese immigrant community." Other (white) residents back then had complained of Chinatown as a "public nuisance," and arsonists took action. As a result of the fire, >1,000 people were displaced, and no amends were made.
According to professor Yvonne Kwan, it was "common for white people to use fire against Chinese communities along the West Coast" (e.g. in Monterrey, Santa Cuz, San Francisco, and Antioch).
👯♂️ Bretman Rock (a Filipino American beauty influencer) becomes the first openly gay man to appear on the cover of Playboy Magazine!! Just WOW. I think Bretman is SO funny lmaooooo
🌟 Time named its 100 most influential people of 2021! Some include: Mimi Aung, Mamata Banerjee, Cathy Park Hong, Jensen Huang, Adi Utarini, Sunisa Lee, Naomi Osaka, and the founders of Stop AAPI Hate: Manjusha P. Kulkarni, Russell Jeung, and Cynthia Choi.
📜 Many AAPI orgs (including AAPI Women Lead, Asian American Feminist Collective, and more) signed a joint statement in support of Haitian and Black Immigrants, saying, "As Asian American and immigrant communities, we recognize the many complex drivers of migration. Many of us are here due to war, colonization, imperialism, poverty, and unsafe conditions in our nations of origin.
We recognize the U.S. immigration system is rooted in white supremacy, benefits immigrants with wealth and education, and targets low-income immigrants who too often are migrating for survival." Read the full statement here!
Chef's Specials
🤔 Ok this piece makes me react viscerally when I read it. "'Men's Rights Asians' Think This Is Their Moment". Longer piece to come in reaction to this, but give it a read please.
👗 There's a sneak peek of season 2 of "Bridgerton" (which I still have to watch)—and we see the Sharma family! Shouting out main actress Simone Ashley, who's Kate Sharma, because she did a great job in "Sex Education" (season 3 just came out, and I highly recommend this series!)
💭 This NYT article "The Myth of Asian American Identity" is a longer narrative piece on the fractured experiences of defining and figuring out the meaning of "Asian American" in a fractured community. Many of the themes here echoed our thoughts. If you read it, we're curious to know what you think... Email us or leave a comment
🇮🇩 Oct. 2 was Batik day! UNESCO designated Indonesian batik (a traditional fabric) as a "Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity" back in 2009. It's beautiful :') see below (source: Batik Museum Institute).
🍭 This is simply not worth anyones time, but figured we'd throw in because of a very tenuous connection (Larson is Asian American) and the fact that I just find it funny. If anyone was interested in the NYT kidney donation drama, here's an easy explainer.
I could not find moon cakes in an H Mart : (
Hello friends. Two weeks ago, I was desperately looking for moon cakes in preparation for a brunch (but also because I really wanted some and could not find). Walked all over (except to Chinatown because it was far), and was sadly defeated in my endeavors. Ended up getting mochi instead - which is nice - but did not hit the spot like I was hoping. So, in light of that.... both of us will have to settle with this video of the significance of the Mid Autumn Festival
Also, embarrassing, but I thought the Mid Autumn festival was the thing to do with that scholar who drowned in the river and the people threw in zong zhi to keep the fish from eating his body. (spoiler, different holiday).
mom, if you're reading this, don't worry, i bought moon cake and looked at the moon and went to a mooncake gathering :)
Small Feelings
I saw Japanese Breakfast last Monday, first concert since pre-COVID!! Her opener was Luna Li, whom I loved to, like isn't this instrumental amazing. Spontaneous, but I saw MIYAVI (Japanese rock artist) this week too... which was also very enjoyable. Dw, both venues required vaxx cards, and everyone kept masks on.
Also no I have not watched Squid Game... I've been too busy 😕
I AM TIRED because work these past two days suddenly got busy! Who is Emily Mariko? Also I too have not watched Squid Game. Not for the same reason though - I just think it will stress me tf out.
✨ S P O T L I G H T ✨
MiMi Aung
Source: Popular Science
MiMi Aung was just named one of Time's most influential people of 2021 under the "Innovators" category, so I had to look into her. I hadn't heard of her before! She's a Burmese American engineer and project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She is the lead engineer on the Mars Helicopter, Ingenuity. 🚁
Although she was born in Illinois in 1968, MiMi spent most of her childhood in Myanmar and Malaysia. She returned to the U.S. at the age of 16. (For context, Burmese is a "Sino-Tibetan language spoken in Myanmar, which was also known as Burma. The ethnic group native to Myanmar is known as the Bamar or Burman people.)
MiMi studied electronic engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Campaign. It's where her parents had gone to school as well! Her mom was literally the first woman from Myanmar to get a doctoral degree in mathematics... her dad got his PhD in chemistry.
Fast forward, she's the lead engineer of the Ingenuity, a "small robotic helicopter operating on Mars as part of NASA's Mars 2020 mission." On April 19, 2021, it completed the first powered controlled flight by an aircraft outside of Earth. 🪐 MiMi later briefed Joe Biden about the flight!
Although I have weird feelings about exploring Mars while there are so many issues on Earth, I can't help me in awe of the literal rocket science she is doing and all the obstacles she overcame to get to where she is. Also, I'm jelly that her name is MiMi (which is the name of Hello Kitty's sister's lol).
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