Author: John

Asian soups (other than ramen & pho)

Post author By John
Post date April 3, 2016

Pho Oregon #27: Hu Tieu My Tho $8.50. Clear noodles with large shrimp, barbecue pork, pork liver, quail egg, and fish balls. Bean sprouts on side plate. A varied mix of meat, veggies, and seafood — clear noodles underneath. Very clean tastes. Nicer decor than most Asian Restaurants.

2016-04-Pho-Oregon

Chiang Mai #30 Kuay Tiew Palo Moo $11.50. Choice of noodles with slow-cooked pork and pork belly, deep-fried tofu, Chinese broccoli, boiled egg, bean sprouts, Chinese brocolli and green onion served in a house special aromatic herbal soup. This dish had woon sen (clear) noodles. Liked the broth. Chiang Mai is northern style Thai.

2016-04-Kuay Tiew Palo Moo

Chinese American

Chinese American History is American History

Post author By John
Post date April 2, 2016

Frank H. Wu Distinguished Professor, UC Hastings College of the Law

Photo by Jeff Lee

“They were there at the beginning,” Jennifer Fang told me. “Chinese Americans were an integral part of the founding of Portland,” she continued.

Historian Fang said that was the most striking realization she came to as the associate curator for a new exhibit at the Oregon Historical Society. It is the local companion to a national show on Chinese immigrants (for which I did a tiny bit of work).

“It is the story of an ethnic group,” she acknowledged. “But it turns out to be much more than that.”

The secret is hidden in the open. People, Asian Americans being no exception, take Asian immigration to be a new phenomenon, enabled by the 1965 legislative reforms that finally eliminated the last vestiges of flagrant racial restrictions on entry. Yet the record of Asian Americans extends back over a century. Well before “PDX” became the hip destination where twenty-somethings “retire,” Chinese Americans were residents, even if they were neither called “Chinese Americans” nor regarded as permanent.

In fact, Portland has had two Chinatowns. The original burned down. It had been inhabited primarily by bachelors, in an era when male laborers were recruited and policies were intended to prevent any population from burgeoning. After it was incinerated, it was replaced over time by settlement only a few blocks away.

The “New Chinatown” in due course became the second-largest in the nation (behind only San Francisco in size). The descendants of the Chinese immigrants from the nineteenth century can still be found in the region. They have dispersed from the blocks that delimited their ancestors.

According to the definitive history of the two neighborhoods, Marie Rose Wong’s Sweet Cakes, Long Journey: The Chinatowns of Portland, the Chinese influx to Portland was so significant that the records for some years list the group as number two after German immigrants; in a few outlying counties during the nineteenth century, the Chinese were the most abundant among the many new arrivals searching for gold.

In the debate over the state constitution, however, Wong indicates “the finished document made little distinction between ‘Chinamen’ and ‘Negroes.’”

All the same, Wong reports that the Chinese settlers were not contained by Chinatown. It was a district, not a ghetto, because of the interactions between Asians and Anglos, the wealth accumulated by some of the former, and the lack of violence from the latter. Chinese Americans commanded respect as they did not elsewhere.

The primary curator of the exhibit, Jackie Peterson-Loomis, explained that Portland has not always been progressive. She recounted how even Greek immigrants were not accepted as fully, equally white.

In such a context, the Portland Chinese Americans demonstrated extraordinary resilience as a community and as individuals. Several panels on display present biographies that are remarkable. They attest to accomplishments that would be impressive today and were unique for their time.

The first American flying ace in World War II, credited with shooting down multiple enemy planes, was Major Arthur Chin. A native of Portland, he was motivated to support his father’s China in the battle against imperial Japan. His lineage, furthermore, is distinctly American: his mother apparently was from Peru. Hazel Ying Lee of Portland was among the female military aviators during the conflict. She died while on duty, in an airfield collision.

The first woman of color selected as the Rose Princess beauty queen was Ruth Fong, in 1946. In a photograph that through a single image tells a story of bridge building, she is being congratulated by Edwin C. Berry, the head of the Urban League, the organization dedicated to African American economic empowerment.

Chinatown has receded into antiquity. It can no longer be discerned as a distinct area. There is a traditional gate, marking a derelict territory. Although the landmark restaurant, Hung Far Low, is boarded up, its colorful sign has been restored,

The Oregon museum has preserved the Chinatown spirit. It deserves to attract a wide audience for its inclusive choice of subject matter, and it has succeeded in drawing in the requisite crowds.

Our past is our future. As our ideals are realized, the documentation of our progress allows us to understand what remains as a problem. Reviewing the challenges that people who came before us faced is humbling, because it reminds us of how they made it possible for us to follow.

Follow Frank H. Wu on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frankhwu

Source of article

Chinese American

“A Journey to Unforgetting”, Amy Chin

Post author By John
Post date March 26, 2016

Amy Chin gave an informative two hour talk at the OHS Genealogy Seminar on March 26. Her family was featured in the NYC Exhibition. She is an engaging speaker, and drew material from the comprehensive classroom study material: [large PDF file] (which includes the graphic novel of her family’s immigration experience).

She screened this video of about her family history: [click here]

Some notes:

One reason for the Revolutionary War (1775–1783) was to allow direct trade with China. As a colony, Americans were not allow to trade directly, but were required to purchase product (porcelain, silk, and tea) from English traders. The Boston Tea Party was about Chinese tea.

California was barren until Chinese workers transformed major areas of the state into agricultural land. Bing cherry was created by a Chinese, Ah Bing, in Oregon. Lue Gim Gong is credited with creating frost resistant oranges in Florida, and allowing hearty, juicy oranges to be transported around the country.

During the Exclusion Period, two Chinese lawsuits reached the Supreme Court and established milestone legal precedents: the Yick Wo case in 1886 established “Equal Protection Under Law”, and the Wong Kim Ark case established “Birthright Citizenship” (which is in the news today).

Amy also talked about her own genealogy search that started with searching information about her father and grandfather, and ended up with a 700+ page, 23 generation book from her grandfather’s village. The last lines in the book had her grandfather’s and father’s name. Since then, she has helped them add an American branch to the book; and include names of female descendants to what had been traditionally a patriarchal and patrilineal book. She advises the audience (mostly Chinese Americans) to make use of the “Overseas Chinese Affairs Office” in Taishan if traveling there.

She also mentioned that villages had a “generational poem”, where each subsequent character in the poem would render a middle name to each son of a particular generation. These common names help trace family and village connections.

She offered Chinese Americans tips on tracing their ancestral roots. A good place to start is requesting an “index search” (Form G-1041) here: http://www.uscis.gov/genealogy

Chinese American

Chinese Genealogy Seminar

Post author By John
Post date March 26, 2016

Oregon Historical Society: Chinese Genealogy Seminar
Presented by Amy Chin, Trish Hackett Nicola, and Hannah Z. Allan,
$40 / $25 for Members
Saturday, March 26, 2016 10AM – 3PM

A Journey to Unforgetting: Finding Chinese American Roots
By Amy Chin | 10am – 12pm

For decades, Amy Chin’s family carefully saved records, objects, and other personal artifacts. Part of her family’s story is recreated in a 12-panel graphic novel inside the Chinese American Exclusion/Inclusion exhibit now on view at the Oregon Historical Society. In piecing it together for the exhibition, Amy delved deeply into government archives and other repositories in the U.S. and China to find out more about her family’s past (going back nearly 5,000 years). Amy will talk about that research, the journey, and some of the secrets uncovered along the way. She will also provide an overview and reveal tips and tricks to researching Chinese American genealogy.

Bio: Amy Chin is an arts management consultant working with non-profit companies, government agencies, foundations, and individual artists. She has been researching Chinese American history and genealogy since childhood and beginning in 2011, in addition to her own research, has provided select genealogy consultation services to private clients. Amy holds a B.A. in East Asian studies from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Break | 12pm – 1pm

Chinese Exclusion Act Files: A Treasure Trove of Original Documents and Information
By Trish Hackett Nicola | 1pm – 2:30pm

Thousands of lives were impacted by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. In this talk, Trish Hackett Nicola will discuss why the Act was created, as well as the many records that were created as a result, as well as how to find these records. Many of these records contain photographs, Chinese village maps, U.S. birth and marriage certificates, witness affidavits, court documents, and pages of interrogations. See examples of the unique documents that can be uncovered in these files, and learn about the rich details of the lives of Chinese in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Bio: Trish Hackett Nicola is a volunteer at the National Archives – Seattle and has worked with the Chinese Exclusion Act case files for fourteen years. She is a retired CPA and librarian and is a Certified Genealogist. Though she is semi-retired, she is still actively working with the Chinese records.

Chinese and Genealogy Resources at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library
By Hannah Z. Allan | 2:30pm – 3pm

The Oregon Historical Society Research Library has a wealth of resources including newspapers, business papers, books, and photographs that can help you fill in the gaps to your ancestors’ histories. In the final segment of the seminar, learn how to access these historical treasures and use them to enrich and expand your story.

Bio: Hannah Z. Allan, a BYU Family History and Genealogy graduate, is the genealogist for the Oregon Historical Society and a popular family history speaker who has spoken at venues across the nation. She is the Vice Chair for the Portland Metro Cemetery Advisory Committee and the Director for the BYU myFamily History Youth Camp.

China

Chinese Films: a curated list

Post author By John
Post date March 24, 2016
1 Comment on Chinese Films: a curated list

Curated by Katherine Chu and Kaitlin Solimine from a course taught by USC Professor Stan Rosen.

University of Southern California Professor Stan Rosen is a specialist on Chinese film. He has shared some of his introductory required viewings and readings for students of Chinese cinema. This list includes the more mainstream Chinese productions as well as those from the Chinese “underground” (a term scholar Paul Pickowicz explains in From Underground to Independent: Alternative Film Culture in Contemporary China).

Consider this list a jumping off point into a much deeper engagement with the diversity and complexities of historical and contemporary Chinese film. These films bring the individual and national problems that China faced to the fore—doing so in dramatic, comedic, romantic, and, as always, poignant ways.

Pre-1949 China on Film

Recommended Readings:

Mao Dun, “The Lin Family Shop” (short story from 1931)
Gray and Cavandish, Chinese Communism in Crisis

The Mao Years (Post-1949) and The Cultural Revolution

“Hibiscus Town” (1986) [Fourth Generation Representative Film by Xie Jin]
“The Blue Kite” (1993) [Fifth Generation Representative Film by Tian Zhuangzhuang]
“Farewell My Concubine” (1993) [Fifth Generation Representative Film by Chen Kaige]
“To Live” (1994) [Fifth Generation Representative Film by Zhang Yimou]
“The Red Lantern” (1970) [Revolutionary Model Opera]
“Serfs” (1963) [Chinese view of the Liberation of Tibet]

Recommended Readings:

“Yiman Wang, Crows and Sparrows,” in Chris Berry, Chinese Films in Focus
Ying Zhu and Stanley Rosen, Art, Politics and Commerce in Chinese Cinema
Chris Berry, editor, Perspectives on Chinese Cinema
Paul G. Pickowicz, “Melodramatic Representation and the ‘May Fourth’Tradition of Chinese Cinema,” in Ellen Widmer and David Der-wei Wang, From May Fourth to June Fourth: Fiction and Film in Twentieth Century China
Chen Kaige, “Breaking the Circle: The Cinema and Cultural Change in China,” Cineaste, Vol. 11, No. 3, 1990
Hubert Niogret, Interview with Zhang Yimou (on “To Live”), in Gateward, ed.,Zhang Yimou Interviews

China under Reform, including negative consequences of the post-1978 reforms:

“A Touch of Sin” (2013)
“Blind Shaft” (2003)
“Suzhou River” (1999)
“The Troubleshooters” (1989)
“Back to Back, Face to Face” (1994)
“Ermo” (1994)
“Women from the Lake of Scented Souls” (1993)
“Railroad of Hope” (Documentary on rural women migrant workers, 2001) {Shown at international film festivals, not in China}
“Meishi Street” (2008) (documentary on resettlement before the 2008 Beijing Olympics)
“The Story of Qiu Ju” (1993)
“The Forest Ranger” (2006)
“Still Life” (2007)
“Platform” (2000)
“The World” (2004)
“Shower” (2000)
“Not One Less” (1999)
“East Palace, West Palace” (1998)
“Beijing Bicycle” (2001)
“Brilliance in Europe” {点亮欧洲} (2008)
“Oxhide” {牛皮} (2009)
“Spring Fever” (2009)
“Disorder” (2010), an interesting documentary on Guangdong life
“Tuya’s Marriage” {图雅的婚事} (2007)
“The Equation of Love and Death” {李米的猜想} (2008)
“Black Coal, Thin Ice” (2014, Winner, Berlin International Film Festival)

Recent Box Office Blockbusters

Recommended Readings:

Evan Osnos, “The Long Shot: Can China’s Archly Political Auteur Please the Censors and Himself – and Still Find an Audience?,” The New Yorker (2009)
Paul Pickowicz, “Popular Cinema and Political Thought in Post-Mao China: Reflections on Official Pronouncements, Film, and the Film Audience,” in Perry Link, Richard Madsen, and Paul G. Pickowicz, Unofficial China: Popular Culture and Thought in the People’s Republic
Cui Shuqin, “Working from the Margins: Urban Cinema and Independent Directors in Contemporary China,” Post Script, 20, Nos. 2-3, Spring & Summer, 2001
Stanley Rosen, ed. “’The Troubleshooters,’ by Wang Shuo,” Chinese Education and Society, Vol. 31, No. 1, January-February 1998 (this is a translation of the filmscript with an editorial introduction that compares the novel, the original screenplay and the final, released version of the film)
Zha Jianying, “Killing Chickens to Show the Monkey: Impressions of the Film Industry in China,” Sight and Sound, Vol. 5, No. 1 (January 1995)

Original source: [from Hippo]

Restaurants

Portland Dining Month 2016 — the best

Post author By John
Post date March 21, 2016

Portland Dining Month includes more than 120 restaurants offering three-course $29 meals in March. One might comb through the list, to find where $29 might yield an exceptional dining experience. Fortunately, Portland Monthly and The Oregonian have done that for us:

Portland Monthly Magazine’s top ten [here]

The Oregonian’s top fifteen [here]. This is hard to read!

Common to both lists are six: Aviary, Laurelhurst Market, Little Bird, Paley’s Place, St. Jack’s, and Xico. Not on either list, but one I visited and wrote about is the Japanese influenced Pono Farm Soul Kitchen.

My reviews Restaurants

Review: Pono Farm Soul Kitchen

Post author By John
Post date March 20, 2016

Unfortunately, Pono Farm Soul Kitchen is now closed.

Pono Farm Soul Kitchen, in Hollywood district, serves Japanese influence comfort food in manageable portions. Our group of six ordered the Portland Dining Month “3 Courses for $29” dinner [Dining Month Menu]

My first course, Kakuni (braised pork belly) was flavorful and so tender, that I could break it up into pieces and eat with my chopsticks. Each small piece was deliciously satisfying infused with a sweet soy flavor. It was served with half a soft-boiled egg, and apple/miner’s lettuce salad:

2016-pork-belly

The other appetizer selected was Tempura soft-shell crab, with shaved fennel salad, grapefruit, and orange vinaigrette. Ling says it was “nicely mixed flavors, crab was well cooked: tender under a crunchy not soggy crust, might have been nice to have the glaze as a dipping sauce rather than on the bottom of the bowl”:

2016-soft-shell

My main course, pork chop, was a bit dry, and the “pea & foie gras sauce” failed to elevate it into a memorable dish. It was served with garlic mashed potatoes and pea shoots:

2016 pork-chop

Note: others who ordered the Braised Black Cod served with bowl of steamed rice were much happier with their choice. The kumquat puree sauce was a great complement to the tender soy and sake braised cod:

2016-black-cod

The dessert: tropical fruits, pomegranate seeds, and yuzu cream over a sake jelly was another hit. It was not overly sweet. The six of us all enjoyed it. It was the only dessert option:

mde

7:30pm on a Saturday night was quite busy, and the bar was backlogged. The drinks arrived after the food. Despite the backlog, we had excellent service. The noisy acoustics was not the best for conversation, but we all enjoyed the evening.

My reviews Restaurants

Review: Marukin Ramen

Post author By John
Post date March 19, 2016

Marukin Ramen, a new restaurant with headquarters in Tokyo, opened in S.E. Portland a couple of weeks ago. They’re still going through their soft opening with limited menu selection, with Grand Opening on April 1, 2016. Xue and I visited them yesterday for lunch. We arrived at 11:40am, and were about fifth in line to order, with lots of available seating. By the time we left, the line was stretched long, and seating was becoming scarce. All ramen was $10.00 a bowl. Xue ordered the Miso, because it didn’t have shoyu listed in the soup base, and she wanted to skip the extra sodium. Broth: “Miso in chicken and Carlton Farms pork bones base”.

Marukin-miso

I ordered the Tokyo Shoyu. Broth: “Clear chicken and Carlton Farms pork bone broth base with shoyu”.

Marukin-tokyo

Xue was envious of the soft-center egg and two cuts of chashu pork. We sampled each other’s, and both prefer the clear Tokyo Shoyu broth. The spinach and menma (bamboo shoots) were fresh tasting. The egg has nice, runny yolk. The chashu was okay. I also ordered a side of chicken karaage for $8. The nuggets were crunchy on outside, and moist and tender inside with garlic added to the batter for taste.

A view from the entrance, as we left:

Marukin-entrance

I can see how Marukin wold work in Tokyo to get salaryman in and out quickly during a lunch break. No time to linger as efficient staff is there to whisk away your ramen bowl (even though you haven’t slurped the last drop of broth).

Bottom line: Good, but we prefer Mirakutei (around the block). We need to come back to try the Tonkotsu Shoyu (John) and Marukin Red (Xue – Tonkotsu made spicy). Probably after the Grand Opening. That may level the playing field.

Food Recipes

Recipe: Columbia River Steelhead Trout

Post author By John
Post date March 16, 2016

Columbia River steelhead trout is delicious. In Portland, you can get fresh (never frozen) filet from Safeway or Freddy’s. Baked it at 375 degrees for 15 minutes, with just sea salt, lemon pepper, and oil on top; and it is perfect. Delicious — moist, buttery, similar in taste to salmon, but more delicate. Certainly better than the sockeye salmon I had yesterday, which wasn’t bad. Easy to cook. Regular price at Safeway is $11.99/lb. and Freddy’s is $8.99; but both run sales at $5.99/lb.

2016-03-steelhead

My reviews Restaurants

Review: Yama Sushi (on S.E. Clinton)

Post author By John
Post date March 7, 2016
1 Comment on Review: Yama Sushi (on S.E. Clinton)

Xue and I went on Saturday night, and enjoyed it. I liked that we could make reservations on-line for prime time (7:15pm) on the same day. It has attractive decor; acoustics were good; the tables were not as squeezed as the Pearl location; and the staff busy but efficient. Since it was an izakawa, I thought I’d order the house hot sake, which was good. I was eager to try the hamachi collar, but alas, they were out; so I order the whole quail instead:

Thinking quail wasn’t going to be enough, I also order a salmon nigiri, and chawanmushi (Egg Custard w/ Shrimp, Crab, Shitake Mushroom, Chicken, Greens:

Xue ordered the Sunrise roll (salmon, spicy tuna, mango, avocado):

with cold spinach and sesame paste salad:

We finished with the coffee jelly & cream dessert, which was delicious:

For me, the highlight of the meal was the coffee jelly dessert, followed by the chawanmushi, with its delicate egg custard, crab, and shrimp. Too bad Yama was out of hamachi collar; the grilled quail was not a good substitute. But a reason for another visit.

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