Postpartum (Food) Delivery in Oakland Chinatown
Wish this food service was available in other major centres, would be so popular with new mums who want to be treated to the benefits of Asian healing foods.
Allan Liu and his family started the company in recent months to cater (literally) to the booming younger generation who are having babies left and right, it seems. They are employing Allan’s mother, the “Liu Mama” of the company’s namesake, to cook everything, plus two additional kitchen staffers. They’ve rented out the Oakland Asian Cultural Center’s commercial kitchen, centrally located in Oakland’s Chinatown.
For 30 days after giving birth, they deliver healthful meals (beginning with hospital deliveries if the births are in hospitals) to the new mother’s doorsteps .
Sources: Hyphen Magazine, Liu Mama
The Conrad Hotels Campaign: The Luxury of Being Smug
Let me describe the image of a recent Conrad Hotels print ad campaign I came across in The Atlantic: Two stocky, grey-haired, and shabbily dressed Asian ladies chopping a pile of fish in what looks to be a murky Hong Kong street market, while standing next to them are two young Caucasian models — bowls of noodles in hand — who looked inexplicably pleased … with themselves. The copy reads: “The Luxury of Being Yourself.”
What exactly does this ad tell me about luxury? As far as I can tell, it’s that well-dressed white people can instantly grasp that elusive “luxury” when placed in an environment that makes their physical features and designer clothes stand out. And what kind of “Being Yourself” activity is portrayed? Noodle eating, in a rather blasé manner?
What do you think of this ad? Offensive or harmless?
My Summer at an Indian Call Center
Lessons learned: Americans are hotheads, Australians are drunks—and never say where you’re calling from.
How I was treated on the subway when I was doing fieldwork as a migrant worker
Tricia Wang is doing ethnographic research in China and here’s an excerpt of her story when she rode the subway dressed as a migrant worker.
When we sat down on the empty seat, I accidentally lightly brushed my backpack against the man sitting to my left. I immediately apologized. But he didn’t respond, he just looked alarmed that I had touched him and gave me a glaring look that told me immediately that I shouldn’t even be sitting near him. He wiped off the part of his arm that my bag had brushed as if I had dumped dirt on his suit.
His action alone made me super conscious of my physical condition - the dirt on my toes, my oily face, and my blackened clothing from working with food vendors. I hadn’t showered in two days and that’s all I kept thinking after he looked at me. I glanced around around and saw people staring at us. I immediately made a boundary in my head and called them “city people.” As Yang Jie kept talking, I kept noticing the “city people” in their daily showered bodies, freshly washed clothing, and dirt-free toes.
I then received a text message so I pulled my phone out. I immediately noticed the man next to me look at me curiously - he saw that I not only had a smartphone, but probably what looked like a real iphone (it is a real iphone). I texted back to my friend in English, and this is when he became super aware that something was off - it’s hard to explain the look on his face, but he just kept looking over my shoulder as if his eyeballs were going to pop out. He then looked at Yang Jie up and down and then at me up and down.It angered me that I could feel his judgement seeping onto me, and I could feel that the minute he saw me texting in English his level of disdain at me decrease. Texting in English in combination with owning an iphone are signifiers of an education and he picked up on it immediately.
I saw the man’s face change when he saw me pull my iphone; so the big contrast between how I was dressed and the technology that I owned was something that didn’t make sense to him within this context.
I tried to imagine how would I see the world if I experienced this every single time I got on the train. Would I become bitter, would I form over-arching categories about “city” people so that I could make sense of how I was treated, would I essentialize anyone who looked like they were well dressed or showered?
Source: Bytes of China
So excited about Bollywood’s IIFA Awards
I got inspired by Ms. Kitty’s Manish Malhotra post.
Yet I am really conflicted because of the contrast with Kim Longinotto’s Pink Saris.
(Source: picasaweb.google.com)
Mulan the Amazon vs Yarnbombed Paper Tiger
Fight Choreography, Art Direction & Photography by KahoKarl
Children of immigrants couldn't define Canadian identity
Second-generation Canadians are both optimistic and critical of the entire concept of multiculturalism in Canada, he said. They believe integrating and learning from each other could be a hugely positive experience that too often turns into immigrant communities living in “silos” side by side -and they blame their immigrant parents, not the rest of society, for that.
“One of the myths that’s very much alive in Canada is that the United States is worse on every score,” he said. “The idea that we live in a mosaic and they live in a melting pot -in spite of the fact that it’s not true as far as the evidence shows -that’s certainly believed by a lot of people.”
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Being of Chinese ancestry poses unique challenges for American ambassador to China
The challenges that Locke faces resonate with many minority groups - being misunderstood by both sides about cultural or social affinity.
Will Gary Locke Be an Effective Ambassador to China?
The Chinese officials may presume Locke to possess certain cultural empathy and can pick up the nuances and innuendoes that a white person cannot, and they would expect Locke to be more sympathetic to the Chinese points of view.
Locke also risks being challenged by select members of Congress and other Americans on occasions when they are having xenophobic fits. They might ask him whose side he’s on, a question that would never be asked if Locke were white.
Source: New America Media
![Cultural Stereotypes Through the Lens of Google Search [Screenshots]
Source: Voxy](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj97veAWCW1qho4guo1_r1_500.png)
Can a White Man Speak With Authority on Diversity?
My point is that it is not skin color, gender or orientation that makes one “good at” managing diversity but mindset.
This mindset for majority-culture people requires an epiphany or an evolution in thinking that brings one to understand the extent of the discrimination around all of us that is perpetrated mostly by the majority culture.
Anyone can become “authoritative” about diversity. Nobody comes to the table that way.
We must all come to the realization that, as a reader put it nicely, “I am not different than you, I am different like you.”
Source: DiversityInc
The Diversity Paradox
This is one of the many paradoxes of the gentrification generation - the “coolest” places in our cities, the most “authentic”, tend to be white and middle class, while the “cheesiest” and most touristy are far more diverse.
As hipsters, the most self-aware generation ever, with generally pro-integrationist politics, we are acutely aware of this fact, and I would argue it is at the root of some of our collective ennui.
Source: Sustainable Cities Collective
Blinded by the White: Social Media and Diversity
If social media is going to be a public “face” of organizations, and drive kinship with the populace, we have to do more than rely on a bunch of 30 year-old White people to do so.
Source: Convince & Convert
