Asian Pacific Heritage ABC's of Those Changing my Worldviews.. To Celebrate May and the Richness of American Diversity

I ALMOST forgot to create my ABC of Asian Pacific Americans ( and some non-Americans that I just feel strongly about...with many missing...to be edited a ton over this weekend ) that made my life and learning richer...

Let's CELEBRATE THIS MONTH OF Asian Pacific Heritage
............great children's book list here......
............Awesome map of Asian Immigration to US here........For Teachers...............lesson plans and resources that looked wonderful...
here.....here....here....here.....here.....here....here......here....here...here....

Wow!May is Asian Pacific Heritage Month here in America and in my classroom combined with key pieces of literature, I've been celebrating this month. If you want to know a little bit about it here's what I know...and this is straight from Fact Monster..

May is Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month—a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. APA Heritage Month originated in a congressional bill.

Congressional Bills Establish Celebration

In June 1977, Representatives Frank Horton of New York and Norman Y. Mineta of California introduced a House resolution that called upon the president to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian/Pacific Heritage Week. The following month, senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both were passed.

On October 5, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual celebration.

APA Becomes Month-long Celebration

In May 1990, the holiday was expanded further when President George H. W. Bush designated May to be Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month is celebrated with community festivals, government-sponsored activities, and educational activities for students. This year's theme is "Freedom for All—A Nation We Call Our Own."

So now I'm going to construct the list. Just to be fair I try and select individuals that just ....made a huge difference in my life awarenesses..the bios mostly helped by Fact Monster..not entirely...Wiki...Scholastic....Houghton Mifflin...I get around...

A is for

Ai

Florence Anthony
poet
Birthplace: Albany, Texas
Born: 1947
Self-described as “¹/2 Japanese, ¹/8 Choctaw, ¹/4 Black, and ¹/16 Irish,” Ai grew up in Tucson, Arizona. Her poetry is often in the form of dramatic monologues (none her own), and deal unflinchingly with gritty subjects such as child abuse. Often her characters are historical figures such as Jimmy Hoffa, J. Edgar Hoover, and Marilyn Monroe. She legally changed her name to “Ai,” a Japanese word that means “love.” She is the author of several books of poetry, including Vice, which won the National Book Award for Poetry in 1999, Dread (2003), Sin (1986), Killing Floor (1979), and her first book, Cruelty (1973).
© 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Personal note, these poems........ very hard....rough...hurt...suffer...pain...poverty...hunger. They certainly validate to me the edges I've worked with teaching in poverty these last 25 years and are a place of direct honesty, you might want to check this poet out, here's an excerpt:

From Vice, a poem named Abortion:

"Woman, loving you no matter what you do,
What can I say, except I've heard
The poor have no children, just small peopleAnd their is room for only one man in this house."

Aung San Suu Kyi

(not American but a breath of inspiration to this American)

Aung San Suu Kyi (oung sän sOO chē) [key], 1945–, Burmese political leader. The daughter of assassinated (1947) nationalist general U Aung San, who is regarded as the founder of modern Myanmar, she lived outside the country after 1960. Returning in 1988 to care for her dying mother, she joined the opposition to U Ne Win and became leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD). Her outspoken criticism of the military leaders of Myanmar and the memory of her father made her a symbol of popular desire for political freedom and a focus of opposition to the dictatorship. In July, 1989, she was placed under house arrest. The NLD won 80% of the seats in 1990 elections for parliament, but the military refused to yield power. Awarded the 1990 Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament and the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent struggle, she remained under house arrest until 1995 and was subsequently subject to severe restrictions. Nonetheless, she has stayed in Myanmar, continuing to write and speak for her cause. She subsequently has been placed in house arrest or detention from Sept., 2000, to May, 2002, and since May, 2003.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

B is for

Carlos Bulosan

writer
Born: 11/2/1911
Birthplace: Pangasinan, Philippines
One of the earliest and most influential of Asian American writers, Bulosan emigrated from the Philippines in 1931. In the U.S., he worked in an Alaskan fish cannery and as a fruit and vegetable picker in Washington and California, and eventually became an activist in the labor movement. The horrendous conditions of Filipino laborers were fictionalized in his most famous work, America Is in the Heart (1946). Excerpts of his 1944 book, Laughter of My Father, were published in The New Yorker and Harper's Bazaar. Bulosan was commissioned by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1945 to write “Four Freedoms,” an essay for the Federal Building in San Francisco. Because of his radical activism, Bulosan was blacklisted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the anti-Communist movement of the 1950s. His other books include the poetry collections Letter from America (1942), Chorus from America (1942), and The Voice of Bataan (1943), as well as the novels The Cry and the Dedication (written in the 1950s and published posthumously in 1995) and The Sound of Falling Light (1960).
Died: 9/11/1956
Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

I put this because of her extraordinary contribution to early 20th century awarenesses of Asia , my great aunt a missionary in China too...but click out to read her life...fascinating. Another sign of good WVa my home state....
Pearl Buck

Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker was born on June 26, 1892, in Hillsboro, West Virginia. Her parents, Absalom and Caroline Sydenstricker, were Southern Presbyterian missionaries, stationed in China. MORE..click here....

C is for

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

astrophysicist
Born: 10/19/1910
Birthplace: Lahore, India (now Pakistan)

Chandrasekhar was one of ten children born to a civil servant and an intellectual mother who translated Ibsen's A Doll House into Tamil. He earned a B.S. in physics at Presidency College, Madras, then went on to earn advanced degrees at Cambridge University, and a Prize Fellowship at Trinity College. In 1937 he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago. There he delved into such astrophysical subjects as stellar structure, the theory of white dwarf stars, and the mathematical theory of black holes. Chandrasekhar shared the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physics “for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars.” NASA renamed the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility for him: the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, which helps astronomers better understand the structure and evolution of the universe.

Died: 1995

My father had a great deal of respect for his work...and now my daughter carries on our awarenesses. Read the bio by clicking on his name. It's an incredible life.

Sook Nyul Choi

From the days of her childhood, Sook Nyul Choi wanted to be a writer. The first stories, poems, and articles she wrote were in Korean, her first language. Later, after teaching for many years in New York City schools, she began to write in English.

Sook Nyul Choi writes both for children and for young adults. Her own experiences in Korea help to shape her books. One of her main goals is to help young Americans learn about the culture and history of Korea.

---

Today, Sook Nyul Choi is a full-time writer. She also visits schools to speak to students. Once, when a student wanted to know which of her books the author liked best, she said, "All of my books are very important to me. They are like fingers on a hand. I don't like one more than another."

---

Other Books Written by Sook Nyul Choi

• Halmoni and the Picnic
  (illustrated by Karen M. Dugan)
• The Best Older Sister
  (illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu)

Min Chueh Chang

Chinese–American biologist (1908–1991)

Chang, who was born in T'ai-yüan in China, was educated at the Tsinghua University in Peking, and at Cambridge, England, where he obtained his PhD in 1941. He emigrated to America in 1945 and joined the Worcester Foundation in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, where he subsequently remained. From 1961 he also served as professor of reproductive biology at Boston University.

Chang carried out a number of major research projects from which emerged not only greater understanding of the mechanisms of mammalian fertilization, but also such practical consequences as oral contraceptives and the transplantation of human ova fertilized in vitro (by Robert Edwards and Patrick Steptoe in 1978). In 1951, at the same time as Colin Austin, Chang discovered that a “period of time in the female tract is required for the spermatozoa to acquire their fertilizing capacity,” a phenomenon known later as capacitation. He further demonstrated, in 1957, that there is a decapacitation factor in the seminal fluid, which, although it can be removed by centrifugation, has resisted further attempts at identification.

Chang also made the important advance in 1959 of fertilizing rabbit eggs in vitro and transplanting them into a recipient doe. This was followed in 1964 by comparable work for the first time with rodents. It was also Chang who provided much of the experimental basis for Gregory Pincus's 1953 paper showing that injections of progesterone into rabbits could serve as a contraceptive by inhibiting ovulation.

D is For

Anita Desaiwriter
Born: 6/24/1937
Birthplace: India
Born to parents of Indian and German heritage, Desai grew up in New Delhi, India. She spoke German at home, and Urdu and Hindi to friends and neighbors. In school, she read and wrote in English. She received her B.A. in English literature from the University of Delhi. She has written more than a dozen adult and children's books, notably Fire on the Mountain (1977), for which she received the National Academy of Letters award in India, Clear Light of Day (1980), and The Village by the Sea (1983), which received the Guardian Prize for Children's fiction. Her novels In Custody (1984) and Baumgartner's Bombay (1988) exemplify her liberal ideas and interest in the outsider. Her 1999 novel Fasting, Feasting was the third of her works shortlisted for the Booker Prize. She lives in Massachusetts with her family and teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

E is for

Endo, Shusaku(also not American...and I'm looking for an e)

Endo, Shusaku (shusä'koo en'dō) [key], 1923–1996, one of the finest 20th-century Japanese novelists, b. Tokyo. Baptized a Roman Catholic at 11, he is often compared to Graham Greene for his deep concern with religion and moral behavior. Endo studied French literature at the Univ. of Lyon from 1950 to 1953, when he returned to Japan and began publishing novels and stories. Sometimes dealing with the historical past and sometimes with the modern world, his complex fiction usually revolves about a series of contrasts: East and West, faith and faithlessness, tradition and modernity. Silence (1966, tr. 1969), which concerns the 17th-century martyrdom of a young Portuguese missionary in Japan, is among his best-known novels and is perhaps his most outstanding one. Among the prolific author's other novels are The Sea and Poison (1958, tr. 1972), Wonderful Fool (1959, tr. 1974), The Samurai (1980, tr. 1982), Scandal (1986, tr. 1988), and Deep River (1993, tr. 1994). Endo's translated short-story collections include Stained Glass Elegies (1985) and the posthumously published Five by Endo (2000). He also wrote studies of Jesus, essays, plays, and screenplays. A museum devoted to Endo's life and work, which was established in 1999, is located in Sotome, Japan.

See study by M. B. Williams (1999).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

F is for

Tak Fujimoto

cinematographer
Award-winning Japanese-American director of photography who is considered one of the most talented camera operators in Hollywood. His rise to the top was a long one. A graduate of the prestigious London Film School, Fujimoto first worked as an assistant to Haskell Wexler on television projects and then with Jonathan Demme on several B-pictures. He made his debut as full cinematographer on Badlands (1973). His other credits include The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Philadelphia (1993), The Sixth Sense (1999), Signs (2002), and the remake of The Manchurian Candidate (2004).
All of his work gives me nightmares for years. Whatever it is, it defines my issues.

Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

G is for

Lue Gim Gong

horticulturist
Born: 1860
Birthplace: Canton, China
Lue Gim Gong emigrated from China to San Francisco as a boy of 12. When he was 16 he moved to Massachusetts, where he took a job in a shoe factory. There he befriended Fannie Burlingame, a Sunday school teacher who taught the Chinese workers at the shoe factory. He moved in with the wealthy Burlingame family, tended their greenhouse, converted to Christianity, and gained his U.S. citizenship.
In 1885, Lue moved to Deland, Florida, where Fannie and her sister had bought land, and began to work in the orange groves. There he developed the extraordinary horticultural contributions that would earn him the title “citrus wizard.” The most famous of his creations was the “Lue Gim Gong orange.” These oranges would mature in August or September, ensuring that the fruit would not freeze and be ruined. It was an enormous advance for the citrus industry. In 1911, he was awarded the Silver Wilder Medal by the American Homological Society, the first time an award was given for a citrus product. He also developed a grapefruit that grew individually on the tree rather than in clusters, a strongly scented grapefruit, and a rosebush that produced seven varieties of roses.
Died: 1925

My Mom's family owned orange groves in Dade County and ran the Boardwalk Orange stands at Wildwood in summer. My father, in ag, was extremely well versed in citrus and did thesis writing related to oranges and hybridization.

Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

H is for

Thich Nhat Hanh

"Do not be idolatrous about or bound to any doctrine, theory, or ideology, even Buddhist ones. All systems of thought are guiding means; they are not absolute truth.

Do not think that the knowledge you presently possess is changeless, absolute truth. Avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. Learn and practice non-attachment from views in order to be open to receive others' viewpoints. Truth is found in life and not merely in conceptual knowledge. Be ready to learn throughout our entire life and to observe reality in yourself and in the world at all times.
Do not force others, including children, by any means whatsoever, to adopt your views, whether by authority, threat, money, propaganda, or even education. However, through compassionate dialogue, help others renounce fanaticism and narrowness.
Do not avoid contact with suffering or close your eyes before suffering. Do not lose awareness of the existence of suffering in the life of the world. find ways to be with those who are suffering by all means, including personal contact and visits, images, sound. By such means, awaken yourself and others to the reality of suffering in the world.
Do not accumulate wealth while millions are hungry. Do not take as the aim of you life fame, profit, wealth, or sensual pleasure. Live simply and share time, energy, and material resources with those who are in need.
Do not maintain anger or hatred. As soon as anger and hatred arise, practice the meditation on compassion in order to deeply understand the persons who have caused anger and hatred. Learn to look at other beings with the eyes of compassion.

-->
Do not lose yourself in dispersion and in your surroundings. Learn to practice breathing in order to regain composure of body and mind, to practice mindfulness, and to develop concentration and understanding.
Do not utter words that can create discord and cause the community to break. Make every effort to reconcile and resolve all conflicts, however small.
Do not say untruthful things for the sake of personal interest of to impress people. Do not utter words that cause diversion and hatred. Do not spread news that you do not know to be certain. Do not criticize or condemn things you are not sure of. Always speak truthfully and constructively. Have the courage to speak out about situations of injustice, even when doing so may threaten your own safety.
Do not use the Buddhist community for personal gain or profit, or transform your community into a political party. A religious community should, however, take a clear stand against oppression and injustice, and should strive to change the situation without engaging in partisan conflicts.
Do not live with a vocation that is harmful to humans and nature. Do not invest in companies that deprive others of their chance to life. Select a vocation which helps realize your ideal compassion.
Do not kill. Do not let others kill. Find whatever means possible to protect life and to prevent war.
Possess nothing that should belong to others. Respect the property of others but prevent others from enriching themselves from human suffering or the suffering of other beings.
Do not mistreat your body. Learn to handle it with respect. Do not look on your body as only and instrument. Preserve vital energies (sexual, breath, spirit) for the realization of the Way. Sexual expression should not happen without love and commitment. In sexual relationships be aware of future suffering that may be caused. To preserve the happiness of others, respect the rights and commitments of others. Be fully aware of the responsibility of bringing new lives into the world. Meditate on the world into which you are bringing new beings.
-->
Do not believe that I feel that I follow each and every of these precepts perfectly. I know I fail in many ways. None of us can fully fulfill any of these. However, I must work toward a goal. These are my goal. No words can replace practice, only practice can make the words.
"The finger pointing at the moon is not the moon."

Ha Jin

novelist, poet
Born: 1956
Birthplace: Liaoning Province, China
From the age of 14 until he was 20, Jin served in the People's Liberation Army in China. Upon release, he taught himself English working the night shift as a railroad telegrapher, and received his BA and MA from Chinese universities. In 1985, he moved to the United States to pursue graduate work in English at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He decided to remain in the U.S. after the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989. His first two books of fiction, Ocean of Words (1996) and Under the Red Flag (1997), came on the heels of his poetry collections Between Silences (1990) and Facing Shadows (1996). Ocean of Words received the PEN/Hemingway award. In 1988, he published a novella, In the Pond. His poignant novel Waiting (1999), the story of an army doctor in Communist China in the late 1960s, received the National Book Award and the PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction. His 2004 novel War Trash, about a Chinese soldier taken prisoner during the Korean War, earned him a second PEN/Faulkner prize in 2005. He is on the English faculty at Boston University.
Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

David Ho

AIDS researcher
Born: 11/3/1952
Birthplace: Taichung, Taiwan
When David Ho was three years old his father traveled to America in search of a better life for his family. He was away for nine years, until he was finally able to send for his family. Knowing no English, David concentrated on his schoolwork and success. He went to M.I.T. for one year and earned his B.S. in physics from Caltech, but was soon attracted to molecular biology and the cutting-edge technology of gene splicing. He went on to the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology. The AIDS epidemic beckoned as a challenge and he began studying the virus at Massachusetts General Hospital and UCLA School of Medicine. Realizing that AIDS was an infectious disease and that HIV multiplies many times right from the start, Ho and his team administered a combination of protease-inhibitor and antiviral drug “cocktails” to early-stage AIDS patients with dramatic results. For his inroads into the vicious disease, Ho was named Time's 1996 Man of the Year. Ho continues his work at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center.

Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Michio Hoshino

Michio Hoshino visited Alaska from his native Japan when he was a teenager. He stayed for three months. Hoshino returned to Japan to attend college, but after he finished his degree, he went back to Alaska, this time for good. Realizing that he needed a way to earn a living, he chose photography. Hoshino didn't know much about taking professional photographs, but he didn't let that bother him. "I taught myself, little by little," he said.

Throughout a rewarding and productive career, Hoshino trekked through wild places in every season and in all kinds of weather. Always, he looked for the right photograph, the perfect shot. Usually he got it. Once he spent a month on a glacier during the winter, trying to photograph the aurora borealis (bands of light sometimes visible in the northern night sky). The aurora appeared on only one night — but Hoshino was there to capture it on film. Such tireless enthusiasm led him to attain a level of art with his photographs. For this achievement, he received Japan's highest award for photography in 1990. Hoshino died in 1996.

---

Michio Hoshino did not regard animals as his only photographic subjects. A friend says, "He considered himself a photographer of the natural world, which to him included people interacting with their own environments. He wasn't strictly a wildlife photographer. His work was very much cultural as well."

---

• Grizzly
• Moose
• Nanook's Gift

Dr. Feng Shan Ho
Dr. Feng Shan Ho single-handedly saved thousands of Austrian Jews during the Holocaust. When Dr. Ho arrived in Vienna in 1937 as a Chinese diplomat, Austria had the third largest Jewish community in Europe. Just one year later, however, the Nazis took over Austria and began persecuting Jews. Although they tried to flee, Austrian Jews had nowhere to go because most of the world's nations would not accept Jewish refugees. Against all odds, many would survive thanks to Dr. Ho. As Chinese General Consul in Vienna, he went against his boss' orders and began issuing Jews visas to Shanghai, China. These lifesaving documents allowed thousands of Jews to leave Austria and escape death. After 40 years of diplomatic service that included ambassadorships to Egypt, Mexico, Bolivia, and Colombia, Dr. Ho retired to San Francisco, California. At age 89, he published his memoirs, "Forty Years of My Diplomatic Life." Dr. Ho died in 1997, an unknown hero of World War II.

Read Dr. Feng Shan's biography from the University of Minnesota Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies

From Scholastic

I is for

Michio Ito

dancer, choreographer
Born: 4/13/1892
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
Ito studied traditional dance in Japan before moving to Paris in 1911. At the beginning of the World War, he moved to Britain and became acquainted with Ezra Pound and William Butler Yeats. In 1915, Ito choreographed an interpretation of Yeats's “At the Hawk's Well.” The following year, he moved to the U.S. and choreographed Broadway revues and experimental dance pieces for the Washington Square Players and the Habima Players. During this period, Ito divided his time between New York and Hollywood, where he choreographed films such as Madame Butterfly (1933) and Booloo (1938). He was deported from the United States in 1941, and returned to Tokyo to establish a modern dance school.
Died: 11/6/1961

J is for

Norah Jones

Singer

Born: 30 March 1979

Birthplace: New York, New York

Best known as: Grammy-winning singer of "Don't Know Why"

Norah Jones's 2002 debut album Come Away With Me won eight Grammys, including album of the year, best new artist and best female pop vocal performance for Jones, and record of the year for the album's bluesy single, "Don't Know Why." Jones attended Dallas's Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts; later she earned a degree in jazz piano from musical hot spot the University of North Texas. She is the daughter of renowned Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and American Sue Jones. Her follow-up album, Feels Like Home, was released in February 2004. In 2005 she shared a Grammy with the late Ray Charles for the duet "Here We Go Again."

Extra credit: Norah Jones was born in New York but raised by her mother near Dallas, Texas... She rarely speaks about Shankar in public; according to a 2002 article in The Guardian, "She saw her father a few times a year until she was nine, and then not until she was 18"... Ravi Shankar was a favorite colleague of The Beatles, in particular of George Harrison.

Copyright © 1998-2006 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.

K is for

Kuniyoshi, Yasuo

Kuniyoshi, Yasuo (yäsOO-ō' koon"ēyō'shē) [key], 1892?–1953, American painter, b. Okayama, Japan. He came to the United States in 1906 and studied art in Los Angeles and at the Art Students League in New York City. He visited Europe in 1925 and in 1928. Kuniyoshi's work has been described as Asian in spirit but Western in technique, with an inclination toward somber color. His paintings, drawings, and prints are rich in symbolism and fantasy. They are best seen in the galleries of New York City. Kuniyoshi was long a popular teacher at the Art Students League.

See monograph by A. Imaizumi and L. Goodrich (1954).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

Michelle Kwan

Michelle Kwan and her older siblings, Ron and Karen, were the first members of her family to be born in the United States. Their parents, Danny and Estella Kwan, came to the U.S. from Hong Kong in the 1970s.

Kwan was inspired to become a world-class skater after watching Brian Boitano win a gold medal at the 1988 Winter Olympics. Just seven years old at the time, she thought, "Okay, tomorrow I'll go to the Olympics." She quickly learned that realizing her dream would take many years of hard work!

---

Michelle Kwan always wears a gold Chinese good-luck charm around her neck. The necklace was a gift from her grandmother.

Other Books Written by Michelle Kwan

• Michelle Kwan: My Book of Memories: A Photo Diary
• The Winning Attitude! Michelle Kwan Tells What It Takes to Be a Champion
  (with Julia Richardson)

L is for

Ang Lee

director, writer
Born: 10/23/1954
Birthplace: Pingtung, Taiwan
Ang Lee first gained fame for his second feature film The Wedding Banquet (1993), which was described as “a cross-cultural, gay Green Card, comedy of errors,” it became the first film from Taiwan to earn an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film. Next, he directed his first English-language feature film, the critically acclaimed Sense and Sensibility (1995) and followed that success with The Ice Storm (1997), also well received critically. In 1999 he did Ride With the Devil and returned to his native language in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, starring Yun-Fat Chow. In addition, Lee wrote the screenplay for Eat, Drink, Man, Woman (1994), which also received an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film. Brokeback Mountain (2005), based on an E. Annie Proulx story and starring Jack Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger, earned him an Oscar statuette.

Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Maya Lin, Architect / Artist

• Born: 5 October 1959
• Birthplace: Athens, Ohio
• Best Known As: Designer of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Name at birth: Maya Ying Lin
Maya Lin was still an undergraduate at Yale University when she won the national design competition for a Vietnam War veterans memorial to be built near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Amid controversy over her untraditional design (and, remarkably, complaints that it had been created by a young woman of Chinese descent), the memorial was completed in 1982. It became the most visited monument in Washington, D.C. Maya Lin has gone on to design other memorials, landscape sculptures and private residences.
The film Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision won the 1995 Oscar for best feature documentary.

Bruce Lee, Actor / Martial Artist

• Born: 27 November 1940
• Birthplace: San Francisco, California
• Died: 20 July 1973 (brain edema)
• Best Known As: Star of Enter the Dragon

Bruce Lee is the granddaddy of high-kicking, fist-fighting movie martial artists. He got his start in America as Kato, the sidekick in the jokey 1960's TV series The Green Hornet. Later he went to Hong Kong and more or less founded the institution of kung fu movies. Wiry and charismatic, Lee reached a pinnacle in 1973 with Enter The Dragon. His untimely death before the film's release helped make him an enduring cult figure. Other films include Way of the Dragon (1972), The Big Boss (1971) and Marlowe (1969, with James Garner).
The coroner ruled that Lee died of a brain edema (accumulation of fluid and swelling) caused by an abnormal reaction to painkillers he had been prescribed for back pain...

Liliuokalani

Royalty

Born: 2 September 1838

Died: 11 November 1917

Birthplace: Honolulu, Hawaii

Best known as: Last queen of the Hawaiian Islands

Name at birth: Lydia Paki Kamekeha Liliuokalani

Queen Liliuokalani was the Queen of the Hawaiian Islands from 1891 until 1893, when she was deposed by those who sought annexation to the United States. Born into Hawaii's royal family, Liliuokalani spoke fluent English and was well-educated. In 1887 she took a tour of England and attended Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, then met with President Grover Cleveland in Washington, D. C. Liliuokalani ascended to the throne upon the death of her brother, King Kalakaua, and set to work on establishing a new constitution that would strengthen native Hawaiian claims and weaken foreign commercial interests. In spite of support from President Cleveland, Liliuokalani lost her battle for control and was deposed by force. The monarchy was replaced by the Republic of Hawaii in 1894 and annexed to the U.S. in 1898.

Extra credit: Liliuokalani wrote more than 150 songs, including the famous "Aloha Oe."

Copyright © 1998-2006 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.

M is for

Bharati Mukherjee

writer
Born: 7/27/1940
Birthplace: Calcutta, India
Mukherjee was born to Indian parents and had learned to read and write by age 3. She earned a B.A from the University of Calcutta in 1959 and her M.A. in English and ancient Indian culture from the University of Baroda in 1961, then moved to the United States to attend the Iowa Writers' Workshop. From the University of Iowa she earned her M.F.A. in creative writing in 1963 and Ph.D. in English and comparative literature in 1969. She has also lived in England and Canada. Mukherjee's eloquent novels treat the subjects of assimilation, family, and the struggles of Indian women. Her first book, The Tiger's Daughter (1972), concerns a young woman who returns to India after many years, only to discover the nation's chaos and mistreatment of women. She has written more than a dozen books of fiction and nonfiction, including the acclaimed collection Leave It to Me (1997), and her recent novels, Desirable Daughters (2002) and its sequel, The Tree Bride (2004).

Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Midori

violinist
Born: 1971
Birthplace: Osaka, Japan
Midori's mother, Setsu Goto, began teaching her daughter the violin at age three. When she was 11 Zubin Mehta invited her to be guest soloist with the New York Philharmonic at its New Year's Eve concert. After the appearance, her career took off. She has received many honors including the Suntory Hall Award in her native Japan, and the National Arts Award from Americans for the Arts, in her adopted country. She has performed with most of the world's major symphony orchestras and with music's biggest names: Yo Yo Ma, Leonard Bernstein, Isaac Stern, among others. She started a foundation, Midori & Friends, to provide musical education and concerts to children in the United States and Japan. Midori completed a bachelor's degree in psychology and gender studies from New York University and earned a masters in psychology in 2005. Her younger brother, Ryu Goto, born in 1988, is also a violinist.
Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Ma, Yo-Yo

Ma, Yo-Yo (mä) [key], 1955–, American cellist, b. Paris. The son of musicologist Hiao-Tsun Ma, who left China in the 1930s, he was a musical prodigy, giving a public recital in Paris at the age of six. In 1963 he and his family settled in New York City, where he began attending the Julliard School of Music at the age of nine. He later studied at Harvard. Ma appeared at Carnegie Hall in 1964 and won the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize in 1978. One of the era's premier string players, he continues to appear as a soloist with many of the world's best orchestras and is a superlative chamber player and frequent recital performer. Ma is acclaimed for his extraordinarily broad repertoire, ravishing tone, superb musicianship, and dazzling technique, and is noted for his seeming state of passionate transport while performing. In 1998 Ma founded the Silk Road Project, a cross-cultural musical enterprise that includes concerts, festivals, recordings, publications, and the commissioning of new works.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

Men of Steel
In 1863, construction began on the transcontinental railroad—1,776 miles of tracks that would form a link between America's West and East coasts. While thousands of European immigrants worked on the westbound Pacific Union rail, there was not enough manpower to build the Central Pacific line, which snaked through the rugged Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains. In 1865, Central Pacific officials hired 50 Chinese laborers to lay down a section of track. Their work was so well done, they decided to recruit more Chinese men. In the end, nearly 12,000 Chinese railroad workers were hired to perform dangerous work that white men refused to do. They dammed rivers, dug ditches, and blasted tunnels through mountain ranges. Hundreds of men died on the job. The Chinese also faced discrimination because they looked different from the white workers. Although they often outperformed other laborers, they were paid less. Despite all of the hardships, the Chinese laborers never quit. Thanks to their hard work, America became the first continent to have a coast-to-coast railroad.

To see photographs of the building of the railroad, click on the Central Pacific Railroad Photographic History Museum

From Scholastic

N is for

	Tom Nakashima (one of my teachers, painting 1980 or 81 at WVU) Painting
		Mr. Nakashima is the Morris Eminent Scholar in Art. TOM NAKASHIMA BIO: b. 1941, Seattle, Washington. Nakashima is The William S. Morris Eminent Scholar in Art at Augusta State University . He is a painter/printmaker who has exhibited internationally. EDUCATION: M.F.A., University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana 1967; M.A., University of Notre Dame, 1968, B.A., Loras College, Dubuque, Iowa 1966. http://www.tomnakashima.com
	AWARDS: Awards in the Visual Arts 11 (1992) , Individual Artist Award DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities (1984, 1988 & 1989); The Mayor's Award for Excellence in an Artistic Discipline, Washington, DC (1991); MidAtlantic Visual Arts Fellowship (NEA - 1992 & 1996); Individual Artist Fellowship, (2002) Virginia Commission for the Arts; Nominated for the AVA (1983,1985, 1986, 1987, 1991 & 1992); National Printmaking Fellowship (NEA), Rutgers Center for Innovative Printmaking (1993); Artist in Residence, Pyramid Atlantic (1989); Print Residency, The Printmaking Council of New Jersey (2001); Residency, Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz (1996); Printmaking Fellow, Virginia Commonwealth University, funded by Celadon Inc. (2000), Faculty Research Grant), The Catholic University of America (1989), Nominated for the Howard Foundation Fellowship (1985), SECCA 7 , Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (1986). EXHIBITIONS: He has had over 30 solo exhibitions including Tom Nakashima: A Retrospective, The Washington Project for the Arts; Screens, The Sasakawa Peace Foundation; Henri Gallery and Anton Gallery (represented since 1985), Washington, DC; The Yamanashi Museum of Art, Kofu, Japan; Steinbaum Krauss Gallery, NY; Horwitch LewAllen, Santa Fe; Balkin Fine, Arts, Chicago and Teplitzky & Scott Fine Arts, Cincinnati. PUBLICATIONS: Nakashima has been reviewed or written about in hundreds of publications internationally. Included are Art Forum, Art in America, ArtNews, The New Art Examiner, Art Papers, New American Paintings, The Washington Review of the Arts, The Washington Post, The New York Nichibei, The Washington Times, Museum & Arts Washington, Images & Issues, The Chicago Sun Times, The WashingtonStar, Dossier and Contemporanea. In addition to art publications his work has been reproduced in The Paris Review, Elle, Southern Living and House Beautiful.

George Nakashima

woodworker, architectural designer
Born: 1905
Birthplace: Spokane, Wash.
Nakashima developed his lifelong interest in woodworking and architectural design as a student at the University of Washington in the 1920s. He graduated from M.I.T. with a master's in Architecture in 1930. After his formal studies, he traveled to India and Japan to learn his craft from traditional woodworkers. In the early 1940s, his designs and writing began to be featured in Arts & Architecture. Detained in an internment camp during WWII, he used salvaged wood to train under a master Japanese carpenter. His style was influenced by the simplicity of the Shakers as well as the Arts and Crafts Movement, and in 1973, he received his largest single commission to create 200 pieces for Governor Rockefeller. Nakashima wrote a book describing his experiences and relationship with wood, The Soul of a Tree (1981). In 1983, he designed the impressive “Altar of Peace” installed in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
Died: 1990
Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.Isamu Noguchi sculptor
Born: 1904
Birthplace: Los Angeles, Calif.
Born to Japanese poet Yonejiro Noguchi and American writer Leonie Gilmour, Noguchi was born in the U.S. (a Nisei), but was raised in Japan. He returned to the U.S. in the 1920s and studied art at Columbia University and the Leonardo da Vinci School. Noguchi was strongly influenced by the sculptors Constantin Brancusi and Alberto Giacometti. A 1927 Guggenheim fellowship allowed Noguchi to refine his sculptures of stone under Brancusi's tutelage in his Paris studio. In 1935, Noguchi began a 20-year collaboration with Martha Graham designing her sets. In his later life, he developed an interest in gardens and public spaces, and is perhaps best known for his garden at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris. In 1987, he received the National Medal of Art.
Died: 1988

Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights

O is for

Yoko Ono

singer
Born: 2/18/1933
Birthplace: Tokyo, Japan
Married to John Lennon, together they released Double Fantasy (1980).
Everytime I read her biography I sit open mouthed....I suggest you read it.Really.

P is for

Pei, I. M.

Pei, I. M. (Ieoh Ming Pei) (pā) [key], 1917–, Chinese-American architect, b. Guangzhou, China. Pei emigrated to the United States in 1935 and studied at the Univ. of Pennsylvania, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Harvard, where he taught from 1945 to 1948. That year he joined Webb and Knapp, Inc.; there he designed such projects as Mile High Center in Denver (1954–59). He established his own firm in 1955. In his works, structure and environment are carefully integrated with precise geometrical design and a superb sense of craft, resulting in crisp, clear, sculptural structures. He is known for his sensuous use of such materials as marble, concrete, and glass and for his soaring interior spaces. Pei's involvement in urban planning includes the Government Center, Boston (1961), and Society Hill, Philadelphia (with Edmund N. Bacon, 1964).

Among his notable later buildings are the John Hancock Tower, Boston (1973); the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1978); the Jacob Javits Exposition and Convention Center, New York City (1986); the Rock-and-Roll Hall of Fame, Cleveland (1995); the Miho Museum, Kyoto (1998); and a new wing of the German Historical Museum, Berlin (2003). His master plan for the Louvre's expansion and renovation (1987–89) initially outraged critics, in large part because of the glass pyramid that formed the entrance to the museum's new underground section. The pyramid has since become a Parisian landmark. In 1990, Pei retired from active management of his firm.

See biographical study by C. Wiseman (1990); biography by M. Cannell (1995).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

Q is for
R is For

V.S. Ramachandran
V.S. Ramachandran is Director of the Center for Brain and Cognition and professor with the Psychology Department and the Neurosciences Program at the University of California, San Diego, and Adjunct Professor of Biology at the Salk Institute. Ramachandran trained as a Physician and obtained an MD from Stanley Medical College and subsequently a PhD from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, where he was elected a senior Rouse Ball Scholar. Ramachandran's early research was on visual perception but he is best known for his work in Neurology.
He has received many honours and awards including a fellowship from All Souls College, Oxford, an honorary doctorate from Connecticut College, a Gold medal from the Australian National University, the Ariens Kappers Medal from the Royal Nederlands Academy of Sciences, for landmark contributions in neuroscience and the presidential lecture award from the American Academy of Neurology. He is also a fellow of the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla and a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. He was invited by the BBC to give the Reith lectures for 2003 ; and is the first physician/experimental psychologist to be given this honor since the series was begun by Bertrand Russel in 1949.
In 1995, he gave the Decade of the Brain Lecture at the 25th annual (Silver Jubilee) meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and more recently, the Inaugural keynote lecture at the Decade of the brain conference held by NIMH at the Library of Congress and a public lecture at the Getty museum in Los Angeles. He also gave the first Hans Lucas Teuber lecture at MIT, the D.O Hebb lecture at McGill, The Rudel-Moses lecture at Columbia, The Dorcas Cumming (inaugural keynote) lecture at Cold Spring Harbor, the Raymond Adams neurology grand rounds at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard, and the Jonas Salk memorial lecture, Salk Institute.
Ramachandran is a trustee for the San Diego museum of art and has lectured widely on art, visual perception and the brain. Ramachandran has published over 120 papers in scientific journals (including three invited review articles in the Scientific American), is Editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Human Behaviour and author of the critically acclaimed book "Phantoms in the Brain” that has been translated into eight languages and formed the basis for a two part series on Channel Four TV UK and a 1 hr PBS special in USA. His work is featured frequently in the major news media including BBC, and PBS and NEWSWEEK magazine recently named him a member of "The Century Club", one of the "hundred most prominent people to watch in the next century."

Rumi, Jalal ad-Din

(ok, not American, I hear you)

Rumi, Jalal ad-Din (jäläl' ed-dēn' rOO'mē) [key], 1207–73, great Islamic Persian sage and poet mystic, b. in Balkh. His father, a scholar, was invited by the Seljuk sultan of Rum to settle in Iconium (now Konya), Turkey. His apprenticeship as a Sufi mystic was guided by the mysterious Shams ad-Din Tabrizi (d. 1247), who was considered one of the spiritual masters of Rumi's age. His major work is the Mathnawi, a vast 6 vol. work of spiritual teaching and Sufi lore in the form of stories and lyric poetry of extraordinary quality. The Mathnawi is one of the enduring treasures of the Persian-speaking world, known and memorized by most. It is popularly called “the Qur'an in Persian.” The singing of the Mathnawi has become an art form in itself. Rumi also founded the Mawlawiyya (Mevlevi) Sufi order, who use dancing and music as part of their spiritual method, and who are known in the West as Whirling Dervishes. Rumi's influence spread to Persian-speakers in Afghanistan and central Asia, and beyond, to Turkey and India. His tomb in Konya is a place of pilgrimage, and the Mawlawiyya order is still centered in Konya.

See selections of his mystical poems, tr. by A. J. Arberry (1968) and by James G. Cowan (1992); critical works by R. A. Nicholson (1950), A. R. Arasteh (1965), and A. Schimmel (1978).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

S is for

Allen Say

Illustrator / Writer

Born: 1937

Birthplace: Yokohama, Japan

Best known as: Illustrator of The Boy of the Three-Year Nap

Allen Say is the author and illustrator of more than a dozen books for children, including the Caldecott Medal winner Grandfather's Journey (1993) and the Caldecott Honor winner The Boy of the Three-Year Nap (1988). Born in Yokohama, Say spent his childhood in Japan during World War II. When he was 12 his parents divorced and he went to live in Tokyo with his grandmother; there he spent four years as an apprentice to cartoonist Noro Shinpei before moving with his father to California at the age of 16. As a young man he went to a military academy, studied architecture at the University of California at Berkeley, spent two years in the U.S. Army and eventually settled into a career in advertising photography. In the mid-1980s Say's success as the illustrator of Dianne Snyder's The Boy of the Three-Year Nap helped him decide to write and illustrate children's books full-time. Since then he has written and illustrated his own books and occasionally done illustrations for other authors. He is known for his technical skill and varied style, and his books pay tribute to Japanese culture and folk tales as well as his own personal experiences. His other books include Tree of Cranes (1991), The Ink-Keeper's Apprentice (1994), Under the Cherry Blossom Tree (1997) and Tea With Milk (1999).

Copyright © 1998-2006 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.

During Allen Say's childhood, he and his family moved over and over again. Always changing homes and going to new schools made him feel uncomfortable wherever he lived. "So I escaped into reading and drawing," he recalls. "The marvelous thing that happened to me was that during recess I would draw. Students would stand behind me and watch. That's probably the first time I discovered that I had this power — it was the only power I had."

When Say creates a book, he wants his pictures to tell the story. Sometimes he paints half the pictures for a book before he knows for sure what the story will be about. And he says some of his best ideas could only come to him through pictures, not words. "You react physically to a work of art," Say remarks. "When you break out in goose pimples, then you know you have something."

---

Read the following quote from Allen Say. What do you think it means?
"Most people seem to be interested in turning their dreams into reality. Then there are those who turn reality into dreams. I belong to the latter group."

---

Other Books Written and Illustrated by Allen Say

• The Sign Painter
• El Chino
• Stranger in the Mirror
• The Bicycle Man
• Tea with Milk
• Allison
• Under the Cherry Blossom Tree
• Emma's Rug (my favorite)
• A River Dream
• The Lost Lake
• Tree of Cranes
• The Bicycle Man

Gary Snyder

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(I'm conferring honorable mention on my ABC on the next two for contributions in this thing I'll call MY awarenesses of Asian thought to America, to the west.........)

Young Gary Snyder, on one of his early book covers

Gary Snyder (born May 8, 1930) is an American poet (originally, often associated with the Beat Generation), essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist. Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Since the 1970s, he has frequently been described as the 'laureate of Deep Ecology'. From the 1950s on, he has published travel-journals and essays from time to time. His work in his various roles reflects his immersion in both Buddhist spirituality and nature. Snyder has also translated literature into English from ancient Chinese and modern Japanese. As a social critic, Snyder has much in common with Lewis Mumford, Aldous Huxley, Karl Hess, Aldo Leopold, and Karl Polanyi. Snyder was for many years on the faculty of the University of California, Davis, and for a time served on the California Arts Council.

Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki
(October 18, 1870, Kanazawa, Japan – July 22, 1966; standard transliteration: Suzuki Daisetsu, 鈴木大拙) was a famous author of books and essays on Buddhism, Zen and Shin that were instrumental in spreading interest in both Zen and Shin (and Far Eastern philosophy in general) to the West. Suzuki was also a prolific translator of Chinese, Japanese, and Sanskrit literature.
Besides teaching about Zen practice and the history of Zen (or Chan) Buddhism, Suzuki was an expert scholar on the related philosophy called, in Japanese, Kegon – which he thought of as the intellectual explication of Zen experience.
Still a professor of Buddhist philosophy in the middle decades of the twentieth century, Suzuki wrote some of the most celebrated introductions and overall examinations of Buddhism, and particularly of its Chinese Chan school (though he usually referred to this sect by the term "Zen," which is the Japanese pronunciation of its name). He went on a lecture tour of American universities in 1951, and taught at Columbia University from 1952 to 1957.
Suzuki was especially interested in the formative centuries of this Buddhist tradition, in China. A lot of Suzuki's writings in English concern themselves with translations and discussions of bits of the Chan texts the Biyan Lu (Blue Cliff Record) and the Wumenguan (Gateless Passage), which record the teaching styles and words of the classical Chinese masters. He was also interested in how this tradition, once imported into Japan, had influenced Japanese character and history, and wrote about it in English in Zen and Japanese Culture. Suzuki's reputation was secured in England prior to the U.S.
In addition to his popularly oriented works, Suzuki wrote a translation of the Lankavatara Sutra and a commentary on its Sanskrit terminology. Later in his life he was a visiting professor at Columbia University. He looked in on the efforts of Saburo Hasegawa, Judith Tyberg, Alan Watts and the others who worked in the California Academy of Asian Studies (now known as the California Institute of Integral Studies), in San Francisco in the 1950s.
Suzuki is often linked to the Kyoto School of philosophy, but he is not considered one of its official members. Suzuki took an interest in other traditions besides Zen. His book Zen and Japanese Buddhism delved into the history and scope of interest of all the major Japanese Buddhist sects. In his later years, he began to explore the Shin faith of his mother's upbringing, and wrote a small volume about Shin Buddhism, Buddha of Infinite Light. D.T. Suzuki also produced an incomplete English translation of the Kyo gyo shin sho ("The True Teaching, Practice, Faith and Attainment" ) the major work of Shinran, the founder of the Jodo Shinshu school. However, Suzuki did not attempt to popularize the Shin doctrine in the West, as he believed Zen was better suited to the Western preference for Eastern mysticism.^{[citation needed]} He also took an interest in Christian mysticism and some of most significant mystics of the West, specially Meister Eckhart, which he compared with Jodo Shinshu Buddhism.
D.T. Suzuki's books have been widely read and commented on by many important figures. A notable example is An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, which includes a thirty page commentary by famous psychoanalyst Carl Jung. Other works include Essays in Zen Buddhism (three volumes), Studies in Zen Buddhism, and Manual of Zen Buddhism. Additionally, William Barrett has compiled many of Suzuki's articles and essays concerning Zen into a volume entitled Studies in Zen.

Roger Shimomurapainter, performance artist
Born: 6/26/1939
Birthplace: Seattle, Wash.
Shimomura was born in Seattle's Central District. His first few years were spent interned with his family at the Puyallup State Fairgrounds while permanent camps were being built by the U.S. government. Soon he and his family moved to Camp Minidoka in southern Idaho. His father was the first to leave, told by administrators to seek employment outside the Western coast. They settled briefly in South Chicago. After the war ended, the Shimomura family was permitted to return to Seattle, where Shimomura developed his interest in art. He served two years as an artillery officer in Korea, then moved to New York where he worked as a graphic designer. In 1969, he received an M.F.A. in painting from Syracuse University. Shimomura's bold, illustration-like artwork deals with Asian stereotypes and prejudices, and often references his family history. Shimomura has written 35 performance pieces, and his paintings are in the permanent collections of the National Museum of American Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and Microsoft.

Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

T is for

Tan, Amy

Tan, Amy, 1952–, American novelist, b. Oakland, Calif. The daughter of Chinese immigrants, she has taken for her theme the lives of Asian-Americans and the generational and cultural differences among them, concentrating on women's experiences. Tan's novels include The Joy Luck Club (1989), The Kitchen God's Wife (1991), The Hundred Secret Senses (1995), The Bonesetter's Daughter (2001), and Saving Fish from Drowning (2005). She has also written a children's book, The Moon Lady (1992), and essays, e.g., the autobiographical pieces collected in The Opposite of Fate (2003).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

U is for

Miyoshi Umeki
(Umeki Miyoshi, born on April 3, 1929 in Otaru, Hokkaidō, Japan) is an Academy Award-winning actress best known for her roles as James Garner's singer and friend, Katsumi in the 1950s movie, Sayonara, and as Bill Bixby's Japanese questionable maid, Mrs. Livingston, in the 1970s dramedy, The Courtship of Eddie's Father.
Umeki began her career as a nightclub singer in Japan under the name Nancy Umeki before moving to the United States. She won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her first film role, Sayonara (1957), becoming the first Asian actress to win the award. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her performance in the Broadway premiere production of the musical Flower Drum Song, which opened in 1958.
She appeared in only four more motion pictures during her career, most notably the film version of Flower Drum Song (1961). During 1969-1972 she played the part of Mrs. Livingston in the television series The Courtship of Eddie's Father.
As a recording artist she made several records for RCA Victor Japan and appeared in some musical shorts as Nancy Umeki until she moved to the US. After her appearance on the Arthur Godrey Talent Scouts TV show (she was a series regular for one season), she signed with the Mercury Records label and released several singles and two albums.

V is for
W is for

Chien-Shiung Wu

experimental physicist
Born: 5/29/1912
Birthplace: nr. Shanghai

Chien-Shiung Wu received her bachelor's degree from National Central University in Nanjing in 1936 and her doctorate from Berkeley in 1940. She taught at Smith College and Princeton University. During World War II she joined the Manhattan Project, helping to develop the atomic bomb. After the war she became a full professor at Columbia. She was the first woman elected president of the American Physical Society and to receive the Cyrus B. Comstock Award of the National Academy of Sciences. She also received the National Medal of Science, the United States' highest award in scientific achievement.

Died: 1997

She is my daughter's hero............

X is for
Y is for

Laurence Yep

Writer

Born: 14 June 1948

Birthplace: San Francisco, California

Best known as: Author of the 1975 book Dragonwings

Chinese-American writer Laurence Yep is the author of Dragonwings (1975), Child of the Owl (1977) and dozens of other books for young readers. Yep studied at Marquette University and earned an undergraduate degree from the University of California Santa Cruz (1970) before getting a doctorate in English from the University of New York at Buffalo in 1975. The same year he published Dragonwings, a touching turn-of-the-century tale that mixed flying machines, the Chinese immigrant experience, and the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. The book was named a Newbery Medal Honor Book and was the first of what became the Golden Mountain Chronicles -- nine books by Yep about Chinese immigrants in California. Yep has also written fantasy (including the Tiger's Apprentice series) and science fiction, and has dabbled in other genres with books like the historical mystery The Mark Twain Murders (1982). His 2001 memoir The Lost Garden recounted his childhood in San Francisco.

Extra credit: Yep is married to children's author Joanne Ryder; the couple met at Marquette University in 1967... Dragonwings was Yep's second novel; his first, the science fiction tale Sweetwater, was published in 1973.

Copyright © 1998-2006 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.

Minoru Yamasaki

Architect

Born: 1 December 1912

Died: 6 February 1986(cancer)

Birthplace: Seattle, Washington

Best known as: Designer of Manhattan's World Trade Center

Minoru Yamasaki is the architect who designed Manhattan's World Trade Center. A native of Seattle, Washington and the son of Japanese immigrants, Yamasaki worked his way through college, studying architecture at the University of Washington and at New York University. After a stint with New York architectural firms in the 1940s, Yamasaki took a post in Detroit, Michigan in 1945 and founded his own firm in 1951. Working almost exclusively with public buildings, he earned a national reputation that landed him the job of designing of U.S. Consulate in Kobe, Japan (1954). A decade later, Yamasaki was tapped over many other architects to design New York's World Trade Center. Design began formally in 1965, with Yamasaki collaborating with Leslie E. Robertson and Emery Roth on what would become the tallest buildings in the world. Yamasaki's designs paid tribute to classical themes, especially gothic, but his emphasis on working with modern technology resulted in distinctly contemporary structures of concrete and glass. Some of his more famous projects include Seattle's U.S. Science Pavilion (now the Pacific Science Center), Los Angeles's Century City Plaza and the Lambert-St. Louis air terminal in Missouri.

Extra credit: The World Trade Centers were destroyed in a terrorist attack on 11 September 2001... Construction on the World Trade Center One was completed in 1972; it surpassed the Empire State Building as the tallest building in the world, a title it held until Chicago's Sears Tower was completed in 1974... A fear of heights caused Yamasaki to design his high-rise buildings with narrow windows and limited vistas.

Copyright © 1998-2006 by Who2?, LLC. All rights reserved.

Ed Young

Ed Young Ed Young grew up in Shanghai in the uncertain atmosphere of war in the 1940's. Illness kept him from starting to school at the normal age; and when he did start his formal education, he was a head taller than his younger classmates. His seat at the back of the class did nothing to encourage academic success. School also took a back seat in his areas of interest, so he often used study time to draw or imagine. In spite of the political atmosphere of the times, his parents provided a comfortable home life filled with a variety of international friends who either lived nearby or who were associated with St. John's University, an Episcopal institution where Young's father served as dean of engineering. Architectural school seemed to be a fitting destination for Young, who inherited his mother's artistic ability as well as his father's sense of design. As did his father, Young traveled to the United States at the age of twenty to attend a university. The young man heeded his uncle's advice and dedicated himself to discover his strengths after he arrived in the United States. Eventually a love for art drew him to the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where he graduated in 1957. A brief career in advertising art in New York preceded Young's fateful encounter in 1962 with Ursula Nordstrom, the esteemed editor of children's books at Harper's. Ms. Nordstrom's legendary instinct for talent held true and she immediately offered Young a contract for a children's picture book. Nearly forty years after their meeting, Young dedicated Monkey King to "Ursula, for her integrity and conviction, which placed quality above profit." Similar words could be used to describe Ed Young. " Respect" is the word that guides Ed Young as he ventures into foreign cultures and ancient times as fodder for his books. He approaches each new character or creature with fresh eyes, even though he has illustrated more than 70 books, never relying on previous ideas to speed the project. Each new challenge deserves the same research and dedication as the many others he conquered in the past. And even when the foil of the book is an infamous villain, such as the wolf in Lon Po Po, he treats it with respect and unmatched empathy. Young's root in China helped him absorb the idea that children do not have to be placated with a happy ending for each story they are offered. Neither do children have to be protected from menacing threats found in both folklore and life, including wolves and atomic bombs. His readers are required to think as they turn the pages in his books. Some of the artist's works require the readers to fill in blanks with their imaginations, as in his adaptation of Monkey King; nevertheless, Young has an ability to distill complicated myths or folklore into a picture-book format without losing the mood of the original story. His work both illuminates the unique qualities of each culture it explores and reveals the universality of life experiences. After immigrating to the United States, Ed Young followed his uncle's admonition and discovered strengths that led to great success. The artist has won a Caldecott Medal for Lon Po Po, Caldecott honors for The Emperor and the Kite and Seven Blind Mice, and many other awards. Today, Young lives in New York with his wife, Filomena, and two daughters, Antonia and Ananda. From Tai Chi Chuan, an ancient Chinese meditative movement he embraces, Young learned a dicipline and a way of life that has impacted his art. He shares his thoughts with artists young and old: Be open to inspiration. Inspiration leads to creativity. Be open to play. In play we see mistakes as stepping-stones to fulfillment. Be open to challenges. Challenges offer us a chance to grow. Be open to work. It is in the willingness of labor that we mature and find excellence.

National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature

Z is for

Song Nan Zhang

Song Nan Zhang studied art in Beijing, China, and in Paris, France. Later, he was a teacher in Beijing. He now lives with his family in Montreal, Canada. Song Nan Zhang does the artwork for his own books and for the books of other authors. He also paints on canvas.

---

• Song Nan Zhang has visited with nomads (people who move from place to place) in distant parts of China. He enjoyed seeing their goats, yaks, and two-humped camels.
• This author/illustrator's paintings have been displayed at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Other Books Written and Illustrated by Song Nan Zhang

• A Little Tiger in the Chinese Night: An Autobiography in Art(my favorite)
• Five Heavenly Emperors: Chinese Myths of Creation
• A Time of Golden Dragons
  (with Hao Yu Zhang)

Okay...it's a work in progress.....Life is pulling me to pancake making and the days events.
A daughter cutting her hair for the first time, while Dad enjoys Finland and it's treats...Syl's sheering her long lion locks. Not my doing.

Enjoy my list and happy weekend.

Here's more of course:

• List of Cambodian Americans
• List of Chinese Americans
• List of Filipino Americans
• List of Hmong Americans
• List of Indian Americans
• List of Indonesian Americans
• List of Japanese Americans
• List of Korean Americans
• List of Laotian Americans
• List of Taiwanese Americans
• List of Vietnamese Americans