CrossCurrents: Newsmagazine of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center

Edition: Volume 28, Number 1, 2004/2005
Download the CrossCurrents PDF for full articles.

What's News?

• Center Honors Community Leaders and Celebrates New Department at 36th Anniversary Dinner
  At its 36th anniversary dinner, held in Covel Commons at UCLA, the Center honored community leaders and activists for their pursuit of peace and justice. Over 400 Center supporters attended the event, which was emceed by Mike Eeng, mayor of Monterey Park and UCLA School of Law alumnus. Patrick and LilLy Okura of Bethesda, Maryland, who both recently passed away, sponsored the event. The Okuras established the Patrick and Lily Okura Endowment for Asian American Mental Health Research at UCLA and were long involved with the Center and other organizations, including the Japanese American Citizens League and the Asian American Psychologists Association.
• Center Holds Reception to Thank Community for Decades of Support
  The Center, the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council, and the APA-UCLA Alumni Association held a “Thank You” Community Reception, celebrating the establishment of the Department of Asian American Studies. Over 300 people attended the event, which took place at the Empress Pavilion Restaurant in L.A.’s Chinatown, and it was free and open to the public. UCLA alumnus and SIPA Executive Director Joel Jacinto was the emcee.
• Denise Uyehara Performs from New Book
  Denise Uyehara graced the stage of UCLA’s Fowler Museum of Cultural History for one evening, co-sponsored by the Center, the Department of World Arts and Cultures, and the Center for Intercultural Performance. Uyehara performed excerpts from her book, Maps of City & Body (Kaya Press).
• UCLA Alum Aimee Phan Reads from Debut Book
  The Center and the UCLA Asian Pacific Coalition, in collaboration with the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies and Eastwind Books, Westwood, hosted an evening with Vietnamese American author Aimee Phan in Ackerman Viewpoint Lounge. Phan’s debut publication, We Should Never Meet (St. Martin’s Press), spans time and place with its interlinked stories set from pre-1975 Saigon, Vietnam to present-day Little Saigon in Southern California. Phan received her MFA from the University of Iowa, where she won a Maytag Fellowship. She lives in Las Vegas, where she teaches part-time and is working on a novel.
• Center Sponsors National Conference on Major Japanese American Civil Liberties Cases of WWII
  Along with the University of North Carolina School of Law and the Japanese American National Museum, the Center sponsored a national conference, “Judgments Judged and Wrongs Remembered: Examining the Japanese American Civil Liberties Cases of World War II on their Sixtieth Anniversary.” United States-Japan Foundation, Takata, Civil Liberties Public Education Program, and Mr. H. Jay Shaffer provided additional support.
• Greg Robinson Discusses Interracial Relations Post-WWII
  The Center and the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies hosted a talk by history professor Greg Robinson, from L’Université du Québec à Montréal, entitled “Encounters between Blacks and Nisei in the Postwar Era.” Professor Robinson discussed the social and political encounter between African Americans and Nisei in the decade following World War II.
• Center Hosts Talk on Early Korean Immigrants in Hawaii
  The Center, along with the Center for Korean Studies, presented Professor Emeritus Yong Ho Choe from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Professor Choe’s talk, entitled “Early Korean Immigrants in Hawaii: Their Social Backgrounds and Politics, 1903-1915,” was funded in part by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
• Professors Bob Nakamura and Paul Ong Receive Honors for Community Service
  The Center is proud to announce that two of its professors were selected for major university-wide honors for their work with community organizations in Los Angeles. Professor Bob Nakamura was recognized for his three decades of collaboration with the Visual Communications organization in producing community-based films and media on the Asian American experience. Professor Paul Ong was recognized for his collaborative policy research work with the Leadership Education for Asian Pacific (LEAP).
• Yuri Kochiyama Receives Numerous Distinguished Awards and Recognition
  Passing It On—A Memoir (UCLA Asian American Studies Center Press), by renowned human rights activist Yuri Kochiyama, received a Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award for 2004. The award honors “authors and books that challenge ways of thinking and acting that allow the many faces and facets of bigotry to replicate over and over again,” according to Loretta J. Williams, director of the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights.
• AAPI Nexus Examines Health Problems of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
  Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) health problems, as well as solutions to these problems, are discussed in a new issue of AAPI Nexus 3:1 (2005), guest edited by UCLA Asian American Studies and Public Health professor Marjorie Kagawa-Singer. Little is known about these health problems, which include high levels of cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and what is known is not widely disseminated, according to Kagawa-Singer and AAPI Nexus editor Paul Ong.
• New Asian Pacific American Political Almanac Just Released!
  The recently published National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac was released at a news conference in Washington, D.C. The almanac was presented by Center Director Don Nakanishi, executive dir-ector of the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies, Daphne Kwok, and various local, state and congressional Asian Pa-cific American elected officials. The almanac contains exit poll data and analysis of how Asian Pacific Americans voted in the 2004 presidential election, the latest census information on the Asian Pacific American population, and a list of more than 2,000 Asian Pacific American elected and major appointed officials for thirty-seven states.

More News...

• Center-Affiliated Fulbright Scholar Masumi Izumi Gives Two Talks
• Center Co-Sponsors Talk by John Trasviña
• Center Holds First NVM Gonzalez Workshop
• Writer and Activist Bob Santos Visits the Center
• Asian Pacific Coalition Holds Mixer
• Dr. Grace Hong Joins Asian American Studies Department
• Discussion over Faculty Diversity Initiative Continues
• Professor Vinit Mukhija Joins Faculty Advisory Committee
• Former Center Assistant Director Enrique dela Cruz Gives Book Talk
• Professor Zhou a Fellow at Stanford
• Professors Bastani and Kagawa-Singer Awarded Funding for AANCART
• Will diversity return to UC?
• Professor Yu Teaches First Summer Exchange Class in Vancouver and L.A.
• Two Open Faculty Positions in AAS Department
• MA Class of 2006—Making the World a Better Place
• Association of Hmong Students Holds Conference
• The Late Yuji Ichioka Honored in Annual Basketball Tournament
• Students from the 10th UCLA AASC Summer Program in Hawaii Clean up Park in Honolulu
• Students Celebrate Asian American Studies and Heritage in Various Commencement Ceremonies
• Alum Jeff Chang Pens Groundbreaking Book
• Augusto Espiritu Gives Talk on New Book
• Eiichiro Azuma Publishes First Book
• Jennifer Tseng Publishes First Book of Poems
• Center Welcomes New Distribution Manager
• Center Continues Asian Homeownership Study
• AASC’s Census Information Center Co-Hosts Workshop
• Ethnocom Hosts Screening of Vivian Wong’s New Film
• Center’s “Learn by Doing” Conference Highlights Community-Based Teaching Methods
• Amerasia Journal adds Five New Members to Editorial Board
• Recent Publications from Amerasia Journal
• Center’s Website Receives over 250,000 Visitors

Browse through our archives of CrossCurrents: Newmagazine of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center for all the news and features from the Center.