May 2000

Connecting in California: Nikkei 2000 Conference / San Jose: Nikkei Matsuri / Hockey WorkOut | Nikkei Nexus Update | Margaret Cho: I'm The One That I Want | Film: Hou's Flowers of Shanghai (Hai shang hua) | Film: Hou's Goodbye South, Goodbye (Nanguo zaijian, nanguo) | Crosslinked | Asian Journalist Ring Linkup | Eastern Swing: AMIA Spring Congress / Boston / Toronto / Nikkei Wedding / SFO: Airport As Museum

Eastern Swing
I am just back from a trip to the east part of the continent:
- AMIA Spring 2000 Congress
  This meeting of the American Medical Informatics Association focused on the application of medical informatics to improve health care quality. The current system of managed health care in the United States has led to competition on the basis of cost, not quality. The Institute of Medicine's report To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System in November 1999 brought to public attention the issue of health care quality. You are 600 times more likely to encounter a medical error when interacting with the health care system than lose your luggage during a plane trip. Medical informatics can help reduce error through data interoperability, real-time decision support and measurement of quality. Before that can happen, standard metrics must be established and a culture change needs to occur within the medical profession with respect to quality as well as the use of computers. Pressure is coming from outside: from purchasers of health care (the Leapfrog Group of Fortune 500 companies has stated it will contract only with health care providers who use an electronic medical record) and from patients, who are better educated and empowered by the Internet.
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  (23-25 May 2000)
- Boston
  This was my first visit to Beantown, so I did the tourist thing and walked the Freedom Trail: Faneuil Hall Marketplace, Boston Tea Party ship, Paul Revere House, the North End (seemed like I was in Italy), Beacon Hill, Boston Common, Old Granary Burial Ground, Commonwealth Avenue. Many beautiful buildings, but lots of construction and dust related to downtown renewal and the never-ending turnpike project. I tried to go to the Bull and Finch Pub (the facade for the pub setting of the old TV series Cheers), but Kelsey Grammer ("Frasier") had rented it for his private party -- he is currently appearing as "Macbeth" at a local theatre. Luckily there are many other (and better) pubs, like the Commonwealth Fish and Beer Co. and the Black Rose Irish pub. One night I ate at the Rattlesnake Bar because of its proximity to my hotel, only to discover that, like the review says, the emphasis there is less on food than, er, socializing. The site of the Boston Garden is just an empty lot now, and a walk through the ticket concourse of the new Fleet Center next door doesn't give one any sense of the tradition of storied teams like the Boston Bruins and Boston Celtics (though the website indicates that the famous parquet floor is still used and there is a museum somewhere in the building).
  I can now also say, "I went to Harvard medical school" -- if only for a day. I went to visit Dr. Isaac Kohane of the Boston Children's Hospital Informatics Program to ask his advice on how to get involved in the new and growing field of bioinformatics. His response was to give me a DNA data analysis project to work on. It will be a busy summer!
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  (25-26 May 2000)
- Toronto
  It was cheaper for me to fly back to Portland via Toronto with a Saturday night stayover than return directly in the middle of the week. The bilingual (English & French) flight announcements that included hockey scores let me know I was on a Canadian airplane.
  After years of walking by the Bata Shoe Museum on the way to and from work, I finally paid a visit. Bata is one of the largest shoe manufacturers in the world. The museum building was designed by reknowned Japanese Canadian architect Raymond Moriyama, who also designed the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo. Presently showing:
  - All About Shoes - The history of shoes, showing the influence of function, society as well as religion on appearance of footwear. In the past, only the wealthy could wear high-heeled shoes, hence the term "well-heeled". The term "square" originally referred to people who wore square-toed shoes well after they were out of fashion (though now they are back in fashion). (continuing)
  - Star Turns - The shoes of celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Elton John, Princess Diana and Madonna (continuing)
  - Herbert and Beth Levine: An American Pair - A 40-year retrospective of the quirky work of these shoe designers, including footwear made of Astroturf, clear plastic and paper. (through June 2000)
  - Paduka: Feet and Footwear in the Indian Tradition - A trip through the traditions of the Indian subcontinent (through 30 September 2000)
  - Japanese Footgear - A variety of geta and zouri adapted for various uses -- including skating! (held over; closes 12 June 2000)
  I poked my head in the side door of Ye Olde Brunswick House and was happy to see that Mary de Keyser and Melody Ranch is still drawing a full house with their Saturday afternoon country music matinee. The band is intact and still sounds great. I enjoyed a couple of familiar songs then had to get going.
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  (26-27 May 2000)
- Nikkei Wedding
  I attended the wedding party of friends Dave, a classmate from my days at Toronto Nihongo Gakko (Toronto Japanese Language School), and Hiroko, who, like most recent immigrants from Japan, is a young woman who married a North American man. They displayed photos of their wedding in Japan last fall. It was a Japanese ceremony with Western elements mixed in. Apparently the garter removal and toss had to be explained to the Japanese relatives. Among the other guests in Toronto were my sensei and other classmates from TJLS, friends from the Canada-Japan Society of Toronto, and Gary Kiyoshi Nagata, a sansei Japanese Canadian who has been involved with taiko (Japanese drumming) for 18 years, first in Toronto, then with the world-famous group Kodo on Sado Island in Japan, and now with his own performing ensemble back in Toronto.
  The event was held at The Old Mill, a huge banquet facility on the west side of the city. There were about 10 weddings and wedding receptions being held there that night -- it reminded me of Tokyo's wedding factory, the Meiji Kinenkan. When I arrived, I wandered through the winding hallways and came upon a group of people that included a woman dressed in a kimono. I chatted with the people there for about fifteen minutes before realizing that I hadn't walked far enough and was at the wrong wedding reception!
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  (27 May 2000)
- SFO: Airport As Museum
  My flight back to Portland from Toronto was via San Francisco, and I had to walk through the whole terminal to get to my connecting flight. In most airports this would be a hassle, but at SFO a stroll along the corridors is always interesting. Since 1980, the San Francisco Airports Commission has collaborated with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco to put together wall displays that are both decorative and educational. Presently showing:
  - Something New, Something Borrowed - A collection of bridal attire from around the world, including Japan (shiromuku), China, Korea and the Philippines. There was traditional African wear used by an African American bride for her Stateside wedding ceremony. Among the aboriginal people of the southern United States, a prospective bride is rejected if the groom-to-be doesn't eat the corncakes she prepares for him. In Guatemala, a woman might already be grandmother by the time she can afford a wedding. Great photo of a Palestinian bride awaiting clearance to meet her groom on the West Bank while a border guard peers suspiciously at her through the window. (through June 2000)
  - Shibori: Expanding the Tradition - Examples of the different patterns possible in shibori, the art of shaped-resist dyeing. The hands-on display was like a trip to Arimatsu, the town in Japan that has specialized in shibori since the Tokugawa era. People all over the world use some form of resist-dyeing, though the Japanese have taken it to a labour-intensive -- and beautiful -- extreme. (through August 2000)
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  (28 May 2000)
Runker Room Joins Asian Journalist Ring
Today "What's New?" joins the Asian Journalist web ring, a cyberspace community of people living as Asians in a predominantly non-Asian world. It has only been around since February 2000, but already has 57 members. Check out what they have to say!
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(20 May 2000)
Crosslinked
I just found out that my About Obon page on Japan's Festival of the Dead is included as a link in Schauwecker's Guide to Japan. What an honour! It is one of the better English-language Internet resources about Japan. About Obon is linked as well to the homepage of Nisei Week. It is Los Angeles' Nikkei summer festival, one of the biggest in North America. "Sei What?" is linked to the University of Toronto East Asian Library's Japan Links page. I also discovered my Victoria BC page is linked to Lynda's Victoria BC, a page with nice images of the Garden City, by Lynda Rousseau, another transplanted Canuck living Stateside. My INTJ page got linked to Bookmarks for Mich, who says, "A Bookmarks file is ... like a door to the psyche of an individual." Looking through it, many of our interests are the same. One link from that page, Myers-Briggs Personality Types on the Web says, "[M]ost INTJ pages I have seen ... consist of an organized list of links with very little description." Ulp -- guilty as charged!
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(19 May 2000)
An Unfolding Horizon: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien
This month the Northwest Film Center is featuring a retrospective of this Taiwanese director's work.
- Goodbye South, Goodbye (Nanguo zaijian, nanguo) (Taiwan 1996; Dir: Hou Hsiao-hsien) [STILLS]
  The title refers to the loss of traditional values in modern Taiwan ("the South"). The film follows restauranteur/part-time gangster Kao through a series of ill-fated get-rich-quick schemes: a gambling den, selling pigs (a scene that recalls Shohei Imamura's Pigs and Battleships). His inept, hotheaded young sidekick Flathead is forever getting them into trouble. Flathead's girlfriend Pretzel is immature and vapid in a "Hello Kitty" way. The plotline is frustratingly aimless -- a few people walked out partway through. At one point, Kao cries, "Ten years of this, and where am I?" He just wants to make enough money to be able to propose to his girlfriend. Meanwhile, she plans to go to the U.S.A., which, along with Canada, is mentioned as a haven where relatives are safe and prospering.
- Flowers of Shanghai (Hai shang hua) (Taiwan 1998; Dir: Hou Hsiao-hsien)
  A period drama set in various brothels in turn-of-the century Shanghai. Beautiful "flower girls" are all business as they vy for affections and favour of wealthy men in a luxurious but hermetic world that has an internal rhythm seemingly unaffected by outside events. Recalls the geisha films of Kenji Mizoguchi. Very slow-paced -- a few people walked out partway through. The scenes seem to end arbitrarily, fading to black in the middle of a conversation or after a long silent moment. We never find out where the men make their money, or delve into the backgrounds of the women. Opium is ubiquitous, whether casually smoked or used to seal a suicide pact. One review called this film a "subtly acted, studiously observed recreation of the manners and mores of a vanished place, a vanished time." I agree with the first part, but wonder if mores have really changed since then. Sumptuous costumes and sets. Don't see this on an empty stomach -- food is served in almost every scene!
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(13-14 May 2000)
Margaret Cho: I'm The One That I Want
The star of the groundbreaking but shortlived 1994 television sitcom All-American Girl brought her hit one-woman off-Broadway show to Portland's Crystal Ballroom this weekend. The sold-out audience had broad demographics and was loudly supportive as the self-described "Korean-American fag-hag, s**t-starter, girl comic, trash talker" related her experiences with an entertainment industry that just doesn't "get" what "Asian American" is: Hollywood executives (they said she was "not Asian enough" and assigned her an "Asian-ness consultant"), mainstream media types (one morning show host asked her to invite viewers to watch her TV show "in [her] native language"; she did -- she used English), and Asian media (a Korean reporter asked whether her parents, as Korean Americans, were ashamed of the things she talks about onstage; she replied that ANY parent would be ashamed). The cancellation of her TV series sent her into a tailspin that nearly resulted in death, but she survived to spread her message of inner strength and self-acceptance. A unique American voice.
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(06 May 2000)
There's an update at the Nikkei Nexus
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(03 May 2000)
Connecting in California
I am just back from a half week in Northern California:
- Nikkei 2000 Conference
  This San Francisco gathering of Nikkei-jin was a follow-up to the Ties That Bind Conference two years ago in Los Angeles. It was my first in-person interaction with a large number of Japanese Americans. Here is my report.
- San Jose Nikkei Matsuri
  A four-way intersection in the heart of Japantown San Jose was blocked off for this annual summer cultural event. The streets were lined by food vendors and booths where artists displayed their wares. It was a blisteringly hot day, and there wasn't much shade.
  At one of the booths, author Rena Krasno and illustrator Toru Sugita were on hand to sign copies of their new children's book Floating Lanterns & Golden Shrines: Celebrating Japanese Festivals. This is a nice short 49-page package that ties together information about the major Japanese festivals, Japanese and JA history, and a bit of Japanese language, songs, folktales, and cooking.
  The author was born in China and visited Japan many times while growing up. She told me she was inspired to write the book because so many JA children know nothing about their heritage, because their parents don't know either.
  I bought a copy. The wife of the friend I was visiting has a JA friend with young children. I mentioned that her friend might also be interested in the book. My friend's wife said, "I don't think so, she married a white guy." Interesting that she would assume that.
- Easter Hockey
  My friend is a third-generation Ukrainian Canadian who works in fiber optics and ended up in Silicon Valley ten years ago because there weren't any challenging jobs in Canada, where the government doesn't put much money into research and development. Sunday was Ukrainian Easter, and Baba ("grandmother" in Ukrainian) phoned from the 'Chuck to say hello to her son and grandsons. They chatted for a bit in English, then had to say goodbye because the boys had to go play a hockey game -- their Canadian heritage. So much for Ukrainian Easter -- not a pysanka (Ukrainian Easter egg) in sight!
  A couple of years ago in Toronto, I asked my recreational hockey group what they thought of my business concept of the hockey equivalent of a golf driving range, a place you could go to work on your skating or your shot when you don't happen to live near a frozen pond or know enough other hockey players to play a full game.
  Their reaction was pretty much the same as that elicited by the suggestion that hockey equipment be washed from time to time. "Why on earth would you do that?" I let the idea drop then and there.
  Well, it turns out somebody in San Jose had the same idea and is making money hand over fist:
  - Hockey WorkOut San Jose CA
    3-on-3 leagues for children and adults on half-size rinks and a "driving range" 1/4 practice rink
  While I was there, they were installing webcams, so that Silicon Valley dads can watch their kids' games on their desktop computers at work.
  I could be retired by now!
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(01 May 2000)

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