High School Graduation

Whelp...the baby daughter finally graduated from Galileo.  The last of a twelve year quest starting from five years old in kindergarten at Spring Valley, then Marina Middle School and then Galileo High School....all three of them.

From here they are adults.

I'm not to sure where baby daughter is planning.  She has not spoken to me for six months.  She's still mad at me for changing the channel to watch a football game.

I am worried if I can pay her college tuition.

Photographic Justice at the 145th Golden Spike event in Utah

I made it out to the 145th Anniversary of the Golden Spike event in Utah.

I went because fellow photographer Corky Lee wanted to do this flash mob of many Chinese at the two locomotives.  145 years ago there were no Chinese in the photo though the Chinese played a major role in the building the transcontinental railway.

I always had a problem with that.  I started to paint a mural at the Chinese Historical Society of America's museum where I am an artist in residence.  When Corky told me what he was doing, I wanted to be a part of it.

The local Chinese community of Salt Lake City organized the Chinese community and loaded three tour buses full to the Golden Spike event.  The event organizers accommodated us to get that picture.

I took Amtrak to Salt Lake City.  Arriving there at 3am was a bit rough.

We got to check out the railroad museum in Ogden.  We took a light rail called the Front Runner there.  That evening we went to Ho Ho restaurant for dinner.

The following day after a simple lunch at Little Taste Chinese restaurant, there was a press conference at the State Capitol.  Both the Governor and Mayor  whom were to present proclamations did not show up.  That evening the local Chinese group CATS-UT treated us to dinner at the Golden Dragon.

On the third day we boarded the buses at 7am for the 90 minute bus ride to the Golden Spike event.  It's out in the middle of nowhere!  Apparently the railroad does not run through there nowadays and the two replica locomotives are there only for show.  Other than us 175 or so Chinese...there were about the 200 regular (white) people there for the event.

That evening we were treated to a bbq at Ze and Andy's house.

We got stuck out in Salt Lake city by two days as a rockslide in Wyoming, tornadoes in Nebraska and a freak snow storm in Colorado delayed us from leaving till Tuesday evening.  And it wasn't till 2am that we boarded the train on Wednesday morning.

I first went to Salt Lake City back in 1979 to lion dance for the Keelung sister city and Pioneer Day parade.  A lot has changed since.  There were probably three Chinese restaurants in Salt Lake City back then.  The food was so so....but nowadays there are many Chinese restaurants and some are suprisingly pretty good.  South State Street which seems to be the main drag now has many Chinese restaurants.  There's a new Chinatown mall that opened last year with a fancy gateway.  And of course many Chinese and Asians in Salt Lake City.

Miss Teen Chinatown

so....I designed this poster for the Miss Teen Chinatown contest.  The SF Chinatown haven't done this contest for four years.  My design became the program cover as well.  Got paid $200.  ooh wow...

Harriet had me photograph the event.  For free.  But they had an official photographer too... so it was like I was the backup.  And of course non-paid.

The farthest the photos went was the local Chinese press.  I don't know if the mainstream press ignored it or someone in the SF Chinatown Lion's Club didn't bother to inform them or what.  Maybe their press person still has the Chinatown ghetto mentality.  I dunno....

Leway Reunion

 

The Leway Reunion just happened this last weekend and I must say it was quite a reunion.  Over three hundred people attended the sold out event at Four Seas.  Judging by the noise level, everyone was having a good time.

By the way, I'm still taking orders for this poster.  It measure 20" x 30" and mounted on heavy board for $45.  Send?  Sure...add $10.  I'm sure it's gonna cost more than that to send.  Plus I have to get cardboard for it.   Paypal me:  lwongphoto@yahoo.com

Darkie

It's interesting how long this Darkie company got away with their products for so long... I think it was like in the mid 80's that they finally changed their name to Darlie.  I got this roll of mints sometimes in 1986 in Hong Kong.  Still got it! 

Dumpling Wars II

What?!  It's been over four months since I made an entry here?  OK OK ...here goes...

Gearing up for the Dumpling Wars 2.  I figured out how to make my own aspic.  Used canned chicken broth and gelatin.  Two packs per can...makes a pretty tough aspic.

We used Norm's mixer to knead the dough this time.  It worked well...but at the end just a bit of hand kneading does it.

Then made some Xiao Long Bao's with it.  We used a pasta maker this time to make the skin nice and thin.  Used an old can as our cutter...worked really good!

Into the bamboo steamers they go!  About less than ten minutes and ....

mmmm...mmm....xiaolongbao.  with real hot soup gushing out when you bite into it.

ok ok...the skin was still a tad thick....we'll adjust the pasta maker.

But better yet...come to the Dumpling Wars II...it's this Saturday.  For more information CLICK HERE.

See you there...we're We Grew Up In San Francisco Chinatown.

The Day the President Came to Chinatown

I was invited by the Ong family to attend the president's speech at the Betty Ann Ong Chinese Recreation Center.

No big cameras were allowed so all I had was my iPhone5.

I had a bad fall the other week so I was hobbling around with a cane.  They allowed me to enter as a handicap person.  That's a first for me.  I was able to sit down too.  The average person had to stand.  And they stood for more than two hours.  Supposedly there were 500 people in attendance but it seemed a little less than that.

The whole scene seemed artificial.  The gym of the recreation center was transformed into a television studio.  Draped with blue cloth on the walls and television studio lights professionally installed.  A huge American flag for the background.

The president finally entered and made his speech concerning immigration law reform which he was trying to push through congress.  I was probably like forty feet from where the president stood.  

I don't know what it is... but even the president seemed artificial.  Like he was acting and he was a very good actor.  He could have been just as well be a Jay Leno or Conan O'Brian.  Everything seemed staged and things happened on cue.  Even the hecklers that seemed to heckle at cue and then allowing the president to talk about the issue the hecklers brought about.  If they were true hecklers, they would heckle and heckle till they're lead out.  But these hecklers seemed orderly and were not led out.

Well...it was my first time I saw an American president live and up close.  At one point he was up about 3-4 rolls in front of me. 

By the way, I did not participate in the last two presidential elections.