Ke-tchup, Ge-tchup, and Kue-chiap

I’ll be honest. I was not looking forward to doing this week’s assigned reading. So, I was relieved when I found out I got to read about ketchup instead. I happen to love ketchup. I was studying in the library with a friend when I read the article. I accidentally misread “Fujianese,” and briefly thought out loud, “People from Fiji speak Fujianese?” My friend looked up in surprise and asked to see what I was reading. She smiled, and gently pointed out my error. I’ll blame that error on not enough sleep this past week because of writing end of term papers. My friend told me that a mutual friend of ours is part Fujianese, which I thought was kind of cool.

Anyway, I was mildly grossed out to find out that ketchup was mainly made from fermented walnuts or fermented mushrooms from 1750 to 1850. I knew that the Chinese were already credited with inventing many things such as gun powder, but I was definitely surprised to find out that the origins of ketchup could be traced back to the Chinese too.

Here’s how to use a paper ketchup cup properly:

Make Love




I thought of this news article when reading about the Sikhs in Chapter 20.

I first learned of Waris Ahluwalia when I saw him in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. He is not only an actor, but a talented designer too. His company, House of Waris, has collaborated with many fashion heavyweights including A.P.C., Colette, and Illesteva Eyewear.

Cantor Museum visit 11/16/13

On Saturday the 16th of November, I visited the Cantor Museum in Palo Alto.

To my surprise there was a large collection of Asian area artifacts! If you've been paying attention in class, the collection is VERY relevant to what we've been studying this semester.

I urge if you get the chance, make a visit! Admission is free and parking is free on weekends it's a great experience.

 I thought these snuff bottles were really interesting, I recall my grandmother having a small collection of these.

The Chairman





Reading about Mao Tse-tung this week made me realize that I wanted research more about him for the paper we have to write for this class.

Here are some fun facts about Mao:

a. He was married four times and had ten children.


b. He was especially afraid of airplanes.


c. He and Trotsky are the only two notable Marxists who wrote autobiographies.


d. His Chinese Zodiac Sign is the Snake.


e. Like many of his countrymen, he refused to brush his teeth, choosing instead to rinse with tea and chew the leaves.

Somehow, I don’t think any of these facts will make it into my essay.

Typhoon Watch
Typhoon Haiyan has just been upgraded to a Super Typhoon: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/super-typhoon-haiyan_n_4232240.html

I keep hearing different news agencies trying to predict the extent of the damage Super Typhoon Haiyan will cause. Unfortunately, I think it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. This makes me think of the news coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. To get a better idea of what might happen because of Super Typhoon Haiyan, I looked up some facts about Hurricane Katrina:

a. Hurricane Katrina was the largest and third strongest hurricane ever recorded to make landfall in the U.S.
b. In New Orleans, the levees were designed for Category 3, but Katrina peaked at a Category 5 hurricane, with winds up to 175 miles per hour.
c. The storm surge from Katrina was 20-feet (six meters) high.
d. Hurricane Katrina affected over 15 million people in different factors such as economy, evacuations, gas prices or drinking water.
e. An estimated 80 percent of New Orleans was under water, up to 20 feet deep in places.

Pink

After the Vietnam War, large numbers of refugees from countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos moved to the Tenderloin. Some of these refugees and their families were the authors of a book I read for my Streetwise Sociology class called, Stories of Survival: Three Generations of Southeast Asians Share Their Lives. Originally published in 2002, Stories of Survival is a compilation of oral histories by Southeast Asian residents living in two Eddy Street apartment buildings owned by the Indochinese Housing Development Corporation (IDHC). The stories span three generations: immigrant parents, their American-born children and the "1.5 generation," young people who were born in an Asian country, but grew up in the United States. The 10th Anniversary Edition includes an update on the original participants as well as a bonus story. I liked reading about the mass immigration of Chinese to parts of Southeast Asia in Chapter 15 because it helped me realize why many of the contributors to Stories of Survival were ethnically Chinese, but were also nationals of other Southeast Asian countries.

Bunny Wave 

One of my friends really loves ukiyo-e art and the Japanese woodblock printmaker, Hokusai. She’s also a fan of the kozyndan version of Hokusai’s “The Great Wave” so I thought I’d include a picture of both for comparison. I liked that this week’s reading including more information about Hokusai. I did not know that was not his real name and that his real name is unknown. In my Modern Times class, we learned about French Impressionism. So, I found it interesting that after his death, his work influenced French impressionists. I like that Meiji Japan and the West effected each other simultaneously.

I also thought it was interesting that the woodblock papers were used in order to PACKAGE exports! It reminds me of when I use Bay Area newspaper to pack and ship car parts I sell.