Hepatitis B: do you know your status?

According to the American Liver Foundation, “Hepatitis B is a serious disease that affects one out of ten Asian Americans and their families. Among immigrants, the prevalance can be as high as one in seven.”

Sounds scary, huh?  But we college students got the vaccinations in high school, so we don’t have to worry, right?

Maybe not.

One of my Asian American peers was vaccinated for the virus before college but recently found out she has chronic Hepatitis B. How did this happen?

Her mother had passed along the virus to her, and because she did not receive the vaccination until later in life, it was too late.

At checkups I’ve never asked my doctor what she looks for when she takes my blood sample. Has she been checking for Hepatitis B?

Next time I plan to ask.

–posted by Debbie Chong

Isn’t Cantonese “Chinese” too?

What is up with UCLA’s Chinese placement test?  Currently students may only take the placement test in the Mandarin dialect, the standard language of mainland China and Taiwan.

Of course, Mandarin is a very useful dialect to know, since it is the most widely spoken language in the world today.  However, Cantonese is a major Chinese dialect and is spoken in southeastern China and overseas Chinese communities around the globe.

It strikes me as odd that a Cantonese speaker who is literate in Chinese but does not speak Mandarin would need to take two courses (Mandarin for Cantonese Speakers) in order to fulfill the language requirement using “Chinese.”

Although Cantonese is just one out of many languages and dialects in the world, since UCLA has quite a few Cantonese-speaking students, I feel that it deserves to be treated as a “language” in this context.

–posted by Debbie Chong

Pacific Ties in the News

UCLA’s daily student newspaper – The Daily Bruin – wrote an article on our photochallenge competition in today’s paper:

http://www.dailybruin.com/news/2009/jan/29/pacific-ties-holding-contest/

Just to clarify – we’re an Asian American Pacific Islander magazine…NOT JUST PACIFIC ISLANDER.

To enter out photochallenge, go here: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=49008821490

THEME: PASSION
DEADLINE: FEB 6

Let’s redefine ‘cybering’

In the 90s, ‘cybering’ referred to the non-exchange of bodily fluids kind of sex – internet sex.  Moreover, it involved a connection between individuals across any distance, a rarity in the age of pre MySpace.  But hey, who really uses the word ‘cybering’ anymore? With the cyber space littered with hundreds of social networking sites (SNS), we can make hundreds of connections with a click of a mouse.  Discussion is encouraged! Opinions matter! We read threads!

Over at the change.gov channel on YouTube, they posted this video of President Obama’s Transition‘s Office of Public Liaison meeting with advocates for AAPI issues.  Unfortunately, there are no comments.  But you’re free to participate in the conversation.

There’s been a ton of discussion surrouding the President’s unprecedented use of SNSs – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter during his campaign.  It looks like we’re going to see more of it during the presidency.  I don’t know if we’re all becoming more media literate, but we definitely have the option to know more, read more, watch, see, PARTICIPATE more than ever before. The president gives weekly addresses!? We’re allowed to participate and join in the conversation!? Honestly, this is new to me – and for a whole generation of young people alienated by the the twilight zone we’ll just call the Bush Era.

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Posted by: Maria.  You can find her posts on Tuesdays and Fridays.  Feel free to comment with your own opinions.  The angrier the better.  Happy comments are also accepted.

FROM LA Times: India’s reaction to Slumdog

Even as American audiences gush over “Slumdog Millionaire,” some Indians are groaning over what they see as yet another stereotypical foreign depiction of their nation, accentuating squalor, corruption and impoverished-if-resilient natives. READ MORE

Home-grown Hip-Hop, China

(image from nytimes.com, lila bubb)

I keep hip-hop separate from the rest of my stuff on my ipod. It’s the genre that I click on most often when finding something to listen to when I’m in the car, on the way to school, in the dentist’s office, walking down the street…Nas, Talib Kweli, Jay-Z, and Lupe Fiasco were always providing the soundtrack to my non-gritty LA existence.

In my globalization classes, I was fascinated by my professor’s explanation about how hip-hop became a medium of self expression of urban discontent in the ban lieus of France. French rap was born from circumstances different than American rap, but the emotions were the same. Criticism of society, of unequality, of the injustices that they were forced to accept.

I began to associate hip-hop as something more than American – it was a movement that unites the world in a commanality. It’s a sharing of culture, of art, of a medium that transcends languages and generational lines. (Ok, the last one may be a little idealistic but the hip-hop movement started in the 80s and that spans 3 decades, which means more people are exposed to it than ever!)

This piece from Friday’s New York Times is a great exploration of underground hip-hop in China. It’s not the stuff that Jay Chou shills – it’s a movement that is spreading throughout a country that has been taught to think, be, and live the same. In a place where freedom of expression is limited in ways that we take for granted, there is an undercurrent of non-state approved creativity. Don’t forget to watch the video! READ MORE.

We’re all about the diversity…

Pacific Ties is all about the diversity, not Bennetton colors style but more like “hey look at all these cool people you did not know about”.  Let’s start with the first family:

New York Times: In First Family, a Nation’s Many Faces

Fans are not just for tradition

In the social networking world, you probably have a Facebook. And if you’re here reading this, you probably know who we are. So join our Facebook fan page and show your support for great student journalism, photography, art, design, culture, alternative media, and the minority community:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2200053481#/pages/Pacific-Ties/41289306063?ref=ts

And if you show us some love, we’ll send* you issues of Pacific Ties, free of charge

(*Addresses must be msged to us. Don’t worry, that kind of stuff we don’t share)

Welcome New Members!

We have 6 new kick ass individuals to add to our team! Welcome to the family!

Shirley Mak

Linda Reyes

Elizabeth Park

Tommy Chen

Athalia Nakula

+ our freelance photographer – Chris Wu!

Swatting the WASPY.gov

We featured Don Nakanisi, director of the Asian American Studies Center last quarter in our feature story: Activism Through Education.  Nakanishi has a great interview in an AP story on Salon.com titled: Asian-American Political Profile Rising in the U.S.

“Many people of Asian descent have stepped beyond their national identities to develop a pan-Asian perspective, giving both money and votes to Asian-American candidates who might not share their national origin, according to Don Nakanishi, director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center.”

More immigrants are granted citizenship, registering to vote, and participating in local, state and federal government.

“After Obama, it’s not unthinkable that a guy like Jindal could become president some day,” he said. “There is still a lot pioneering going on, but Asian-Americans are really becoming an even more viable and visible actor in American politics.” Read more.

Really? Jindal? But political affiliations aside…this is a great time for minorities in politics and it’s going to get even better.

Look out for Pacific Ties’s story on APIs in politics in our next issue with an exclusive look at Obama’s cabinet.