Page 8 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
U.S.A.
March 17, 2014
Smithsonian eyes influences of Indian Americans
INDIAN INFLUENCE. Indian immigrants work
on the construction of the Pacific and Eastern Railroad
in Oregon, circa 1906. The image is part of a display,
“Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Na-
tion,” the Smithsonian’s first major exhibit examining
the history of Indian immigration to the United States
and the influence of Indian Americans. (Photo cour-
tesy of the Southern Oregon Historical Society and
the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program)
By Brett Zongker
The Associated Press
ASHINGTON — Indian Ameri-
cans are doctors, engineers,
motel owners, taxi drivers, and
spelling bee champs — just a few
takeaways from a new exhibit at the
Smithsonian.
Looking closer, though, curators are
probing the history behind certain cultural
stereotypes of the population of 3.3 million
Americans in a new exhibit in Washing-
ton, D.C.
The influx of Indian doctors, for
example, began in the 1960s as the U.S.
needed more physicians for its new
Medicare system and immigration law
opened the door to those with medical
training. Later, the American inventors of
Hotmail, the Pentium chip, and fiber
optics were all of Indian origin, perhaps
because H-1B visas for engineers were a
U.S. effort to remain competitive with the
Soviet Union during the Cold War.
“Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans
Shape the Nation” is the Smithsonian’s
first major exhibit to examine the history
of Indian immigration to the United States
and the influence of Indian Americans.
It’s a story that dates to the first Indians
arriving in 1790, those who helped build
the nation’s railroads and farms, and those
who fought for citizenship when immigra-
tion from Asia was discouraged. There are
also plenty of more recent contributions of
leading
Indian-American
writers,
entertainers, athletes, and a fashion
designer favored by First Lady Michelle
Obama.
Curator Masum Momaya said her team
used Indian-American stereotypes as an
entry point for visitors to learn more.
W
“We want to take people beyond some of
the things they know and have seen in
popular culture to the deeper and more
nuanced history,” she said. “I think one of
the things that museums can do is add
history and add context to contemporary
conversations about race and immigra-
tion.”
So in a subtle way, curators show the
current debate over immigration has been
debated before.
The
Smithsonian
borrowed
and
collected objects from many Indian
Americans, from family photos and shoes
that evoke a family home to the NFL
helmet worn by the first Indian American
to win the Super Bowl, Brandon Chillar
with the Green Bay Packers.
For more than a year, curators worked to
borrow a dress made by Indian-American
designer Naeem Khan for Mrs. Obama.
decade.
“It’s novel, but at the same time, it does
speak to that experience of becoming
American,” said Konrad Ng, director of the
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American
Center. “Spelling bees have this symbolic
value of being American, being literate in
the language of the country and excelling
in it.”
The exhibit at the National Museum of
Natural History is part of a $2 million
ongoing heritage project at the center. It
will also help bring new items into the
Smithsonian’s collection to represent
Indian Americans.
Newly acquired artifacts include
campaign materials from former U.S.
representative Dalip Singh Saund of
California, who was the first Asian
American elected to congress in 1957.
The display is on view at the
Smithsonian’s National Museum of
Natural History, located at 1000
Constitution Avenue N.W. in Washington
D.C., through August 16, 2015. To learn
more,
visit
<www.apa.si.edu/indian
american/beyond-bollywood.html>.
Khan draws on a line of Indian embroidery
techniques in his design for an American
silhouette.
The rarely seen gown joins items from
other Indian-American groundbreakers.
There’s the NCAA basketball jersey from
the first player to wear a turban in
competition as a symbol of his Sikh faith, a
silver Olympic medal won by gymnast
Mohini Bhardwaj in Athens, and the first
U.S. spelling bee trophy won by an Indian
American in 1985. Coincidentally, Indian-
American students have been on a spelling
bee winning streak for most of the past
Fortune cookie turns Bronx woman into millionaire
maybe the waiters should get 20 percent of
her winnings.
Duvoll, a retired deli owner, picked up
her prize this month. She purchased the
ticket for the February 1 drawing at the
Hannaford Pharmacy in upstate Pine
Bush.
She plans to invest her winnings and
may splurge on a trip to Switzerland to see
relatives.
NEW YORK (AP) — A 75-year-old New
York woman found her fortune in a cookie.
Emma Duvoll won $2 million in a recent
Powerball drawing after playing the
numbers found in her fortune cookie.
The retired Bronx resident bought the
lottery ticket after dining at a Chinese
restaurant in Greenwich Village.
The Daily News reports that the owner
of Sammy’s Noodle Shop & Grill joked that
Frozen wins Oscar for animated feature film
LOS ANGELES (AP) —
Disney’s fairytale musical
Frozen won the Oscar for
best animated feature.
The 3-D film about a
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magically icy princess and
her sister was directed by
Chris Buck and Jennifer
Lee, with voicing by Idina
Menzel, Kristen Bell, and
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Difficulty level: Hard
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#37259
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Solution to
last week’s
puzzle
Puzzle #59683 (Medium)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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Josh Gad. It’s loosely based
on the 19th-century Hans
Christian Andersen fairy-
tale, “The Snow Queen,”
and features the catchy
tween anthem “Let It Go.”
Other nominees were:
The Croods, Despicable Me
2, Ernest & Celestine, and
The Wind Rises.
The
86th
Academy
Awards aired live on ABC
from the Dolby Theatre in
Los Angeles, with Ellen
DeGeneres as host.