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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 2014)
OPINION July 7, 2014 THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 7 TALKING STORY IN ASIAN AMERICA The point of this story is in equal parts, some awful Southeast Asian history, an acknowledgement of Portland’s warm embrace, and a morality tale about this gung-ho guy going into business on Portland’s robust east end. n Polo What’s up with Kilong East Portland, making and remaking America ortland is moving East. It’s not ambitious immigrant Portlanders on the move. It’s not blue-collar Portland moving. These families, our families, are already raising bright kids in our city’s east end. The move’s not our African-American families. It’s not their faiths or their futures migrating — that shameful swell peaked a decade ago. No, it’s none of that. Today’s big move east is in City Hall development policies. It’s in downtown investment dollars. It’s a movement narrated by westside print and broadcast media. Early workweek mornings, we see their news vans zip east on I-84, as we’re streaming west. Evenings, our tired moms and dads click on their big screen Sanyos to stories told in earnest reporters’ cross- town perspectives. So odd, these are. It takes me back to when I was a kid. When we were new to America, there was this wavy mirror just inside downtown Salem’s Newberry department store’s door. Depending on your height, that mirror distorted either your face or your middle. Either way, your reflection was always unfamiliar, sometimes funny — today’s evening news is a lot like that. Maybe it’s time to rework this unattractive perspective. It serves no one well. Let’s get current, and let’s get there together. After all, remaking our talk and reshaping our walk are so central, so utterly essential to our American ethos. And always have been. P Checking in with Kilong Kilong Ung is also moving east. That is, he’s opening up shop out here. Actually, my best Khamput (Cambo- dian) bud is not all newsy in our far east neighborhoods. Not in our ridiculously optimistic ethnic streams. All 80 or so. Who hasn’t seen that photo of Kilong, trim and beaming in his Royal Rosarian dress whites and dapper hat, holding high the colors of the United States of America, at the head of Portland’s Rose Festival Parade? Cool Kilong, high-fiving his big sister Sivheng and everyone’s resilient sister Koann Tan. Killing Field survivors, all. And who hasn’t repeated Kilong stories? — Skinny orphan Kilong pulled away from the Khmer Rouge abyss by one of the surviving sisters and her gentle husband; shy student Kilong, shoved by Cleveland High’s kind teachers onto Reed College’s leafy campus; Kilong the New Columbia dad yanked into Rotary International business circles by business leaders such as Michael Cottam and Al Jubitz; Kilong firmly steered into Portland’s nationally envied civil society by broad-shouldered mayor Tuan Tom Potter. The Kilong Ung we all look at, and say: “Hey, if he can do it — so can we.” So the news is: Our best Cambod- American bud is setting up a State Farm Insurance shop in humming Eastport Plaza. Eastport, at the corner of S.E. 82nd and HK’s super cool cuisine, L&L’s Hawai’i ono plate lunch, and, of course, that very last Starbucks before the edge of earth. Rechecking our reference points The point of this story is in equal parts, some awful Southeast Asian history, an acknowledgement of Portland’s warm embrace, and a morality tale about this gung-ho guy going into business on Portland’s robust east end. It’s a story that did not click to life the instant a network news guapo’s antennae lit up Oregon’s overcast summer sky. Tidak. It’s a narrative with a complex past, with an intricate eastside present, with a shared future. Ask anyone in Eastport Starbuck’s long-long morning coffee line. Ja tentu. Because nearly 37 percent of Portland’s school kids live, laugh, and lank around in our city’s east end — because we’re nearly a month away from trendy and oh-so-natty Kilong Ung opening his insurance shop out here — maybe today’s the day to reframe our public narrative about east Portland. Now’s a good time to unwarp that unat- tractive and untrue Newberry’s mirror. A more discerning eastside strategy for downtown investing will surely follow. If Kilong can walk away from one of humanity’s darkest episodes, if he can build a business in a neighborhood of trees gagging from carbon emissions, if he can ‘Transformers’ tries for delicate U.S.-China balance Continued from page 4 elled to China. He is a positive figure in Chinese history and workable fodder for a Chinese-inspired script. He Xuefeng, a Film Bureau official, said it was too early to say whether Marco Polo would be given co-production status. Chinese private investor Fosun Inter- national Ltd. has announced it would invest in Studio 8 — a company founded by former Warner Bros. executive Jeff Robinov. Also this month, Hollywood film financier and Chinese producer Relativity Media and Jiangsu Broadcasting Corp. announced an agreement to co-produce, co-finance, and distribute film and tele- vision content for both the international and Chinese markets. Transformers: Age of Extinction is not an official co-production, but Hollywood- based Paramount worked with China Movie Channel and Jiaflix Enterprises to make the film. Paramount is not thought to have applied for the official co-produc- tion status, although it did not respond to requests for comment, and was likely assured of being chosen among this year’s quota of imports because of its blockbuster brand and Chinese elements. Hollywood coming to China isn’t “neces- sarily a good thing for creative freedom” because screenwriters will avoid topics sensitive to Beijing such as the Dalai Lama or the Falun Gong spiritual group, said Keane, the expert at Queensland Univer- sity of Technology. “It’s going to mean a kind of dumbing down in terms of people will self-censor,” Keane said. “They’re going to make stories that are neutral or even positive towards China in order to get into the market- place.” Cigarette makers ignore Indonesia label deadline Continued from page 3 Marlboro, have become more popular in recent years. All brands are cheap, selling for about $1 a pack, making it easy for children to take up the habit. Associated Press writer Niniek Karmini contributed to this report. Royal Rosarian Kilong Ung marches in the Portland Rose Festival Parade carrying the colors of the United States of America. (Photo/Mony Mao) bring a nationally recognized business into a stretch of town where wheel-chaired Portlanders roll on streets rather than negotiate unkind sidewalks — then maybe downtown’s reporters and policy leaders need a longer moment to understand that East Portland. That American dreaming. In fact, those brown and black and blue-collar folks referenced at the top of this column have already done that. They’ve inventoried all that. They call it our East Portland Action Plan. So, with another July Fourth under our ever-expanding belts, let’s make What’s up with Kilong? a kind of local pulse-taking. A real-time application of “What’s up with East Portland?” Two grounded versions of “What’s up with America?” Because you know: If abang Kilong figures he can do it, so can we. w The Asian Reporter’s Expanding American Lexicon 80 ethnic streams: Portland Public Schools boasts serving families speaking 77 languages. David Douglas High School students speak 64. We hit 80 by adding English-speaking African Americans, Native Americans, and American Jews. Abang (Passar Bahasa): My brother. My best bud. East Portland Action Plan: EPAP is a congress of vigorous civic activists organized into 16 working committees covering (among other urban issues) transportation, education, parks, and civic engagement of culturally underrepresented and language-specific communities, and it is a living document of (at present, 268) action items articulating east Portland assets and east Portland urgencies in need of implementation. Guapo (Spanish adjective): Handsome. (Ta- galog noun): Good looking guy. Gung-ho (Americanism derived from Mandarin): Original meaning is work together, but after reshaping by U.S. Marine Corp, after reworking by Hollywood, took today’s more common parlance of referring to a go-getter guy. HK: Of course this names a very cool restaurant on the robust corner of S.E. 82nd Avenue and Holgate. Also short for Hong Kong. A hip PC (Pacific Community) text abbreviation, like KL (Kuala Lumpur) or like HCMC (Ho Chi Minh City). Also like: Ogh, AFD (Asian Fashion Disaster). Like: Ayaah, DSWP (Don’t Scare da White People). Insuring New Americans: Mr. George Azumano successfully leveraged selling insur- ance products to his Nikkei neighbors into selling Oregon universities to Japanese parents, selling Central Oregon ranch sets to Fuji TV execs. Mr. Azumano leveraged his good name into selling River City, Yaquina Head, and Mount Hood as Asian tourist destinations. Likewise, Manong Jess Osilla, our 2014 Asian Reporter Foundation Most Honored Elder, educated his kids, secured his retirement, and still had evenings to teach ballroom dancing. And likewise, discerning Viet Chin civic activist H.Q. La, board director of Asian Pacific American Chamber of Commerce of Oregon and Southwest Washington, and volunteer for the American Cancer Society, con- tinues this precedent of serving our communities while strengthening a national insurance brand. Ja tentu (Indo patois): Yes, of course. Certainly. Koann Tan: Elegant and stubborn Khmer Rouge genocide survivor. Oregon real estate business owner. Mom of recent U.S. Military Academy at West Point grad; wife of U.S. Army National Guard Colonel (Ret.) who led and brought home two tours of Oregon guardsmen/ women into Afghanistan’s deadly Kandahar province, without casualties. Daughter-in-law of a Royal Cambodian Army Colonel (Ret.). Last Starbucks: Actually the last Starbucks before Idaho is at N.E. 102nd and Halsey. Sure there are two Starbucks drive-throughs, but they don’t provide the communal space so central to all Portland A-groups (Africans and African Americans, Asians and Arabs, Americano Latinos and American Pacific Islanders). Ono plate lunch: Ono (Hawai’i patois): Delicious. Plate lunch: An example of Hawai’i’s cultural gado-gado (mix-mix). A picnic plate piled high with fried Yankee spam, Nikkei chicken katsu, Portuguese sausage, steamed Thai jasmine rice, Midwest macaroni salad, and some cra-zy kim chee. So ono, yah? Tidak (Bahasa Indonesia): Nope. Tuan (Bahasa Indonesia): Master. Sir. Woman or machine? New robots look creepily human Continued from page one display at Miraikan museum, or the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, in Tokyo, allowing the public to interact with them extensively. Reflecting widespread opinion, Ishiguro said Japan leads the world in playful companion robots. But he acknowledged the nation was behind the U.S. in military robots. Developing robots for more than 20 years, Ishiguro has made a point of creating robots that approximate the human appearance, including creatures that look like him. He has sent them to give overseas lectures. His approach differs from some robotics scientists who say human appearance is pointless, perhaps creepy, and robots can look like machines, such as taking the form of a television screen or a portable device. Ishiguro noted proudly how Japanese internet company Softbank Corp. recently showed a robot named Pepper, which looks a little like C-3PO in Star Wars, and will sell for less than 200,000 yen ($2,000). Pepper’s arrival means robots are increasingly becoming part of everyday life in Japan. “Robots are now becoming affordable — no different from owning a laptop,” said Ishiguro. Celebrate the Year of the Horse! January 31, 2014 to February 18, 2015 Read our special Lunar New Year edition online at <www.asianreporter.com>.
