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About The Asian reporter. (Portland, Or.) 1991-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 2022)
COMMUNITY / A.C.E. September 5, 2022 First Ave S, Seattle). View an exhibit by Chin Yuen, an internationally recognized and award-winning painter. Born in Malaysia, Yuen studied in Singapore and England before moving to Canada. She continues to travel extensively and sees her diverse cultural exposures as an artistic asset and finds inspiration everywhere, from pop-culture to decaying wood. For info, call (206) 839-0377 or visit <www.artxchange.org>. Events calendar Please note: Policies on face coverings and social distancing vary for venues. Please read the guidelines for each organization and proceed accordingly. Some activities feature timed ticketing with advance online purchase required. “Shades of Light: Korean Art from the Collection” Easter Sunday Now showing, theaters in metropolitan Portland. Watch comedian Jo Koy in Easter Sunday, a new film that is a love letter to his Filipino-American community. In the comedy, Koy plays a man returning home for an Easter celebration with his riotous, bickering, eating, drinking, laughing, loving family. Easter Sunday also stars Jimmy O. Yang, Lydia Gaston, Asif Ali, Rodney To, Tiffany Haddish, and others. For info, visit <www.eastersundaymovie.com>. See related story on page 14. “Bruce Lee: Be Water, My Friend” Currently on view, 10am-5pm (Wed-Sun), Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (719 S King St, Seattle). View “Bruce Lee: Be Water, My Friend,” an interactive exhibit that invites viewers to step into the mind, body, and spirit of Bruce Lee to see how his unquenchable pursuit of knowledge informed his philosophy and life. The display follows Bruce’s path, beginning with his revelations on water, through the wealth of knowledge found in his 2,800-book personal library, to his philosophy of self-understanding and self-expression. For info, or to purchase tickets, call (206) 623-5124 or visit <www.wingluke.org>. “Oregon’s Nikkei: An American Story of Resilience” Currently on view, 11am-3pm (Fri-Sun), Japanese American Museum of Oregon at the Naito Center (411 NW Flanders St, Portland). View “Oregon’s Nikkei: An American Story of Resilience,” an exhibit that highlights the discrimination, resilience, and identity of the Japanese-American community in Oregon. The display begins in rural Oregon and the streets of Portland’s Japantown where Japanese immigrants embraced American ideals. What they built was abruptly taken away during World War II when people of Japanese descent were imprisoned in American internment camps. From early immigration through current day, the exhibit explores the Japanese-American experience and includes the rebuilding of communities and the ongoing fight for justice. For info, or to purchase tickets, call (503) 224-1458 or visit <www.jamo.org>. THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 15 SENSATIONAL SOCCER. Portland Thorns FC take on Racing Louisville FC and the Chicago Red Stars in the National Women’s Soccer League on September 21 and 25, respectively. Pictured is Thorns FC midfielder Hina Sugita (right, #8). (AR Photo/Denise Avery) Through Dec 31, 10am-5pm (Wed-Sun), Portland Art Museum (1219 SW Park Ave, Portland). View “Shades of Light: Korean Art from the Collection,” an exhibit that brings together a broad range of Korean creative practices from the museum’s permanent collection linked by the subtle role of light. Light reflects off the surface of an object, or even travels through it; in other cases the interplay of light and dark is precisely what gives an image form. The display highlights the superlative celadon glazes of the Goryeo period (918-1392) and the later taste for white porcelain in the Joseon period (1392-1897). Alongside historical examples are recent works by contemporary women ceramic artists. For info, or to purchase tickets, call (503) 226-2811 or visit <www.portlandartmuseum.org>. “I Am an American: Stories of Exclusion and Belonging” “Be/Longing: Contemporary Asian Art” Currently on view, 10am-5pm (Fri-Sun), Seattle Asian Art Museum (1400 E Prospect St, in Volunteer Park, Seattle). View “Be/Longing: Contemporary Asian Art,” an exhibit featuring 12 artists who were born in different parts of Asia — Azerbaijan, Iran, India, Thailand, China, Korea, and Japan — and have all spent time or moved outside of Asia. Their experiences as both insiders and outsiders have compelled them to explore their Asian heritage from multiple perspectives. Their works, as a result, are at once Asian and global, and comment on fundamental concerns of who we are and where we belong. For info, or to purchase tickets, call (206) 654-3100 or visit <www.seattleartmuseum.org>. “The World Transformed” Through Sep 10, 11am-3pm (Fri-Sun), Portland Chinatown Museum (127 NW Third Ave, Portland). View “The World Transformed,” a display of original work by theatrical designer Carey Wong. The exhibit of 16 scenic designs and set models spans the past four decades of Wong’s career. Designs featured include six shows with Asian or Asian-American settings as well as set models for designs created for the Portland Opera and Portland Center Stage in its inaugural season. For info, or to purchase tickets, call (503) 224-0008 or visit <www.portlandchinatownmuseum.org>. Chin Yuen Through Jan 8, 2023, 10am-5pm (Mon-Sat), noon-5pm (Sun), Oregon Historical Society Museum (1200 SW Park Ave, Portland). View “I Am an American: Stories of Exclusion and Belonging,” an exhibit featuring photographs, paintings, and installation art designed to focus on the experiences of Asian Americans. For info, call (503) 222-1741 or visit <www.ohs.org>. To learn about the project behind the exhibit, visit <www.theimmigrantstory.org>. “We Are Changing the Tide: Community Power for Environmental Justice” Through Feb 19, 2023, 10am-5pm (Wed-Sun), Wing Luke Museum of the Asian Pacific American Experience (719 S King St, Seattle). View “We Are Changing the Tide: Community Power for Environmental Justice,” an exhibit highlighting Asian American, Pacific Islander, and Native Hawaiian community work and activism in the Environmental Justice Movement, with a focus on solidarity with other affected communities. Visitors are able to explore stories and other content through photographs, art pieces, artifacts, and first-person voices to learn how BIPOC communities are addressing Environmental Justice and how we can all play a role in supporting collaborative systemic change. For info, or to purchase tickets, call (206) 623-5124 or visit <www.wingluke.org>. Continued on page 16 Through Oct 22 (Tue-Sat), 11am-5:30pm, ArtXchange (512 Nepal’s holy Bagmati River choked with black sewage, trash Continued from page 4 she doesn’t expect to see again anytime soon. “I now have serious doubt that it will be cleaned in my lifetime,” Lama said. “Not that there has not been any efforts, there have been several cleaning campaigns, but there are more people dirtying it. People are the problem.” Indeed, there have been efforts by both private volunteers and the government to clean up the river. Among those initiatives, every Saturday for the past seven years hundreds of volunteers have gathered in Kathmandu to pick up garbage and remove trash from the Bagmati. There almost every weekend is Mala Kharel, an executive member of the governmental High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilization, which was set up to help clean up the river. She volunteers her time not only for cleanup duty but to raise awareness among the population about avoiding pollution. Kharel said that over the years the campaign has succeeded in collecting about 80% of garbage along the riverbank, recovering all sorts of refuse from decaying animals to even, shockingly, the bodies of dead babies dumped there. But the pickup efforts admittedly fall short of perfection, in part since frequent disruptions to trash collection services encourage more dumping than they can keep up with. In addition, many thousands of people have built huts, shacks, and brick homes illegally along the river and refuse to leave. As for the sewage, according to Kharel, the committee is working on several projects including the construction of canals and pipes, built parallel to the river, to connect to sewer lines and prevent their waste from reaching the Bagmati. It also is considering a treatment plant, and working on upstream dams where rainwater can be captured and stored during the monsoon season and released during the dry months to flush the river, moving the waste downstream from Kathmandu. Work on the pipe and canal system began around 2013, but no completion date has been announced. Construction on two dams is ongoing — but said to be near done — while another remains in the process of getting started. But campaigners have high hopes for the near term. “In the next 10 years, I am hoping the river will be flowing clear and the banks will be clean and lined with trees,” Kharel said. “We are working hard with this target.” That optimism isn’t shared by everyone. Some environmentalists aren’t sure the dams, for instance, will be of much help. “There is too much expectation from these dams. Bagmati is a natural river and not a canal that can be cleaned so easily,” said Madhukar Upadhya, a watershed expert who studies the river closely and said its bed no longer has any sand left. Instead, today it’s lined with clay and mixed with chemicals dumped by industrial activity such as handwoven carpet makers, popular in the 1990s but now banned from the capital. “So much damage has already been done to it,” Upadhya said, “that it can perhaps be cleaned to some degree but not restored to its past glory.” Hindu priest Pandit Shivahari Subedi, who has spent three decades on the stone steps between the Bagmati and the Pashupatinath Temple performing rituals for devotees, takes a similarly dim view of the various cleanup campaigns he has seen. Divine intervention, he believes, is needed. “There have been too many assurances from political leaders and top people, but they have all not been fulfilled. … It looks like unless the gods create some kind of miracle, the Bagmati will not return to its glory,” Subedi said. “To clean the water naturally, by the grace of god, there needs to be huge flooding of water flushing the dirt.” Associated Press religion coverage receives support through The AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. COVID-19 vaccines offer hope. COVID-19 vaccines offer hope. You can can get get a f r ee vacci ne t hat You a free vaccine pr against ot ect s you agai nst 19. COVID- 19. COVID- If you a re 65 or older: Call 50 3- 988- 8939 t o get help scheduli ng an appoi nt ment at a vacci nat i on cli ni c. Int er pr et er s ar e avai lable. Call or check wi t h your local phar macy. Vi si t mult co.us/ covi dvacci ne f or t he lat est on how and wher e t o get a vacci ne. COVID quest i ons? Call 211 or 1- 866- 698- 6155 (TTY: di al 711) Visit multco.us/covid19 for the latest updates t hat prot ect s you