Chinese American

Did we really need to rediscover our inner chow mein? I didn't think so. After all, who ever thought we'd see that bland bomb of Americanized-ethnic cooking in a new restaurant - it's so mid-20th century. But just when I thought we'd arrived in a new era of sophistication in our approach to international flavors, embracing authenticity instead of hosing it down, along comes the unfortunately named Chew Man Chu, Marty Grims' campy purple wok-bar in Symphony House. This pan-Asian eatery not only distances itself from the apparently intimidating flavors of nearby Chinatown (" very ethnic . . . hard to understand for part of the Caucasian market," Grims has been told)

I write in regard to the closing of the New Eastern Warehouse because of health violations. As a Chinese American, I applaud the action of federal Food and Drug Administration officials to ensure quality of supplies to local restaurants. However, the statement "the warehouse was a major supplier of Chinese restaurants in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware" is misleading. The report had such an impact on all Chinese restaurants that many respectable establishments that have other suppliers are seriously threatened.

Dozens of non-Asian parents of Chinese American children turned out for the Main Line Chinese Festival at Radnor High School yesterday. Jerry Skillings and his wife, Abby Spector, had come from their Bala Cynwyd home with their daughter, Anna, 4 1/2. The couple, who are both 48, adopted Anna when she was a year old in Jiangxi province. They were at the festival for the same reason that they bring Anna to the high school for regular Saturday classes in her native language and traditions.

The head of an organization of leading Chinese Americans yesterday asked for calm while officials resolve this week's collision of a Chinese fighter with a U.S. spy plane. "There is no reason why we should not let level heads prevail. . . . We should just be patient," said Henry S. Tang, chairman of the Committee of 100, a New York-based group of U.S. citizens of Chinese descent that tries to foster better relations between the two countries. Tang said that many in the media and the public were reading too much into Sunday's incident involving the Chinese and a U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries II reconnaissance plane.

Filmed before this year's Oscar-nominated The Wedding Banquet and released now in the wake of its success, Ang Lee's Pushing Hands is a less deftly balanced exploration of many of the same cross-cultural themes that made The Wedding Banquet such a satisfying treat. Lee's first feature, shot in 1991 and recipient of several Asian-American Film Festival awards, is the story of an old tai chi master who leaves Beijing and comes to a New York suburb to live with his son and his son's American wife.

During the Los Angeles riots Asian-Americans across the country found themselves in a media spotlight that most probably found unpleasant. This was hardly new. Beginning with the flood of articles during the '80s on the "model minority," in which Asian-Americans were reported to resent preferential treatment given to black and Hispanic students, and continuing to the TV images of Korean-American storekeepers waving pistols at looters in Los...

Let me tell you what more and more young people are discovering every day in this country: Socially engineered "diversity" sucks. No, I am not talking about the organically grown diversity of American life - the voluntary kind that in my own family has led to loving marriages between people of all races and ethnicities, including Filipino, Russian, Korean, black, Scottish, Irish, Chinese and Italian. I am talking about the so-called diversity manufactured by government - the look-like-America-or-else variety that is enforced by race-obsessed civil servants who shuffle human beings around as recklessly as their endless piles of paperwork.

When Dale Ching first set eyes on this large island in San Francisco Bay, he was 16, he spoke no English, and he had just spent 22 days traveling on a crowded ship from China. He thought he was heading to the place people called Gum San, a "gold mountain" of riches and fortunes to be made. He thought he'd soon see the American-born father he had only glimpsed a few times in his life. Instead, he was locked up. For the next 3 1/2 months, he would live here at the Angel Island Immigration Station, the first stop for nearly every Chinese immigrant entering America from 1910 to 1940.

By its own admission, China's state-owned CAAC Airlines is a mess, with chronically late flights and lousy on-board service. But in the coming years - with the help of Drexel University and Philadelphia International Airport - the airline should be more competitive as its service gets better and its management smarter and more efficient. At least that's the hope of Chinese officials who just struck a unique agreement with Drexel and the airport to teach CAAC middle- and upper-level managers basic economics, management, marketing, international trade and American-style airport and airline operations.

An acrobat lifted a bicycle by the seat - with his teeth. A chef with a cleaver turned cucumbers into rabbits, grapes into hearts, potatoes into roses. Rainbow-colored lions swished and swayed and bucked at the crowd. Toddlers laughed and squealed as they pushed past adult knees to get a glimpse. Yesterday, Chinatown joined the Welcome America! festivities for the first time, with a block party on Race Street, between 10th and 11th streets. Families leaned out windows above a laundromat as a diverse crowd gathered on the sidewalks.

About 10 bullies kicked and punched two Asian-American students in between classes Friday morning at Edward W. Bok Technical High School, authorities said. The attack, which left the immigrant students, ages 14 and 15, with cuts and bruises on their faces, was apparently part of a preplanned freshmen hazing ritual, said Fernando Gallard, spokesman for the school district. But the hallway rumble wasn't written off as a boys-will-be-boys coming of age tale. Philadelphia police charged one of the bullies, 14, with assault and related offenses, said police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore.

Did we really need to rediscover our inner chow mein? I didn't think so. After all, who ever thought we'd see that bland bomb of Americanized-ethnic cooking in a new restaurant - it's so mid-20th century. But just when I thought we'd arrived in a new era of sophistication in our approach to international flavors, embracing authenticity instead of hosing it down, along comes the unfortunately named Chew Man Chu, Marty Grims' campy purple wok-bar in Symphony House. This pan-Asian eatery not only distances itself from the apparently intimidating flavors of nearby Chinatown (" very ethnic . . . hard to understand for part of the Caucasian market," Grims has been told)

For a culinary memoir to succeed it must awaken the senses as well as the emotions. In other words, it should have you sobbing into your See Yao Gai (soy sauce chicken). Such is the success of Leslie Li, an American-born writer in town last week to read from her third book, Daughter of Heaven (Arcade Publishing), at First Person, the annual 10-day festival focused on the art of memoir. Addressing a full house gathered June 12 for a banquet at Joseph Poon Asian Fusion Restaurant on Arch Street in Chinatown, Li read from her work and enjoyed the five-course meal Poon made with recipes inspired by her book.

Within the last month, three Chinese Americans have been killed while working in Philadelphia restaurants. One was a young mother who smiled at her neighbors. Another was a husband who dreamed of changing careers and training in herbal medicine. Now Chinese community leaders are demanding that police step up and serve what they say is their neglected community. More than 100 people gathered at Holy Redeemer Church near Chinatown yesterday to ask Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson for help.

Dozens of non-Asian parents of Chinese American children turned out for the Main Line Chinese Festival at Radnor High School yesterday. Jerry Skillings and his wife, Abby Spector, had come from their Bala Cynwyd home with their daughter, Anna, 4 1/2. The couple, who are both 48, adopted Anna when she was a year old in Jiangxi province. They were at the festival for the same reason that they bring Anna to the high school for regular Saturday classes in her native language and traditions.

The head of an organization of leading Chinese Americans yesterday asked for calm while officials resolve this week's collision of a Chinese fighter with a U.S. spy plane. "There is no reason why we should not let level heads prevail. . . . We should just be patient," said Henry S. Tang, chairman of the Committee of 100, a New York-based group of U.S. citizens of Chinese descent that tries to foster better relations between the two countries. Tang said that many in the media and the public were reading too much into Sunday's incident involving the Chinese and a U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries II reconnaissance plane.

For the nightmare to finally end for Liu Wen Cheng and his family took less than a minute. In Room B of Philadelphia Family Court yesterday, a translator delivered the words of Assistant District Attorney Carol Weiner's one-sentence path to freedom: The commonwealth moves to drop all the charges. "We are very excited," Liu said through interpreter KeKe Wang as he left the courtroom. "This is the day we were waiting for. The conclusion was satisfactory. Yes, we are angry, but it is past.

When Dale Ching first set eyes on this large island in San Francisco Bay, he was 16, he spoke no English, and he had just spent 22 days traveling on a crowded ship from China. He thought he was heading to the place people called Gum San, a "gold mountain" of riches and fortunes to be made. He thought he'd soon see the American-born father he had only glimpsed a few times in his life. Instead, he was locked up. For the next 3 1/2 months, he would live here at the Angel Island Immigration Station, the first stop for nearly every Chinese immigrant entering America from 1910 to 1940.

For local Chinese-Americans, President Clinton's historic trip to China this week offers them much-needed hope. The nine-day trip, the first by a U.S. president since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, offers hope that both countries will develop stronger ties, politically and economically. Hope that the longstanding rift between Taiwan and the mainland will resolve itself without war. Hope that their relatives in China will have better lives and more freedom. "I think most people view it as a positive," said Tsiwen Law, a local Chinese lawyer and trustee of the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies.

In the glitzy, monied world of Los Angeles power-dining, Wolfgang Puck's restaurants always draw stars. Over the years, the celebrity chef and his designer wife, Barbara Lazaroff, have built a multimillion-dollar empire of California-style hot spots, from Spago, famous for its upscale pizzas, to the eclectic Asian fusion cuisine of Chinois and ObaChine. But here at the edge of Puget Sound, where the dress code leans toward jeans and the emphasis is on fresh food, not fuss, Puck is drawing a new kind of crowd, one that doesn't arrive in limos - or even to eat. They come to the Seattle branch of ObaChine holding placards and shouting slogans.