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The Guardian
22-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Bruce Lee statue in San Francisco to honor ‘a story for all Americans'
For many, Bruce Lee is the first name that comes to mind when thinking of San Francisco's most iconic figures. Now, the city's Chinatown is honoring that legacy with a statue. A bronze Bruce Lee statue will be erected in San Francisco's Chinatown, his 1940 birthplace, following a proposal by memorabilia collector Jeff Chinn to the Chinese Historical Society of America. The 6ft (2-meter) statue will depict Lee in a prowling stance, ready to strike; the South Korean artist Arnie Kim will design and create the piece. The Rose Pak Community Fund has pledged $50,000, and the historical society is fundraising an additional $200,000. Justin Hoover, the group's director of special projects, said the project reflects a much larger sentiment felt by the community. 'This story is a story, not only of what it means to be Chinese in America, it is a story of mutual aid. It's about helping each other,' said Hoover during the project's launch event last week. 'It's about solidarity, and a story that is about not only the Chinese in America, but as a Chinese American story that's a story about all Americans.' The statue comes at a time when Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders remain concerned about the spike in violence in recent years, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. A national survey by Stop AAPI Hate, a US-based coalition focused on fighting discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, found that 49% of AAPIs in the US experienced some form of race-based hate in 2023. Asian Americans account for about 34% of San Francisco's population. 'This statue project combats Asian and Asian American hate by uplifting togetherness and unity,' said Janice Pettey, the executive director of the Chinese Historical Society of America. Lee starred in just five films before dying at 32 from an allergic reaction to a painkiller. Despite dying at a young age, he became a legendary Asian American action hero, all while defying Hollywood's racial stereotypes at the time. He famously rejected roles that required him to wear a queue, or braided pigtail, or embody the servile, desexualized tropes often forced onto Chinese men. In an era when it was typical for white actors to portray Asian characters by donning prosthetics and slanted-eye makeup, Lee lost out on major roles, one of which was a Shaolin monk in Kung Fu, which cast white actor David Carradine over him. 'An often unseen side of Bruce Lee was his place in civil rights advocacy as a practitioner of kung fu,' Pettey said. 'Against cultural tradition, he welcomed people of all backgrounds to his studio, including Black American, Caucasian and other Asian American students.' 'Bruce Lee was a unifier who embraced people of all races and genders, and spotlighted them in his own martial arts films, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,' Pettey added. The NBA basketball star Abdul-Jabbar trained under Lee and appeared in his film Game of Death in 1972. The statue of Lee is also part of broader efforts to boost appreciation of the Bay Area's Chinese heritage. In Oakland, a new proposal is on the table to change the name of the Lake Merritt Bart station to 'Oakland Chinatown', but the funding source for the estimated $750,000 project remains unclear. The statue in San Francisco will depict Lee facing off against Han, the one-handed crime boss from Enter the Dragon, Lee's most iconic film, which he never lived to see. He died a month before its release. 'Having a public statue to educate others about his San Francisco Chinatown roots and his Chinese American heritage will serve as a living tribute to his incredible story as a martial artist, filmmaker, philosopher, businessman and loving father and husband,' Pettey said. With birthright citizenship hanging by a thread in the US, Pettey said the group will continue to amplify San Francisco voices such as Lee's and Wong Kim Ark, who provided the interpretation of the 14th amendment's birthright provision. Pettey called them 'heroes that we would appreciatively amplify to ensure that the narrative of the Chinese in America is shared and explored'.
The Guardian
29-01-2025
- Lifestyle
- The Guardian
‘Less desirable': behind lunar new year superstitions of a year of the snake
At Asiastar Fantasy Inc, a San Francisco gift shop that specializes in Chinese cultural trinkets and décor, customers can choose from a wide variety of red envelopes or pluck a miniature lion dance costume replica from shelves bursting with curios to celebrate the lunar new year. Most animals from the Chinese zodiac are well represented in the gift shop except the one that officially symbolizes 2025: the snake. 'People just don't like the snake,' said Nancy Yu Law, Asiastar Fantasy's owner, about the reptile's negative reputation. When it came time to purchase inventory for her Chinatown shop, Yu Law, 52, stocked limited items emblazoned with images of the snake. 'In Chinese culture, you want to bring a dragon home. You will bring home a tiger or a horse,' she said. 'But you will never want to bring a snake home.' This year, lunar new year – beginning on 29 January – ushers in the year of the snake, one of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac. For many in Asian countries and their diasporas, the zodiac shapes not only new year traditions, but also major life decisions. Believers say the zodiac animal assigned to the birth year can determine a person's personality and romantic compatibility. The zodiac is often used as a cultural bellwether to life's biggest questions: will 2025 be my year? Is this the year to get married or start a family? For traditionalists, the answer might be no. 'The snake is a less desirable year,' said David Lei, a board member of the Chinese Historical Society of America about the snake's association with misfortune. Because of this, people who adhere to these cultural beliefs might defer decision-making on big life events. For Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in the US, navigating cultural beliefs about the zodiac is a complex interplay of honoring traditions and new values. Attitudes toward the Chinese zodiac vary widely, said Mario Poceski, a professor of Chinese religious history and culture at the University of Florida. 'Some people are hardcore. Some just think it's a fun thing to do,' said Poceski. 'It's like fortune cookies, right? How seriously do you take it?' The thousands-year-old cultural practice of using the Chinese zodiac as a life guide is in its gilded age again, especially on social media where zodiac content proliferates. In addition to predicting personality traits (rats are quick-witted and rabbits are gentle), the zodiac calendar is often used for matchmaking or gauging romantic compatibility. A good match in 2025 might pair someone born in the year of the horse with a person born in the year of the dog. But someone born in the pig year may struggle with a tiger year partner. Love, in all its complexities, is further complicated by the negative association with this year's cold-blooded creature. In Malaysia, where zodiac beliefs remain influential, wedding registrations and ceremonies have dropped. For the diverse AAPI community – which is still mostly foreign-born – adherence to cultural practices can snarl up decision-making. Especially when faced with the question: do you really want a snake baby? 'Sometimes snakes are just scary,' said Lei, 75. The reasons are rooted in the reptile's features and defense mechanism – in some species, venom – and its enduring cross-cultural characterization as villains. In folktales, snakes are often portrayed as cunning and jealous. The creature that brings on the downfall of humankind from the Garden of Eden is often depicted as a serpent. Let's not forget about Medusa's deadly snake tendrils. Despite their bad reputation, the snake also has positive zodiac symbolism, said Poceski. 'People born in the year of the snake are supposed to be resilient, creative, adaptive and able to overcome all kinds of obstacles and challenges,' he said. The snake year is generally less popular, said Lei, but people will still get married and have children. Those who defer big life decisions may have more practical reasons. 'Oftentimes you use that as an excuse because you're really not sure if you should marry someone,' said Lei with a laugh. These cultural beliefs, he said, can make some decision-making easier. It's not you. It's the snake year. You're a monkey. I'm a pig. It's fate. Even though the snake year is less desirable, the year won't be all bad. In Chinese culture, there are always ways to counter bad luck with some symbolic good luck, said Lei. His wife, Linda Shen Lei, plans to wear red socks all year. Red is a traditional symbol of good fortune. 'Why take chances?' said Lei. According to the zodiac calendar, there is a difference between the animal and what it symbolizes. As an animal, the snake has a negative connotation, but the snake as a symbol represents transformation, fertility and renewal, said Poceski. Some even call the snake a mini dragon, said Yu Law, the San Francisco gift shop owner. Of all the animals represented in the zodiac, the dragon is largely the most popular sign. At Brocade Apparel, Helen Zhou's traditional Chinese wedding dress shop in Monterey Park, California, business hums as usual. Future brides thumb through silky sample dresses and get fitted for their snake year wedding ceremonies. Zhou has been making qipao, or Chinese wedding dresses, for more than 30 years. The zodiac animal associated with the year has never really been a major factor in her clients' decision-making. 'Most of our clients are not superstitious to that extreme,' said Zhou. 'It's just an old wives' tale that has been repeated a lot. People love having children in the year of the dragon or the monkey. But are they all super successful? No, they're not.' Dr Martin Luther King Jr and Taylor Swift are high-profile snake babies. Last year, most predictions of prosperity and baby booms in the dragon year did not pan out. Profits from Yu Law's businesses were down 30%. In San Francisco's Chinatown where she has worked for more than 25 years, other business owners have reported the same, she said. Yu Law is hopeful that the snake year's promise of renewal will increase her profit margin – even if she didn't stock many snake year products for the Lunar New Year. In business, it's just another year, another animal, and a renewed chance for hope. But Yu Law's personal philosophy differs slightly. If her adult sons were to want to get married, she said, she would encourage them to wait until 2026. 'It's going to be the year of the horse,' said Law. 'Everybody loves the horse.'
The Guardian
27-01-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
How a young Chinatown cook helped establish birthright citizenship in the US
In 1898, at the height of anti-Chinese hysteria, a young cook won a landmark supreme court case that guaranteed citizenship to anyone born on US soil, regardless of race or ancestry. Millions of children from immigrant households have since become United States citizens as a result of his legal battle. The constitutional right that Wong Kim Ark helped cement has come under growing assault from conservatives. Mere hours after being sworn into office for a second presidential term last Monday, Donald Trump signed a slew of executive actions to fulfill his campaign promises, the chief among which was ending birthright citizenship. In a sweeping directive, Trump directed federal agencies to refuse citizenship to children born in the US if neither parent is a citizen or permanent resident. Legal experts and community organizers say that, after nearly 130 years, Wong's story still raises important questions about identity and belonging, and exposes the xenophobic rhetoric often intertwined with immigration enforcement. 'The Wong Kim Ark case affirmed that birthright citizenship is universal, that it applies to even the most disfavored immigrant groups,' said Amanda Frost, a professor of immigration and citizenship law at the University of Virginia who is an expert on Wong's case. Wong was born in 1870 in the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown. As one of only 518 US-born Chinese babies that year, Frost said, he grew up in the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred most Chinese nationals from entering the US and becoming naturalized citizens. Anti-Chinese sentiment and mob violence swept across the country. In 1896, upon his return from a trip to China, Wong was detained by customs officials who insisted that he was not an American citizen due to his parents' Chinese nationality. It's important to note, Frost said, that the supreme court was not 'sympathetic to Chinese immigrants'. The justices had, just two years earlier, legalized racial segregation in public spaces in Plessy v Ferguson. They sided with Wong, Frost said, because denying birthright citizenship to children of immigrants meant that descendants of European immigrants would be affected too. Ratified in 1868, the 14th amendment first established birthright citizenship to allow formerly enslaved Black Americans to become citizens. Three decades later, the supreme court ruled in a 6-2 decision that the 14th amendment 'includes the children born within the territory of the United States of all other persons, of whatever race or color, domiciled within the United States'. 'The real story behind Wong Kim Ark's case is the collaborative action by the Chinese community,' said David Lei, a San Francisco-based historian and board member of the Chinese Historical Society of America. The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), a historic institution also known as the Chinese Six Companies, raised money from Chinatown residents and business owners for Wong's legal defense. (Wong's case was among more than 20 lawsuits the CCBA sponsored as an effort to fight against the Chinese Exclusion Act and other discriminatory laws, Lei said.) The organization hired the most qualified lawyers, two former deputy attorneys general and a co-founder of the American Bar Association, to represent Wong in front of the supreme court. For years, Trump has condemned birthright citizenship as the 'biggest magnet for illegal immigration' and a 'crazy, lunatic' policy. In 2012, he promoted the racist 'birther' theory against then president Barack Obama, falsely alleging that he was born in Kenya and ineligible to be president. In 2020, he questioned the eligibility of Kamala Harris's vice-presidential bid by citing the immigration status of her parents. His executive order, which denies citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants and some temporary visa holders, drew widespread condemnation and a spate of legal challenges. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, saying the executive order would create a 'permanent subclass of people'. Democratic attorneys general from 22 states also sued the administration, and a federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the directive. More than 150,000 newborn children would be denied citizenship each year if the executive order is allowed to stand, according to the Democratic-led states. Sign up to This Week in Trumpland A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration after newsletter promotion But challenges to birthright citizenship have never been successful largely because the Wong Kim Ark ruling 'has remained the law consistently', said Ming Chen, a professor at UC Law San Francisco and faculty director of the school's Center for Race, Immigration, Citizenship, and Equality. The executive order 'is another attempt through political means to change a pretty sacrosanct legal precedent', Chen said, adding that a constitutional right cannot be repealed without changing the constitution. The focus of Trump's missive has been on the children of undocumented immigrants, who he said were not 'subject to the jurisdiction' of the US, and therefore fall within the exception to universal birthright citizenship. But the order also bars citizenship from children whose mothers are 'visiting on a student, work or tourist visa' – unless the father is a citizen or permanent resident. In targeting people living legally in the US, Chen said, the rationale behind ending birthright citizenship has extended beyond merely restricting illegal immigration. 'It's cutting off the possibility that a community can ever become American,' she said. 'That's a radical re-envisioning of what America looks like.' Wong's case is not entirely a story of legal triumph for a harshly maligned racial group. Even after the supreme court ruling, the government continued to deny his citizenship. In 1901, less than four years after the decision, an immigration official in El Paso arrested Wong, who had been in Mexico, and tried to deport him on grounds of violating the Chinese Exclusion Act, according to Frost's research. It took Wong four months to prove his citizenship and return home. In 1910, Wong's oldest son was detained, and soon deported, upon arriving in San Francisco because immigration officials refused to believe he was related to Wong. Decades later, Wong himself returned to China, though some of his descendants still live in California. The enduring fight to preserve birthright citizenship is also a fight for core American values, Frost said. 'For us as a nation,' she said, 'birthright citizenship is so vital both as a way of erasing – or trying to erase – the vestiges of slavery and acknowledging we're a nation of immigrants where every child is born under the same status.'
