Latest news with #PacificIslanderHeritageMonth
Time of India
5 days ago
- Health
- Time of India
Nancy Pelosi: 'This is criminal…': Nancy Pelosi slams Trump's proposed tax bill, calls it ‘Robin Hood in reverse' - The Economic Times Video
Nancy Pelosi hosted an Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month roundtable with San Francisco's Asian Pacific Islander Council, bringing together community leaders to address the devastating impacts of the Trump Administration's budget cuts on AAPI communities. The roundtable featured key speakers, including Cally Wong, Executive Director of the API Council; Lance Toma, CEO of the San Francisco Community Health Center; Dr. Jian Zhang, CEO of Chinese Hospital; Jon Osaki, Executive Director of JCYC; Judy Young, Executive Director of the Southeast Asian Development Center; Luisa Antonio, Executive Director of the Bayanihan Equity Center; and Tammy Hung, Deputy Director of Programs at the Chinatown Community Development Center. The event highlighted how Republican attacks on health care, housing and educational resources have compounded the challenges facing AAPI communities, particularly in San Francisco. Participants shared firsthand accounts of the real-world consequences of these policy decisions and emphasised the urgency of standing united to defend the health, dignity and opportunity of AAPI families.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
AAPI Month: Central Texas business built on Asian roots
CENTRAL TEXAS (FOX 44) – It's Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and we are sharing the story of Jaja Chen — the heart and soul of Cha Community. This is a boba tea shop founded in 2018 from a single pop-up at the Downtown Waco Farmer's Market. Alongside her husband and co-owner Devin Li — they are the power couple that embody Asian-American pride here in Central Texas. Exactly what makes a boba tea shop 'authentic'? Is it the ingredients in the drink and how it's prepared? Or is it where the recipe come from, the different flavors blended in, or how enjoyable it tastes? If all these things are stamps of authenticity — then Cha Community is as 'authentic' as it gets – but there's one element that makes Cha a standout. That's its owner — Jaja Chen. 'I'm so immersed with Asian culture, cuisine, and, you know, I live and breathe that every single day,' Jaja explains. But Jaja tells me she didn't always exude that cultural pride. 'I think as a kid, it just….I just wished that I wasn't Asian. So like School Picture Day, my mom forced me to wear our traditional garment, and I hated it,' Jaja explains. That shame carried on throughout her childhood. 'As a child of immigrants and being Taiwanese-American in Norman, Oklahoma, it was actually very challenging,' Jaja said. 'Being bullied for my eyes being smaller.' But her mother was determined to instill their Chinese heritage and traditions in her daughter. 'She would host international students for dinner, but I would be forced to stir the boba. So that's where I first learned how to make boba, and then I'd be in charge of them, scooping the boba and then serving the milk tea to guests,' Jaja explains. As these hospitality skills brewed — along with continued exposure to Chinese cuisine and dining at home — 'A huge shift really came because I moved with my family at age 13 to China, then Taiwan,' she says. The 'one Asian' shame was no more, and eventually fell away. 'I think it was actually a lot more of like an awakening of my love for my Chinese culture, heritage,' Jaja says. And the little tapioca pearls called 'boba' cemented themselves into her life — for good. 'I actually went to high school in Taichung, Taiwan, which is where the original boba shop is from,' Jaja says. 'There was a boba shop on every block. So like, after school, we would walk to boba shops with friends.' Forever changed — all these experiences came back with her to Waco where she attended Baylor University. 'A huge part of my challenge was finding belonging and connection and feeling more ashamed about my culture, as opposed to celebrating or uplifting my culture,' Jaja explains. And now as the proud owner of three Cha Communities — she gets to do that every single day. 'I always say it's more than just the food or the drinks, like at the end of the day, it is the heart of wanting to create belonging,' Jaja said. And back to that question of what makes a boba tea shop so 'authentic': 'It's an overflow of my cultural roots, and then being authentic to my story,' Jaja says. It's all in the foundation. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Motor Trend
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Motor Trend
Meet the Rivian R3's Sports Car-Driving Designer, Julliana Cho
Join MotorTrend in our celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Each week, you'll hear from the incredible people who have left their mark on the automotive industry. 0:00 / 0:00 Not often does a new car universally enamor the driving public, but the the 2027 Rivian R3 has done just that. More than a hatchback but perhaps not quite an SUV, and deeply infused with retro-futuristic rally-car cues, the R3 just looks sweet and seems destined for success when it hits the streets in a few years. Creating a new, knockout design is an immense challenge for a startup like Rivian—it must be familiar while still evolving from starting-point aesthetics. Yet that's exactly what Julliana Cho achieved. As a senior design manager at Rivian, she led exterior design for the R3. We met with Cho to learn what prepared her for this vehicle and how she's making an impact at Rivian design. A Background With Big Names Cho spent her childhood in Oregon before moving to Korea. Her father is a mathematician, and her mother studied fine art, so influences from those contrasting fields inspired her to find a career that could combine the two. 'I knew I wanted to do something creative, but also involve engineering,' said Cho. Car enthusiasm isn't something Cho grew up with, but it's part of her life now—she drives a Porsche 911 Carrera S and R1S Dune Edition, after all. 'I was interested in, maybe, too many creative fields, like fashion design, graphic design, space design, and architecture. I took all those different courses as part of my bachelor's degree in industrial design,' she said. 'But when I learned about car design, I was amazed because it combines processes of fine art with scientific approaches. I just felt like, oh, this is it.' It led her to the Royal College of Art in London, where Cho earned a master's degree in transportation design. Part of her attraction to the work was her outlier status: 'When I was a student, I couldn't find many female designers. I saw a lot of cool male designers, but I was surprised there weren't more women. This is a field that's so attractive and a process that's so fun, so I wondered why there aren't many women. That made think this is an area I want to challenge.' After school, Cho moved to Germany for an internship at Porsche. Next, she got a full-time role at BMW, where she focused on the automaker's EVs. After that, Cho spent time at Mercedes-Benz, where she was the exterior design lead for the A-Class and GLS-Class. Family matters then took her back to Korea, where Cho served as studio manager for advanced design at Kia and oversaw projects including the Futuron concept and future mobility studies. Citing Dieter Rams as an inspiration, Cho said, 'My design approach centers around extreme simplicity in overall forms, stripping away anything nonessential to arrive at the fundamental essence. I believe this focus on what's necessary is key to creating timeless designs. I also enjoy exploring the interplay of contrasting or opposite elements, such as pairing simple, natural volumes with sheer surfaces and refined technical details.' Designing the Rivian R3 Cho joined Rivian in early 2021, not long before production of the R1T commenced. Reporting to design chief Jeff Hammoud, Cho found an environment different from the studios she'd worked in previously. 'Every design department—interior, exterior, color, and trim—was mixed, sitting together in an open space. I realized how we sit influences how we work. At other automakers, design is more based on individual competition. There's still competition at Rivian, but our work is based on great teamwork and supporting each other. Sitting together, we can collaborate and share opinions to make fast decisions,' she said. 'At this early stage for Rivian, individual employees can have more impact on the growth of the company, which I think is a great honor.' As exterior design lead for the R3, Cho was responsible for making the EV that has everyone excited look the way it does. 'The R3's silhouette and main graphics came from my original themes, but my role was also to orchestrate the overall exterior,' Cho said. 'We worked as a team on different details, like the wheels or rear graphics or R3X spoiler. The R3 design represents my personal design principles, and it's a project I'm very proud to have contributed to.' The main difficulty in ideating the R3 was how new this form factor is for Rivian. 'It's not like designing the next S-Class, for example, where there's a precedent. It was about creating a new segment for a new brand that already has a very strong identity but also needs time to become more established. So keeping the Rivian identity and giving it a modern interpretation into a new vehicle was extremely challenging.' Diversity as an Inspiration Cho cites her experience living in many different countries and curiosity of the interplay between art and engineering as integral to her process. 'My background naturally influences the work that I do, with the different cultures and lifestyles I've experienced—that makes me open my eyes and not look at design as a single, fixed object,' she said. 'Sometimes I'm a little confused with my identity, but I'm still very thankful for my background because that's the biggest strength I have.' Remaining open-minded and willing to experiment is vital for establishing a signature in design, according to Cho: 'It's very important to understand the target, whether that's the customer, the country, or the lifestyle. I strongly recommend young designers and students to build up their own philosophy and identity. This work requires a lot of different skill sets, so they should work to create something unique that makes them stand out in the auto design space.' Ready for Popularity Cho acknowledges the R3 that's been shown to the world is something of a concept, but what will go live will look very similar. 'Something special about Rivian is that we try to be as honest as possible, that a design we create isn't super exaggerated and can be put into production,' she said. The team is looking at the vehicle's every detail to make sure they're feasible and ideal for customers, so we look forward to when the R3 arrives around 2027. When you see them crawling all over the roads and trails, make sure to thank Julliana Cho.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
From the Statesman archives: The Lungs were among the earliest Chinese families in Austin
Scanning the American-Statesman archives for evidence of the earliest Chinese American families in Austin — inspired by May being Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month — I came across some fleeting references to Chinese news and culture during this newspaper's first years. One 1876 article that included a reference to young Chinese performers reminded me of a family — the Lungs — who would have been among the earliest to settle here. This newspaper's stories during the 1870s included: "The Manners of Chinese Boys" — A romanticized report from missionaries about superior male etiquette and deportment in China. (Dec. 14, 1871) New census tables that counted 63,196 Chinese among 38,549,987 total Americans. (Aug. 8, 1871) Reports about a growing anti-Chinese movement that was well underway by 1876: "Inform Chinese that they must not come; there will be danger to life and property if they come." (March 31, 1876) All this antagonism climaxed in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which prohibited Chinese immigration and denied the right for Chinese immigrants to become citizens, among other restrictions. Other articles in this paper included racist jokes; wire stories about violence among Chinese workers on the West Coast; along with opinion pieces submitted by white supremacists that compared the status of African Americans in the South to Chinese immigrants in California and Native Americans in general. More from the archives: From the Statesman archives: Who named Onion Creek south of Austin and why? One Statesman article from July 2, 1876, however, made a positive report of a dance by young Chinese performers during closing exercises at St. Mary's Academy. In 1874, the Holy Cross Sisters had taken over the parish school at St. Mary's Catholic Church from the Sisters of Divine Providence. At the time, the nuns operated the school in a two-room cabin on land where St. Mary's Cathedral now stands. The date intrigued me because 1876 was the year that the Lung brothers came to America to work on the railroads. One of the brothers did this backbreaking labor at age 12. By the 1880s — maybe sooner — they had moved into Austin after laying tracks northeast of the city. "The family opened a grocery store on Congress Avenue; in 1897, they launched a cafe at the corner of East Sixth and San Jacinto streets. In 1918, the American-style cafe moved to 507 San Jacinto St. It didn't close until 1948," I reported in a 2015 profile of the late Joe Lung, whom I befriended while he worked at the Capitol Extension Gift Shop. "The family, which included Joe's father, Sam Lung, also operated Lung's Chinese Kitchen at Red River and 12th streets. For decades, it was pretty much all that Austinites knew about locally served Asian food. It closed in 1974, a victim of urban renewal. The spot currently serves as a surface parking lot." More from the archives: From the archives: Recalling Austin folk singer Carolyn Hester and her ties to Bob Dylan In the 1960s, Joe Lung took over the family business and added a string of casual sandwich shops called Joe's. By 1990, he had sold them off. In 1997, he, like his father before him, suffered a heart attack. He wisely slowed down and lived until 2018, when he died after a series of strokes. Joe's stories about Old Austin charmed me to the core. 'We lived at 1605 Canterbury St. in a two-story house with wonderful trees and soil,' Lung recalled. 'When I was a kid back in the '40s, we had chickens in the backyard. Heck, everyone had chickens. Our family had a little farm, too, on East Riverside Drive, where all those apartments are now. My sister and I would go out there with my aunt, ride over the Congress Avenue Bridge, turn left on Riverside, past the old Tower bowling alley. When you got past where Interstate 35 is now, it was all country.' More from the archives: From the Statesman archives: Walsh family keeps popping up in compelling Austin history Joe Lung's grandfather was also named Joe. That, of course, was not his name back in Hoi Ping, China (modern-day Kaiping). The family name was Zhou (or Chou), which, in Chinese culture, comes first, as in the name of the late Premier Zhou Enlai. When Zhou Lung arrived in California, 'Zhou' became 'Joe.' When Joe's grandfather died, in 1926, Sam Lung, who had attended Swante Palm School on East Avenue, dropped out of the University of Texas to take over the family business. 'His customers were country people who came into town to sell their wares at the old City Market at Seventh Street and East Avenue,' his son said. 'It wasn't a Chinese restaurant — a plain old American cafe with fried fish, chicken fried steak, steak dinner.' Lung's sometimes eye-opening stories about growing up in Austin remain with me. 'I had my own car,' he said. 'We'd meet Saturday nights at the Holiday House on Barton Springs Road. Then, from there to Platt Lane out east. It was a straight road, which we marked off in quarters for drag racing.' Send your questions or tips to mbarnes@ This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Statesman references to the Chinese scattered during 1870s in Austin
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Waco Asian-American owned business expanding with third store
WACO, Texas (FOX 44) – In celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we are spotlighting an Asian-American owned business which brings authentic boba tea right to the heart of Waco. Cha Community was founded in 2018, and is the only Taiwanese-owned boba tea café in Waco and Temple. If you've ever come across a bubble or 'boba' tea shop and have loved it, you are not alone. People around the world enjoy this sweet and refreshing drink. With its unique blend of traditional tea flavors, brown sugar sweetness and chewy tapioca pearls – originating in Taiwan in the early 80s – this one drink has found success here in the U.S. with over 3,000 boba tea shops. 'Tapioca boba is made from cassava root, and that's grinded into powder and then made into the starch that then allows these glutinous kind of boba pearls to be able to be created,' Cha Community co-owner Jaja Chen explains. 'And the texture, I would say, is most similar to gummy bears. That's usually the best way to describe [it], but the flavor is more like a brown sugar, caramel-like flavor. So it's added into the boba milk tea or the drink of choice.' Cha Community launched as a single pop-up business at the Waco Farmer's Market in 2018. It's first brick-and-mortar store debuted in downtown Waco in 2020. They expanded to a second store in Temple in 2022, and their third store is holding their grand opening on Saturday – across from Baylor University at 1205 South 8th Street. The ribbon cutting begins at 11 a.m. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
