Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
An emotional custody dispute over history
Advisory panel wants to rebury bones found in L.A. Chinese Americans want to study them.
By David Pierson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 24, 2008
The hundreds of brittle bones were buried in a forgotten cemetery with intricate ceramics, jade jewelry and opium pipes. They were the last earthly possessions of what could be dozens of Chinese workers too poor to have been buried back in China and too little-known to merit headstones. Some more than a century old, they offer an irresistible window into a dark chapter in Los Angeles' history.
The bones and artifacts remained deep below Boyle Heights until three years ago, when workers digging the subway tunnel for the Gold Line rail extension uncovered them. The discovery thrilled Chinese American historians because it was one of the few involving the earliest generations of Chinese immigrants who came to California to help build the railroads and perform other menial tasks.
But now, the items are at the center of an emotional custody dispute.
Historians and some local elected officials say they should be carefully preserved and studied in order to build a better narrative of how early Chinese immigrants lived in America.
But a local citizens' committee established to advise the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the find believes the most respectful thing to do is rebury the 128 sets of remains as soon as possible. The MTA's board of directors will have the final say in the coming months.
The issue has touched a nerve in the Chinese community, in part because of a desire to better understand the lives of so-called Chinese sojourners, male immigrants who in 19th century California could not vote, marry or be buried at local cemeteries and who lacked many basic rights, including the right to own property.
"It would be further dehumanizing for them to be buried without any attempt to identify them," said Judy Chu, vice chairwoman of the state Board of Equalization. "They died alone without family to comfort them and make sure their time on this Earth meant something."
Officials at the MTA defended the work of its Review Advisory Committee, formed in 1995 to handle community issues surrounding the rail line extension, and the Ad Hoc Sub Committee, formed two years ago to discuss what to do with the remains and artifacts.
Committee members want to rebury the remains at nearby Evergreen Ceremony with a memorial, saying that would amount to the dignified burial that eluded them so many years ago.
"I put myself in their situation," said Renee Chavez, chairwoman of the ad hoc panel and a member of the advisory committee. "What would my family have wanted? No. 1, they would not have wanted to be disinterred. But it happened. But we can provide the honor and respect they were denied."
Committee meetings were tense at times after some Chinese Americans, saying they believed they were poorly represented on the panels, said their concerns were ignored.
Of the 11 representatives on the ad hoc group, two were Chinese American and one, not of Chinese descent, was a board member of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. None of the 13 members of the advisory committee was Chinese American.
Leading the charge to have the remains identified and the artifacts housed at an academic institution is Mike Ten, a South Pasadena city councilman whose family's roots in Chinatown date to the 1900s.
"I'm really fighting for my grandparents and their generation," Ten said
He's trying to raise $100,000 to pay for Cal State Los Angeles to take samples of the remains before they undergo DNA analysis, which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more.
Cal State L.A. said it would donate a laboratory to curate the remains, but only if public fundraising can cover expenses.
Though Ten praised the citizens' committees for arranging for plots at Evergreen Cemetery, he said he does not believe they grasped the importance of the findings to the Chinese American community.
"They're tired of dealing with it," Ten said. "These are regular citizens dealing with a very sensitive issue. They're trying to stay away from the controversy. But an opportunity for history like this only comes every generation. This is our chance to capture it."
When the MTA announced discovery of the remains, Chinese American groups accused the agency of trying to downplay the discoveries for fear of further delaying the $898-million extension, which is scheduled to be completed in 2009. The MTA had been criticized by Eastside residents for years for not delivering the new line sooner.
Since then, an archaeology firm hired by the MTA has excavated and cataloged the remains from the site where they were discovered, at the corner of 1st and Lorena streets. Grave markers and headstones with Chinese characters believed to correspond to some of the remains were found nearby
The MTA launched an effort to find relatives last year after translating some of the grave markers and headstones and finding names of people and of towns in China. Though they received some calls from the public, no one has so far been able to claim any relationship to the people whose remains were discovered.
Chinese American leaders say the MTA will never succeed without proper DNA identification. More important, they said, they believe the discovery is a critical link to an often ignored period of L.A.'s history.
"They hit the jackpot," said ChorSwang Ngin, chair of Cal State L.A.'s anthropology department and director of the school's Asian and Asian American Studies. "We want a chance for our students to learn this history. Why the hurry? Don't bury them just yet. Let's take a close look."
Ngin said Cal State L.A. -- situated between the city's oldest Chinese community, Chinatown, and the region's robust Chinese suburbs in the San Gabriel Valley -- is an ideal place to study the discoveries.
Diana Tarango, chairwoman of the Review Advisory Committee and a member of the ad hoc group, said it was still unclear how many of the sets of remains unearthed are in fact the remains of people of Chinese descent. Because of the poor conditions in which they were found, archaeologists have determined only that 19 were Asian, 15 were of European descent, 11 were of mixed ethnicity and 83 were too damaged to tell. Members of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California say many of the remains of unknown ethnic origin were buried with the Chinese artifacts, which they say is a sign they were probably Chinese.
Ngin said some of the remains belonged to Chinese females, a rare find because so many of the earlier Chinese communities were bachelor societies, a result of federal immigration policies. The women were most likely servants or prostitutes, Ngin said.
Historians say the site in which the remains were found was the chief burial ground for people of Chinese descent between 1877 and 1924.
Tarango said the panel's decision to rebury the bones and artifacts at Evergreen Cemetery with a memorial service reflected the desires of most in the community. She said the Cal State L.A. option was only officially presented last week and called the idea "too little too late."
"We have to put this thing to rest," Tarango said. "Every month we put a lot of time and effort into this. We did this the democratic way. I feel so strong what we're doing is right: rebury them where we found them. That would be the honorable thing to do."
david.pierson@latimes.com
By David Pierson, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 24, 2008
The hundreds of brittle bones were buried in a forgotten cemetery with intricate ceramics, jade jewelry and opium pipes. They were the last earthly possessions of what could be dozens of Chinese workers too poor to have been buried back in China and too little-known to merit headstones. Some more than a century old, they offer an irresistible window into a dark chapter in Los Angeles' history.
The bones and artifacts remained deep below Boyle Heights until three years ago, when workers digging the subway tunnel for the Gold Line rail extension uncovered them. The discovery thrilled Chinese American historians because it was one of the few involving the earliest generations of Chinese immigrants who came to California to help build the railroads and perform other menial tasks.
But now, the items are at the center of an emotional custody dispute.
Historians and some local elected officials say they should be carefully preserved and studied in order to build a better narrative of how early Chinese immigrants lived in America.
But a local citizens' committee established to advise the Metropolitan Transportation Authority on the find believes the most respectful thing to do is rebury the 128 sets of remains as soon as possible. The MTA's board of directors will have the final say in the coming months.
The issue has touched a nerve in the Chinese community, in part because of a desire to better understand the lives of so-called Chinese sojourners, male immigrants who in 19th century California could not vote, marry or be buried at local cemeteries and who lacked many basic rights, including the right to own property.
"It would be further dehumanizing for them to be buried without any attempt to identify them," said Judy Chu, vice chairwoman of the state Board of Equalization. "They died alone without family to comfort them and make sure their time on this Earth meant something."
Officials at the MTA defended the work of its Review Advisory Committee, formed in 1995 to handle community issues surrounding the rail line extension, and the Ad Hoc Sub Committee, formed two years ago to discuss what to do with the remains and artifacts.
Committee members want to rebury the remains at nearby Evergreen Ceremony with a memorial, saying that would amount to the dignified burial that eluded them so many years ago.
"I put myself in their situation," said Renee Chavez, chairwoman of the ad hoc panel and a member of the advisory committee. "What would my family have wanted? No. 1, they would not have wanted to be disinterred. But it happened. But we can provide the honor and respect they were denied."
Committee meetings were tense at times after some Chinese Americans, saying they believed they were poorly represented on the panels, said their concerns were ignored.
Of the 11 representatives on the ad hoc group, two were Chinese American and one, not of Chinese descent, was a board member of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. None of the 13 members of the advisory committee was Chinese American.
Leading the charge to have the remains identified and the artifacts housed at an academic institution is Mike Ten, a South Pasadena city councilman whose family's roots in Chinatown date to the 1900s.
"I'm really fighting for my grandparents and their generation," Ten said
He's trying to raise $100,000 to pay for Cal State Los Angeles to take samples of the remains before they undergo DNA analysis, which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more.
Cal State L.A. said it would donate a laboratory to curate the remains, but only if public fundraising can cover expenses.
Though Ten praised the citizens' committees for arranging for plots at Evergreen Cemetery, he said he does not believe they grasped the importance of the findings to the Chinese American community.
"They're tired of dealing with it," Ten said. "These are regular citizens dealing with a very sensitive issue. They're trying to stay away from the controversy. But an opportunity for history like this only comes every generation. This is our chance to capture it."
When the MTA announced discovery of the remains, Chinese American groups accused the agency of trying to downplay the discoveries for fear of further delaying the $898-million extension, which is scheduled to be completed in 2009. The MTA had been criticized by Eastside residents for years for not delivering the new line sooner.
Since then, an archaeology firm hired by the MTA has excavated and cataloged the remains from the site where they were discovered, at the corner of 1st and Lorena streets. Grave markers and headstones with Chinese characters believed to correspond to some of the remains were found nearby
The MTA launched an effort to find relatives last year after translating some of the grave markers and headstones and finding names of people and of towns in China. Though they received some calls from the public, no one has so far been able to claim any relationship to the people whose remains were discovered.
Chinese American leaders say the MTA will never succeed without proper DNA identification. More important, they said, they believe the discovery is a critical link to an often ignored period of L.A.'s history.
"They hit the jackpot," said ChorSwang Ngin, chair of Cal State L.A.'s anthropology department and director of the school's Asian and Asian American Studies. "We want a chance for our students to learn this history. Why the hurry? Don't bury them just yet. Let's take a close look."
Ngin said Cal State L.A. -- situated between the city's oldest Chinese community, Chinatown, and the region's robust Chinese suburbs in the San Gabriel Valley -- is an ideal place to study the discoveries.
Diana Tarango, chairwoman of the Review Advisory Committee and a member of the ad hoc group, said it was still unclear how many of the sets of remains unearthed are in fact the remains of people of Chinese descent. Because of the poor conditions in which they were found, archaeologists have determined only that 19 were Asian, 15 were of European descent, 11 were of mixed ethnicity and 83 were too damaged to tell. Members of the Chinese Historical Society of Southern California say many of the remains of unknown ethnic origin were buried with the Chinese artifacts, which they say is a sign they were probably Chinese.
Ngin said some of the remains belonged to Chinese females, a rare find because so many of the earlier Chinese communities were bachelor societies, a result of federal immigration policies. The women were most likely servants or prostitutes, Ngin said.
Historians say the site in which the remains were found was the chief burial ground for people of Chinese descent between 1877 and 1924.
Tarango said the panel's decision to rebury the bones and artifacts at Evergreen Cemetery with a memorial service reflected the desires of most in the community. She said the Cal State L.A. option was only officially presented last week and called the idea "too little too late."
"We have to put this thing to rest," Tarango said. "Every month we put a lot of time and effort into this. We did this the democratic way. I feel so strong what we're doing is right: rebury them where we found them. That would be the honorable thing to do."
david.pierson@latimes.com
Saturday, January 19, 2008
5:00AM Saturday January 19, 2008
By Lincoln Tan
New Year celebrations in the old style have been maintained by Chinese communities around the world. Photo / Reuters
The organisers of a 20-year-old festival to celebrate Chinese New Year in Auckland are dismayed by the establishment of a second festival, saying it will confuse the public.
The Auckland Chinese Community Centre, organisers of the established event, and World Television, organisers of the second event, are both claiming theirs is the main event.
Prime Minister Helen Clark is scheduled to attend both.
World Television has in previous years promoted the ACCC event but this year is promoting only its own festival on its New Zealand television channels and radio stations.
"For 20 years, the ACCC has been organising the festival, so of course I'm shocked that someone else can come out and say that the one they are organising for the first time is the main show," said Kai Luey, event organiser and president of the New Zealand Chinese Association.
ACCC immediate past-president Thomas Do told the Herald that he had paid for at least five full-page advertisements in local Chinese newspapers to correct that confusion.
WTV director Henry Chan said there was no conflict because the events were taking place at different venues and at different times.
He added the Chinese community was was happy that there were more events to go to during the Chinese festive season.
The celebrations last more than a month. The Year of the Rat starts on February 7.
The ACCC festival will take place at the ASB Showgrounds today, while the WTV fair will be held in Manukau in a fortnight.
Today's highlights include lion dancing, meeting the Beijing Olympic mascots and a rare face-changing act, something Mr Luey says is rarely seen outside China.
The fanfare nowadays is a far cry from when Goh Chan Koh first moved to New Zealand 19 years ago.
Coming from Penang, Malaysia - where festivities included public concerts and fairs, blasting fire crackers and exchanging lucky red packets and mandarin oranges among friends and family - she was surprised to find Chinese New Year was not celebrated here.
Now, there is plenty of activity, said Ms Goh. "For immigrants who do not have family here, celebrations will have more meaning if they had more places to go to."
Mr Luey, a local-born Chinese, explained that until recently Chinese New Year celebrations had been family affairs.
It was because of this that the Auckland Chinese Community Centre organised the first Chinese New Year fair 20 years ago to give local Chinese a place where they could celebrate the festival together.
Celebrations
What's on:
* Today: ACCC Chinese New Year Festival. ASB Showgrounds, 9.30am to 3.30pm.
* Feb 3: Chinese New Year Multicultural Festival, Telstra Clear Events Centre, 9am.
* Feb 16: Chinese New Year Racing Carnival, Ellerslie Race Course. First race 10am.
* Feb 22-24: Auckland Lantern Festival, Albert Park. 5.30pm to 10pm.
* All events are free
By Lincoln Tan
New Year celebrations in the old style have been maintained by Chinese communities around the world. Photo / Reuters
The organisers of a 20-year-old festival to celebrate Chinese New Year in Auckland are dismayed by the establishment of a second festival, saying it will confuse the public.
The Auckland Chinese Community Centre, organisers of the established event, and World Television, organisers of the second event, are both claiming theirs is the main event.
Prime Minister Helen Clark is scheduled to attend both.
World Television has in previous years promoted the ACCC event but this year is promoting only its own festival on its New Zealand television channels and radio stations.
"For 20 years, the ACCC has been organising the festival, so of course I'm shocked that someone else can come out and say that the one they are organising for the first time is the main show," said Kai Luey, event organiser and president of the New Zealand Chinese Association.
ACCC immediate past-president Thomas Do told the Herald that he had paid for at least five full-page advertisements in local Chinese newspapers to correct that confusion.
WTV director Henry Chan said there was no conflict because the events were taking place at different venues and at different times.
He added the Chinese community was was happy that there were more events to go to during the Chinese festive season.
The celebrations last more than a month. The Year of the Rat starts on February 7.
The ACCC festival will take place at the ASB Showgrounds today, while the WTV fair will be held in Manukau in a fortnight.
Today's highlights include lion dancing, meeting the Beijing Olympic mascots and a rare face-changing act, something Mr Luey says is rarely seen outside China.
The fanfare nowadays is a far cry from when Goh Chan Koh first moved to New Zealand 19 years ago.
Coming from Penang, Malaysia - where festivities included public concerts and fairs, blasting fire crackers and exchanging lucky red packets and mandarin oranges among friends and family - she was surprised to find Chinese New Year was not celebrated here.
Now, there is plenty of activity, said Ms Goh. "For immigrants who do not have family here, celebrations will have more meaning if they had more places to go to."
Mr Luey, a local-born Chinese, explained that until recently Chinese New Year celebrations had been family affairs.
It was because of this that the Auckland Chinese Community Centre organised the first Chinese New Year fair 20 years ago to give local Chinese a place where they could celebrate the festival together.
Celebrations
What's on:
* Today: ACCC Chinese New Year Festival. ASB Showgrounds, 9.30am to 3.30pm.
* Feb 3: Chinese New Year Multicultural Festival, Telstra Clear Events Centre, 9am.
* Feb 16: Chinese New Year Racing Carnival, Ellerslie Race Course. First race 10am.
* Feb 22-24: Auckland Lantern Festival, Albert Park. 5.30pm to 10pm.
* All events are free
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Lincoln Tan: Each to his own magic
5. 00AM Monday December 24, 2007
By Lincoln Tan
Christmas Eve has always been a special day for me, even as a child growing up in a Buddhist family in Singapore.
Every Christmas evening, I always looked forward to the food trays the neighbours would bring to us full of Christmas goodies such as fruit cake, pineapple tarts and candies.
After devouring my favourites, I would happily help Mum place chocolates and biscuits on the trays and take them back to the neighbours with a note of thanks and a Christmas card.
A magical feel always seemed to follow the Christmas festivities, and with the common business practice there of paying year-end bonuses, having some extra money around always set Dad in a happier mood.
After supper, I would meet the other neighbourhood kids at the playground and we'd spend hours stargazing and enter into deep discussions about how Santa was goingto get into our flats, which had no chimneys.
We'd talk about the naughty things we did over the year, and wonder if we'd still get any presents from Santa, before retiring to our respective homes.
And no, most of us kids didn't have a clue Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ.
Like me, most of these kids were non-Christians - they were mainly Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus - and although we didn't celebrate Christmas in the religious sense, most of us would have had Christmas trees at our homes for presents to be placed under.
What I remember of my childhood Christmas was that it was so unlike Chinese New Year, Hari Raya or Diwali because it was the only festival the entire neighbourhood celebrated, although each would do it in his or her own way.
The annual Christmas rituals ended when we moved to a new estate when I was about 9, and everything changed when Mum registered me for tuition classes at a home-based church.
After each class, there would be a sing-along session and a short sermon by the church elder and it was during one of these sermons that I was told, for the first time, that the person I have known all along as the one who made Christmas was just an evil myth.
The elder claimed commercialism had squeezed Christ out of Christmas and said Santa must be banished from our homes. He also made us draw Christmas cards with the words: Christ is born, Santa gone. I was told that everything I liked and enjoyed about the Christmas season - the tinsels and decorations and lights in the malls, and even writing my annual wish list to Santa - had actually nothing to do with Christmas.
The real reason for Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ, whom Christians believe is the Son of God, the elder said. Everything else was the work of the devil.
Although I understood better what this elder said when I became a Catholic in my late teens, I still cannot help feeling that in his attempt to instil his beliefs in me, he had robbed me of some Christmas magic.
I read with interest the arguments of the two Anglican priests who recently wrote in the pages of this newspaper.
Archdeacon Glynn Cardy of St Matthew-in-the-City wrote that Christmas was now about more than just Jesus and embracing universal values is the best reason for the season. He was countered by Hamilton vicar Michael Hewatt arguing that we all lose if Jesus is cut from Christmas. Hewatt wrote: "I do not like the idea that Jesus is no longer the primary reason, or reason enough for celebrating Christmas."
Christmas has become a universal celebration with a much larger secular appeal than a religious one, so whether the vicar likes it or not, how it is celebrated is now no longer the sole domain of Christianity.
Also, the changing face of New Zealand - where 45 per cent of Kiwis in the last Census professed to either possessing no religion or faiths other than Christianity - means that for many, Christmas is no longer about going to church or remembering Jesus' birth.
Maybe those fundamentalists who have long decried its commercialisation must come to terms with the fact that Christmas means different things to different people.
To many, Christmas is a time when we remember those dear to us, but as Christians give presents as a reminder of the spiritual meaning of Christmas when God gave mankind the ultimate gift - himself - non-believers should not be denied the joy of giving gifts purely to show they are thinking beyond themselves.
At this time of the year, a part of me remains forever the 8-year-old stargazing with his friends and waiting for Santa. Through my own 8-year-old son and a daughter who is 5, I get to relive some of the magic from seasons long gone.
Some things never change and Christmas will continue to be the annual highlight for children of any race.
Instead of arguing about what the right reason for the season is, maybe we should just enjoy the magic of Christmas as these children would.
Have a merry Christmas everyone - whatever your faith may be.
* lincoln@iballmedia.co.nz
By Lincoln Tan
Christmas Eve has always been a special day for me, even as a child growing up in a Buddhist family in Singapore.
Every Christmas evening, I always looked forward to the food trays the neighbours would bring to us full of Christmas goodies such as fruit cake, pineapple tarts and candies.
After devouring my favourites, I would happily help Mum place chocolates and biscuits on the trays and take them back to the neighbours with a note of thanks and a Christmas card.
A magical feel always seemed to follow the Christmas festivities, and with the common business practice there of paying year-end bonuses, having some extra money around always set Dad in a happier mood.
After supper, I would meet the other neighbourhood kids at the playground and we'd spend hours stargazing and enter into deep discussions about how Santa was goingto get into our flats, which had no chimneys.
We'd talk about the naughty things we did over the year, and wonder if we'd still get any presents from Santa, before retiring to our respective homes.
And no, most of us kids didn't have a clue Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ.
Like me, most of these kids were non-Christians - they were mainly Buddhists, Muslims and Hindus - and although we didn't celebrate Christmas in the religious sense, most of us would have had Christmas trees at our homes for presents to be placed under.
What I remember of my childhood Christmas was that it was so unlike Chinese New Year, Hari Raya or Diwali because it was the only festival the entire neighbourhood celebrated, although each would do it in his or her own way.
The annual Christmas rituals ended when we moved to a new estate when I was about 9, and everything changed when Mum registered me for tuition classes at a home-based church.
After each class, there would be a sing-along session and a short sermon by the church elder and it was during one of these sermons that I was told, for the first time, that the person I have known all along as the one who made Christmas was just an evil myth.
The elder claimed commercialism had squeezed Christ out of Christmas and said Santa must be banished from our homes. He also made us draw Christmas cards with the words: Christ is born, Santa gone. I was told that everything I liked and enjoyed about the Christmas season - the tinsels and decorations and lights in the malls, and even writing my annual wish list to Santa - had actually nothing to do with Christmas.
The real reason for Christmas is the birth of Jesus Christ, whom Christians believe is the Son of God, the elder said. Everything else was the work of the devil.
Although I understood better what this elder said when I became a Catholic in my late teens, I still cannot help feeling that in his attempt to instil his beliefs in me, he had robbed me of some Christmas magic.
I read with interest the arguments of the two Anglican priests who recently wrote in the pages of this newspaper.
Archdeacon Glynn Cardy of St Matthew-in-the-City wrote that Christmas was now about more than just Jesus and embracing universal values is the best reason for the season. He was countered by Hamilton vicar Michael Hewatt arguing that we all lose if Jesus is cut from Christmas. Hewatt wrote: "I do not like the idea that Jesus is no longer the primary reason, or reason enough for celebrating Christmas."
Christmas has become a universal celebration with a much larger secular appeal than a religious one, so whether the vicar likes it or not, how it is celebrated is now no longer the sole domain of Christianity.
Also, the changing face of New Zealand - where 45 per cent of Kiwis in the last Census professed to either possessing no religion or faiths other than Christianity - means that for many, Christmas is no longer about going to church or remembering Jesus' birth.
Maybe those fundamentalists who have long decried its commercialisation must come to terms with the fact that Christmas means different things to different people.
To many, Christmas is a time when we remember those dear to us, but as Christians give presents as a reminder of the spiritual meaning of Christmas when God gave mankind the ultimate gift - himself - non-believers should not be denied the joy of giving gifts purely to show they are thinking beyond themselves.
At this time of the year, a part of me remains forever the 8-year-old stargazing with his friends and waiting for Santa. Through my own 8-year-old son and a daughter who is 5, I get to relive some of the magic from seasons long gone.
Some things never change and Christmas will continue to be the annual highlight for children of any race.
Instead of arguing about what the right reason for the season is, maybe we should just enjoy the magic of Christmas as these children would.
Have a merry Christmas everyone - whatever your faith may be.
* lincoln@iballmedia.co.nz
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Saturday, December 08, 2007
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