Asian Heritage Month

Since the month of May is referred to as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, I thought I would do a blog based on that. On people of Asian ancestry who seem to have made a good name for themselves.

Bruce Lee

• DOB: November 10, 1940
• DOD: July 20, 1973
• American born, Hong Kong actor, philosopher, martial artist, film director and producer, screenwriter and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial art
• He's the one who sparked a major interest in Chinese martial arts in the West in the 1970s
• While a student at Washington University, he met his future wife Linda Emery in August 1964
• In 1965, she gave birth to son Brandon Lee(1965-1993) and daughter Shannon Lee
• He was known for his incredibly physical body, wanting to become as strong as possible
• He unfortunately died from a brain edema on May 10, 1973
• He's buried in Lakeview Cemetery in Seattle.

Man if, that's a Bruce Lee doll, I want it!!!!!!!!!

Yoko Ono

• DOB: February 18, 1933, Tokyo, Japan
• Is a Japanese artist, musician, peace activist, author, best known for her relationship with Beatles member John Lennon
• Big supporter of gay rights, as well as her philanthropic contributions to AIDS research and world peace
• On December 8, 1980, when John was murdered by Mark Chapman, Ono was close by and witnessed the entire thing. Can you honestly imagine being nearby and witnessing your husband getting murdered and not knowing what to do?
• In 1981, she released the album Season of Glass, on the front is a picture of John's glasses, shattered and bloody, next to a half filled glass of water with a window over looking Central Park, almost to suggest John was happiest in New York

It makes me sad to know that John Lennon is no longer around, and it's all thanks to that a--hole Mark David Chapman. He needs to pay for what he did, he took Julian Lennon's father away from him, and Yoko's loving husband away, she must have been devastated by actually witnessing her husband being shot in front of her. She has my sympathy. But he's in peace now, in the great England in the sky. I used pics of John and Yoko, because I have this distinct feeling she was happiest when she was around him

Duke Kahanamoku

• Known as the father of international surfing
• Born in Hawaii
• Was a swimmer at the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden
• He also appeared in nearly 30 movies and went on to become the Sheriff for the City and County of Honolulu.
• Died at age 77 but is still remembered for his sportsmanship and athletic talent

Dr. Feng Shan-Ho

• Saved thousands of Austrian Jews during the Holocaust
• In 1937, he arrived in Vienna as a Chinese diplomat, Austria had the 3rd largest Jewish community
• Against all odds, thousands would survive thanks to Dr. Ho
• As a Chinese General Consul in Vienna, he went against his bosses' orders and began issuing Visas to Jews so they could go to Shanghai, China
• He died in 1997, an unknown hero of WWII

Yo Yo Ma

• Is considered to be one of the world's greatest musicians
• At the age of 4 he began studying the cello
• He plays 2 instruments- a 1712 Davidoff Stradavarius and a 1733 Montagnana cello
• Graduated from Harvard University and Julliard School for the Performing Arts
• Recorded 50 albums and won a dozen Grammys

Maya Lin

• 1981 is when this lady rose to fame
• Just 21 and still an architectural student at Yale University, she won a contest to design the Vietnam Veterans Wall Memorial in Washington D.C.
• The memorial is 594 feet long and features the names of the 58,000+ soldiers who either died or were reported missing
• Each year, 4 million people visit the wall to pay their respects to the wall, whether they had a friend, relative in the war or just to be respectful and pay their respects
• She was also the one that designed the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Alabama. Her designs can be found throughout the US in various cities

Amy Tan

• Born in 1952, in Oakland, California
• Daughter of Chinese immigrants who had emigrated to the US 3 years earlier
• In 1989, she got worldwide attention with the release of her book The Joy Luck Club, about Chinese women and their Chinese-American daughters

Lucy Liu

• DOB: December 2, 1968, New York, New York
• Of Taiwanese descent
• Didn't learn English until age 5
• She has a reputation for playing bad girls in movies. Like:
• Pearl, the sadistic dominatrix/hit woman for the Chinese Mafia in Payback
• She can speak Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish
• Also rock climbs
• Also one of my favorite actresses

Ang Lee

• DOB: October 23, 1954
• Directed movies such as Sense and Sensibility, Eat Drink Man Woman, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, The Incredible Hulk, Brokeback Mountain
• American born, but of Taiwanese ancestry
• It surprised alot of people when he made the switch from directing Taiwanese movies to British movies with Sense and Sensibility
• The movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, that he directed, won Best Foreign Language Film

Jerry Yang

• Native of Taiwan
• Creator of the Yahoo! search engine
• Today Yahoo! is the most frequently visited site, with 237 million followers
• He is also an avid sumo wrestling fan and a golf fan
• He graduated Stanford University
• If you use Yahoo! alot, you got this guy to thank for bringing it around

Michelle Kwan

• She began skating at age 5 and 2 years later, won her first competition
• Wears a Chinese good luck charm around her neck, which was a gift from her grandmother
• At age 22, she is considered a skating legend known for her athleticism and grace on the ice
• Native of California
• With 37 perfect scores, she has the most perfect scores in history

Kristy Yamaguchi

• In December 2005, was inducted into the Olympic Hall of Fame for figure skating
• Yamaguchi is said to be Yonsei, meaning 4th generation Japanese American
• Also has appeared on TV numerous times, including a show on PBS called Freedom: A History of Us, portraying Haruko Obata, the first teacher of ikebana in the San Francisco area. Ikebana is the Japanese word for art of flower arranging, and appeared in the movie D2: The Mighty Ducks
• On May 20, 2008, she was on Dancing with the Stars, paired with Mark Ballas and they both won the 6th season, taking home the mirror ball
• In 1991, she took psychology courses at the University of Alberta

To avoid confusion, the websites i got the info from are:

www.wikipedia.com/BruceLee

www.wikipedia.com/YokoOno

www. teacher_scholastic.com
www.wikipedia.com/KristyYamaguchi