Q:Do we have to do the "Remind This" policy thing? It keeps popping up and the page won't load.
Anonymous
You don’t have to. It’s just a way to subscribe if you don’t have a tumblr account so It helps those who have an email get sent updates on the blog.
Maybe it is the browser you are using that makes it not load well? I haven’t heard anyone else mention this problem or bug yet.
I’ll check it out though.
Happy first day of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, celebrate and embrace your heritage and culture. Know your roots
“It may be Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, but if you open your eyes you’ll find our heritage in ever day of the year.” - Beau Sia
Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month by researching your culture, learning something new whether it’s traditional dancing, music, or martial arts, or even our local native scripts like Baybayin and Kulitan. Embrace our rich Filipino heritage and culture and know your roots, yourself.
In response to some of the negativity that’s been circulating the KAD groups online.
Life's Just Swell: Happy Mother's Day.
So I have two moms. The two women in the pictures are sisters. The mom on the left is my biological and the one on the right is my adoptive mother. I feel very blessed for these two women in my life. I grew up not knowing I was adopted. It was like the Truman Show. Everyone in my life knew I was adopted except for me. Regardless of the circumstance, I must admit I am very fortunate to have two solid moms. Lillian, the one on the right raised me with a strict hand and an open heart haha. She showed me compassion, kindness, and a lot of heart with the people around her and with me. No matter what hell I put her through in my teen years, she always had unconditional love. We may not connect in ways a natural mother and daughter do, but to have this mother as a guide in life, I couldn’t ask for anything more. I hope to be a woman/wife like her one day. I woman with exceptional compassion and woman of integrity. I look up to her, not just as a mother, but as a woman. As for my biological mother, all these years, after the truth came out, I heard her truth. Even though they moved forward with three amazing kids, the love she expressed to me as being her first born and her baby, moved mountains within me. The love my biological parents showed me that no matter how far or how long, love knows nothing but simply love. She said that they have thought of me everyday and have been proud of the woman I have become. She instilled a foundation of love that I believe in to this day, the love that knows no boundaries or limits. A love that is selfless and filled with so much understanding. Maybe I’m a two person job haha. I was given a mother to guide and instill the things that we need to survive and to thrive in life in a positive way. Then my biological mom came in the picture later to remind me to trust my heart and showed what love is and what it can acheive. I cannot change my circumstance and I think now I wouldn’t. I feel very blessed to have two women in my life who have done nothing but the best for me. I am thankful to have a piece of both of you within me and I hope one day to pass on these strengths to my children one day.
May is APIA Heritage Month.
I made this to express the social labels, prejudices, and struggles to be an Asian adoptee, Asian/Filipino-American, and other facets of my identity.
As part of the 2nd largest Asian American group, Filipino American, while growing up I was and am determined to learn more and understand what it means to be both Asian/Filipino American due to my socialization in a densely populated white cultured area. I’ll re-emphasize the culture shock of not meeting other people of my heritage and ethnic background until halfway through high school and even made my own effort of learning more what constitutes my heritage, not my culture.
So for many APIA Adoptees, I highly encourage to express yourself and your stories within histories/herstories that we share.
Feel free to submit them on this site.
About Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month
May is Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. A rather broad term, Asian-Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).
Like most commemorative months, Asian-Pacific Heritage Month originated in a congressional bill. In June 1977, Reps. Frank Horton of New York and Norman Y. Mineta of California introduced a House resolution that called upon the president to proclaim the first ten days of May as Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. The following month, senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced a similar bill in the Senate. Both were passed. On October 5, 1978, President Jimmy Carter signed a Joint Resolution designating the annual celebration. Twelve years later, President George H.W. Bush signed an extension making the week-long celebration into a month-long celebration. In 1992, the official designation of May as Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month was signed into law.
The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants.
Geographies of Kinship -The Korean Adoption Story
GEOGRAPHIES OF KINSHIP-THE KOREAN ADOPTION STORY(working title) is a feature-length documentary that follows 5-6 Korean adoptees from the U.S. and Europe, each on a unique journey related to their adoptions. One person is searching for roots and returns to Korea for the first time. Another undertakes a search for her birth family and the reasons for her adoption. Yet another is seeking community among other adoptees. Some are motivated by a sense of loss, while others are well adjusted but desire a connection to their past. These character-driven stories will unfold against a wider backdrop of the Korean War and the hidden effects of post-war industrialization and globalization on women and families in South Korea.
(Click the title for more)
JB: Reception & Study Center for Children (RSCC) Cebu City
So I just emailed the orphanage/RSCC that I was in when I was younger in the Philippines.
This however brought me the most attention:
CLIENTELE SERVED
Children 0-2 years old who are:
- Abandoned/foundling
- Neglected or involuntary committed
- Surrendered/voluntary committed children
- Not suffering from any communicable disease, well nourished and not ill.
I was admitted into there when I was a newborn and they only kept me until I was two years old. After that I was placed into a licensed foster family who I lived with for one year I was adopted.
It’s saddening to see that for other orphanages that if children are not placed in a permanent home by 6 years old, they are left on the street. It could have been me.
Currently it’s 8am in the morning in the Philippines. I hope that they receive my contact letter and reply to me soon. I requested help to look for further records of my past.
Advice to Adoptive Parents - Stephanie D.
A Me By Any Other Name
By Jenny Zhang, culture
“What is it you want to change?”
I’m standing at the counter of the Registrar’s Office at my University talking to a lady named Vanessa. She starts scrolling through my records on the computer in front of her, and I can sense that she is already annoyed with me.
“My name. The name that I’m enrolled under at the university.”
She frowns. “What’s wrong with the one you have now, Jenny?” She glances at the computer screen to confirm that this is—indeed—my name.
“Because it’s not my real name.”
This statement is met with silence. I immediately realize this makes me sound like a shady con artist, one of those people they feature on shows like 20/20 or 48 Hours Mystery. I mean,” I stammer, “I need to change it to my Chinese name.”
(click here to read more)
Pao’s Adoption Story (I): The Colonel
It was a dusty Fall morning in 2010 in the Philippines. The streets of Manila were already tightly packed with street vendors, impatient taxis, and jaywalking pedestrians. The retired Colonel, a reserved man, quietly observed his fellow countrymen with pride and a certain regard. The traffic light was red, and he patiently waited for it to turn green. He surveyed the tightly packed neighborhood. It was the same neighborhood he lived and raised two children in for the past two decades. Trash decorated the streets, the buildings needed repainting, and chicken darted in between cars. It wasn’t Tokyo, for certain, but it was his home. He took pride in it. He was a decorated Filipino Colonel. He was proud to be Filipino.
The light had yet to turn green. He patiently waited as traffic started to pile up. A motorcycle pulled up next to him. The two men sitting on the motorcycle seemed to acknowledge the Colonel. They waved to him. The Colonel waved back. The Colonel was known to value his privacy, so it would have been rather unlikely for him to wave back to complete strangers.
The friendly exchange would turn deadly for the Colonel. Within a matter of seconds, the two strangers on the motorcycle pulled out their guns and shot the Colonel.
Bam.
Bam.
Bam.
Bam.
They revved up their motorcycle and disappeared into coagulation of Manila’s infamous traffic.
The streets were left in panic and confusion. The Colonel was dead. That day is always going to haunt my family. The Colonel was my uncle. The mystery behind his murder has not been solved. However, in retrospect, through this tragedy lies a blessing.
It opened the door to my past: my adoption.
(part 1)
API Collegiate Press: Chinese-Americans are really Chinese, American, neither and both.
When I went back to China in the Summer of 2010 to study abroad, one taxi ride truly made me question my identity as a Chinese-American. There were two Chinese-Americans who did not speak Chinese, with one Chinese-American student who did. By default, she instructed the driver where to go and the…
Holt's 2012 Happy Trail in Korea for Korean adoptees
The trip is July 11th - 24th , 2012
Application Deadline: March 31, 2012!
Info at the link:
http://www.holtinternational.org/adopteestoday/pdfs/2012Programguide_application.pdf
Beyond Two Worlds: Musings of an Asian American Adoptee
Meet Marijane, a Taiwanese adoptee. She has an interesting story to tell along with her dialogue about cross-culture adoption and her journey as a Asian American, Taiwanese American Adoptee. Please subscribe to her blog, Beyond Two Worlds. =)
