#charles lai

Hong Kong’s Charles Lai, Tokyo’s Takehiko Suzuki and Hong Kong-based practice aona completed a prototype for a quickly-erected shelter made of bamboo poles and other local materials for earthquake victims in Nepal.  The two architects began an architectural relief organization, Architecture for the Mass, this past April in response to the Nepal Earthquake. (more…)

By Charles Lai              

July 30th was a ridiculously hot day.  Perfect for a day at the beach with food, drinks…and dragon boating?  The 2011 Long Beach Dragon Boat festival was held on July 30– 31 at the Marine Stadium in Long Beach.  Annually, this is the largest dragon boating competition in all of California, bringing in rowers from all over the state, as well as being the fairgrounds for a variety of Asian cultures.

Dragon boating takes its origins in ancient China.  More specifically, it is an entire tradition based off the life of one man, Qu Yuan.  During the “Warring States” period of China, Qu Yuan was an honored poet and minister to the King.  However the ministers during the time period were corrupted, eventually even influencing the King himself.  Qu Yuan, one of the few remaining just ministers, was exiled from the state of Chu.  However, when Qu Yuan’s home was invaded, he was overtaken with sadness and took his own life by throwing himself into the Miluo River.  The people of Chu raced out in their boats to try to save him, and ever since, the dragon boat festival has been an annual celebration in honor of Qu Yuan.

Thousands of years later, I’m standing at the edge of the canal, cheering as the sleek boats go fleeting by.  The synchronization of every rower in harmony to the drummer’s steady beats is an awesome sight; almost more like an art than a sport.  But it is a sport nonetheless, and the roars of the spectators certainly prove it.  There are so many races that take place over the two days, and by the third race that I’ve watched, I’m starting to feel a little hungry.  Of course, a festival isn’t a festival without food booths, so I make my way over to a rather disappointing corner of stands.  Despite the festival being a long-standing Chinese tradition, there were no Chinese food booths at all.  Instead, I found two Thai food stands, a Mexican one, and one that served heart attacks in the form of bacon-wrapped hot dogs.  Even though dragon boating has recently been diffusing all over the world, the evident lack of Asian culture was a bit disheartening.  However, the delicious Thai food quickly lifted my spirits.

Taking a short break from the excitement of the races, I decided to watch the performances.  Cementing the idea that the dragon boat festival was now a truly international event, I watched an array of hula, poi, and haka dancers (Hawaii), taiko performers (Japan), and even some dancing originating in Latin America.  While I was secretly saddened by the lack of attention to the Chinese culture, the performances were entertaining and an excellent contrast to the intense races happening right behind them. 

By Charles Lai

Who is Vincent Chin? If you know already, or know of the tragedy that befell him that night at the bar in June of 1982, pat yourself on the back. Evidently, not very many people do. Nor do they know of his legacy, his martyrdom, or his unintentional fight for Asian-American equality.

Vincent Who? was a documentary directed by Tony Lam and produced by Curtis Chin (unrelated to Vincent) that details the 1982 murder, and the massive aftereffects. But first, it starts by asking over eighty Asian-American students, “Who IS Vincent Chin?” Sadly, not one had the answer. Not one knew of his murder, or the immediate uproar of the Asian-American community afterwards. No one knew how, before Vincent, there was no “Asian-American”, only “Chinese-American”, “Japanese-American”, etc. Not one of them knew how his death united all Asians in America to fight injustice and racial inequality. Admittedly, I didn’t either.

Vincent Chin was celebrating his bachelor party at a club in Detroit, Michigan the night of June 23, 1982. He had a job; he was just about to get married. Life was good. However, two men, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, began to pick a fight with Chin and his friends, subsequently getting both parties kicked out of the club. Ebens and Nitz hunted down Chin later that night, and bludgeoned him with a baseball bat. “It’s because of you little motherf***ers that we’re out of work!” The U.S. auto industry at the time had lost many jobs to Japan. As Chin slipped into a coma, his last words were, “It’s not fair”. No Vincent, it really wasn’t fair. Vincent Chin died four days later.

The immediate event that transcended Vincent’s death was a huge blow to the Asian-American community. As it turns out, neither Ebens nor Nitz served a single day in prison for their act of hate-filled murder. Both were acquitted of all charges. It wasn’t fair. And for the first time, all Asians banded together, under Vincent Chin’s name. Vincent Chin became a martyr, a symbol representing the fight for racial equality. Vincent Who? is an eye-opening account of just how ignorant Asian-Americans today are of the battles we’ve had to fight to get to where we are. We know nothing of the pan-Asian-American civil rights movement that followed: the rallies, the speeches, and the protests. And as Asian-Americans, the least we can do is honor the memory of Vincent, who unintentionally made America today a better place for us to live in. So if anybody asks you,” Who is Vincent Chin?” you had better know.