Happy New Year… Again!

       Gung hay fat choy!  Or Cung hỉ phát tài!   Whichever way you say it, it’s the lunar New Year (usually referred to as Chinese New Year) and it’s observe in Korea and Vietnam as well.

Last weekend we said good-bye to the year of the Rat and hello to the year of the Ox. 

Children born during this year are said to be kind, logical, and filled with common sense. 

I’m curious if any Blasian (or other multi-culti) families celebrated the New Year this past weekend.  I have to admit I didn’t.   But I would love to see pictures of those who did and we’ll post them here on the blog.                       

The First Family

It’s the day after the “Inauguration”!  No comments on the outgoing administration on this blog.  But I would like to comment about the diversity of the Obama family.  Before this Bush’s family was probably the most diverse because Jeb Bush is married to a Latina.

But Obama’s family is the American melting pot.

Malia, Sasha and their Aunt Maya (Malia looks a bit like her Auntie there)

 

Maya Soetoro-Ng with husband and daughter

And the first couple’s first dance

I wonder how many of Obama’s stepmothers were there (he has a white stepmother and a black stepmother)?  And his veteran uncle (who is white) was probably too old to brave the DC cold because I don’t recall seeing him.

Because the Obama family is a young one they will be watched and documented while they live in DC.  Here’s hoping its all good.

Learn to Speak Chinese

For you and your baby

Still no word on the baby front yet (J is under the misconception that I, like Benjamin Button, get younger every year).  So since J still wants to wait a few more months before we start “trying” which gives me time to add a few more Korean words to my vocabulary.  If I learn three more I’ll be up to five.

Five is a good number. 

I just discovered this book.  It’s about Korean and hopefully they will add it to their collection but for mothers who have Chinese babies (or who want their babies to learn Chinese)

The cd is for newborn to 2 year olds.  I haven’t tried it yet so I can’t actually give a use perspective but it looks promising.

Obama : Black Man Only or Multi-Racial Icon?

So like everyone else I watched the Inauguration all day while entertaing the idea of Daniel one day being the first “Asian” president. LOL. So, I found it interesting that everyone keep saying our first “black” president. That people felt that “finally there’s a black man in the white houese” and that “we’re making progress racially as a nation, race will no longer be such an issue, etc, etc, etc”.  But how true is this?  Have we really progressed racially?

President Obama hugged his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, at her December 2003 wedding to Konrad Ng (Chinese) in Hawaii.

First Obama might not be the “first” black president. It’s long been rumored that Abraham Lincoln might have had some black in him . Which could futher be argued that Obama is not out first bi-racial president. Which I’ve noticed was a fact majorly downplayed by the media. The fact that Obama had a white mother, asian stepfather, hapa sister and a diverse cultural background was on no channel I could find. To be fair, maybe I missed something while switching channels but I doubt it.

Obama doing a "shaka", a common greeting in hawii.

Adding to this none of the Inauguration “guest commentors” included these facts either. The most I could find that even hinted at Obamas diversity was a float from Hawii and a photo highlight of his school years in Hawii. Both ridiclously brief and if you were channel surfing you would have missed them. Sadly, they did make a comment about his middle name and his influence within the muslim community and what they might mean *rolling my eyes*. But leave it to Obama to make his history know by doing something that might seem insignificant but made a large statement in my mind. He did a “shaka“, a common greeting in hawii. My man did not forget his roots and culture. I can respect a man like that.

Obama Family's MultiCultural Roots

I can’t help feeling it was a media blackout (pun intended) about his bi-racial background. So while it’s of course great to have a minority president,  the issue that he’s being boxed in as being only “black” shows we’re not as racially progressive as it all might seem. Maybe by the time Daniel is ready to run for president racial issues might be further along on the road of not being racial “issues”.

Later Edit: I found a news article that addressed this issue.

Nation’s Many Faces in Extended First Family
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/us/politics/21family.htm (link opens in new window)

Credit for the photos highlighted in the blog is all theirs, but literal witty writing is all mine