questions i’d like answered
1. what will be the impact of this financial crisis on chinatown and the forces of gentrification?
2. why does hugo chew his ass?
3. why do men catcall? REALLY, WHY DO THEY??
4. is capitalism undergoing a process of creative destruction?
and the most important question of all…
5. should i get my hair cut or let it grow out?????
Filed under: chinatown, gentrification, hugo, misc. | Leave a Comment
Tags: capitalism, gentrification, hair, patriarchy
my family, to put it mildly, is made up of god-fearing people. as a child, we didn’t just go to church on sundays – we went every friday (you can imagine the crimp it put in my 10-year-old social life) and even some wednesdays! if you think about it, that’s almost 50 percent of the week!
so why are we so religious? how did a bunch of good chinese folks, steeped in all sorts of centuries-old tradition and ancestor worship and all that stuff, become such rabid jesus freaks? i blame it on communism (which forced my KMT-supporting family to Taiwan) and imperialism in the form of British missionaries who bamboozled my wai gong with visions of eternal heaven as he lay on his (near)death-bed in taipei one summer.
i find it actually really sad that christianity (esp. the puritanical sort that my family ascribes to) has replaced the traditions that my family may have practiced in the past – for one, i think the idea of remembering and honoring your ancestors is a beautiful thing and is a way to stay connected to your past and to your community and family. christianity on the other hand, to me, erases all of that and replaces a real, lived history with a grim one-size-apparently-fits-all version of the past, present, and future.
i’m thinking about all of this because i’m home in texas for a few days, and coming home always forces me to confront the complex ways that religion operates in my life and in that of my family, in both mundane and really profound ways. here are some vignettes from this trip that hopefully explain what i mean…
how god complicates my life, #1:
my sister picks me up from the airport – this is my sister who i love but who drives ME. INSANE. with her constant lecturing about my “lifestyle.” in the middle of making idle chit chat in the car, i decide that it’s the perfect moment to show her my latest tattoo. yes, the snake tattoo – the serpent, which is the symbol OF THE DEVIL in the bible. pretty perverse of me, right? to have the SYMBOL OF THE DEVIL permanently displayed on my body!!
i make her pinky swear that she won’t freak out if i show her something. i show her and, of course, she freaks out. she gives me some lecture about how the devil is real and is a liar, about how i’ve bowed to peer pressure and to the ways of this world, and about how she feels i’ve strayed. i respond with, “and i also ritually sacrifice squirrels and drink the blood of dead babies.” we enjoy a pleasantly awkward drive back to the house.
how god complicates my life, #2:
my family (parents, grandparents, brother daniel, and ann) went out to dinner this evening and as we’re finishing up, ann asks if we’d like to come back to our house and have a little prayer circle to pray for grace, our other sister; for daniel and his upcoming wedding; and for our little brother timmy who is off this summer in china saving the savages from eternal damnation. everyone enthusiastically agrees, and i think to myself, oh dear…!
we get home, we gather around the kitchen table, and each of us begins praying. i’ve always found these types of prayer circles, even when i was a “believer,” to be incredibly uncomfortable, as a pretty typical prayer involves a good amount of self-flagellation.
so everyone does their go-around, and then it comes to me. do i say anything? do i fake it? or do i not, and further cement my reputation in the family as the, so my mom says, hei ma (literally “black horse”)? i’m all set to remain silent when my mom nudges me and tells me to say a few words. i relent, especially since my grandparents are here and i don’t want them to get upset. i try to keep god out of what i say and instead focus on how blessed i am to have my family (which is true and honest), but i still feel like a total hypocrite.
what’s worse is that everyone in my family (with the exception of my grandparents) actually knows that i don’t go to church and don’t believe in the sanctity of the bible, yet they refuse to accept the truth of what that all means. instead, they’ll say things like, “i’d ALMOST think you didn’t believe in god, esther!” well, yeah!
i love my family a lot, and it’s pretty painful to not be able to be completely honest with them about who i am and what i believe. and i think of how organized religion, and christianity in particular, has essentially been used as a tool and an excuse for war, imperialism, patriarchy, and all sorts of other fucked up shit in this world, and think of how in smaller ways it has reinforced those things within my own family.
effing british missionaries…!
to be continued with more thoughts on god, the original O.G. (yes, i know, original original, blah blah blah…)
Filed under: misc. | Leave a Comment
Tags: family, religion, tattoo
why am i (re)starting my blog?
because, who isn’t interested in my random thoughts and all the fascinating details of my life?
because for the past two years, there’s been a big hole in my heart that can only be filled with words.
because, as audre lorde said (more beautifully than i ever could), “I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and to share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigating pain. It is important to share how I know survival is survival and not just a walk through the rain.”
and because it just feels good!
Filed under: misc. | 2 Comments
Tags: writing
i had the privilege of seeing grace lee boggs speak on friday at the brecht forum and then have lunch with her and some other lovely people the next day. imagine a tiny but FIERCE! chinese american lady with a short crop of silvery hair and skin that’s been wrinkled and aged by love and struggle, and you have grace.
every time i see her, i feel like my mind is expanded into ten different dimensions that i didn’t even know existed until then. this past weekend was no exception! but out of everything she said, one idea has really stayed stuck in my brain – the idea of agape (love) and how it relates to our organizing and the communities that we all hope to create.
Filed under: misc. | 1 Comment
Tags: gentrification, love, nyc, organizing
Chinese, Latino, and White tenants worked together to fight negligent landlord and had their demands met
April 11, 2007, Chinatown, New York, NY – Yesterday, residents of 55 and 61 Delancey Street met and celebrated their successes in holding their landlord accountable to their demands for safe housing, repairs, and an end to baseless evictions. With more than 500 HPD (Department of Housing Preservation and Development) violations, the tenants were living with some of the worst housing conditions in the city. Many had been served unwarranted eviction notices. Over the past few months, tenants have been participating in a rent strike and holding accountability meetings. They have also organized and participated in actions at the buildings with the support of the Chinatown Tenants Union.
The tenants celebrated the following:
- A rent abatement of over $3000 for every tenant who participated in the rent strike;
- Renewal of leases that were previously denied them;
- Dropped eviction cases;
- Regular heat and hot water and repairs;
- The City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) suing the landlord for the 500-plus violations on record for the two buildings;
- Preservation of rent-stabilized units; and
- Timely responses from the landlord when repairs are requested.
“I never thought we could do it. Many of us have been living with bad conditions for many years. The landlord had ignored our requests for repairs, and we lived without basic services like heat and hot water for so long. But then we began to meet and talk, and everyone had the same experience—we wanted to do something,” said Zhi Qin Zheng, resident of 61 Delancey and member of the Chinatown Tenants Union.
The landlords – Michael Daniel, Nir Sela, and 55 Delancey Street Realty LLC – bought the buildings in 2001 and have evicted almost half of the original tenants of the buildings.
Said CAAAV and CTU organizer Bin Liang, “This was a win for all Chinatown residents. No one thought that the landlord would listen to our demands. But the power that we have when we are united is undeniable. The tenants came together, and that was our biggest strength of all.”
The Chinatown Tenants Union and tenants of 55 and 61 Delancey Street will continue to organize and demand repairs until all the violations are addressed.
The Chinatown Tenants Union was formed in 2004 as a response to the rapidly increasing gentrification of the neighborhood. Made of more than 100 members and more than 1,200 supporters, the CTU works to fight gentrification and displacement of low-income and long-time residents of Chinatown. CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities was founded in 1986 and organizes across diverse, low-wage, and poor Asian communities in New York City.
Filed under: misc. | 1 Comment
Tags: chinatown, gentrification, nyc, organizing, race
