I truly understand what
she has experienced and the decisions she has made. Although I have not altered
my appearance at all, I identify myself as being Asian American. I am
completely aware that all four of my Jewish grandparents came from Eastern
Europe, that my father was born in England, and that my mother spent six years living
with her grandmother in Hungary, during World War One.
I have ample reason to
believe that I am Asian, although I haven’t quite locked in on which Asian
community I best identify with.
When I moved to San
Francisco in 1960, I would regularly venture into Chinatown for an eighty-five
cent meal of chicken-fried rice at Hooey Loey Goey’s basement restaurant on
Jackson Street
I taught at San Jose
State University twice, and from 1969 to 1971, when I was also working on my
masters, before a night class, I would go to Japantown for a meal at Minato
Sushi restaurant.
When I taught at Fresno
State from 1971 to 1973, a female companion of mine was Yoshiko, my graduate
assistant was Samuel, and both were Japanese Americans. His brother Ken was my
dentist. When I went to Hong Kong, I stayed with a former Chinese student and
his family. His parents took me to dine at a restaurant in a mall where there
were thousands of Chinese and no Caucasians, and I felt quite comfortable among
my own people.
My most consistent student
contacts from my teaching days at San Jose State are a Chinese-American woman,
a Chinese-American man and a Korean man, both of whom live in New York. I also
keep in touch with my former Japanese-American student at Sunset magazine.
I still drive
seventy-five miles up to San Francisco’s Chinatown, both to visit Tane, a friend
of more than forty years who runs the Wok Shop on Grant Avenue, and to acquire
my Chinese medicine at a reasonable price. I usually purchase Pe Min Kan Wan
pills to stop my sinus drain, Gan Mau Ling pills to prevent a cold, and have
used other products such Kang Gu Zeng Sheng, Ging Qi Hua Tan Wan, Yang Cheng,
and Shuangliao Houfeng San for other internal ailments. My medicine cabinet
would not be complete without Zheng Gu Shui, Tiger Balm and Wong To Yick, to
apply to my aches and pains.
I always check with Tane
to see what is the best restaurant at the time for a vegetarian Chinese meal,
and lately it has been the House of Nanking.
When I taught at San
Jose State University from 1986 to 2008, I introduced a class on how the
American media covered the illegal Japanese American internment, and would
bring in former Japanese-American internees to my class. I would also take the
students to the Japanese-American Museum. I also became close friends with many
of the members. While at SJSU, every Tuesday and Thursday evenings, I would
play table tennis in the Student Union, and most of the players were
Vietnamese-Americans.
I have been taking table
tennis lessons for years at Top Spin in San Jose with members of the Li family
who are my friends. Vietnamese-American friends owned it, and many of the
players there and at Northern California tournaments are Asian. My two favorite
doubles partners in tournaments were Hackie Honda, a Japanese-American, and
Kent Leung, a Chinese American. We won many a tournament, until they both
passed on.
Until my knees gave out,
I took Taiko drum lessons from a Japanese-American woman, and still see her
when I attend the annual Japanese Fair here in town.
I also visit San Jose’s
Japantown for many of their festivals, and to talk with a sculptor friend of
mine. We have one of his fine sculptures in our back yard, which we designed
and built as a Japanese garden.
My wife and I are
members of the Living Tao Foundation, and we practice Tai Ji that we have
learned from our teacher Chungliang. We attend his workshops in Esalen twice a
year with our daughter. I have several of Chungliang’s designed tee shirts, as
well as one from the Japan Fair whose symbol says “ah.” I also wear a Tao
medallion on one chain, and have a Gok Hoy Way one on another. Gok Hoy Way is
my Chinese name, and it means Gotliffe, Great As An Ocean. My Hong Kong friend
had it made for me many years ago, and I also have business cards printed in
both Chinese and English, from when I had one of several writing assignments in
Hong Kong.
I have written articles
on the Japanese-American ukulele makers in Hawaii, the Kamaka family, and have
visited with the master player Ohta-San, and the young virtuoso Jake
Shimabukuro. When I did take lessons in my home, the instructor was
Chinese-American.
I get massages on a
regular basis from either Xiao, Ching, Ping or Ying, and all four of them were
born in Mainland China. I greet them with “Nihao”, and thank them with “xie
xie” when I leave. I have an outstanding
instructional tape for learning to speak Mandarin, but must confess that I
haven’t learned that much. I did teach my Mandarin-speaking masseuses how to
improve their English, and for six-months I spent an hour with them each Monday
morning, and received a “free” massage in return. I have a 3” x 5” card with
basic Vietnamese on it, and use it primarily to greet the Vietnamese woman
working at the post office.
We have eaten excellent
meals at Chinese and Japanese restaurants here, but when I want sushi and miso
soup, my Spanish-born wife tops any restaurant fare with her own creations.
Thank you Rachel Dolezal
for your bravery. Your actions have inspired me to finally get out of the
closet, and tell the world who really am. I am an Asian-American, Jewish man,
who enjoys watching his wife light the Shabes candles and chant the blessings in
Hebrew, every Friday night.
Gut Shabes.
