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| 04 April 2011 |
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Colorado Asian QuitLine Mandarin or Cantonese: 1-800-838-8017
Asian-speaking Coloradans who are ready to quit smoking can now get help in their native language. The new Colorado Asian QuitLine provides free access to quit-smoking coaches who speak Mandarin, Cantonese, Korean and Vietnamese and free nicotine patches for those who are medically eligible. Smoking is one of the leading causes of preventable death and disease and a major driver of increased health care costs. According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, tobacco use increases a person’s risk for cancer and heart disease and affects the health of family and friends who breathe secondhand smoke. |
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| 04 April 2011 |
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About four years ago, Jino Ahn was at a Hispanic MBA conference in Houston when he noticed that approximately half of the 8,000 attendees were Asian. At that point, he decided that there was a need for a gathering point that catered to Asian Americans with MBAs. “That’s how the whole thing started,” Ahn said. “I really felt that these people needed a place to go and a platform to come together.” In 2009, Ahn launched the Asian MBA Leadership Conference and Career Expo in New York. That conference was, as organizers call it, a launching pad for the formation of the National Association of Asian MBAs (NAAMBA). This spring, he is embarking on a three-month tour to 24 cities around the world – which includes a stop in Denver on April 4 and 5. “We want to catch up to the size of the Hispanic and black MBA associations,” he said. “In an effort to do that, I decided to go on this trip to speak with many different stakeholders around the country, as well as Asia, about issues NAAMBA feels passionate about.” |
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| 04 April 2011 |
National Association of Asian MBAs|
New name, same mission. Founded in 1973, OCA, formerly known as the Organization of Chinese Americans, has more than 80 chapters and affiliates across the country working on behalf of Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent, dedicated to advancing the social, political and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans.
The OCA Colorado chapter, led by President Hing Ryder, organizes a Lunar New Year Banquet with Mile-Hi Japanese American Citizens League and a holiday party for seniors each year, in addition to co-sponsoring the Asian American Heroes of Colorado Awards and volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House. “I became involved with OCA Colorado about eight years ago as membership chair and became the president of OCA Colorado in 2011,” she said. |
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| 04 April 2011 |
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The zoo's second celebration of the day included a traditional elephant buffet for their two Asian elephant residents, Dolly and Mimi, who gobbled down fresh fruits and vegetables on long tables. The buffet for the elephants is an annual event in parts of Thailand. Activity stations surrounded the elephant habitat introducing the zoo's new Asian Tropics exhibit, highlighting important conservation efforts and interpreting the relationship between Asian elephants and humans.Individuals from Denver's Thai community were invited to share their culture at the event. In addition to the traditional dancing, fruit carvers shared the Thai art of turning fruits and vegetables into works of art. |
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| 04 April 2011 |
Clad in traditional Thai dancing attire, Varita Hongsunirundon and Rattawit Angkhasakulkiat glided barefoot across the ground of the Denver Zoo. They are a part of the dance group from Wat Buddhawararam in Denver invited to share their talents in celebration of National Thai Elephant Day on March 13.|
The annual festival showcased a collection of Japanese dolls, as well as displays of kimonos, ikebana and bonsai. A medley of performances of song, dance, martial arts and taiko presented by a number of groups from the local Japanese-American community. There was also a Japanese tea ceremony as well as demonstrations of origami, shodo (calligraphy) and kimekomi (doll making). The church has hosted the festival the first weekend in March since it was founded by former pastor, Rev. Jonathan Fujita. Fujita wanted to introduce the Japanese culture to the community came to the U.S. from Japan after World War II. The festival this year was coordinated through the efforts of many church and community members with the leadership of Mary Nishiyama and Dennis Kitayama along with advisors Kazuko Dishong, Nobuko Ninomiya, Miyako Smith, and Lillian Uba. |
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| 04 April 2011 |
The 43rd annual Hina Matsuri Doll Festival took place on March 5 and 6 at the Simpson United Methodist Church in Arvada.|
Denver’s taiko troupes came together to host a benefit to help relief efforts in Japan on March 26 at Colorado Heights University. Denver Taiko, Mirai Daiko and Taiko with Toni, as well as many other local performers hosted Heartbeat for Japan. Admission was billed as a “give what you can,” with all proceeds going to the Northern Japan Earthquake Relief Fund. The show ended with a collaborative performance that united all three taiko troupes on stage. Colorado Heights University donated their theater for the event.
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| 04 April 2011 |
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Local television journalists Nelson Garcia, Chris Jose and Chris Tanaka shared their experiences during the Men of Color in Broadcast News panel on March 19 at the 9News community room in Denver. The event was hosted by the Asian American Journalists Association Denver chapter. The three men talked about a wide range of topics from why they entered the industry to how race affected their careers. Patti Moon, a reporter at KRDO in Colorado Springs, served as the event’s moderator. AAJA is a nonprofit professional and educational organization with more than 1,400 members today. AAJA serves Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders by encouraging young people to consider journalism as a career, developing managers in the media industry, and promoting fair and accurate news coverage. For more information about AAJA, visit www.aaja.org. |
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| 04 April 2011 |
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The Denver Chapter of National Unification Advisory Council, in cooperation with the government of the Republic of Korea and the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies, hosted an open forum and dinner on March 5 at Marriott South. Entitled “One Korea... A Path to Global Peace”, the informative evening included a reception, dinner and live traditional Korean dance.
Speaking on the panel was Dr. Bruce Bechtol, Angelo University; Lee Jeong Gwan, Consulate-General of the Republic of Korea, San Francisco; Scott Snyder, Asian Foundation, Washington DC.; Professor, Suisheng Zhao, PhD, University of Denver Korbel International Studies; Dr. Christian Ostermann, Woodrow Wilson International Center, Washington DC.; and Professor Ved Nanda, PhD, University of Denver Sturm College of Law.
The Denver Chapter of National Unification Advisory Council, in cooperation with the government of the Republic of Korea and the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies, hosted an open forum and dinner on March 5 at Marriott South. Entitled “One Korea... A Path to Global Peace”, the informative evening included a reception, dinner and live traditional Korean dance.
Speaking on the panel was Dr. Bruce Bechtol, Angelo University; Lee Jeong Gwan, Consulate-General of the Republic of Korea, San Francisco; Scott Snyder, Asian Foundation, Washington DC.; Professor, Suisheng Zhao, PhD, University of Denver Korbel International Studies; Dr. Christian Ostermann, Woodrow Wilson International Center, Washington DC.; and Professor Ved Nanda, PhD, University of Denver Sturm College of Law. |
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| 04 April 2011 |
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Walk into any Chinese restaurant, and you’re likely to see a scroll, a wall panel, maybe even chopsticks in that color. Red is considered a lucky color for the Chinese and the Vietnamese, since it represents happiness and prosperity. It is often used in celebrations, especially during the Lunar New Year, when red lanterns, red clothing, red food, and even red firecrackers abound. It is also the reason why a traditional Chinese bride wears red, not white, at her wedding. White is the color of death, so it is bad luck to wear it at such a happy occasion. Red is also worn by Indian brides, to signify purity and fertility. The color is also believed to have protective powers – if someone wears a red string tied around the wrist, it will guard the person against evil. In Korea, though, red is not considered a propitious color, since it connotes passion. The Thais, who assign a lucky color for each day of the week, wear red on Sundays. In many Asian countries, white is the color of mourning. A white carnation signifies death in Japan, but unlike the Chinese, a traditional Japanese bride DOES wear white at her wedding. The color symbolizes a new beginning, as marriage means that the woman ends her life as a daughter, and starts a new one as a member of her husband’s family. In India, white is the color worn by widows, and in Vietnam, it is the color of purity as well as death. In Korea, a white chrysanthemum represents death, but the color is otherwise associated with purity and patriotism. |
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| 04 April 2011 |
Ever wonder why the Chinese like the color red so much?More Articles...
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Burma’s military junta released Aung San Suu Kyi from her latest house arrest sentence on Nov. 13.
As a large crowd of her supporters gathered to show their support, voices from the international community also heralded her new freedom. President Barack Obama referred to Kyi as a “hero” and “source of inspiration.”
But like many, Obama also cautioned that “whether Aung San Suu Kyi is living in the prison of her house, or the prison of her country, does not change the fact that she, and the political opposition she represents, has been systematically silenced, incarcerated, and deprived of any opportunity to engage in political processes that could change Burma.”
Kyi has spent much of the past two decades either being held in detention or serving sentences of house arrest. The timing and length of her periods of confinement have depended wholly on the whims of Burma’s military junta and how secure it feels in its power.
As the General Secretary for the National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi’s first detention began on July 20, 1989, less than a year after the junta took power in a military coup, and less than a year before Burma’s 1990 elections. When the National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in the 1990 elections, the junta ignored the results.
Instead, it retroactively amended its justification for retraining Kyi, allowing her detention to stretch for five years rather than three. Similarly, the junta used the intrusion of a U.S. citizen into Kyi’s house to extend her most recent house arrest until after Burma’s Nov. 7 elections.
The junta’s claims that it won between 75 and 80 percent of the vote in the 2010 elections, which many international critics believe were a sham. Regardless, the junta must undoubtedly believe Kyi poses no immediate threat to its control to have released her on Nov. 13.
The junta’s confinement of Kyi has made her a world-recognized symbol of the struggle for democracy in Burma against the oppressive ruling junta. Among many honors, Kyi has been awarded the Rafto Human Rights Prize, Sakharov Prize and Nobel Peace Prize while under house arrest. Yet her actions in her short times of freedom speak even louder than her captivity.
In 1999, the junta offered to allow Kyi to leave the country to visit her terminally ill husband in the United Kingdom. She rejected that offer because of her belief that she would not be allowed to return to Burma if she left. Her husband passed away shortly thereafter. Even in the face of such an impossible choice, Kyi embodied selflessness. As she told “Dateline NBC” in 2000, “If you choose to do something, then you shouldn't say it's a sacrifice, because nobody forced you to do it.”
Even during her year of freedom from 2002 to 2003, Kyi toured Burma to meet with, and rally, her pro-democracy supporters. She was stopped when her convoy was attacked by the junta, and she was returned to confinement yet again. Time will only tell how much freedom Kyi truly has. Since being released, Kyi has spoken of her goal of national reconciliation, to be achieved primarily through dialogue with the junta.
The junta has spent the last two decades trying to silence Kyi, and it may continue to do so. But the people of Burma are listening, and so is the world.
As a large crowd of her supporters gathered to show their support, voices from the international community also heralded her new freedom. President Barack Obama referred to Kyi as a “hero” and “source of inspiration.” But like many, Obama also cautioned that “whether Aung San Suu Kyi is living in the prison of her house, or the prison of her country, does not change the fact that she, and the political opposition she represents, has been systematically silenced, incarcerated, and deprived of any opportunity to engage in political processes that could change Burma.” Kyi has spent much of the past two decades either being held in detention or serving sentences of house arrest. The timing and length of her periods of confinement have depended wholly on the whims of Burma’s military junta and how secure it feels in its power. |
Burma’s military junta released Aung San Suu Kyi from her latest house arrest sentence on Nov. 13.