Blended Billy: Fashionably On Time

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Welcome back to Watermelon Sushi World.

If you haven’t yet read the New York Times article about the phenomenon of young Americans claiming their mixed-roots heritages, you can do so at the Hip Hapa Homeez Group page on Facebook. While you’re there, please sign up to become a member; then, feel free to post whatever news you think would be of interest to blendies, mixies, transracial adoptees and anyone who crosses cultures.

In celebration of Lunar New Year of the Rabbit, Your Hip Hapa introduces you to Billy No--a clothing designer of French, Mexican and Korean ancestry.

That’s Billy in the photo to the left. To learn more about his numerous lines of clothing and all the companies he owns and operates, visit the links below:

www.blendamerica.com 

www.blendcouture.com

www.babyblend.com

www.iwearorganic.com 

Q: So, Billy, how did your French-Mexican mother and Korean father meet?  

A: My parents met in 1972 at a factory in Chicago where they both worked while attending college. They both had the same bus route to and from work. That created an opportunity for them to get to know one another outside of work, where they soon became friends. That friendship transitioned into my father asking my mother out on a few dates; then, those few dates turned into marriage. That’s the short version, there’s more when the book comes out.

Q: Since your mother is both French and Mexican, she's also multi-ethnic. What was it like for her growing up?

A: My mother grew up in the northern part of Mexico, which is well known for their European-looking residents. My grandmother’s side of the family has the French and Spaniard bloodline and my grandfather is Indio/Aztec. Fortunately, my mother had a great upbringing, coming from a well-off family that lived both in the United States and Mexico. My grandmother’s side owned several mineral mines, and also had family that lived in Kansas for several years. 

Q: With your father being Korean, what kind of meals did your family eat?

A: Our dinners surprisingly consisted of a wide variety of ethnic dishes. We never ate just one specific type of food. Meals always consisted of a blend of ethnic dishes from Asian, European, Spanish and classic American dishes. I was very spoiled when it came to food and, fortunately, I was not a picky individual when it came to food. It also helps that my mother is an amazing cook! 

Q: What about the way you grew up? Was it difficult being multi-ethnic?

A: My upbringing was a bit different than most kids; I had three languages going on simultaneously growing up in the household. I had families that sometimes did not see eye to eye on things-- because of cultural differences--that were always interesting to watch. I began to develop great insights and a global perspective at a very young age. I loved every minute of it, the good and bad times; it was such an experience and still is. I just need to work on my Korean and French and I’ll be good to go. I’ve got my Spanish pretty good. People always had a healthy curiosity about my upbringing and my perspective on specific subjects like race, culture and politics for some reason. Overall, growing up as a blended kid and with a blended family has been a blessing for me, a great opportunity to experience a wide variety of foods, music and culture. Family is by far the best aspects of being a “blend”.

Q: What inspired you to start a clothing company?

A: My parents owned a few businesses in Chicago, where I began to learn the ropes of what it takes to run a business. I loved every moment. We went to McCormick Place for business trade shows and merchandising events to check the latest and newest trends. I started Blend America in the summer of 1989, when I had free time to think of a name and create a logo for the company.  Fortunately, I’ve been blessed with some artistic abilities, allowing me to create and illustrate logos at a very young age. I chose to create a clothing line because of its platform, a very versatile way to leave a mark and impression in the minds of the masses. I had the plan set at a very young age; I knew exactly what I wanted and how to accomplish my goals.

Q: Who are your customers? Are they mostly multi-ethnic?

A: So far, my business has been U.S.-based, from New York, Chicago, Miami, California to Arizona. I’ve had a few customers from various parts of the world, and several hundred emails with requests for new products. It’s been amazing! Blend America Clothing is a global brand that reaches out to everyone, not just a specific group, but to have a mass appeal and include everyone. I utilize my blended upbringing and perspective to ensure that my brand stays global and reaches out to everyone in the world.

Q: Any future plans?

A: All my online ventures are part-time projects. I own a graphic and web design business by 

day and conduct all my other operations after hours. I am currently running four online retail 

stores: blendamerica.com, blendcouture.com, babyblend.com and iwearorganic.com. These 

are my main focuses at the moment, my plans is to stay focused on these four brands and 

build a solid foundation and brand identity. My ultimate goal is to find a financial partner in 

these ventures, so that these brands have the opportunity to flourish and compete in the 

global market.

Good luck, Billy! May the Rabbit bring you great fortune.

As for us Hip Hapa Homeez, we’re in hop-step with Rabbit, too. Please remember to join our Watermelon Sushi Fan page on Facebook that supports our film. You can also show your love by purchasing a Hapa*Teez t-shirt on Café Press. Apologies for our intermittent tweeting, but if you have some good ideas on how we can become better involved, please join our Twitter page and tweet away!

Also, several months ago, Watermelon Sushi producer Robert Taylor and I began co-hosting a biweekly online show called Sexy Voices of Hollywood featuring tips from show biz types. SVOH was created specifically to help guide those desiring Hollywood careers and to financially support our Watermelon Sushi film. You can help by joining our SVOH Fan page on Facebook, and attending our “events” by listening to our shows. Here’s the YouTube address: http://www.youtube.com/sexyvoiceshollywood

Until we meet again my little bunnies...

I am Your Hippity-Hoppity Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Mixed Arts, Mixed Marriage, And Riding The Metal Tiger

Gung Hay Fat Choy! Sun Neen Fai Lok!

HAPA Lunar New Year of the Metal Tiger, my Hip Hapa Homeez. Are you ready to ride the tiger yet? Grrrr, so are we! This Saturday, the planet celebrates Lunar Year 4708 so Your Hip Hapa thought it appropriate to feature painter, poet, author, newspaper arts editor and produce worker Alan Chong Lau. Every single year, no matter where in the world Your Hip Hapa calls home, Alan sends her a hand-painted Lunar New Year card from his Seattle digs.

That’s Alan with his grandmother in the photo here taken in 1955 in California, and below are three of his paintings. The first one, a self-portrait of him working at his produce job, appeared in his book Blues and Greens: A Produce Worker’s Journal. The second image is called Gods of the People and the third, Bittermelon Achieving Overripeness.

You can find out more about Alan’s artwork by going to the gallery link where Alan’s artwork is featured and clicking his name: http://www.sedersgallery.com/

To learn more about his poetry and published work, drop us a line at hiphapa@comcast.net, and Your Hip Hapa will hook you up with Alan.

Q: How did your family end up in California?

A: My father was originally from a small village in Guangdong Province in Southern China. He left his village as a young boy and lived in Hong Kong with a relative, eventually joining the merchant marines and sailing numerous times to the U.S. One day, he just decided to "jump ship" and when the ship docked for a few days in San Francisco, he got off and never returned. He became one of hundreds of illegal immigrants working the fields as a laborer in the Sacramento Valley. Eventually, he enlisted in the Army when World War II broke out and was granted a pardon for enlisting, becoming a naturalized citizen.

My mother is a second generation Chinese American who grew up in Stockton where her folks had a Chinese restaurant on El Dorado Street. Both of my parents are Haka Chinese. Eventually, my folks settled in Paradise California, which was then a small, conservative, mostly-white retirement community in the upper Sacramento Valley just at the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas--15 miles from Chico. My father often said, "I wanted to start a Chinese restaurant where there wouldn't be any competition."

Q: What was it like for you, a Chinese American, living in Japan?

A: Having an Asian face in an Asian country at first is totally liberating! To go from being a minority in the U.S. where it seems, at times, your every move and action is scrutinized and where you feel you have to explain yourself constantly to being part of the majority where you can just be yourself is initially an exhilarating feeling. But your cover is blown as soon as you open your mouth, or your body language gives you away. “Asian American” was a difficult concept for Japanese to fathom when I was there in the late 1960's to early 1970's. Right away, they try to relate to you by speaking of China; the older folks will speak of the wisdom of Chinese culture or the time they spent in the Japanese army in China during WWII. I lost count of the times I was serenaded by well-meaning old Japanese guys once the sake flowed freely with their rendition of "China Nights" (Shina No Yoru), a nostalgic old song that reminded them of their time spent in China. I think the younger Japanese understood more clearly when you said you were “Asian American”. The way Japanese feel about their place in Asia and their relationship to the U.S. is complicated and definitely colored by history and colonialism. I still remember once, in my morning English conversation class, when one of my students corrected me as I read out his name. He said, "Oh, that's my Japanese name. I am actually a Korean living in Japan." There was dead silence in the room from his fellow Japanese students. I mean, you could have heard a pin drop. Like I said, it’s complicated and something that is being worked out continually.

I spent six months hitchhiking around Japan in 1968-1969 during a leave of absence from San Francisco State University one semester. The second time I ended up in Japan was at the tail end of a trip that took me to Copenhagen to represent my family at my sister's wedding to a boy from Bangkok. They met at the Royal Hotel. He was a busboy and she was a maid. After the wedding, I just kept traveling overland across Europe, Yugoslavia, Greece, Turkey, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia, and eventually landed back in Kyoto totally penniless. It was the early 1970's and I ended up staying for 3 1/2 years studying brush painting and meeting my wife Kazuko.

Q: How did you two meet? Were there any cultural clashes between your families?

A: The only jobs most foreigners can get are as English conversation teachers. A friend whom I met on the boat to Japan (my first trip was from San Francisco to Yokohama on a cruise ship) had gone to U.C. Santa Barbara and loved Bob Dylan, becoming a Japanese folksinger himself. He got me a job teaching beginning English conversation at Kyoto Unesco. Students would take the class at 7 a.m. before going off to their office jobs. My wife was one of those early morning students.

At the time, I did not speak much Japanese and her parents spoke no English and through that wall of non-communication, somehow we got along. The first time my mother met Kazuko, she told her, "If my mother were still alive, she would be shocked that her grandson married a Japanese woman like you." She was referring to my grandmother's very real hatred of the invading Japanese army who came to her village in China. She once told me about her memory of seeing a Japanese soldier bayonet a pregnant woman, which haunted her for years.

Q: Do you two eat mostly Japanese or Chinese, and who does the cooking?

A: A little of both and all of the rest, although since I am partially vegetarian (I eat fish once in a while), that limits what we eat at times. Kazuko does most of the cooking although at times it really comes down to who gets home first and who's the hungriest. I pick out the produce at work if I am not in a big hurry to go home.

Q: Is Chinese or Japanese spoken at home?

A: I would have to say we speak kind of a "baby" version of both languages. It's strange, but I can speak more Japanese than Chinese. But I think my comprehension of Chinese (in my own Haka dialect) is more thorough than my comprehension of Japanese. Plus, I probably speak Japanese like a girl since I learned it from my wife and some of my female students. So, sometimes Kazuko will say key words in Japanese and fit them into an English sentence or vice versa. Or, sometimes when we don't want to be overhead in a crowd, i.e., when riding the bus, I might say in Japanese, "Someone just cut a fart. Let's move to the back of the bus."

Q: How do you juggle so many careers—poetry, painting, editing the arts section of a newspaper, being a produce worker?

A: I guess my life is a jigsaw and every piece contributes something to make me whole. I am in awe of poetry and just amazed at the magic and power of words. Poetry in an oral sense may have been one of mankind's first utterances--feelings and emotions put to song, notes going out and up into an empty sky. Painting is something that to me is very immediate. You may not have a clear idea in your head, but you can just start splashing ink on paper and before you know it you follow where the painting takes you and wants you to go. I love that feeling when you can't totally control where the journey takes you. Growing up during the Asian American student movement left an indelible mark on my consciousness. I came away from that experience feeling that some part of what you do has to contribute to society and that you have to give back, if only to give thanks to those who came before you and paved the way. So, working on a non-profit community newspaper like the International Examiner is my way of contributing to that dialogue. Plus, I feel it's important to make sure that people realize the importance of the arts in society. And working in the community, in an Asian produce market, keeps you grounded and keeps you real. Plus, it's a great way to interact with and meet people as they go about one of their most important functions, shopping for food to eat.

Q: Any upcoming exhibits or readings?

A: Current and upcoming projects include the following: I have new work in a group show currently at Francine Seders gallery (which represents me locally) that celebrates the owner's birthday until February 14. I had a recent one-person show there in the fall of 2009. I’m writing poems in response to the work of sculptor Marc Wenet. I have also been asked by American poet Cralan Keldar, who lives in Amsterdam, to do the artwork for his first book of poetry due out later this year. And, my work is being considered for a group show on the theme of artists who live and work in the International District for the fall at Wing Luke Asian Museum. Finally, I have been invited to participate in a group project for Richard Hugo House next year where writers will be commissioned to write and read totally new work around the theme of "Born in the U.S.A."

Q: Every year, you hand paint Lunar New Year cards and send them to all your friends. What’s your inspiration?

A: I got that idea from living in Japan and just thought it was a nice way of keeping in touch with friends whom you may never see again or who live far away or that you don't get to see that often. It's my way of staying in touch and saying, "Hello, my friend! I am still thinking of you and wish you the best for the new year." I do around 300 and each card is hand-painted and it's labor intensive. Every year I say I gotta quit doing it, but I haven't yet. What am I going to do--send everyone a generic email card listing all the things I did in the past year? Plus, there are so many religious holidays that separate us or make us different, but "happy new year!" is a sentiment that has a universal commonality and I like that idea.

We like that idea, too, Alan. So, HAPA New Year Hip Hapa Homeez!

Here’s the usual spiel: Please join our Hip Hapa Homeez group page on Facebook where we keep you posted about the latest news affecting blendies, mixies, transracial adoptees and interested parties. While you’re there, check out our Watermelon Sushi Fan page and sign up. This is where we keep you updated about our film’s progress. We also post dialogue from the Watermelon Sushi script on Twitter. If you’d like to participate, check out our Hapa*Teez t-shirts and earn a rear crawl credit on the film with your purchase.

In closing, here’s what Alan replied to our inquiry about his prediction for the Year of the Metal Tiger:

“Living in the moment is always a challenge. I do feel we can influence part of what happens by our actions, and other things we just have no control over.”

Gambatte!

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Hau'oli makahiki hou, omedetto gozaimasu, and happy new year...again. Yes, it's Lunar New Year (or at least it was on Monday), and time for the Year of the Ox. Or as my mother calls the animal, "cow". "Cow," she will say, "is god." Whether I respond or not, she will go on by listing all the things people take from cows--from their milk to their flesh to their hides to make boots. Even when I argue, in my best vegan voice, "That's murder!", my mom will continue praising the god-cow and its useful body parts snatched by humans regardless of its refusals. "But Mom," I'll protest, "That's why Hindus worship cows. They're sacred so you shouldn't eat them."

I love listening to my mother "talk story" as they say in Hawai'i where everyone has a tale to share. (Check out the storyteller, below, at the Hawai'i state library.) I'm not sure why she's so good at it, but over the years I've heard my mom repeating all of them endlessly without wavering. Her facts are always the same, and the details she provides paint such visually rich pictures that I always feel like I'm right there at the scene.

My mother's stories range from the time when she was a little girl of six (when her father died and left their family penniless) to the time when she first arrived in America aboard a ship that landed in Seattle to many, many tales beyond. She tells stories of living in Richmond Texas in the 1950's when it was segregated and a white bus driver conspiratorially advised her that she need not sit in the back with my father's black relatives. She talks about my paternal grandmother who taught her how to wring a chicken's neck and fry it for my dad's lunch. One of my mother's favorite stories is about going to New York after learning English from our southern black kin and asking the bellhop to bring her "soda water". Of course, he brought her seltzer because at that time in New York if you wanted a soda, you'd call it a "pop".

My mother's stories have entertained me and my sister for decades. Even her husband perks up with attention whenever she begins with, "When I was little girl, stay Japan, I not have nothing. My daddy die, then we so poor." Evidently, my mother's family owned a hair salon with six employees, but the business burned down during a devastating earthquake. A year later, just as he rebuilt the salon, my maternal grandfather suddenly became ill and died. That threw the family into a tailspin with my grandmother forced to raise five children by herself.

Another time period that yields many tales are the childhoods of my sister and me. My mother loves telling the story about how as a baby in Texas my sister cried all night keeping her awake. I was three at the time and fast asleep as my mom relates it, but my sister could not be placated. As my mother walked to the bathroom cabinet and reached up to get a lamp to light the room with, something crawled over her bare feet. Looking down, she saw a snake sashaying away to hide behind the dresser. Quickly lighting the lamp, my mom grabbed a hoe and hunkered down in her bed watching for the snake to come out. Surprisingly, my sister suddenly stopped crying. (During this part, I always remind her that my sister was born in the Year of the Snake.) Hours later, in the still of the night, the snake crept from its hiding place, and my mother jumped up and chopped that poor creature into bits. Depending on my mood, I'll either tell my mom that she was very brave or, if I want to get a reaction, I'll chastise her for killing a helpless animal.

My mom is always filled with so many stories, but I think the most dramatic ones that she shares are about her life in Texas. After all, there were no Asians living in our little country town then, and she was treated like an oddity--except for by my dad's people. Talk about culture shock! I can't imagine moving somewhere where absolutely no one looked, spoke, ate or behaved like me. But she did it, and she earned some rewarding life experiences for it.

That's why I think it's so important to reach across cultural lines and invite someone different into your life. Interracial couples do that all the time. Just think how boring life would be if

every single human on earth was of one race.

Just remember this new year is Ox time and those animals are stubborn and pragmatic. This could prove to be one really s-l-o-w year.

Speaking of time, it's hard to believe that it's been one year since I began blogging regularly about mixed-race issues. I actually started Watermelon Sushi World in 2006, but with no time to invest in it then, I let it languish. What really brought me to attention was you. You guys are so encouraging and your comments throughout the last year are so appreciated. Please don't stop. And, please consider emailing me your mixed-race stories so that I can include them in a future blog. Email me at hiphapa@comcast.net

Oh, and here's a reminder that the producers of the Watermelon Sushi film are still checking out talent for our principal characters. Although we've received some nice reels and headshots, we're open to looking at more. We want to give everyone a chance, so please spread the word. Although we don't have our locations set yet, it doesn't matter where you live. It's a new world and even though this year may be slow as an ox, we can always bring you to us wherever we end up.

Here are some photos of my mom showing off her new boots (no, they are not made of "cow") and a hilarious note she posted on the fridge about her dog, Muffin. I added the "e" to her "befor".

Gung Hay Fat Choy to all of you from...

Your Hip Hapa,

Yayoi