Asian Cultures

Irvine Valley College will play host to the Chinese Autumn Moon Festival next week, but the event will actually celebrate several Asian cultures. That's because the festival is being organized by a group of Korean-American, Vietnamese-American and Chinese-American students who make up the Chinese Cultural Assn., one of IVC's most active student groups. The club's name is deceiving, said its Vietnamese-American acting president, Ky Huy. "It's really like a club for all Asians," Huy said.

The worst disease known to the citrus industry may have arrived in California on a bud of friendship. A graft of pomelo - a symbol of good fortune and prosperity in many Asian cultures - was the likely source of the state's first documented case of huanglongbing, a citrus disease with no known cure, say researchers involved in the investigation. The suspected plant shoot, or budwood, was passed freely among San Gabriel Valley church friends who loved to garden and experiment with hybridization, according to residents.

Many Asian cities are an amalgam of cultures because of their histories as colonies or territories of one or more greater powers, plus the ethnic flux of natives from neighboring countries seeking a better life. Kuala Lumpur, KL to locals, is a teeming caldron that bubbles with the best of them: turbaned Indians, Muslim mosques, Chinese temples, Buddhist pagodas, a Moorish railway station straight out of North Africa, Tudor buildings lifted from the English countryside.

Independent studio Relativity Media is jumping into the fast-growing Chinese film market with a deal that gives it a stake in a local production company and a means to release its own movies in the country. Relativity said Sunday evening that it was investing in SkyLand Film & Television Cultural Development Ltd., a China-based entertainment production company. By doing so, Relativity is joining forces with SkyLand's two other financial backers: SAIF Partners, an Asian private-equity firm with $3.5 billion under management, and IDG China Media, the Chinese arm of Boston-based tech firm International Data Group.

The worst disease known to the citrus industry may have arrived in California on a bud of friendship. A graft of pomelo - a symbol of good fortune and prosperity in many Asian cultures - was the likely source of the state's first documented case of huanglongbing, a citrus disease with no known cure, say researchers involved in the investigation. The suspected plant shoot, or budwood, was passed freely among San Gabriel Valley church friends who loved to garden and experiment with hybridization, according to residents.

Min Byoung-chul, a professor at Konkuk University, was recently having lunch with some Chinese students. This time, it was the teacher who was taking notes. The students were citing differences between Chinese and South Korean culture. Why, they asked, do Koreans look at them strangely when they lift their rice bowls to eat, or smoke in front of the elderly? And why do Korean teachers get insulted when they hand in their papers using one hand instead of two? And hasn't anyone told teachers that students from China would never bow like their Korean counterparts?

Re: "Football Hit by Culture Blocks," July 13: It must be disappointing for high school sports coaches when they cannot attract enough new players eager to "get on the team." As I see the situation, it offers San Marino High a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the traditions and ideas embodied in most Asian cultures, in which academic excellence is the real goal. How about building teams to enter academic contests and bring fame to the school in that area? Sports training facilities should still be available for those students who wish to use them, but the idea of high academic goals might just catch on with the 30% non-Asian families too. John B. Welch North Hollywood

President Bush will come to Orange County on Sunday to address a gathering of Asian- and Pacific-Americans at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. The event is free to the public, but tickets must be obtained and early arrival is urged because of crowds. Before Bush's arrival, free entertainment will be provided by the Asian- and Pacific-American community. There will also be booths displaying the cultures of various Asian cultures. The rally will be held at the park's soccer field.

Theresa Pro's Southeast Asian students spoke so softly that she could barely hear them. Vivienne Bocarsly had to tell her Latino students, "Look me in the eye." Juliet Beacham didn't know why Asian kids smiled when they bumped into someone in the hallway. Margarita Castaneda said her first-graders from Central America were unnaturally spooked at loud noises, such as a whistle blown on the playground or a book dropped on the floor. Such behavior, which may seem strange to Americans, is popping up more and more as students from other cultures enroll in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Your June 28 editorial on math education ("The 'Why' of Math") certainly hit one nail on the head: This country is in serious need of math teachers with solid math training. It's not enough to have teachers trained in process and barely competent in subject matter. However, the study you cite that attempts to explain the success of Asian students in math exams misses one crucial factor that may well differentiate Asian students from American students: namely, work ethic. In my many years of teaching experience, I have found that, as a general rule, Asian students work harder.

Min Byoung-chul, a professor at Konkuk University, was recently having lunch with some Chinese students. This time, it was the teacher who was taking notes. The students were citing differences between Chinese and South Korean culture. Why, they asked, do Koreans look at them strangely when they lift their rice bowls to eat, or smoke in front of the elderly? And why do Korean teachers get insulted when they hand in their papers using one hand instead of two? And hasn't anyone told teachers that students from China would never bow like their Korean counterparts?

Japanese gardens were introduced to the American public at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, almost immediately after which they were imitated throughout the country. They were, perhaps, the first item springing from Japanese culture to become widely accepted in the United States.

Re: "Football Hit by Culture Blocks," July 13: It must be disappointing for high school sports coaches when they cannot attract enough new players eager to "get on the team." As I see the situation, it offers San Marino High a wonderful opportunity to take advantage of the traditions and ideas embodied in most Asian cultures, in which academic excellence is the real goal. How about building teams to enter academic contests and bring fame to the school in that area? Sports training facilities should still be available for those students who wish to use them, but the idea of high academic goals might just catch on with the 30% non-Asian families too. John B. Welch North Hollywood

Your June 28 editorial on math education ("The 'Why' of Math") certainly hit one nail on the head: This country is in serious need of math teachers with solid math training. It's not enough to have teachers trained in process and barely competent in subject matter. However, the study you cite that attempts to explain the success of Asian students in math exams misses one crucial factor that may well differentiate Asian students from American students: namely, work ethic. In my many years of teaching experience, I have found that, as a general rule, Asian students work harder.

It's a view of Asian culture that goes from West L.A.'s Giant Robot magazine to the San Francisco theater troupe 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors to the latest Chow Yun-Fat movie. A new Web site -- a weekly online magazine at www.asiaarts.ucla.edu, run mostly by UCLA undergraduates -- want to capture it.

It was just a hypothetical situation, but it showed dead-on what a nonprofit organization called Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics Inc., or LEAP, wants to accomplish. Wearing a buttoned-up business suit that made her look like the well-groomed executive she wanted to imitate, workshop facilitator Audrey Yamagata-Noji whipped back her black hair and strolled up to a conference table of six Asian Americans.

One of the nation's top Chinese-poetry scholars has been named chairman of UC Irvine's long-planned department of East Asian languages and literature, which will offer classes begining next fall. Columbia University professor Pauline R. Yu, a Chinese-American author of two widely praised books and recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, will arrive at UCI July 1 to build the new department within the College of Humanities, according to UCI Executive Vice Chancellor Chang-Lin Tien.

"My father was an immigrant," Monterey Park Police Capt. Joe Santoro said. "He came through Ellis Island from Italy. He once said to me: 'Son, it's easy to be a prince, if your father was a king.' " For people born in America, Santoro said, "it's easy to say, 'Be an American.' " At a hearing of the Los Angeles County Commission on Human Relations last week, a dozen speakers detailed the triumphs and failures faced by newcomers trying to become Americans in the San Gabriel Valley.

For the first couple of years after he became a Christian, Dickson Yagi, born in a Buddhist family in Hawaii, could hardly contain his happiness at the thought of going to heaven. Then, as his new religion took hold, he began to worry about his non-Christian relatives and friends. Were they headed for hell? Was there no hope even for devout Buddhists, such as his beloved grandfather, should they die without accepting Christ as their lord and savior?