FOR AWONG!!

[maogirl]

'cause no one loves awong like i do. 8-)

i just watched an episode on channel news asia last night on the chinese community in cuba! it was really interesting.

here's a link to the DVD:
http://www.filmwest.com/Catalogue/itemdetail/3029/


In Havana's Chinatown, the Lung Kong is a charitable clan association run by Alejandro Chiu. The association also runs a home for Chinese elderly and supports itself by operating a Chinese restaurant on the side. Back in Barrio Chino , we go beyond the "Chinese Fantasy" created by the Cuban government to discover the legacy of a community that dates back to 1847 and has now become truly Cuban.

this is the premise of the whole series:


Chinese Restaurants: Stories From A Diaspora tells the story of the Chinese Diaspora through its most recognizable and enduring icon ñ the family-run Chinese restaurant. In this fifteen episode series, filmmaker Cheuk Kwan takes us on a tour of restaurants around the world, bringing us into the lives and stories of extraordinary families as they share moving stories of struggle, courage, displacement and belonging, and what it means to be ìChineseî today.

Together, these family histories illustrate the wider story of Chinese migration, settlement and integration as they celebrate the resilience and complexity of the Chinese Diaspora. Set against events that have sparked some of the past centuryís most dramatic global migrations, Chinese Restaurants recounts histories that have remained in the margins of official records, showing us communities whose culture and identity are held together by a kinship that is stronger, yet more intangible than mere nationalism, religion, language, geography or politics.

the one in peru (or was it argentina) made me really sad. they interviewed this old lady who started breaking down because she hated it there so much and was the victim of so much daily racism. reminded me of italy.

[awong]

I better check this out, especially since it was recent (2005) maybe buy it after I recover my losses from book buying for school. I wonder how many more eldery are left, and also how many clans there were, I dont know the name of the one in NYC that came from cuba.

and you get see all these shows on chinese dispora.

for some reason I am think more of argentina with the old lady who hated it there since argentina has a large influx of various europeans after WWII.

oh yeah, I recently found out my grandfather was a mason in cuba, but I am finding it hard to find really basic info on masons in cuba.

[maogirl]

I wonder how many more eldery are left, and also how many clans there were, I dont know the name of the one in NYC that came from cuba.

oh! there were still a few hanging on...it was weird 'cause the filmmaker, who's actually a CBC, ended up meeting some oldie from his ancestral village in china. small damn world!


for some reason I am think more of argentina with the old lady who hated it there since argentina has a large influx of various europeans after WWII.

hm...i think it might've been peru, though, 'cause the argentina one was all about the tango and shit. they had this bad-ass 180-year-old ah sook showin' off his dance moves :lol:


oh yeah, I recently found out my grandfather was a mason in cuba, but I am finding it hard to find really basic info on masons in cuba.

:shock:

[awong]

thats like how my mom found out how this HK family who came around the year 2000 (lots of HKers in my area seemed to have come from the same time). The uncle of the kids knew my grandmother from China, and told my mom on the phone they were visiting and staying in the subdivision nearby ours. I knew of the Hkers from school, and that they were from HK, and kept thinking somehow they were staying with them based on instinct. THe uncle knew my grandmother from China, found her like in the 70s, not sure how, but couldnt have been b/c of my grandfather with all these connections with chinese people all over the world. I saw a phonebook from the 70s in chinese and with the romanticized names and there were all these friends in other latin american countries. The uncle that knew my grandmother also lived in Dominican republic and Puerto Rico. But his younger brother went to HK. I think the village has had a lot of people go to many places around the world.

Oh yeah did the cbc speak chinese to the guy? I dont know how much of a difference, but my friend couldnt understand my grandmother speaking to her. But I think my grandmother was able to understand.

And the mason thing, it makes me wonder how rich they really were, since my mom keeps saying they were in the middle, but he knew the bacardi people from the mason meetings.

[maogirl]

thats like how my mom found out how this HK family who came around the year 2000 (lots of HKers in my area seemed to have come from the same time). The uncle of the kids knew my grandmother from China, and told my mom on the phone they were visiting and staying in the subdivision nearby ours. I knew of the Hkers from school, and that they were from HK, and kept thinking somehow they were staying with them based on instinct. THe uncle knew my grandmother from China, found her like in the 70s, not sure how, but couldnt have been b/c of my grandfather with all these connections with chinese people all over the world. I saw a phonebook from the 70s in chinese and with the romanticized names and there were all these friends in other latin american countries. The uncle that knew my grandmother also lived in Dominican republic and Puerto Rico. But his younger brother went to HK. I think the village has had a lot of people go to many places around the world.

you know, when you watch those episodes, it's pretty amazing how these guys ended up in the countries they finally settled in, and where their relatives went...i guess kinda like your family! hey, if you watch the cuba episode, i wonder if your parents will recognize anyone :P


Oh yeah did the cbc speak chinese to the guy? I dont know how much of a difference, but my friend couldnt understand my grandmother speaking to her. But I think my grandmother was able to understand.

yeah, they were speaking canto to each other. i understood it, so it must be normal canto instead of some hardcore village dialect that like 40 people know.


And the mason thing, it makes me wonder how rich they really were, since my mom keeps saying they were in the middle, but he knew the bacardi people from the mason meetings.

damn!

[ZhuBaJie]

do they mention the ethnicity of the Chinese people that usually end up in places like Peru?

a friend of mine is from Surinam, she's Hakka, and she speaks Hakka, Cantonese, Mandarin, Dutch, Spanish, and English.

[awong]

I think more of the Hakka Chinese ended up in more of the British Colonies in South America and the carribean, from the books I read thats what it seems, like the Hakkas not getting along with other chinese

[ZhuBaJie]

I think more of the Hakka Chinese ended up in more of the British Colonies in South America and the carribean, from the books I read thats what it seems, like the Hakkas not getting along with other chinese

the Hakkas did not get along with the Cantonese. historically there were a lot of clan wars between the Hakkas and the Cantonese when the Hakkas were moved to Guangdong. in fact, the name "Hakka" itself was conceived to differentiate the Hakka people from the Cantonese, who called themselves 本地人 (bun deih yan), roughly translated as "local people", in order to differentiate themselves from the Hakkas, the new migrants at the time.