Granted, I was only in the Philippines for a few days and I didn’t get out of Manila for long. But I really couldn’t pinpoint for a long ass time why I was so uncomfortable there. All the time. Until I got back stateside. That’s when I realized how undeniable the class system was there. And how the class system was entirely based on skin color. And how skin color was a legacy of Spanish Colonialism. And how I really didn’t like Filipino food or days on end of all deep friend food. Wait, that last point was unrelated to the others.

So it didn’t surprise me when I saw this FHM magazine cover. All those skin lightening products and all that white make-up powder sales. Ridiculous.  More on this story here. Video interview with Padilla below.

Can’t make today’s Grace Lee Boggs event in Berkeley that we posted a few days ago? Well then, lucky you, cause the Chinese Progressive Association is holding another GLB event on Saturday, March 3rd:

Oak-rand

Now, I could spend this whole blog post writing about how to protect Chinatowns, but to be honest, what does that mean? Part of it means keeping rents low (rental protections), keeping Chinatowns for Chinese folks (street signs in Chinese) and making sure the local amenities appeal to Asian folks and not Audi-driving yuppie parents. But what happens when a business closes (Chinatown knickknacks, boba tea cafes, Chinese breakfast restaurants). What do you replace it with? Another Chinatown staple? A Starbucks with Chinese signage? Should we maintain the look, feel and economic pulse of Chinatowns? What if a family business that’s been running for 40 years suddenly closes and sells to 3rd generation Asian Americans? What if a business gets passed on, within the family, to a 2nd generation Chinese kid? What if a Korean American kid takes over a family Chinese restaurant and turns it in a fusion Chinese spot that’s voted one of the top ten new restaurants in the country like Mission Chinese in San Francisco? What if MC opened up in the heart of Chinatown SF? What would the local CBOs and Chinese Chamber say? So that’s the dilemma I’m proposing to you. What does it mean to be Chinatown: Geography? Tenure? The things you sell? And how Chinese do you have to be to be Chinatown: Full Chinese? Chinese American? ABC? Asian? Asian American? Vietnamese/Filipino/Korean American? 2nd/3rd/4th generation? Angel/Ellis Island Asian?

I don’t know the answer to all of this, but I do know that folks like me who hang out in Chinatowns like second homes need to be thinking about this shit cause our generation and younger need a PLAN. To start, I’d like to provide you a few examples of what Chinatowns might look like a few years from now, businesses I’m calling Chinatown 2.0 cause these aren’t your typical paper money shops. These are hybrid old school/new school uses, Asian American type businesses, or just hip (probably gentrifying) uses that we need to pay attention to before Chinatowns become ethnic Disneylands crossed with Portlandia: food trucks, secret dive bars, and two girls/two shirt stores everywhere. I’ll be including a gentrification meter rating between 1-10 that’ll predict how this business will affect the pushing out of Chinese folks from the premises (1 being 中文地狱 and 10 being American Apparel next door to a Anthropologie).

Li Po Lounge, San Francisco California. Made famous by the latest Anthony Bourdain Layover SF episode and Sweater Funk (a sweaty/grimy soul party every Sunday night). How legit is this place? Old school chinese bar up top with Tsing Tao bottles and the soul party downstairs. Gentrification Meter: 4 before Bourdain, 5 post-Bourdain. Its grimey and the hipsters are hidden downstairs.

San Francisco's Li Po Lounge

Fortune Sound Club, Vancouver, British Columbia. I don’t know much about Van City other than I like everything about it. I especially know nothing about the City’s Chinatown if only cause I learned early on you gotta go south to Richmond to get a taste of real Chinese food. So I don’t know why there’s still a Chinatown in the City and who actually lives there. But that didn’t stop me from including the only real CLUB I’ve ever been to in a Chinatown (sorry Grand Star, which comes up next). Gentrification Meter: 6? On one hand, you got Saul Williams coming up in March at Fortune, but on the other hand, are there Chinese folks that actually live here? Any Vancouverites wanna fill me in?

Can you spot an Chinese folks in this crowd? Oh there's one! Two, three.... Three...

Grand Star Jazz Club, Los Angeles, California. So hip, Blacklava sells a shirt for this spot. New York tribute night be damned, this spot is so cool and confusing. On one hand, you have Britney making cameo appearances and on the other hand, step one foot outside and you’re a drunk walk away from a big bowl of steaming jook. Gentrify Meter: 7. Did I mention Britney Spears in the same sentence as jook in the previous sentence???

Still see a lot of Asian American folks here no matter what party is going on.

So what can you do? If you’re Chinese, open up a new business in Ctown, USA. Just be culturally sensitive and if you’re gonna sell food, it damn well better be good. And please, no more vinyl toy shops. The ones in San Jose JTown and Chinatown LA haven’t been customer magnets unless you want 12-yr old kids loitering and playing street fighter on your in-house Super Nintendo. I really wish I could have showed you some viable Chinatown retail businesses that fit this Chinatown 2.0 category, but I really don’t know any. Please send them our way if you do know!

Today I’m especially proud of my home state. On Monday, Governor Christine Gregoire signed legislation that makes WA the seventh state to legalize gay marriage, which will go into effect on June 7th. As a double whammy, the bill was signed while Rick Santorum — Republican presidential hopeful, shining example of homophobia and sexism, and target of the best neologism campaign ever — was in town.

Opponents and haters say they will try to repeal the bill through  signature gathering and a ballot measure in the November elections, but advocates will definitely fight back against these efforts to put our rights up for public vote (as is happening in Minnesota and North Carolina).

But for now, let’s enjoy the celebrations:

Associated Press

Happy New Year! According to the Year of the Dragon, 2012 is a time to be bold, start a new business, and pop out babies (and if you’re still single, to once again gloat over the fact that you get to hoard red pockets instead of give them out. The mun-mun-muny, the yen and the pesos!).

BCB wishes all our readers a 2012 filled with happiness, success, and just a tad less to bitch about. And Mr. President himself wishes you a very happy New Year too:

恭喜發財! Gong Hay Faht Choy! Chúc mừng năm mới!

Let’s see Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock try to remake that.

Thanks Dobs.

While this kid is dropping rhymes like this. In diapers.

You really do sound like a super hero league and not the collection of rich white people playing with million dollar toys and trading and buying African American and foreign players like the modern day slave owners that Jesse Jackson loves to refer you as.

So why all the fuss now? Well, you totally f’d up the CP3 deal yesterday. But I’m actually kinda happy about it. Not only does it keep the Lakers from getting the Rook that lands them the Bishop that is Dwight Howard, but it also chips away at the lowly Hornets, owned by the NBA since they couldn’t find a buyer that wasn’t a rich Silicon Valley mogul sitting in a city with a basketball ready arena that’s only being used for hockey games and Taylor Swift concerts. And no disrespect to the City of New Orleans, but I am not in the camp that thinks professional sports helps build up a city economically. Au contraire mon frere, I think they’re all an economic drain with their free land grants, tax exemptions and inconsistent/low paying jobs. So what now? Well, its a lose-lose all around according to the worst source for sports best source for news ever, the NY Times. And then what? Glad you asked. I have the next few outcomes all chronologicalized just for you:

1. NBA officially cancels all trades for Chris Paul no matter how beneficial to the Hornets they are
2. NBA decides they cannot run an NBA team and puts the Hornets back up for sale.
3. No one is willing to buy the team for the $450 million that the NBA paid, except for one man, Larry Ellison, who everyone is afraid will move the team from the 38th largest city in the USA to the 10th largest city
4. The season ends and Chris Paul pulls a Lebron, I mean a Bosh, and free agents his way to the Lakers
5. The value of the Hornets drops significantly without a CP3 and without any of the players/draft picks they could have gotten from the Lakers
6. The NBA realizes they can’t afford to run the team AND they also realize they can’t afford to have 30 teams in cities with no market and no population, especially since there’s only one each of the cities of Los Angeles, New York, and Miami. Larry Ellison calls again.
7. The NBA decides to “take care” of the 5 teams with the lowest fan attendance by: retracting 2 teams:  the Indiana Pacers/Memphis Grizzlies, continuing the Nets to Brooklyn move, allowing the Maloofs to move the Kings to Las Vegas, and FINALLY allows Larry Ellison to buy the Hornets (for the original $450 million he offered) and move them to the San Jose Arena in a newly remodeled for basketball Shark Tank/Hornets Nest (Only $17 million to remodel for bball folks).
8. The Warriors move to San Francisco and free agents actually return phone calls.

If you don’t want this to happen, call up the NFL and ask them how they share revenue so teams like the Green Bay Packers will never ever leave Wisconsin.

Marbury says his buddies just don’t understand the difference between Chinese food from China and the Chinese food Americans eat back home. You think that’s Chinese from the corner store, but that’s not Chinese food,” he said. “I’m telling you because I live there.”

And a Moment of Zen with Starbury: