INTRODUCTION TO ASIAN ORANGE COUNTY Today, Orange Countyย is widely recognized for its prominentย Asian-American population. There are significant numbers of of Vietnamese, Koreans, Taiwanese, Filipinos, Indians, Japanese, Cambodians, Chinese, Pakistanis, Thais, Indonesians, and Laotians living there, as well as many smaller groups. Metro Los Angeles (which includes Los Angeles and Orange counties) is in fact home … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — Orange County’s Lost Chinatowns
Tag: Pan-Asian Metropolis
Happy Lunar New Year’s Eve
Tonight is Lunar New Year's Eve in the Americas. It's already New Year's Day in Asia so I suppose I should've posted this earlier since a good number of my readers are in (descending order to gently if unlikely stoke a bit of competition) Japan, the Philippines, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Vietnam, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, … Continue reading Happy Lunar New Year’s Eve
Share this:
Pan-Asian Metropolis — Overseas Chinese Cuisine
In recent years it seems to have finally begun to dawn on a growing number of folks that Chinese cuisine is far from monolithic. That this comes as a surprise to anyone comes as something of a surprise to me. Ancient human teeth were discovered in Hunan -- and presumably, they were used to eat … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — Overseas Chinese Cuisine
Share this:
Pan-Asian Metropolis — Public Sculpture, Monuments, and Memorials in Los Angeles
Public art, by its definition, is only public when located in an open public space. Increasingly, corporate plazas patrolled by security guardsย are what often pass for public spaceย and private organizations determine what hours of what days the public are allowed to view "public art"ย which in many cases could be considered "plop art," the sort of … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — Public Sculpture, Monuments, and Memorials in Los Angeles
Share this:
Pan-Asian Metropolis — Asian Statuary in Los Angeles
Even though I'm more "no money" than "new money," I share the latter's collective love of statuary.ย When wondering through the city or suburbs I'm pleased by the presence of garden gnomes or bodhisattva or fast food mascots. Nothing churches up a home like a yard full of tiny replicas of Michelangelo's David.ย This being Asian Pacific … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — Asian Statuary in Los Angeles
Share this:
No Enclave — Exploring Tongan Los Angeles
As of the 2010 census, there were 57,183 Tongans living in the US, making them the fourth largest Pacific Islander group after Hawaiians, Samoans, and Chamorros. 22,893 Tongans then lived in California, with 6,489 calling the Inland Empire, Orange, or Los Angeles Countyย home. In Los Angeles, the communities of Carson, Hawthorne, Ingelwood, Long Beach, Lennox, … Continue reading No Enclave — Exploring Tongan Los Angeles
Share this:
Pan-Asian Metropolis โ Los Angeles’s Asian Temples
Most of the worldโs major religions โ and many minor โ were born in Asia. The Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Bahรกโรญ, Druze, Samaritanism, and Bรกbism), were all born in West Asia; Iranian religions include Zoroastrianism, Yazdรขnism, รtsรฆg Din, Ahl-e Haqq, Mandaeism, and Manichaeism; South Asia gave birth to the Dharmic religions of Hinduism, Jainism, … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis โ Los Angeles’s Asian Temples
Share this:
Mini-Mallism — Los Angeles’s Asian Malls
I assume that for most Americans, thoughts of the mall evoke the 1980s or an earlier era, when certain classes of young teenagers longed to spend their free time eating at places like Sbarroย or Orange Julius, shopping at Banana Republic or the Limited, watching Hollywood blockbusters at the multiplex, and feeding tokens to machines at … Continue reading Mini-Mallism — Los Angeles’s Asian Malls
Share this:
Pan-Asian Metropolis — Asian-American Murals in Los Angeles
The landscape of Los Angeles is full of murals. Occupying as they do public rather than private space, their creators have to assume at their creation that their existence is temporary. Theyโre rarely respected by artless taggers and once sufficiently damaged, graffiti removers usually obliterate them with their own artless paint jobs. Increasing theyโre annihilated … Continue reading Pan-Asian Metropolis — Asian-American Murals in Los Angeles
Share this:
No Enclave — Exploring Laotian Los Angeles
California has by far the largest population of Laotian-Americans of any state, 58,424 as of 2010. There are large communities in both northern and southern California, with roughly 7,120 living in the Los Angeles area. There they maintain a relatively discreet profile, reflected mostly by the presence of a handful of restaurants either specializing in … Continue reading No Enclave — Exploring Laotian Los Angeles
Eric Brightwell 