the Asian City
On a cable car over Nob Hill one morning, I overheard a blonde, middle age tourist whisper this confidence to her companion: “It sure ain’t Texas, I can tell you that much.”
Canada Goose online “No kidding,” mumbled the burly man in a Hawaiian shirt as he continued filming the city with his camcorder. Canada Goose online
canada goose factory sale The Texan couple’s sense of displacement stems, at least in part, from San Francisco’s unmistakable Oriental twang. For the tourist’s camcorder is sure to capture, amid the city’s Victorians and scenic hills, images that confirm San Francisco’s central place in the Pacific Century: Young Asian students spilling out of grammar schools, video stores displaying the latest Hong Kong and Korean dramas, karaoke bars and sidewalk stalls filled with string beans, bokchoy, ginger and bitter melons. canada goose factory sale
Canada Goose sale San Francisco is now part of a statewide trend that has resulted in majority becoming minority, with minority continuing to surge and multiply. The latest census showed that whites have slowly shrunk to 48 percent of canada goose parka outlet the population in San Francisco, becoming another minority in a city that has no canada goose outlet seattle majority. The city’s Asian population, on the other hand, has risen above the 33 percent mark. That is, one in three San Francisco residents has an Asian face. For the population under 18, the number for Asian closer to 40 percent. Canada Goose sale
Politically and culturally, the result is something of a rumbling mid Richter scale earthquake.
So much so that the current San Francisco Magazine has an unflattering picture of Rose Pak, a political activist with strong advocacy for Chinatown, on its cover, smoking a cigar. The headline: Who Runs San Francisco?
Canada Goose Online Within a couple decades, according to demographers, Asians will become San Francisco’s largest ethnic group, surpassing whites and joining Honolulu as a major city with an Asian majority. Canada Goose Online
Canada Goose Outlet But what does it mean when the city’s compass is pointing increasingly toward the Pacific? For one thing, the new mayor, Ed Lee, is Chinese American and speaks fluent Mandarin and Cantonese. His parents came to the United States in the ’30s from Toishan, Guangdong Province in the 1930s. Of the 11 supervisors, four are Asians. Canada Goose Outlet
Along with Ed Lee’s rising political fortunes, there is an enormous shift in the cultural landscape. What were once considered private and canada goose uk esoteric https://www.canadagoosecanadaoutlet.com passions and practices have, like the bok choy and string beans, spilled irrevocably into the public domain.
The number one overbooked restaurant on Opentable Slanted Door, for instance, is owned by Charles Phan, a Vietnamese Chinese chef whose latest book, Vietnamese Home Cooking, allows Vietnamese food to be part of any American home.
canada goose Of course, the Bay Area has always had a touch of Asia. When Gold made San Francisco famous around the world in the mid 1800s, it enters East Asians’ imagination as Old Gold Mountain, a gateway to fabulous riches and fortunes. canada goose
Take Feng Shui. An architect friend went to Hong Kong recently to take Fengshui lessons. Why? Since many of his clients believe in this art of geomancy, he has to seriously study the Chi, the flow of energy as perceived by Taoist priests, in order to build suburban houses that suit many of his buyers.
canada goose coats Or take yoga. Yoga seem to be more popular than ever, and, in the spirit of full disclosure, I will gladly admit that I am an enthusiast. Every few days or so, I go to sweat and stretch with a diverse group of young practitioners. While the instructor tells us to “find your inner peace” and cheap canada goose “breathe, breathe, breathe,” a picture of a smiling yogi from India smiles benevolently at us from above. canada goose coats
canada goose coats on sale And I breathe in, breathe out. But I am also thinking: How things have canada goose outlet in vancouver changed. Arriving as a Vietnamese refugee to San Francisco a quarter of a century ago, I grew up thinking that incense smoke, gongs and Confucian dramas were the private preoccupations of an Asian immigrant. For a while, I resigned myself to the idea canada goose outlet store uk that public and private cultures in America would never meet. But that old assumption has eroded, giving way to the forces of globalization, which, as far as the San Francisco Bay Area is concerned, involves, in large part, the rising influence of the Far East. canada goose coats on sale
canada goose clearance sale After all, three decades ago, who would have thought that sushi, raw tuna, salmon, ginger and wasabi would become an indelible part of American taste? Or that Vietnamese fish sauce would be found down aisle three canada goose uk site at Safeway? Or that HMOs would accept acupuncture as legitimate canada goose outlet las vegas therapy? Or that Fengshui would become a household word? canada goose clearance sale
But perhaps the biggest result in the changes in San Francisco is this: Asian children growing up in the Bay Area these days do not see themselves as a minority. If anything, they see themselves playing a central role. After all, it is quite normal to see Asian homecoming queens and football stars. They are growing up at a time when being ethnic is chic and movement and communication back and forth across the Pacific Ocean are the norm. Asian students know, in fact, that the West is increasingly relying on the Far East for its sources of inspiration and entertainment, be it Thai food, Tibetan Buddhism or Japanese anime. This seems quite true if you take into account what I saw one Sunday in Golden Gate Park: a group of middle aged, white and black Americans doing Tai Chi on the grass, led by an old Chinese woman. Watching them, it occurred to me that the Far East has come very near buy canada goose uk to the Wild West, canada goose outlet belgium and is beginning to subvert the age old black white dialogue about identity and race, infusing it with even more complex model one informed by a trans Pacific sensibility.