Ethnography

This editions of Ethnography, I'm going to focus on the negotiation of group identity.

First let's start off with a Korean dance called Buchaechum (부채춤). Buchaechum has become very synonymous with various Korean celebrations ranging from Buddha's birthday to simple Church days. Buchaechum is a kinda of iconic of Korean culture (esepecially in it's design, make-up, and hanbok), so it is use to represent Korea in a universal way.

Next is Jeruselam Pride. Pride has always been been representing the LGBT culture in the most fabulous fasion possible through the body of the participants, the colors, and the music. But for Jeruselam's Pride, there is an added emphasis on the role of the secular Jewish community in promoting LGBT people as part of their own identity.

Food is always a way to declare one's ethnic identity, and therefore ethnic enclaves will have their food stuff served and readily availiable. Here is a sample of some of the food one can find in Little Phnom Penh in Long Beach, California. Long Beach is one of the biggest Khmer-American community.

The Cahuilla, like many other Native American tribes, seek to find a lost identity by riviving old arts and costoms.

Ethnography

Students of the University of California, Riverside took part in a peaceful protest against unfair fee hikes and budget cuts. Look hard enough and you'll find me (or not, avoided the cameras.) We marched from the main campus to the downtown districts. (Good thing public transportation was there, I was soooo not in the mood to walk back.)

Shoppers in Hillcrest San Diego.

Lao American girls attend at a Wat.

Indonesian youths participate in a rock band.

The Harada House

It's actually a rather plain looking house. If it weren't for the historical marker on the ground, you wouldn't know what it was. Passing by it often, I always thought it was a haunted house.

But now, I love that house. Not because it's spectacular. The old Victorian house in Riverside are far more aesthetically pleasing. The Harada House represent for me the power of determination and righteousness in the face of a hegemonistic society. From it's founding by a Japanese American family, who fought alien land laws, to it's abandonment due to the racist policy of internment, and subsequently to it being an icon of the Asian American experience, the Harada House stand in it's simplicity as a testament of the human will and the power of questioning authority.