Name Calling . . . At the end.

Yes, I've been on blog break. Mostly because of school, and also because I've lost ground on what's been written. I've tried to use the last few weeks to quickly read Ji-in and Harlow's Monkey. They seem to post things that keep me up-to-date on the TRA world and things in general. Otherwise, I'll visit Rice Daddies and Angry Asian Man for a quick laugh. I promise the blog will get better soon. I know some of you lost interest once I stopped posting, but thanks for the few that keep checking. So here's something golden I found for you to think about: Miss Asia Arizona! (pictured is Sara Williams in her hanbok - her white mommy helped her tie the bow, which is why it's all out of whack.) Seems that Sara Williams, an adoptee had high hopes of becoming the next Miss Asia Arizona. She actually found out about the contest through her adoption agency. I'm glad adoption agencies are in the business of promoting "scholarship" competitions among our TRAs so they feel better about themselves in their own skin. When asked what people might not know about her, she says that she loves "kickboxing." She might as well not try to sugar-coat it and say she practices "Kay-rah-tay!" Unfortunately, our TRA heroine did not win the pageant. Instead, Miss Asian Arizona will be Jessika Malic. She was born in the Phillippines and raised in Arizona. How lovely! I'm not sure, but I think that "Jessika Malic" is probably also a TRA since "Malic" is an Eastern European name. Just a hunch. Jessika Malic, captured the title of Miss Asia Arizona 2007 on March 17, 2007 at the Moon Valley High School Auditorium. Her victory is no surprise. Born in Manila, Philippines and raised in Phoenix, she has the complete package. Beautiful, witty, graceful, charismatic and smart, her endearing qualities make her Arizona’s favorite choice and representative for the Miss Asian America Pageant on August 11, 2007 in San Francisco, California. She is a 23year old aspiring actress/singer and a student of Rio Salado College with a major in Business Management. As reigning Miss Asia Arizona 2007, her mission is to help promote diversity awareness. Okay, so I like how they claim her victory is no surprise because, as you can see, she is the whole package. I didn't know Asian women had to be a package deal? Also, I'm glad she'll be promoting diversity awareness as a beauty queen of asian descent. This way, people will think all asian women are beauty queens who are smart, graceful, beautiful, and smile a lot. Oh, and have big hair. What's even stranger, is that if you go to the pictures of them opening the "Tuscon Chinese Cultural Center," they are all dressed in their "cultural" clothes, of which only one is actually Chinese. And one of those girls looks clearly hapa! Other than adoption news like Toby Dawson, or the adoption stories I hear non-stop from MN and CA, I don't have anything to say. My ink well has run dry, my quill is weak. I'm writing in my mind like a dog digging to, well, um, Korea...so to speak. NAME CHANGE A lot of people have been talking about name change lately. Just for the record, I'm a mixed bag on this. Sometimes, name change is probably a good thing. In other instances, it's probably bad. I see my name change as clearly a violation, especially since I was almost four years when I came over. At the same time, I don't think kids would've been able to handle my name. In some ways, I feel about it as I do about other ethnic families from Asia that change their children's names for "Anglo" effect. I've encountered Korean kids who give "Anglo" names such as "Jeff," "Eric," or "Mark." "Grace," "Lou," or "Anna." At the same time, these are names that adoptive parents tend to give their children, because, in some part, they see Asian children walking around speaking English using their Anglo name as if it is their real name. I don't know if these kids got to choose their own name, but I'm betting they didn't. But, I don't think it necessarily "erases" their culture. I think it actually makes it easier on them in the real-world because kids are cruel. As a teacher, I see how vicious kids can be, and trust me, I'm glad I didn't have a name people couldn't relate to. Of course, I see the flip side to this argument. By doing so, I'm feeding into the concept that Asians should adopt a more "Anglo" persona in order to better accepted. So where does this slippery slope end? Probably in a brutal hunting accident where someone gets shot over calling someone else a name, and then the white people get upset that someone could react so harshly at being called a gook, slope, chink, or slanty eyed small willied yellow skinned toothy grinned son of a bitch. You see, names are given, and names are stolen. In the end, I'm pretty sure it's not the name that's made me who I am, but rather, the name that was taken away, that's brought me to where I am today. Do I want to reclaim that name? Not the name, as much as what it means to be born with that name.