December 28, 2011

This one is all about Asian connections.

It began at Bellaken Garden, a skilled nursing care facility in East Oakland, where my mother, Connie, has been staying since August. I’ve been visiting there twice a week, crossing the Bay Bridge from San Francisco and popping in with potstickers from a nearby takeout restaurant.

For months, I’d seen this thin, white-haired woman seated in the lobby area, across from one of the dining rooms. After a while, we’d exchange smiles and hellos. I’d noticed her mainly because she always had a transistor radio with her. Being a radio columnist and occasional DJ, I asked what she was listening to. “Baseball,” she said. She was an avid San Francisco Giants fan, kept notes on their games, and kept their radio schedule close to her, all on a shelf of her walker. Her son, Jonathan, I would learn, works as a concessions cashier for both the Giants and the 49ers, so she was a football fan, too. We could talk.

I decided to do a little shout-out to her in my Radio Waves column in the San Francisco Chronicle, learned her name – June Kwei – and told her to watch for the mention. She appeared delighted, although I never properly introduced myself. Bad manners. (In Cantonese, “bad” is pronounced “kwei.”) Anyway, on December 11, the item ran, ending with “Holiday cheers to June Kwei.”

Five Secrets to a Happy, Healthy & Successful Life  By Marilyn Tam

You make well-meaning resolutions to improve your life. But your resolutions fade under the stress of multiple demands on your time and attention. Oftentimes the resolutions are history before the month is done. How can we ensure that we actually benefit from the good intentions that we made with such conviction?

Many years ago I made an earnest resolution to work less and to spend more time on my personal life, family and health.

Being a type A personality, it was easier to say that than to follow through. By late in the same month, as I am running through another airport, I realized that I am already back to my old pattern of working seven days a week.

On the next plane ride I took the time to ask myself a few hard questions. From that experience I developed these Five Guidelines to have a Happier, Healthier and more Successful Life. Isn't that what we are ultimately after?

1. Make resolutions that you can manage. Specify your desired end result and make the goals measureable. For example, instead of saying that you want to lose weight, give yourself a specific time frame for a number of pounds or inches broken down into smaller pieces so that you have incremental targets to meet. Make the objectives a slight stretch but achievable. You are more likely to continue once you see positive progress towards your ultimate goal.

I caught up with musicologist Joanna C. Lee and veteran music journalist Ken Smith at the Longacre Theatre in New York, after the post-show talkback following the 100th performance of Chinglish, by Tony Award-winning and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright David Henry Hwang, which was recently named by TIME Magazine, Bloomberg Radio, NY1 and WNYC as one of the Top 10 Broadway shows of the year.

Chinglish playwright David Henry Hwang (center) is flanked by (l-r) his cultural advisors Joanna C. Lee and Ken Smith, actors Johnny Wu, Christine Lin, Gary Wilmes, Angela Lin, Stephen Pucci, Jennifer Lim and Larry Lei Zhang after the 100th performance of Chinglish on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre in New York on January 5, 2012. Photo by Lia Chang

Smith and Lee were tapped as cultural advisors by the playwright when Chinglish, his play about an American businessman looking to land a deal in provincial China, had its world premiere at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Smith writes about their participation as resident Chinglish cultural advisors here.

Chinglish cultural advisors Joanna C. Lee and Ken Smith at the opening night party of David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish at Brasserie 8 ½ in New York on October 27, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

The husband and wife team are co-authors of the Pocket Chinese Almanac

THE YEAR OF THE
WATER DRAGON 4710
              
January 23, 2012 to February 9, 2013

AsianConnections.com proudly
presents its 14th annual
Lunar New Year forecast
by Feng Shui Lady®
Angi Ma Wong 

Angi Ma Wong, a regular AsianConnections.com columnist is a best-selling author of 29 books and a Feng Shui and Intercultural consultant to Fortune 500 companies.

She has been a guest on numerous TV programs including OPRAH, Regis, CNN Headline News, CBS Morning News, Discovery Channel, Learning Channel, and featured in publications including People, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, TIME, USA Today, Redbook, and in over 600 broadcast, print and internet features. Her corporate clients have included AT&T, Bank of America, Four Seasons Hotel, The Limited, and more than one hundred residential and commercial real estate developers globally including Lennar, Centex, Pulte and Standard Pacific. 

Read Angi's predictions for your Year of the Dragon Chinese Zodiac animal horoscopes published here at AsianConnections.com.

Don't know your Chinese Zodiac animal sign? Check your sign here.

"Not to worry: We’ll all still be here for the 2012 holidays," says Feng Shui Expert Angi Ma Wong,
author and columnist at AsianConnections.com.