Frances Kai-Hwa Wang
Frances Kai-Hwa Wang is a second-generation Chinese American from California who now divides her time between Michigan and the Big Island of Hawaii. She is a contributor for New America Media’s Ethnoblog, Chicagoistheworld.org, PacificCitizen.org, and InCultureParent.com. She team-teaches Asian Pacific American History and the Law at the University of Michigan and University of Michigan Dearborn. She also teaches writing and is a popular speaker on Asian Pacific American and multicultural issues.
Check out her Web site at franceskaihwawang.com, her blogs at franceskaihwawang.blogspot.com and rememberingvincentchin.com, and she can be reached at fkwang888@gmail.com.
*Photo by Mark Bialek
Updated October 2012
Stories from This Author
Mochitsuki: Taking the (Rice) Cake
Jan. 2, 2013 • Frances Kai-Hwa Wang
As I walk with my four kids into the U-M Center for Japanese Studies, we are heartened by the thump thump thump of the kine hitting the rice in the usu. It reminds us of the burly farmhands with whom we used to celebrate Mochitsuki many years ago. The girls start giggling, though, when they see who’s grasping the wooden mallets: skinny little professors who seem unable to capture the rhythm of pounding in a large wooden mortar. Mochi is …
The Aunties at Temple
Nov. 6, 2012 • Frances Kai-Hwa Wang
I see in the Hawaii Tribune-Herald newspaper that novelist Lois-Ann Yamanaka is reading at the Kinoole Farmer’s Market. “Jean Yamanaka” is the contact name, so she must be in town visiting her mom or other relatives. I love her work and plan to go, excitedly gathering up all her novels to ask her to sign. But instead, the books bake in my car as I let myself get caught up with the older Japanese American ladies at the Jodo Shinshu …
Oh! Oshogatsu! Missing Japanese New Year’s Day–Adventures in Multicultural Living
Jan. 10, 2012 • Frances Kai-Hwa Wang
The doorbell rings. The dog barks. I turn on the porch light, open the front door, and… No one is there. Then I look down. A package! Ooh, I was not expecting any more Christmas presents. I bend down to pick it up, and I hear the unmistakable sound of … Rice. A box of rice. A very big box of rice. Who would ship me a very big box of rice? I stagger into the house, the sound of …
