Blog Posts for Belle Yang

There but for the Grace of God Go I

Belle Yang — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:49:11 -0800

I’ve been posting in Red Room since the day this fabulous community went live, but this may be the most important blog I have written.San Francisco Activist, writer, lyricist, musician Deborah Grabien is a member of our Red Room Community, who has worked tirelessly to help others in sickness. Now, she and her husband, Nic, need the strength and aid of our pens to write letters AND to thumb ...

The Time To Fight Is Now

Belle Yang — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:57:32 -0700

I will fight for the poor and the needy but not for the insurance companies nor PhRMA. I will do what I can to improve on Baucus' "ripoff."Joy Skeel Medical EthicistThe Gang of Six Bill is a total wash and conceeds to the Health Insurance Industry. The far right fringe has been vocal, garnering the impression that there are far more in opposition to the public option than their true ...

IS DEPENDENCE A CRIME?

Belle Yang — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:15:18 -0700

Violet Hsu and Wei-Tai Kwok are a beautiful, artistic and brilliant Chinese-American couple. I met Violet in Beijing on a rainy Fourth of July at the American Embassy in 1987. She fell in love with American-born,Wei-Tai, in Shanghai. They returned to California, married, had two sweet kids. Vi and Weit-Tai speak perfect American English and are fluent in Mandarin. When they come ...

And so the Fedex Man Cometh

Belle Yang — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:50:41 -0700

Since my last post in April specific to my graphic novel, I've been working steadily with my editor at WW Norton to reinforce the flow of the story. It involved a lot of old-fashioned cutting and pasting with X-acto knife and rubber cement. I moved comics panel around, drew new ones to fill in vacant spots or to emphasize a point. I like tactile work, which mere typing at the computer ...

Foreign Writers Dealt a Blow

Belle Yang — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:36:20 -0700

Here is a link to a Bigthink.com video interview of my editor, Alane Salierno Mason, senior editor at WW Norton and Company. She diagnoses literature in translation and how big publishers have dealt a blow to foreign writers, attempting to publish in English:Please go to: http://bigthink.com/alanesaliernomason/alane-salierno-mason-diagnoses-li...

Goldman Sachs as a Chinese Tale

Belle Yang — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:40:41 -0700

My father's second cousin had come to the city, and he saw a group of men standing around the vendor of bolts of blue and white cotton cloth. "This is of excellent quality and I'm lettin' them go cheap," cried the vendor to the cousin. He unloaded the bolt from his cart, throwing them down noislily on his reed matt to underscore his point. A handful of men fought to buy the ...

Obsessed with Acrobats and Solitude

Belle Yang — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 19:27:25 -0700

I'm coming to the end of my Manchurian trilogy (the last of the three books to be published next year in graphic novel format), which I've worked on for twenty years. It is my obsession no longer, nor do I owe the unrequited ghosts of my ancestors the labor of my heart and pen.I was obsessed this week in defining what truly obsesses me today. I would say I am obsessed with keeping life in ...

Paint as you like and die happy?

Belle Yang — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:08:01 -0700

Ryoma Collia-Suzuki had sent me a link to one of his favorite painters, Miamoto Musashi, in the Chinese/Japanese ink-wash style or sumi-e in Japanese. I sent a couple of images I had painted in China in the late 80's. He was surprised by this older style of my late 20's, because the only pieces he'd seen were done in in bold colors, resulting from the marriage of naïf peasant paintings I ...

Come on a Foodie Adventure With Belle!

Belle Yang — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:18:44 -0700

I am finally peaceful enough to write after a health scare that sucked away all oxygen for nearly a year. The last three weeks turned nightmarish, because my eyes were to be implanted with medicine at St. Mary's on Wednesday. A foreign object was going to be plugged in near my retina. After seeing a fourth specialist, it was determined that the original diagnosis was wrong. I know I've ...

I thought only Mexicans needed green cards

Belle Yang — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:46:20 -0700

Sunday, June 282 to 3:30 PM Partners in Reading San José Public Library 150 East San Fernando Street San José, CA 95112 Phone: (408) 808-2357I'll be doing a program planned around "Foo the Flying Frog of Washtub Pond" this Sunday at the above venue This little book is prefect for kids to read together as the characters are written as personalities in a play. When I present the ...