Question 7

At the www.census.gov website I explored until I found a place to enter (asian and native hawaiian and other pacific islander) 77008. The Table said that in 2000 there were 317 Asians, and 13 Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander in the chosen zip code.


The page where I found it said "Main, Data Sets, Data Sets with Quick Tables, Geography, Tables, Results."

The Table was DP-1. Profile of General Demographic Characteristics 2000; Data Set Census 2000 Summary File 1 (SF 1) 100-Percent Data; Geographic Area: 5-Digit ZCTA 77008

May Assignment: Question 6

"Buddhist Law, known here as Falun Gong, was established was established in the early 1990's by Li Hongzhi, a martial-arts master who is now 48. He combined elements of the ancient practice of qigong, involving breathing and meditation exercises said to mobilize energy forces, with concepts drawn from Buddhism and his own theories of spiritual salvation."

Source: New York Times, May 1, 1999; ISSN 1662827; Document 117282697. I chose the decade the 1990's.



The Houston Chronicle database mentions Falun Gong and the Montrose area in Houston in the July 20, 2001 edition, p. 38. It says, "Houstonians who drive past the Chinese Consulate on Montrose Boulevard will likely see a platoon of people in yellow t-shirts. Exercising or meditating, the people are calmly calling attention to the Chinese government's persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual movement."

May Assignment: Question 5

The connectivity among the subjects rice, Japan and Texas are explained in this Handbook of Texas article.

RICE CULTURE. The Texas rice industry owes its origins to the introduction of rice (Oryza sativa) seed from Madagascar to the Carolina colonies about 1685. Production, milling, and marketing flourished in South Carolina and Georgia for the next 200 years. Although there was early domestic cultivation of rice in Louisiana and Texas, commercial rice production began in Louisiana shortly before the Civil Warqv and in the 1880s spread rapidly through the coastal prairies of southwest Louisiana into southeast Texas. Arkansas, California, Louisiana, and Texas now produce 90 percent of the American rice crop, with lesser production along the Mississippi River in Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. The earliest form of rice cultivation in Texas involved essentially pioneering agriculture. Farmers plowed small plots with oxen, planted seed by hand, depended on rainfall for cultivation, and harvested with hand sickles. Milling was with a crude mortar and pestle. Consumption was strictly local. Considerable acreages of rice were grown in southeast Texas as early as 1853 by William Goyensqv and in Beaumont in 1863 by David French. The latter is often considered the first major rice farmer in Texas. Modern commercial production in Texas derived largely from the completion of the southern transcontinental railroad in 1883 and its acquisition by the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1885, coupled with the availability of cheap land on the coastal prairies, the introduction of modern rice mills, and an influx of immigrants from Louisiana and from the grain producing areas of the Midwest. The latter brought with them combines and mechanized agriculture. Pumps, canals, modern irrigation systems, and improved varieties contributed to expanded production. Edgar Carruthers, Louis Bordages, and Dan Wingate produced the state's first large commercial crop of rice on a 200-acre farm near Beaumont in 1886. They shipped their crop by rail to New Orleans for milling. In 1891 Joseph E. Broussardqv established the first rice irrigation and canal system in the state, and the following year he added rice milling machinery to an existing gristmill, thus initiating rice milling in Texas and paving the way for the rapid expansion of production. Texas farmers planted 234,000 acres of rice in 1903 compared to Louisiana's 376,000 acres. The two states then produced 99 percent of the total rice crop, with production having virtually ceased in South Carolina and Georgia.
An important event in the development of the Texas Gulf Coast rice industry was the introduction of seed imported from Japan in 1904. Seed rice had previously come from Honduras or the Carolinas. At the invitation of the Houston Chamber of Commerce and the Southern Pacific Railroad, Japanese farmers were brought to Texas to advise local farmers on rice production, bringing with them seed as a gift from the emperor of Japan. The first three years' harvest, which produced an average of thirty-four barrels an acre compared with an average of eighteen to twenty barrels from native rice seed, was sold as seed to Louisiana and Texas farmers. C. J. Knapp, founder of the United States agricultural agent system, helped to overcome government regulation to bring seed rice into the country. Japanese rice production began at Webster in Harris County under the direction of Seito Saibara,qv his family, and thirty original colonists. The Saibara family has been credited with establishing the Gulf Coast rice industry.

So rice was grown in Texas as early as 1853. Seito Saibara began Japanese rice production in Webster. This was about 1903. At the same time in Terry, Texas another production site was begun by Kitchimatsu Kishi. In the 1020's his son played halfback at Texas Agricultural and Mechanical (now Texas A & M). This pastoral beginning was not as auspicious througout the 20's and 30's. When the Japanese were interned in Texas in the 40's one of the few people who stayed after the war was Isamu Namaguchi who retired to Austin and designed the Japanese Garden in Zilker Park.

May Assignment-Question 4

A. Asian American Scientists
1.Meena Alexander
2.Ha Jin
3.Shouhua Qi
4.Sara Suleri
5.T. Min-Ha Trinh

Sentence: Meena Alexander was born in Allahabad India and her father was a scientist but her talent as a writer is her claim to fame.


B. Asian American Journalists
1.Leslie Chang
2.James Hattori
3.Dith Pran
4.Trishia Toyota
5.Helen Zia

Sentence: Trishia Toyota is a Japanese-American broadcast journalist in the Southern California area who founded the Asian American Journalist Association with Bill Sing in 1981.


C. Asian American Fashion Designer
Kim, Eugenia (American fashion designer, 1974-)
Natori, Josie (American fashion designer, 1947-)
Simmons, Kimora Lee (American fashion designer, 1975-)
Sui, Anna (American fashion designer, c. 1955-)
Wang, Vera (American fashion designer, 1949-)

Sentence: Vera Wang is a Chinese American fashion designer who was promoted at Vogue to be the youngest fashion editor ever in 1971 and who carved a niche in wedding gowns with a contemporary style.

Question 3 May Assignment

Tracks from the album, Music of the Shakuhachi (FW04218) can be heard on the HPL database "Smithsonian Global Sound." The database offers excerpts from cultures all around the world as well. The performer is Yasuda Sinpu. This simple search began with the Smithsonian database where I typed in the title of the piece listed and it came up right away.

May Assignments-Question 2

1. asiasociety.org seemed likely to try after trying askasia.org unsuccessfully. I searched the phrase in the search field but it did not help. So I clicked on Calendar and typed in the search phrase.
2. reference to a past exhibition of it surfaced

Question 1 May Assignment-more

The Texas chapter is in Houston on 4605 Post Oak Place, Ste. 205. They serve as a forum for viewpoints and discussions on Asia-related topics, offering more than 100 programs each year.




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