2007年VOA标准英语-Asian-Americans Celebrate Diversity While Maint

By Mona Ghuneim
New York
25 April 2007

The Asian Cultural Festival celebrates and explores the multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-dynamic Asian-American experience.  Where better to host such a festival than in Queens, New York - the most ethnically¹ diverse county in the United States.  From VOA's New York Bureau, Mona Ghuneim has the story.

The Asian Cultural Festival aims to showcase the diversity of Asia, Asians and Asian-Americans in the arts.  At the recent opening night event, Sal Malaki, a tenor² with the Los Angeles Opera, serenaded the audience in a variety of languages: Italian, English and even Cebuano, a language of his native country, the Philippines.

The weeklong festival, being held for a second year in a row, provides a stage for Asians and Asian-Americans to express their differences, and similarities.

Vivian Chiu, who grew up in Taiwan, is the festival's director.  She says the events are different in content, execution and even technical direction.  But they share the same artistic³ vision, to break stereotypes⁴ and move from the confines of what is expected.  Asian performance art, she says, is not the dragon-ladies, submissive women, and Kung-fu fighters often portrayed⁵ in films and advertisements.  

"In each event, there's collaborating⁶ efforts between artists of different cultural backgrounds," she said.  "For Ping Chong's 'Undesirable⁷ Elements', we have a [Chinese] poet, we have a Korean trans-gendered woman, and also we have an Indian business founder⁸.  So they come from very different, diverse cultural backgrounds and also different industries."

Chiu selected a variety of acts ranging from contemporary, Eastern-infused dance by a Taiwanese troupe⁹ to a performance of spoken word, hip-hop and acoustic¹⁰ soul by a group of Asian-American artists.

Ping Chong's theatrical¹¹ piece, "Undesirable Elements," is a compelling compilation¹² of real people telling stories of cultural identity.

Here a Korean trans-gendered woman relates how she and her brother, adopted by an American couple when they were two young boys, were often misunderstood. 

MAN: "1970 - December 7, 1970"

KOREAN WOMAN: "My brother and I are the only non-white children in our school, and in our neighborhood.  Most families in our community have relatives who served in World War II, like our father did.  Every year I dread¹³ Pearl Harbor Day.  Every year, other children will taunt¹⁴ us, call us names and throw things at us.  The fact that we're Korean, and not Japanese, does not matter."

The artists and organizers of the festival say they want audiences to experience the broad spectrum¹⁵ of Asian art and culture.

Rohi Mirza Pandya is a writer and director of South Asian heritage.  She is the producer of 7-Eleven Convenience Theater.  The show is a series of seven eleven-minute plays set in a convenience store.  Pandya says a lot of Americans have only one image of the convenience store owner, an Indian or Chinese man with a funny accent.  The show, she says, turns stereotypes on their heads.

"I think when you see images in the media or on television of store clerks, they're always just one-dimensional, whereas we're doing stories that have depth and these characters have a whole story behind them," she explained.  "So you don't really see that anywhere else."

The festival's location, at the Queens Theatre in the Park, is a key part of the program.  Just as diverse and dynamic as the performances themselves, the borough¹⁶ of Queens is home to one of the most ethnically varied¹⁷ populations in the world.  Almost half of its more than two million residents are foreign-born and about 138 languages are spoken, making Queens the most multi-lingual place in the United States.

Jeffrey Rosenstock, the executive director of the theatre, says the festival fills a gap in Queens, where about 19 percent of the population is Asian.     

"We looked at the different demographics of the borough and the changing demographics of the borough and really felt that we wanted to reflect that, not just with the artists on our stage, but the audiences," he said.  "We are a mainstream¹⁸ institution that has made a commitment to embrace the different cultures that represent our city and especially our borough."

Rosenstock says he hopes the festival brings the Asian and non-Asian communities together.  Offering them a selection of show tunes¹⁹ sung by Asians who have performed on Broadway certainly seems like an entertaining way to build that bridge.

1 ethnically   

adv.人种上，民族上

参考例句：

• Ethnically, the Yuan Empire comprised most of modern China's ethnic groups. 元朝的民族成分包括现今中国绝大多数民族。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• Russia is ethnically relatively homogeneous. 俄罗斯是个民族成分相对单一的国家。 来自辞典例句

2 tenor   

n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意

参考例句：

• The tenor of his speech was that war would come.他讲话的大意是战争将要发生。
• The four parts in singing are soprano,alto,tenor and bass.唱歌的四个声部是女高音、女低音、男高音和男低音。

3 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

4 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

7 undesirable   

adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子

参考例句：

• They are the undesirable elements among the employees.他们是雇员中的不良分子。
• Certain chemicals can induce undesirable changes in the nervous system.有些化学物质能在神经系统中引起不良变化。

8 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

9 troupe   

n.剧团，戏班；杂技团；马戏团

参考例句：

• The art troupe is always on the move in frontier guards.文工团常年在边防部队流动。
• The troupe produced a new play last night.剧团昨晚上演了一部新剧。

10 acoustic   

adj.听觉的，声音的；(乐器)原声的

参考例句：

• The hall has a fine acoustic.这个大厅的传音效果很好。
• Animals use a whole rang of acoustic, visual,and chemical signals in their systems of communication.动物利用各种各样的听觉、视觉和化学信号来进行交流。

11 theatrical   

adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的

参考例句：

• The final scene was dismayingly lacking in theatrical effect.最后一场缺乏戏剧效果，叫人失望。
• She always makes some theatrical gesture.她老在做些夸张的手势。

12 compilation   

n.编译，编辑

参考例句：

• One of the first steps taken was the compilation of a report.首先采取的步骤之一是写一份报告。
• The compilation of such diagrams,is of lasting value for astronomy.绘制这样的图对天文学有永恒的价值。

13 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。

14 taunt   

n.辱骂，嘲弄；v.嘲弄

参考例句：

• He became a taunt to his neighbours.他成了邻居们嘲讽的对象。
• Why do the other children taunt him with having red hair?为什么别的小孩子讥笑他有红头发？

15 spectrum   

n.谱，光谱，频谱；范围，幅度，系列

参考例句：

• This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
• We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成，我们已了解不少。

16 borough   

n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇

参考例句：

• He was slated for borough president.他被提名做自治区主席。
• That's what happened to Harry Barritt of London's Bromley borough.住在伦敦的布罗姆利自治市的哈里.巴里特就经历了此事。

17 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

18 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

19 tunes   

n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
• When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》