Patio Gazebo Design Ideas

♪ [theme music] ♪ >>>ernabel demillo:welcome to asian american life i'm ernabel demillo. when itcomes to the holidays gold plays an important role inasian culture. gold symbolizes peace, harmony and prosperitybut little is known about the philippines gold history,that is until now. asia society and ayala museumphilippine gold: treasures of forgotten kingdoms revealsthe country's rich history and tradition. over 120 spectacularobjects and artifacts

date back to the pre-colonialera of the tenth to thirteenth century. the exhibithighlights treasures from archaeological digs nearthe butuan region to the gold trade in the asiapacific rim. then there's the stunning heirlooms andjewelry collection of the royal family that's not tobe missed. now let's take a look at what's coming up on ourshow and be sure to follow us on facebook at asian american life.

back on track paullin meets rapper mc jin. the joke's on us barry mitchelllooks at today's hottest south asian comedians. canvas and silk, kyungyoon gets to work with designer richard tsao. and freedom ofexpression artist zhang hongtu debuts his new exhibit.all this and more on asian american life. nobody cooks like granny.that's the idea behind a popular web series called cookingwith granny but the show is

more than the sum of itsingredients. i met with the woman behindit all and one of her stars. what are yougoing to teach me?? >>>lumen castaneda: i'mgoing to do buko pandan. >>>ernabel demillo: translatethat, what is buko pandan? >>>lumen castaneda: bukopandan is coconut jelly. >>>ernabel demillo: meetlumen castaneda who welcomed us into her jersey city kitchen.the 74 year old grandmother, aka lola, is one of nineimmigrant grandmothers featured

in caroline shin'sweb series cooking with granny. >>>lumen castaneda: when iwas growing up we didn't have any refrigerator,there was no supermarket so my mother usedto wake up and. >>>ernabel demillo: whatwas it about, lola lumen that you said this grandmaneeds to be on the show? >>>caroline shin: well asyou can tell she has tons of charisma and it translateson screen so i needed to have her just based on her appearanceand her personality alone.

what really got me was that shewas a public school teacher in the bronx after livingin the philippines. >>>ernabel demillo: shin'sgrannies have more than just recipes to share.they also have stories. that's the secretingredient to shin's show. >>>nina iskin: you don'tknow where, trying to go out of war but on the waya lot of time they bomb us. >>>ernabel demillo:stories like nina iskin who survived thesiege of leningrad.

>>>caroline shin: my showreally documents the lives of very strong survivorwomen. so whether it surviving a war which isthe case of the russian jewish grandmother or myown grandmother or also, not simple but the more generalhardship of immigrating to new york or in the caseof grandma louisa it's about surviving domesticviolence. >>>ernabel demillo: shincame up with the idea for the show when she was ingrad school. she wanted to

preserve immigrant culturethrough food. she raised funds through kickstarterand her first couple shows starred her veryown grandmother. >>>caroline shin: heyguys, welcome to another episode of cooking with granny. sotoday we're going to be making something really simple,it's just going to be pork belly with a sesameoil dipping sauce. >>>ernabel demillo:viewers learn how to make a popular korean dish whilealso learning what life was like

for those living in koreaduring the war when the soviets occupied the north. it's aninteresting combination of storytelling but for shin it'swhat makes her show standout from other cooking shows.she also shows us just how resilient these women areand how happy they are to share their favoritefamily recipes because food is whatconnects us all. >>>lumen castaneda: thefood is very important in the filipino communitybecause the grandmother,

the mother and then youraunties they're all cooking. >>>ernabel demillo: buttoday she's cooking for us a party and holiday favorite infilipino homes, buko pandan. >>>lumen castaneda: this iswhat i use for the jelly, this is the jelly, this isalsa gulaman and that's why sometimes it is called pandangulaman. and we're going to use the coconut, this one isthe coconut gel, this one is the sugar palm fruit. and thenwe're going to mix it with the nestle table cream and a littlecondensed milk and

the pandan concentrate. >>>ernabel demillo:first she makes the jelly, adding water to the powderand waits for it to boil, about fifteen minutes. when itstarts boiling she adds half a tablespoon of the concentratedpandan, pandan is a tropical plant. when that's doneshe pours into the mold then waits about twenty minutes forit to set, in the meantime she mixes the ingredients.the sliced coconut meat, one can of coconutgel, the sugar palm fruit,

the nestle tablecream and condensed milk. all these ingredient availableat your local asian grocery store. then the mold isready and she slices the jelly into bite sized pieces and thenmixes it all up. and there you have buko pandan, it'sready to serve and eat with friends and family. >>>caroline shin: whenyou look at the different cycles of immigration here there arecertain recipes that are being lost along the way. foodis one of, food is a component

of culture, the most deliciouscomponent of culture so that kind of gets lost but inthe digital age with video story telling, withyoutube you know i can preserve these stories. >>>ernabel demillo: and passit on to generations to come. >>>paul lin: i'm paul lin,he got his start in new york and now he's back, an updateon renowned rap star mc jin. he's making headlines and he'sdeveloping a career as an all around entertainerwith music as just a part of it.

>>>mc jin: it's just arrivingat a point where i'm like maybe the music thing isn't thecenter piece anymore and it's getting shifted out andit's being replaced with something else. >>>paul lin: considerit a fork in the road for this influential chinese americanrapper. his latest album xiv:lix makes reference to thefinal second of one's fifteen minutes of fame. >>>mc jin: you know i lookback on my career there up's,

there were down's and definitelyarriving at a point in life where i'm asking myselflike what does is it all mean, you know did you accomplish whatyou set out to accomplish. >>>paul lin: fans knowjin as the first asian american rapper to be signed by amajor record label, rough riders at the age of nineteen, thatwas 2002. what started it all for mc jin was freestyling specifically battle rap. spontaneous competitive rhymesthat seeks to diss

your opponent. jin made his mark onfreestyle friday a segment on bet networks106 and park. an asian rapper winning seven weeks in a rowgot the attention of the hip hop world. it also promptedchallengers to mock his race. jin's on the spot comebacksbecame legendary. jin went on to make theshow's hall of fame earning credibility and access tosome big names in hip hop. wyclef jean appearson jin's first album

"the rest is history". kanyealso does a track with jin. but that debutalbum didn't sell well. jin parted wayswith the labels two years later. >>>mc jin: from the recordlabels perspective and i don't say this as a attackat them but their primary goal is one thing, as itshould be making money. >>>paul lin: jin was downbut not out. he spent the next few years focused on hisasian fan base recording an album in cantonese thenmoving to hong kong and

collaborating with chineseartists. overseas jin had more chances to host and act inmovies and on t.v. and won endorsements. he also metthe woman who would become his wife, they started afamily and in 2012 moved back to new york. >>>mc jin: i've been backfor about three years now and just kind of finding mygroove in different ways in terms of being back livingin the states and then even

on a career perspectivejust finding my direction. >>>paul lin: invariablypeople want to hear jin do what they remember he cando, freestyle. but even though he can still spit rhymes withthe best of them he's moved on from battle wrapping,his next act stand up comedy. which isn't actually thatfar from freestyle. >>>mc jin: the improv,the interaction with the crowd, the, quite a few thingsactually like the performance,

the delivery, timing, evenyour material like the thing i'm learning particularly aboutstand up comedy is kind of like how personal can you dig.i walked into that spot this restaurant right before i couldsay anything, the dude looks at me, the owner andhe goes go back to your country, we don't wantyour kind here, as i'm backing up i'm thinkingto myself this is the last time i ever getbreakfast in chinatown. >>>paul lin: beyond standup jin has been called on

to host events likemcdonald's b-boy royale; a break dance competitionhere in times square. contestants braggingrights and prize money and event proceedsgo to charity. >>>mc jin: the focus is thecommunity coming together. it's raising awarenessfor the ronald mcdonald house. it's raising funds forthe ronald mcdonald, so you know for me to be able tobe in that whole picture whether it's hosting, whether it's justbeing involved in some way,

i'm all for it. >>>paul lin: mc jin's return tonew york, building on music and making the mostof new opportunities to grow as an entertainer. i'm paul linfor asian american life. >>>barry mitchell: i'mbarry mitchell at the stand comedy club on third avenueand east 21st street. some of the biggest namesin comedy today have south asian backgrounds.performers like mindy kaling and aziz ansari haveachieved mainstream stardom and

increasingly more of the newstandup comedians are south asian americans, tworegulars on the new york stand up scene are subhahargarwal and gibran saleem. >>>gibran saleem: i'llmeet someone and i'll be like hi, my names gibran,they'll be like oh, nice to meet you muhammad. i'llbe like what, how in the world did they get mymiddle name, that is amazing. they'll call memuhammad, they'll call me whatever, jumanji, justrandom stuff and i just

accept that, but i feellike people only hear what they're already expecting.i'm gibran saleem, i was born in north carolina andi'm pakistani american. >>>subhah argarwal: you'rejust doing well on that math test because you're indian.you're doing well on that math test cause you're indian,it's like no i'm doing well because my parents hitme, that's why. i was born and raised in a very white communityso i was definitely picked on and ostracized for beingindian. we moved into a

more diverse community and theindian kids would pick on me for being white washed. soit was just one of those things where i didn't feellike i fit anywhere. and it was right around thattime that russell peters had a clip go viral so allof the indian kids were like obsessed with him. >>>barry mitchell: alwaysa creative type gibran was attending n.y.u. when hehappened by a comedy club advertising open mikenight and he thought.

>>>gibran saleem: i coulddo that and then around six months later over thecourse of the six months i was just writing a lot, likecool facebook statuses that would get laughs and i was likeall right these aren't bad, then i took it to the stageand i just didn't stop. >>>subhah argarwal:role models, the people i looked up to when istarted probably chris rock, bill berm, mariabamford those were the three i love the most.

>>>gibran saleem: georgecarlin, dave chapelle, daniel tosh iwas really into. >>>barry mitchell: ismindy kaling a role model. >>>subhah argarwal: rolemodel to me is someone you kind of, you look up to when youfirst start and mindy kaling came aroundwhen i was fairly well into it. >>>gibran saleem: notat all, but i do think they're trailblazers, so i'mlike super appreciative of all these people,aziz, mindy, russell peters.

just for them to i guessopen the gates for us. i wanted to one up herfor some reason, show her that i was doing amazing,the best that i could be, that i completely moved on.so she was like gibran how are you handlingthe breakup, i was like i'm gay, i'm gay now, i'vemoved on completely, i'm doing amazing. she's likewell i guess this is a good time to tell you but for thelast month i've been sleeping with your friendchris. i was like wow, me too.

>>>barry mitchell:subhah on dating. >>>subhah argarwal: datingwhen you've been doing it for a while is kind of likeowning a metal detector cause when you first start using ityou're excited, you're like i'm going to find gold, i'mgoing to find gold. and then six years later it's just you andbath slippers and a robe like bottle cap, bottle cap, bottlecap. when am i going to find a bottle cap that won't leaveme for a white woman. he actually left me for an asianwoman but white woman gets

a bigger laugh becausethere's not as much of a difference between me and anasian woman, at least in most people's lives. >>>barry mitchell: and youhave an interesting new project you'reworking on now. >>>gibran saleem: yeah.it's a web series it's called #heroes. it's about two amateursuperheroes that try to take their super herocareer to the next level by

becoming bigger on social media. >>>subhah argarwal: i don'tthink you can define success with this you really haveto learn to enjoy the journey, your career is something that'salways growing and changing. >>>gibran saleem: as ievolve in comedy i don't think i need tonecessarily address ethnicity, i think human first,ethnicity second. as long as they're relating you knowto the actual humanity or the human experiencesi have, that's ideal.

>>>barry mitchell: and i'mbarry mitchell and you're watching asian american life. >>>ernabel demillo: chineseartists zhang hongtu lived through the cultural revolutionand defies expectations with his artistic work.let's take a look. >>>zhang hongtu: what i reallycare about is communicated between different culture,the dialogue between different cultures that's whatreally, really concerned with. >>>ernabel demillo: zhanghongtu was born in 1943 to

a muslim family in chinajust when mao zedong rose to power. his dad was consideredan enemy of the people. >>>zhang hongtu: that'smade me now very upset, or what you call my life in chinabecause i also wanted to be an artist even when iwas very young. cultural revolution is veryromantic now, at my age in early 20's, middle 20'sof course i wanted new culture but peopledied, especially young people. that's changing my ideaabout culture revolution,

it's not about culture it'sall about power. you have no voice, if peoplelisten to you it will become a very dangerous situation. >>>ernabel demillo: bynine 1982 he comes to america and turns a critical eye towardschina's political landscape. >>>zhang hongtu: at thebeginning of this my new life in america i thoughti could forget everything happened in china, thatwas my nightmare. but another fundamentalchange to my life is the

tiananmen massacre, ithappened in 1989. the reason they died is becausegovernment doesn't like them to express themself.so usually artists to express yourself becomesa big issue to me. >>>ernabel demillo: hestarts expressing himself by creating a whole series of maoartwork where he dares to combine images of the leaderwith styles of western artists like andy warhol, marcelduchamp and pablo picasso. >>>zhang hongtu: duringthe process of doing this

work i feel shame, ifeel guilty because that's chairman mao, you can beput in jail in china. but i ask myself why i'm herein america. mao already dead a couple of years,i still have this bad feeling. so this kind of, this isactually kind of like a psychological problem. and thenlater i learn, not only me a lot of, a lot of chinese people.so that made me just want to, to do more, to release myselffrom this kind of fear. >>>ernabel demillo: artbecomes therapy for him

and his series becomesglobally recognized as american fashion designervivienne tam transforms his art into high fashion.his controversial work continues withthe banquet. >>>zhang hongtu: i used davinci's last supper, but replace all the religiousimages with all mao. from the bible jesus said, oneof you betrayed me. so my idea, who betrayedmao, mao himself. >>>ernabel demillo: thispainting was to be exhibited

at the nation's capital onthe one year anniversary of the tiananmen square massacrebut it was barred by senator ted kennedy whocalled it sacrilegious. >>>zhang hongtu: at first theyrejected it from american government power, that'sreally kind of crazy and i thought now it's not fair. >>>ernabel demillo: otherartists also withdrew in support. it kicked up a stormin the chinese and english press but zhangdidn't feel betrayed by america.

>>>zhang hongtu: i stillcan continue my work and i also right after thecensorship this painting got more publicity. so inthis case i don't blame america. after a few yearscontinue with my work, i told my self that's enough,i don't feel anything about mao. psychologically i haveno more problem, i've stopped. i'm more interested in therelationship between cultures, between thedifferent society. so, especially from mylife experience.

>>>ernabel demillo: you seethis with his landscape series which combines traditionalchinese landscape paintings with western impressionists,monet, saison, and van gogh which were banned inmaoist china. >>>luchia meihua lee: wesee these painting and then we can exchange our ideas andsay i see the line, the color of the impressionism. i seethe line and the structure of the chinese landscape. we saywhy this painting has so much multi-facets and then wewill create some dialogue.

>>>ernabel demillo:zhang's more recent work addresses global issues,specifically water pollution. zhang paints his ownversion of the famous water paintings, a chineseartist from the song dynasty. but in this case the beautyfrom the colors come from the pollution in the environment.the main attraction of the zhang hongtu retrospective isthis enormous computer generated rendition ofchina's impenetrable great wall but this time he has createdgates to walk through.

>>>zhang hongtu: one wordi can start by talking, i hate wall. to me the wallonly functions to divide people. after i moved to queens i knowmy neighbor from everywhere in the world, i know peoplespeak all different languages. so i like people look at mywork, look at this piece, think about the sharing,the communication, the dialogue between differentpeople from different culture, different background. i likepeople think of it this way, i think this is whati'm really dreaming about.

>>>ernabel demillo: thisis ernabel demillo for asian american life. >>>kyung yoon: i'm kyungyoon in tribeca with the artist richard tsao, whose works areinspired by his asian roots but with a completelycontemporary and colorful take. richard tsao has callednew york home for more than thirty years but his artis dotted with colors and influences from asia. his recentexhibit at the art project international gallery inmanhattan is a good example.

>>>richard tsao: these aremy works in paper, it's called rounds. thisbody of work actually was inspired by chinese bronzemirrors, which i saw when i went, it was at the nationalpalace museum in taipei many years ago. the oil paint isapplied on to around plexiglas and there are many, manylayers just like the mirrors themselves, has a lot to dowith many layers of polishing and polishing untilthe owners can actually see the reflection of themselves.

>>>jung lee sanders: it'sreally a process that he takes so much care in making hisart and it's very sort of well thought out, also has aconnections to his signature work that's produced in hisstudio he calls floodroom. >>>kyung yoon: the floodroom is where richard tsao has created his uniquesignature paintings. inside a completely sealedand waterproofed studio that is kept heated at a 110 degrees.his technique is like no other artists. he mixes his ownpigment and paint with marble

dots on canvas. the piecesare soaked, dried, painted and flooded in a processrepeated over many years. a labor intensive art form thatcreate and incrusted alchemy of colors and textures. >>>richard tsao: they'rebumpy, they're like, more like outer space terrainor landscapes that we see from the satellite pictures.the process is very tropical in a way because i grewup also with lots of flood. i guess everything that i doin terms of my art and my

design is veryinfluenced from my childhood. >>>kyung yoon: richardtsao was born and raised in bangkok, thailand. acountry flooded not only with monsoons but with thevibrant colors of tropical flowers, food displays andwith the hand-woven silk that he vividly remembersfrom his childhood. thirteen years ago on avisit home to bangkok he was inspired by that beautifulsilks of his homeland to try his hand at a very differentart form, working with fabric.

richard started designingwomen's clothing. he says at first just forfun, since then it's turned into another creative outlet forhim with his designs being sold in museum shops throughoutnew york city. and even the metropolitan operawhere his carmen jacket and the pagliacci jacketare popular sellers. his studio in jackson heights,queens is brimming with design ideas and colorswatches that turn into luminous and multi-colored jackets,scarves and accessories.

>>>richard tsao: i likecolor so it seems like the silk as a medium worksvery well for what i desire. i grew up with beautiful thaisilk, i was always fascinated with seeing a silk being handwoven. i'm very happy that the tradition is still very muchalive and i work with these wonderful silk weavers whoactually weave the silk especially for me. it doesn'tneed the scarf but it really makes it a lot more festive.yeah, a lot more fun. >>>kyung yoon: richardoccasionally enjoys dressing

friends like anna banfi whois visiting from milan, italy. >>>anna banfi: it'sfun, it's so much fun. >>>kyung yoon: and redis really her color. >>>richard tsao: it is,yes, everybody has a color and red is her color andjust like green is your color. >>>kyung yoon: theartists has spoken. >>>richard tsao: actuallythe two of you together, the colors arequite something. >>>kyung yoon: so much fun.

>>>anna banfi: i'm surethat i'm going to wear it richard's clothes to lascala and i'm sure that everybody's going to askme oh where did you get this wonderful coatand i say in new york. >>>richard tsao: i don'tknow whether i have any specific ideas in terms ofthe concept of my clothes but i like fun and festivebut i think that's a little bit of my philosophy inlife, a little bit of festive, a little bit of fun helpsbecause i think we

all work so hard. >>>kyung yoon: how do you seeyourself? as an artist first? designer? >>>richard tsao: i wouldconsider myself a little bit of everything. artistsmaking paintings is always my first passion. i consider myselfthe accidental designer. and i really did not think thatit would continue for this long but happily it has. >>>kyung yoon: and richardsays he's looking forward

to finding new ways tokeep expressing himself as a painter, now as a fashiondesigner as long as it's all injected with a huge doseof fun. i'm kyung yoon for asian american life. >>>ernabel demillo: that'sour show for now. you can watch all our stories onour facebook page at asian american life and besure to stop by philippine gold, treasures of forgottenkingdoms right here at the asia society through january3rd, 2016. in the meantime

happy holidays and we'llsee you next year.