village

both my parents' families hail from the zhong shan village in china. i asked one of my friends once which village she was from and she said "i'm from shanghai," and i felt like such a village bumpkin, heh. i think it's really awesome that even abc's like me can identify what village they're from in china. it's quite a bonding moment when you realize that you're from the same village; even though our families have moved over here and started completely different lives apart from the village, i think it's incredible to be able to identify and claim alliance to a place that has thousands of years of history, built up in part by one's ancestors. to me, that weighs much more heavily and significantly than even my claim to the city i grew up in.

recently there was an article in sfgate about a recent rumor spreading about san francisco mayoral candidate ed lee. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/29/MNN71KOP58.DTL. apparently, someone has been putting into question whether lee's last name is actually lee, significant largely in part because if he is not an actual lee, then he does not deserve to be in the lee family benevolent association, the largest family association in Chinatown. with roughly 10,000 lees in san francisco, this familial association could be a boost in ballots for lee because those other lees might be more inclined to vote for this lee in the election. as always, the comments on sfgate are very interesting; there are numerous comments questioning the act of voting for a candidate just because you share the same surname, followed by responses from chinese people confirming a family-centric mentality. i thought about it, and you know what, i think i'd vote for someone if i knew they were from the same village or had the same surname, which i know is weird and a perversion of democracy, but i think i'd do it. it's kind of like voting for a distant cousin; we're related, i'm awesome, logically, he must also be awesome, i like awesome, i will vote for awesome. but in all seriousness, at the very least i think i would be more inclined to vote for such an individual, because i feel a small bond, and so i'm rooting for him.

fun fact: j's from the same village as bruce lee.