Electric rice cooker

On the occasion of International Rice Cooker Day (Decemeber 10th): I was “made in China” in the 1970s. China at that time was in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, which rendered it poor and in disarray. My family was able to escape our destitution to a better life in Canada in 1979 by grace of its family reunification programme. My granduncle (paternal grandfather’s brother), who ran a successful business in Toronto’s Chinatown (and left China during the chaos of WWII), sponsored us. We would otherwise not qualify to enter into Canada, which normally selects its immigrants via a points-based system. When we emigrated from China, our first port of call was Hong Kong (which back then was a British colony). This was the only point of travel connecting China with the West back then. It was there that we also first experienced modernity, and my family took advantage of this to buy an electric rice cooker. (We bought the iconic National rice cooker; National later became part of Panasonic.) We were peasants and had previously cooked rice back in our village using a wok over a hay or dung fire. This was a new and cherished possession for us.…

FT: Swedish PM’s Chinatown quip at odds with the data

Letter to the FT (September 7, 2022) If Sweden’s Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson were familiar with crime statistics by immigrant groups, she would not take the view that her country would be better off without its Chinatowns (“Sweden playground shooting shapes voter concerns”, Report, September 3). The Danes have collected (and published) data on criminality by immigrant groups. A 2016 study by the Danish national statistical office shows that first generation Chinese immigrants have criminality rates more than a quarter below the Danish average. Based on patterns for other East Asian immigrant groups and in other geographies, criminality rates will fall to less than half the level for the Danish population as a whole, for second generation Chinese immigrants. This phenomenon holds in Sweden as well. Not all immigration is equal. Kai L Chan Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates Article as it appeared online. © THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2022. FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.

G&M: It starts at home

Letter to the Globe & Mail (September 18, 2014) It starts at home Twenty-plus years ago I would have been one of Hieu Ngo’s interview subjects (Young Gang Members: Their Numbers Are Increasing, But Why?– Sept. 16). The gangs described in the report are reminiscent of the groups I associated with as a teen. Although each person who has has stumbled in life as a teenager (or an adult) has a complex story, the one overriding factor that is almost universally common is the absence of human capital at home. Many of the social constructs that middle-class families take for granted – e.g. parents reading to children; discussion of life or politics at the dinner table – are largely absent from immigrant families, especially those from less developed countries. If we want to build a better society, it all starts at home. Kai Chan, Dubai Letter as it appeared in the G&M © Copyright 2014 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc.  All Rights Reserved.