New York Diary (20-19): Remembering Vincent Chin Today in 1982, Vincent Chin, a Chinese American around my age who was about to be married, died after 4 days of coma that followed a brutal lynching. The incidence galvanized Asian Americans and is bitter memory.
The incidence is recounted in Hong Kong's SCMP today, but not in the US media. Everyday I read online news from various sources, msn, New York Times etc. I found no mention of this incidence in the last few days, not even in the local Chinese Newspaper.
One day in the early eighties, I was waiting in a New Jersey town for a bus back to New York. A convertible drove by, a guy pumped his fist and yelled at me: "Remember Pearl Harbor!!" Luckily, they just sped away and I went on with my life. Despite occasional tribulations I was able to enjoy life a bit, travel a little, like any human being would like to. Vincent Chin had all that taken away from him by an animal wielding a baseball bat.
Five years before his death, NASA launched two Voyagers into Space. Each carried a Golden Record with an eclectic selection of music, to be played to Aliens in the event they are encountered. Meanwhile, down on the continent, there were, and are, still a huge number of people who look at people different from them as aliens. The irony is, we make overtures to aliens, but become violent to human beings that look different from us.
Basic Repertoire
Beethoven's Quartet's are among the greatest works in the genre. The Cavatina, from String Quartet No. 13, Opus 130, a late work (played by the Budapest String Quartet), is the last track on the Golden Record. I listened to it with Vincent Chin on my mind.
Trivia: Find out more about the Golden Record from Wiki. Note that the record is to be played back at 16 2/3 rpm, a speed half that of our usual 33 1/3. This means each side can yield about an hour of music. This speed is basically only used in studios.
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