This magazine is about Asian-Canadian culture and the struggle against racism. This issue’s theme is debunking the “banana” appellation that many Canadian-born Asians get saddled with (yellow on the outside, white on the inside). Editor Angela MacKenzie says “Most of all, I flinch at the thought that what the term says of me may be true — that I’m only holding on to the shallow accouterments of being Asian,” and then puts forward another comestible symbol to replace the banana: “Can’t we be lemon ripple ice cream instead?” Featured in this issue is Montreal-based wonder DJ Kid Koala, and this is the first interview I’ve read that even acknowledges he’s Chinese. Another article describes how third-generation Japanese-Canadian Julie Ono couldn’t star in the movie she wrote and funded. The following article is about White Balance, a multimedia project that examines how people of mixed Caucasian and Asian descent see themselves as part of the “white centre”, and if they might some day be co-opted as white people. The biggest feature of this issue, “Silence Broken”, follows director Dai Sil Kim-Gibson on her quest to shed light on “Comfort Women”, the euphemistic name the Japanese gave to over 200,000 women they forced into sexual slavery during WWII. A slew of other film-makers are also profiled, as well a few other figures in the Asian-Canadian community. (Frandroid Atreides)
magazine, issue v6.2, 48 pages, Charlie Cho, Angela MacKenzie, Yen To, Sylvia Yu (editors), $5, P.O. Box 74174, Hillcrest R.P.O., Vancouver, BC, V5V 5C8,