stories from the community... and beyond

Chinese Students in U.S. Fight View of Their Home: "Chinese students in the United States have been forced to confront an image of their homeland that they neither recognize nor appreciate. Since the riots last month in Tibet, the disrupted Olympic torch relays and calls to boycott the opening ceremony of the Games in Beijing, Chinese students, traditionally silent on political issues, have begun to lash out at what they perceive as a pervasive anti-Chinese bias."

Young Indians Abroad Return to Help Better Country: "All over India, projects to fight trash, pollution, global warming and poverty are attracting kids from the Indian diaspora who want to spend a few years, or maybe longer, pushing for social change in the mother country. For many, that means increasingly better jobs and pretty good pay, not to mention the chance to hang out with an international gang of friends."

Natural phenomenon: Michio Kushi is credited for introducing the macrobiotic and natural-foods movement—aka "health food"—in the United States nearly five decades ago. "Along the way he picked up acolytes and influenced the widespread adoption in this country of Japanese practices, including shiatsu, aikido, and sleeping on futons, and planted the seeds for the organic-foods movement."

Elite Korean Schools, Forging Ivy League Skills: This year, during an insanely selective college application season, two rigorous prep schools in South Korea—Daewon Foreign Language High School and Minjok Leadership Academy—have achieved a spectacular record of admission to U.S. Ivy League colleges. Their secret, it seems, is relatively simple: study like hell. These schools sound totally insane.

A Place Where Indians, Now New Jerseyans, Thrive: Oak Tree Road, which runs through Edison, New Jersey and into neighboring Woodbridge Township, may be America's liveliest little India, with 400 Indian businesses that attract Indian immigrants from across the region. Says Korean American mayor Jun H. Choi, "If I meet an Indian anywhere, everyone knows Edison, New Jersey. They know Mumbai, London and Edison."

Dry Cleaners Feel an Ill Wind From China: After a federal tarriff was imposed last month on, of all things, wire hangers imported from China, the wholesale price skyrocketed. As a result, dry cleaning businesses, which uses steel wire hangers by the hundreds of thousands, have felt a huge impact on their profits—particularly among Korean American immigrants, who own an estimated 65 percent of New York City's 1,100 dry cleaners.