Los Angeles comic Jiaoying Summers had a booking at a Hollywood club on Sunday night, but she canceled it, left her two small kids with her mother and caught a 7:30 a.m. flight to San Francisco — to perform a 20-minute set for free in a drafty upstairs hall at the Ferry Building that afternoon.
“When a comedian is willing to wake up at 5 a.m., that is true love,” said Summers, 33. She was also willing to pay her own airfare to show her love for “Our Time,” a first-of-its-kind empowerment celebration of Asian women organized by the San Francisco nonprofit Asians Are Strong.
“Whatever I have achieved, I want to show Asian women that they can do better,” said Summers, who has achieved a 30-minute special on Peacock TV and was considered a headliner at an event that didn’t have one. All Asian women were treated as equals at the free event.
The event, which ran from 2 to 5 p.m. and included 19 exhibitors, came together in two weeks, put together by Zeien Cheung, a co-founder of Asians Are Strong. She and five others founded the group at a Japantown bar where they gathered to commiserate about the rash of senseless attacks on older Asians in 2020.
Since then, the group has led vigils, rallies and outdoor events. Known for their black T-shirts with orange block lettering declaring “Asians Are Strong,” they chose jade-green T-shirts bearing the tweaked slogan “Asian Women Are Strong” for Sunday’s event.
“There has never been an event that spotlights and celebrates Asian women,” said Cheung, who lives in San Francisco and works for Amazon Web Services. “We’re always in the back seat, a footnote, or on the side. But today we want all Asian women to be proud of their successes.”
The first sign of that success was to be the traditional dragon dance in front of the Ferry Building. The 10 people forming the dragon from head to tail were female high school students, and that alone was noteworthy, said Linda Phung of Lion Dance Me, which put on the dance.
“This is a practice that was all male for so long,” said Phung, who grew up in San Francisco attending Lunar New Year celebrations. In the city, she said, “There has never been an all-girl dragon, which is something that should be celebrated.”
Alas, weather prevented the gender-affirming dragon from performing Sunday. The dragon girls were game to dance in the drizzle and even a downpour, but the Port of San Francisco, which operates the Ferry Building, canceled it.
Instead the energy was upstairs in the Grand Hall. Alliana Yang sang Rachel Platten’s popular “Fight Song” to gear people up for a panel discussion that included Edith Young, a crypto investor at Race Capital, and chemical engineer Victoria Fu. The 750 reservation confirmations resulted in 540 actual rainy-day attendees, which was enough to convince Cheung that this pioneer event would become an annual one.
The advocacy group Asian American Pacific Islander Youth Rising made a strong showing in white T-shirts bearing its logo to complement the jade green shirts.
“It makes us feel like we’re taking a stand,” said Siwoo Rhie, 14, of Oakland, representing the AAPI group. “Little things make a big difference.”
“It’s important to show that youth can do something,” added Grace Chiu, 14, of Walnut Creek. “People see Asian women as petite and can’t do much, and this event disproves that.”
“Our Time” ended in time for participants to take in another “Asians Are Strong” event, an Academy Awards watch party at the Commonwealth Club, with keen interest in Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh. She went on Sunday night to win best actress for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” which also won best picture.
A roar went up at the Commonwealth Club when Yeoh won. “A win for all Asian women,” Cheung said. “We are over the moon.”
Reach Sam Whiting: swhiting@sfchronicle.com
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March 13, 2023 at 08:03AM
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Event at S.F.' Ferry Building celebrates Asian women's successes - San Francisco Chronicle
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