Why Archipelago November 24, 2007

:: posted by Ferdinand ::

Back in 2003, when this company was just a fuzzy idea batted around over lunch, it took a while for us to settle on a name. We knew we wanted a name that, in some way, reflected our Philippine roots. But we also wanted a name that allowed us some freedom to venture beyond a strictly mono-cultural identity.

“Archipelago” won out, even though it’s a spelling-bee word that we knew would prove challenging for some. The Philippines, is after all, an archipelago. One of the defining characteristics of the country is that it’s a nation made up of more than 7,000 islands. But, just as important, an archipelago is also any scattered group of similar things.

The particular grouping we wanted to support with our business is the archipelago of like-minded souls who are interested in to preserving Asian American culture and their ties to their heritage. Most of our designs and products are inspired by Asian American or Filipino American culture, and offering products that help others celebrate or honor their culture remains central to our mission.

But if you think of mainstream American culture as the Pacific Ocean, the archipelago of Asian American culture is more like Tahiti than Australia . Asian Americans have never been particularly visible in this vast country.

What does all this have to do with this blog?

Like our website, this blog is a channel through which we hope to reach out, connect and foster our community. But while our website is focused on products that promote a sense of identity, this blog will be focused on building community: creating a space where knowledge, ideas, opinions, random thoughts are shared. And we hope it will be a two-way street, with you, our readers, directly involved in the conversation.

Every blog is really about that: connecting to the outside world. But for most blogs, the bloggers seem content with shouting out into the void. We want to hear from the void. We’ll aim to have weekly postings, and sometimes they’ll be random ramblings, and other times we’ll offer what we hope is useful or interesting information.

We want this blog to be an exploration of Asian America, and we’ll be offering our thoughts on issues as varied as local heroes, to Asian Americans in pop culture, to where to get the best Asian food across the country to our favorite Asian American blogs in the blogosphere.

One of our goals with the blog is to develop a resource that would be useful for Asian Americans and anyone interested in Asian American culture. With that in mind, here’s your first assignment. One of our future blogs will focus on places that are uniquely Asian American. In Seattle, our hometown, we’re lucky to have many such sites: from the Wing Luke Asian Museum to the gravesites of Bruce Lee and Carlos Bulosan. So, dear readers, fill in this blank: When you’re in my town (neighborhood, city, state, etc.), you have to check out ______. (Then tell us where it is and why you’ve nominated this place.) We’ll include them in an upcoming compilation of Essential Asian American Places to Visit Across America.

By sharing information from our own islands of Asian America, maybe the gulf that separates us won’t feel so large..