Roar! Leaping into Spring with the exciting 078 Kobe Festival, which took place in 27 – 29 March; an event connecting people, trade and culture with different activities centered around music, film, food, fashion, kids, and anime. I was exhausted from jumping around the 6 venues to take photos with my fans and hand out my nice recycle bags. It was also my honour to sing and dance along on stage with local Kobe artists. Cheers to my DotAsia and NetMission team for the great helping hand!
Another interesting note of this journey was how it reminds me about my extinct Caspian tiger friends’ traces. Check out our booth in the KIITO building. KIITO isn’t another acronym from ICANN, but actually a Japanese word meaning “silk”. KIITO, the Design and Creative Center of Kobe was once a “raw silk” testing center for quality control, nestled in this little port city in Kansai. Bingo! That’s the silk road that my Caspian tiger friends migrated through in ancient times from central Asia to the Russian far east where the Siberian tigers now live. How amazing that people (even animals =P) of the past connected, trading in business and exchanging culture through such a long journey!
Thanks to the Internet forming a new digital silk road, such mobility is not as time-consuming as it used to be. Knowing that there is still a large part of the unreached next billion market, the openness and freedom to move around in this vast network will remain essential to enhance the competitiveness in Asia.
#KobeIsAsia #RiseWithAsia #YouthMobility
This.Is.Asia Newsletter Issues
AAPI Heritage Month: Interview with Tommy Ho
Asian American heritage is about inclusion. It’s a description that cuts a wide cloth across a vast array of cultures and peoples, and it’s important to celebrate the similarities and differences. I see that diversity represented within GoDaddy’s Employee Resource Group (ERG), and GoDaddy Asians are growing. Especially during these unpredictable times, our sense of belonging that we feel through our groups help to boost mental and physical health.
AAPI Heritage Month: Interview with Jacqueline Daly
To me, AAPI Heritage Month is a great time to reflect and celebrate my Asian heritage and all the family traditions that have made my life so culturally rich. I am very proud to be an Asian American. I think this is a great opportunity for communities to come together and learn about our diverse stories through a more inclusive lens.
AAPI Heritage Month: Interview with Mou Mukherjee
In some ways, I abandoned my culture when I was young because I was trying so hard to fit in. My parents were, and still is very cultural. Growing up, there was always Indian music playing, our house was full of Bengali literature, my Dad’s hero was poet Rabindranath Tagore, and he also loved the films of Satyajit Ray. I was surrounded by culture and yet I couldn’t fully embrace it at the time.
AAPI Heritage Month: Interview with Zhou Fang
I am an immigrant from Guilin, China. In 2010, I moved to the U.S. for grad school. After graduating from Kansas State University (Go Cats!) I moved to Oregon and have been living in Portland for the last 9 years.