And noble Young Adult Book Club pick for winter 2020. Not bad for a first time novelist, abigail hing wen. Born to a family of immigrants; mom from the philippines, dad from indonesia, abigail went on to graduate from harvard and Columbia Law School and now works in silicon valley. Oh, and she also got her masters of fine arts and writing from Vermont College of fine arts. Welcome to the show. Abigail hing wen thank you for having me. Robert and its so great. This is your first tv interview about your book. Abigail it is. It is. So youre breaking me in. Robert okay, well, loveboat, taipei first of all, you did a great job coming up with the title that everybodycatches everybodys attention. What is the significance of loveboat as well as loveboat, taipei . Abigail so theres this program that is fairly wellknown in certain circles in the asianamerican community. Parents would send their kids to taiwan since the 1960s to learn language and culture and to find a spouse, potentially. So thats hence the nickname loveboat. And in addition, thi of Major High School awards. So president ial scholars, westinghouse, cook scholars, ev would get this trip for free. Th thinking we were there for language and cultural training. And we did get it, but we also found out it was the party of your life. Bunch of kids dropped off in a foreign land, no supervision, and who had been under supervision for like their entire lives. Robert i can see a novel building out of all of this. Abigail you do. Yeah. Robert when you were there, you must have been observing quite a bit and kind of absorbing thewhat you werent expecting to experience there. Is that sort of what inspired you to write this book . Abigail right, so i think its one of these veryyou know, its such a unique experience, very unique to the asianamerican community. There are similar programs in other countries. Like theres one in korea. Ths cong from ohio where i was not really exposed to that many Chinese Americans or, really, chineseamerican culture, it was realfrom all overyou know,lans all walks of life, all backgrounds, and they were excited about their culture. They were excited about, you know, drinking snake blood sake and eating dragons beard candy; like things i actually wasnt familiar with at all, and really making their culture their own. Robert i mean, first and foremost, i thought it was just great to just kind of break that stereotype, people thinking that, oh, young people when they get together, they wont do that. And, you know, especially in asian culture, and then they do; but its a, . Abigail it really is. Robert so what was the story . And i know its difficult to tell like a whole novel story into, you know, succinct a fashion. But generally speaking, whats the storyline that kind of developed out of this . Abigail right, so iit took me a while to figure out who the main character should be. I originally wrote the book from four different points of view, and the novel actually has 30over 30 diverse asianamerican characters that are attending the program. Thousands of kids have gone on this program. So it really could have been a number of people, but i ended up choosing ever wong who is a girl whos going into one of these 7year medical School Programs that you can enter right out of high school. But she secretly wants to be a dancer. So the experience ends up being, for her, a question of identity, but in all its facets both as, you know, as a daughter of immigrants trying to find her place between her eastern and western culture, but also trying to understand what does it mean to follow her dreams and honor her parents and just understand who she is and all the whole sense of the word. Robert yeah, it almost seems like the writing part is if you took your writing and replace it with the dancing, it could be partly your story . Abigail right, right, exactly, and i think it isthat is a lot of my journey robert yeah, because, i mean, youre very accomplished in silicon valley, and i know youre working in Artificial Intelligence and the law and having all that, and yet there was a part of you that wanted to write. And i dont know if thats always encouraged, especially compared to the more lucrative careers that your parents wants you to do. Well, how about writing the book, was it quite a release . Was itwhat was it like to be putting your story down, especially for the first time . Abigail right, so ive been writing for 12 years. Ive written a number of novels. I started writing when i was actually pregnant with my second child. And i was thinking about being a law professor at the time, but i ended upyou know, i had this story in me. Its a different story, and my husband was like, you know, youre excited about this. Just go ahead and try it. And so thats really when i started. But this onei think this particular book has been in me since i went on the program, and i think i just needed to really grow in my craft until i felt ready to do it. But yes, i think its definitely been a journey of my own selfdiscovery, and even now im still realizing, appreciating how much going on this program meant to me to have an experience that helped me solidify my identity and to embrace my culture instead of trying to hide from it or run away from it. Robert it is a great immigrant story, and were going to have you back and you tell us how your journey as a writer or as a published author with this book is going, okay . Abigail i would love to do that. Robert all right, thank you for being here. All right, well, loveboat, taipei is available for pre order now and goes on sale tuesday, january 7. To order, visit www. Abigailhingwen. Com for more details. Again, thats abigailhingwen. Com. And coming up, older Asian Americans are being attacked in San Francisco. What we as a community can do about it, thats next. phone ringing es offers big button,lized phones. And volumeenhanced phones. Get details on this state progra visit right now or call during business hours. And accessoriesphones for your mobile phone. Like this device to increase volume on your cell phone. phone ringing get details on this state Program Visit right now or call during business hours. Robert there has been a rise in brazen attacks on the elderly in San Franciscos chinatown. Some solutions, educating the api community about the criminal Justice System and get younger people to actually be a part of the system. The nationalsi National Asian Pacific Islander prosecutors association, with his chapters in northern california, southern california, chicago, san diego, and new robert you did so well the first time we had to thank you hao see you again. H; have you back. Well, you , importance of getting young people to be a part of the prosecutor system and things like that, but youre here to talk about these attacks in San Francisco. Paul yes, so recently in november, there were attacks on three elderly Chinese Americans nearin San Francisco, and it really struck a chord with me. My parents live in San Francisco, and they would blanch at the idea of being called elderly. But its one of those things where, you know, we really need to get the community to speak up and step forward to kind of stop these things from happening in our community. Robert you would hope that Something Like this, when it gets this much attention and things like that, that it would kind of galvanize the community a little bit. Has it or do you still feel that cultural kind of resistance . Paul no; i mean, there definitely have been some people that have been involvedsome people have stepped forward in San Francisco and whatnot and there have been some small protests and whatnot. But again, its one of those things where apis in general leaders in the community and getting involved. And a lot of people, including witnesses to these attacks, you know, we need them to step forward and we need them to come up and testify and talk to police and whatnot. Robert yeah; now of course you always get some witness reluctance in almost any case because of, you know, obviously theyre just scared doing it. Is that basically the reason here as well or you were talking about this sort of lack of awareness or lack of education . Paul sure, so that definitely isplays a part in every case that i deal with, and certainly here. However, i think in the api community, its even more so. I think there is a reluctance, a fear, almost, of law enforcement, of prosecutors, etc. We want to make sure people understand that we are here to help. And i think another problem, another issue thatis the langue e are afra. Oh, well, we cant speak english, so how can we talk to the police, how can we testify . I want to let everyone know that interpreters are available throughout the entire process, starting with when you talk with the police throughif you have to testify in court, youan interpreter will be provided for you regardless of pretty much any language you speak. Robert yeah, and i think its important to point out that this case that you were talking about with the underreporting that goes on because of this reluctance, its a bigger problem than people actually are aware of even within the community, right . Paul absolutely, and i think a major issue that our office at the Santa Clara County das office has noticed is the inordinate amount of lack of reporting by api victims, especially of Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence. The numbers in our community are way lower than any other racial demographic, which is already less than what is actually happening. So we want to make sure and emphasize that victims and witnesses of sexual abuse and Domestic Violence report these things to law enforcement, and you may actually end up helping save someones life. Robert yeah, now its interesting because when you talk about interpreters, that does sort of solve the language barrier. But you do need younger people from the Community Getting will, you know, help somebody with the language. You need people that can go out there and actually connect with these people and make them understand why its important for them to step up, right . Paul absolutely, and thats why charles wong and myself started napipa about, id say, 9 years ago or so and we really wanted to change the paradigm. We wanted to get apis more involved and get them educated in the criminal Justice System. So, for example, we have had trainings where weve held real estate trainingsreal estate fraud trainings in mandarin. Weve had vietnamesespeaking prosecutors talking to vietnamese victims of Domestic Violence. Were currently working on an antihuman trafficking campaign. And, you kno my bosses at the santa clara das office, jeff rosen, jay boyarsky, weve been able to try and get more and more apis involved in the prosecution side, and with the hopes of running for elected robert its an important thing. All right, well, keep up the good work, all right . Paul definitely. Thank you, robert. Robert well, if you want more information on how to help combat attacks on the elderly as well as prosecution as a career, go to www. Napipa. Com. Thats napipa, napipa. Org. And next, listen for life; how musicians are trying to preserve the culture and traditions of music and how you can help. Stay with us. Pride ourselves on treating the arts and culture as an important element of the community, and so we are proud to promote a group such as listen for life. And joining us is eric wang, a sophomore at valley christian high in his hometown of san jose, who just won the Prestigious National young arts award and will travel to miami january 5 for young arts week. Congratulations. Welcome to the show. Eric wang thank you. Its really good to be here. Robert all right, this is your first tv interview, right . Okay, so ill be able to say i know you when. This is the start. Give us an idea. How did you get involved with life with art . Tell us a little bit about that organization and what it made you decide to join it . Eric yeah, of course. Listen for lifei was part of the notes for nourishment, the Concert Series that they did. I just performed on sunday for it. Its like to raise money for nonprofits. Yeah, the nonprofits i chose were the homeless Childrens Network and an Organization Called music in schools today. The homeless Childrens Network, they basically, yeah, help out kids, like, my age that are homeless. Well, music in schools today was designed to bring music to schools that possibly couldnt afford them as well as instrument donation. So i thought that wwas alwaysi lovedinteresi being a performer. I love being a performer, but i always feel like theres something missing. Like, i need to give back something. So i wanted toi did the notes for nourishment concert forbecause i love to perform, butand also to try and, like, give back somewhat of what ive been doing. Robert thats interesting. Thats very interesting. The Organization Also kind of pushes to kind of make, kind of, music keep its cultural integrity and things like that. How did that fit in with what you like to do as a performer . Like, is therewhat kind of music do you like to do . What do you hope to kind ofhow do you hope tor . Eric oh, well, i guess robert in the classical sense . Eric in the classical sense . Yeah, for sure. Like, i dont know any other types of guitar, but robert that was just the one you were drawn to right away, huh . Eric yeah, for sure. Robert why, why Classical Guitar . Eric well, my dad, he c so basically when i was really young, i would listen to a lot of, like, julian bream, john williams; a lot of the classic guitaristsa lot of the greatest guitarists of the time. And i love that kind of music and i just decided i wanted to play Classical Guitars. Robert yeah, yeah; having a father thats involved in that helps a lot because you really develop the ear and know what to listen to; whats your fathers name . Eric wang. Robert okay, great; lets give him a little credit for, you know, launching your career like that. So you started to hear it, you started to feel a connection to the music, and then you started to play. Di eric well, yeah, it toa lot of work, of course. Like, ive been playing for around 10 years now, close to 11. It does take a lot of hard work. Like, a lot of thea lot of times you just, like, feel like you get stuck, and then some of the times you just feel like youre really into it. You really love it. But it definitely requires a lot of homework. Robert even with talent, huh, even with the talent . Did you feel, though, like you hadwere you encouraged right away that, oh, but i can do this . I mean, its going to take work, but i can do this. Eric yeah, because there were so many, like, great people that helped me along the way like my teacher, robert miller. And a lot of the master classes ive had with great musicians, theyre also encouraging and they help so much and robert thats great; well, its great that youre combining both and giving back like them. All right, were goneyoure going to stay here and perform for us, right . Okay, great; well, for more information about listen for lifes programs, you can check out a number of different websites, but go to life. Org for the best one. All right, listenforlife. Org. All right, coming up, we get to hear a little music from eric. How about some Classical Guitar from our local prodigy. So dont miss it. Awardwinning Classical Guitarist, eric wang. Eric, what are you going to play for us . Eric im going to play the second and third movements from aquarelle by sergio assad. Robert okay. One of your favorites, right . Okay; well, you can find out more about eric wang and all our guests at nbcbayarea. Com. And were also on social media facebook and twitter. And you can follow me rhandanbc. Thank you so much for watching, and now we go out with eric wang. Enjoy. [app auding] cc by aberdeen captioning 18006886621 abercap. Com kerrygold has a taste so rich it can take you to irelands lush, green pastures. Where grassfed cows produce rich, creamy milk for a truly delicious taste. Kerrygold. The taste that takes you there. This is a dark day. I am asking to get the articles of impeachment. Hes a damn liar, man. Two, one. Good morning, welcome to sunday today on this december 8th, i am willie geist, the fbi helicopter the investigations into the shooting at naval air in pensacola. Why a saudi military student opened fire on his classmates and killing three of them. Victims were identified with