It was a day of heritage, pride and achievement

By Shatto Light
Special to ASIA

More than 300 members and friends of San Diego's Asian Pacific Islander community turned out Tuesday, May 22, at a luncheon ceremony to honor achievers in 11 categories and give special recognition to Dr. Michael Inoue, honorary consul general for Japan in San Diego, who has been active in San Diego's Japanese American community for years.
The Fourth Annual Asian Heritage Awards, held at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego was hosted by ASIA, The Journal of Culture & Commerce, and title sponsor Prudential Financial. Channel 8 anchor and reporter Marcella Lee emceed the event, which featured noted virologist Flossie Wong-Staal as keynote speaker.
After brief opening remarks from Novarro and Carmen, Lee took over the program, which she described as a "gathering of one big family."
The following honorees and their respective categories were:
• Capt. Cesar Solis, the highest ranking Filipino in San Diego's Police Department, for Legal Affairs/Government
• Nam Nguyen, founder of the Lac Viet Cultural Center, for Community Service
• Hong Yu, owner, After School Learning Tree, for Education
• Kenji Ima, author and sociologist, for Art/Philosophy/Literature
• Jung-Ho Pak, music director, San Diego Chamber Orchestra, for Performing Arts
• Dr. Alexander Chuang, co-founder San Diego Chinese Historical Museum, for Cultural Preservation
• Chun B. Yim, real estate developer, for Entrepreneurship
• Dr. Sheldon Lou, electronic researcher, and San Diego Chinese American Science and Engineering Association, a tie for for Science/Technology/Research
• Henry Cheng, founder Tai Chi Wellness Center, for Medicine and Health
• Jessica Chang, Emmy Award-winning journalist, Channel 4 News, for Media
• Japan Society of San Diego and Tijuana, for Business Enterprise.
Each honoree received a plaque with the name of the company sponsoring the category.

Fifty-seven individuals and organizations were nominated by members of the community and their names placed on an Internet ballot for voting. More than 24,000 votes were cast through the Internet, as well as ballots clipped from the newspaper. Individual votes also came in via email.
Wong-Staal's address provided a comprehensive and captivating look at the world of viruses and retroviruses, whose role as a trigger of human diseases, including cancers and AIDS, was relatively unknown two decades ago. One of the world's foremost authorities in the field of virology, Wong-Staal, along with colleagues at the National Cancer Institute outside Washington, D.C., were the first to clone, or make a copy of, the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes AIDS.
"We not only cloned the virus but also discovered a lot of unusual tricks," she told the audience. "The virus can live in many forms, and like the monkey king of Chinese legend, it can undergo transformation to avoid its enemy."
As a result of her research, infected people, who in the past would have faced death, can live "for many years" by combining various drugs. The most pressing problem today, she added, is getting those drugs to developing countries, where the spread of AIDS is relentless.
The awards portion of the ceremony concluded with Inoue being recognized for his decades-long work building cultural and business bridges among Japanese and Japanese Americans in San Diego, and the cities of San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. Ron Roberts, chair of the San Diego County Commission, pinned the gold Asian Heritage Award pin on his lapel while, afterwards, Manny Doria, representing U.S. Rep Bob Filner, awarded Inoue with a congressional commendation.

When Inoue was named honorary consul general last year, he told the audience, community leader Tom Fat had come to congratulate him wearing the Asian Heritage award pin he had received as a Special Recognition honoree in 2005. Fat died five days earlier on Thursday, May 17.
"While my official capacity only represents Japan, this Asian Heritage pin enables me to speak on behalf of all of you…I shall wear this Asian Heritage pin proudly – as Mr. Tom Fat did – and shall try to follow in Tom's footsteps to work with you, to build our common future for the sake of our children, our grandchildren, and all future generations."
In addition to Prudential, sponsors included the Chinese Service Center of San Diego, Cox Communications, the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), Ledford Enterprises, Kyocera International, California Center for the Arts, Neighborhood National Bank, Epsilon Systems Solutions, Simon Wong Engineering, Phamatech Inc., Hi-Tech Electronic Manufacturing Inc., and Burkett & Wong Engineers.
The event for the first time included the category of Youth Leadership, chosen by a panel from Asia Media Inc., publishers of ASIA. The winner, Lucy Yu, also received a $1,000 scholarship from Phamatech, sponsor of the category. Rosalynn Carmen and Leonard Novarro, owners of Asia Media Inc., also awarded a $500 scholarship to high school student Tracy Han.
For work on behalf of the Asian Pacific Islander community, ASIA, The Journal of Culture & Commerce, received a special commendation from San Diego Councilman Brian Maienschein.