Viewing entries tagged
Asian American
Jeremy Lin chatting with Wataru Misaka, the first Asian American NBA player. As I wrote back in 2009:
Three years before African Americans were allowed into the league and the same year Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, Japanese American Watura Misaka was drafted in the first round by the New York Knicks. He later served in the US Army stationed in Hiroshima three months after the atomic bomb devastated that city.
During the inauguration coverage, you may have noticed an Asian guy sitting with the Obama family and thus frequently displayed. Who is he? He is the First Brother-in-Law! Konrad Ng is married to Barack Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng. Check out the diversity of Obama's immediate and extended family in this New York Times graphic.
[Via]
The US won the 2008 Ryder Cup, a golf match between European and American teams, for the first time in 9 years thanks in large part to its rookies, particularly Korean American golfer and LA native Anthony Kim who got the tournament off on the right foot for Americans by unnerving and beating Sergio Garcia.
Indeed, it was Kim who dominated perhaps the most feared European player, defeating García, 5 and 4. García was clearly demoralized and out of the match early, and with players from the other teams watching on television as they waited to tee off, García’s slumped shoulders and desperate scowls served to bolster the Americans.
Kim declined to concede a couple of short García putts in the opening holes, which seemed to irk García, who then hit consecutive shots in the water fronting the seventh hole. On the 11th green, he missed a crucial 2-foot putt as Kim watched nearby.
Read more here.
[Via]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOOQ2GwxlBM] My friend Jason Chew (who directed my short previously) is among one of three finalists in the 2008 Trailer Contest by DC APA Film Festival and sponsored by Scion. Although I'm biased I think it's really clever and damn good!
Check it out and vote for him, Jason Chew at the APA website now!
Way to go Chew!
#150. Saving Austrian Jews from occupying Germans during WWII. #151. Michael Chang:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KU2-jsRJRJE]
The Angry Asian Man brought my attention to a well written article that does a great job of outlining the unique problems and challenges faced by Asian American students today on all college campuses from the elites, such as Princeton to the state schools like most recently at University of Colorado where the pretense of "satire" has provided an oft convenient vehicle for attacking Asian American classmates with racial stereotypes, images, and symbols. While browsing through the reader comments for some of these essays, I found this to be the most frequent response from defenders: B-b-but First Amendment! I feel that when these people first learned about our constitution, they listened to only the first five minutes of the lecture and then left class or fell asleep. And afterwards, never ever took another history, political science or government class again.
Imagine for a minute if student leaders at elite college campuses devoted themselves to mocking black people or Jewish people or gay people. I’m not talking about drunk students posting pictures of their offensive parties on Facebook, but student newspaper editors – thought of as being both smart and progressive – giving space over for the sole purpose of making fun of people because of their background. It’s hard to imagine. And yet recently this phenomenon of racial caricatures as “satire” has emerged with Asian Americans as the object of the jokes.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSCbSNsDavY] This commercial for CareerBuilder.com is great. I love the deadpan acting by the actor. And to get on my soapbox once more, I just want to say how refreshing it is to see an Asian actor playing a non-stereotypical role. Although part of the appeal and humor in the ad for me is the very fact an Asian actor is playing a non-stereotypical or racist character.
Writers, directors, casting people and everyone involved in popular media,
Please use a little bit imagination and vision to open roles for Asians that are...normal. Please? It doesn't take much, it doesn't take much.
Warm regards,
Boy Meets Blog
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxLK2etT5fM] This is a clever twist that pokes at society's perception or expectations of Asians in this country. Although at the same time it depresses me that an Asian American speaking without an accent is a big "gotcha moment" for a TV show...as we're nearing the end of the first decade of the 21st century. What are the wacky TV writers gonna show America next? Asian American dudes droppin' science with the ladies?
This latest from the Angry Asian Man is yet another reminder why I just have no interest in visiting or living in former Confederate states. I had an interesting discussion with a friend last night about the particulars of NYC and why I consider it "home." For whatever problems this city has, I'm pretty confident to say that I don't think any bar in NYC would ever consider anything like this for a Chinese New Year promotion.
UPDATE Rosie's response to Beau's video comment below.
I just came across this clip of one of my favorite spoken word artists, Beau Sia who responds to a controversy that most people in this country already forgot about, but Beau's verbalizes a message that should be shown to a lot of people.
Check it out:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SWXZgytyQI]
So Notorious MSG is performing on Saturday, Feb. 17th at hipster haven Pianos and this rice eating blogger is stoked! I saw them perform with Nick (who nearly started a couple fights that night--good times, Nick! Haha) and Kaizar a while back at the now defunct CBGB. It was a pretty badass show.
Who is The Notorious MSG? The Grey Lady of the Times had a write up about them, unfortunately you have to be a snooty "Times Select" member to see it now, so I'm going to cut-and-paste from their website:
Blasting out of the streets of Chinatown, THE NOTORIOUS MSG have arrived with a vengeance. Serving up deep-fried beats straight from the Chinese ghetto, they will not stop until they achieve complete world domination.
This is the story of three renegade restaurant workers from the hardened streets of Chinatown, New York City. Pursuing their dreams of rap superstardom, Hong Kong Fever, Down-Lo Mein and The Hunan Bomb fled the harsh ghettos of Asia only to face more hardships as second-class citizens in America. They struggled to earn a living, toiling in the kitchens and risking their lives as Chinese restaurant delivery boys. Facing robberies and beatings on a daily basis, their fight for survival came to a head when an unknown assailant killed one of their original band members, Funky Buddha. This was the last straw; it was time to fight back.
Rising up with a fury, the trio were reborn and The Notorious MSG exploded onto the NYC music scene with a new calling. Once only fighting to defend themselves, they renewed their fight, this time for all their brothers and sisters in the Chinatown ghettos who would never get the chance to realize their dreams
Along with hard raps about Mott Street and sensitive ballads to a certain special Dim Sum Girl, they also bring it on stage where soy sauce is imbibed like a 40 and egg rolls are smoked like a blunt.
Anyway, as Tom Cruise said, "Who's coming with me?!" (Tickets are five bucks. Friends, let me know if you are interested.)
This is an amusing, but slightly bizarre music video with one of the members of Lonely Island (which brought you the Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia) and Kal Penn from Harold and Kumar along with a surprising what-the-fuck cameo by Brandon Routh aka Clark Kent aka Superman.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlxhD284RKM]
Asian Americans inevitably deal with racial stereotyping in the US. This commercial is clever, because it highlights the gross absurdity with which many ignorant and/or prejudiced whites in America perceive their Asian American neighbors. This distasteful situation is an obvious point to many of you reading this, but it's interesting to me to see it played out in a commercial. Other than the slight caricature of the (white) parentals portrayed in the commercial, the ad captures the sensibility and atmosphere of what it's like to be a minority youth in this country. Less so than our parents, and grandparents, and great-grandparent's generations, it's less of a taboo (of course, it's still forbidden in some families, etc) kids today to date someone of another "race" or ethnicity. Today, traditional lines of demarcation--religion, class, and race--aren't as rigid as they once were. So it's interesting to see an inter-racial white-Asian couple in this commercial.
The only problem I see is that some people aren't going to "get it" and only reaffirm their ignorance. Anyway, I would have loved to be a fly on the wall at the ad agency that created it.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwQkU7jLXRY]
