politics

If you thought the Anti-China evil professor video's didn't anger enough people or Asian Americans, then the Republicans will repeat the same crime again, except this time using an Asian girl.

Amid spring-loaded babies and Ferris Bueller flash-backs, there was one Super Bowl ad that had few people laughing. While it ran only in Michigan, U.S. Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra’s campaign ad featuring an Asian woman speaking broken English is being criticized around the country today.

In the ad, Hoekstra, a former U.S. House Representative, dubs his Democratic Senate rival Debbie Stabenow “Debbie Spend It Now” for supporting policies that cause American jobs and investments to be outsourced to China.

Ed Lee’s inauguration Sunday morning marked a historic moment for San Francisco, which now has its first-ever elected Chinese American mayor. But unlike when he was first appointed a year ago by then-outgoing Mayor Gavin Newsom, yesterday’s ceremony saw an affable Lee downplaying his background in the Chinese community, instead emphasizing his role as an innovator for the city as a whole. 

Thousands gathered to witness the swearing-in, administered by former San Francisco Mayor and now United States Senator Dianne Feinstein. The ceremony began at 11a.m. after an hour of dance and musical performances. Introduced by former Mayor Willie Brown, Lee, the 43rd mayor of San Francisco, was joined by his wife, Anita, and two daughters, Brianna and Tania.

By David K. Yoo

More Asian Pacific Americans hold public office in the United States than at any other time in U.S. history, a sign of the community's growing engagement with the political process, according to a newly released political almanac published by UCLA's Asian American Studies Center.

The 14th edition of the National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac, first published in 1976, contains information on all 3,000 current elected and appointed officials. It also analyzes political trends and makes electoral projections of the nation's 17 million Asian Pacific Americans.

"The National Asian Pacific American Political Almanac is an invaluable guide to the historically large and diverse number of Asian American and Pacific Islander politicians and voters influencing the nation's political landscape," said David K. Yoo, director of the Asian American Studies Center and a professor of Asian American studies at UCLA.

Written by UCLA professor emeritus Don Nakanishi and Santa Clara University professor James Lai, two leading political scientists who specialize in Asian American politics, the almanac spotlights individuals who hold municipal, state and national office.

SAN FRANCISCO -- Jeff Adachi says he grew up hearing the stories of his Japanese-American family's internment during World War II.

"They lost everything. But they taught me not to be bitter, to get an education and to stand up for what's right," Adachi, San Francisco's public defender, writes on the website devoted to his campaign for the city's mayor.

He's one of six Asian-Americans candidates who are drawing on their life stories of immigration, discrimination and empowerment as they try to become the first Asian-American elected mayor in the city's history.

San Francisco already has an Asian-American mayor in Ed Lee, who was appointed in January. But the Nov. 8 election is being seen as an historic moment in a city that has the largest percentage of Asian-Americans in the continental United States and boasts the nation's oldest Chinatown.

While the candidates are from diverse Asian backgrounds and differ on policy, all agree that the community's time has come.

On July 29, 2011, Asia Pacific Arts online magazine is hosting “A Celebration of Asian American Soul” at the Far Bar Lounge in Little Tokyo -- featuring performances by special guest singer Judith Hill (from Michael Jackson’s This is It), and singer/songwriter Dawen. DJ O-Dub will be spinning sets around the musical acts.

The Asia Pacific Arts fundraiser is co-hosted by InVenture, a non-profit organization that supports women entrepreneurs in developing countries to help them lift their communities out of poverty.

This will be a celebration of the spirit of creation and entrepreneurship, from Asia to the United States.  By harnessing the soul of those whose music touches the hearts of their audiences -- Judith Hill with her sultry blues and Dawen with his awakening jams -- both organizations hope to inspire the community to empower themselves and support each other.

Asian American and Latino Voters Constituted a Powerful Immigrant Vote on Election Day

LOS ANGELES, CA – The most accurate California poll for the top statewide races, the USC College/Los Angeles Times Poll undertook a rare bilingual survey of Latino and Asian American voters, supported by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC) and the California Community Foundation. More than 800 interviews were conducted by bilingual interviewers with the option of Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Korean or Tagalog. This large and more representative sample of Latinos and Asian Americans provides an important look at the political leanings of these fast-growing voter demographics – and offers a glimpse at the future of politics in California.

There has been some recent discussion surrounding a racist piece of media that had recently surfaced on the Maclean's website about the increasing number of Asian students in their academic institutions (racist...ahem).

Not only has this article unnecessarily making an issue of race but also implying that Universities and colleges are "too Asian" for their liking, a very racist emitting but also at the same time hideous at a glance.

Although the original article has been edited the original version can be found here "Too Asian" (Thanks to Angry Asian Man's post).

So you might ask should Chinese Canadians be concerned? of course not, because we are not the ones complaining. Obviously all those who are enrolled in higher education is obviously there to study and nothing else.

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — On Nov. 7, 125 years ago, the residents of what would one day be Bellingham gathered in celebration.
They marched in a torchlight parade, listened to speakers that included the mayor, heard songs by the glee club, and watched a fireworks display.
The reason for their merriment was noted in the Nov. 6, 1885, edition of the Whatcom Reveille, which had invited residents to the Nov. 7 gathering.
“The Chinese are gone. We rejoice. Every person who rejoices in the exit of the Mongolian serfs and coolies is cordially invited,” read that edition of the weekly newspaper.
The Reveille’s publishers, with the help of civic leaders, had successfully launched in its pages a campaign to push all Chinese out of Whatcom County through a combination of threats, boycotts, vitriol, and insistence that the immigrants were taking jobs away from white residents in the midst of an economic downturn.

The Chinese were given until Nov. 1, 1885, to leave.

KoreAm -  "In the decade that I’ve been involved with the Asian American community, I’ve learned that there are many reasons people do this type of work. Usually, it’s inspired by an incredible urge to stimulate some sort of change. It supplies a sense of purpose, along with community and friends. Others accidentally fall into it, or do it very well. And some days, even for the most dedicated, it’s simply just a job."

"In this month’s cover story “Mad Man,” Phil and Jeff, arguably two of our community’s most influential cultural critics, have a conversation about the steady rise of what is now a crucial, frequently updated site on everything Asian American. In the interview, which details Phil’s path as a blogger and activist, I am reminded of all the marquee events that have helped define our wired pan-Asian generation: the budding of ethnic studies, the 90s apex for Asian American print, the spoken word and indie film spike, and of course, soon after, the return of the written word with the birth of the blog."

- Kai Ma, Editor-in-Chief KoreaAm

Schema Magazine presents a monthly series of web writing workshops and speakers, featuring some of the most pioneering, innovative and ethnic cool voices on the Internet. In the world of social networking and Web 2.0, having an online presence on the web is becoming more and more important. Social media gives us the tools to be a part of this growing conversation, but how do we define our voice on the web as a writer, a producer and as a blogger?

iWriteAboutMe.com showcases dynamic web personalities, social media gurus, bloggers and writers who will talk about how they transformed their personal stories and diverse identities into an online brand.

By Jeff Yang, Special to SF Gate
Thursday, February 25, 2010

The notion that Asians and Jews are two shoots from the same cultural rootstock is an old but evergreen meme.

You see it in fringe theories about the Lost Tribes of Israel -- there's an entire body of cryptoarchaeological canon that uses similarities between customs, language and naming convention to "prove" that the ancient vanished Jewish clans ended up in China, India or Japan. (Japan's 50,000-member Makuya sect, which has as its central dogma that the Japanese are descendants of a lost Jewish tribe, keep kosher, speak Hebrew and use the seven-armed menorah as their symbol.)

By Blogger Orvillelloyddouglas

Yu-Na Kim of South Korea earned her gold medal. Her free skate was excellent, flawless, and wonderful. Kim is the Olympic champion, and the judges got that result right. However, some critics on the Internet are suggesting that the judges are racists and they did not want an Asian female sweep of the Olympic medals in figure skating. I agree with this cogent assessment. Since Joannie Rochette is a white Canadian woman, the judges made sure a white female slipped into third place to prevent an Asian sweep.

Since the Asian American film burst onto the scene thirty something years ago, many of those filmmakers, such as, Christine Choy, Wayne Wang, Mira Nair, Ang Lee, Justin Lin and among others are now comfortably part of the American cinematic mainstream.

Each year, hundreds of filmmakers from around the Asian Diaspora submit their short films to Asian American film festivals. They have given us stories of immigration and assimilation, adversity and triumph, motivation and inspiration of all genres: narrative, documentary, experimental, animation, music video.

Common reoccurring themes include identity politics, alienated youth, hypersexualization, math nerds, over-achievers, stereotypes, suburban alienation, and kung-fu waiters. 
Been there? Done that?

Tell us YOUR Asian American story.

Goodbye Lou, we won't miss you at all! most of us are glad that you have taken the hint.

Many People do not like you polluting the airway with your blabbering racist rhetoric and fear mongering politics.

The world can only be a happier place.

After facing intense pressure for his anti-immigration rhetoric, Lou Dobbs announced his resignation last night to his viewers. He will be replaced by John King.

Wednesday’s program will be his last on CNN, even though his contract was not set to expire until the end of 2011.While his reasons were “some leaders in media, politics and business have been urging me to go beyond the role here at CNN and to engage in constructive problem solving as well as to contribute positively to the great understanding of the issues of our day”, the truth is that intense pressure from campaigns like Drop Dobbs and Basta Dobbs have had a tremendous impact, including the airing of a Drop the Hate ad on MSNBC.

The New York Times reports,

By Craig Takeuchi

It's been a while since there's been an Asian North American box-office hit. The Joy Luck Club, The Wedding Banquet, and Snow Falling on Cedars were all from the '90s. Indie successes like Better Luck Tomorrow and Eve and the Fire Horse (by Vancouver's Julia Kwan) have been few and far between over the past decade. Other filmmakers of Asian descent (Jessica Yu, In the Realms of the Unreal; Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre), have established themselves by tackling subjects unrelated to their heritage.

The most consistent local source for such works remains the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, which runs from November 5 to 8 at the Cinemark Tinseltown (88 West Pender Street). Unlike other local events that showcase films from Asia, VAFF emphasizes stories by and about Asian Canadians and Americans.

BOSTON - It's one of the great closing lines in movie history, "Come on, Jake. It's . . . Chinatown." Those words, spoken to Jack Nicholson in, of course, "Chinatown," suggest all too accurately the sheer otherness of the Chinese experience as seen by Hollywood.

That otherness has run the gamut. Patronizing, reductive depictions of China ("The Good Earth," say) have gone hand in hand with Chinese-American stereotypes (cooks and laundry operators mostly, with the occasional opium smoker, for variety's sake, and, more recently, kung fu masters). The most famous Chinese and Chinese-American characters have been shameless caricatures - Fu Manchu, for example, and Charlie Chan.