history

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.

First Asian American Serial Killer Movie Begins Fundraising Drive on New Crowd-Funding Site USA Projects
Los Angeles, CA. December 1, 2011 – The filmmakers responsible for independent hit, The People I've Slept With, are joining together again to make Chink, the first Asian American serial killer movie. It is the directorial debut of Stanley Yung, the film is written by Koji Steven Sakai and produced by Stanley, Koji, and Quentin Lee. The film stars Jason Tobin (Better Luck Tomorrow and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) and Eugenia Yuan (Memoirs of a Geisha and The Eye 2).
They are hoping to raise at least ten thousand dollars to cover production expenses on USA Projects, created by United States Artists to expand its mission of investing in America’s finest artists. They plan on beginning production in the spring of 2012.

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.

Find out what it means to be Asian Pacific American and about all the Asian cultures that exist in the world and in America. Scholastic's Asian Pacific American Heritage site is full of interviews, activities, and maps that explore the history, contributions, and culture of one group of Americans. Click below to get there.

(Source Via Scholastic)

The new U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke formally met with the press for the first time Sunday after arriving in Beijing the day before.

Locke was appointed by U.S. President Barack Obama in March after the previous ambassador Jon Huntsman resigned. The U.S. Senate confirmed the appointment on July 27.

"The United States and China have a profoundly important and complex diplomatic and economic bilateral relationship – one with challenges, no question, but one which also holds great promises for expanded cooperation and collaboration," Locke, surrounded by his wife and three children, told the press gathered in the courtyard in front of his new Beijing residence.

Locke is the first Chinese American to hold this post. Born into an immigrant family in 1950, Locke did not learn to speak English until the age of 5. In 1997, he became the first governor of a Continental U.S. state of Asian descent. After serving two terms as the governor of Washington, he joined Obama's cabinet as the Commerce Secretary.

Be sure to check this film out! the film Wedding Palace wins Best Feature & Best Cinematography at Cine Gear Expo! Written by Christine Yoon.

Starring Jean Yoon and Stephen Park, Charles Kim plays the "Professor Uncle"

Reviews by Scott Eriksson 

"Christine Yoo has written and directed a film that is masterful in the way it moves from comedy to romance by blending the two seamlessly. That's the good news...the bad news is that by virtue of the fact that it is a film with an Asian cast and a few subtitles thrown in, it will probably not receive the wide release and the sold out American audiences it deserves. Although it is a film about Korean culture and traditions of parents whose son is a Korean-American raised in a very different world than his immigrant parents, the comedy is ultimately about generational differences among family members, something everyone can understand. While every good film starts with a great script, without the right director and cast it can't succeed.

As Yao makes exits from the American Basketball association, most of us would have already seen some of the 

signs surrounding his injuries, though most of us would have hoped he would return to see him take the Rockets to the finals.
It was unfortunately that he had to end his career and move on to something else. Nonetheless, he has already made history.  

"The NBA can survive without Yao Ming, the Houston Rockets can survive without Yao Ming, but we cannot survive without Yao Ming," read a comment on a Chinese Twitter-like tribute page that received 1.5 million entries within hours."