gender

The latest Marion Barry controversy burned bright Thursday, but it’s now mostly burnt out.

In case you missed it: Barry (D-Ward 8) made comments late Tuesday at his primary night victory party suggesting that the Asian-American owners of businesses in his ward run “dirty shops” that “ought to go.” After the comments were reported late Wednesday, the rebuke was swift, and by Thursday evening, Barry had tendered an apology of sorts.

But the episode — which gave new voice to decades-old tensions between the residents of largely black inner city neighborhoods and the many Asian owners of the businesses that serve them — deserves a coda.

I’m happy to give some space here to Mark L. Keam, a Democrat who represents a portion of Fairfax County in the Virginia House of Delegates. He’s the first Korean-American and the first Asian-born immigrant elected to serve in that body, and he has valuable experience bridging the longstanding divide between Asian businesses and their black customers.

Contact: Britt Braaten
Multicultural History Society of Ontario
Phone: 416-979-2973
Email: mhso.mail@utoronto.ca
Website: www.mhso.ca/chinesecanadianwomen

New Educational Website Celebrates Chinese Canadian Women’s History  TORONTO

(Mar. 14, 2011) The Multicultural History Society of Ontario’s new educational  website Chinese Canadian Women, 1923-1967 launches on March 31, and features oral  history interviews with Chinese Canadian women from across Canada. The website presents  the experiences of Chinese Canadian women during a time of discriminatory immigration  restrictions. Visitors can explore exhibits and activities; teachers can download learning  resources; and researchers can examine over 1,000 items in an online database.

Louis Vuitton finally has given a nod to its most important demographic in Asia: Chinese men.

Last week, the French luxury brand unveiled a new advertising campaign featuring Godfrey Gao, a Taiwanese-Canadian actor and model — the first time the company has used an Asian man to showcase its products.

Mr. Gao, a Vancouver native, has appeared in a number of Taiwanese television dramas, including “Volleyball Lover” and “I Want to Become a Hard Persimmon.” His celebrity is prominent enough in Asia to attract Hong Kong paparazzi — in December they caught him canoodling with a local starlet, though one could argue it was because of the starlet that he got snapped.

A Recap on the past news about "Too Asian" in Maclean's publication that triggered off public anger over it's racist content targeting Asian Canadians in higher education.

CCNC Statement on Dialogue with Maclean’s
Monday November 22, 2010

The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) and Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter (CCNCTO) held a media briefing today to report back on the dialogue with Maclean’s magazine on their article entitled “Too Asian”?

Toronto, ON – The Chinese Canadian National Council (CCNC) and Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter (CCNCTO) held a media briefing today to report back on the dialogue with Maclean’s magazine on their article entitled “Too Asian”?

CCNC and CCNCTO and a number of community organizations met with Maclean’s on November 12th and again on November 17th for hour each time. Maclean’s had offered to publish a letter from CCNC in a future edition. CCNC and CCNCTO, after consulting with various community organizations responded with a 4 point proposal:

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.

OAKLAND, Calif.—Taiwan’s President Ma Ying-jeou might have some words of advice for this city's first Asian-American mayor-elect, Jean Quan.

When he was elected president in 2008, at a time of great economic hardship and political instability, Ying-jeou famously said, “One day of excitement is enough.”

Quan should remember those words, says Kai Ping Liu, the veteran reporter who covered her mayoral campaign for the World Journal. Quan was declared Oakland’s next mayor on Wednesday, after a week of nail-biting suspense in one of the city’s tightest electoral races in recent years.

For Quan, “there is not much time to take the victory lap,” says Vincent Pan, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action. “She has to hit the ground running.”

Oakland’s unemployment rate hit 17.3 percent in September, much higher than the state average of 12.4 percent. A series of robberies and assaults this year have heightened racial tensions and suspicions, especially between African Americans and Asian Americans.

The newfound lizard is a common food in southeastern Vietnam. You could call it the surprise du jour: A popular food on Vietnamese menus has turned out to be a lizard previously unknown to science, scientists say.

What's more, the newfound Leiolepis ngovantrii is no run-of-the-mill reptile—the all-female species reproduces via cloning, without the need for male lizards.

Single-gender lizards aren't that much of an oddity: About one percent of lizards can reproduce by parthenogenesis, meaning the females spontaneously ovulate and clone themselves to produce offspring with the same genetic blueprint.

(Related: "Virgin Birth Expected at Christmas—By Komodo Dragon.")

"The Vietnamese have been eating these for time on end," said herpetologist L. Lee Grismer of La Sierra University in Riverside, California, who helped identify the animal.

"In this part of the Mekong Delta [in southeastern Vietnam], restaurants have been serving this undescribed species, and we just stumbled across it."

(See "New Snub-Nosed Monkey Discovered, Eaten.")

Wild Lizard Chase

CSU Fullerton - Eleven students and their professor spent the past year engaged in a community project that has resulted in heightened awareness of sexual and reproductive health issues in the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in Orange County.

Through a $9,000 grant from the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Tu-Uyen N. Nguyen, assistant professor of Asian American studies, conducted a year-long service-learning course that produced surveys and delivered results in the form of health education campaigns.

“Prior to taking the class, I had little awareness of reproductive health issues that Asian American and Pacific Islander women face,” said Juliane Nguyen, a senior health science and Asian American studies major, who is continuing work on the project. “I didn’t know what to expect from this class at first, but I was very interested about learning how many factors affect health. I learned about reproductive justice and how women are still fighting to have sovereignty over their sexuality, gender and reproduction.”

By Professor Hyeouk Chris Hahm

Working with diverse immigrant populations who suffered from various mental health disorders in New York City, Professor Hyeouk Chris Hahm had a first-hand look at health disparities among Asian American communities. As a psychiatric social worker for 10 years, she saw a growing prevalence of young Asian American adults dealing with substance use and sexually transmitted disease (STDs). This led her to question the factors associated with risky health behavior patterns, as well as the protective factors of those behaviors including substance use and HIV/STDs risk behaviors among young Asian Americans.

 Are you currently unemployed? According to the new Canadian citizenship guidebook for prospective immigrants, over 8.6% of unemployed Canadians are not fulfilling the Canadian responsibility of having a job, which now comes with the rights of having a Canadian citizenship.

The new Canadian citizenship guidebook was unveiled last week, redefining what it means to be Canadian. After all, new Canadian immigrants are more likely to be unemployed, which must mean—according to the authors of the guidebook—that their economic difficulties are a result of their failure adopt Canadian values. In addition, the new guidebook tells prospective immigrants, “Canada’s openness and generosity do not extend to barbaric cultural practices that tolerate spousal abuse, “honour killings,” female genital mutilation, or other gender-based violence.”

China is moving to take back one of its own — even if it is legend. Mulan is the Middle Kingdom's gender-bending heroine, its Joan of Arc. The character from folktale is a daughter who disguises herself as a male soldier to take her father's place in the conscription army. The problem for the Chinese is that, since 1998, the definitive version of the story has been Disney's.

Indeed, because of the animated Disney film, the character Mulan has become one of the most recognizable symbols of Chinese culture worldwide. Baby girls adopted from China have been named Mulan by their American parents. Disney has staged musical versions of the movie Mulan from Mexico to the Philippines. And posing for a photo with Mulan is a must for hordes of tourists at Hong Kong Disneyland. (See China's long road to prosperity.)

 A judge today dismissed a discrimination lawsuit against Miley Cyrus that argued that Asians were harmed by a photo that showed the teen idol and her friends pulling back their eyelids.

The novel legal claim was filed by Lucie J. Kim in a class action suit against the singer earlier this year that sought $4,000 in damages for each Asian and Pacific Islander living in Los Angeles County. The suit argued that Cyrus, 16, violated a state law that prohibits businesses from discriminating against people based on race, gender, ethnicity and other traits.

The picture appeared on websites like gossipteen.com in February, and Cyrus repeatedly apologized. Cyrus’ attorney, Bryan M. Sullivan, referred all inquiries to Miley's spokesperson, who declined comment.