BOSTON — Perhaps you've heard of Heejun Han, the 22-year-old Korean American from Flushing, Queens, who also happens to be a semi-finalist on American Idol Season 11.
To many, he may seem an unlikely star. He's known for his likable personality, but also for shaking his arms before each performance to get the nerves out. Idol judge and Aerosmith leading man Steven Tyler said Han's song selection on Tuesday night — Robbie Williams' "Angel" — was a miss.
But when he opens his mouth to sing — that’s when US pop star Jennifer Lopez gets a little teary. His voice on Tuesday was "smooth as silk," J Lo said. His initial performance “really impressed and shocked” another judge, music producer Randy Jackson. Even Tyler said previously he thought Han “could be the next American Idol.”
Han isn’t the first Asian American to be on American Idol, but the overwhelming love and attention he’s getting on camera and off makes it seem that way.
Hey guys! Huggable Heather here with another article exposing racism – this time, on New York Knick’s beloved Asian American superstar, Jeremy Lin.
Now that we’re two+ weeks into the Linsanity story, we know that he’s able to deliver more than just a few baskets or assists – he’s made 295 points, 118 assists, revitalized the NBA and, according to Forbes magazine, has singlehandedly reinvigorated the economy. Jeremy Lin seems to be bigger than himself…and in all this tumult and hype, he still remains humble and remembers why he’s here: to play basketball.
New York, NY – Feb 07, 2012— Two of Hollywood’s top Asian Pacific American actors star in the follow-up film to the 2008 hit, “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” Chinese-Filipino American actress/singer Vanessa Hudgens (Disney’s “High School Musical” series) and Samoan American Dwayne Johnson (“Fast Five”) take center stage in this year’s anticipated family adventure film, JOURNEY 2: THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND. The 3D movie is a New Line Cinema presentation of a Contrafilm production and will be distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company. The film will be released in IMAX® theaters worldwide on February 10, 2012. For more information about the film, visit http://www.themysteriousisland.com.
White men hate women. All women, Black, Yellow, Brown, Red, White. White men aren’t interested in sex, they are addicted to power. Sex is a power trip for the white man. He needs the woman to be hurt, humiliated, broken. He feeds off female suffering. That is why white men have went so batshit insane over the modest gains of white feminism. That is why he used to have Jungle Fever for Sally Helms, but now finds Black women manly and unfeminine.
The one race of women, that white men supposedly promotes feminism for is Asian women. What does feminism mean for Asian women? Obeying and serving her white colonial masters. That is a feminism the white man can get behind.
Or can he?
Lets see how a white man reacts to a genuine Asian feminist, and to her scholarly work exploring WM/AF relationships, here are excerpts from a WM 1-star review-
“I anticipated reading this book with pleasure. It covers an interesting and important topic.
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.
Quentin Lee's "Today Has Been Weird"
World Premieres on Friday 11/4/2011 @ 9:15PM
At Vancouver Asian Film Festival and on Youtube worldwide!
Vanouver/Los Angeles - In May 2005, a young Xanga blogger Simon Sek Man Ng's final blog entry shocked the internet community and helped the New York police solve his own murder. As a fellow Xanga blogger and filmmaker at that time, Quentin Lee was simultaneously shocked, saddened and moved by his murder.
When offered to do a CAN$500 commissioned short for the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Quentin decided to adapt Simon's story into a short as an ironic love story to the collection of "Love Letters to Vancouver" celebrating the 15th anniversary of Vancouver Asian Film Festival, the oldest North American Asian festival in Canada, that screened Quentin Lee and Justin Lin's first feature Shopping for Fangs as their closing night feature in VAFF's very first edition in 1997.
Inspired by a true story, "Today Has Been Weird" chronicles an unexpected day of a vlogger. It's a mystery that portrays a truly mysterious true crime in memoriam of Sek Man Ng, a young Chinese immigrant teenager whose unexpected death has faded in our memory.
A Glimpse of our ANBM Source Press going backstage at the AAIFF festival, they got to meet some of the Festival seeing and short film directors. Enjoying the event and working experience the lively atmosphere.
A Special thanks to Amy Guo and Shuchun and another unamed contributor for the fantastic media coverage on the event. Also a special thanks to Juliana Wang, the marketing manager for AAIFF looked after our crew.
Movies Reviewed: Love Comes, 72 Hour Shootout, A Day Less Ordinary, The Lulu Sessions, Saigon Electric, Quattro Hong Kong, Cuny Shorts, Never Stop Believing, Love Doesn't Live Here Anymore, and the Wedding Palace.
The One to Watch Award was presented to director Namgyal Wangchuk Trichen Lhagyari for his short film MY COUNTRY IS TIBET. Eligible films screened in the FOR YOUTH BY YOUTH: AGE AIN’T NOTHING BUT A NUMBER shorts program, which featured films directed by young adults ages 15-21. Lhagyari, a seventeen-year-old Tibetan refugee and descendant of the first Tibetan Dharma King, is fueled by a sense of responsibility to his people to present his message through film.
The Audience Choice Award for Documentary Feature was presented to TALES OF THE WARIA, directed by Kathy Huang. This humorous and touching documentary explores a unique community of men in Indonesia who live openly as women. Known as warias, these individuals must balance their identity with intimacy, and their Islamic faith.
We're throwing a charity event with a cool concept: gourmet chefs cooking street foods from around the world. Three Michelin-starred chefs, Slanted Door's Charles Phan, and 18 more will be cooking live. To top it off, the event will be at the historic Ferry Building, right on the waterfront!
This is OneVietnam's first charity gala and I would love your help getting the word out. Here are some details:
- Street Eats: September 18th at 6PM in San Francisco, CA
- 22 chefs including Michelin-starred chefs of Ame, Terra, Aziza
- 16 wineries from Napa & Sonoma
- Bottomless plates & open bar
Message from Charles Phan
Executive Chef, The Slanted Door | OneVietnam Board Member and Gala Chef Chair
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.
Surviving the Independent films Landscape: A conversation with Mimi Taksue.
Museum of Chinese in America | August 14, 2011 | 5:00PM
Waiting for that call to get your dream project off the ground? Wondering how to continue to make film and maintain a sustainable lifestyle as an independent filmmaker? Emerging director Kimi Takesue is the recipient of numerous awards. Her commissioned works include WHERE ARE YOU TAKING ME? (Rotterdam International Film Festival) and THAT WHICH ONCE WAS (ITVS).
Kimi Takesue is the recipient of a 2005 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Filmmaking, as well as a 2005 New York Foundation for the Arts in Film. Her award-winning films E=NYC2, SUMMER OF THE SERPENT, HEAVEN'S CROSSROAD, ROSEWATER AND BOUND have been televised in the U.S. and screened at over 200 film festivals and museums.
Her ‘crime’ was different, having a relationship with and then marrying a Chinese man, but the result the same. Thrown in jail, stripped of citizenship and child, and forced abroad, Demerson offers a historical perspective on sexist laws that still deny Canadians their right to nationality. Another segment in the Vancouver Observer's Lost Canadian series shines light on a tragedy that has yet to be apologized for by the government.
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In 1939, Velma Demerson was 18 years old when she was arrested, convicted of being incorrigible, and locked up for ten months.
The dreadful “crime” for which Velma Demerson was imprisoned was to fall in love with a Chinese-Canadian, Harry Yip. The Chinese Exclusion Act was still in force, effectively keeping nearly all people from China from entering Canada, and stating quite boldly that it was government policy to put up a barrier to the intermingling of races.
Velma was a Caucasian and her relationship with an Asian was deeply frowned upon.
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.
It’s hard to imagine husband-and-wife Glenn and Fei Wong as the high-flying executive type. With longish hair and a gap-toothed grin, Glenn looks like the cool dude from a guitar band while Fei has bright, inquisitive eyes and a sweet-natured charm. But the two worked wicked jobs in the corporate world before quitting to travel the world for a year. While stationed in Toronto, they decided to backpack their way home to Hong Kong and what was originally planned as a short honeymoon-backpacking trip, turned into a homeward-bound journey over land.
Their bilingual blog of the journey, Diaries of a Vagabond Couple, was recently part of Lonely Planet’s e-book, Around the World With 40 Lonely Planet Bloggers, and documents their 308 days on the road, journeying over 136 cities.
It’s highly likely that you’ve heard of Jay Chou before—he’s the
Taiwanese singer-songwriter behind hits such as “Cute Girl (Ke Ai Nu
Ren),” “Simple Love (Jian Dan Ai),” and “Silence (An Jing).” If you
haven’t heard the original songs, you may have seen YouTube covers by
Mandarin and non-Mandarin speakers alike (our favorite: sisters Riney and Bam, who used Chou’s music to learn Chinese), or heard his catchy melodies while singing karaoke.
If you’re a fan (or if you grew up in Asia), you may have even caught
him on the big screen. He’s acted in movies such as “Initial D” and
“Curse of the Green Flower,” and even directed a movie called “Secret”
in 2007, with a sequel planned for next year.
But if you haven’t heard of Jay Chou before, get ready to get
introduced to him in January, with his first foray into Hollywood as
Kato in “The Green Hornet.”
Wikipedia describes the Russian word “pogrom” as a form of “violent riot, a mob attack, either approved or condoned by government or military authorities, directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other”. Education Week reports “The courage of Asian students to describe the harassment and violence they experienced at South Philadelphia High School led members of the Pennsylvania Human Rights Commission to act on their behalf, reports The Philadelphia Inquirer.”
He also launched his much anticipated Eco Chef App available for the PC Computer, MAC Computer, iPhone, iPod, iPad, iTouch through iTunes and App Store last year.
The multi-talented entrepreneur, actor and activist recently answered a few questions about his latest book:
Tell us about your latest book Eco Bryan Au Raw Star Recipes: Organic Meals, Snacks & Desserts in 10 Minutes:
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:
From our work at WTC, we have come to see racism and the internalization of racism as the primary assaults on our love for ourselves and each other. I understand love here as our ability to care for ourselves and each other spiritually, emotionally, physically and intellectually and to do it in a way that does not split us off from ourselves - body from mind, spirit from emotion, individual from community and so forth.
Like most progressive anti-racism trainers, we define racism as having to do with power. Separating it from the human flaws we all share such as prejudice and scapegoating, we see racism as a system of oppression based on race that in this country is perpetrated by white people against people of color.
It involves an unequal distribution of systemic power for people with white-skin privilege in four main areas:
1. the power to make and enforce decisions; 2. access to resources, broadly defined; 3. the ability to set and determine standards for what is considered appropriate behavior; and 4. the ability to define reality.
Last month was exciting in terms of entertainment news. Musicians made Asian American history, San Diego hosted its annual Asian Film Festival, Jon M. Chu’s career took off, Yao Ming returned to the basketball court, and Brenda Song received an award. Let’s get started! Making beautiful music — for the mainstream!
For the week of Oct. 30, members of Far East Movement became the first Asian Americans to hit the top of the Billboard charts. Even more exciting was the fact that the number two spot was held by singer-songwriter Bruno Mars, who is of Filipino and Puerto Rican descent. Far East Movement is made up of Kevin Nishimura “Kev Nish,” James Roh “Prohgress,” Jae Choung “J-Splif,” and Virman Coquia “DJ Virman.” In a New York Daily News story, Oliver Wang, an assistant professor of sociology at California State University-Long Beach, said, “Far East Movement and Bruno Mars didn’t come just out of nowhere. There’s been a slow push to make it happen through social media. It’s finally hit that tipping point.”
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, on a visit to Hong Kong and the neighboring city of Shenzhen, had some harsh criticism for his own fellow Americans: Stop blaming the Chinese for their problems.
As the debate rages over China’s trade and currencies policies, the 68-year-old Bloomberg, now in his third term as mayor of New York, was tough on China’s critics in the U.S. He spoke to reporters Saturday in Hong Kong after addressing a meeting of leaders from top cities around the world, dubbed the C40, focused on climate change and environment.
“I think in America, we’ve got to stop blaming the Chinese and blaming everybody else and take a look at ourselves,” he said.
A day earlier, Mr. Bloomberg visited several businesses (incluing a solar panel maker) in Shenzhen, a manufacturing hub that borders Hong Kong.
C.I.V Blog - The following is a letter of complaint we received over the weekend. It reminds us of how racism against the Chinese in North America (especially when at a time so many US politicians are playing the anti-China card in the mid-term election).
I am beginning to think that racism and racial hatred cannot be abolished. I used to think we could. I treat others well, I respect others, and living here in Vancouver, I was confident that here we tend to look past the colour of one’s skin.
Now, I am fighting against racism as I experienced it in Vegas. But fighting racism once you experience it so blatantly is more difficult since your sense of objectivism and your ability to identify what is right and wrong and your ability to move past bad experiences become very very limited.
On Sunday, Asian-American actors Daniel Dae Kim (”Hawaii Five-O”), C. S. Lee (”Dexter”), Harry Shum Jr. (”Glee”), Ellen Wong (”Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”), and Aaron Yoo (”Friday the 13th”) talked casting, graduate school and stereotypes at the Asian Americans in Hollywood panel at the San Diego Asian Film Festival.
In particular, each of the actors stressed that their current status as recognizable faces didn’t happen overnight. Lee and Kim both studied acting at graduate school (Lee at Yale and Kim at NYU; the former even asked latter for advice about where he should go), and Shum Jr explained that he first moved to Los Angeles in 2001 to act. After realizing he could “kinda dance,” he built up his skills and his dancing ultimately took over. (For “Glee” fans, he added: No, he doesn’t really sing as badly as Mike Chang does, and yes, there will a continuing storyline for his character this season).
Over the weekend, the San Diego Asian Film Festival invited actors like Lost alumnus Daniel Dae Kim, Glee's Harry Shum Jr., Ellen Wong (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World), and Aaron Yoo (Friday the 13th) to a panel entitled "Asian Americans in Hollywood" (we checked to see if the panel was also subtitled "Best-Looking Actors You Can Think Of," but results were inconclusive). While Kim had plenty of success to share with the audience, he said that even now, his race is still an issue on his current show, Hawaii Five-0; in fact, it's affecting who he gets to knock onscreen boots with.
Speakeasy columnist Michelle Kung was on the scene:
Film Review by Gary Huang - On the surface, Lt. Watada, is a straightforward film about one man’s efforts in opposing deployment to Iraq on the grounds that the war is unconstitutional. The director, Freida Lee Mock, takes us on a journey from when Lt. Watada was told by his battalion commander to gain as much knowledge about the military as he can, and Watada’s subsequent discovery from endless reading that the Iraq war is “illegal” and “based on lies.” Through the documentary, we see the David vs. Goliath battle of Lt. Watada against the US military system, and the difficulties both he and his family endure. What’s remarkable about the documentary is the way Lee Mock shows us just how difficult Watada’s fight was by taking us behind the scenes to personal interviews of the Lt., his family, and his many supporters.
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.)
Halfpipe gold medallist Xuetong Cai of China is flanked by compatriots Zhifeng Sun (left), silver, and Xu Cheng, bronze as they stand on the podium at the FIS snowboard world cup Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 in Stoneham Que. (CP) Source: CIV
We knew during the Beijing Olympics the media took every opportunity to mock the Chinese Athletes just about anything they could find.
When it comes to talking about Chinese athletes, it seems like every article must reemphasize the words 'government-funded', 'state owned', and rather acknowledging the concept of dedication, hard work and discipline as athletic qualities in the Chinese they prefer to call it 'cultural oppression' or even 'inhuman torture'.
The same rhetorical defamation recycles itself again and in the 2010 Vancouver Winter games the media has taken another stab at it.
Software sales executive Joe Wang and his wife Heidi have been married for 11 years. Heidi thinks the race "exemplifies empowerment" and she wants her kids to see that she is "not just a mum".
Joe Wang
Age: 42
Hometown: El Segundo, Calif.
Connection to your Teammate: Married
Current Occupation: Software Sales Executive
Favorite Hobbies: Coaching youth sports, poker and golf
Achievements: My biggest achievement is my family.
Lifelong to do List: Travel around the world.
If I could switch places with someone: My son Jameson who has unlimited potential.
Role Model/Hero: My parents. They immigrated here to USA to provide a better life for me.
What are you passionate about? Raising my kids to be the best they can be.
What would you do if you won the million dollars? Pay for my kids' college education.
People would be surprised to learn: I was born in Taiwan and speak fluent Mandarin Chinese
Harvard University is known for its top notch academics, but not exactly as the hotbed of hoops excellence. It has been more than 60 years since the nation's top-ranked academic institution has been invited to compete in the NCAA March Madness tournament. But that could change this year, thanks, in part, to star basketball player Jeremy Lin, who some say has a shot to going to the NBA. Host Michel Martin talks with Lin about his skills on the court and some of the racism he's faced as an Asian-American player.
As explained in section IV of Remember, the Asian-American Man and Woman are a couple under siege from mainstream America.
Those that choose to remain with each other are stamped as 'Asian and foreign', while on an unspoken but quite apparent level - only Asian women are afforded the opportunity to mingle and integrate into white social circles and white families.
The psychological pressure on the Asian woman to conform becomes immensely powerful, given the life-long indoctrination she is given by a mainstream American media that is completely devoid of images of Asian faces and depictions of viable Asian-American couples/families. This will gradually and inevitably destroy the kindred bond the Asian female shares with the Asian male from a young age, and the damage is thorough and complete.
In other words, the internalized racism that Asian-American children learn from the American Media destroys their ethnic self-esteem - and this in turn erodes the ability of the Asian-American boy and girl to love each other as adults.