Asian American

You don’t need to see too much more, but for some reason, many of us will end up watching this. It’s like Jackass meets Asian Americans but not on purpose.

The first Chinese American in the NFL is Ed Wang and he’s now a Raider. He’s an offensive lineman at 6’5″ 321 pounds. He was a fifth round draft choice who was injured last season and hopefully will get some playing time. His parents are from China! (Yahoo – Ed Wang)

An amazing photo. The background of the guys on the roof says a lot. Here’s a thoughful essay by Elaine Woo about her own article two decades ago. If you lived in LA, you can sympathize and understand.

“Other non-Korean Asian Americans I spoke to back then felt the same confusion. Solidarity? Not when people who looked like us were getting shot or doing the shooting, we thought, with more than a little shame. “Asian American — who generated this term?” a Japanese American friend mused the other day. “We have nothing in common but appearance.”" (LA Times – Elaine Woo)

Yes, Yul Kwon is back. We received an email from him directly about this all and yes, he’s a cool guy. Kwon won Survivor by taking his shirt off and showing a side of Asian American males that are seldom seen. Yes, we can be dudes too – and no it’s not because of his shirt being off, but that did resonate everywhere. He did win a million dollars. He’s on a new show called America Revealed on PBS. There is an interview with him in the OC Register. (OCRegister – Yul Kwon)

Greetings from Chicago

Tim Hugh, one man bandleader of the Chicago Asian American Film Festival

This is Tim Hugh and his dog Helga in his kitchen in Chicago. Tim has run the only Asian American Indie Film Fest (i.e. no “imports”) for 12 of the 17 years that it’s been in existence. In this picture, he’s a one man bandleader- running it solo, something I can relate to as a solo musician. I’m in town to promote my film “Daylight Savings” which premiered at SXSW this year, and will be the opening night film this year. Joining me at the screening will be Michael Aki who plays my cousin in the film. I met Mike at this very festival in 2010 when he was showing his films Sunsets that he directed with Eric Nakamura, and his Film Noir tribute “Strangers”

I asked Tim a bunch of questions:

Goh: Why is this festival important?

Tim: It’s one of the only festivals that shows only Asian American films; produced, directed and/or about the Asian American experience. In the midwest more so than the coastal states, you’re constantly asked that stupid question “Where are you from?”… so it’s important to help define what being Asian and American is.

I’m a fourth generation Chinese American. In the midwest, it’s usually under the assumption that you’re just “Asian”… and not “Asian American.” When I see Causasian people I don’t ask them “are you from Poland? are you European?” I just see them for who they are, not what they look like.

Goh: How did you get involved in the festival?

Tim: I was just a fan of the band Seam, and Sooyoung Park, Ben Kim and Billy Shin started the festival in 1995 after they released the Ear of the Dragon CD, which was the first Asian American Rock Compliation. I’d always go and watch everything I could. I’d never seen films like this before; Asian American characters that spoke like me; the actors weren’t forced to speak with a bad accent. I could relate to these images and characters that I was seeing at this festival.

I became obsessed and would watch everything I could, whether it be a feature, documentary, or shorts program. I just wanted to see as much as I could, because I knew I’d never get a chance to see these movies again. Plus, being able to meet the directors and hear them speak about their films was one of the coolest things for me. I remember hanging out with Justin Lin, back when he was just a shorts director.

They noticed me being there year after year, and began to recognize me. Eventually, they would ask me to do little things like hand out program booklets, take tickets, watch the table, and take pictures during the Q&A’s. Basically, I became a volunteer. I remember standing there back in the day giving out Giant Robot magazines!

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Update on school shooting.

According to ibitimes:

3. The school is geared toward Korean Americans: Though Oikos is an equal-opportunity institution of higher learning, students there are predominantly of Korean descent. The Korean American community has a strong vein of Christianity running through it, and Oikos is one of the proud outgrowths of the large Korean American Christian base in the Bay Area.

Yes it’s about to start on Thursday. Congrats on getting to 30! This is still the premier Asian American anything in the country. It’s a film festival, but it’s more than that. The films are what it’s based around, but it ends up being a huge social gathering with numerous events of all sorts. Here’s the program.

A short interview with the writer Jamilah King from Colorlines who talks about the leagues.

From the UK. The head line of the article from the Guardian UK says a lot. It’s a rare mention of “Asian American” in this UK paper.

“Jeremy Lin row reveals deep-seated racism against Asian Americans

The racist language directed at the NBA Asian American basketball player has been quite something to behold”

(Guardian UK – Jeremy Lin)

This is hilarious and sad that it’ll actually help people. Surely there’s meetings set up at some newsrooms.

Here are the guidelines:

THE FACTS

1. Jeremy Lin is Asian American, not Asian (more specifically, Taiwanese American). It’s an important distinction and one that should be considered before any references to former NBA players such as Yao Ming and Wang Zhizhi, who were Chinese. Lin’s experiences were fundamentally different than people who immigrated to play in the NBA. Lin progressed through the ranks of American basketball from high school to college to the NBA, and to characterize him as a foreigner is both inaccurate and insulting.

2. Lin’s path to Madison Square Garden: More than 300 division schools passed on him. Harvard University has had only three other graduates go on to the NBA, the most recent one being in the 1950s. No NBA team wanted Lin in the draft after he graduated from Harvard.

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It’s now listed as half. Is that too low? If it weren’t for Hawaii who must count for such study, the number would be even higher. From ABC: “According to a UCLA study, 54 percent of Asian-American students report being the victims of bullies. That’s compared to 31.3 percent of whites, 38.4 percent of blacks and 34.3 percent of Hispanic students.” The disparity doesn’t seem large but why do Asian Americans lead and who is doing the bullying? Does it come from all angles? Does it include other Asian Americans? (ABC – Bullies)

Of course there is and always has been. At this point, everyone knows being Asian is how you can’t get into colleges. Ivy leagues? Same problem. It’s hard to get in period. Yet, Asian Americans seem to test the highest according to some stats and still face rejection. 16% of the Harvard undergrad students are Asian American, which is a far cry from the numbers at UCLA etc, which suggests there’s discrimination. If it were a true level playing field, would Harvard and the many other universities be just like UCI’s 60% Asian American student population? Is that the best way to have school populations? Read more. (Washington Post – Discrimination)

Fred Korematsu Day Explained. It’s the second time it’s been celebrated. Yes, it’ll grow. Jan 30th.

They asked the question, Who’s the Best Asian American Athlete? Of course the in studio team at TMZ didn’t know and went straight to the Asian players. Yao Ming? Ichiro Suzuki? Manny Pacquiao? Kristi Yamaguchi? They didn’t acknowledge until later that Pacman wasn’t American. They didn’t mention it at all with Yao Ming or Ichiro Suzuki. Tiger Woods got the nay because he’s half. So who is it? The funniest thing is they asked Hapa Anton Apolo Ohno, and by their standards, he doesn’t qualify. By the TMZ standards the person needs to be active as well. So who is it?

Are you her match? Are you Asian with bone marrow? Yes you are. See Janet Liang’s site. She’s 23 and could use your help. She has two months to live and needs a match. Yes, it’s a shot in the dark, but worth the shot. (HelpingJanet.com)

Register below:

http://marrow.org/Join/Join_Now/Join_Now.aspx
http://www.asianmarrow.org/index.php/list-of-drives
http://www.aadp.org/drive/

He was beaten, bloodied, but still standing. David Choe made a tribute to the kid with the red backpack.

Yes, it had to happen just to quell the firestorm of viral video commenters. Who knows if it’s retaliation and the big kid is the actual bully. Who knows and who cares, but the video that caught everyone’s attention is the one that’ll be attended to, that’s how it works. That’s Rahm Emanuel making a statement. It got that viral. (Huffington Post – Beatdown)

People were curious as to who the person behind the 40 year old Asian American woman / IMDB name and age revealing debacle is. It’s Junie Hoang. (Huong Hoang). She had to reveal herself in the lawsuit and does so with some disappointments. She’s played minor roles, resides in Texas of all places and is seeking 1 million dollars. The lawsuit isn’t frivolous but is it really harming her career? Is she really battling against the 20 year old hotties in Hollywood? She’s entitled to something and they’re clearly shooting for the stars. She’s telling a joke at bottom.

Jeremy Lin gets a write up in the NY Times. It has nothing to do with playing time, since he hasn’t had any that really counts. Yet, there’s a lot of hopes riding on him making it on a team, even if it’s being the last guy on the bench. He might have problems if or when Baron Davis comes back, but for now, he has a spot. For the “Asians in us,” we need to know how much money is he making. $788,000. Guaranteed if he makes it through past Feb 10th. (NY Times – Jeremy Lin)

Asians and Blacks have lowest drug and alcohol abuse rates. Mix it with Asia, we’d bet Asians are at the top. For now, chalk it up to being late bloomers or just the best liars. (NY Daily News – alcohol)