8 Asians

I think it’s awesome how Asian characters have gotten so trendy in America. People will get tattoos and t-shirts with Asian characters, with nary an inkling of the character’s meaning.

In this photo, the character on this girl’s shirt is “chicken.” The character is also slang for “whore.” I’ll bet the ears of many an Asian American will perk up when they see her walking around.

Even better is this tattoo from a guy named “Chuck.” He tried to get his daughter’s initials in Chinese. Sadly, such was not the case. The characters on his arm translated to “stop woman flow.”

And sure, maybe he really doesn’t want his daughter to menstruate. Maybe this tattoo was totally intentional.

At least non-English speaking Asians don’t go out and get English tattoos or t-shirts without knowing the language. Thank goodness that never happens!

Boyz II Men, ABC, BBD…mmmmm hhhhmm… I loved Boyz II Men back in the early 90’s. I mean as soon as they sported the blue denim shirts and ties, I was all over it. “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye” was the inevitable theme song I listened to just before graduation. I’m dating myself, but I’ll be man enough to admit I was a fan of Boyz II Men. So when I found this article about Boyz II Men touring in Asia, I thought maybe they are definitely making a comeback, like New Edition, Expose, or Da’ Boyz. (If you know any or all of the above, you’re dating yourself too. And yes I know Da’ Boyz never went on tour again. I was just testing you.) My hopes of ‘east coast philly harmony’ fell flat as I continued to read on…
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That’s right, George Takei, everyones favorite gay Asian-American actor from the original Star Trek series has recently been cast on NBC’s X-Men clone original science fiction drama Heroes as the father of one of the characters. But before you dismiss this blog post as just another “meh, Asian person on TV” blog posts, what I found interesting about the fact that George Takei’s character will be speaking exclusively in Japanese.

“My agent called and asked whether I speak Japanese. And I said, ‘Yes, of course,”‘ he said. But the producers were unconvinced and faxed over a scene for Takei to play.
“I got the pages, and they were in English! And I said, ‘I thought they wanted me to do it in Japanese?’ And my agent said, ‘They want you to translate this.’ They want me to translate this as well as play it … “So I went and auditioned, and they were blown away.”

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So I just read this article in The New York Times, At Princeton, a Parody Raises Questions of [Asian-American] Bias, where essentially the article discuss the issue:

“While Asian-Americans account for 5 percent of the population in the United States, they account for greater numbers at prestigious institutions like Harvard (18 percent), Stanford (24 percent), and the University of California at Berkeley (46 percent). At Princeton, they accounted for 13 percent of undergraduates last year, and make up 14 percent of the current freshman class.” But some critics, like Mr. Li, the applicant who brought the complaint against Princeton, contend that many colleges, even those with substantial numbers of Asian-American students, deliberately hold down the number of Asian-Americans and that they should have a greater presence given their performance in high school and on standardized tests. Mr. Li, a freshman at Yale, had a perfect 2400 on the SATs, top grades at his high school in Livingston, N.J., numerous Advanced Placement courses, community service in Costa Rica, and high rankings in New Jersey’s math and physics leagues.”

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Did you hear that Rocky got sued? No, not “Yo, Adrienne!” Rocky. (He’s busy building hurtin’ bombs, I hear.) I mean Rocky Bru, the blog written by Ahirudin bin Attan, a Malaysian journalist.

On January 11th, a suit was filed against him by the New Straits Times Press (NSTP) and various high-ranking members of that Malaysian newspaper. Jeff Ooi, a Malaysian business consultant & blogger, also received a similar suit. Both bloggers are being sued for libel. The injunction requires them to remove specific blog postings that the NSTP feels are defamatory against the newspaper.

(Wonder if I’ll get sued for writing about this. Controversy is fun, isn’t it Ernie?)

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In light of the current brouhaha going on in Britain with many people crying for Channel 4 to draw blood from the racist ignormai and apathetic contestants of Celebrity Big Brother (UK), there was a beacon of a well thought out voice among the hurt and angry.

At its basic form, racism is a form of oppression based solely on a person’s ethnic background … something NO ONE can control or has a say in – and something most of us visible minorities have encountered at some point in our lives. For us Asians, in particular, while upwardly mobile and generally a hard working collective, it often is difficult to pick on the quirks of an individual when they evidently surpass the attacking party in so many ways. And hence we have the lowest, simpliest, and not particularly clever form of oppression – racism out of jealousy.
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Who is Ehren Watada? He is a twenty-eight year old Japanese-American army lieutenant on the brink of facing court martial and prison for refusing to fight in the Iraq war, calling it illegal.

He enlisted in the Army as an officer candidate and was stationed in Korea from late 2004 to early 2005, where his superior officers evaluated and described him as “Exemplary,” with “Unlimited Potential” and “Likes challenges and moves toward the fight.” In early 2005, Lt. Watada was re-assigned from Korea to Ft. Lewis, Washington. Knowing that he would be expected to lead his soldiers into Iraq, he undertook to learn all that he could about the war and what he and those he commanded would likely face. Lt. Watada read widely and researched how and why the Iraq War began and the evidence that was presented to convince the U.S. Congress to approve the war. After a year of study and reflection, Lt. Watada came to the courageous decision to refuse deployment to Iraq.

Watada carries out the legacy of the World War II “No-No Boys,” Japanese Americans who, while interned behind barbed wire, refused to sign a loyalty oath to the U.S.

He will go on trial this February 5th.

I was riveted to the story of the Kim family’s disappearance in the Oregon wilderness (James, Kati, and their two daughters) over Thanksgiving weekend. Slowly, the questions moved from “Where are they?” to “Where is James?” to “What happened?” to a simple statement, “Awful,” when the story of James Kim’s life came to an end.

The story stuck in many of our minds – a series of unfortunate events, and the most horrific of consequences. Getting lost with your family in the wilderness. Taking a wrong turn. Bad weather. No cellphone reception. The list goes on. The thought of waiting in one’s car with children for rescue is horrifying. The thought of realizing rescue would not come in time, even more horrifying. The thought of hiking through the snowy forest to save one’s family, and dying, not knowing your wife and children had been saved, is heartbreaking.

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