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In today’s New York Times (yes, I love The New York Times…), there is an article on Justin Lin (of “Better Luck Tomorrow” fame) profiling what Lin is doing these days - which is getting ready to promote his “new” film that will be released in October (the film premiered at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival earlier this year), in the article, “A Recipe for Success“:
“With a movie that grossed $158 million under his belt [The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift], Mr. Lin is using the windfall to take an 18-month break from the Hollywood swirl, mainly to work on his quirky low-budget film “Finishing the Game,” which was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in January and is opening in New York on Friday. Made for $500,000 (as much as “Tokyo Drift” could cost before lunch on a single day, Mr. Lin pointed out), “Finishing the Game” is a retro-mockumentary that chronicles the search to find Bruce Lee’s body double after the superstar died in the middle of shooting a film…The Tuesday-night dinner was part of a nine-month cross-country tour by Mr. Lin and two stars of “Finishing the Game” — Roger Fan (a Brown University graduate who switched from finance to acting) and Sung Kang (who has a stand-up comedian’s wit and a gangster’s demeanor). The three have put their mainstream careers on hiatus to discuss Asian-Americans and film with anyone who will join them.”
I have not seen “Finishing the Game” yet. Mark your calendar - the film opens in New York this coming Friday, October 5th and opens in San Francisco on Friday, October 19th.
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As most of you already know, if not from my profile, I am a Taiwanese-American, and hope that Taiwan gets the international recognition that it deserves. In the New York Times article, “Taiwan Plans Missiles Able to Hit China,” the newspaper reports:
“Faced with a threatening military buildup by China, an increasingly outgunned Taiwan is quietly pushing ahead with plans to develop missiles that could strike the mainland, defense and security experts say. Taiwan successfully tested its first cruise missile with that kind of range this year, one
that could send a nearly 900-pound warhead more than 600 miles, to targets as distant as Shanghai, military analysts said. Some Taiwanese military specialists have argued for decades that Taiwan should develop offensive weapons, including missiles, as a deterrent to the mainland, which has threatened to attack the self-governing island if it moves toward formal independence. The Pentagon estimates that China has deployed 900 missiles across from Taiwan. Senior military officials and lawmakers in the governing Democratic Progressive Party of President Chen Shui-bian have confirmed that the cruise missiles were under development. They said these missiles were essential to Taiwan’s defense because of China’s soaring spending on weapons.”
Not that I want war or anything, but Taiwan needs a military deterrent to assure that China will not invade Taiwan, something that China has repeatedly stated every single time the issue of Taiwan “independence” is brought up. Plus, it’s only fair that Taiwan has missiles aimed at China if China has 900 aimed at Taiwan! China will hopefully think twice before attacking Taiwan!
2 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Observations, Politics
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just read this NYT article, “the new affirmative action,” written by David Leonhardt, about how UCLA is dealing with fallout of prop 209. for context, it starts out with describing the situation UCLA found itself in after prop 209 passed:
The changes on U.C.L.A.’s campus were hard to miss. In 1997, the freshman class included 221 black students; last fall it had only 100. In the region with easily the largest black population west of the Mississippi River, the top public university had a freshman class in which barely 1 in 50 students was black.
and goes on to pursue a very interesting discussion & exploration of how UCLA (and other schools, potentially, if bans on affirmative action persist) is getting around fucked up laws. also nice to see such an in-depth story when it sometimes feels like people are sick of hearing about affirmative action or think we’ve somehow moved beyond the need for affirmative action. country still needs it, but now it seems we’ve got to rely on outsourcing to non-government entities to enact some equal opportunity goodness.
3 Comments | Posted in: Discrimination
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In one of the blogs I follow, Real Pop, had a YouTube link to a video of this Japanese video game:
This video game is just too funny. Take a look for yourself and let me know what you think! The way the girls giggle while shooting just cracks me up.
3 Comments | Posted in: Observations, Technology, Video Games
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Today’s San Francisco Chronicle reports that “[San Francisco] Supervisor Ed Jew Suspended from office.” If you have not been following this story, no, Ed Jew is not Jewish - he is a Chinese-American, the only Asian-American city supervisor where a third of the city residents are ethnic Chinese. As I may have written earlier, but is recapped in this story:
“Jew is facing several legal problems, including a federal accusation of mail fraud for allegedly shaking down tapioca-drink business owners who were having permit problems. He also faces criminal charges filed by San Francisco prosecutors of lying about his residency when he ran for supervisor. Authorities believe Jew actually lived in Burlingame and did not move to establish residency in District 4 until the media raised questions about his true home earlier this year.”
Mayor Gavin Newson suspended Jew and began proceedings to remove him from office and named another Asian-American in his place, 29-year-old Carmen Chu, a deputy budget director for the city of San Francisco. I’ve often complained about the lack of Asian-American involvement in government/politics, and I guess one should take the good with the bad, but I’d rather read about Asian-American success stories rather than sketchy politicians like Ed Jew or political fundraisers like Norman Hsu. ABC 7 News has a story here on a “Profile Of New Supervisor Carmen Chu.“
No Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Politics
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I was watching The Tonight Show tonight and Jay Leno was doing some joke on Hooters opening branches in China. I did a quick Google search to see if this was true - and it is! According to the ABC News story “Globalization Gone Wild: Hooters Opens in China - China’s Olympic Preparations Include Western-Style Restaurants for Tourists“:
“And now, with the opening of its 435th branch in Beijing, Hooters is now being touted as a barometer for globalization…With the 2008 Summer Olympic Games just 11 months away, Beijing has set about sprucing itself up for the surge of sports fans, media and tourists — refurbishing its airport, updating security systems and launching foreigner-friendly restaurants…Although Hooters Beijing is the Alabama-based restaurant’s fourth branch in China, this opening is making waves. It was one thing when the first Hooters opened in the more cosmopolitan Shanghai in 2004, but in conservative Beijing, the “Hooters Makes You Happy” mentality feels a little more out of place.”
Well, I definitely agree that Shanghai is a lot more cosmopolitan and modern than Beijing, but I’m not sure Beijing (or China for that matter) needs a Hooters, but I’ll be sure the next time I’m in China (for investigative 8asians.com hard hitting journalism :-))
2 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Food & Drink, Observations
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It seems everyone is getting found on YouTube these days. Years ago it used to be email fwds and chain letters, but with the advent of Web 2.0 almost anyone can be a star. Although I’d have to say that Christine Gambito isn’t just anyone. She’s launched her own creative career via YouTube. She has been on YouTube for over a year and uses her site, happyslip.com, to showcase her creative talents as well as poke fun at typical Filipino stereotypes. Some of her sketches touch upon familiar cultural themes like the auntie who always compares her daughter to yours, the strict cultural rules of having a boyfriend, and the familiar nuances of parents raising second generation children in the United States. She’s a one woman show, cute, funny creative and intelligent.
4 Comments | Posted in: Entertainment
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Well, I caught Survivor when it premiered tonight on CBS. Survivor is in its 15th season now and this time around, taking place in China now. I was a fan of the show when it first came out in the summer of 2000, but lost interest after a few seasons. I started watching Survivor a little bit more last season when CBS had divided the teams into four different racial tribes and when Yul Kwon was getting close to winning the game.
There are two Asian-Americans on Survivor China - “Frosti” who is half Japanese/half Russian, currently a film student at
Columbia College in Chicago (he’s in his junior year - and apparently the youngest Survivor contestant ever) and Peih-Gee (pronounced “P.G.”, as in the movie rating), a Chinese-American born in Hong Kong, who works for her parents’ jewelry business. After Peih-Gee’s team lost the challenge, she was being portrayed as a little bossy as the team needed to finish up building their shelter and she was giving out orders. As the only Chinese-American on the show, it’ll be interesting to see how Peih-Gee is portrayed (on the CBS website, she claims to have scored 780/800 on her English SAT’s, but partied a lot at UCLA, got kicked out, attended junior college and got reinstated at UCLA, and graduated.)
So what’s my verdict?
No Comments | Posted in: Entertainment, Observations
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