For the K-drama lover and Sci-Fi fanatic in you, coming next year you’ll be able to see the American born, South Korean model turned actor Daniel Henney in X-Men Origins: Wolverine playing Agent Zero.
Now this isn’t just a gratuitous post about ‘yet another Asian in a mainstream film to look out for’ … well, not just that … but his public reason as to why he chose the role.
“Although I received many offers from Hollywood in the past, they were usually for stereotypical, hackneyed Oriental roles that Western audiences are used to. However, the advantage of being a native English speaker and having a westernized physique can be utilized to play a different, more original role not given to other Asian actors; therefore, breaking the barrier of the stereotypical oriental character. The character in “X-men Origins” fulfilled my expectations, which helped me decide to play a role in this film.”
Course, this is actually translated from a Korean newswire while the rest of the English-speaking world is reporting that the Lost Hobbit has also joined the cast to play Beak.
Really, who would you rather watch?
The answer, of course is Hugh Jackman. Daniel Henney just makes it THAT much worth my $12 Cdn.
Image Credit (ComicBookMovie.com)
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I meant to post this a couple of days ago, but now that I’m in our fine nation’s capital, I’m reinvigorated… albeit tardy.
66 years ago, on February 19, 1942, United States Executive Order 9066 was issued during World War II by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, using his authority as Commander-in-Chief to exercise war powers to send people of Japanese ancestry to internment camps. Although the order technically targeted those of “Foreign Enemy Ancestry” — which included Japanese, Italians, and Germans — Japanese Americans were by far the most impacted by EO 9066.
Every year, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program holds an “Annual Day of Remembrance” to mark the anniversary of the event and this year the program presents a staged reading of the critically acclaimed new play, Innocent When You Dream, by Ken Narasaki and directed by Alberto Isaac.
After 66 years, the number of the people who were old enough to remember these events as teenagers or adults are dwindling. I believe it’s important to remember these landmark events in our nation’s history (we must remember the good, the bad, and the ugly). It is vital to keep the memories of this chapter of our history via oral histories, literature and other types of documentation, as well as via the dramatic arts. If you’re in the DC area, try to catch this one-time event. I’ll be there to support… I hope you will be, too.
Innocent When You Dream
A play reading by Ken NarasakiSaturday, February 23, 2008 3:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Meyer Auditorium
Freer Gallery of Art
12th Street and Independence Avenue, SW
Metro: Smithsonian or L’Enfant Plaza
Shopping With GASP!
As the years pass, you would have imagined that racial tolerance would be progressing. Yet an incident that occurred at my alma mater, Washington State University, spoke of regression.
Why is this problematic? When I first read about this particular assault on Kyle Descher, I was actually shocked. In all the years I spent in Pullman, never was I even in a situation similar to this victim of a possible hate crime. In fact, the closest I have ever been to being victimized has been some name calling of which was easily shaken off. But perhaps times have truly changed for the worse.
The fact that Kyle was sucker punched while entering a local bar after some words that were exchanged, and that a Korean friend had a knife pulled on him the night before makes me truly wonder what goes on in people’s heads these days. What’s worse is that no one is willing to come forward to identify the assailants even though there were others in the bar. Even after friends and family have raises over five thousand dollars reward for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whomever was involved. That just blows my mind that no one “saw anything”.
His only crime apparently was being a “f***ing Asian.”
Even his uncle whom is the editor of The Daily Aberdeen, wrote a piece as a guest columnist in the Seattle Times on the tragedy of his nephew. Like his uncle, I’m saddened by the thought that ironically Kyle’s ill-fated night on a day where we recognized Dr. King whom wished for racial tolerance.
Perhaps a lesson to be learned is that there will always be “haters” out there. What a terrible thought, eh?
Photo Credit: (llimllib)
I’ll admit it – I haven’t been watching American Idol this year. I blame it on not having working cable, but from what I’ve been hearing the ratings have been going down the past couple of years anyway. Awkward first auditions? Pretty people singing “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough?” Been there, done that.
So the producers have made some changes to this year’s Idol: Less mean judging, and the addition of “ringers” – contestants that previously had recording contracts. And the addition of this year’s token Asian American contestant – Ramiele Malubay.
American Idol has never been good to Asian Americans: William Hung. That Filipino guy in the pimp suit. That guy who was the anti-William Hung, but got eliminated in the first round anyway. Sanjaya. But even though the women officially sing for the first time tonight, Ramiele has gotten early buzz – she’s the third most searched for contestant on Yahoo! and has been profiled heavily in the Philippines media. Whether Ramiele will be the next Jasmine Trias (who later produced platinum albums overseas) or the next Melinda Lira (who single-handedly wins for the most awkward Idol elimination, ever) remains to be seen.
Update: American Idol uber-blogger Rickey has MP3′s and videos of her first performance.
Last month, The Los Angeles Times reported that Walter and Shirley Wang donated $1 million to UCLA to establish the nation’s first endowed academic chair on U.S.-China relations and Chinese American studies in the article “Couple gives UCLA $1 million to further Chinese American studies“:
“The gift marks the latest effort by the Wangs, owners of one of the world’s largest plastic piping firms, to promote understanding of Chinese Americans and U.S.-China relations. In 2000, they donated $1.5 million to help finance the acclaimed PBS series “Becoming American: The Chinese Experience.” The couple’s interest in public perceptions and media portrayals of Chinese Americans is in part a product of Shirley Wang’s background: She is a 1990 UCLA graduate in communications, with an emphasis on business. But their concerns were fanned by a 2001 survey of American attitudes toward China and Chinese Americans commissioned by the Committee of 100, a group of prominent Chinese Americans. That poll reported 68% of Americans surveyed viewed China as a future threat and nearly half believed that Chinese Americans were probably more loyal to China. The survey also showed, however, majorities that viewed Chinese Americans as honest and as patriotic as other Americans, with strong family and educational values.”
The fact that the average American thinks that Chinese Americans have more loyalty to China than the United States reminds me of the fear that the United States government and people had about Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. Then again, I’ve heard that UCLA is an for “United Caucasians Lost amongst Asians”
The article also notes that the UCLA Asian American Studies Center has the largest Asian American studies program in the nation, “with 45 faculty members, two academic journals, extensive archives and endowed chairs for research on Japanese Americans and Korean Americans.” – that’s pretty impressive, especially when you compare it to Harvard’s meager offerings in Asian American studies.
This past weekend I had the pleasure of meeting David Liu, the founder of Good OS. You might have heard of them when they partnered with Everex to offer a sub $200 desktop called the gPC. The gPC runs on a stripped down Linux-based operating system customized to leverage online applications accessed through the web browser – genius. When I took a look at their interface, I instantly noticed icons for Facebook, Meebo, Gmail, YouTube, and Firefox, all of which are applications I use on a daily basis.
“I remember when I was really young, maybe 12 years old, reading an article where (Netscape founder) Marc Andreessen said he was part of a generation where 90% of their activity happened on the Web,”
I think what Marc said is very true and the shift towards cloud computing is happening as we speak. In an interview at Fsckin, David Liu talked about how he came up with the idea of the gOS:
“I got interested in Google applications, especially docs and spreadsheets, presentations; and originally, I wanted to create my idea of what a Google OS would look like.. if there were such a mythical OS. As I started looking around at all the Google applications out there, I realized that all of our “computing” could eventually be done in the Google cloud. We just needed an OS that looked really good and pointed people to Google in a really friendly, intelligent way. After seeing this, I got excited because I saw it was also commercially viable for the mainstream end user.”
Sure, you can’t play World of Warcraft, but hey, for the mainstream consumer who uses the computer to access web applications, the gOS looks like a great economical alternative. What do you guys think?
Last week, the U.S. State Department released the a 268-page document titled “Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume XVIII, China, 1973-1976” which covered Henry Kissinger’s (Richard Nixon’s national security adviser) meeting with Mao Zedong on Feb. 17, 1973 in Beijing. The news coverage upon the release of the document reported that “China’s Mao Offered to Send 10 Million Women to U.S. in 1973”
“…China’s former leader Mao Zedong proposed to give 10 million Chinese women to the U.S. to boost the U.S. population, increase trade and cause “disasters,” according to a document released by the U.S. Department of State…“The trade between our two countries at present is very pitiful,” Mao said. “You know China is a very poor country. We don’t have much. What we have in excess is women.” Kissinger responded jokingly by saying there were no quotas or tariffs for women. “So if you want them we can give a few of those to you, some tens of thousands,” Mao replied. Later in the conversation, he offered 10 million. “In our country we have too many women, and they have a way of doing things,” Mao said. “They give birth to children and our children are too many. Let them go to your place. They will create disasters. That way you can lessen our burdens.””
Later in the conversation, Mao apologized for his comments on Chinese women. Ironically, starting in the 90s, many Americans looking to adopt babies went to China. According to many news reports, up to 55,000 Chinese babies have been adopted by Americans, with over 95% of the babies being girls.
II stix, one of the first Asian American zines on the Internet, is back online after a four year hiatus, with a new redesign to boot. Also revived from Internet purgatory is one of the comics that editor Ki Han drew specifically for II stix, The Mochi. (Note: Ki also designed the 8Asians.com logo.)
I owe a lot to II stix; I had a regular column called These Voices back in 1999 which contain some of my earliest writing on the web and would contribute to starting a blog. I met fellow columnist Min Jung Kim there, where we were fellow columnists and became bloggers, road trip buddies, 8A writers and friends to this day.
II stix had a TON of content, hundreds of articles and columns. All of the content is archived, and I’m sure Ki will be putting up more new stuff as time goes on; it’ll be interesting to see how much of that content has stood the test of time, especially now that a lot of rabid readers have gone from being crazy college students to “responsible” adults, possible with wives and kids.
For a long time, it was hard for me. [Cue violin music] All the sunglasses I’d buy in the stores were so big and round. Not a good fit for my chinky eyes. But now Oakley has answered my prayers! [Cue happy jazzy music]
My dilemma with sunglasses is finally over! Thanks to these Asian Fit sunglasses from Oakley! (heh heh heh)
But in all seriousness… This is an interesting way to address a very real niche. There are very real physical differences between major ethnicities. Heck, just look at any cosmetics store and you’ll find entire lines dedicated to different ethnicities. It was only a matter of time before someone did the same with other physical differences.
Oakley describes this fit as one that will feel comfortable if “sunglasses tend to sit too low on your face or slide down your nose, touch at your temples or cheeks, or feel narrow at the sides of your head.” I’m guessing they got such information from market research and listening to their customers complain about fit issues.
And they’re not the only ones. Smith Phenom also has a pair of Asian Fit Goggles designed “for those flatter faces without a pronouced (sic) nose bridge.”
Even the military has similar products, such as Eye Safety System’s Asian-Fit Goggle Series, which was “made with molded face foam and a flatter lens curve and frame design.” They are now standard issue for the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
I’ll admit, when I first heard about these “Asian Fit” sunglasses, I raised an eyebrow. But upon deeper reflection, it sounds like a really cool idea. The reaction from the blogosphere seems to be the same as mine too. Josh @ hyku had a similar initial reaction: “At first glance the term ‘Asian Fit’ seemed a bit direct for me?” Larry @ The Nut Bar concluded: “So I guess Oakley has found a way to address an overlook niche. You can’t really argue against it since it helps out a large group of people and I’m sure it isn’t hurting their bottom line.” And Alex @ Lost in Colonisation actually purchased a pair: “I have to say it fits very well, much better than I expected.”
Have you ever tried Oakley’s Asian Fit sunglasses? How do they fit?
A anonymous 8Asians.com reader forwarded a link to The [Duke] Chronicle about this article, “Interracial duos find themselves in the minority:”
“In the giant melting pot that is America, racial lines are becoming blurred and even erased in some cases. Especially in college, students interact with people of different races and backgrounds on a daily basis. However, the idea of interracial dating is still foreign territory to many, and it has direct bearings on how mixed-race couples are viewed on campus … Sophomore M.R. wouldn’t necessarily agree. His initial attraction to ex-girlfriend, sophomore R.K., was because of her different ethnicity. Coming from Australia, M.R. had never dated an Asian before. “I’ve been accused of having yellow fever from my friends,” M.R. said. “It’s pretty degrading to say… I think I was a little drawn to her exoticness.”…Yet, Duke’s environment creates unspoken barriers that are hard to defy. From the overshadowing hook-up scene to the presence of self-segregation, the established campus culture does not help interracial dating.“
Having gone to Duke for graduate school, I thought I’d comment on this particular article. If you read the full article, it goes on to interview those in interracial relationships and what initially attracted them to their partner. M.R., whom I quote, did find his ex-Asian girlfriend “exotic,” [which I found odd, since there are plenty of Asians in Australia] yet others commented that race didn’t play a factor in their initial attraction. However, what I thought most interesting was the the article focused that the Duke campus culture did not foster interracial dating.
From past 8Asians postings, obviously, there have been some blog postings and plenty of reader comments on the topic of interracial dating, especially regarding Asian female-Caucasian male relations vs. Asian male-Caucasian female imbalance. Given a random sample of a multi-ethnic population, statistically – if love is racially blind – there will be interracial couples based solely on mutual attraction rather than any other sociological factors.
For those who may not know much about Duke – Duke is based in Durham, North Carolina – i.e. the South. Duke has about 12,000 students – approximately 6,000 undergraduates and 6,000 graduate students. The Duke undergraduate population (Fall 2006) consisted of 10% African-American, 17% Asian-American, 7% Hispanic/Latino and 54% Caucasian. I can’t say how integrated or segregated the Duke undergraduate population was with much authority since I was a graduate student there, but I can definitely sense from my time there, as well as from the article, that racial boundaries do exist.
Also, there have also been traditional ethnic and social-economic tensions also between Duke University and the city of Durham, which especially exploded in the infamous 2006 Duke lacrosse team rape case – Duke being a traditionally rich, white run institution and Durham’s residents poor & black.
In a very multi-ethnic and fairly integrated Californian society, I am sure interracial dating is far more common and accepted on Californian college campuses than at Duke. Whether you believe this is a good or bad thing is your own individual opinion. Again, with the premise of love being racially blind, it appears that there should be more interracial dating at Duke than what exists currently due to the current campus culture, and the South in general. Any of you readers of 8Asians go to Duke, are alums or currently live in the South and have any thoughts of the climate for interracial dating in the region?
From my friend Jason over twitter: Stuff White People Like, which is a blog about, uhm, stuff that white people like. Examples include recycling, Whole Foods, Arts Degrees and – bring on the flame wars – Asian girls. I’m assuming the blog is tongue-in-cheek done with a deadpan style. Oooh, deadpan humor; another thing white people like.
Which brings us to the next obvious question: What are stuff Asian people like that anyone else doesn’t? I posted the question on the 8Asians e-mail list, and these are some responses that people came up with:
Ben: BBQ chicken feet!
Efren: I’m sure we can all think of stuff… Durian is one example…
Andy: I hate to say it….but mothballs. Or maybe it’s just me, but I like the smell. =D
Brian: White people.
Efren: Speak for yourself!
As for me, I’ll humbly submit New Order’s “Bizarre Love Triangle” into the mix. If I had a nickel for every time that was played at a wedding or school dance in college, man. Also, doing karaoke in rooms the size of a shoe box and dancing in a circle. (Man, I should do some posts on these.)
Update: Is the author of Stuff White People Like an Asian male?
Update #2: Stuff Asian People Like.
(Flickr photo credit: genvessel)
If you have ever lived or visited Los Angeles, a nice relaxing stop is to visit the Hunting Library’s garden in San Marino. The Los Angeles Times (2/17/08) reports that the “Huntington Library’s new garden celebrates Chinese culture“:
“In the 12-acre site on the grounds of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, colorful carp glide through a shimmering lake. Chinese bamboo mingles with California live oaks. Hand-carved bridges, wooden pavilions and stone terraces feature China’s centuries-old techniques of master craftsmanship. In flowing calligraphy, the garden is given life with poetic couplets and lyrical names evoking moonlight, verdant mist and jade camellias….The garden’s $18.3-million first phase was powered by a landmark partnership between the Huntington and the region’s fast-growing and increasingly influential Chinese American community. The Huntington, long seen as a staid and largely Eurocentric institution, recognized that ethnic Chinese were rapidly changing the San Marino neighborhood — and the world — and sought the ethnic community’s help in bringing a 20-year garden vision to fruition, according to Suzy Moser, assistant vice president for advancement. “The garden is a way the Huntington can throw open its doors to an increasingly Chinese neighborhood and an increasingly Chinese world,” she said. To aid the project, the Chinese American community launched one of its broadest collective efforts to support a mainstream institution. Disregarding political and regional differences that have impeded community projects in the past, many Chinese Americans rallied to volunteer time, raise millions of dollars and use their all-important guanxi, or connections, to tap donors in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.”
I’ve visited the Huntington Library and the gardens a while ago when a good friend of mine lived fairly close by in Pasadena, California. The next time in Los Angeles, I will definitely have to check the new Chinese garden out.
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