From IIstix, this article brief from UC Davis stating that along with pressure, cultural assimilation and mental illness and the stigmas that come with it, family conflict is just as of a factor in suicide among Asian Americans:
The researchers found that among Asian Americans in the national survey, family conflict was a significant risk factor for suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts — independent of depression, low income or gender.
“This is the first nationally representative investigation of family conflict and suicidal behaviors among Asian Americans,” Sue said. “Our findings suggest that high family conflict has an independent and additive effect in predicting lifetime suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts among Asian Americans.”
As someone who’s grown up with years of intense family conflict, I guess the only thing I really have to say is: “Huh. That actually explains a lot.”
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Source: New York Times: A basketball tournament in Columbus Park drew spectators, but many recent Chinese immigrants discourage their children from playing sports.
If I grew up in China, I would have been cool. But I was born-and-raised in the United States, and being smart and studying hard is considered uncool (and has even been termed to be acting Asian). With the Olympics being in Beijing, there have been a plethora of articles and news stories on China. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier in the week an interesting story on “In China, Jocks Don’t Rule School; But the Smart Kids, They’re Cool,” which compares and contrasts how sports and athletics are valued both in China and in the U.S.:
“Like most Chinese high schools, No. 19 has no sports teams and no gymnasium…China’s elite young athletes may be winning a lot of medals at the Olympics. But in China, organized sports still aren’t really something for regular kids. Less than 3% of Chinese secondary-school students attend schools with sports teams. Children with exceptional athletic prowess or physical attributes are pulled out of ordinary schools early on and sent to the special academies that train the country’s sporting elite. That poses a big challenge for sporting-goods companies such as Nike Inc. and Adidas AG. Both are looking to China and its 1.3 billion people to drive sales growth and both have set out to transform Chinese youth sports… That is the opposite of the situation in many suburban U.S. communities, where children start playing organized sports such as soccer and tee ball at an early age. Many U.S. high schools face criticism for devoting too much attention and resources to sports programs and shortchanging academics or other extracurricular activities such as music and art.”
It is almost a right of passage in America for a boy or girl to play soccer, little league baseball or softball, let alone compete in team sports in high school. To be honest, I have to agree with the criticism that sports and athletics are over-emphasized in the U.S., much more so than academics I think in some regions (Texas and “Friday Night Lights” comes to mind or “Hoop Dreams“). I mean, take a look at college sports today – especially football and basketball – they are *industries*. (Being somewhat of a hypocrite – being an alum, I am a big Blue Devils basketball fan.)
Shopping With GASP!
Mike Honda isn’t the founder of Honda Motors or even an owner of a Honda dealership, but a Democratic Congressman for the 15th Congressional District of California, which includes the cities of Cupertino, Milpitas, Santa Clara, Campbell, Los Gatos, the west and some southern parts of San Jose, and Gilroy. But Congressman Honda is much more than that:
“With such a resume when the Democratic theme is dump the status quo, U.S. Rep. Mike Honda has the eye of many Democrats. He speaks at Barack Obama fundraisers, sits as an influential Democratic Party vice-chair and on Tuesday will speak to the Democratic convention. As of now he is just one of four California congress members who have speaking slot. The other three are two Southern California Latinos and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.”“If ever there was an election cycle that was ready for a Spanish-speaking, Japanese-American politician who likes singing karaoke and counts Silicon Valley among his key constituents, this is it. He has yet to write his Tuesday night speech, to be delivered before the much anticipated address by Hillary Clinton, but Honda, 67, gave a preview Tuesday, saying he will urge Americans to vote for hope.”
I had the honor of meeting Mike Honda back in April 2006 at the first ever AAPI Democratic Leadership Summit where Honda was instrumental in organizing, is a Vice Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and saw him most recently when Howard Dean was in town earlier this summer.
He’s a down-to-earth, avuncular-like politician who has deep roots in the Bay Area, and the Democratic leader who actively promotes Asian Americans across the country to run for office. In Congress, he chairs the Asian Pacific American caucus and often is the spokesman for Asian American and immigrant issues ranging from veteran benefits to civil rights.
If you are interested in chatting with Congressman Honda, he and The San Jose Mercury News Political Writer Mary Anne Ostrom will have a live chat from 12pm to 1pm PST this Thursday, August 21st.
I first started noticing a pretty noticeable increase of obviously straight Asian people entering the Castro, the most famous LGBT neighborhood in San Francisco, a couple of years ago as tour buses would drop tourists off, take pictures of all the gay people, then leave. Apparently, I haven’t been the only one to notice, as SFgate.com has reported that the increase in tourists is being seen as a nuisance in the Castro, primarily since they’re seen as gawking, and not adding to the Castro economy.
It’s funny to see how these tourists react when they see queer Asians, particularly queer Asian men. I think there’s a perception that being queer is still seen as a white thing, despite the increasingly politically and socially active queer rights movements that are occurring all over the Asian continent. I remember when the husband and I happened to run into friends of ours who are also a queer Asian male couple right in front of Castro & Market along with their newly adopted son. The look of utter shock and disbelief on the tourists’ faces was pretty amusing, and they were doing their best to be sly as they tried to take pictures of us. Of course, we deliberately hammed it up for the tourists, kissing in front of them and acting stereotypically gay in front of them.
It’s funny to see how all the white people are reacting to this, thinking that the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence could put a stop to it. If anything, it’s exactly what the tourists wanna see. Really, all you need to do is have a whole bunch of queer Asian boys who are fluent in Chinese to start coming on to all the guys who are of legal age — in front of their parents. That would put a stop to the tourists real quick.
The New York Times published a story last week where it discusses that:
“…THERE are some New York neighborhoods where the population is expected to be heavily Asian-American — say, in Chinatown, or in Flushing, Queens, or in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Those areas have long been defined by the first-generation immigrants from China and Korea who fill the busy streets lined with ethnic markets and restaurants. But developers and brokers recently have noticed that their children — mostly young professionals — are now at the heart of a subtle demographic shift in Long Island City and downtown Brooklyn, two rapidly changing neighborhoods on their way to gentrification. Asian-Americans account for 15 to 50 percent of the initial sales in some of the new condominiums under construction in those neighborhoods. The numbers are significant because Asians account for only 10 percent of the city’s population.”
I’m not all that surprised that, what I like to term, Young Asian American Professionals (YAAPies?) are looking to move into higher-end gentrified parts of New York City. Asian Americans as an ethnic demographic, especially those who were born-and-raised in New York City, have assimilated fairly well into mainstream society.
American-born Asian Americans apparently have chosen to move to the suburbs on Long Island or New Jersey (with good schools, ethnic restaurants, etc.)… But I guess there is an overall trend (which transcend race) back towards urban living.
I know in California, a lot has been written about Monterey Park in Southern Los Angeles or maybe Cupertino or San Francisco in Northern California, but New York City doesn’t have as great of a concentration of Asian Americans as does California. (As I have commented often, West Coast Asian Americans I think are a lot different than those who were born-and-raised on the East Coast).
As I had blogged on the Opening Ceremonies, I was a bit disappointed that NBC’s China analyst didn’t happen to be a Chinese American. But if you haven’t noticed, there have been Asian Americans reporting for Beijing for NBC, as well as others reporting about the Olympics.
First, and foremost, in the morning, there is anchorwoman Ann Curry, Japanese American, of NBC’s Today Show. I’ve seen her a few times in the morning when trying to catch up on Olympic news.
During the evening of the Opening Ceremonies, I was checking out www.NBCOlympics.com, and saw the video “Post Opening Ceremonies by Ted Chen” online, where Ted Chen briefly interviews his Chinese-American colleague about his thoughts on the ceremonies and summarizes his own thoughts on the Ceremonies.
I’ve also caught Eyee Hsu doing storiesfor NBC, such as “Beijing tips and tidbits” (video). After doing a quick Google search, I discovered that Eyee Hsu is very close friends with a friend of mine Christine, and helped her start ORIENTED.COM. Hsu also did a story on the popularity of basketball in China (I found an “OK” video on YouTube here (couldn’t find it on NBC Olympics.com … )
Earlier this past week, Al Roker interviews Jennifer 8. Lee in a piece titled, “‘Chinese’ food, the American way“- about Americanized Chinese food that isn’t really Chinese. If you haven’t forgotten, I blogged about Lee and her book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.
AND, I although not directly related to the Olympics, I just saw this morning, Juju Chang doing a story “The History of the Fortune Cookie” interviewing Jennifer 8. Lee about the fortune cookie.
Why is Asian Americans reporting on the 2008 Beijing Olympics important and why am I blogging about it? Well, I’ve blogged before about “Diversity in Entertainment: Why Is TV So White?” and “Gender And Ethnic Diversity in Prime-Time Cable News – don’t forget us Asian Americans!”
The Olympics is one of the largest events broadcasted worlwide on television. With the Olympics being held in Asia for only the third time (previously in Tokyo and Seoul), and with general low representation of Asian Americans on American television, I think there is only a natural affinity and knowledge of Asian history and culture that Asian American may have for reporting on the Olympics and China in Beijing. If not in Beijing, then where? At least that is my thinking… of course, we can only hope that Asian American journalists are more represented and covering all topics of the news.
So it was with pleasure to see on August 8th, 2008, Brian Williams talking with John Yang, NBC News correspondent on the evening of the Olympics reporting on “Territory battle escalates between Russia, Georgia,” and reporting from Beijing because he reports on the President and Washington, D.C. news and was in Beijing because George W. Bush was in China and traveling with him, along with the rest of the press corp.
Hopefully this is not an exhaustive list of Asian Americans reporting on or at the Olympics. Please let me know if I left anyone out and post some links to video. Thanks.
So thanks to Ernie and the RAAW blog, I was pointed to a blog post about a clueless white person poking fun at a street named Lapu Lapu in the South of Market (SoMa) district in San Francisco, not realizing that Lapu Lapu is seen as a Filipino anti-colonialist hero known for allegedly lopping off Magellan’s head — the first European to attempt to circumnavigate the world — and raising the ire of many Filipinos around the area.
However, there’s one small problem — unbeknown to most people, it’s not exactly known if Lapu Lapu was actually the guy who killed Magellan. The details of this are only known by a couple of accounts from Magellan’s crew, but who actually killed Magellan is lost to history. It is known that Lapu Lapu was known as being the first ruler from the islands known now as the Philippines to resist colonial rule, but since he was the one who led this drive, the killing of Magellan has been historically attributed to him, even if he wasn’t the one who actually wielded the machete.
Does this make the clueless white person any less of a douchebag? Not really. He could’ve been a little bit more aware of the history of SoMa, and how it is one of the major Filipino communities in San Francisco, even if it has been obliterated by gentrification and the Metreon. At the same time, those of us who do protest should be made aware of all the facts before we react to said douchebags. (And that concludes my API Public Service Announcement for the weekend.)
Is my favoritism for comedian Hasan Minhaj completely obvious? Have I mentioned that he’s my co-worker? Well, good; now that we’re being all transparent, I won’t have to feel any guilt about plugging Hasan for San Francisco’s Wild 94.9′s Comedy Jam. A vote for Hasan will send him on stage at the August 23 event with other comedians such as Russell Peters and MTV’s Bobby Lee.
John and I recently went to see his routine a couple of months ago in San Francisco, and he’s pretty on point. (Yes, I realize he drops the “F” bomb — the N word of gay people — in his routines and in the YouTube clip above. But it’s for the performance and he’s not a douchebag in real life, so I can look past that.) And to be fair, one of his other two competitors, Nico Santos, has a pretty hilarious (“Awkward ending,” anyone?) routine as well. I’d be happy if either of these two comedians won, really. But especially Hasan, since I see him every Monday through Friday.
Update: Hasan wins!
The non-partisan Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment (CAUSE) just launched its 30 second television commercial / public service announcement (PSA), “Embrace Your Power,” starring Kelly Hu and George Takei.
Upon first look, I’m not too sure what to think of the ad. I’m a bit disappointed that the ad portrays stereotypical images of an ancient Chinese woman asking her master, an old Chinese wise man for advice – considering that this is a PSA about voting in America, and shows Kelly Hu kicking some butt with her kung fu moves… I mean, for one thing, not all Asian Americans have “masters” and know kung fu… The background music is also a bit stereotypical of your typical kung fu movie…
What I do find cool is that Kelly Hu and George Takei are actively promoting Asian Americans to vote. Back in 2004, CAUSE did create a more “modern” PSA “The Least Likely,” targeting young Asian Americans stating the fact that Asian Americans between the ages of 18 to 25 are the least likely to vote of any demographic within the United States and encouraging that group to vote:
In taking another look at the 2004 PSA, I guess that PSA also uses “fantasy” imagery and special effects to draw the attention of Asian Americans, but it didn’t rub me a little negatively like the new PSA. Personally, I’d prefer having a PSA rooted more in reality and something a bit more serious – but I guess given the age demographic – I understand why CAUSE might have gone with that direction.
On a related note, Kelly Hu is a big time supporter of Barack Obama, and appears in this previously produced YouTube video, “Kelly Hu, Asian Americans for Barack Obama” from earlier in the campaign. It would be nice if there were more prominent Asian Americans actively promoting for candidates on both sides. Where is Asia America’s Oprah? Unfortunately, I don’t think she exists yet…
Last week on 8-8-08 (along with all the other celebrations to commemorate that date), the US Mint announced a set of 2 1/2-oz. gold coins targeting the “Asian American” community. I got a chance last week to go to the Mint’s office in San Francisco, which is usually closed to the public, for a press conference announcing this release. Curiously, I was the only blogger there, as everyone else was from other established media organizations. The strangest thing was going through security, and with the SF Mint making only coins, we had to give any and all coins to security before we were allowed to enter. While they did check us for contraband and other metallic weapons, it was very curious to notice the emphasis on coins, even though the coins they produce are primarily for collectors, and not for the general public.
Edward Moy, the first ever Asian American and Chinese American director of the Mint, was on hand to personally announce the release, providing a detailed history of why the Mint was specifically targeting Asian Americans. When he started speaking about how “Asian Americans love gold!”, my eyebrows were immediately raised, and then were raised even higher when he said that 8 was a lucky number for the “Asian American community.” Granted, 8 is a lucky number for certain Asian populations, like the Chinese and Vietnamese, other numbers like 9, most notably for Thais, are just as lucky. Given that Moy was a special adviser to Bush who recommended a number of people to sit on committees throughout his term (like for the National Endowment of the Arts, among others), I would have expected him to be a little bit more delicate in talking about the Asian American community. But I digress.
The decision to release the coins was in part due to a trial run of releasing a single 1-oz. gold coin to celebrate the Lunar New Year for the Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean communities a couple of years ago, and the overwhelming response led the US Mint to decide on releasing another set in time for 8-8-08. That trial run led to $20 million worth of sales for the US Mint, so this was a bigger trial run for the Asian community in general. The coins themselves are 2 1/2-oz. gold coins, an American Buffalo coin that features a buffalo (natch), and an American Liberty coin featuring a representation of Lady Liberty. I was curious why something more Asian-identified wasn’t used for the coins, but I figured it would’ve been too naive to ask. The set contains two coins since it was decided that it would be easier to convert two smaller 1/2-oz. coins into jewelry as opposed to one larger 1-oz. coin. The set goes for $1228.88.
The coins themselves are pretty impressive, with lots of amazing detail, and felt surprisingly heavy for a 1/2-oz. coin. We were encouraged to touch and examine the coins — unfortunately, we weren’t given samples. I guess being a journalist only takes you so far.
So when the first Hello Kitty vibrator um, shoulder massager came out about 10 years ago, I bought one as a gag gift for a friend of mine as a graduation present. She had no idea what it was because it looked like a really cute Hello Kitty toy. I then told her to turn it on. After giving me a WTF look, she did, and she turned 10 shades of bright red. Granted this was in front of my boyfriend, and her other closest lesbian friends, who naturally all wanted to know where I got it — and who all complained that the, um, vibrations were too weak to be really useful. Thankfully, she forgave me after realizing what it was, and we’re still good friends to this day.
Lo and behold, j-list.com has decided to bring back the Hello Kitty “shoulder massager”. as a set. Six of them. While I’m totally all for “shoulder massaging” and other ways of relieving stress, I can’t think of a single person who could go through six “shoulder massagers” in her (or his) lifetime. If you are one of those people, well… guess you don’t really need another person to keep yourself busy, do you? For them to massage your shoulders, of course.
The Daily Show does an excellent summary of the recent controversies, including many items we’ve blogged.
The Daily Show actually has a “correspondent” in Beijing during the Olympic Games; Rob Riggle, with a running series titled, “Chasing the Dragon.” On Tuesday, Riggle did a hilarious report on “Mysterious Beijing.”
Now it is this constant coverage on China during the Beijing Olympics that I think actually will have a positive effect on Americans getting to know more on China, even if it is only skims the surface. Hell, what percentage of America can even locate China on a map, let alone America?
I’m all for more coverage of China, the Chinese people and Chinese Americans on U.S. television – this will only help Americans to understand China and Chinese Americans. Tonight, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams did a nice profile piece on Chinese-American immigrant and table tennis Olympian Wang Chen. Even small news pieces like this help humanize and bring a face to Asian Americans. And with the 2008 Beijing Olympics setting television rating records for a non-U.S. based Olympics, I think this coverage on China has been great for China, the Chinese, Chinese Americans, Asian Americans and the American public watching the coverage.
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