Last week, the Obama administration leaked that their choice for Secretary of Energy would be Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Chu, currently the director of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. Yesterday, Obama made it official, publicly announcing his nomination for Chu. Personally, I think this is fantastic – a second highly competent and qualified Asian American nominated by Obama – the first being General Eric Shinseki for Veteran Affairs.
When I emailed the news last week to a friend of mine who went to Stanford (where Chu used to be a professor) he responded, “This is AWESOME! I had a class with this guy back in college. Actually, I attended 2-3 sessions but didn’t understand a word that came out of the guy’s mouth (not because of his english, but because I didn’t understand the subject), I dropped it.” From all accounts, Chu is a brilliant and creative scientist. Hopefully, he is also politically savvy as he navigates the halls of Washington.
Chu’s nomination is kind of ironic, especially given the recent controversy of Asian Americans against Governor Bill Richardson serving on the Obama administration due to his controversial role in prosecuting Wen Ho Lee under the Clinton administration when he served as Secretary of Energy. I wonder how Chu would handle a Wen Ho Lee-like controversy as Secretary of Energy; certainly, he’d understand that just because someone is Chinese, doesn’t mean they are a spy for Communist China.
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Mark Lee over at Overthinking It hated Mister Miyagi’s accent in The Karate Kid and the phrase “Wax on, wax off” that got him teased growing up. Really hated it. So much so, that he re-dubbed the famous scene in the movie without the accent. (Compare the dubbed scene above with the original clip from the movie.)
… there was plenty of racism to go around when I grew up [in Birmingham, AL] in the 90’s, and I took my fare share of lumps for being one of the only Asian kids in my middle and high schools. Those lumps came in a variety of forms, including squinting eyebrows to make a “Chinese face,” accusations that my ancestors were kamikaze pilots, and, you guessed it: “Wax on, wax off.” Said in an exaggerated accent, of course. Perhaps in combination with the squinting eyebrows.
I won’t lie — there have been plenty of squinty-eye faces and “ching chong” stuff growing up that have gotten me plenty fucking angry growing up. Mister Miyagi, not so much; if a kid ever did the “Wax on, wax off” did, I would tell the kid politely that I was Chinese, not Japanese. (And then I would tell my grandmother over the weekend and she would go on a tiride of how horrible the Japanese were; but that’s another blog post entirely.) None the less, Mark’s recount of Mister Miyagi, growing up in the deep south and his feelings about Asian-American “otherness” is a must-read for people who are fascinated with how pop culture has effected their own racial identity.
And a footnote: A YouTube comment mentions Miyagi “doesn’t seem as wise” without the accent. Agree? Disagree?
(via Andy Baio)
Shopping With GASP!
Premiering this coming Thursday, December 18 at 10PM ET/PT on the National Geographic Channel is Secrets of the Kung Fu Temple.
Although the documentary is a good overview of the current state of Shaolin in 2008 its misguided title should be renamed ‘Shaolin Inc.’ – because that is what the centuries old tradition has become; a multi-million dollar corporation headed by Abbot Shi Yong Xin. Tourism, merchandising, world tours, Shaolin franchises in the US and Europe are all now a part of Shaolin Inc. with its vision to spread its knowledge globally. Not to say that it’s a bad thing, because the very forward thinking Head Abbot Shi is Spiritual Leader turned Brand Manager and CEO feels that the temple (company) should be moving with the times. Some call his choices radically innovative while others criticize his decision to enter the temple into the capitalist marketplace.
Now, had the documentary focused on the conflict between spirituality and capitalism, it would’ve made for a much more interesting production. Instead, the cameras focus on internal conflicts coming from two novice Shaolin hopefuls wanting to secure a spot on an exhibition team, the generation gap between the elder monks and the new generation, plus the preparation from a Belgian choreographer brought into mix traditional kung fu with modern dance moves for a performance in London that has yet to be approved by Head Abbot Shi. It’s interesting, but the result is disorganized, choppy and anti-climactic at best.
I gotta say I was waiting to be fascinated and enthralled, awed, and all those enlightening adjectives. But I guess with all the martial arts films in abundance – despite the feats of human ability that my cute physique will not be able to accomplish no matter how much Pilates I do – I’m quite desensitized. Secrets of the Kung Fu Temple reminds me of another (better) documentary co-produced by ITVS called Circus School about life amongst the trainers and their students of the Shanghai Circus School. National Geographic’s magazine documentary is kinda boring in comparison to the frank, Cinéma vérité style of ITVS.
Perhaps it’s also because it’s preaching to the choir; I grew up on martial-arts films, thanks to the Shaw Brothers and Gordon Liu, so I have a good idea of the deep level of spirituality that is fundamental to the monks training and tradition; secrets revealed, it is not. Nowhere found is this conflict between the capitalism and spirituality, as the documentary implies. I mean, who is criticizing Head Abbot Shi’s vision? Why? Have there been any dire consequences of his moving the temple into the 22nd century? What is life like for someone who has left the temple? Can you show and not tell?
Those interested in a refresher check it out Secrets of the Kung Fu Temple the National Geographic Channel this coming Thursday, December 18, 2008 at 10PM ET/PT.
There’s a part of me that’s too tough, wise, and jaded for a film about a Vietnamese kid who runs away and must find a way to survive in Ho Chi Minh City. But there’s also a part of me that will always be touched by children and loneliness and getting torn from those you love, or brought finally together.
The tagline of The Owl and the Sparrow is “Three strangers. Five days.” The first of the three strangers is Thuy (Pham Thi Han), a young orphan who’s put to work in her uncle’s bamboo blinds factory. Since she’s ten years old, she doesn’t measure bamboo segments very well. Uncle reams her out and she decides, like any sensible kid, to run away. Except instead of making it to the end of the block and turning back like a normal child, she makes it all the way to the city. There she meets strangers number two and three — Lan (Cat Ly), a beautiful flight attendant, and Hai (Le The Lu), a zookeeper.
In five days she goes through three jobs and three homes, and gets by with the help and good advice of other street urchins. More realistically, this would have happened over the course of weeks or months. These are the types of people to whom nothing ever happens, ever. They can pass days and years without a change. And the film has the meditative pace typical of indie films. At any rate, if you visit Vietnam after watching The Owl and the Sparrow, you’ll look a little more closely at the rose-sellers and card-sellers, and have a more enriched sense of the possible stories behind them.
The film, with its obvious plot points, could easily have felt trite. But anything well acted and well written is engaging. I think this extends to all of film production and art in general — created with sincerity, it will be felt with sincerity. The only exceptions in this film, both included to bring the action to some sort of climax: a National Geographic-esque montage of Vietnamese children looking at you with their dark soulful eyes, and a scene of people running into each others’ arms at the airport.
To end on a good note — because it is a good film — there are touches of Asian culture that make the film true to life: little gifts, animal lovers, asking people if they’re married like you say how are you (somehow I associate that with Asians, especially Southeast Asians). Agrarian values, tensions between business and humanity. Sailor moon outfits, sweatshop, factory. It’s so rare to see these elements in your average American television show or movie, which is why it’s important to see it if it happens to play near you:
Los Angeles – at Laemle Sunset 5 on January 16
Orange County (the director Stephane Gauger’s hometown)- at Westminster 10 on January 16
San Jose– at Camara 12 on January 23
Ever since CBS broadcast Survivor: Race War Survivor: Cook Islands, the series has been pretty good about casting diverse contestants. And for this season, Survivor: Gabon have themselves an token Asian contestant in the form of SephirothKen, or Ken Hoang, world champion Super Smash Brothers player.
An Asian who likes video games! I know, right?
Ken has been given a mixed edit this season; he’s clearly portrayed as an underdog both strategically and personally, when he admitted to the cameras a crush on the pretty girl that ultimately got voted off the first episode and then as cocky, after realizing that his voting strategies had been proven effective. But he’s still one of five remaining players to win Survivor: Gabon and not you, so there.
All is not looking good for him to win a million dollars, however: After being labeled “arrogant and entitled” at Reality Blurred for his cocky attitude and penchant for voting off people for personal rather than strategic reasons, a member of his main alliance was voted off last week and he’s now the outsider — all signs lead to him being a giant target coming into the final episode tomorrow night, and with Ken himself saying that physical challenges aren’t his strength, well, we almost certainly haven’t another Asian American winner like Yul Kwon, to John’s dismay.
As for how the Super Smash Brothers community is reacting to Ken being on Survivor, here’s what fP_tHuG has to say:
“Wavedash backwards then forwards for mind games, neutral A short hop fast fall l-cancel . Yah his gonna b the shit lol.”
Uhm, I have no idea what that means.
If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, you know that the South Bay is pretty ethnically diverse. Well, in cities like Milipitas and Cupertino, Asians make up the majority, as reported the other day in The San Jose Mercury News and the latest census data:
“Cupertino has joined Milpitas as the second city in the South Bay where a majority of residents is now Asian, a rare cultural phenomenon that sets the two communities apart — even in one of the most diverse counties in the country. Its Chinese population was already well established, but Cupertino’s rapidly growing Indian community has pushed its overall Asian population to 56 percent of residents, according new census data released today… Asians already were a narrow majority in Milpitas in 2000, but with a growing population of Chinese, Indians, Filipinos and Vietnamese, Asians now make up nearly 60 percent of Milpitas’ population.”
However, what is more typical in the South Bay, and much of California overall, is that no single ethnic group commands a majority – Whites, Latino and Asians make up many communities in California. Of course, if you’ve been a minority living outside of California and have just moved to the area, this can take some getting used to. And there can be some backlash, especially when it comes to high schools and “white flight.” Asian Americans in the South Bay have also flexed their political muscle a little bit more (at least until recently relative to San Francisco)
I guess this shouldn’t be anything too new to those who live in Los Angeles; I remember when I lived in the East Coast, hearing about places like Little Taipei in Monterey Park and more recently, visiting friends in Rowland Heights and going to the shoping plazas and just being shocked to see how Asian everything was – like a city was plucked from Taiwan or China and placed in California. I don’t necessarily get that feeling when I am in Milpitas or Cupertino – but maybe I am just so used to those cities now that I don’t even think twice. I don’t spend much time in the East Bay, so maybe some of you have some thoughts on how the East Bay is changing demographically.
In 1995, following the 1992 Los Angeles riots, veteran actor Soon-Tek Oh created the Society of Heritage Performers (SHP), a Korean American theatre ensemble. SHP evolved into Lodestone Theatre Ensemble in 1999, organized by original founders: actors Alexandra Bokyun Chun, Tim Lounibos and Chil Kong, and writer Philip W. Chung. Their new focus was embracing a broader Asian Pacific American identity; Chung and Kong remain as present co-artistic directors.
As they enter into their tenth — and final — season, they are presenting “Lodestone After Dark: The Beginning of the End,” a cabaret-style show which will feature comedy sketches and musical numbers this weekend. This show will celebrate Lodestone’s ten years and launch the company’s final season of shows before it closes its doors at the end of 2009.
These performances actually kicked off last night, Dec 11, with GEDDE WATANABE (Sixteen Candles’ Long Duk Dong) & ERIN QUILL (Avenue Q) hosting. But you can still catch the performances with ALEC MAPA (Ugly Betty, Desperate Housewives) hosting tonight (Dec 12) through Sunday (Dec 14).
Lodestone also promises special celebrity guests who will be making appearances throughout the run of the show including:
- JOHN CHO (Harold and Kumar, Star Trek)
- JAMES KYSON LEE (Heroes)
- KELLY HU (X-Men 2)
- DAVID ONO (Anchor, KABC TV Eyewitness News)
- SANDRA OH (Grey’s Anatomy)
- GEORGE TAKEI (Star Trek)
- SUNG KANG (Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift)
- ROGER FAN (Better Luck Tomorrow)
- KABA MODERN’S YURI TAG & FYSH N’ CHICKS’ TAEKO COLLINS (America’s Top Dance Crew)
- Along with members of the Asian American comedy groups the 18 MIGHTY MOUNTAIN WARRIORS, OPM, COLD TOFU & many other surprises.
Moye and I are planning to be there tonight, so we hope to see you there.
(More details after the jump)
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Our internal e-mail lists have us discussing all kinds of stuff: Asian American identity, representation in the media, the experiences of activism in an academia setting and its progression as we transition to the working, adult world. And sometimes, we talk about jerky products.
“My name is Douglas Patrick Iske and I am the President of Jerky.com. Jerky.com features the widest selection of U.S. made jerky products and meat snacks anywhere in the World! A significant percentage of our customer base is Asian-American, so we are always looking for new ways to reach Asian American Jerky enthusiasts. This is what has brought me to you.”
Ernie: Do Asians really LOVE jerky? Seriously? I’ve never been a fan; does that make me a sell-out?)
Efren: I’m not a big fan of jerky (except maybe Filipino tapa), but I am curious to try soy jerky.
Ernie: For everyone that is interested in getting jerky, please e-mail me (off the mailing list) with your personal e-mail address. I’ll make sure jerky samples get sent. (“Getting jerky.” Ha ha.)
Jeff: Jerky is okay. For some reason, Number One son really likes it.
Joz: I’ll bite… I love jerky! And yes, Asians DO love jerky. You know, like squid jerky.
Joz: I wonder if jerky.com has any “Asian” jerkies. Like that yummy/shiny sweet pork kind or the 5-spice kind. Or even that dried squid stuff (does that count as jerky?) Actually, in a brief look at jerky.com, it’s very “American” jerky. Doesn’t really appeal to me at first glance. I’d rather order from a site like this, (excluding the chinky Chinese font, yes, the Chinese actually looks chinky, if that makes any sense.)
Efren: Hmm… I’ve never considered Asian dried meat to be “jerky” though I guess technically they are. The Chinese and Vietnamese dried meat seems to be a lot moister so I’ve never considered it to be “jerky” since I always considered American style jerky to be chewier and drier (and totally unappetizing).
Efren: And the “chinky” font is REALLY annoying. Thank God I live right near Clement Street so I can get that stuff directly (and lop cheung, etc.) without having to go through annoying sites like that.
Moye: Now that I think about it, my family really loves beef jerky, including me. It’s like the dried squid snacks we’d eat with beer and edamame. But I can’t think any of my non-Asian friends who appreciate it as much as we do. Can someone make a Venn Diagram where the Asian population and hicks overlap with beef jerky?
Xxxtine: I so don’t want to be at work right now:
Moye: OMG YOU RULE.
Asians and jerky products: do we find them just as delicious as NASCAR fans? “Dried meat” just reminds me pork sung, which makes me gag, personally. Your opinion may differ. Discuss.
(Flickr photo credit: specialkrb)
I just caught this short video called The Expat Life: Dumpling 101 by the WSJ’s Alan Paul, who gets a lesson on how to make Chinese dumplings, or jiaozi, before he left China.
Do YOU know how to make jiaozi? When we made them in our household we used store-bought dumpling wrappers — jiaozi pi — and ground meat. Sometimes we even used the food processor to chop the veggies. Call us lazy, but my Mom didn’t see the point of chopping everything by hand if we didn’t have to.
(Here’s a pretty good jiaozi recipe with tips throughout. I like how every other line is a warning of something NOT to do, otherwise the jiaozi will fall apart or explode. But heed the advice; it’s absolutely true.)
On Monday, tragedy occurred in San Diego when an F/A-18D Hornet fighter suffered a power failure of both of its engines as it approached the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. The pilot was able to eject safely from the plane, but the plane crashed into a residential neighborhood, destroying two homes, damaging three homes, and most sadly, killing four residents in one home – Korean immigrant Young Mi Yoon, her two daughters, and her mother; Young Mi Yoon’s husband, Dong Yun Yoon, was at work when the crash occurred.
When you read stories like this, you really come to appreciate what you have. There are many right now suffering from the middle of an economic meltdown, with our life savings melting away or out-of-a-job, but something like this really puts your life in perspective. I cannot even imagine the heartache that Yoon must be feeling: You’re living the American dream one day, and the next, your world literally comes crashing down on everything you’ve be living and working for.
In a press conference today, Yoon expressed thanks to the community for their support and didn’t blame the pilot, knowing that the pilot did everything he could under the circumstances.
Sadly, the sound of jet planes could be heard in the background as Yoon progressed through the press conference, reminding all those in attendance what occurred just the day before. Given everything that has happened to Yoon, he is relatively calm. “I believe my wife and two babies and mother-in-law are in heaven with God, and I know God is taking care of them.” At 8Asians, our thoughts and prayers are with Yoon as he tries to overcome this tragedy.
The state of Louisiana has been making history lately by electing their latest congressman this past weekend, Republican attorney Anh “Joseph” Cao. Cao becomes the first Vietnamese American to be elected into Congress, ousting indicted ten-term Democratic U.S. Rep. William “Cold Cash” Jefferson from his 2nd Congressional District seat, which includes most of New Orleans. Cao won 50 percent of the vote to Jefferson’s 47 percent:
“The victory for a 41-year-old immigration attorney who is the child of Vietnam War refugees was greeted with amazement and drew parallels to last year’s election of Gov. Bobby Jindal, an Indian-American Republican … Cao was buoyed by low turnout, a lackluster campaign by Jefferson, strong third-party candidates and the election being postponed a month by Hurricane Gustav. State and national Republicans seized on the race with a well-funded and effective campaign … Jefferson faced some of the most direct attacks since 2005, when a wide-reaching corruption probe against him was made public and FBI agents found $90,000 in alleged bribe payments in his freezer. He currently faces trial on charges of money laundering, racketeering and bribery, but no date has been set.”
I’m a Democrat, but Cao seems to be a moderate Republican, and I’m certainly not for indicted Congressmen or Senators to be re-elected — Democrat, Republican or independent (and amazed that the Begich-Stevens Senate election in Alaska was so close.) Many Vietnamese refugees relocated to the New Orleans area after the Vietnam War, but given the fact that San Jose and Los Angeles Garden Grove Orange County, California have the largest Vietnamese American communities in the United States, it’s very surprising to see Louisiana elect the first Vietnamese American into Congress. Maybe America is becoming more of a color blind society than I had expected.
I actually have nothing intellectual to say about this. I just find this funny, that’s all.
(via the duty on tumblr)
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