Hello Everyone! Happy New Year!
POP 88′s first episode of 2009 brings you new music from Tenjochiki, Stanley Huang and Teriyaki Boyz. Hear me review some of the films I saw over the holidays and fangirl over Korea’s newest girl group After School. Plus listen in on how you can enter to win tickets for yourself and guest to attend Kollaboration 9 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Also, join the POP 88 community at Ning to enter for our monthly member giveaway.
Popcast88.Ning.com
POP 88′s Official Facebook FAN Page
POP 88 Merchandise
Continue Reading »
Subscribe to our mailing list
Get the day's stories from 8Asians.com, delivered to your inbox every evening at 6:00pm PST.
When I first blogged about Pinkberry my fellow 8Asian bloggers were shocked that I had never tried the frozen yogurt phenomenon; at the time, they only had stores in Southern California and in New York City. But with a new Pinkberry store in San Jose and a new Red Mango store – owned by Survivor: Cook Islands winner Yul Kwon – just opened this weekend, the battle of the heavily Korean-influenced Frozen Yogurt wars has officially moved to the Bay Area as reported in Mercury News:
“The giants of the tart “fro-yo” craze — Pinkberry and Red Mango — are opening across the street from each other at Santana Row and Valley Fair, the first stores in San Jose and among the first outside the Los Angeles and New York markets … Pinkberry has a dominant presence, with 71 stores and a possibly better known brand. It also has the undeniable Santana Row ambience on its side… Red Mango … with 47 stores, it claims to be the originator of tart frozen yogurt and seems to have an edge with foodie taste-testers.”
As I’m a fan of Yul Kwon for his community and political activism, I’m already biased towards Red Mango. That said, I wonder how Pinkberry and Red Mango will do in this recession, given how companies like Starbucks has seen massive declines in profitability as consumers are spending less on everything. Having Pinkberry in Santana Row – lovingly known by one Yelp.com reviewer as an “upper-scale, suburban strip-mall, yuppie-enhanced housing community” – gives Pinkberry a massive advantage.
Shopping With GASP!
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 Project Aiko. Creepy, creepy Project Aiko.
John: From CNN: Inventor Builds his own Girlfriend.
Jen: Will you get one, John?
John: Maybe I *should* get a robotic girlfriend and review it on 8Asians$25k spent on the robot…crazy.
Ernie: John, Just so long as you don’t describe how you got to third base with her. Because that’d be awkward.
Let it also be known that on Project Aiko’s To-Do list: #5. If I lie my head down on Aiko lap, have her clean my ears with a Q-tip. If by ears he means penis, and by Q-tip he means the silicone mouth of a robot.
Gambling is illegal in China, but not in Macao, where apparently many Chinese officials have been taking jaunts to gamble embezzled government money. These gambling trips have apparently cost Chinese officials an average of $2.7 million dollars each in a 2008 study of high rollers in Macao.
The Chinese government has previously tried clamping down on gambling by public officials with little success. The government is now trying a new tack that seems to be working, which is limiting travel visas to Macao for government officials to one trip every 3 months for no longer than 7 days each. These restrictions have helped turn what was a boom economy in Macao (which depends on gambling for 75% of its tax base) into a bust.
I’m no stranger to gambling either, having spent much of my free time in my adult life tagging behind my parents in casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Reno/Tahoe. Ironically, there’s a stereotype in American culture that Asians are quite intelligent as a group. We’re lauded as the hard workers in school and work. That is quite a compliment to members of an ethnic group. It’s also well known that the Chinese like to gamble. Casinos cater to Asian guests and ads are run on the Chinese channels here in the Bay Area courting Chinese gamblers.
If you think about it, these two things “intelligence” and “gambling” don’t quite go together. If you’re scientific and knowledgeable, you know the odds are against you in Vegas. The house always wins. So why do so many smart, intelligent Chinese flock to Vegas (and Macao) in hopes of cashing in big?
In addition to supposedly being level-headed and intelligent, Chinese culture very strongly believes in the concept of “luck”. You can’t be a rational intelligent gambler, if you don’t believe in “luck”. Maybe that’s why I always do so poorly when I’m in Vegas.
In Chinese culture, you have the color red, signifying luck. Red envelopes are handed out at New Years containing lucky money, the bridal dress is red, as is the wedding reception room. Banners flown for luck are all done in red. In addition words that sound like luck are often used symbolically for luck. Bats are used as decorative symbols in pottery, as are swastikas. The word for bat is “fu” and sounds like the word for happiness. The swastika as a lucky symbol, of course pre-dates the Nazi use of the symbol. There are many examples of symbols of good luck in Chinese culture today as well, including the gift of oranges, the serving of 8 or 9 courses, including “long-life” noodles at banquets, the use of fish (carp) as symbols of luck and money.
So the Chinese continue to flock to Vegas and Macao, in the belief that our luck will change, that there’s good fortune coming, especially because of that good deed you did the other day (did I forget to mention Karma is a big part of Chinese belief as well?). Even if you lose in Vegas today, your luck will change and you’ll be a winner tomorrow.
So much for the Asian stereotype of being smart!
… at least two of them anyway. Moye shared this with me and neither of us can figure this out.
Does the ad fold down? Huh? What?! You can count ME confused but somehow, oddly, I am craving a fried eggroll with some mysterious red dipping sauce. Do any of our European readers have any insight?
Seen at ibelieveinadv.com: “Asian Weeks till 24th August.”
Advertising Agency: DDB, Helsinki, Finland
Art Director: Jukka Mannio
Copywriter: Vesa Tujunen
Photographer: Mikko Harma / Kustom
Other additional credits: Mika Wist
(Hat tip: mrod)
The Philippine News recently reported that an order of nuns in Manhattan called the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart have filed a lawsuit against a Filipina tenant in one of their apartments for cooking Filipino smoked fish, otherwise known as tuyo.
The allegations have gone back and forth with the nuns accusing the tenants, Gloria Lim and her husband Michael, of “endangering life and health” with her cooking; and the tenants accusing the nuns of racism, with Mrs. Lim defiantly saying that she will continue to cook and eat tuyo.
Unless the nuns can prove that the tuyo is detrimental (which frankly it isn’t–I’ve been eating it all my life without any ill effects, and I like eating tuyo for breakfast with some eggs and tomato and onion salad), I don’t think they have much of a case. And given that these nuns claim to be missionaries, you’d think they’d be a little bit more openminded about non-American foods.
Frankly, they should be lucky that Mrs. Lim isn’t a fan of other things smelly, like durian, French cheeses, or lutefisk, which frankly is ten times worse than measly tuyo.
(Flickr photo credit: Curry puff, lah!)
John recently blogged last week about a recent SJ Mercury article talking about Asian Americans and the high-stress environment of Mission San Jose High School, in Fremont CA. While the link — and the corresponding CNN article asking the world if Asian kids were really smarter — had its share of stats gathering and experts talking, what there wasn’t a lot of was actual opinions from students themselves. We received a bunch of eloquent responses from MSJ students last week, which brings a different light: that the pressure is a positive outcome, exaggerated in the media and merely an unpleasant by-product of all the accomplishments of their school, like how the public school is ranked 60th in the nation.
From Leslie:
The hyper-achieving, nerd-school stereotype exists because it’s in many ways true, but the media has decided to focus only on the negative side of it. Is attending a “normal” high school somehow better or healthier? Schools where only two-thirds of the student body can be reasonably be expected to show up to school every day, where only a handful of students graduate, let alone go to college, schools with serious gang problems and high rates of teen pregnancy? By ignoring the hard work and achievements of the students in favor of writing a juicy story with a gratuitously racist title, the media too often do a disservice to the students (and the faculty!) of MSJ.
From Sophia, via her blog:
The stress and pressure was definitely there, but I saw it as a good thing because it motivated me to work harder and be more involved. Although, I’m not going to lie, I still cringe every time people talk about grades and competition … So I guess the Mission environment did affect me in a way, but whatever, it’s something I can deal with. If anything, learning how to not let all the pressure and expectations get to me gave me the confidence to take my life in my own hands and question what I really want out of my life (which is why I still have no idea what I want to major in). Everyone knows that stress is bad, but there’s stress everywhere, and at Mission at lot of it just happens to come from academic pressure. In other places stress comes from crime, poverty, or even popularity contests, but you don’t see headlines with “Lots of teen pregnancy, lots of stress for Latino students.”
From Andrew:
… When students at Mission graduate and get out of the Fremont/Bay Area bubble, they’ll discover what the real world is like, and it’ll be tough for some to adjust. But at least they will, and they’ll grow up just like I’m still growing up and learning, and realize for themselves what is really worth more in life: grades or LIVING. Until then, the national competition to get into college is predicted to peak this year and then settle, and generations of Asian Americans with less culturally conservative parents are reaching high school age, as current high school students learn their own limits and relax… and life goes on.
Jun Chen isn’t the first Chinese girl to have been left by her family. Her father abandoned her in NYC when he returned to China after losing his job in the United States. She was only 17 at the time. What’s unique about Jun is how in the face of such adversity she created her own family and her own support network.
On a yellow sheet of paper, she drew an alternative family tree: Lily, her girlfriend; Sonia, the mom; Chino, the dad; Ami, the older sister. The last three are all staff at the [Edgies Teen] center.
It is through them that she built her personal identity. “I wrote my college essay bout being a quarter Chinese, quarter black, quarter Dominican, and quarter Indian,” she said. It helped her earn a full scholarship to Middlebury College in Vermont.
Being gay and Chinese you understand the full implication of the phrase “building your own family”. In Chinese culture family may be the most important thing, but not when your only son is gay. Partly joking, I tell my friends that in American culture it’s duty to God, Country, Self, and then Others, but in Chinese culture, it’s Family, God, Country, Others and then Self (and sometimes I think Self doesn’t exist in Chinese culture). Being gay is of course the biggest stigma you can place upon your family in Chinese and most Asian cultures, and the easiest way to fail in your duty to your family.
It took me 15 years to meet the man who I call my husband today. We later made the decision to start a family and through surrogacy we had our daughter, who is three and a half years old now.
It took a long time, but my parents also eventually came around and accepted me and my family as best they could. They even chose to live with my family when they could no longer live alone, creating our extended family. Although my father passed away several years ago, my mother still lives with us.
It’s a bit cliche but I tell everyone that family is the most important thing there is, and for me, I’m especially lucky that it’s a family that I helped to create. I can only hope my daughter has a family to depend on and build upon throughout her lifetime.
Mountain View, California is the headquarters of Internet giant Google. It’s also where I live. This past week, I witnessed history as Mountain View had a “Historic moment at City Hall” by the Mountain View city council unanimously electing Margaret Abe-Koga to become the city’s first woman Asian American mayor. Margaret was originally elected to the city council in 2006, making her the first Asian American woman to be elected to city council, and Art Takahara — Mountain View’s first Asian American mayor — was present at her swearing in ceremony.
I’ve had the honor and pleasure of knowing Margaret this past year at a variety of different Asian American political get-togethers and am to know her as my mayor. I half jokingly tell Margaret that I know who to call if I need a pothole filled.
And make no mistake, Margaret Abe-Koga — “MAK” for short — is tremendously qualified, with experience and credentials. In a somewhat disappointing note, Margaret did express some concern about a recent possible hate crime speech incident within Mountain View as well as herself having received a “derogatory e-mail” from a constituent. Asian Americans make up approximately 20% of Mountain View’s residents and it is a little bit disturbing considering how diverse and progressive the San Francisco Bay Area is.
Below is some video I shot of Margaret’s acceptance speech prior to me running out of memory in my digital camera:
The Chinese government is now paying people to write commentary on the Internet to negate any bad “opinions”. This is the next logical step in order to try and control negative news, due to the nature of the Internet and how the Golden Shield can’t stop the flow of news as much as it tries to do so.
And at 50 cents a comment ($0.07USD), these guys can make a decent living just sitting around commenting as the Chinese Internet police. Think about it: if your average citizen’s annual salary is somewhere around $2000USD, that means that it would only take about 29,000 comments a year to make a living wage. That sounds impossible? Well, it’s not incredible difficult in the age of technology; on average, they would have to shoot for eighty comments a day. That’s still not that bad if it’s a job supplement.
Personally, I’m interested to see how they’re going to control media through state-sponsored commenting. While that seems to work, it also seems like they’re concentrating primarily on internal Chinese networks and less across international waters. While this was an edgy subject with bloggers only a couple years ago, it’s no different than accepting paid postings by advertisers which often left many blog readers wondering if the writer was genuine or if it was a paid commentary; loyalty is everything in cyberspace.
Either way, I have to say that it’s one of the more interesting passive ideas that has come out of the mainland instead of blocking traffic — at least it keeps the traffic flowing.
Photo Credit: (chinesegary)
As I had blogged last December, David Chiu was elected in November to San Francisco City Supervisor, District 3. This past week, Tim noted that David Chiu took office and was elected after six rounds of voting by his peers to be the president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors! This makes Chiu the first ever Asian American, Chinese and Taiwanese American to lead the legislative branch of San Francisco’s 11-member governing body.
I have no doubt that David Chiu will serve with honor his two-year term as President of the Board of Supervisors, be re-elected as city supervisor in four years, and eight years from now — there is that lucky eight again — run for mayor and become the first Asian American mayor of a major US city in the continental United States! And eight years after being mayor of San Francisco, becoming the first Asian American governor of California! Or a Californian Asian American Senator or POTUS!
OK, maybe I am getting ahead of myself. Chiu definitely has a lot of challenges ahead of him, including dealing with a $461 million shortfall for the fiscal year that begins July 1 and dealing with the highest homicide rate in San Francisco in 10 years. Chiu did, in his acceptance speech, comment on a lot of his goals and the Board’s agenda at his election & inauguration party with other progressive city supervisors elected to the Board last Thursday night, which I had the honor of attending and shooting some video.
For all practicality, Chiu as President of the Board makes him — and some may disagree on this — the second most visible and powerful local politician in San Francisco, second only to the mayor himself. I could be wrong, but I think this makes David Chiu one of the highest profile Asian American politicians in local government in one of the largest and most famous cities in the United States, although I have great hopes for Sam Yoon to be elected mayor of Boston. No doubt, San Franciscans as well as those living in the Bay Area will be reading a lot and seeing a lot of Chiu in the local papers and television stations.
Just this past Sunday, there was a nice profile of Chiu in the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Chiu, 38, is an attorney born to immigrant parents. He has owned his own business and been a neighborhood activist, and is known as a level-headed professional who excels at building consensus. During the campaign, he was attacked by some business leaders as being too far left, but those who know the liberal politician said his experience on the Small Business Commission and as a business owner himself give him a unique perspective and credibility when it comes to economic issues… Born to Taiwanese immigrants Doris and Han Chiu in 1970, Chiu grew up in Boston. His father was a private practice doctor while his mother stayed home. Chiu said he and his younger brothers, Edward, 36, and Stephen, 33, were pushed by their parents to excel in school, and all three attended Harvard University.”
Chiu was also seen Sunday morning on San Francisco’s CBS5 in what I believe was his first extended television interview since him being elected to the President of the Board of Supervisors. And I didn’t even know that David Chiu was going to be around on Saturday, but Chiu dropped by an annual local Taiwanese American Lunar New Year celebration that is organized in Hayward to speak a few words to his supporters in the Taiwanese and greater Asian American community, with some kind words which I was able to capture below:
My posts around on politics won’t be David Chiu all-the-time, but I did want to convey just how unprecedented and important it is that Chiu is not only breaking a glass ceiling, but will also encourage and inspire other Asian Americans to get involved in public service and becoming politically involved.
Randy Jackson’s America’s Best Dance Crew (or as I like to call it, Debunking the Asian Nerd Myth Show) is back for a third season. The show premieres this Thursday, January 15th, and introduces 9 competing dance crews, all vying to be America’s Next Top Model. Wait, my bad. Wrong show.
I’m not embarrassed to admit that I enjoy the show; while it doesn’t always hold my attention (there are only so many times I can watch J.C. Chasez say the most inane things EVER), I like to know that there’s at least one show filled with so many Asian faces that isn’t Beauty And The Geek or Heroes. Or Ninja Warrior. Basically, we’re showing that Asian people can seriously dance.
This season’s crews include some new and old faces (courtesy of the official MTV blog)
Crew Name: Quest
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Style Of Dance: BBoy
Description: The Artsy (and Hilarious) BBoys from L.A.Crew Name: The Strikers
Hometown: Tallahassee, FL
Style Of Dance: Steppers
Description: The Intelligent University Step Crew from FloridaCrew Name: Ringmasters (previously MAINEVENTT)
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Style Of Dance: Flexing
Description: The Contortionists and Freak ShowCrew Name: G.O.P. Dance
Hometown: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Style Of Dance: BBoy, Hip-Hop Choreography, Salsa
Description: The Boys from the Streets of Puerto RicoCrew Name: Dynamic Edition
Hometown: Springville, AL
Style Of Dance: Clogging
Description: The Backwoods Country Cloggers in Need of a Big City MakeoverCrew Name: Boxcuttuhz
Hometown: San Diego, CA
Style Of Dance: Hip-Hop Choreography
Description: Underdogs in Dance and LifeCrew Name: Team Millennia
Hometown: Fullerton, CA
Style Of Dance: Hip-Hop Choreography
Description: Combining Hip-Hop with Rock and RollCrew Name: Fly Khicks
Hometown: Miami, FL
Style Of Dance: Jazz Funk
Description: The Former Miami Heat Dancers with a MissionCrew Name: Beat Freaks
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Style Of Dance: BGirl, Hip-Hop Choreography, Locking, Popping
Description: Finally — the Ladies Will School the Boys — and Be an Inspiration for Girls Everywhere
Filipino Rynan Paguio from the former champions, the JabbaWockeeZ, is also standing in as a guest judge for the season premiere.
And what the heck is “clogging”? Can we have an Asian American equivalent with “rice padding”?
Custom Search
Recent Posts
- Cherry Blossom Favor Candles
- Michelle Kwan Inducted Into Figure Skating Hall of Fame
- 7500 Teaser Trailer Reveals My Worst Nightmare
- Some Skin Whitening Creams Can Be Hazardous To Your Health
- I am Bruce Lee Documentary Trailer & Why We Should Remember His Legacy
- Sukiyaki Western Django
- NPR Interviews Fred Korematsu’s Daughter On His Civil Rights Work & Celebrating Fred Korematsu Day
Recent Comments
- : Did... did the overhead luggage compartment just eat Jamie Chung? – 7500 Teaser Trailer Reveals My Worst Nightmare
- : I'm such a scardey cat. I couldn't even watch the entire trailer. Someone tell me when it's over, ok? – 7500 Teaser Trailer Reveals My Worst Nightmare
- : Who better to be the Founding Father of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), than someone of mixed racial heritage? Who more likely to teach non-Asians in... – I am Bruce Lee Documentary Trailer & Why We Should Remember His Legacy
- : One person says in that video clip that Bruce Lee was "the superhero of the Asian community." Funny, but back before he was rich &... – I am Bruce Lee Documentary Trailer & Why We Should Remember His Legacy
- : I never understood it. I have international friends, especially in India, and this role on the Disney Channel does not do that ethnicity justice. I... – Is The Portrayal of Ravi On Disney Channel’s “Jessie” Racist, Unfunny, or Both?
APA Events
Feb 9: (Los Angeles, CA) East West Players presents THREE YEAR SWIM CLUB
Feb 9: (Los Angeles, CA) OR (Orphan Relief): China Care Bruin’s 4th Annual Awareness Night
Feb 10: (Los Angeles, CA) CAUSE: Women in Power Annual Luncheon
Feb 15: (Seattle, WA) Pork Filled Players Enter The Year of the Dragon Spam*O*Rama
Feb 16: Adam WarRock and Kirby Krackle: West Cost Tour Dates!!!
Feb 16: (New York, NY) Amar Chitra Katha: Monica Ferrell, Chitra Ganesh, Keshni Kashyap, and Himanshu “Heems” Suri of Das Racist
Feb 17: (Los Angeles, CA) All My Sons- Feb 18: (San Francisco, CA) NAAAP-SF Lunar New Year Gala 2012
Staff and Contributors
- Editors
- Ernie Hsiung - Founder, Editor-in-Chief
- Moye Ishimoto - Co-Editor, Editorial
- Joz Wang - Co-Editor, PR & APA Outreach
