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Former San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew Sentenced to Prison

By John | Monday, April 6, 2009

ed jew Former San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew Sentenced to Prison We’ve followed former San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew’s political saga who pleaded guilty to all federal charges against him, including mail fraud, extortion and soliciting a bribe last fall. Today, Jew was sentenced to prison:

Disgraced former San Francisco Supervisor Ed Jew was sentenced to more than five years in prison today after earlier pleading guilty to federal bribery and corruption charges … “I don’t think this was just a lapse in judgment or a poor decision,” Judge Susan Illston said in handing down a 64-month prison sentence and a $10,000 fine. “This was a corrupt act that was undertaken.”

Jew was the only Asian American supervisor in San Francisco at the time, so his indictment was certainly high profile where Asian Americans make up over 35% of the city’s residents. Carmen Chu was then appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom to replace Jew after he stepped down. Since November 2008, San Franciscans have elected two additional Asian American supervisors, including Eric Mar and David Chiu (who was subsequently also elected to be President of the Board of Supervisors). I’m sick of the “corrupt” Asian American politician or fundraiser stereotype that Ed Jew and Norman Hsu help perpetuate. Good riddance, Ed Jew!

Photo source: San Francisco Chronicle

| Posted in Current Events, Local, Politics, San Francisco Bay Area | No Comments

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Oregon Needs Asian Sperm!

By Efren | Sunday, April 5, 2009

20090406 e74msk5ppujp3174bditrkwj3g Oregon Needs Asian Sperm! To my fellow Asian men: Found yourself out of a job? Need a quick way to make some cash while maintaining your dignity — and making women happy?

If you’re close to Oregon Health Sciences University, a lab might have the perfect part-time job for you: Sperm donor.

According to Portland’s KGW News, the head of OHSU’s Reproductive Lab, Dr. David Battaglia, has seen a sizable increase in the demand for Asian sperm as Asian American couples are looking to have babies. While there are only 24 donors available on current rotation at OHSU, Dr. Battaglia’s looking for Asian men who are willing to (ahem) participate once or twice a week at a rate of $100 per, um, donation.

However, if OHSU’s lab is like most sperm banks, the screening process can be pretty intensive. Medical histories of the donor’s family are taken to ensure that there’s been no history of chronic diseases, like hypertension, diabetes, stroke or cancer. Most look for men who have at least a bachelor’s degree, but prefer a graduate degree. It’s not as simple as dropping trou and spilling your seed.

I actually was asked years ago to be a sperm donor for a close lesbian friend, who was looking for a gay Filipino man that they preferably knew. However, they changed their minds and switched to an anonymous donor after realizing that even if I had signed off my parental rights, I could still conceivably sue my friend and win custody of any children that may occur. For me, I wasn’t ready to deal with the possibility of knowing that there may be people out there with my genetic material, and ultimately declined anyway.

(Flickr photo credit – and apologies – to Mat Honan)

| Posted in Health, WTF | 8 Comments

Shopping With GASP!

Qingming, Chinese Tomb Sweeping Day

By Tim | Friday, April 3, 2009

papertreadmill Qingming, Chinese Tomb Sweeping Day Qingming, Tomb Sweeping Day for the Chinese traditionally falls on the fifth day of April, but this year is the fourth of April due to Chinese leap year. While celebrated culturally by Chinese for centuries, Qingming returned as a nationally mandated holiday in China last year (2008) for the first time since 1949.

Qingming marks the time Chinese are supposed to honor and remember their ancestors at their grave sites. The Qingming Festival itself was created by Tang Emperor Xuanzong in 732. Emperor Xuanzong declared that respects could be formally paid at ancestor’s graves only on Qingming to reduce the amount of money spent throughout the year by the wealthy to honor the deceased.

During Qingming many Chinese follow a custom of burning paper money (joss paper) and other necessary items made of paper for the deceased to have in the afterlife. Traditionally this could have been paper cars, houses, and clothes. More recently this has been expanded to include luxury items such as the paper treadmill depicted here, as well as elaborate paper evening gowns and other new hits like paper dentures.

For me, Qingming means the first visit to my mother’s grave since we buried her in January of this year. I’ve already been to temple for seven sevens (49th day after death), and will probably go for the 100th day as well, but I haven’t yet visited the grave site. It has been more than 2 months since her passing, but I still can’t find the energy to tackle the little things that have to be done, like canceling her credit cards, or finishing emptying her room. I think part of me doesn’t want the finality of those events to sink in, so I’ve been putting them off, refusing to think about the remaining tasks at hand.

While I know I will be at my mom’s grave site tomorrow, I doubt either of my sisters will have remembered, and I wonder when I’m gone, whether my daughter will remember this Chinese tradition. I’m the only one in my family who has ties to the past and ties to the future. My mom was the glue to the past in the family when she lived, and now that she’s gone, I find myself the glue, holding together what pieces are left.

So if you’ve lost someone, and you’re of Chinese ancestry, think about honoring a Chinese tradition. Spend some time tomorrow, at the graveside if you can, but if not, at least find some time to have a moment during your day to honor your loved one.

| Posted in Current Events, Family | 4 Comments

Royal Kill To Be Finally Released

By Jeff | Friday, April 3, 2009

Japanese-American actor Pat Morita finished the movie Royal Kill before he died in 2005, but only now is it being released. What took so long? The most logical explanation is that with a lack of A list stars and a significant number of Asian-American actors, such as Morita, Lalaine (a Filipina who became famous as playing Lizzie McGuire‘s best friend), James Yun (professional wrestler know as Jimmy Wang Yang), Asian-Canadian wrestler Gail Kim, and an Asian-American/British director Babar Ahmed, the movie couldn’t get financed for distribution.

So why now? With Gail Kim currently being hot right now — recently making a long awaited debut on WWE Smackdown and soon to be in Wrestlemania — a distributor probably thought that this is the best timing and opportunity to get the film released. Gail Kim plays an assassin who tries to kill an American teenager, played by Lalaine, who doesn’t know she is the last living heir to a kingdom. I’d like to see it, but I am not sure that I would pay to see it in a theater. I’ll probably wait to see some reviews.

Royal Kill is going to be released April 10, 2009 in a very limited set of venues. The venues are on the movie web site and at the end of the trailer.

| Posted in Discrimination, Entertainment, Movies | No Comments

Lodestone Theatre Ensemble Presents TEN TO LIFE in Los Angeles

By jozjozjoz | Thursday, April 2, 2009

This past December, Lodestone Theatre Ensemble kicked off its final season with Lodestone After Dark: The Beginning of the End. I’m totally excited that their season is starting up soon with the premiere or TEN TO LIFE, four one-acts developed specifically for the tenth season by four writers who have been an integral part of Lodestone’s history — Nic Cha Kim, Annette Lee, Tim Lounibos and Judy Soo Hoo.

The show will be directed by another Lodestone veteran, Alberto Isaac, who previously helmed Lodestone’s productions of Claim To Fame and The Trojan Women.

Here is a little teaser of the plays:

A Census agent exposes a family’s perverse, hidden secret…A desperate loser turns to experimental surgery to seduce his high school crush…A happy homemaker struggles against an ancient evil that lurks in plain sight…A controlling psychologist must protect his life’s love from her memories…Lodestone kicks off its final season with four twisted one-acts touching on the bizarre and unnatural. It’s been ten years… Time to pay. The cast includes Peggy Ahn, Feodor Chin, Ewan Chung, Elpidio Ebuen, Emily Kuroda, Jully Lee, Janet Song, Carin Chea, Vincent Gabucan, Joon Lee and Andria Udave.

Running from May 2 – June 7, 2009, performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm., May 2 – June 7, with low-priced previews on April 30 and May 1. Tickets are $16 for general admission, $14 for students/seniors. Group rates of $12 each are available for reservations of ten or more. Tickets for the May 2nd Opening Night Gala with a post-show reception are $25. All Sunday matinees (except June 7) will be pay-what-you-can admission with a $1 minimum.

Venue: GTC Burbank, 1111-B West Olive Ave., Burbank, CA 91506 (in George Izay Park)

For more information, call the Lodestone Theatre Ensemble hotline at (323) 993-7245 or visit www.lodestonetheatre.org, www.myspace.com/lodestonetheatre, Lodestone’s TEN TO LIFE on Facebook

| Posted in Entertainment, Southern California, The Arts | No Comments

Video Zen: Pearl Cream Commercial by Nancy Kwan, circa 1988

By Ernie | Thursday, April 2, 2009

(Hat tip: David)

| Posted in The Arts | 16 Comments

No, Seriously: Asians are Good at Math

By Tim | Wednesday, April 1, 2009

math image1 No, Seriously: Asians are Good at Math The stereotype that Asians are good at math has probably haunted every Asian reading 8Asians at one time or another. It’s certainly not a new topic, and 8Asians covered this topic in 2008 and twice in 2007. This week the Taiwanese enforced the “Asians are better at math” stereotype when Taiwanese schoolchildren excelled in a U.S. sponsored world math speed contest. In addition Taiwanese excellence in math was a topic this week in this years’ annual ASCD conference, where a paper was presented on “Academic Excellence: Learning from Taiwanese Excellence”.

These two headlines caught my attention since I was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. when I was two. Throughout my academic career, I was always known as the math geek. I suppose there was good reason for this, as I did excel in math. I don’t say this to brag, but I did get an 800 on my math PSAT and Math Achievement I (now known as the SAT Subject Tests). I was even on Math Team as co-captain. So I was a perfect fit for the stereotype, and probably the type of math student you hated, as I perpetuated the stereotype you were subject to in school.

But lest you start hating me too soon, I should explain why I was the math geek. My mom, who immigrated to the U.S. and never finished college, made sure math was my life. Before I was the age of five, my mom had drilled the multiplication tables into my head, so that I could recite every permutation up to 12 times 12. If I messed up, I got a slap on the back of the hand with a ruler, so I had plenty of incentive to get it right.

I guess when you get that much of a drilling in math, being a math brain isn’t that hard. Now that I’m an adult and a parent, the tables are turned on me, and I have to make the decision on how much math do I inflict on my daughter, who is fast approaching four. She doesn’t even recognize all the numbers yet, and still stumbles sometimes counting past 10. I tell myself this is okay, as she’s not even four, but something in the back of my mind still nags at me, since I was already past addition and starting on multiplication at the age of four. And there it is again: do you let your child be a child or do you force them into becoming a math brain so they can succeed later?

| Posted in Current Events, Discrimination, Education, Family | 32 Comments