8 Asians

By “Cleanchino” Cho Although I am not a proud lurker on Facebook, I still continue to browse the ever-so revealing News Feed on a regular basis. It’s part of my ritual during my daily commute home from work. Facebook is not only just a social media profile page, but it is a marketplace for sharing information. While scrolling down, I find an interesting image posted on an acquaintance’s posting. I was profoundly confused after reading [...] Continue »

Lianne returned to the US after living in Taiwan, and experienced Reverse Culture Shock. This is how she dealt with it.

By Betty Chen We’re well past April first now, which is both a day for April Fools’ and the national college notification date. Some of my friends received good news, some bad. But what I really want to talk about is what happened after I was accepted. Magically, after the flurry of decisions at the end of April, I went from an over-represented minority they didn’t need any more of to being one of those [...] Continue »

EDITOR’S NOTE: White Rabbit is a senior thesis film written and directed by Christina Yoon at NYU Tisch School of the Arts –Joz By Christina Yoon Grace, a lonely 13-year-old aspiring journalist, discovers that a fellow classmate is murdering rabbits and is driven to stop him. When she confronts him in the act, she realizes that she may care more for the damaged perpetrator than the murdered rabbits themselves. Human connection and disconnection has always [...] Continue »

By Ken Narasaki On March 6, a guest op-ed column by Ta-Nehisi Coates appeared in the New York Times entitled The Good, Racist People, which addresses “the idea that racism is not merely the property of the morally deformed.” I live in a neighborhood that gentrified crazily over the past 15-20 years, and it’s a tight-knit, nice block where people look out for each other. Part of this shows up in crime watch postings where [...] Continue »

This was originally published at LA Stage Times and has been republished at 8Asians with the author’s permission. Christmas in Hanoi is currently running at East West Players at David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles. Wed-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm. Ends March 10. $26-$36. 213-625-7000. By Eddie Borey My parents never talked about the War. My mother was born in Vietnam. My father, Irish-Catholic from upstate New York, met [...] Continue »

By Simon Tam A few years ago, I filed a trademark application for my band, The Slants. The US Trademark Office rejected it, claiming it was disparaging towards Asians. I was baffled: I’m Asian. At first, we fought it by collecting testimonies and letters of support from Asian American organizations; having several independent surveys done (they showed the majority of Asian Americans supported us), getting linguistics studies, and so on. Over the years, we have [...] Continue »

By Isaac Ho When a horrible tragedy captures our nation’s attention (as happened with the Newtown shootings) we, as a society and as individuals, search for answers vowing to never allow such a tragedy to happen again. No industry wants the finger of blame pointed at them but that should not dissuade us from asking one of the more obvious questions: Is violence in popular entertainment a contributing factor to violence in society? Isaac explores [...] Continue »

By Mitchell K. Dwyer In Another Country (2012); English and Korean with English subtitles. Isabelle Huppert, Yoo Jun-sang, Kwon Hae-hyo, Moon So-ri, and Jung Yoo-mi. Written and directed by Hong Sang-soo. A French woman who speaks no Korean. A young woman who manages a bed-and-breakfast. A married couple expecting a first child. A muscular but air-headed lifeguard. A coastal Korean town, some soju, a lighthouse, and the line, “You have to be careful with that [...] Continue »

By Mitchell K. Dwyer A Werewolf Boy (2012); Korean with English subtitles Park Bo-young, Song Joong-ki.  Written and directed by Jo Sung-hee. I recently heard a prominent sports columnist admit that he never felt more guilt than when, after harshly scolding his old dog for disobedience, he realized the reason for the noncompliance was that his dog had gone deaf. If the depth of this writer’s guilt is unfathomable to you, I’m willing to bet [...] Continue »

by Leeland Lee In a piece published online last Thursday in The New York Times entitled “A Messy Relationship,” Titi Nguyen describes her mother’s pivotal role in introducing her to her future significant other, a man by the name of Douglas. The narrative takes an intriguing turn because Nguyen’s parents both work as housekeepers for Douglas’s parents. Also discussed at great lengths is their age difference: Douglas is 16 years older than Nguyen, who is [...] Continue »

EDITOR’S NOTE: For the last few days, the Asian American websphere has been buzzing about two possibly related incidents at UCLA which campus police are investigating as hate crimes. This was submitted by a Cornell student in response to the first incident. –Joz By Kyle Chang This is most disappointing because it reminds me that even in college campuses where students are becoming “educated,” racism like this still exists (remember Alexandra Wallace’s rant?). What’s even [...] Continue »