8 Asians

I’m no fan of the Miami Heat, but was happy to see the Heat’s Head Coach Erik Spoelstra, a Filipino American, join the NBA, NBPA, and Miami HEAT in support of UNICEF and their ongoing relief efforts in the Philippines in this public service announcement. For links to donate, click here. Unless you’ve been asleep for the past few weeks,  the Philippines was hit by the most powerful typhoon in history.

The actor, comedian (and yes, doctor) Ken Jeong recently guest co-hosted SportsCenter on ESPN. Having grown up in North Carolina, gone to Duke for undergrad and UNC for medical school, it’s no surprise that Jeong is a big basketball or sports fan. As a Duke grad school alum, it brings me great joy to read: “I was one of the Cameron Crazies back in the day. I’ve mellowed out now. You’d have to … you [...] Continue »

Our former 8asians.com blogger Eddy Hong reached out to me to let me know his latest television commercial gig. In this commercial Eddy plays a fan of the movie The Hobbit, dressed up as Gandalf, along with his other geeky, dorky friends. What’s amusing is that the Denny’s waitress talks to her customers in Elvish, the same language that they are speaking. Apparently Denny’s has a Hobbit-inspired menu items, a tie in with the second [...] Continue »

I had blogged earlier that during Obama’s visit to San Francisco where he gave a speech on immigration reform, he was heckled by an audience member. That person has now been identified as Ju Hong, 24, who is a UC Berkeley graduate who is also a member of Asian Students Promoting Immigrant Rights through Education (ASPIRE), where he shouted: “I need your help. My family will be separated on Thanksgiving. Please use your executive order. [...] Continue »

As part of his pre-Thanksgiving West Coast trip, President Obama dropped by Chinatown in San Francisco at the Betty Ong Recreation Center (named after 9/11 flight attendant Betty Ann Ong). Obama gave some shoutouts to some prominent Californian Asian American elected officials who I believe were in attendance, including San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Congressmen Mike Honda as well as Congresswoman Judy Chu and also mentioned nearby Immigration Station at Angel Island. President Obama emphasized [...] Continue »

Comedian Aziz Ansari recently made his first appearance on The Charlie Rose Show, in part to promote his upcoming Netflix comedy special, “Buried Alive.”  According to Ansari, his special’s main themes are on babies, marriage and love. Ansari is a regular on Parks & Recreations (a show I can’t say that I’m a regular viewer of) and discusses how he got into comedy, and his thoughts on growing up (in South Carolina) and becoming a [...] Continue »

Cranston City Mayor Allan Fung on November 5th announced his candidacy for Governor of Rhode Island. One of Fung’s unique distinction is that he is Rhode Island’s first ever Asian American mayor (and he happens to also be a Republican) and would be Rhode Island’s first Asian American governor if elected. That may not sounds like much, but Asian Americans constitute only 3.4% of Rhode Island’s overall population. Cranston itself is Rhode Island’s 3rd largest [...] Continue »

These days, one would think that every actor, actress and generally, celebrities would all be on Twitter trying to build up their fan base and build up a following. Apparently not. The other night, I caught actress Lucy Liu on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, and Fallon helped Liu tweet her first tweet: You can follow Liu @LucyLiu. Within 24 hours, Liu had over 29,000 fans. Liu seems to be friends with Fallon and was [...] Continue »

I saw this television ad recently for this website/company that I had not heard of before – TRUECar.com, highlighting several women seeking to buy a new car, including an Asian American one. I guess the site is aimed at women who don’t like to negotiate for a car price, as one women simply states: “I don’t need to bring a dude with me” [to the car dealership]. Kind of sad how the auto industry built [...] Continue »

Earlier this Spring, I had blogged about a new Din Tai Fung was going to be opening at a shopping mall in Glendale, California called Americana at Brand. Well, the new restaurant is now open: “Soup-dumpling temple Din Tai Fung is about to open its doors at the Americana at Brand shopping center in Glendale, with exclusive truffle soup dumplings and a full bar. Its debut is scheduled for Monday [11/4/2013]. Located next to the [...] Continue »

I’ve been seeing this commercial lately and find it pretty funny. I’ll never understand why some people need to #hashtag their tweets (or their FB or Instagram posts) to the nth degree. It’s not like it makes the posting any better.

Recently, actor and activist George Takei spoke to The National Press Club about his life story, from his personal experience as a child growing up in a Japanese internment camp to his life as a gay man and coming out. He spoke for over 40 minutes without notes with humor sprinkled in between, and at the end, answered a few audience questions (including what a gay Vulcan would be like). If you’re a fan of [...] Continue »