8 Asians

Growing up, I would visit Hong Kong and/or Taiwan every year to visit family and see my birthplace. At first, during these visits, I would try to read signs or menus using whatever Chinese characters I could muster.  However, as I progressed through the American school system, it became much easier and comfortable to read the English translations.   Even in my early teens, it was easy to tell that some of these translations had critical [...] Continue »

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy A few weeks ago, I made a post about Lieutenant Dan Choi, an openly gay West Point grad that had served in Iraq. Lt. Choi is the figurehead for a movement opposing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the homophobic policy that prohibits open homosexuals from serving in the military. This was — and still is — a movement that garnered attention from blogs and [...] Continue »

Growing up I’ve always look for Asian American musicians and performers, simply because they were Asian American.  So I would look at people like David Tao, Jin, or others andwhen that wasn’t enough, I would try to find little local performers. It’s especially fun and rewarding for me to see these little grassroots movements and performances, like the Far*East Movement, Epik High, and Kollaboration, expand into something this big and wonderful. Two shows in May/June… [...] Continue »

As a college freshman, I learned two basic rules about the college life about half a week or so into my first semester. 1) Academics measures as a minor part of the college experience and 2) Alcohol is near inescapable on any campus. Now the first one might be specific to my college experience, but I can say with a near guarantee that the latter is a prevalent fact at all universities throughout the states. [...] Continue »

This past weekend, Korean Hip-Hop group Epik High independently released their new book/album Map the Soul via their website.  Similar to Radiohead’s release of In Rainbows which was released on their website and allowed each fan to pay as little or as much as they want, the release of Map the Soul is a celebration of their fans, the freedom of independent music, and the arts.  It’s quickly been heralded as a success for those [...] Continue »

Being a liberal in California meant that last November 4th was, unlike most of the rest of the United States, a bittersweet day that represented not only hope, on the part of Barack Obama (or, as I like to call him, Prez Barry), but also despair. Proposition 8 was the most highly recognized state proposition of three (the other two were in Arizona and Florida) that would oppose the legal union of couples of the [...] Continue »