8 Asians

I’m going to let you behind-the-scenes here at 8Asians: Publishers who have any content featuring Asians usually approach the site looking for some publicity with the APIA audience. The requests are then sent out on our internal email list, I usually see them and almost all of them don’t interest me. However, when I saw the words, “graphic novel,” and “strong African American heroine” I wanted to give it a read. And I’m thankful that […] Continue »

Author’s note: I originally wrote this story 2013 for a children’s book about the Japanese American World War II experience. I published it on 8Asians in 2014. However, with the recent events and rhetoric surrounding our presidential election, I started becoming worried that the events of this short story could happen again—not to Japanese American but to Muslim and Arab Americans. I wanted to reimagine these events if they happened today to help make sure […] Continue »

Author’s note: I originally wrote this story 2013 for a children’s book about the Japanese American World War II experience. I published it on 8Asians in 2014. However, with the recent events and rhetoric surrounding our presidential election, I started becoming worried that the events of this short story could happen again—not to Japanese American but to Muslim and Arab Americans. I wanted to reimagine these events if they happened today to help make sure […] Continue »

Author’s note: I originally wrote this story 2013 for a children’s book about the Japanese American World War II experience. I published it on 8Asians in 2014. However, with the recent events and rhetoric surrounding our presidential election, I started becoming worried that the events of this short story could happen again—not to Japanese American but to Muslim and Arab Americans. I wanted to reimagine these events if they happened today to help make sure […] Continue »

This is a video I believe every Asian American–heck, every American–should see. In it, the Honorable Ron Dellums from Oakland gave one of the most stirring speeches about the effects of the taking of Japanese Americans had on people outside of the Japanese American community. No matter how times I watch it, I tear up when I hear him describing his crying out when his best friend was taken away. During this time of fear, […] Continue »

Tila Tequila became famous for being a MySpace model and somehow turned that into a reality TV career. I had forgotten about her when this news story came out: Here are her tweets, which seem to get progressively worse:  

I’ve always seen myself as a Tiger dad. I know saying that has a lot of negative connotations. But I have big dreams for my toddler. First, he’s going to get into Harvard, then either make the NBA or play Major League Baseball, whichever pays him more. After a hall of fame career, he’ll transition into politics where he’ll be the first Asian American president. That’s why when the book “Beyond the Tiger Mom” by […] Continue »

I admit it, I’m a popaholic and I’m proud. Not sure what that is? It’s a person who loves watching videos of pimples, cysts, blackheads. The bigger, the better. For a long long long time, I never told anyone. I mean, once in a while, it slipped out. I’d show my wife a video that I liked. Her disgusted face was enough to reinforce that I shouldn’t share my love/fascination with anyone else. My wife is […] Continue »

With the recent ATR-72 TransAsia Airways plane crash in Taiwan and the Asian airplane tragedies in the last couple of years, I thought it was important for me to weigh in on the question of whether Asians pilots can fly airplanes. Before I get started, I’m going to go on a huge limb here and say that this is a dumb stereotype that is related to the equally dumb stereotype that Asians can’t drive. (I address […] Continue »

“How Much Do You Love Me?” by Paul Mark Tag is the kind of novel I usually hate. Here’s the Amazon.com synopsis: It’s December 1941, and the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor. Politicians fuel anti-Japanese hysteria and campaign to segregate Japanese Americans. During this period of hate and racial frenzy, Keiko and James, a Japanese American and a Caucasian, fall in love and marry. Before long, James goes off to war and Keiko to an […] Continue »

Those who know me know I’m a sci-fi/fantasy geek. When I was younger, I used to only read the classics. I think it was partly because I felt as though I should read those and wanted to look smart when I understood a reference that no one else got. But as I’ve gotten older, I don’t really care about any of that anymore. I pretty much read every zombie and vampire book I can get my […] Continue »

I’m working on a screenplay and one of the films my co-writer asked me to watch was Flower Drum Song. As my writing partner noted, it is “perhaps the only mainstream musical with all Asian American characters.” The sad thing is that he was right. The closet thing I could think of was the King & I. And that play wasn’t all Asian American. So over the holidays I watched the 1961 Universal –International film starring […] Continue »