Posts by Efren
Efren is a 30-something queer Filipino American guy living in San Francisco. In the past, he was a wanna-be academic even teaching in Asian American studies at San Francisco State, a wanna-be queer rights and HIV activist, and he used to "blog" when that meant spewing one's college student angst using a text editor on a terminal screen to write in a BBS or usenet back in the early 90s. For all his railing against the model minority myth, he's realized he's done something only a few people can claim--getting into UCSF twice, once for a PhD program in medical sociology which he left; and then for pharmacy school, where he'll be a member of the class of '13. He apologizes profusely for setting the bar unintentionally high for his cousins. blog twitter
Filipino Government Passes Bill Against “Filipino Time”
In yet another example of misplaced priorities, the Filipino House of Representatives recently passed a bill to force all government offices to display the official Philippine government time or PST (which presumably stands for Philippine Standard Time). Given that Filipinos are notorious for being late, with the common joke being to add at least half an hour to the agreed time, it might be a step in the right direction, but given all the other [...] Continue »
UCSF honors Japanese American students interned during World War II
In the first move of its kind since the early 1970s, the University of California at San Francisco has given honorary degrees to 68 Japanese American students who were forced to leave the campus because of the internment of West Coast-based Japanese Americans during World War II after the Japanese invaded Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The UC system had originally imposed a moratorium since 1972 on giving honorary degrees, and considering that many [...] Continue »
Newsflash: Some Asian Men Cheat on their Partners
Ever since the Internet has been available to Asian Americans, we’ve heard random shit about Asian American men: They’re effeminate. They’re child abusers. They’re wife beaters. They’re undesirable to women (or men, for that matter). They’re drunkards. They’re socially inept nerds who prefer playing WoW or D&D than having actual conversations in real life, where the sun shines. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that we have yet another stereotype to be aware (or proud?) [...] Continue »
Filipino Typhoon Relief Impasse Caused by Politics
Over the past few weeks, the Philippines has been attacked relentlessly by typhoons that have caused the worst flooding in Metro Manila in decades as well as flooding all over the northern island of Luzon. As a result, relief efforts by Filipinos all over the globe have been begun to aid those who need it the most. Unfortunately, politics has reared its ugly head. In a politically ugly–but unfortunately unsurprising–move, the Filipino government has threatened [...] Continue »
George Takei and Brad Altman to be on Newlywed Game
George Takei, most well known for being Sulu in the original Star Trek, and currently for being a prominent activist for queer rights and in the Asian American community, will be competing with his partner on the Newlywed Game, a first for same-sex couples on the show made famous in the 1960s where newly married couples were quizzed on how well they knew each other. Even though George and his partner, Brad Altman, have been together [...] Continue »
Tropical Storm Ketsana/Ondoy devastates Metro Manila
Over the past few days, tropical storm Ketsana (known as Ondoy in the Philippines) has devastated the northern Philippines, with Metro Manila taking the brunt of the storm. Manila took in 12 hours the amount of rain it usually gets during the entire month of September, more than the amount of rain that fell in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina’s height, overwhelming drains, and stranding thousands of people on roofs of houses and tops of [...] Continue »
Daniel Liu Featured on NPR
Joz’s cousin Daniel Liu — yes, THAT cousin — who’s been featured quite prominently on our blog and various other Asian Am blogs for being the newest male supermodel, was interviewed by NPR. In this audio interview, he talks about his new career, and the buzz that’s being generated. And, no, contrary to popular belief, 8Asians.com is NOT the homepage for Joz’s cousin, though we are looking for hunky Asian male vloggers willing to bare [...] Continue »
What is Beautiful?
Back in 1997, when I first met my most recent ex, one of the biggest trends among queer Asian men in SF was bleaching one’s hair blond. Lest it be seen as a knee-jerk reaction to queer people of color wanting to be white to be more accepted by queer white people like I discussed previously, it was actually very popular among Asian men who identified as preferring other Asian men. Despite the burning scalp, [...] Continue »
Shi Pei Pu, The Original “M. Butterfly”, Dies at Age 70
Shi Pei Pu, the inspiration of David Henry Hwang‘s acclaimed play, M. Butterfly, was reported by the New York Times to have died recently at the age of 70 years in Paris. Shi Pei Pu and his lover, Bernard Bouriscot, an accountant working for the French embassy in Beijing, were convicted by France in the mid 1980s for espionage after Bouriscot was caught giving French documents to the Chinese after the Chinese government found out [...] Continue »
Asians Behaving Badly: Japanese American Woman Sues Because Crunch Berries Aren’t Real Berries
Got this link from SFGate and Lowering the Bar, where a judge recently threw out a lawsuit by a Janine Sugawara from San Diego because she believed that the Cap’n Crunch cereal Crunch Berries contained actual fruit called crunch berries. According to the blog posts, Sugawara admitted that close inspection of the box stated that the “crunch berries” weren’t actual berries, and the box itself states that it only contains cereal and never states that [...] Continue »
RIP Ronald Takaki (1939-2009)
It was announced by Ronald Takaki’s family that famous Asian American historian committed suicide after a twenty year struggle with multiple sclerosis. You can read the obituary from the LA Times here. Ron Takaki was a hero of mine when I first started taking Asian American studies in 1993, having read his famous textbook Strangers from a Different Shore, one of the first widely distributed textbooks on Asian American history. I also used the text [...] Continue »
Newsflash: Non-Asian Americans Still Can’t Tell Us Apart!
In a stunning revelation, the Committee of 100 just published a report about Chinese Americans and Asian Americans stating that Americans who aren’t Asian can’t tell us apart. What’s interesting to note is that this group had done a similar study back in 2001 and found that the findings in 2009 were almost identical to the ones in 2001. Among the surprising findings is that 74% of non-Asian American survey respondents believed that Asians comprise [...] Continue »
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