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
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 »
Tattoos in China Become Popular (or: Exoticizing Stupid in Any Language)
I’m sure all of my fellow Asian Americans under a certain age have seen this — a non-Asian person with tattoos in different Asian languages like Chinese and Japanese because they’re in an exotic language that they don’t understand. It’s kinda painful when someone who’s fluent in these languages have to point out that the words in the tattoo can sometimes be completely wrong — and mean something totally different and offensive (like our esteemed leader [...] Continue »
Oregon Needs Asian Sperm!
To my fellow Asian men: Found yourself out of a job? Need a quick way to make some cash while maintaining your dignity — and making women happy? If you’re close to Oregon Health Sciences University, a lab might have the perfect part-time job for you: Sperm donor. According to Portland’s KGW News, the head of OHSU’s Reproductive Lab, Dr. David Battaglia, has seen a sizable increase in the demand for Asian sperm as Asian [...] Continue »
“Asian Flush” Means Higher Risk for Different Cancers
So during one of my recent pharmacy school interviews, I was asked about the future of pharmacy. After I mentioned about how pharmacogenomics, or how genetics influences drug metabolism, will be used to help create drugs to benefit people of color, the professor who was interviewing me said sheepishly, “Uh, the only thing that I know about pharmacogenomics and people of color is the Asian flush.” I ended up getting accepted. The “Asian flush” is [...] Continue »
Women (from Hong Kong) Behaving Badly…
I’m sure most of you lovely readers have seen the infamous YouTube clip of the woman from Hong Kong who went bat-shit crazy after missing her flight: Now comes the sequel: Hong Kong woman goes bat-shit crazy after finding out she can’t have shark fin soup (thanks very much to Campusfork as well as YvesPaul for providing the link). Given that the sharks that go into making shark fin soup are being overfished, I think [...] Continue »
Granta.com’s “Portraits of My Father”
From Granta.com comes a beautifully written piece by Alexander Chee on his father, which is actually a series of recollections on authors and their fathers. I don’t think there’s anything more that needs to be said by me since I’d just give it away. Just read it. It made me wonder how I’d write about my own dad. Given that he is unusually taciturn, even for Asian American dads–I’ve gotten used to having whole conversations [...] Continue »
UC Berkeley Students Protest Panda Express
While catching up on my twitter feeds, I noticed a rather interesting article from rayfilwong‘s blog, Campusfork: UC Berkeley students protest Panda Express. Apparently a group of 40 students last week protested after Panda Express expressed interest in setting up a restaurant on campus, though given the take from SFGate and the Daily Californian, there was no one unifying reason why there was so much hubbub over this. Varying reasons such as it being a [...] Continue »
Tonga Room in San Francisco Possibly Closing?
SFGate.com just announced that the Tonga Room in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco could possibly be closing soon as the hotel considers converting much of its space into condos (which in this economy doesn’t make much sense, but I digress). While on the surface this may not have much to do with Asian Americans, the Tonga Room is one of the last vestiges of an era gone by for Asian American nightclub performers in [...] Continue »
New UC Admissions Policy Could Exclude More Asian Americans
As the University of California attempts to increase the diversity of its undergraduate student body by including more Latinos and blacks without violating the terms laid out in Proposition 209 that eliminated affirmative action in California public institutions, a novel solution has been proposed: eliminate the SAT subject exams as an admissions requirement. Considering that UC has also attempted in the past to eliminate the more popular SAT reasoning test to much controversy, on the [...] Continue »
The Onion Enters White Guy/Asian Girl Fray
Check out this great article by The Onion: Asian Teen Has Sweaty Middle Aged Man Fetish. They went there and did it — and really, does anything more need to be said? (At least by me, anyway.) Now, discuss.
New Zealanders like Asians!
A good close friend in New Zealand (that’s by Australia to all you geographically challenged folk) pointed me to an article from the New Zealand Herald declaring that New Zealanders like Asians! In rather broad strokes (and the rather odd picture from the Asians that was included in the online article), the article talks about the positive impact that Asians have had in New Zealander culture, stating that Asians bring “much needed cultural diversity” and [...] Continue »
Aretha’s Inauguration Hat Propels Korean American to Fashion Limelight
Love it or hate it, Aretha Franklin’s “church hat” during President Obama’s inauguration ceremony has been the talk of the net worldwide, with the hat being placed on random victims, here, there and everywhere, even spawning a Facebook group. But did you know that the designer is a Korean American from Detroit? Luke Song, designer of his family owned business, Mr. Song Millinery, is a Detroit native and graduate of Parsons in New York, and [...] Continue »
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- Rolling Stone Releases List Of 10 Kpop Groups Most Likely To Break In The US
- Watch Yul Kwon’s “America Revealed” PBS Series Online
- LA County Supervisor To Announce Repeal Of 1942 Resolution On Japanese American Internment
- Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Gets A New Asian Wife!
- Koji’s Top 10 Favorite 8Asians Comments
- Nguyen Girls’ Yearbook Prank: No, We’re Not Related
- Long Delayed K-Town Reality Show To Be Released On YouTube In July
Recent Comments
- : i'm not surprised they removed peter le from the cast – Long Delayed K-Town Reality Show To Be Released On YouTube In July
- : one more thing - how dare you use the term foi-boi in the same paragraph you say you want to help break down stupid stereotypes. ... – Is The Social Network's Asian Fetish Acceptable?
- : Thanks to everyone that is truly colorblind.. Proactive Procreation - we just have to become one race so we can start hating on ppl for... – Is The Social Network's Asian Fetish Acceptable?
- : Hugh.. please don't help us. Your comments are actually offensive and not helpful at all. If you were a Korean woman you would know why... – Is The Social Network's Asian Fetish Acceptable?
- : ahaha this post is hilarious - my dad is white as a swan but he does the long pinkie nail thing too! He's a musician... – Asian Guys and that One Long Pinky Fingernail
APA Events
Oct 14: (Seattle, WA) From Fields to Family: Asian Pacific Americans and Food
Mar 1: (Atlanta, GA) The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946
Apr 26: (New York, NY) June 4, 1989: Media and Mobilization Beyond Tiananmen Square
Apr 26: (New York, NY) America through a Chinese Lens
Apr 27: (Seattle, WA) SEX IN SEATTLE 20: HAPPILY EVER AFTER. . . (the series finale!)
May 24: (San Jose, CA) Sake San Jose
May 24: (New York, NY) A Conversation with artists Arthur Ou, Hai Zhang, and Julie Quon in Conjunction with America through a Chinese Lens
May 24: (San Francisco, CA) Literasians 2012: Writers Converge on the APIA Literary Continuum
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