8 Asians

Why yes, this would be fellow 8Asians bloggers Joz and Jee, and here they are in a video promotion with Steve Nguyen to promote BANANA, the FIRST-EVER gathering and round-table discussion/panel of Asian American bloggers at the USC campus on November 21st. I’d go into more detail, but event creator Lac Su explains it all the more eloquently (he did write a book, after all):

BANANA, [is] where we will get into important discussions about the future of our voice, where it will lead to, and how we can come together to find common grounds and focused endeavors to voice our opinions about relevant issues affecting our community. Why? Because the time is a-changing. We rise.

Steve Nguyen, a television/film producer and head of the Los Angeles ChannelAPA.com division, will be there to co-host and capture the event on film to help promote our voices and to introduce the faces behind such blogs.

Unfortunately, Joz will be in Asia during the event, so attendees will have to put up with grumpy, cynical me traveling down from San Francisco to be one of three 8Asians representatives. Whether this event is an Asian love-fest or an all-out shouting match is anyone’s guess, and if you’re in the Los Angeles area, you’re more than welcome to attend and watch what happens.

When you’re the parent of a toddler, there’s something you share with the parents of all the other young children out there in the world. You know who Dora the Explorer is, and you can probably name most of her extended family as well. Dora is an interesting cross-over phenomenon because every pre-schooler knows her, regardless of their race, ethnicity or primary language. It’s because of Dora, my daughter speaks more Spanish than she does Chinese. Given the widespread success of Dora, it was no surprise when Nickelodeon announced a new children’s cartoon, Ni Hao, Kai-Lan featuring a character who speaks Chinese (Mandarin) words sprinkled in with her English.

Ni Hao, Kai-Lan has been around since February of 2008, and has only recently started to gain in popularity. The show features a pre-school aged Chinese girl, named Kai-lan, her animal friends, and her grandfather, Ye-ye. The show not only sprinkles in Chinese words here and there, it also occasionally sings songs in Chinese. I’ve put the show on for my daughter since it aired, trying to get her to pick up more Chinese, but she still favors Dora to Kai-lan. The recent introduction of Kai-lan toys and clothes wear by Target has helped move her closer to the Kai-lan camp. (And my buying her those toys and clothes hasn’t hurt either.)

I’m hoping the introduction of a new episode, titled Kai-Lan’s Great Trip to China will move her even closer. My daughter’s started asking about going to China (since I’ve gotten her to self-identify as Chinese), and I think this episode will really interest her. Right now her favorite episode, features Ye-ye singing the Chinese nursery rhyme about two tigers (the one sung to the tune of Frère Jacques). She loves it because I sing that song to her, and it’s the only song I know in Chinese.

So if you got a little one, you can join Kai-lan as she travels across China to find presents for Baby Panda’s naming party, when it airs on August 14, 2009 at 10:00AM (ET/PT) on Nickelodeon.

A friend of mine from business school just co-founded her new business and launched the website My Panda Paws, a great idea that others might be interested in. Started by two Chinese American moms who were born overseas married to “Chinese school dropout husbands” and have five young boys between the two them, they wanted to find products to help teach Chinese and connect their children with their heritage:

“My Panda Paws is determined to bring some Chinese into your family! We carry a large selection of high quality childrens books, DVDs, arts and crafts, and other related products to help you educate your children about the language and culture. We pick the BEST of the best products to make it easier for you and your children, and many of our products feature characters and subjects that you are already familiar with. Whether you are looking for something for yourself, or a gift for a birthday party or a baby shower, we are sure you will be more than satisfied.”

I’m not a parent nor do I have any children, but I do have quite a few Taiwanese and Chinese American friends who are parents and instantly saw the potential market need for such a site. Even in the Bay Area, I’m not sure where one might find a large selection of Chinese language learning materials, let alone outside of California.

As a kid, I had to go to Chinese school – usually Saturday mornings and then later, Sunday mornings when we went to a different school. I used to hate going to Chinese school because I would miss Saturday morning cartoons, have to wake up early and drive 30 to 45 minutes to the Chinese school. And to be honest, the classes were boring and having to memorize Chinese characters was quite arduous and challenging. I’d often rely on “bo-po-mo-fo” to be able to properly pronounce and “read” the Chinese characters associated with the phonetics. Any additional resources for kids are definitely helpful.

You can use the coupon code “paws” for a 15% discount, which is good until 8/15.

 

 POP 88 #34 - Night It Up!/ Prize Giveaway: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (829)

Happy Canada Day and 4th of July Everyone! Hope everyone is BBQ-d out!

This episode plays all new music from One Two, Girl’s Generation and Karen Mok. Plus listen for your chance to win a POP 88 T-Shirt in our prize giveaway contest.

Links mentioned in this episode:
Night Market – Night It Up!
J-Otic: http://j-otic.podomatic.com/

If you like what you hear, please show your support by supporting the artists and buy their CDs and DVDs using the links provided on this site.

For any requests, comments, suggests, dedications or feedback, feel free to leave a comment at Popcast88.com or send an email to christine [at] popcast88.com.

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You know, it’s too bad that a couple of bad apples can spoil the entire barrel. After two years of relatively drama free comments, the past couple of days have seen a spike in especially hateful comments towards the people who write on this blog. And while I’m all for setting up an environment for debate and all for displaying the opinions of people will disagree, something I absolutely won’t stand for are personal threats and attacks.

As a result, we’ve made the following changes on 8Asians.com:

• All comments on 8Asians.com are now maintained through disqus, where you must be a registered member to post. To become a registered member, you can log in through your Facebook account or twitter.
• We are now going to ban inappropriate commenters more often. All comments on 8Asians.com can now be flagged to moderators, and all comments are subject to moderation, as determined by our comment policy: We have the right to ban comments such as, but not limited to, personal attacks, hate speech, defamatory remarks, commercial advertisements (e.g., spam), or deemed anonymous (written using a fake e-mail address), vapid, off-topic, and infecund may be subject to restrictions at 8A’s discretion. There will be no warning and no appeal process.

Again, I’m all for people who disagree; the whole reason I started 8Asians was to get a wide variety of blog posts on a bunch of different topics from people of different mindsets. But for Christs sake, don’t be a troll; own your opinions and don’t hide behind a fake hotmail account.

(Flickr photo credit: Mysserli)

Most PBS stations will air tonight (May 27, 2009) a 90 minute showing of American Masters, titled Hollywood Chinese, produced in 2008. The film covers a century of Chinese involvement in Hollywood cinema. The film is produced, directed, written and edited by Academy Award nominated filmmaker Arthur Dong (former San Franciscan and current resident of Los Angeles).

A short description from the PBS website:

American feature films often portray the Chinese as exotic and devious characters – or simply the “other” – reflecting the entertainment industry’s inherent racial prejudices as well as its fascination with the Far East. Hollywood Chinese features candid interviews and back lot stories from artists in front of and behind the camera, including Joan Chen, James Hong, David Henry Hwang, Nancy Kwan, Ang Lee, Christopher Lee, Justin Lin, Luise Rainer, Amy Tan, Wayne Wang, and BD Wong.

The documentary chronicles the full gamut of Chinese representation in Hollywood. It brings to light the controversial yellowface casting of Luise Rainer in The Good Earth (1937) and the stereotyped caricatures played by Chinese American actors such as James Hong in Bloodsport 2 & 3 (1996 and 1996). It also addresses the eventual trend of Asian empowerment in films such as Flower Drum Song (1961) staring Nancy Kwan and the film-adaptation of Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club (1993) directed by Wayne Wang.

This documentary has already received positive reviews, and should be well worth watching if you have an interest in Asians in cinema.