8 Asians

I’ve had my eyes on ‘The Warlords’ since it was released in Asia as The Blood Brothers (投名狀 / tóu míng zhuàng) in 2007. Directed by Peter Chan, this spectacular historical action film is set in the midst of war and political upheaval during the Taiping Rebellion of the 1860s. Based loosely on real events in Chinese history, it stars Jet Li as General Pang, who barely survives a brutal massacre of his fellow soldiers [...] Continue »

UPDATE: Congrats to our winners! Thanks to all who entered, but kudos to Confuse_Us, whose comment was long, complex, and orginal and ngatruong, whose comment was short, simple, and genuine! This isn’t an April Fools joke, yo! Thanks to the generosity of Lac Su, the author of “I Love Yous Are For White People,” we’ve got another great giveaway for 8Asians readers. So if you haven’t followed our advice to read Lac’s memoirs, or if [...] Continue »

We received a link from a reader who thought that Ernie was kidding in this conversation with Rosemary about Filipino names but realized he wasn’t when she saw this link featuring a Filipina girl named Belldandy whose parents dress her up in cosplay outfits.   What kind of parent names their kid Belldandy?”   A Filipino parent of course!  (And also a manga fan, as Belldandy is a character in the manga Oh My Goddess!).  Filipino parents [...] Continue »

While watching The Amazing Race on my DVR, I had to quickly rewind to see what I thought I had seen. Target has done it again, this time with a new television commercial featuring an all Asian American cast featuring an over-protective mom named Wendy as she keeps an eye on her teenage daughter and her new boyfriend. I really hope this ad is airing in other markets besides the Bay Area and California, as [...] Continue »

I was intrigued when I first read Jennifer’s post over at Mixed Race America on things we avoid just to avoid perpetuating a stereotype. For example, when you’re at the food court in the mall, do you avoid going to the Asian food stands, because it would help perpetuate the stereotypes that Asians eat rice (and other Asian foods)? I bring up that specific example, because when I went to college in Philadelphia, my roommate, [...] Continue »

I realize that the 2010 Winter Olympics ended last week, and you might not care, but I do, so I’m going to keep on writing about it until the cows come home. Whatever that means. I love the Olympics. We already covered that. My second favorite Winter Olympic sport is Short Track Speed Skating. My fandom of this sport is in large part to a certain cutie named Apolo Ohno who makes speed skating look [...] Continue »

We’ve had movie versions of Mortal Kombat that was kinda campy but watchable, and we’ve had movie versions of Street Fighter which were pretty bad to downright terrible. Now video gaming males from ages 18-35 — and Moye, ha ha — can rest tight knowing that there’s going to be a movie about everyone’s favorite four button fighting game that incorporates corporations and demon possession, Tekken. Tekken will be centered around Jin Kazama, played by [...] Continue »

Recently, the Taiwanese American Citizens League (TACL), TaiwaneseAmerican.org, Taiwanese American Foundation, TACL-LYF: Leading Youth Forward, Taiwanese American Professionals – San Francisco (TAP-SF),  Taiwanese American Federation of Northern California helped produce this Public Service Announcement (PSA), advocating for all Taiwanese Americans to self-identify for the 2010 U.S. census taking place in April as “Other Asian” and write in “Taiwanese.” For more information about the PSA, check out http://taiwaneseamerican.org/census2010/ , where you can learn about the Taiwanese [...] Continue »

“What are you?” asked the Chinese graduate student, looking at me.  We had hired him and a Korean graduate student to intern in my research group.  They knew I was some kind of Asian but they couldn’t figure out what kind from my name and my appearance.   In the rarefied  academic world of research and graduate school, they had never encountered any fellow graduate students, researchers, or professors who were Filipino. I wasn’t surprised.  When [...] Continue »

A recent press conference by Golden Boy Productions about the Floyd Mayweather / Shane Mosley fight allowed media groups access to the press conference… except for Filipino media. Did they fear answering the possible questions that would arise about Mayweather’s and his team’s actions towards Manny Pacquiao? I shake my head at this — xenophobia towards my brethren is not tolerated. This is not 1920’s Stockton California, when Filipinos weren’t allowed to go into certain [...] Continue »

So I guess 2010 won’t be the year of the Asian American Idol with 21 year old John Park being voted off the show last night with 3 other contestants. Even though I’m not one of those AI fanatics who text in their votes every week, I was still excited to see Park’s singing skills on the reality show because hey, who doesn’t love a good looking Korean male crooning songs on live television? I [...] Continue »

I love to cook. I take Italian cooking class (making my own ricotta cheese!), love watching the Food Network and make pizza, bread, cakes and homemade ice cream during the weekends. Korean cooking, on the other hand, has always been a source of trepidation for me. My experience in learning Korean cuisine brings back memories of catastrophic cooking scenes in my college apartment, where I’m sweating over a smoking pan on top of a stove, [...] Continue »