8 Asians

By Jasmine Jia June 4, 2013: It is raining in Beijing. It never fails to rain on June 4th, almost every year since 1989. A Chinese idiom, 老天有眼 (lao3 tian1 you3 yan3) means that God has finally spoken out Himself. The idiom is used to express many citizens’ and students’ opinion on how the Chinese government handled the June 4th-led political demonstration. Tiananmen Square was just a vague picture for me since I was in [...] Continue »

By Nithin Coca “The undignified mania of trying to adapt and assimilate, which happens among many of my social standing, has always been very repulsive to me.” Albert Einstein Einstein – a celebrity among Asians – is the most famous scientist in modern history, who used his splendid mind to destroy preconceptions. Among his many contributions to science are the discovery of the photoelectric effect, proof the existence of the atom, and the development of [...] Continue »

With May being Asian Pacific American heritage month, there are plenty of Asian American heroes to celebrate. But the majority of Americans may have overlooked the Asian American activism of one very prominent American hero–Mark Twain. Lauded as the father of American literature, few know that one of Twain’s first written, rejected, and finally published articles was a satiric criticism of the poor treatment of Chinese Americans in the 1800s, “Disgraceful Persecution of a Boy”, [...] Continue »

Have you been to Manzanar? If not, go. Go soon. It is worth the trip on so many levels. I had the good fortune and opportunity to visit Manzanar National Historic Monument this past spring. First, the ride there.

Superstition and fortune telling has a long history in Chinese culture. I’ve written about some of my family’s own experiences with a fortune teller in The Chopstick Story with regard to how an aunt and and an uncle of mine were given away for adoption due to the predictions of a fortune teller. Some have questioned how my grandmother could have so strongly believed the predictions of a fortune teller to give away her own [...] Continue »

UPDATE 5/22/2013: Congrats! Richard Man has been selected as the winner! It’s the last week that the Asian Art Museum is exhibiting its Terracotta Warrior exhibit. Be part of a special group event organized by Datepress, which includes a private showing for a small group followed by dinner arranged for each couple / pair afterwards. Grab your partner and travel to the Qin-era where you will enjoy wine and appetizers before a guided tour of [...] Continue »

So, if you haven’t read Joz’s post about the UC Irvine frat debacle, Lambda Theta Delta at UC Irvine, an Asian American Fraternity, has suspended its own status as a UC Irvine organization for one year, until fall 2014 because of the racist blackface video made to promote one of its school events. Clearly, those kids need to take responsibility for their egregiously stupid actions. However, I’m going to stretch this one and blame it [...] Continue »

It’s hard to imagine that an Asian American more than 40 years ago performed in  four Billboard top 10 hits, including two #1 songs and one #2, but Larry Ramos of the folk/soft rock group The Association, actually achieved that.  Ramos was a co-lead vocalist on Windy, which topped the charts four 4 weeks.   He was also a co-lead on Never My Love, which was the second most played song on radio in Television [...] Continue »

If you would guess the first Asian or Asian American music act to make the Billboard Hot 100, you might think of Jay Sean, Bruno Mars, or the Far East Movement, but the earliest I know about is The Rocky Fellers, whose hit Killer Joe reached 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1963.  The Rocky Fellers were made up of four brothers, Tony, Junior, Eddie, and Albert Maligmat, and their father, Doroteo.  I learned about [...] Continue »

Chiura Obata had only planned to stop by in America before going to going on to Paris to continue his career as an artist. He ended up settling permanently in San Francisco, California. His list of accomplishments as an Asian American follow that great Old West tradition of trailblazing. He drew some of the few onsite sketches of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. He also co-founded the first Japanese American baseball team on the mainland [...] Continue »

MMA fighter Chan Sung Jung (aka The Korean Zombie) has asked UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre (aka GSP), to stop using the rising sun gi shown to the right.  In an open letter posted on Jung’s FaceBook page, Jung says that the logo represents Japanese militarism and is offensive to Koreans and other Asians.  Here is an excerpt: Dear Mr. Georges St. Pierre Hi, My name is Chan Sung Jung from South Korea. As [...] Continue »

Iwao and Hanaye Matsushita were a loving Japanese husband and wife. Their favorite passtime? Hiking the beautiful Mt. Ranier National Park. To them, it was not just their home away from home, not just a towering reminder of great Mt. Fuji in the land of their birth. If home is where the heart is, both of their linked hearts resided at Mt. Ranier. The Matsushitas hiked there every weekend they could and lovingly documented their [...] Continue »