8 Asians

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 »

This was originally published at LA Stage Times and has been republished at 8Asians with the author’s permission. Christmas in Hanoi is currently running at East West Players at David Henry Hwang Theater, 120 Judge John Aiso St., Los Angeles. Wed-Sat 8 pm, Sun 2 pm. Ends March 10. $26-$36. 213-625-7000. By Eddie Borey My parents never talked about the War. My mother was born in Vietnam. My father, Irish-Catholic from upstate New York, met [...] Continue »

George Aratani, a survivor of the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and later successful businessman and philanthropist who founded Mikasa and Kenwood, passed away Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at the age of 95. His legacy in philanthropy through The Aratani Foundation has supported many Japanese American organizations, but especially in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. One literally cannot walk a block in Little Tokyo without passing by a space endowed by George and [...] Continue »

Today, February 19, marks the 71st anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066, which is responsible for sending approximately 120,000 Japaneses Americans to remote camps throughout the United States — two-thirds of whom were American citizens. To commemorate this infamous event, I wanted to post the text from the actual executive order for people to read and reflect: Executive Order No. 9066 The President Executive Order Authorizing the Secretary of War to Prescribe Military Areas Whereas [...] Continue »

The George Masa mentioned by President Obama in the above video (9:00) was originally born as Masahara Iisuka in Japan in 1882. After his father’s death, he came to the United States to study engineering at the University of California. Although he worked as an engineer in Colorado, he moved to Asheville, North Carolina, to wash laundry at Grove Park Inn. There he went on mountain tours with the Carolina Mountain Club and fell in [...] Continue »