By Emily,

My name is Emily and I am the Publicity and Media Director of Team Janet. After Janet was diagnosed with leukemia in 2009, she and her closest friends immediately set up a website to encourage people to register to be bone marrow donors and to promote awareness about the dearth of minority donors. I became involved by volunteering to help with registration drives in Northern California. After Janet went into remission in June 2010, Team Janet disbanded.

Janet’s relapse in December 2011 brought about the need for a larger, more cohesive team.

New volunteers were recruited, including a new CEO (as Janet herself does not have the energy to oversee the entire campaign), regional coordinators, web designers, photographers, and a media contact. All current team members are Janet’s personal friends and people she trusts. Some of us know each other well, and some of us have never met, but we are all in constant contact with one another.
Janet is a very shy person, which is why I was surprised to see how she publicly laid her emotions bare in her wrenching plea for help. She recorded and uploaded the video herself, without any input from her team, and the results were astounding. My heart nearly shattered when I saw the video, because Janet is someone I love, but I never thought the public would react just as strongly as I did. I was awed to see that Janet had the ability to touch the hearts of complete strangers.

One such stranger ingeniously uploaded Janet’s video to Reddit, and her video was featured on the front page. The “likes” on the Helping Janet Facebook page jumped to over 1,000 within that day. The Reddit post was the beginning of the swell of awareness, and I will forever be indebted to the man who launched us to large-scale Internet recognition. Another stranger, dancer/singer Victor Kim, used his Facebook, YouTube channel, and Twitter to promote Janet’s campaign. He hosted a bone marrow registry drive at UC Irvine and sold a song on iTunes as a fundraiser for Janet. Janet has never met Victor. No one from Team Janet reached out to him to ask for his help, but his feverish crusade to help Janet find her match is one that has inspired countless individuals to do the same.

Since the Reddit post, we have had thousands of people – ordinary citizens, celebrities, newspapers, radio stations, and television news – help promote our campaign. We now have over 8,700 likes on Facebook, and we are growing every day. We at Team Janet are so grateful for all the support, love, and prayers, but Janet still has not found her match, and she still needs help. Please continue to spread the word and encourage people to register, especially people of Chinese descent.

Please help us keep the momentum going and save Janet’s life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I met Janet in September 2005, the very beginning of our freshman year at UCLA, and we have been close friends ever since. I am the Media and Publicity Director of Team Janet, so if you have media inquiries, please contact me at helpingjanet[at]gmail.com.

By Mina

20 years ago, Susan Matsuko Shinagawa’s surgeon told her that she didn’t need a biopsy, despite the fact that a sonogram had revealed the lump in her breast was a solid mass. Why? Because he thought that she was too young to have breast cancer, and because he was convinced that “Asian women don’t get breast cancer”. I’d never heard of this myth before, but maybe other APIAs have, because the CDC just came out with a study that shows that the Asian population in the US had significantly lower screening rates for breast, cervical, and colorectal (bowel) cancer compared to white and black populations in 2010.

64.1% of the Asians surveyed had been screened for breast cancer by mammography in the past 2 years, compared to a national average of 72.4%. For cervical cancer, 75.4% of the Asians surveyed had been screened for cervical cancer by Pap smear testing in the last 3 years (national average 83.0%). 41.3% of the Asians surveyed had been screened for colorectal cancer (national average 58.6%).

This study is especially relevant in the context of Komen announcing to end its funding for Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer examinations, referrals and education services (and then kind of taking it back?).  Cecile Richards, the president of Planned Parenthood explained that “Over the past five years, Komen funds have enabled Planned Parenthood health centers to provide nearly 170,000 clinical breast exams and referrals for more than 6,400 mammograms”. One of the Komen grants had also funded Planned Parenthood’s outreach to the Vietnamese community through breast health education in hair and nail salons. Let’s hope that the public response and pressures can convince Komen to continue funding these breast health services!

My family and community never likes to talk about cancer, because it seems to be yet another taboo topic among Asian immigrant communities (at least the ones I’ve known). Which is probably why it never even occurred to me to get screened for breast cancer. But Susan Matsuko Shinagawa, a third-gen Japanese American woman, started to break through those taboos and myths 20 years ago by telling her story – and it still seems to be so relevant today. Is talking about breast cancer taboo in your families, too? Or is it just the people I know that absurdly seems to think that talking about cancer will somehow make us get cancer?

P.S. Of course, mammograms aren’t cheap, especially if one doesn’t have insurance. The CDC has some resources for uninsured and low-income women, though, so check them out!

ABOUT MINA: I’m a 20 year old first generation Japanese American born in New York, but I peaced out a year later. I spent most of my life in Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Two and a half years ago, I arrived in Philadelphia for college, back in the US for the first time in 17 years. Over time, I’ve come to identify as Japanese/Hong Kongnese immigrant, Asian American, (fierce) Womyn of Color… and since reading the guest post on 8Asians by Johnny C, as a Third Culture Kid.

Colorism, the bias that whiter skin is better, manifests itself in sales of skin whitening creams.  This video from CNN shows how these creams are marketed to both male and female Indians.   Filipinos are also plagued with colorism and are also consumers of skin whitening creams.  I have always thought that colorism and skin whitening were damaging to the the psyches of people of color.  It turns out that some whitening creams can be physically damaging too, and California health officials are investigating skin whiteners after a woman’s mercury poisoning.

Some skin whiteners include mercury because mercury inhibits the production of melanin, which gives skin its color.   Prolonged mercury exposure can lead to neurological problems and death.    The woman who was poisoned was a Latina woman who had gotten her skin whitener from relatives from Mexico.

California officials will be testing a sampling of skin whiteners for mercury.  They will be targeting business catering to three priority groups:  Chinese, Filipinos, and Latinos.   In 2010, the Chicago  Tribune found that six skin whitening products had mercury, and were manufactured in Lebanon, China, Taiwan, Indian, and Pakistan.

Janet Liang is a recent UCLA graduate of Chinese descent. On August 24, 2009, she was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia. In order to survive, she needs to find a bone marrow donor by April. The most likely match for a donor will be a Chinese American. The process of registering as a donor is easy, and testing if you are a match is a simple, painless cheek swab.

There are several big names in the APA community asking anyone out there to register as a donor and get tested in search of a match. Check them out after the jump.

Victor Kim from Quest Crew is hosting a jam at UC Irvine for those in the Southern California Area. He is also giving 100% of the revenue from iTunes sales of his song featuring rapper Dumbfoundead to help Janet search for a donor.

ISA, including KevJumba, Ryan Higa, Wong Fu Productions, and Far East Movement, are also shedding light on this cause, with this informative video about how much more as a community we could be involved to help find donors.

If you are interested in registering as a donor and getting tested to see if you are a match, please follow these links:

• HelpingJanet.com
• AADP
• A3M
• Join the Be The Match Registry for Team Janet

Thank you. Together, we can save a life.

There has been a long concerted effort to slowly chip away the rights of women’s reproductive rights since Roe v. Wade. Recently, Congress passed the “Let Women Die Bill” 251:170 HR358 where 250 members of Congress thought it okay to let a woman die in the ER rather than perform an abortion, tried to redefine rape as NOT rape if a woman was drunk, drugged or underage, and  passed a law that would basically result in no private insurance coverage of abortion even if women paid for the insurance with their own funds (currently 85% of private
insurance covers abortion). Click here to join the virtual march Dr. Yen is organizing or click here to learn more about this effort.

My 8Asians New Years resolution was to “continue to look for body parts on Asian Americans that I can objectify.” A friend on Facebook commented that she didn’t think I could find another body part to write about (since I’ve already written about Asian vaginas, breasts, penises, and butts). But she gives me too little credit. There are lots more body parts I can still write about!

Today, I want to discuss the male testicle. Specifically, do Asians have the smallest ones? I admit that I have not seen a lot of testicles. Pretty much only my own. So I’m by no means a testes expert. My “research” was confined to mostly what I could find on the Internet.

This has been the most challenging body part related article yet because there are a lot more scientific (and pseudo-scientific) websites I had to wade through. Some of which, I admit, probably went over my head. It should be noted that I am not a scientist, an anthropologist, an anatomists, or have any degree that would give me any expertise on the subject. But rather, I am just a layperson trying to make sense of all the information as best as I can.

The first place I went to is Yahoo! Answers because someone out there has probably asked the same question. I was not disappointed:

Which race has the largest testicles? My theory is that white men’s testicles are the largest, which explains why they also produce the most sperm. Any opinions?

The best answer (chosen by Voters) was:

Well, I am white and my ballroom is always full. However, I don’t really know about anyone else, perhaps you ought to do a study or a poll on it.

I think they were trying to be funny. They failed. But what interests me was one of the other answers:

That is false… I’m sorry but every race and person Is difference and yeah lol u wud say mexicans or African American lol not Asians there so small lol

I’m not 100% sure I understand what this person is trying to say (because the two statements seem contradictory) but what I take out of it is that he/she believes Asians have small testes. Apparently, that is the stereotype. Until I started looking into this, I didn’t realize it was a stereotype. Moreover, I didn’t realize having large testes was even desirable. Personally, I’ve never looked at my own and said, “Gee, I wish they were bigger.” But apparently a lot of people equate “manliness” with size of testes – which is just silly to me.

So what do other sites say about whether there is a correlation between race and testicle size? Surprisingly, there are a lot websites weighing in on this. Some of them are overtly racist and most are sketchy. There are far too many to try to link to. But here are a sampling of some of the more “interesting” ones (at least to me):

“Although measurements of testis size by orchidometry in living subjects are difficult to standardize, they suggest smaller testes in Japanese and Korean men than in Caucasians. Weighing at autopsy is more accurate and showed that the size was twofold lower in two Chinese samples compared with a Danish sample. Differences in body size make only a slight contribution to these values.” (Diamond, JM (1986) Variation in human testis size. Nature (London) 320: 488) [note: larger African testes supports promiscuous origins hypothesis, yet if African testosterone levels are higher, it refutes inverse relationship between sperm and T production] (Library of Excerpts: Sexual Organs and Heterochronic Theory)

Race differences in testicle size have also been measured (Asians = 9 grams, Europeans = 21 g). This is not just because Europeans have a slightly larger body size. The difference is too large. A 1989 article in Nature, the leading British science magazine, said that the difference in testicle size could mean that Whites make two times as many sperm per day as do Orientals. So far, we have no information on the relative size of Blacks. (Race, Evolution, and Behavior: A Life History Perspective. 2nd Special Abridged Edition.  Written by Professor J. Philippe Rushton University of Western Ontario.)

According to an article published in Nature, Japanese and Chinese men’s testicles tend to be smaller than those of Caucasian men, on average. The authors of the study concluded that “differences in body size make only a slight contribution to these values.” Other researches have confirmed these general trends, finding average combined testes weights of 24 grams for Asians, 29 to 33 grams for Caucasians, and 50 grams for Africans. Researches found “marked differences among samples, adult male Danes have testes that are more than twice the size of their Chinese equivalents, for example.” This range is far beyond what average racial differences in body size would predict Various estimates conclude that Cauacsians produce about twice the number of spermatozoa per day than Chinese (185-235 X 10 to the 6 power compared with 84 X 10 to the 6 power) (Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality By Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jethå, Page 241)

Even the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (which I didn’t know existed until I read this report) admits that race could play a factor:

Although ethnic and racial origin may influence testicular size, approximate ranges are as follows:

• Prepubertal testes are between 3 and 4 mL in volume and less than 2 cm long
• Peripubertal testes are between 4 and 15 mL in volume and more than 2 cm long
• Adult testes are usually between 20 and 30 mL in volume and from 4.5 to 6.5 cm long by 2.8 to 3.3 cm wide

(AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF CLINICAL ENDOCRINOLOGISTS
MEDICAL GUIDELINES FOR CLINICAL PRACTICE
FOR THE EVALUATION AND TREATMENT OF HYPOGONADISM
IN ADULT MALE PATIENTS—2002 UPDATE)

It should be noted that AACE uses the word “may” and they give ranges — which implies that it is not as clear cut as some of the others would have you believe.

No one is sure why exactly there are racial differences in testes (if they do indeed exist):

Short (1984) reported variation in human testis size in different races and commented on the absence of information concerning the anatomical reasons for this variation. (Dimensions and allometry of testes, epididymides and spermatozoa in the domestic dog (Canis familiaris by P. F. Woodall and I. P. Johnstone. Department of Veterinary Anatomy, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland 4067, Australia)

But there are lots of people who have hypotheses as to why it could be. Here is a sampling of some of them:

In these species large testis size correlates with, and was probably selected by, two factors: high copulatory frequency; and high probability that a female will mate with several males during one ovulatory cycle. (ref. 3) However, evidence that these factors vary between human populations is lacking. An explicit test revealed no relation between testis size and copulatory frequency in Korean men. (ref. 4) (Nature. 1986 Apr 10-16; 320(6062):488-9. Ethnic differences: Variation in human testis size. By Jared M. Diamond)

“More convincing vestiges of a sexual selective history in which females mated polyandrously can be found in the human male. Perhaps the clearest such vestige is testis size (Short, 1977). Men’s testes are substantially larger, relative to body size, than those of gorillas, a species in which males are polygynous but females mate monogamously so that “sperm competition” within the female reproductive tract is absent. (goes on to talk of chimpanzees) (Wilson, M., Daly, M. (1992) The man who mistook his wife for a chattel: The Adapted Mind; (Barkow, J.H. & Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. eds.), Oxford Univ. Press, New York. p. 299) (Library of Excerpts: Sexual Organs and Heterochronic Theory)

In the Feb. 9 issue of Nature, Oxford University zoologists Paul Harvey and Robert May asked a related question: “Why does testes size vary among species?” They review evidence from a variety of animal species in which all the polygamous animals have proportionally bigger testes, more sperm and more active sperm than monogamous ones. Why? In essence, the British scientists argue that having more sperm increases the likelihood that a promiscuous female will become pregnant by that particular male. Thus, evolution produced for larger testes in non-monogamous species. Does the same principle apply in humans? “We think it likely that testes size differences among human races have been adaptive in their own right — different responses to different mating behavior,” the two scientists write. They make reference to a study of the testes sizes of some Chinese and some Danes. The Danes’ testes, even when body size differences are taken into consideration, are twice the size of the Chinese subjects’.

The evolutionary explanation lor the difference appears to be Rushtonian. “It could be that for generations the Chinese lived in a society that was sexually secure, while over the same time the Danes lived in a rape-and-pillage and violence kind of society,” Prof. May suggested in an interview. None of this should suggest that even a preponderance of scientists agree with Prof. Rushton, or that he has not been highly selective, plain wrong and less than critical in interpreting much of his data. On the other hand, “If it were not for the social implications of the work, Rushton would not be portrayed as far out as he has been by others,” Jerrison said. The Globe & Mail, September 1990. (#1 The Case Of Philippe Rushton)

Needless to say, all these hypotheses are controversial and that there are probably a lot of factors that contribute to the variation in human testes size.

Still, some of the reluctance to connect culturally sanctioned behavior with genital anatomy is as much due to the difficulty of finding reliable historical information about true rates of female promiscuity as to the emotionally charged nature of the material itself. Furthermore, diet and environmental factors would have to be factored in before arriving at any solid conclusion regarding the relationship between sexual monogamy and genital anatomy. For example, many Asian diets include large quantities of soy products, while many Western people consume large quantities of beef, both having been shown to cause rapid generational reduction in testicular volume and spermatogenesis. Given the controversial nature of such research, and the complexities of eliminating so many variable, perhaps it’s not surprising that this is an area few researches are eager to enter. (Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality By Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jethå, Page 241-242)

But wait, everything should be taken with a grain of salt. In a response to one of the more famous articles on the subject (the original article was written by Professor J. Philippe Rushton of the University of Western Ontario — quoted above), this writer take issue with the basic assumptions of people who make the argument that there is a correlation between race and testes size:

Professor Rushton’s public pronouncements have been even more grand and disturbing than the news reports indicated. He begins with the scientifically questionable assumption (based on current scientific evidence) that humanity can be divided into three discrete races: whites, blacks and Orientals. According to Prof. Rushton, these races form a genetically based hierarchy in which blacks rank as the least intelligent, least altruistic, least nurturant as parents, most licentious, most criminal and most given to multiple births (“litters,” in his terms). The races also differ physiologically and anatomically; the blacks are said to have the smallest brains and the largest genitalia of the three. In short, Prof. Rushton and his associates see blacks as the most animalistic of the human races, while Orientals represent the most highly evolved. He claims that his theory is based on the findings of evolutionary biology, behavioral genetics, sociobiology and ethology. (#1 The Case Of Philippe Rushton)

There seems to be so much “proof” that there is a correlation. However, I’m going to go back to my standard response whenever people say that “Asian people have the smallest…” or “African American people have the…” is that people are different and should be looked as individuals. Besides, I bet you’ll find a wide range of testicle sizes in all races. Some are going to be big and some are going to be small. In the end, let’s not lose sight of the fact that it only takes one little sperm to impregnate someone and both a big or a small testicle will do the job.

I admit all this talk of testes made me a little self-conscious. Click on this link if you’re interested in measuring your own.

Finally, I’d like to end this on a positive not. There is some evidence that testicles are getting “progressively smaller with younger cohorts.” So my dear fellow readers, when we are old we can tell our grandchildren, “my testicles are bigger than yours.”

WARNING: Video above contains violent content and NSFW language.

This past weekend, there was footage released of a newly immigrated Chinese teen getting assaulted by seven others in Chicago. Some of them were even Asian Americans. From the video, it shows that the seventeen year old teen did not provoke this fight at all and was defenseless. All of this was an act of bullying. The punching and kicking continued even after the boy had said, “Please no more, don’t hit me anymore, please.”

This is the 21st century and one would think racial violence should not be occurring today. However, this video shows that some of us are still ignorant and feel the need to bully someone to demonstrate superiority. We wrote previously that APAs are more likely to be bullied and this is a prime example. The assailants also robbed $180 from the teen.

The bullies thought that the recording would be a good laugh and decided to post it up, but little did they know, they were the only ones who thought this was funny. The person who originally uploaded the video already took it down. It is still a mystery who recorded this disturbing and brutal video. Many people are outraged by this and they want those teens that attacked the Chinese American teen to take responsibility for the injuries they caused. So far, no one has been arrested but police have questioned six of the youths seen in the video.

People are claiming this assault to be an act of racial violence. However, something I do not fully comprehend is why Asian Americans were also involved in attacking the young teen. Have we come to an age when we also draw a distinction between Asian Americans and Asian immigrants?

After consecutive months of holiday celebrations by getting wasted followed by nasty hangovers the next day…does this sound familiar to any of you? Had it ever cross your mind why your friends or you have Asian glow and others don’t? It’s been brought up before, but more recent studies have shown that having this red flush after drinking can increase risks of esophageal cancer. According to Philip J. Brooks from the Division of Metabolism and Health Affects at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, this occurs to about one-third of people from East-Asian descent; typically Chinese, Korean, and Japanese.

People with Asian glow have a genetic deficiency of an enzyme that breaks down alcohol into acetaldehyde (an animal carcinogen that causes DNA damage and other cancer-promoting effects) and converting that toxic chemical into acetate. A normal individual with no genetic deficiency has no problem metabolizing the alcohol in the liver. However, the deficiency causes the alcohol to build up in the body and causing vasodilation, which increases heart rate, headache, and the flushing response.

The Mayo Clinic reported that behaviors and factors that increase esophageal cancer include drinking alcohol, acid reflux, smoking, etc. However, a person with a single copy of the deficient gene who drinks just two beers a day is up to 10 times more likely to develop esophageal cancer than a person who is able to metabolize the alcohol properly.

You may make fun of your friends for their Asian glow after drinking or you may dismiss the fact that you get Asian glow and just assume that’s inevitable because you are Asian. But it may be responsible for developing one of the deadliest cancers globally.