8 Asians

The judge dismissed the law suit against USC brought by the parents of the two Chinese students who were shot dead last April near campus. “The suit had been brought by the parents of Ying Wu and Ming Qu, two electrical engineering graduate students from China who were gunned down in an off-campus neighborhood last April during what police believe is was a botched robbery. The shootings shook the USC student body and generated discussion [...] Continue »

When I first saw The Breakfast Club, as a clueless Asian American preteen, I immediately connected with this 80s brat pack teen flick. Throughout my evolution as an American high school teenager, I identified with almost all of the teen archetypes portrayed in the film. I started out high school as an awkward weirdo outcast (Ally Sheedy), quickly became a swim team jock (Emilio Estevez), fancied myself somewhat of a feminist non-conformist rebel (Judd Nelson), [...] Continue »

I’ve lived in LA’s Koreatown for a few years and driven up and down its streets on a daily basis for over a decade. I’ve got some of my own favorite little haunts on this corner and that strip mall, where the soondubu is mind-numbingly good, the bibimbap is to die for, and the karaoke selection includes awesome amazing songs like “Happy Birthday Dear My Friend”. So to see the streets where I have the [...] Continue »

I guess in my excitement last week in discovering a new Din Tai Fung coming to Southern California, I missed the news, or it was not paying too much attention that another location in Costa Mesa was opening up as well in the future: “Din Tai Fung, purveyor of the famed Shanghai-style xiao long bao soup dumplings that burst in your mouth upon consumption, is coming to South Coast Plaza. Arcadia’s Best reports that the 8,000 [...] 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 »

Here at 8Asians, we’ve blogged about the Rise of Asian Majority Suburbs (Jeff) and the racial tensions in a super rich Southern California community transitioning from majority white to majority Asian in a single generation in The “Asianization” of Southern California’s San Marino (Koji). The First 626 Nightmarket (Mary) was an event that exploded beyond what anyone expected–I didn’t even go because on my way there, I saw the immediate tweets and facebook updates of [...] Continue »

On April 16, 2013, fraternity Lambda Theta Delta (LTD), UC Irvine’s first and largest Asian American interest fraternity, posted a video which showed one of the members appearing in blackface (around the 0:55 mark). Julianne Hing of Colorlines says, “the video includes four Asian-American men dancing to Justin Timberlake’s Suit and Tie to promote the spring induction of the fraternity’s new recruits. One man in blackface plays the part of Jay-Z. It is the very [...] Continue »

If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you know I *love* Din Tai Fung. I just came across the Los Angeles Times’ article on a new branch of Din Tai Fung that will be opening up soon: “Popular Taiwanese dumpling chain Din Tai Fung is growing increasingly upscale, with plans to open its fourth U.S. location at swanky Glendale shopping center the Americana at Brand. In September, the eatery will bring its foodie [...] Continue »

David Chan hated Chinese food as a kid. He’s third generation Chinese American, and his parents refrained from sending him to Chinese school while cooking “American” food at home to help Chan fit in more into mainstream American culture in a Los Angeles city that barely had half a percent of its population APIA when Chan was a kid in the 50s. He still can’t use chopsticks. But there’s probably no one on the planet [...] Continue »

Come kick off the 15th Season of one of the longest running free public arts series in downtown Los Angeles, highlighting new work in visual and performance arts from the Los Angeles and Asian American artistic community in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo. Now celebrating 15 years, the Tuesday Night Cafe series is one of the longest-running free arts spaces in Downtown Los Angeles/Little Tokyo. The space features multidisciplinary arts and performances, including music, poetry, theatre, [...] Continue »

I think I first heard of this Xmas Without China documentary project via Kickstarter. The feature documentary takes place right before December of some recent year around the Christmas holiday in Arcadia, California, a neighborhood that used to be predominantly white, but is now half Asian. Tom Xia, a Chinese-American immigrant who came to the U.S. with his parents when he was around 8 years old, seeks out a family to volunteer to go the [...] 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 »