This video, titled “Asian Baller Schools and Dunks on Lebron James,” has been making the rounds. Lebron James was playing on an NBA goodwill tour at a game in Taiwan when, as you can see at 0:15, one of the Taiwanese players steals the ball, goes down the court and gets a dunk. While the title of the video says that he “dunks on” LeBron, some blogs point out that he really doesn’t.
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Formosa Betrayed is a feature film set in the 1980′s about FBI Agent Jake Kelly’s investigation of the brutal murder of a Taiwanese-American professor on U.S. soil. With the help of his partner Tom Braxton and a sharp Chicago police detective, Agent Kelly discovers that the murderers have fled to Taiwan. Inspired by real events, the film follows the intertwining and complicated story of the Taiwanese and the United States governments, as well as Taiwan’s emergence as a country once ruled under marshal law but now thriving with democracy.
After making the rounds at several film festivals, Formosa Betrayed was picked up last fall for theatrical release by Screen Media Films and will premiere in select cities during the weekend of February 28th (For those of you who know something about Taiwan, “2/28″ is historically significant.)
The annual Lunar New Year celebration organized by local Bay Area Taiwanese American organization featured a special panel discussion about Formosa Betrayed, with director Adam Kane (whose TV credits include Heroes, Pushing Daisies, Mercy), actor Tzi Ma (Rush Hour, 24), actor, writer & producer Will Tiao, actors Henry Chu and Adam Wang, and associate producer Evita Huang. Lead actor, James Van Der Beek of Dawson’s Creek fame was on the East Coast for press interviews and was unable to attend. Ho Chie Tsai, founder of TaiwaneseAmerican.org, moderated the discussion before opening it up to general Q&A.
I first learned of the film when Will Tiao was looking for investors in the film a few years back. Since then, Will raised over $5 million+ dollars in “shares” of $25,000 chunks as he literally traveled across the United States and Taiwan to raise money to finance the film, even before a script was written or any actors or directors were attached to the film. As Will stated, if you want to tell stories that others are unaware or unwilling to finance, you have to do it yourself, just as Matt Damon and Ben Affleck did with Good Will Hunting.
Actor Tzi Ma said he has never met a more cohesive and committed Asian ethnic group as he has with Taiwanese Americans, which personally doesn’t surprise me. When an ethnic group and country like Taiwan are marginalized by China and — through China’s efforts — the world community, there is a certain survivalist mentality instilled in the community.
Henry and Adam are fairly new actors cutting their teeth in Hollywood and are happy to have real speaking roles in a major film production – one of the cast members was selected during an open casting call in Chicago. Evita, a recent college graduate, was amazed at the opportunity to be deeply involved with the production and promotion of the film, given that most of her fellow peers are still working on the production assistant level.
There were a few controversial topics regarding the narrative of Formosa Betrayed, including the complaint over featuring a lead white male actor in a film about Taiwanese history. Will Taio and the other writer/producers decided to move forward with James Van Der Beek to make the film more appealing to a mass audience that extended past the Taiwanese or Asian American community, much like how the character of Sydney Schanberg provided important context about Cambodia and Dith Pran in The Killing Fields. In this case, James Van Der Beek’s character would be able to introduce facts and background information in the plot to the audience. Before directing this film, director Adam Kane admitted that he didn’t know much about Taiwan or had ever traveled there.
Another controversy was the location of the actual production, parts of which were filmed in Bangkok rather than Taiwan. Will and Adam decided this for many reasons, including maintaining the film’s setting in the 1980s, which was hard to find in Taiwan since not too many places in Taipei resemble Taiwan in the 1980s due its rapid modernization. Secondly, Bangkok boasts a better film industry infrastructure over Taipei, and shooting the film in Taiwan would require them to ship equipment there. Thirdly, they feared that the sensitive nature of this political thriller would have been too costly to film in Taipei and cause their production shut down for whatever reason. (The ruling party for most of Taiwan’s rule since the 1940′s has been the KMT, which regained rule in 2008). I also believe a major reason was purely financial: it has to cost less to shoot a film in Bangkok than Taipei. With all the different location and limited budget, it’ll be interesting to see if one can tell if the film was shot in Bangkok instead of Taipei.
They also answered my own question over the movie’s title and why they picked Formosa Betrayed instead of something along the lines of “Taiwan Betrayed.” Their response was interesting and logical: Taiwan was given the name Ilha Formosa by the Portuguese, which means “Beautiful Island.” If the name “Taiwan” was used, most audiences who know little to nothing about the country would not care to see such a movie. However, “Formosa” sounds more ambiguous and mysterious, which could intrigue audiences into at least learning more about the film.
After the jump, check out a quick interview with Ho Chie Tsai, founder of TaiwaneseAmerican.org, before the Q&A panel with the panelists before they addressed the crowd. Once the whole panel discussion is available online, I’ll be sure to link to it in the comments.
Shopping With GASP!
When I first saw the movie poster for Extraordinary Measures, starring Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford, I had no idea what it was about. I guessed Harrison Ford played some kind of heroic character, but beyond that, I had no idea. Nor did I really care — the movie poster looked “eh.”
Then I read this article on racebending.com and found out that Harrison Ford’s character, a doctor who finds a cure for Pompe disease, is actually based on an Asian doctor, Dr. Yuan-Tsong Chen. Here is a portion of Roger Ebert’s review of the movie:
Dr. Robert Stonehill doesn’t exist in real life. The Pompe cure was developed by and his colleagues while he was at Duke University. He is now director of the Institute of Biomedical Science in Taiwan. Harrison Ford, as this film’s executive producer, perhaps saw Stonehill as a plum role for himself; a rewrite was necessary because he couldn’t very well play Dr. Chen. The real Chen, a Taiwan University graduate, worked his way up at Duke from a residency to professor and chief of medical genetics at the Duke University Medical Center. He has been mentioned as a Nobel candidate.
I know this isn’t the first time a Caucasian actor was hired to play a role based on an Asian or Asian American — far from it. But that doesn’t make it any more bearable each time it happens. I’ve always had respect for Harrison Ford as an actor, but I wonder if the movie — which opened to just $7 million this weekend, for 7th place — would’ve been better had an unknown Asian actor been cast. I understand the studio probably wanted a famous actor to carry the role. Yet, if you look at previous unknowns like Gabourey Sidibe in Precious and Carey Mulligan in An Education, you know this is the year of the breakout star.
I don’t know about you, but I believe America is more than ready for Asian Americans starring in non-martial arts films. Even if Hollywood isn’t.
As someone who came to the United States when I was only 2 years old, it was always expected that I would go home to visit the “mother” country. It was never hard to imagine doing, as I had plenty of relatives who still lived in Taiwan. But, my parents never had the money or the time to take me when I was growing up. The only times they ever went was because someone in the family was sick or dying. And then, only one of them would go and the other would stay and take care of the kids. My first trip back to Taiwan wasn’t until I was in college, using a frequent flyer ticket from my mom. I’ve been back many times since, and now I’m a parent struggling with the same issue. My own daughter is getting older and I’m trying to decide when is the best time to expose her to her roots.
It turns out I’m not the only parent facing this same dilemma, as Wayne Chan writes this week about his decision to take his children to China in Northwest Asian Weekly. Chan’s wife confronts him the with the 8 simple words, “Maybe we should go to China this year”, and his immediate reaction is dread, as he has visions of the long plane ride, and the the hot summer weather (the only time he can go as his kids are school age). But in the end, he reminisces on his own first trip to China, and the life-changing event that it was for him, and he realizes:
I went to China that year as an American who happened to be Asian. I came back as an Asian American. So in all seriousness, “Maybe we should go to China this year.”
It’s that same life-changing experience I dream of for my own daughter, and I know it’s really too early for her, since she’s only 4. But there are a lot of other reasons for taking her back to Taiwan. We’re going for our Thanksgiving break this year. It’s actually a trip I’ve wanted to make for the last two years, but we were never able to go. Originally it was supposed to be three of us who were going, my mom, myself and my daughter. I had even purchased the tickets 2 years ago, but my mom got too ill from her cancer. In the end we had to cancel the trip, and cancer won the battle.
I view this trip to Taiwan, partly as a way to honor the memory of my mom. I’ll be taking my daughter to do all the things I wanted to do with her and her grandmother. She’ll get to meet all the relatives (many of whom are also getting on in age), including aunts, uncles, and cousins. I’ll make sure she sees the sights of Taipei. She may not remember any of it when she’s older, but at least I’ll have the photos to show her, and I’ll know I’ve done my duty to her and to the other elders in the family. My only wish is that this isn’t the only trip to Taiwan she gets to go on before she’s in college.
“She’s too fragile!”
I have heard this a number of times from Asian parents as an explanation why they don’t let their daughters play sports. I’m glad that the Filipino parents of Asian-Canadian Katie Reyes didn’t feel that way. Katie is one of two girls who played in the Little League World Series. As filamako.com points out, she hasn’t just shown up, but she has been making an impact, breaking barriers as the first girl to hit a gamewinner as Canada beat Germany 14-13.
While Canada didn’t make it to the finals, the championship game definitely had Asian kids in it. The final two teams were from Chula Vista, California and from Taipei, Taiwan. The Chula Vista team, being from a heavily Filipino city that we have talked about before, had at least one Filipino player, as Bradley Roberto definitely looks Filipino. He’s the kid in the video who Conan gives a hard time regarding his ring. It was good to see Asians competing against them, particularly Asians who had no hint of cheating. Taiwan, a perennial challenger, was characterized by the announcers, as quick, excellent on defense, and opportunistic, scoring many points on unearned runs. The American team was characterized as being powerful, hitting many home runs. How stereotypical! Ironically, during the first part of the game, Taiwan was leading, scoring by hitting home runs. The American Team didn’t have any home runs at that point. The lead was not to last as Chula Vista team eventually pulled ahead to win 6-3.
I’m not going to discuss (at least in this post) whether or not the Little League World Series exploits kids. Whether or not that’s true, it was good to see Asian, Asian-Canadian, and Asian-American kids there, breaking down stereotypes hit by hit.
(hat tip to Kristian at www.filamako.com for the story idea.)
Yes, you read that correctly. Back in 2004, a whale exploded in the city streets of Tainan, Taiwan.
Before you assume that Taiwanese geniuses have developed some sort of biological weapon of mass destruction, you should know that this accident happened while some marine scientists were trying to move a 56-foot, 6-ton sperm whale from the ocean (where it had died) to a research facility to perform a necropsy on it. Unfortunately, while the whale was being transported through a busy city street, the whale literally burst open due to the gasses from decomposition building up in his* abdomen. It splattered whale blood, blubber and entrails over surrounding cars, bystanders, and storefronts. Bits of bloody whale bits were found blocks away.
I know this because Yoshi & I watched a fascinating British documentary entitled “The Whale that Exploded” on the National Geographic Channel and although I was totally grossed out by some of the footage from the scene, I couldn’t help but to keep watching. This documentary actually came out about a year ago and it explored the various contributing factors as to why this happened, along with eyewitness reports and photos of the bloody mess.
I’ve been trying to convince Yoshi to join me on a trip to Taiwan later this year, but this program did not help my cause. As a horrified Yoshi watched images of bloody whale intestines laying next to a moped, I heard the words, “I am not going to a place where whales explode in the streets!” being uttered over and over.
“Actually,” I stated matter-of-factly, “Only ONE whale ever exploded in the streets of Taiwan. And it’s probably not going to happen again since they’ve already learned the lesson the hard way.” Let’s not let one teeny tiny whale explosion totally ruin the Taiwanese tourism industry, shall we?
You can catch this program as an episode of NatGeo’s “Wild” series and get all the gory details about the whale explosion — if you dare.
*Did you notice I said “his?” How do we know that the sperm whale was a male? Photos of a 5 foot long schlong protruding from the whale carcass was pretty good evidence!
It’s not the Olympics but Kaohsiung, Taiwan is currently hosting the 2009 World Games (世界運動會), an international multi-sport event meant for sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games. Running from July 16 through the 26th, the games features events such as Aikido, Parachuting, Bodybuilding, Bowling, Casting, Flying disc (Frisbee), Sport Ju-Jitsu, Karate, Netball, Orienteering, Sumo, Surfing, and Tug of war. (I know, I haven’t heard of a bunch of these sports, either).
Although the U.S. is not represented in the medal rankings, Taiwan (competing as Chinese Taipei) is currently ranked #2 behind Russia with four gold medals. (See current medal standings)
One of the most interesting parts of these games is the main venue itself: World Games Stadium, which was designed by famed Japanese architect Toyo Ito.
This recently constructed structure is a beautiful solar-powered stadium that will generate 100% of its electricity from photovoltaic technology. The dragon-shaped 50,000 seat arena sports 8,844 solar panels which could potentially generate 1.14 gigawatt hours of electricity every year; that is, enough electricity to power up to 80% of the surrounding neighborhood when the stadium is unused. (Construction information)
Aside from being solar-powered, this stadium is green because of bio-diversity, forestation, water conservation and energy saving of buildings. Other interesting facts:
1.The photoelectric cells allow 30% of total sunlight through, therefore delivering a real-time weather change to audience
2. Reduction of CO2 Production Sunlight electricity generation reduces 0.53kg CO2 per 1kwh, as compared with traditional method. In this project, the generation capacity is 1000kw and annual generation is 1.1 million kwh. Base on these figures, the total reduction of CO2 discharge is 583,000 kg (equivalent to CO2 reduction capacity of the green lands).
3. Avoid Daytime Peak Hour Consumption of Power As one kwh costs 3 Taiwan dollars, and power generation are available 3 hours everyday, 3000 kwh can be generated in a single day, and 10,000 Taiwan dollars can be saved.
4. Photoelectric Conversion for Outdoor Facilities Photoelectric conversion can be applied to road lamps, scenic spot illumination and information indication.
Not only is this stadium being lauded for being “green,” but the architectural sensibilities are being admired for its “humanity.” I believe it will be looked upon as a model for future sporting arenas to be functional, beautiful and environmentally-friendly, as well. And, it’s totally going on my “must-visit” list for a future trip to Taiwan.
The death of Michael Jackson has unleashed a lot of craziness here in Los Angeles, as it has been the location of his death and memorial service, as well as “home base” for the Jackson Family (via their Encino compound).
But all over the world, the outpouring of emotion over Michael Jackson’s passing has been its own kinds of crazy. Fans all over the world have been following the ongoing saga, but how have Asian fans been reacting? See this CNN video which includes an interesting comment by a Japanese woman: “I am surprised by his death but I understand why he had a short life: he didn’t seem like a happy person.”
What about in other parts of Asia? For those of us in North America, MJ’s death broke during the middle of the day, but in Asia, early risers were the first to hear the news. OneIndia reported the following:
Indian fans resorted to the internet, news websites, blogs and foreign channels. Social Networking sites like Facebook, Orkut and Twitter soon became the destination for sharing and grieving.
According to media reports, the SMS networks in India registered a significant rise in traffic after 4:30 am on Friday, Jun 26.
Many Chinese were affected deeply as MJ’s passing signified the demise of the icon that exposed the China to the outside world. Many people in the U.S. don’t realize that the release of “Thriller” in the 1980s was one of the first times Western (American) pop music to make it into China. Maybe that’s why there are already investors in Shanghai who are already talking about building a small scale version of Neverland in China.
Elsewhere, the Filipino prisoners, who became famous via their version of Thriller on YouTube, completed a tribute to Michael Jackson complete with a giant banner of Michael Jackson on June 27, 2009… that is “10 hours after receiving word that the King of Pop passed away.”
Speaking of quick turnarounds, “two Chinese writers locked themselves up with coffee and cigarettes, no cellphones and no sleep for 48 hours — and emerged with a finished Michael Jackson biography. “Moonwalk in Paradise” hit shelves this weekend, fewer than 10 days after the pop star’s death.”
The newspaper China Daily reported:
The 130,000-word book, titled “Moonwalk in Paradise — the Michael Jackson biography,” written by Jiang Xiaoyu and Xing Han, and published by Chinese publishing house Xiandai was available for pre-order sales online on Friday and on bookshelves Saturday. …
A report in China Youth Daily said the writers never met or interviewed Jackson and simply wrote the story from their “accumulated knowledge about the king of pop.”…
[co-author Jiang Xiaoyu said] “I am not only a music critic but also a fan of the King of Pop, so I understand what fans really need…. fans cannot wait for months.”
I, for one, have no idea how long it would take me to come up with 130,000 words, so props to these guys for cranking it all out. Of course, there’s no saying how accurate or well-written this book is, but in today’s world of “instant information,” authors do have to move fast. “Instant Michael Jackson books” have already been released in the U.S., too.
As for my personal memories of Michael Jackson music from my childhood? My parents were pretty strict about what kind of music we listened to (mostly classical music), but “Thriller” was so pervasive, even I managed to persuade an uncle into getting me a copy of the album. I think I can safely say this now, but my copy of “Thriller” was on cassette tape, obviously some sort of bootleg tape from Taiwan with the lyrics of the album poorly “translated” into Engrish inserted. I’m not certain, but I think this may partly explain why I never know the words to any songs. Shamone!
I found myself wanting to know more about the person behind that awesome video DEADLINE, so I reached out to the creator, Bang-yao Liu (劉邦耀), who was kind enough to answer 8 Questions (the first in a new series) for 8Asians.
It turns out that he’s actually a graduate student getting his MFA in Taiwan, but was in the US taking undergrad classes as a part of his scholarship. He shares more with us, including some exclusive behind-the-scene photos, too… thanks, Bang-yao!
8Qs for Bang-yao Liu
1 ) What part of Taiwan are you from?
I was born in Hsinchu city and study in Taipei.2 ) Do you plan to return to Taiwan after you are done with school or to stay in the United States?
Actually, I am a graduate student in Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). I am a transfer and visiting student to SCAD for one year because of a scholarship from Taiwan Ministry of Education (MOE); this program only lets me to take undergrad classes at SCAD, but that is still good though.When I finish this scholar(ship) program, I will have to go back to Taiwan. I can not stay here over one year. However, I would like to work in United States or other country if I have the opportunities, but I have to finish my MFA degree in TNUA and one year military service first. It sounds complicated, doesn’t it?
3 ) What are your career aspirations?
I wish I can be a filmmaker someday, it is a long road to go, I think. I will just keep learning, create more, and have fun with doing animation.4 ) What color of Post-Its did you use most of?
Pink and blue.5 ) Did you run into any unanticipated problems while producing DEADLINE?
A lot. The biggest problem is “time”. Actually, the original animatic is longer than the final film. Why did not finished it is because where I shoot is a classroom; I only can use it on weekends. So it took us two weekends, almost four days unsleep, to finish it. After that is the final of the quarter.6 ) Did you have a lot of leftover Post-Its and what did you do with them?
Part of them I gave to my friends, and other were throw away. It depends on the post-it is still sticky to use or not.7 ) Can you share any other “behind the scenes trivia” about your production?
I want to share some photos of my friend. We have fun with that. [See below]8 ) Do you have any future projects planned or anything else you’d like to share?
I already have a new concept in my mind, it is quite different. I will start to plan it later.
Bang-yao was nice enough to share exclusive photos of Chun-yao Huang, Jay Tseng, and Kelly Wang — some of the many people who worked on DEADLINE! 謝謝, Bang-yao!
Many couples in Taiwan are rushing to get married before the Chinese lunar new year — January 26, 2009 in the Western calendar — because they believe that next year will be an “unlucky” year in which to get married, since next year is marked as the “Gu-luan” year (similar to Western leap year in that there are two days marked for the arrival of spring). This superstition, like many in Chinese culture revolves around the fact that word gu sounds similar to the Chinese word for lonely, thereby dooming any marriages that happen in a Gu-luan year to end early or tragically.
Westerners would probably find this superstition silly or quaint at best, but superstition is a world I’ve had to live with my entire life. My mother would take her three children out of the house when my dad had to work late, because she feared the spirits the roamed the house, and we’d end up at a local amusement park or mall until my dad could safely take us home.
Throughout my life, I’ve found myself mired in superstition; when my sister was pregnant with her first baby, she was warned not to eat “cold” foods, not cold as in served cold, but cold as designated by category (watermelon is cold regardless of what temperature it is), and to only eat “warm” foods. When I bought my first house in California, I found myself digging up the tree in the front yard at my mother’s request and moving it because it was in an unlucky position, blocking the front door. Even more recently, my own wedding date was chosen because it was supposed to be lucky; my partner and I married on 08/08/08 because we thought the triple 8′s would be lucky for us, and so did many other Chinese grooms and brides as we found out trying to book a location for our wedding.
Many Chinese superstitions I practice unconsciously now: I don’t even think about considering a clock or knives as gifts, and I gravitate towards 8′s and 9′s when looking at numbers.
My incredibly strong mother, the one who instilled me with all my superstitions is approaching the end of her life. She’s battled breast cancer for almost 12 years. She’s in the hospital this week, having overcome sepsis which would be fatal for most of us. As strong as she is, my mother still clings to her beliefs and I suppose I do as well.
The American side of me continues to remind myself that I’m a little ridiculous in my beliefs. But I also look at my mom in the hospital bed and think it’s lucky the way her bed points towards the door, and I’m daunted by the fact her room number contains the number 4.
I guess I still believe we all need a little luck in our lives.
If you’re looking for more on Chinese superstition, back in 2004, Christina Eng wrote a beautiful article on Chinese superstition that I really admired and find myself coming back to time and again.
Sometimes I really wonder about how crazy politics has become. Funny thing, but I’ve always believed that politics has been two sides of the same coin. But things like this happen and you wonder what exactly goes through people’s minds. In any case, EastSouthWestNorth reports that the trucker claims that the journalists were impeding the way of his truck from getting to work so he “pushed through”. There were two crowds of people, one was supporting the demolition of a plaque commemorating Chiang Kai-Shek, while the other crowd was against the demolition.What’s really interesting is that the guy ran over not the people demonstrating, but the journalists covering the event. Six journalists were hit, but one taken to the hospital in critical condition after getting dragged under the truck. There are some truly tear-jerking screenshots on EastSouthWestNorth in the screencaps.
[sigh] Sometimes, I wonder if people get so into their politics or anything else, that they lose sight of the bigger picture. They lose sight of their own humanity.
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