We’ve blogged about Kung Fu Panda and Asian and Asian American themed McDonalds’ commercials before. I’ve never watched Kung Fu Panda and don’t have any immediate plans to see Kung Fu Panda 2, but honestly I’m generally not a fan of talking pandas in commercials. McDonald’s latest commercial promotes Kung Fu Panda 2’s Happy Meals, so inevitably, you will have an animated talking panda. If only San Francisco City Supervisor Eric Mar could ban talking pandas from commercials!
Here in Los Angeles, it’s an exciting time to be an Angeleno as as the 3rd National Asian American Theater Conference & Festival is upon us! Beginning on June 20th, the conference will start things off, featuring more than 25 panels and workshops by more than 50 theater professionals, including artistic directors, executive directors, funders, artists, administrators and educators. This will go on until June 22nd.
Ying Ma’s “Chinese Girl in the Ghetto” ($9.99) is a new book about China, the immigration experience and race relations in inner-city America.
As China opens itself to the world and undertakes historic economic reforms, a little girl in the southern city of Guangzhou immerses herself in a world of fantasy and foreign influences while grappling with the mundane vagaries of Communist rule. She happily immigrates to Oakland, California, expecting her new life to be far better in all ways than life in China. Instead, she discovers crumbling schools, unsafe streets, and racist people. In the land of the free, she comes of age amid the dysfunction of a city’s brokenness and learns to hate in the shadows of urban decay. This is the incredible story of her journey from China to an American ghetto and how she prevailed.
Green Lantern is the Fantastic Four for summer 2011. You can look at that in a good way or a bad way. I am going to take the middle road on this one — but leaning more towards the latter.
Based on the DC Comics character, the Green Lantern is a superhero who can “will” anything (including super powers) with the aid of his nifty green cocktail ring — but he isn’t the only Lantern. There is a planet called Oa where thousands and thousands of Green Lanterns — of every alien race — exist. This brotherhood keeps peace in the universe and each Lantern is charge of an intergalactic sector.
Is your inner-geek surfacing yet? If not, read on. You will dork-out soon enough.
DUDE WTF ASIA, indeed: Japanese scientist Mitsuyuki Ikeda has created a burger made from the protein extracted from human feces. “I admit that few people would be keen to eat it,” he stated. A+ for out-of-the-box thinking. F for palatability. (Hat tip: Mariko)
Whoa. What the heck is Umamiya?
Umamiya is a five-member R&B/Pop Pan-Asian girl group headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Managed by S-Cube Entertainment, the group is the brainchild of international music mogul and impresario, Sang Sung Song, and Cold Tofu Productions. Their first music video for their debut single, “Hot, Sour, Spicy, and Sweet”, was a huge hit and with this, it seems that this sexy group is only going up from here on out. It’s also pretty neat how Umamiya is now the pitch women for Umami Burger and for those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s DELICIOUS.
This beautifully slowed down Asian hipster kids bboying out to Clair de Lune is directed by Tony Kelly. I’m actually in awe that little guy is running that helicopter like crazy. It’s one of those Asian American culture things that came back a little too late for me to catch. Damn it. Damn it to hell.
By Pang
Guan xi in Chinese is often translated as “relationship” and colloquially explained as “I scratch your back, you scratch my back.” But it goes beyond trading favors; they are favors with strings attached. It’s an insidious obligation and debt that can never be repaid, and there’s a detailed accounting of credits and debits that follow you to your grave.
In Taiwan you’ll sometimes see people fighting to pay the bill. They do this not wanting to get into a lifelong arrangement, or perhaps they have already entered such an arrangement and it’s time for a repayment for fear of shame for accepting previous payments without acknowledging gratitude. My mother called me up the other day, explaining to me that it was time to repay a debt. Her best friend’s daughter and son-in-law were in the States and driving up from LA to visit. Wait a minute, I thought. What was this all about? Apparently I had a meal in Taiwan that my mother’s friend paid for over 20 years ago! It was time to repay the debt, and the creditors were knocking on her door.
http://youtu.be/S2GoZOVoNCo
I saw this Esurance television ad the other day, where the character Alan (played by actor Aaron Takahashi) is definitely playing the stereotypical geeky software developer role compared to his more attractive colleague Brenda. I do find it funny that Alan responds to his other colleague with the line, “Nick is smoking hot.” In a previous commercial earlier this year, Esurance had a female developer who was much less geeky looking.
APA Spotlight is a weekly interview of Asian Pacific Islander Americans (APIA) community leaders. It is a spotlight on individuals who have dedicated their careers to issues surrounding the APIA community with the goal of bringing much deserved recognition to their work and cause(s).
Gregory is currently the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO and is the first openly gay person to serve in this post. Founded in 1992, APALA is the first and only national organization of Asian Pacific American (APA) union members. Since its founding, APALA has played a unique role in addressing the workplace issues of APA union members and as the bridge between the broader labor movement and the APA community. Most recently, Gregory served as President of the United States Student Association (USSA). USSA is the country’s oldest, largest & most inclusive student organization in the country and is the official voice of students to the Department of Education, Capitol Hill & the White House.
Dear Jason Li:
By the way, I can call you Jason, right? I mean, your name is all over the internet now. Good!
You know, I feel for you. I really do. Your hockey team, the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup in the seventh game to the Boston Bruins, a team that hasn’t won a hockey title in 39 years. And as a brief resident of your fair city a couple of years ago, I was charmed by your delightful combination of trees, wacky two dollar coins, kinda-similar-but-not-really radio stations and, of course, those influx of Asians from the immigrant wave in the late 1990s. If nothing else, I’m happy to see that you, as well as other Asian-Canadians, are acclimating into the civic fabric of Downtown Vancouver.
Asian American Commercial Watch: Liberty Mutual Insurance’s ‘First Word | Truth Tellers’
In a Post-Apocalyptic Zombie World, Asian American Man Gets White Girl
Asian Guys and that One Long Pinky Fingernail
Hizashi no Naka no Rairu
Filipino Kinship Terms and their Confusing Translation into English
The Difference Between Internment Camps and Concentration Camps
Review of Netflix Japan’s “Our Secret Diary”
Top Three “Happiest” US Cities are Asian American
Commenter Spotlight: Pamela N Red
8Asians readers, meet commenter Pamela N Red.
Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? What do you do for a living?
More from his interview, after the jump! Continue reading →