Korean High Schooler Tae-hyok Nam is Dodger Blue

Posted on June 20, 2009 by jee

I like to think that I bleed Dodger Blue. I love baseball and I LOVE the Los Angeles Dodgers. While I may not be an expert, I know my around a game enough to surprise the boys who think girls do not know anything about baseball. I’m a very passionate fan and I’ve annoyed many a fans who have been unfortunate enough to sit in front of me at games. And I’m proud to say that I’ve even woken up a baby with my cheers while I was baby-sitting (it was unintentional).

Thanks to Ernie, I found out before my boss (who loves the Dodgers more than I do) that the Dodgers signed their first Korean high-schooler (Tae-hyok Nam) to a minor-league deal. Though Nam won’t be seen playing at the beauty that is the Dodger Stadium for a few years, it’s exciting that my team has been able to sign a promising player at a young age. I hope Nam matures into a great player so that he can do the Blue proud!

While we’re on the topic of MLB, let’s discuss something: Asians seem to dominate — read, do well — in baseball. Our office has been having discussions about this for as long as I’ve been working here. What is it in Asian men that help them shine in this sport? Theories from muscle memory to intelligence were thrown around; in any case, I’m glad to see Asian guys shining in professional sports in USA. Hey, whatever it takes to dispel the stereotype that Asians aren’t athletic.

(Flickr photo credit: Nitro101)

Posted in Southern California, Sports | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Fatherhood, Time, and Success

Posted on June 20, 2009 by Jeff

On a spring morning in 1998, Dominic Orr woke up as he did every day, in the dark. While his children slept, he showered, checked his phone and e-mail messages, and drove from his Saratoga, Calif., home to a breakfast meeting nearby. When he emerged an hour or so later, he stopped cold.

In the early-morning light, he saw his dark-green Infiniti J30 covered with deep dents. The taillights were smashed, and the body was riddled with chips and scratches. Orr could hardly believe his eyes. When had this happened? Who could possibly have done it?

From “Confessions of a CEO” in Fortune, by Stephanie Mehta

While we have talked about the lack of Asian-American CEOs and the glass ceiling, we haven’t discussed the price of “success” for those who have made it to that level.  At that time of the above incident, Dominic Orr was the CEO of a hot Internet startup ready to go public.  Always intensely driven, he was seeing little of his family.  So who attacked his car?  His son, in attempt to get some kind of attention.  “I tried to destroy something that mattered to him,” said Alvin Orr.

The stereotypical Asian-American father is thought of as strict, distant, work-oriented–not so emotionally involved with their children.  In Up, Russell’s father, assuming that he is Asian, is not there for him (nicely pointed out by this commenter on Rice Daddies).  My own father spent months at sea when I was a child.  I can’t blame him, though, as joining the U.S. Navy was one of few options for  coming to the US for Filipinos of his era.  Only when I had kids of my own did I discover how much he really liked children and how hard it must have been for him.

My child arrived just the other day
He came to the world in the usual way
But there were planes to catch and bills to pay
He learned to walk while I was away
And he was talkin’ ‘fore I knew it, and as he grew
He’d say “I’m gonna be like you dad
You know I’m gonna be like you”

…

I’ve long since retired, my son’s moved away
I called him up just the other day
I said, “I’d like to see you if you don’t mind”
He said, “I’d love to, Dad, if I can find the time
You see my new job’s a hassle and kids have the flu
But it’s sure nice talking to you, Dad
It’s been sure nice talking to you”

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me
He’d grown up just like me
My boy was just like me

From Cats in the Cradle by Harry Chapin

I always said to myself that I wouldn’t be like those fathers.  I haven’t always succeeded, but I’m proud of the fact that I managed to find the time to coach each of my kids in some sport.  My career  hasn’t reached the heights like Dominic Orr’s, but since it’s been flexible enough for me to spend time with my children, I’d have to call it a success.  In the end, Dominic Orr took time off to connect with his son.  I see a new breed of highly involved Asian-American fathers – check out  Rice Daddies.  My father spends time with my kids.  Making up for lost time, I suppose.

I’m setting up a  get together with my father, my children, my wife’s father and much of our extended family for Father’s Day.   I don’t know how many of these Father’s Days that we have left, so unlike the men in Cats in the Cradle, I can find the time.

Posted in Family | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

How lame do you have to be to steal a wheelchair?*

Posted on June 19, 2009 by jozjozjoz

Elaine Touch is a beautiful 24 year-old college grad from Long Beach. She aspires for a career in public relations and she’s in the news. Why? Because the custom wheelchair that she relies on to live her life was stolen last month when she went to see Star Trek on a date.

That’s right. Some bonehead kids evidently stole the wheelchair from a woman with cerebral palsy while she was watching John Cho kick some alien butt. If I had seen this happen, I’d have kicked those kids’ asses to Romulus.

Elaine graduated from CSULB last year with a degree in Sociology. She’s had a number of cool internships, including the Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA’s summer internship program for young people with disabilities. Normally she watches movies in her wheelchair, but she wanted a better seat for this particular movie. She asked her date to carry her up to a better seat a few rows up and left her wheelchair a little ways away. By the time the house lights went up, her wheels were gone. Security tapes show footage of two minors rolling the wheelchair out of the theater. To get back to the car, her date had to push her out of the theater on a rolling computer chair.

If you think that this is some isolated case, well in the nearby town of Lakewood, 14 year-old Summer Kearney, also had her wheelchair stolen from a backyard patio at her home. What the HELL people?!?!?

Anyway, because of these two random acts of unkindness, there now is a “Wheelchair Donation Fund” to get these ladies in new wheels. The Wheelchair Donation Fund is being taken care of by the Disabled Student Services department at Cal State Long Beach and you can send your donations to:

Address: Disabled Student Services
Attn: Disabled Student Wheelchair Fund
Address: 1250 N. Bellflower Blvd., Rm 250, Long Beach, California 90840
Phone No. 562-985-5401
Email: [email protected] — Subject line: Disabled Students’ Wheelchair Fund

Let’s get these ladies rollin’ again.

*Please don’t fire me from writing headlines.

Posted in Current Events, Discrimination, Lifestyles, Movies, Southern California, WTF | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Body Modification Hits Japan

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Moye

salineI’ve heard and seen people into the body modification scene, but I’ve never really heard of the saline inflation fad in Japan until coming across these photographs by Ryoichi ‘Keroppy’ Maeda in Bizarre Magazine.

Saline inflation what? Yeah, fans of body art can now slowly inject a saline solution under their skin to temporarily distort, balloon and mod parts of their bodies for fun. And it’s not just so you can walk around looking like a bagel has been embedded inside your forehead; apparently the experience of inflating oneself is a party in itself:

“Inflation isn’t painful, it’s more of a weird sensation – but it is the act of using the body and seeking another experience. It’s a bit tight. If your head gets really full, you feel a lot of pressure.”

Cool. Sign me up.

So what makes this saline inflation club so big in Japan? Bizarre believes that the Japanese naturally takes a subculture farther and more excessive than any other country. Maybe that’s true, in the sense that breaking away from such a dominant monoculture would require the extreme lifestyle. You can’t just give yourself a pink mohawk; you gotta INJECT YOURSELF WITH SALT WATER!

I’m curious to know if any of our readers have undergone a saline inflation themselves.  I’ll be over in the corner recovering from looking at all these photographs. And why is that photographer’s nicknamed after a Sanrio character?

Posted in Fashion, Lifestyles | 4 Comments

The Green Dam Youth Escort: Not an Environmentalist “Dating” Service for Young People.

Posted on June 19, 2009 by jozjozjoz

GreenDamGirl…and the Green Dam Girl doesn’t have anything to do with dental dams.

Actually, Green Dam Youth Escort (绿坝·花季护航) is “content-control software” developed in the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Ostensibly designed to block pornography, Green Dam can actually be used to block other content, as well. A week ago China announced that as of July 1, 2009, all computers sold in China must be installed with Green Dam. Under the guise of screening out pornography, its true main purpose is for the PRC government to censor and spy on its citizens. Not only does Green Dam automatically download the latest updates of a list of prohibited sites from an online database, it also collects private user data.

Due to a public backlash to its original announcement, the PRC government later announced that the installation of the software is “optional.” While much of the outcry from users and computer manufacturers was surrounding issues of censorship, the real reason for the PRC’s about-face is because there are many security flaws within the software that allows hackers to take over computers. In fact, typical of what you might expect from China, a place where piracy of all kinds runs rampant, it turns out that Green Dam is built upon copyright and open source violations. ZDNet Government reports that Green Dam not only rips off Cybersitter software from Solid Oak, but that it also uses open source code without proper attribution.

Outside of the security vulnerabilities and its copied source code, Green Dam also has a number of major functional defects. From Wikipedia:

Green Dam Youth Escort recognizes pornographic images by analyzing skin-coloured regions, complemented by human face recognition. However, according to a Southern Weekly article, the software is incapable of recognizing pictures of nudity featuring black- or red-skinned characters but sensitive enough to images with large patches of yellow that it censors promotional images of the film Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties. The article also cited an expert saying that the software’s misrecognition of “inappropriate contents” in applications including Microsoft Word can lead it to forcefully close those applications without notifying the user, and so cause data losses.

WindowsXP&GreenDamGirlsWikipedia shows a photo of pigs, banned because the pink pigs “matched” the color of human skin.

Not surprisingly, says ZDNet Government, “Chinese youth mock the Green Dam program, kidding each other that if they don’t behave, ‘I’ll youth-escort you.’ Anti-Green Dam websites and petitions are popular. And a Manga-style cartoon mocking the thought police has appeared: Green Dam Girl (绿坝娘).” Chinese blogger Hecaitou says that the images of Green Dam Girl show “the creativity of the post 80s generation (i.e. those born after 1980). The character carries a rabbit (the Green Dam software’s mascot), wears a River Crab badge (a pun about ‘harmonious society that Chinese netizens use to mock Internet censorship), and holds a bucket of paint (or soy sauce) to wipe out online filth.” Says Greenormal, “The police cap emblazoned with a crab, a pun on the Chinese word for “harmonious”, the government’s euphemism for a society without unrest, controversy or opposition.”

Despite the temporary “good news” that Green Dam is now “optional,” it is clear that the PRC government will not give up its intent to control internet speech. It will be up to global citizens to be vigilant and pressure the global computer companies to refuse to be collaborators of such government control.

It sounds like a major FAIL, all the way around. But I did get a chuckle out of the picture of Green Dam Girl pulling down Windows XP Girl’s underwear. Come on, you did, too… didn’t you?!

PS – I normally would not be using simplified Chinese characters, but this is an article about the PRC, so the proper names of these things do actually use this bastardized form of Chinese.
PPS – You think if 8Asians wasn’t already being banned by Green Dam that this post will get it done?

Posted in Business, Current Events, Entertainment, Lifestyles, Observations, Politics, Technology, Video Games | 3 Comments

Top Chef Masters: Kelly Choi

Posted on June 18, 2009 by Moye

topchef-masters3

Bravo’s Top Chef spin-off, Top Chef Masters, kicked off last week and I know I’m not the only one glued to the television (or DVR) when it’s on. I’m waiting for Roy Yamaguchi’s episode to come on, since I’m curious to see what sort of Japanese/Hawaiian touch he can put on those quickfire challenges but hey, host Kelly Choi is hot enough to keep me occupied for a while.

But can I just be outright and say she’s pretty horrible as a host? Okay, she’s a well known tv presenter with numerous Emmy nominations under her belt, but she’s clearly no Padma Lakshmi, who manages to challenge, sample and judge the delicious concoctions from Top Chef with the graciousness and warmth of a perfect host. Choi, on the other hand, is so made up, blow-dried, manicured and bejeweled with a giant bobble head that her looks seem to overshadow her lack of personality.

In a fun cooking challenge show, Kelly comes across as fake, proper and robotic, reciting her lines like she’s reading aloud to a group of preschoolers (just like Giada from the Food Network) or reporting on a local news station. Kelly! Stop! These are well-known and established chefs you are dealing with. You’re hosting a show tied to people like Tom Colicchio and Anthony Bourdain, not Guy Fieri in a TGIFridays commercial. Let’s bring out some personality and warmth.

Kelly has undoubtably earned her accomplished television career, but I can’t wait until the next season of Top Chef returns with Padma. Please come back soon. We need you.

Posted in Entertainment | 3 Comments

When Your Success Is Your Parent’s Success

Posted on June 18, 2009 by jee

Growing up in Korea, I’ve heard from different adults in my life that a child’s success is their parent’s success: if a child misbehaved, they would blame the parents rather than the misbehaving child; if a child did well in school, had great talent, they would attribute that to the intelligence and talents of the parents of that child.

Whenever I acted up, I looked guiltily at my parents because I knew they would hear an earful from some nosy busy body that they had failed as my parents because of my behavior. When I did well in school, I knew my parents were getting praised from their friends and older relatives. Although my parents rarely voiced their need for me to be a certain way so that they can be deemed successes in the eyes of their peers and our relatives, I felt the pressure and I blamed the culture.

Some things don’t change. Kim Yuna is quite an accomplished figure skater, and her mother has made sure that Yuna’s knack for figure skating was channeled properly so that it could reach world class status. Other Asian mothers are following suit and doing whatever they can to ensure their child’s success: Spelling Bee winner, Kavya Shivashankar’s win is attributed to her upbringing of being drilled on spelling by her parents.

When is a parent’s love and devotion to a child’s success too much? While I am definitely behind parents encouraging a child’s dream, talents, and aspirations, I’m not behind obsessive parents who push the child regardless of what the child may want.

What will become of kids who feel the pressure, the obsession, the need parents have to see them achieve the impossible so that they can be seen as having achieved it themselves? While I know — and hope — that love motives parents to desire the world for their children, when does the love for the child turn into love for their own acclaim and success?

(Flickr photo credit: aloshbennett)

Posted in Family, Observations | 3 Comments

Paul Fong: California, Apologize for the Persecution of Chinese Immigrants

Posted on June 18, 2009 by John

paul_fongPaul Fong, “Godfather” of Silicon Valley’s Asian American’s political community and current California State Assembly member, last week introduced resolution ACR 42 calling on the state of California to offer the first formal apology to Chinese Americans for unjust laws and discrimination dating from the Gold Rush Era to the 1940’s:

“Unjust laws include foreign miner’s tax on all gold found, prohibition to marry the person of your choice, Chinese Exclusion Act, prohibition to buy a home and work for a state, county or city entity. ACR 42 also recognizes the work Chinese in California performed on the Transcontinental Railroad and their contributions to the success of California’s fishing and agricultural industries. In addition, Chinese in California helped build the Delta levees.”

I previously mentioned the famous 1869 photo capturing the joining of the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad at Promontory Point where not one Chinese laborer was included in the photo, even though up to 12,000 Chinese worked for Central Pacific, making up to 90% of the workforce. But photos can lie, with history is often written by the victors. And sometimes, history needs to be corrected.

Not many Americans were taught the very racist and exclusionary practices of America’s past when regarding Chinese Americans in the 18th and 19th century, let alone the internment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II (which the United States formally apologized for paid reparations, albeit in 1988.)

I’m sure many Californians will complain about any such efforts regarding addressing past injustices of discrimination, especially with the state of California falling apart and dealing with a massive budget deficit. But these resolutions don’t actually take up all the of the legislature’s time — it’s not like everyone in the state senate and assembly can’t be working on other matters when there is time in between negotiating budget compromises and votes. I’m glad that at least someone is trying to redress such past discriminatory acts; the longer these acts are left behind and forgotten, the harder they are to go back to to redress. In an interview, Fong expresses part of his family’s experience and his personal motivation for introducing the resolution:

“Growing up in his family’s flower business, Fong heard many stories about the hard life of Chinese immigrants, building railroads, mines and irrigation systems. They weren’t allowed in public schools, couldn’t vote and couldn’t marry a white person. Fong’s grandfather was detained for two months on Angel Island in 1939 and had to wait for several years to be reunited with his wife and daughter, Fong’s mother.”

Ultimately, a formal apology for past injustices would serve more to educate, inform and redress past official policies of the state of California — and hopefully in the future, the United States federal government.

As the old saying goes, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Let’s not repeat history when history has proven past actions wrong. For this reason, I personally want to wish Assembly Member Fong all the best in trying to get ACR 42 passed, and hopefully get a federal apology of past unjust laws and discrimination.

Posted in Current Events, Discrimination, Local, Observations, Politics, San Francisco Bay Area, Southern California | 4 Comments

Freaky Japanese Weight Loss “Boneless Belt” Makes You Look Worse Than Being a Fatty

Posted on June 18, 2009 by jozjozjoz

belt1Crazy weight loss gimmicks are certainly not unique to Japan, but I’m trying to figure out why anyone would use this “Boneless Belt” underneath their clothes. An anonymous commenter says that “the name supposedly comes from the term “boneless ham,” which is basically the japanese version of calling somebody a ‘muffin top.’ Imagine a big fat ham with that net around it, and the meat pushing out through the net.”

Yuck. So why would you do this on purpose? Supposedly, the belt actually helps you lose weight!

From Inventor Spot:

In effect, the structure of the rubber belt is a large mesh grid that splits the dieter’s belly, side and back fat into easily manageable blobs. This allows for increased metabolic consumption of calories and raises the propensity for increased blood flow values. More blood flow = more heat = more burning of fat. Got it? Good… What’s NOT good is that a multitude of fat blobs are squeezed out in a manner that disturbingly resembles mini-boobs.

If you really want to buy one, check out the Japanese Yahoo store which offers them.

Or, you can save yourself 4,000 yen and the trauma of seeing yourself as a blobular mess by just hopping on a treadmill, instead.

Posted in Fashion, Health, Lifestyles, Technology, WTF | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Family Obligation May Lessen Depression Symptoms for Chinese American Teens

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Ernie

Okay, so by now we know that suicide is the second-leading cause for death for Asian American women ages 15-24, the highest rate of all ethnicities. We’ve blogged about the pressure from parents to achieve academically, and even the study on how organized religion may drive Asian American teenagers to depression.

And now for an article that pretty much contradicts everything we’ve previously blogged about: a recent study featured in a LA Times Health article asserts that family involvement and obligation doesn’t drive Asian American youth to suicide, but may actually lessen depressive symptoms. From the authors of study: “Programs geared toward immigrant youth from cultures where family obligation is central could emphasize youth’s collective identity to strengthen ties to their family and culture and, in the process, remind youth of their family obligation.” But cultural pressures and family obligation aren’t necessarily binary, as Tim points out in a recent internal e-mail thread:

I agree with both sides of the coin. The push to succeed does increase the suicide rate, but I also believe the family ties help prevent the person from going through with it. In Asian (specifically Chinese) culture there’s such strong family ties, that even if you hate your dad (for example) or feel such strong pressure to succeed, you probably still feel strongly attached to a sibling or the other parent, who you’d want to protect, and you’d feel guilty for leaving them if you killed yourself. So I’m sure there’s some degree of truth to both.

Posted in Family, Health, Lifestyles | Leave a comment

Our Earwax is Flakier Than Yours

Posted on June 17, 2009 by Moye

thailand061609Former Best Group Weblog competitor Jezebel posted a photograph from Bangkok featuring a mother cleaning her daughter’s ear with a Q-tip, although I have no idea what this has to do with the recession hitting the Thai economy.

My first thought upon seeing the photo was along the lines of “I wish my mom was here to clean my ears for me again. Good times!” but a look at the comments made me realize how different this pastime was for non-Asians.

Apparently we’re the one of the few populations who likes to clean our ears with a scooped pick because — aside from the fact that it FEELS SO GOOD — we’ve got a unique type of ear wax: it’s dry, yellow, flaky and scoopable; just as my childhood doctor used to say, like potato chips!

Non-Asians have a goopy ear wax, which is just weird. I mean, wouldn’t you rather have potato chips congregating in your ear canal than ooze?

I’m kidding; it’s not weird. But I’m sad that much of America  is missing out on what I consider the most comforting and satisfying feeling in the world: laying your head down on your mother’s lap while she gently scratches the inside of your ear. Mmm.

Posted in Family, Lifestyles | 11 Comments

8 Questions for Bang-yao Liu, the creator of DEADLINE (Post-It Animation piece)

Posted on June 17, 2009 by jozjozjoz

Bang-yao_LiuI 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!

Chun-yao_Huang
Jay_Tseng
Kelly_Wang

Posted in 8Questions, Entertainment, Movies, The Arts, Video Games | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments