San Jose: ‘Saigon Business District’ wins

Posted on November 21, 2007 by John

As you may or may not know, San Jose, California has one of the largest Vietnamese-American populations in the United States (approximately 100,000 Vietnamese-Americans -around 10% of San Jose’s population). There has been a brewing debate within the Vietnemes-American community to designate a section of San Jose “Saigon Business District” vs. “Little Saigon”, as reported in The San Jose Mercury article: “ ‘Saigon Business District’ wins – San Jose Council’s Name for Retail District Angers ‘Little Saigon’ Advocate“:

“ In a dynamic and dramatic scene before one of the largest crowds to ever gather at City Hall, the San Jose City Council on Tuesday designated a busy hub of Vietnamese-owned businesses “Saigon Business District,” enraginghttp://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site568/2007/1121/20071121_083012_SAIGON-TOWN-112107_200.jpg several hundred people who stormed City Hall demanding the name “Little Saigon.”…The proposal, which might seem innocuous to non-Vietnamese-Americans, set off a firestorm of controversy within the Vietnamese community here and around the country. [San Jose city council member Madison] Nguyen, who fled Vietnam in 1979 with her family, has been bombarded with criticism for her unwillingness to support the “Little Saigon” name. Nguyen said the area should have its own identity – separate from other Little Saigons. And business owners prefer that the name have “business district” in it. “Little Saigon” is opposed by the Story Road Business Association and the San Jose Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which has members in the area. “Little Saigon” supporters have accused Nguyen of turning her back on her constituents in order to appease the business community.”

Personally, with very little knowledge of this whole controversy, “Saigon Business District” sounds a bit stodgy to me. I mean, I’ve heard of Little Taipei, Little Italy, Chinatown, Koreatown, Japantown, etc… but a moniker with “Business District” sounds very sterile to me. I wonder if this issue alone will cause San Jose council member Madison Nguyen to lose re-election in the future…? In November 2005, Nguyen won a historic race to fill a vacated San Jose council seat in a special election, running against another Vietnamese-American woman, Linda Nguyen.

Posted in Current Events, Observations, Politics | 13 Comments

A review of Lust, Caution

Posted on November 21, 2007 by Lily Huang

Lust, Caution has been out for awhile. However, it deserves another review because it isn’t nearly as bad as the reviews make it seem. It’s actually pretty good. And it’s still playing here and there (it wasn’t widely released in the first place) so this weekend might be the last chance for some people to see it.

The film sounds like a suspense-thriller- a dangerous assassination plot, a backdrop of Chinese resistance to Japanese occupation in Shanghai during World War II- but with screenwriters James Schamus and Wang Hui Ling and director Ang Lee, the film is more meditatively paced, and constructed around Wong Chia Chi’s (Tan Wei) relationship to Mr. Yee (Tony Leung), rather than the plot to kill the high-ranking official of the Kuomintang.

The reviews and the NC-17 rating have you bracing for the pornographic scenes, which do occur, but not until well into the film, and which aren’t that graphic. Or maybe I’m just inured by the other horrors I saw in film class way back in college. It’s all about expectations and reference points. There’s a sexless version that can only be seen in China, and the film could be just as good without the porn breaks. That’s what they felt like sometimes. Just pornographic interludes. I think there is some symbolic story development through the sex, as well as the mah jong games that the women play throughout the film, but a viewer can understand the film well enough without it.

Overall, it’s a solid film. It’s predominantly dark and suspenseful, with a few other textures of love and even humor. The attempted assassins are a group of theater kids and their bungling participation in the serious world of murder has its moments. It makes one want to learn Mandarin and mah jong, and read Eileen Chang’s story for comparison. Native Chinese speakers tell me that the dialects in Lust, Caution are much better done than those in Crouching Tiger. And Tang Wei, with baby cheeks and full lips, is really cute.

Posted in Entertainment | 4 Comments

Catching Up With the Joneses

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Bo

Over the weekend, the NY Times reported on a new Census Bureau analysis of the most common surnames in the US.  For the first time, two Hispanic surnames – Garcia and Rodriguez – made the top 10 most common in the nation.  Martinez nearly cracked the top 10, coming in just after Wilson at number 11. 

So, where do we Asians fall into the mix?  The highest ranking Asian surname was none other than Lee, coming in as #22.  I suspect, however, that Lee’s ranking is bolstered by individuals of both Asian and Scottish descent.  Here’s a sampling of other Asian surnames:

No. 57 – Nguyen (up 172 spots)
No. 109 – Kim (up 124 spots)
No. 172 – Patel (up 419 spots)
No. 188 – Tran (up 219 spots)
No. 260 – Chen
No. 277 – Wong
No. 343 – Park
No. 368 – Le
No. 397 – Singh

I’m very surprised by the relatively low rankings of Chen and Wong.  With such a sizable Chinese-American population, I’d have bet money that they would have cracked the top 200.  I also wonder what impact the Filipino community had on the rankings of Hispanic surnames.       

Posted in Current Events, Observations | 8 Comments

The day the Lees discovered Thanksgiving

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Bo

This month’s issue of Gourmet magazine features a fusion Thanksgiving menu inspired by the flavors of “the east” aka Japan, China, and India.  Traditional turkey day eats are updated and become Pumpkin, Corn, and Lemongrass Soup, Roasted Japanese Sweet Potatoes with Scallion Butter, and Indian Spiced Pickled Vegtables among others.  Gourmet’s rock-staresque editor, Ruth Reichl, explains the inspiration for this menu by stating: 

“In our test kitchen we have one…Asian woman, and [she] started telling us about dishes [she was] going to be serving at [her] Thanksgivings, which are truly cross-cultural affairs. A lot of them sounded great, so we just went with them.” 

The fusion menu got me to thinking about my own family’s Thanksgiving traditions and also those of other immigrant and multi-cultural households.  As a first generation clan, my family never took to most American holidays.  The Fourth of July was just another day working in the family shoe store.  But Thanksgiving was different.  My parents understood Thanksgiving.  As first gen immigrants and survivors of the Korean War, they immediately took to the ideas of thankfulness, bounty, and family.  As far back as I can remember, my parents actually closed up shop on Thanksgiving and spent the day with the family.  This from people who opened their shoe store on Christmas Day in hopes that they’ll catch a few of the truly last minute shoppers. 

Our first few Thanksgivings were spent in the basement cafeteria of our Korean church eating lukewarm turkey and stuffing with the other families who couldn’t be bothered to spend the morning cooking.  Finally, in the fall of 1981 my sisters and I harangued our mother until she finally agreed to forgo church and instead make our own Thanksgiving dinner.  That first holiday will forever live on as the night of the burnt/raw turkey and ketchup stuffing.  My mother, a most superior Korean cook, didn’t realize you had to thaw out the turkey and remove the bag of giblets from inside the bird.  She also decided that ketchup and raisins belonged in stuffing.  It was almost enough to derail the whole holiday forever.  

The following Thanksgiving, remembering the traumas of her first attempt, my mother gave my sisters and I an ultimatum.  Either you cook Thanksgiving or we’re going to church.  At the ripe old ages of seven (me), nine, and 11, my sisters and I looked at each other and immediately accepted the deal.  We somehow managed to roast a chicken and make mashed potatoes from scratch.  Everything else came either from a box (Stove Top stuffing and frozen pumpkin pie), can (biscuits and Reddi Whip topping), jar (gravy), or bag (frozen corn).  It was the BEST Thanksgiving ever.  

Thanksgiving still lives on in my family.  Each Thanksgiving now consists of an entirely from scratch traditional spread and also a huge traditional Korean menu courtesy of my mother.  My (white) partner is always beside himself trying to decide what to eat first – can there be such a thing as too much food?  We’ve never tried mingling Korean influences into the American dishes or vice versa.  No kimchee stuffing thank you very much. 

So, how does this experience compare with other Asians out there?  Do you celebrate Thanksgiving?  And if you do, what does your table consist of?                

Posted in Food & Drink, Lifestyles, Observations | 9 Comments

Gackt rocks it at MKMF

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Xxxtine

For no other reason than to post this for Ben (who may or may not have seen it already), Japanese rocker Gackt recently performed at the Mnet KM Festival Awards in Korea. He won the Best Foreign Artist award and refused to accept the award because his only reason to go to Korea was to meet the fans. (*shrugs)

The expressionless faces of some of the Korean celebs in attendance are rather hilarious, in particular Super Junior member HeeChul in a mixture of awe and confusion.

Posted in Entertainment | 6 Comments

The Great Firewall of China

Posted on November 18, 2007 by Ben

There is a lot to be said about the Great Firewall of China. Also known as the Golden Shield Project, this baby has been intact since 2003, but has been in design since as early as 98. The goal of this is to restrict any information that might jeopardize their control over the current media mediums. The easiest of this is by blacklists, but there are other items such as keyword blocks and selective routing.

DNS poisoning anyone? Funny that many of the so-called features were and are tactics for simplistic network hacking and misdirection. All of which is done at the router level.

So the big question however on everyone’s mind is… is 8Asians influential enough to even gain a block from the Golden Shield? So far, I’ve heard mixed reviews so I decided to put it to the test. Other 8A authors have said that it indeed is blocked. Yet John Kennedy from Global Voices, tested the link from Beijing University and had no issues getting through.

So which was it?

The Great Firewall of China test site came back with a block. Yet Website Pulse’s China test site came back from their servers in Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai all with flying colors. The partial block straight out would mean that we are probably not blacklisted. In fact, it could only be a localized or separate blacklist provision since you would think that any type of routing that is blocked by Golden Shield would be blocked regardless of where the servers are due to how the main routing tables are set up in China.

One day perhaps we’ll actually see that 8Asians has risen to the top of the block list. But for now, we’re still getting through.

Photo Credit: (Isaac Mao)

Posted in Technology | 14 Comments

Follow-ups: Goh Nakamura, Kayla the Asian YoBaby, Writers and other stuff

Posted on November 16, 2007 by Ernie

Two months ago, Samantha wrote about Goh Nakamura’s newest video, “Embarcadero Blues.” Turns out that wasn’t the final cut – the following video is the finished work. And on top of that, the video was linked off of YouTube’s front page, giving the video over a QUARTER MILLION views and giving Goh official status as an internet celebrity. As someone who’s met Goh, I can honestly say that I couldn’t be any happier for the guy.

We also blogged about voting for Kayla, the Asian Baby for the YoBaby Yogurt Cover Baby Contest. Thanks to your votes (you did vote, right?) Kayla was one of two contest winners! Kayla and family get to spend a fully expensed trip for four to San Francisco, California! Except they live in Fremont, a twenty minute drive away. Oh well.

We also never properly introduced our newest writer, Lily. That makes me a horrible website administrator, and a million apologies for that. Her bio is as follows: Lily Huang is a writer of Taiwanese descent, who lives on the East coast. She grew up in suburbia completely oblivious to Asian culture, and is making up for it now. Give her a warm welcome.

Finally, You might have noticed the slew of ads that have come up. I’ve made no secrets that it would be nice if 8Asians.com made a little bit of cash on the side, but we always want everyone to not rip their hair out viewing the site and participating, so if you have any question or have feedback, let us know. And seriously, fill out our survey. It helps me figure out who’s checking the site out – we can cater the site better for you guys that way, and maybe you’ll win a bumper sticker or a t-shirt or something cool like that. The survey closes December 1st.

Posted in Meta | 5 Comments

Asians *ARE* good at math and science

Posted on November 16, 2007 by John

Well, I wonder if this blog title posting got your attention :-). In The New York Times’ article “Study Compares States’ Math and Science Scores With Other Countries’ “:

“American students even in low-performing states like Alabama do better on math and science tests than students in most foreign countries, including Italy and Norway, according to a new study released yesterday. That’s the good news. The bad news is that students in Singapore and several other Asian countries significantly outperform American students, even those in high-achieving states like Massachusetts, the study found. “In this case, the bad news trumps the good because our Asian economic competitors are winning the race to prepare students in math and science,” said the study’s author, Gary W. Phillips, chief scientist at the American Institutes of Research, a nonprofit independent scientific research firm.”

If you take a look at the full report: “Chance Favors the Prepared Mind: Mathematics and Science Indicators for Comparing States and Nations (.pdf)”, the report ranks (in order) these countries ahead of the United States in mathematics:

Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan , Japan and Belgium

and in science:

Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Estonia, England, and Hungary.

So it looks like Asian countries in general have done a better job of educating their students in math and science. (BTW – I wonder why China wasn’t included in the study – maybe there aren’t any “national” standards to compare against?) But something tells me that this isn’t necessarily the sole reason why Asian-Americans have been stereotyped of being good in math and science.

(Photo credit: Silenceofnight)

Posted in Current Events, Observations | 16 Comments

Will Yun Lee, One of the “Sexiest Men Alive”

Posted on November 15, 2007 by John

I had previously profiled Will Yun Lee in my blog post “Bionic Woman: Looks Like Starbuck Has Yellow Fever.” Well, in the most recent issue of People Magazine, their “Sexiest Man Alive” honor goes to Matt Damon, but the magazine goes on to honor other sexy men, including Will Yun Lee:

“The 32-year-old star plays a special agent on Bionic Woman, but if he had the chance to step into a bionic body, what would he want made super-strong? “Bionic legs. Can any guy be trusted with bionic vision?” You’ve gotta love a man who’s honest!”

http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2007/specials/sma07/mag/will_yun_lee.jpg

Last year, Survivor’s Yul Kwon was listed as one of the Sexiest Men Alive. Maybe this is a trend! But it’ll take more than People’s Sexiest Man Alive issue to change Americans’ stereotypes of Asian-American men.

Kind of off topic, but I don’t think having Asian-American male porn stars will help either (though if you haven’t seen James Hou’s documentary, Masters of the Pillow, it’s quite interesting – following UC Davis’ Asian-American Studies Professor Darrell Hamamoto quest to produce the first porn movie with an Asian-American male lead, which is mocked in this extremely funny The Daily Show clip here, “They So Horny.” 11/19/03)

Posted in Entertainment, Observations | Leave a comment

POP 88 #14 – Interview with Olivia Cheng

Posted on November 15, 2007 by Xxxtine

Olivia Cheng on POP 88Hello Everyone,

Thank you for downloading our 14th episode.

This episode includes your requests played, plus an interview/ conversation with Olivia Cheng from the new docudrama Iris Chang: The Rape of Nanking (*note there is use of cursive words – but I think we’re all adults) and highlights from the Reel Asian Book Launch.

The Reel Asian International Film Festival is going on now till November 18th (Sunday) – lots happenning so check the site for details.

For requests, feedbacks, suggestions and comments, please leave a message at Popcast88.com or you can send an email to christine [at] popcast88.com. Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Entertainment, POP 88 | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Yahoo settles with dissidents

Posted on November 14, 2007 by John

As I had posted in “WSJ: Yahoo’s Lashing Highlights Risks Of China Market,” Yahoo! got quite an earful by Congress last week. In today’s San Jose Mercury News, it was reported that “Yahoo settles with dissidents – Yang Takes Personal Interest in Fate of Chinese Journalists”:

“Yahoo settled a lawsuit Tuesday brought against it by two imprisoned Chinese journalists who accused the Sunnyvale search giant of being complicit in their arrests for pro-democracy activities online. In an unusual development, the deal was driven by the personal involvement of Yahoo Chief Executive and co-founder Jerry Yang, who publicly apologized to the journalists’ families during a heated congressional hearing last week…http://us.i1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/i/ww/beta/y3.gif According to a source close to the Yahoo co-founder, Yang was confident his company could win the lawsuit. But Yang, an immigrant from Taiwan, didn’t see the matter as a legal issue. He saw it as a human issue involving the prisoners and their families, and he wanted to do the right thing, the source said…Under the terms of the settlement, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oakland, Yahoo will pay the legal costs incurred by the families of Shi Tao, a business journalist who was arrested in November 2004, and Wang Xiaoning, an editor who was arrested in September 2002. The Sunnyvale company will also set up a Human Rights Fund that would provide humanitarian and legal aid to dissidents who have been imprisoned for expressing their views online….”Yahoo was founded on the idea that the free exchange of information can fundamentally change how people lead their lives, conduct their business and interact with their governments,” Yang said in a statement. “We are committed to making sure our actions match our values around the world.”

It’s re-assuring that Yang wanted to do the right thing, even though he thought Yahoo! could win the suit. I’m sure that would have been also pretty bad publicity anyways if Yahoo! proceeded an won. Nevertheless, though I do not know Jerry Yang, I am sure Yang’s statement were heartfelt. I’m not sure how Yang can help in getting those dissidents out of jail, but I certainly wish him luck.

Posted in Current Events, Observations, Politics | Leave a comment

WSJ: Chinese Dissidents Take On Beijing Via Media Empire

Posted on November 14, 2007 by John

In November 15th’s issue of The Wall Street Journal, a page one article “Chinese Dissidents Take On Beijing Via Media Empire” describes the efforts of overseas Chinese, including Chinese-Americans, to speak out against mainland China’s crackdown on Falun Gong (“”a Chinese spiritual-and-meditation movement banned by Beijing as an “evil cult.””). The article also goes on to describe the efforts of individuals and organizations actively involved:

“…New Tang Dynasty broadcasts to the U.S., Europe and Asia, including China. It is one of a growing number of media organizations run mostly by Falun Gong practitioners, including a radio station and a newspaper with editions in 10 languages. There is also a film-production company, a performing-arts school, dozens of Web sites and a Chinese New Year cultural show, which has played around the world, including New York’s Radio City Music Hall and the Kennedy Center in Washington…Falun Gong follows in a long tradition of sects in China that have challenged the state. Falun Gong started in 1992 as a spiritual movement intended partly to improve practitioners’ health. While a government crackdown has largely contained Falun Gong in China, the group has flourished overseas, driven by well-educated practitioners who volunteer time, money and technological expertise to push their cause, to what some experts describe as a near-fanatical degree.”

 

The efforts are impressive. I remember going to the Chinese consulate in San Francisco to get my visa to visit China and seeing Falun Gong supporters protesting against the Chinese government. But I didn’t realize the extent of Falun Gong supporters’ existing overseas efforts.

Posted in Current Events, Politics | 90 Comments