8Asians is a collaborative online publication that features original, diverse commentary by Asians from around the world on issues that affect our community. Established 2006.
Another notable Asian American film, Past Lives, had five nominations. Its nominations were for Best Director – Motion Picture (Celine Song), Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Motion Picture – Non-English Language, Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama (Greta Lee), and Best Screenplay – Motion Picture (Celine Song). It did not any Golden Globes in these categories. A24 was involved with both Beef (production) and Past Lives (distribution).
“L Sam Zhang, author and illustrator of The First Chinese Festivals series of picture books, speaks on on the process of becoming a self-published author/illustrator, how her Cornell experience shaped her trajectory, and more!”
I had passed along the webinar to a friend who I thought might be interested in the topic, She watched and loved the webinar, so I watched it myself after the recording became available. I enjoyed learning about L Sam Zhang’s journey from Cornell to getting her Ph.D. in Neuroscience to self-publishing her books. She has published three books so far:
The First Lantern Festival: To help a servant girl see her family again, the famous Dongfang Shuo convinced everyone that the gods were coming to burn down the city! Even the emperor believed him. Come discover the legend of how the Lantern Festival began over 2,000 years ago. Along the way, you may learn a few Chinese words and meet some interesting historical figures.
The First Dragon Boat Festival: The Dragon Boat Festival celebrates the first Chinese poet, Qu Yuan. And before the poet came along, this Chinese holiday was all about getting rid of creepy crawlies at the beginning of summer! Come explore the many traditions of the Dragon Boat Festival. Along the way, you may learn a few Chinese words and get to know some interesting historical figures.
The First Moon Festival: After saving the world, Houyi the hero received a pill of immortality. When a villain went after the pill, Houyi’s wife Chang’e made a choice that got her trapped on the moon. Join us for a visit into the world of Chinese mythology, and maybe learn a few Chinese words while we’re at it.
The books are relatively inexpensive ($11 each), so I bought all three of them. Call me a banana, but I have never heard of the Lantern Festival. I kind of knew about some elements of the Dragon Boat Festival, like eating zongzi (glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves). For the Moon Festival (also known as the Mid-Autumn Festival), I am well aware of mooncakes (which are not very healthy for you – lots of fat and sugar!). While growing up in Western Massachusetts, I’d attend Chinese school on Saturday’s north of Springfield, near Amherst or later on Sunday’s near Hartford, and sometimes the Chinese language books would have stories about Chinese history or mythology. Maybe I had known some of the background and history of some of these festivals and had long forgotten. But it’s great that we have Asian American authors filling a gap, especially for non-Chinese reading/speaking U.S. mass market.
The books are very approachable, as they are geared toward young children. The books are illustrated by Zhang as well, and the characters are classy, simple and approachable and aid in the storytelling. The books include Chinese characters and romanization of those characters for pronunciation to help teach a little Chinese. I think any parents of young children would be happy telling these stories to their kids, especially if they are Chinese ethnic background or live an area where these festival are celebrated widely like the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, or New York City.
Earlier this year when Princeton University men’s basketball team reached the NCAA Tournament “sweet 16” round for the first time in 50 years, I as an interested alum watched them play on national television and noticed an Asian player on the team. That player was Asian Canadian Xaivian Lee, who as a freshman, averaged 4.8 points a game in that 2022-2023 season. This year, he is averaging 18 points per game. What made the difference? This article from Sportsnet talks about his history and how his offseason helped him elevate his game.
Similar to another Ivy league guard of Asian descent, Xaivian Lee had trouble getting recruited to a division I college. After his freshman season, he concentrated on putting on muscle and improving his shot (now making 40% on threes). He also played for Team Canada in the Under-19 World Cup, where he learned a lot playing against international competition.
Xaivian’s ultimate goal is to make it to the NBA.
Being doubted has kind of been like a common thing my entire life. Every single level I’ve gone to, there’s always been doubts if I could play at that level and if (I) can get to the next level.
Even if he doesn’t make it, at least he will have a Princeton education to fall back on. We followed Jeremy Lin early in his career, and we hope that Xaivian Lee’s dreams come true in a similar way.
I ordinarily do not review children’s books, but I couldn’t help myself after The Wife gave me the book When Lola Visits to wrap as a Christmas present for one of her nephews. “Lola” means grandmother in Tagalog. This book evoked cherished memories of when my children’s Lola would take care of them. The Wife’s mother and father lived with us for many years, and her Mom did many of things of the things in the book like singing to my children in Ilocano and Tagalog and cooking for them. I was pleasantly surprised that the author Michelle Sterling made a trailer for the book – it gives a good idea of the book’s content without giving everything away.
I cannot definitely say if my wife’s nephew will like the book, but I think he could really relate to it as his Lola often stays over to take care of him. The illustrations by Aaron Asis work wells the story. While the book is about Filipinos, I think it could be enjoyed by children of any ethnicity as it tells a story about family and summer days. When Lola Visits get my recommendation.
If you are interested in giving Filipino-oriented Christmas gifts like When Lola Visits, Sterling made this list. It has recommendations not just for kids but people of all ages.
If you can’t get enough of Michelle Yeoh, January 4 will be your chance to see her in action again in the Netflix series The Brothers Sun. She stars as Eileen, the mother of Charles and Bruce Sun. Charles and Bruce’s father, a triad crime boss, is assassinated, but Bruce, living in southern California with his mom, has had no idea that that the rest of his family are actually gangsters.
One of the co-creators of The Brothers Sun, along with executive producer and showrunner Brad Falchuk, is Byron Wu. In this interview, Wu describes it as a dark action-comedy:
Too comedic to be a drama, too dramatic to be comedy, but exactly what I’m aiming for.
“The researchers found that Republican-majority and swing states showed indications of greater stereotyping of Asian-born and Asian Americans, with European Americans more likely to see them as foreign. Such states with high implicit bias included West Virginia, Iowa, South Carolina, Ohio, and Wisconsin.
At the same time, states with older median ages and greater percentages of Asians were associated with the less explicit bias against Asians and Asian Americans. These included Hawaii, the District of Columbia, California, Nevada, and Texas, according to the study.
“Our study shows that experiences of Asians and Asian Americans are likely to significantly differ depending on their state of residence, with residents of some states expressing more biased views that Asian Americans are not as ‘American’ as whites,” Yoo says. “These insights should guide future research and interventions to address biases effectively at the state level.”
Violent assaults and verbal abuse against Asian Americans climbed during the peak of the COVID pandemic, bringing heightened attention as well as research to the problem. In order to improve understanding of Asian Americans’ diverse experiences of racism, Yoo and her coauthors in this study looked at state-level variations in implicit and explicit bias, as well as macro-level factors, such as racial density, political climate, and socioeconomic conditions that have been shown to influence racial attitudes.”
Evan is energetic, thoughtful, and charismatic. He is extremely engaged with the community and is a prolific legislator. His race will be a tough one, though:
“Low leaned into his support from law enforcement and his work on tech issues, including chairing a caucus to advocate for one of California’s signature industries. His endorsements include a progressive stalwart from a neighboring district, Rep. Ro Khanna, as well as California Democratic Reps. Judy Chu and Mark Takano.
Low, previously served as mayor of the city of Campbell, becoming the youngest Asian American and youngest LGBTQ+ mayor in the country in 2009. His father was president of a local chamber of commerce and his brother is a police officer in San Jose.
After moving to the state Legislature, the five-term lawmaker established himself as a prominent voice on LGBTQ+ rights, violence against Asian Americans and tech industry issues. But his ambition to be Assembly speaker put him at odds with leaders in the chamber; in 2021, then-Speaker Anthony Rendon stripped him of a committee chairmanship, an unusually public rebuke for his behind-the-scenes politicking.
Low, 40, will likely make his youth, as well as his Chinese American background, a selling point of his campaign. A quarter of the district’s eligible voters are Asian American.
“It’s important and personal to me to continue the legacy of those that have come before me, like Norman Minetta and Mike Honda — two individuals who were in internment camps themselves, icons in our community,” he said.
He joins a burgeoning field of Democratic hopefuls eager for a shot at the solidly blue Bay Area district.
Santa Clara Supervisor Joe Simitian has had a federal campaign account open since January, giving him a sizable fundraising headstart with nearly $700,000 on hand as of the end of September. Low projected confidence that he’d be able to catch up quickly, pointing to his deep donor base with tech executives and national LGBT advocacy groups.
Former San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo, who previously considered taking on Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren in a neighboring Silicon Valley district, jumped in soon after Eshoo’s announcement.
State Sen. Josh Becker is also considering a run, while Low’s colleague in the Assembly, Palo Alto Democrat Marc Berman, has ruled it out.
The many awards won by the Everything Everywhere all at Once, including Golden Globes and five Academy Awards, are a triumph of filmmaking and also a triumph for Asian American representation. The road to reach this milestone was not a short one, and there were many films along the away that were critical to this journey, including films that set up barriers with stereotypical portrayals of Asian Americans and other that broke through those barriers. Jeff Yang explores these films in his book, The Golden Screen: The Movies that Made Made Asian America.
Yang goes through 136 films in his book. For each, he includes commentary from Asian American writers (including former 8asians writerDino-Ray Ramos) and actors on how those movies affected them. The movies are are grouped into chapters not by time period, but thematically. Each chapter contains some introductory dialog. The Golden Screen has much similarity to Yang’s previous book, Rise: A Pop History of Asian America from the Nineties to Now. While Rise covers some of these movies, The Golden Screen is far more comprehensive.
I was initially surprised that there many non-American Asian movies that made into to the list, but that makes sense given that Yang wanted to include movies that influenced Asian Americans and how others look at Asian Americans. These include some of the best films ever made, such as The Seven Samurai and In the Mood for Love. Yang also included some infamously movies with horrendous portrayals of Asians, such as Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I think his approach is very effective, and I appreciated the amount of research he did into the work. I thought I had good knowledge about Asian American culture and history, but I only have seen 49 movies in his list, and there were a number of movies that I had never heard of. I appreciated learning about those, and I look forward to going to see them.
The only issue I have with the The Golden Screen is its index. I wanted to found out about Anna May Wong, but the index does not include her even though she was covered throughout the book. Also, with any kind of compendium, somethings will be left out. I was surprised that Colma: The Musical was left out, given it has been included in some lists of notable Asian American films and became a cult classic of sorts. Also, since it is a compendium, there is a limit into how much depth it can go into each movie. Some of these films, like The Seven Samurai, even have entire books dedicated to them.
Overall, I give The Golden Screen my hearty recommendation. If you are a students of Asian American culture, it definitely belongs on your shelf, along with Rise.
To understand AAPIs’ growing electoral power and become a part of the community investing in the movement to ensure AAPI voices are heard and addressed. Stopping Asian hate, addressing climate change, public safety, and inflation are some of the issues at stake in the 2024 election where AAPIs will be the margin of victory.
“A hilarious and heartfelt comedy starring Awkwafina and Sandra Oh as estranged sisters forced to cover their mother’s gambling debts, set out to get the cash the only way they know how – by turning Anne (Awkwafina) into a bona-fide gameshow champion.”
This is a lighthearted comedy with strong performances by Awkwafina and Sandra Oh. I especially enjoyed Oh’s over-the-top portrayal of an irresponsible adult older sister. As of this writing, Quiz Lady enjoys an 81% Rotten Tomatoes score based on 53 reviews.
“Like so many road trip buddy comedies, the effectiveness of the enterprise rests, arguably more than the writing or direction itself, on the balance and chemistry between the central duo. And “Quiz Lady” in particular is predicated upon a role-reversing gamble: Typically a dramatic actress, Oh is playing the freewheeling Jenny, while her co-star, Awkwafina, who aside from her role in “The Farewell” has mostly made her name as the often cartoonish comic relief (“Crazy Rich Asians,” “The Little Mermaid”), is the serious and high-strung Anne.
But the pair finds an easy harmony together, even as Oh does most of the heavy lifting. While Awkwafina’s little-sister turn often falls into uptight, one-note outbursts, Oh is a charismatic and natural counterbalance as the outsize Jenny. She knows when to reel her choices in and, most important, imbues Jenny’s kookiness with an emotional depth bubbling just underneath the surface.
The funniest scene comes toward the end, when Jenny and Anne play a high-stakes game of charades on the quiz show. As they hit their stride, the sequence, punctuated by a strikingly tender moment that would have rung forced in lesser hands, floats off the comedic brilliance of Oh, at once natural and ridiculous, as her answers burst out of her via an intuition that could only exist through a lifetime of sisterhood.”
The film is not eligible for an Oscar as I don’t think it will ever have a theatrical release, but is an enjoyable watch if only to see the chemistry between Awkwafina and Oh.
The Netflix series Beef won every 2024 Golden Globe category for which it was nominated, three in total. It won Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television, Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television (Steven Yeun), and Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Limited Series, Anthology Series, or a Motion Picture Made for Television (Ali Wong). NBC Asian America points out that this is the first time that an Asian American created show starring Asian Americans has won its category.
