Let’s play a game!
I’m going to ask you a bunch of questions. They’re all about interracial dating & marriage. After you’re done, I’ll show you the answers, according to a Nov. 2004 article from Asian-Nation. (I haven’t been able to find more current data. If you have some, please let me know!)
Click on the “Vote” button after each question to see how other people have voted.
The actual statistics after the jump.
While surfing around bookmarking site del.icio.us, I came across this pretty good YouTube clip of a Japanese magician doing street magic – in this case, pulling out a real hamburger from a picture menu:
Apart from the always-entertaining looks of surprised and petrified Japanese passers-by, one thing also caught me off-guard: his American accent. After doing some good old-fashioned internet surfing I discovered that his name is Cyril Takayama, a half Okinawan, half French-Moraccan magician who was born in Los Angeles, then moved to Japan at the age of 15 after being expelled from school.
He’s pretty famous in Japan from the looks of his YouTube clips – a lot of Japanese variety shows, a lot of David Blaine-esque trips to Nepal and Thailand (visiting orphans with HIV, no less) and sold-out Tokyo Arena shows. With some exposure on MTV’s prank/magic show Room 401, not to mention the popularity of his clips on YouTube, he looks to be getting big in the Western World as well, although I’m not sure how I’m feeling about that recent John Waters mustache of his. Hey, if it’s big in Japan, right?
As a former staff member of Vox Femina Los Angeles, the premier women’s choral group of our fine city, I regularly attend the concerts by this wonderful group. But I know choral music can be a hard sell, especially in this town of a million things to do.
That said, my guests and I had such a wonderful time at the Vox performance tonight, I wanted to share some of the highlights so that anyone interested might decide to catch the (final) performance on Sunday afternoon. If you like music with a great beat, world music, or taiko (drumming), then you should definitely catch this concert. The women of Vox sounded amazing; their voices blended beautifully; sometimes they were the percussion section.
But the highlight of the performance was the Los Angeles based On (pronounced Ohn) Ensemble, a troupe of taiko drummers who bring a unique world fusion mix to the tradition of taiko. With musical experience ranging from centuries-old Kabuki music to jazz, rock and electronica, the On Ensemble features taiko drums in conjunction with turntable, western drum kit, bamboo flute, koto (Japanese zither), and Tuvan overtone singing.
That’s right. Turntable. And throat singing. By some really awesome taiko drummers. (Only in/from L.A.!)
I loved this performance not only because each ensemble was excellent in their individual sets, but because they came together at the end as two L.A.-based groups performing as one.
And you can still catch them downtown at Zipper Hall at the Colburn School of Performing Arts.
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The Third annual Chinese BloggerCon is underway and my what a sight to behold.
Don’t worry if you don’t understand Chinese. Rebecca MacKinnon, who used to be the Beijing Bureau Chief for CNN, will probably post her thoughts on it since she has in the past and John Kennedy, the Chinese language editor for Global voices, is live blogging the event.
What’s interesting about this event is that it’s much more than about blogging itself. Blogging is great, but in China where speech is censored and there are people that are trying to speak out on this, that, or another thing, this event is really about how the technology has empowered regular people the ability to move forward. Just take a look at the technology in itself. This event even showcases the talent behind China’s equivalents to our Internet fads.
For example, Fanfou is the Chinese equivalent to Twitter. Apparently many people in China actually post direct from mobiles. Baidu is the Google of China even though Google has a presence there. You could go on and on. This only barely scratches the surface from a perspective of how the Internet and technology is advancing both Chinese thought and journalistic aspects.
Funny that not only is this event getting a lot of love in China, but friends on this side of the Pacific like Robert Scoble is wishing he was there. And I totally understand the sentiment. Sometimes you just want to be at events that are changing the world, of which CnBloggercon is sure to do.
(Photo credit: Shi Zhao)
This Saturday, November 3rd (that’s tomorrow!) graphic novelist Adrian Tomine is going to be at Skylight Books in LA. According to the official Shortcomings website, it’s the third stop on his tour. He’s coming from Toronto, and after Los Angeles is going to Philadelphia, then back up to Ann Arbor, which isn’t too far from Toronto. This seems a bit geographically inefficient, but what do I know about book tours?
And what do I know about graphic novels. But before I disqualify myself from this post completely, one of the ideas that is circulating about Adrian Tomine is that his work is accessible to those outside the core graphic novel readers. I for one have been seeing his name for years, but didn’t actually read anything by him until a few weeks ago. Even then, it took Giant Robot, the New Yorker and a dozen other mentions before I finally made my way over to the comics section of the bookstore. Perhaps this goes to show how much a person has to be exposed to something before they finally react. Or how far graphic novels seem to some people.
In reality, it takes just two leisurely hours to read, and at the end of it you will be glad you got to know Ben Tanaka and the other lost souls of his universe. Ben Tanaka is an anti-hero, weak and ineffectual, and the world of Shortcomings is anti-comic, absent of fantastic adventures and super powers. The three chapters trace the comings and goings (mostly goings) of Ben, his girlfriend Miko, and his friend Alice. Many of the events happen despite the resistance of Ben, and there is a quiet humor to his identifiable struggles as a 30-year old and an Asian-American. Like all literature, when it is done well, you don’t notice the seams. It captures choice moments, faces them with honesty, and weaves them into an effective narrative.
Shortcomings is Tomine’s first foray into a longer story arc than his previous Optic Nerve comics. It was first serialized as Optic Nerve #9-11, and was published last month in one book-signing friendly volume. Up your nerdy-cool factor and go if you live in one of the hipster cities on his tour.
In today’s Wall Street Journal, the newspaper reports “The Revolution of Chairman Li – China’s Richest Man Leads Others to Give, Bucking Nation’s Taboos“:
“Li Ka-shing, Asia’s richest man, is shaking up philanthropy in China. While multibillion-dollar donations by Western entrepreneurs such as Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and Mexico’s Carlos Slim are turning private wealth into a force for tackling social problems, philanthropy remains a radical concept in China. The Communist Party has long stymied privately funded institutions,
from churches to schools, viewing them as a threat to its grip on power. And traditional Confucian beliefs hold that charitable donations should be done quietly, so as not to extract personal benefit from altruism. Now, Mr. Li, the chairman of Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd., is leading a growing group of wealthy Chinese who are challenging tradition and embracing a more open approach to giving. Last year, Mr. Li announced plans to give a third of his fortune — a pledge estimated at more than $10 billion — to his foundations that fund philanthropic projects around the world. The move will give the Li Ka-shing Foundation an endowment that rivals the $11 billion Ford Foundation, the second largest U.S. philanthropy after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”
I think this is fantastic. I believe, that with great wealth, comes great responsibility. I don’t have any sources or stats to refer to, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Asian-Americans were the lowest contributors to non-profit organizations and have a poor record of philanthropy, just like Asian-Americans are the least likely to vote of any ethnicity in America…
The Chinese are overtaking the US in many things. As said before, one was manufacturing. What’s interesting is that with all this manufacturing requires a lot of power. LOTS of it.
And thus, they’re building about one coal plant every week. That’s some crazy stuff. What’s even more thought provoking is that the energy consumption and energy creation is documented in a range that I can’t even begin to comprehend. Thus, it’s really interesting that there are two different conflicts going on when it comes to environment and pollution. The first is this little bit on how even more well-known sites such as TreeHugger continue to make the play that China is the big bad wolf and how it’s so bad for even teachers’ pension funds to invest in Chinese power.
Granted that China is not only overtaking the US in total greenhouse emissions, there’s no stopping this train from steamrolling. But let’s look at a small thing called the Kyoto Protocol. This treaty was to decrease greenhouse pollutants to a collective average of 5% below the 1990 levels. What’s interesting is that China ratified this treaty, while the United States did not. Go figure that one out. While this is due to expire in 2012, there is already a successor drafted called the Washington Declaration that was committed by the G8+5 conference back in February. This non-binding agreement was an acknowledgement by the leaders of these countries that something must be done about the man-made pollution and that we should have a goal of cutting it in half by 2050.
All in all? Will each country stand by their word? Who knows. China doesn’t seem to be stopping their building of power plants and their energy production has skyrocketed. On the other hand, they are putting their name and reputation on the dotted line where other developed countries are not.
(Photo Credit: Brett Arnett)
In tomorrow’s Wall Street Journal, the newspaper covers the story: “Starbucks, PepsiCo Bring ‘Subopera’ to Shanghai“:
“A feel-good film about a girl from the Chinese countryside who moves to the big city to discover love, blogging and Starbucks will premier this month in an unusual venue: Shanghai’s subway. “A Sunny Day,” is scheduled to play exclusively on thousands of high-tech flat screen monitors on Shanghai’s subway cars and station platforms. Tailored for an audience of 2.2 million who
cram onto China’s biggest underground railway each day, the full-length feature film will be shown in daily segments of a few minutes each over 40 weekdays, soap-opera style. Subtitles in Chinese will help commuters follow the dialogue over the subway noise, and multiple daily rebroadcasts and tie-ins on the Internet are designed to ensure no one misses any of the cliffhangers.” Instead of an ordinary film, the so-called “subopera” is a blend of drama and advertising. A venture between Starbucks Coffee Co. and PepsiCo Inc. financed and helped produce the drama as part of a campaign that kicks off today in Shanghai to introduce bottled frappuccino drinks to the Chinese market.”
If you haven’t been to Shanghai (or Beijing for that matter) lately, you will notice that there are Starbucks everywhere – at the same kind of U.S. prices (which can be up to a day’s wage for a lot of Chinese). I wonder why something like this hasn’t happened already in major U.S. cities with a lot of commuters – like in New York City, Washington, D.C., etc… ?
This LA Times article about the Korean-American communities rethinking of achievement strikes me in a funny sort of way…and not good funny. The article asserts that, in the shadow of a few very public f-ups by a handful of Korean-Americans, the community is rethinking whether the stress generated by the struggle for academic and financial achievement is worth the toll it takes on individual members of the community.
“Other parents told me I am not a good parent — many, many times,” said Chang, 51. His perceived sin: not putting his daughter through a regimen of cram school and tutoring aimed at gaining admission to a prestigious university. But in two decades of teaching, Chang said he has seen too many kids become withdrawn or depressed because they could not meet their parents’ lofty expectations.
I don’t have a problem with the premise of the question being posed in the article, per say, but I do find fault with the journalist’s use of Seung-Hui Cho (of Virginia Tech mass murder fame) as an emblem for the extreme negative consequences of cultural pressure.
Ummm… No. Seung-Hui Cho’s actions were NOT a consequence of Korean-American pressure. His actions were a result of mental illness. Untreated mental illness.
The journalist then goes on to cite Confucius as the reason Korean-American kids are passive and aren’t willing to speak up.
“If you are passive,” he continued, “getting A’s doesn’t mean anything.” What matters is articulating thoughts, taking the risk to communicate them, he said. “Silence is not a virtue.” Still, hardly any response — at least not in front of Chang. He had an explanation for their reticence.“It’s your Confucian upbringing,” he said.
Okay, while there may be some validity in this last statement it really seems rather ambitious to blame Confucius for all the ills of an entire sub-group of people. Basically, the journalist and the sociologist are asserting that Confucius has more impact on Korean-American kids then MTV, their friends, and American culture at large.
That’s like me blaming Confucius for my bum knee because he once said self-mastery was a virtue and all that marathon training was my way of achieving self-mastery. Hmmmm… actually that’s not half bad. That’s much more interesting than telling people I blew out my knee over-training.
What do you think? Does this article ring true for you or is it way to much of an overstatement?
(Photo credit: gluemoon)
How the heck did karaoke (ka-ra-oh-kaykeh) get pronounced carry-okie? Or is it carrie-okie?
I can understand if one or two people just screwed it up, but how did the wrong pronunciation gain popular acceptance?
I used to correct people — or rather help people how to say a word they are struggling with. But at some point I stopped trying.
I can kind of understand the “okie” part, but as for the “carry?” No way, no how, nuh uh.
What other mispronunciations really annoy you?
that white psychologist chick Cynthia Watros from Season 2, and now Daniel Dae Kim, otherwise known as Jin-Soo Kwon. It’s like they have a tight schedule: 10am-7pm: filming, 7:15pm-2am: drinking, 2am-3am: drive erratically across Hawaii until you get arrested.
Kim has gone above and beyond his drunk former co-stars however, by issuing a public statement apologizing for his behavior.
South Korean-born Daniel Dae Kim said in a statement issued through his publicist in California that he was “deeply ashamed and embarrassed” and will fully co-operate with police.
“It saddens me to know that I jeopardised the welfare of the kind people of Hawaii, a community that I love and call my home,” the statement said.
Police arrested Kim early on Thursday after an officer saw him driving erratically. He was released after posting bail. He had a blood-alcohol level of 0.168 – twice the legal limit. Kim is set to appear in court on November 23.
“To my friends, family, colleagues and fans, thank you for your kind words of support.” Kim, 39, said. “To those I have disappointed I can only ask that you accept my heartfelt apologies. I am truly, truly sorry.”
Why the public statement? Maybe it’s because right after Rodriguez and Watros got arrested for DUI, their characters were coincidentally killed off in one of Lost’s frequent cliffhanger episodes. Shot in the stomach, no less. Maybe he’s covering his ass so he doesn’t read a script to find his character shot in the face by The Others or starved to death or some other way beautiful people die on a mysterious island.
National past times are going international. The NFL has a Dolphins/Giants game on today being played in London. The NBA is playing a few preseason (aka practice) games overseas. Of key interest is China. People paid upwards of $550 per ticket. To put it in perspective, that can buy you 551 bootleg dvds.
[“King” Lebron James and Billy “the soldier”]
$550 for a preseason game. Wow. It goes to show you the NBA’s popularity. And with over a billion people strong, that’s a huge fan base. I wouldn’t be surprised if in the near future, an Asian offshoot league forms and the winner of that league plays the winner of our pro league here in the States. Sort of akin to the current “conferences”. A logistical nightmare, I’m sure. But never underestimate the power and motivation of money.
Of course from a country that gives us Gushi jeans, Lenny Vuitton handbags and Starbox coffee, referring to this new league as part of the NBA (National Basketball Associaiton) would be in poor taste. They’d have to call it the National Basket-Ball Association, or something. The NBBA. The extra “B” is good luck because B’s look like 8’s. Perfect.
Post script – The funniest thing is the young fan in the article who calls himself “MC Hotdog“. I’m guessing he said it in Chinese and then it was translated to English. The closest thing I can think of to hotdogs are Chinese sausages. ‘MC Chinese Sausage’. (If you said it in Chinese, it’s funny.)
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PANDA ATTACK!!!