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W H A T ' S   N E W
 

LATEST NEWS FOR NOVEMBER 2002

Our invitation is extended to discover various Asian American leaders listed below, information on our past victories and the many great things that are presently happening in our communities.

Discover the latest events in the following categories

OBITUARIES

CIVIL RIGHTS

POLITICS

FILM NEWS

ARTISTS & LEADERS

THEATER NEWS

EVENT NEWS

MUSIC NEWS

TV News

Community News

YOUR MUSICAL INPUT IS NEEDED as we seek identify the best songs from our music artists.

Click HERE to have your opinion heard on the following music groups:

  • Quell (Industrial Noise)
  • Bad Candie (Rock)
  • Francis Kim (Folk Rock)
  • Second Wind (R&B)
  • Gorillaz (Hip-Hop)
  • String Cheese Incident (Jam Band)
  • Vanessa Mae (Classical Pop)
  • A-Mei (Asian Pop)
  • Junoon (Rock)
  • Regine Velasquez (Asian Pop)
  • P.A.C.I.F.I.C.S. (Hip-Hop)
  • Ghost Orgy (Pop)
  • John-Flor (Jazz)
  • Maya Marin (Folk)
  • Tim Tamashiro (Jazz)

Click HERE on your views if people would come to a Hollywood night club showcasing prominent Asian Pacific American music artists.


FEATURED ARTISTS & LEADERS
Ted Fang
THE FANG FAMILY
Their rags-to-riches story started with a penniless immigrant John Ta Chuan Fang arriving from Taiwan in the early 1950s to a small job at a printing shop that has become a media dynasty with distribution in excess of 1,000,000 copies in San Francisco and San Mateo Counties through the Independent, the nationally distributed Asian Week, and San Francisco Examiner, along with potent political connections that has awed many in San Francisco’s Chinese American communities.

They are power players in a city that's traditionally known as Old Gold Mountain in Asia. It's where the Chinese arrived by the tens of thousands searching for opportunities since the Gold Rush and it's also the departure point for those who look toward Asia as the future, a Pacific Rim city.

The Shanghai-born Fang's involvement in journalism began at age 11, when he journeyed alone to inland China and sold newspapers for a living. He later studied journalism at Taipei's Chen Chi University and worked as a reporter at the New Life newspaper, a government-controlled paper in Taiwan.

He came to San Francisco in 1952 to study "everything" at UC-Berkeley. His dream was making it big in the white-dominated newspaper business.

Instead of getting a master's degree in journalism, however, he founded the Grant Printing House (community-based print shopt) then began working at the Chinese Daily Post and Young China Daily News newspapers - both organs of the Kuomintang, Taiwan's then-ruling Nationalist Party. While on a trip back to Taiwan, he married Florence Fang in 1960.

Capitalizing on the fact that Chinatowns were becoming tourist attractions, John Fang began publishing "Chinatown Handy Guide" booklets in major cities.

In 1979, he started the family's newspaper dynasty by founding AsianWeek, an English-language tabloid aimed at Asian American communities.

Acquiring San Francisco’s Examiner, the once notoriously anti-Chinese Hearst-owned newspaper via its support of the Chinese exclusion act and the Japanese internment camp during World War II, is a major step in a history of success for the Fang Family. It made Florence and her three sons - James, Ted and Douglas) the first Asian Americans to own a major daily newspaper in the United States.

Despite facing an uphill battle for credibility, with it’s new short and magazine-style features that started on May 16, 2002 and began with placement of Florence Fang as the publisher. The Fang Ex, or "Fangxaminer" as it became known, improved by leaps and bounds.

James Fang

For some, it symbolizes Asian Americans coming of age, a cause for celebration. Others point to the Fang's history of highly partisan journalism. What made this crowning achievement sweeter was the purchase price of $100 while receiving a $66 million, three-year subsidy from the Hearst Corp. to run it.

Many (such as Julie Lee - founder of San Francisco Neighbors' Association and Housing Authority commissioner) have praised the Fangs as driven immigrants who have achieved the American Dream, Others (such as Henry Der, former executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action who is now state deputy superintendent for education) have described them as business people who've made inroads into the political landscape. "As a pioneering voice, The Fang's media empire has given the Asian community an avenue for greater visibility," Jeff Mori, AARS Executive Director.

The Fang’s other enterprises include the following:

  • San Francisco’s Examiner
  • AsianWeek
  • Ted Fang helped form 'Yo!' a syndicated column written for and by youth.
  • John Fang help start a Spanish-language newspaper.
  • West of Twin Peaks weekly
  • Grant Printing House, which publishes the Fang publications.
  • Independent Group of Newspapers
  • San Francisco Independent.
  • Florence Fang formerly owned the opulent Grand Palace Restaurant

Ted Fang is the publisher of the Independent. Elder brother, James - who is married to the daughter of the former mayor of Shanghai - is the 39-year-old publisher of AsianWeek. Douglas Fang handles the papers' online operations.

The family's fortunes soared after the Fangs campaigned to elect Frank Jordan as mayor in 1991. James Fang was appointed as director of international trade. The Fang’s have used the Independent to advocate for politicians the Fangs support and issues that they feel strongly about.

AsianWeek has brought the Fangs more influence. In 1984, a special edition of the tabloid was distributed to delegates at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions, bringing them national notice.

The Fangs have managed to stand out since 1979, when patriarch John Fang first created AsianWeek, the country's only national English- language newspaper focused on Asian issues, after recovering from life threatening skin cancer. The paper is distributed for free in the Bay area and has a national circulation of 50,000.

In addition to The Examiner and AsianWeek, the Fangs’ media empire includes the Independent Group of Newspapers, the cornerstone of which is the San Francisco Independent. Together, the seven papers make up the largest non-daily newspaper group in California, with a circulation of 379,000.

John Fang’s "longtime friends" include Mayor Willie Brown; District Attorney Terence Hallinan; former state Sen. Quentin Kopp, now a San Mateo County Superior Court judge; political consultant Jack Davis; Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.; Joe O'Donoghue, powerful head of The City's Residential Builders Association, and others.

The Fang Family’s support is most staunch among the "old guard" faction of wealthy Chinese. In addition, the Fangs have become important fund-raisers for the Republican Party.

He has served on the Bay Area Rapid Transportation Board of Directors since 1990. In addition, he was a member of the Extended Opportunity Program Foundation of City College and the Soo Yuen Association Scholarship Committee. He also has worked with the Chinatown YMCA.

Wing, Eduardo and Mingo

WAHOO’S
Listed below is an interview with Ed Lee of Wahoo’s Fish Taco

How did you get involved with surfing and other extreme sports?
While I was growing up in Newport Beach, all of my friends happened to be surfers.

What elements of your Brazilian background has been the most influential and/or incorporated within your personal/business lifestyle?
The layback style of hanging out and having fun, which helped us fit in better in Orange County (Southern California) area.

What was the most fun and challenging part of mixing your Brazilian and Chinese background together?
The layback (Brazilian) and the need to succeed (Chinese) gave us an almost balanced way of life. We work hard to play a little! (Side Note: I went surfing this morning!?!?!)

How do you balance the Buddhist teachings of your parents with your Christian lifestyle within your personal or business environment?
We have open discussions and mutual respect for each other’s religion. Whether you are a Christian or Buddhist, in business we all try our best to do the right thing.

Have any of you and/or your brothers gone back to school to get a degree (i.e. law, business, accounting, management, etc.)?
Mingo tried law school, but it was too hard to accomplish with family and work responsibilities.

What is a Wahoo?
It is the name of a pacific fish, also know as Ono.

What are Wahoo’s expansion plans?
We are trying to open 5-6 stores per year.

Why and how are you involved with the California Restaurant Association?
I am currently the president of the Orange County (Southern California) Chapter. I am also involved so I can stay informed about what is happening in our industry.

How have Wahoo targeted the Asian/Asian Pacific American marketplace in the past, present and future (learning Chinese)
We have not target any specific group by race, our target market is “Avery” body.

How do they want to be known in the American and Asian American communities?
At this time, we are not sure

What are the future goals/vision/dreams of Wahoo?
For business, it is to stay close to our target date of opening up the new store. We also want to continue to stay involved in the community (especially with kids). As for our vision, it is to never be corporate and remain a family show.

What are your current challenges?
It is the opening our store in the Santa Monica area.

What misconceptions of Wahoo, whether intentional or unintentional, would you like to clarify?
We might surf and goof off, but between the hours of 9:00 A.M. and 5 P.M. - we are all business.

What was their biggest business challenge?
It is working out our differences as brothers.

What are Wahoo’s latest locations?
Our latest locations are in the Mid-Wilshire and Pasadena areas.

What is your favorite business attire and why?
Our favorite attire is a short and a T-shirt. It feels great and because we can - besides it makes people jealous?!?!

  OUR GOALS
The purpose of this section is the following:
OPPORTUNITY
to discover more about our dreams
UNDERSTANDING
our fears and our hopes and
UNCOVERING
invaluable and missing information

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For additional and specific details on the information listed below, please CLICK on the “Titles” listed below.

APA & MEDIA NEWS
R.I.P. - CHANG-LIN TIEN
Chang-Lin Tien, who became the first Asian American to head a major U.S. university in his seven years as chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, died at the age of 67. Tien, who had a debilitating stroke after surgery for a brain tumor in fall 2000, was an internationally known expert on heat transfer and thermal science - - he helped developed the insulating tiles for the space shuttle -- Tien was also famous for his support of social causes, speaking out in favor of affirmative action before and after University of California's governing board of regents dropped race-based admissions in 1995.

R.I.P. - HARRY KITANO
Harry H.L. Kitano, a UCLA social scientist and leading authority on race and ethnic relations, particularly Asian Americans' experiences, died in October 2002 at the age of 76.
During Kitano's more than four decades at the university, he served as co-director of UCLA's Alcohol Research Center and twice as acting director of the Asian American Studies Center, the nation's largest facility for such research. In 1990, he became the first recipient of the endowed chair in Japanese American studies at UCLA, the only academic chair of its kind in the United States. He was a pioneer in community research studies of interracial marriages, juvenile delinquency, mental health and alcohol abuse among the rapidly growing, diverse Asian Pacific American population.

R.I.P. - BEULAH QUO
Beulah Quo, a film and TV character actress who co-founded one of the first Asian American theater groups in Los Angeles in the 1960s, died of heart failure. She was 79.

R.I.P. - MEHLI MEHTA
Mehli Mehta, the father of conductor Zubin Mehta and mentor to generations of music students through the American Youth Symphony, died at the age of 94.
Born in India, Mehta was a lifelong devotee of Western classical music. He discovered it as a child, and focused on it during a career of more than 60 years as a violinist, conductor and teacher with the American Youth Symphony, which he remade in 1964 and led until his retirement in 1998.

R.I.P. - TOORU KANAZAWA
Tooru Joe Kanazawa, a pioneering journalist and novelist who was one of the oldest members of World War II's legendary Japanese American fighting unit, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, died Oct. 2 at his home in Topanga. He was 95.

R.I.P.: WU-CHI LIU
Wu-chi Liu, 95, a leading scholar of Chinese literature whose work helped American readers understand the writings of his homeland (Shanghai China), died.
Liu published more than 25 books, including the anthology "Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry." On its release in 1975, a New York Times reviewer termed it the "largest and, on the whole, best anthology of translated Chinese poems to have appeared in a Western language." The anthology is often used as a text in schools.

LISTINGS OF APA’S ON TELEVISION

SONY’S “HUMAN RESOURCES” PROGRAM
AFL-CIO disapprove of the concept behind "Human Resources" where the show's producers locates people seeking employment, provide on-the-job training and selected by television viewers.

CIVIL RIGHTS WEBSITE
MMTC's new website will include "a vast storehouse of knowledge about civil rights issues in the media and telecommunications industries," according to MMTC Executive Director David Honig.

100TH ANNIVERSARY OF KOREAN IMMIGRATION
The Korean American Coalition, Washington D.C. Area Chapter (KAC-DC) applauds last week's unanimous passage of a resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives that recognizes the historical significance of 100 years of Korean immigration to the United States.

BILL SIMON AND APA COMMUNITIES
Commentary on Bill Simon’s support of the various needs within the Asian/Asian Pacific American communities. It addresses the lack of political representation within the platforms offered by Gray Davis and Bill Simon.

DEMOCRATS’ APA WEBSITE
The Democratic National Committee launched its new Asian Pacific Islander American that will be “a new tool that enables us to continue to have effective two-way communication with the APIA community," said DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe.

“THE RING” AND ROY LEE
Roy Lee is an independent producer that tries to turn obscure Asian films into Hollywood blockbusters such as the recent “The Ring.”

During the past two years, Lee has carved out a niche for himself as the sole go-between for Korean and Japanese filmmakers eager to sell the remake rights to their movies and Hollywood executives scrounging to find new sources of commercial ideas.

PERFORMING ARTS CENTER FOR CHINATOWN
Proposed Asian cultural and performing arts center, modeled after Lincoln Center, would be constructed in New York’s Chinatown. The proposed facility would be dedicated to Asian art and culture, hosting operas, dance and theatrical performances and exhibits. It could also serve as a meeting place for community groups in Chinatown and Lower Manhattan, City Councilman Alan Gerson said.

WOES OF NEW YORK
One advocacy group for poor and homeless New Yorkers, the Urban Justice Center, announced that its own analysis of FEMA, based on the agency's records and census data, revealed that people in less affluent downtown neighborhoods had applied for aid in far few numbers, and thus ultimately received far less help.

ZHANG YIMOU’S “HERO”
Zhang YiMou’s “Hero," a martial arts movie about a man protecting his emperor from killers more than 2,000 years ago, follows the lead of Academy Award-winning "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in seeking an international audience well beyond China.

JOHN WOO’S “LAND OF DESTINY”
Director John Woo’s upcoming film titled "Land of Destiny" would center around Chinese and Irish railway workers in the United States with Nicholas Cage and Chou Yun-fat.

DAVID HENRY HWANG’S FLOWER DRUM SONG
David Henry Hwang’s thoughts on if he could “write the book that Hammerstein might have written had he been Asian-American? Could I re-envision the musical in a way that would feel relevant and moving to more sophisticated, contemporary audiences?”

STATE OF ASIAN AMERICAN THEATER
Karen Wada’s commentary on why David Henry Hwang has been the only APA writer to have made it. A handful of artists have carved out distinguished careers, and chorus lines are becoming more integrated. Too often, however, roles have been limited to the niche nicknamed "geishas, gangsters and gooks" or to the dozen or so shows set in Asia, the foreign having more audience appeal than the domestic. As a result, it has been stated that there are three “waves” of Asian American Theater.

CRIMES BETWEEN BLACKS AND ASIANS
On October 11, 2002 - the San Francisco Police Department says three juveniles and a teacher were arrested in a racially motivated riot between Blacks and Asians at Thurgood Marshall Academic High School prompted police to evacuate students from the Bayview District campus.

LIU XIAOQUING’S FINANCIAL TROUBLES
She is a target of the Chinese government’s crackdown on industry titans shows how China's economy - however robust and Westernized it appears on the surface - still answers to an ossified political system. The country has a growing number of multimillionaires and even a few billionaires, but their fortunes depend on the whims of a handful of Communist Party officials.

CORKY LEE
“The Undisputed Unofficial Asian-American Photographer Laureate' has a day job in sales and customer service at Expedi Printing in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the company that prints India Abroad, News Tibet, Dog News, Dan's Paper, The New York Sun, The New York Law Journal and Bamboo Girl zine. His main job is to photograph anything that happens in the lives of Chinese-Americans, Japanese- Americans, Korean-Americans, Indian-Americans, Pakistani-Americans, Sri Lankan-Americans, Hmong-Americans, Thai-Americans, Cambodian-Americans, Burmese-Americans, Filipino-Americans, Malaysian- Americans, Hawaiians and other Asian-Pacific Americans.

REMEMBERING VINCENT CHIN
In the cramped suburban office of a group called American Citizens for Justice, a gathering of mostly Asian-American college students mulled over programs and speakers, buttons and T-shirts to make their message of remembering the 20th anniversary of Vincent Chin’s death resonate.

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
Forms of corporal punishment differ among Chinese immigrants and the American general public. ''The Chinese believe I hit you because I love you. The harder I hit you, the more I love you.'' As a result, social workers employed by advocacy groups distribute cautionary tales from real life intended to make immigrant parents think twice before administering an imported version of tough love. Parents are warned that Muslim children of parents accused of abuse can be placed in non-Muslim families, where they may inadvertently be fed pork. Children from nonreligious families may be taken to Christian services by their foster families, parents are warned.

APA MUSIC ARTIST’S SONG ON SOUNDTRACK
Chops, member of the Mountain Brothers rap group, has a song on Magic Johnson’s soundtrack for the film “Brown Sugar.”

NO DOUBT’S TONY KANAL
No Doubt’s bass player, Tony Kanal, is of East Indian decent. He was born in Kingsbury, England. There he lived until his parents, Gulab and Leena, moved to Yorba Linda, California in 1981.

KENNEDY CENTER SUPPORTS EWP
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., is extending access to managerial expertise over the next two years to East West Players. This effort is partly funded by $500,000 from SBC Communications Inc. Help will come via seminars and online dialogues during the program's first year; then the Kennedy Center will pick up the tab as graduates of its Vilar Institute for Arts Management join participating companies' staffs for up to a year.

DEMISE OF THE INDEPENDENT FILM?
Many have lamented on why the truly exciting independent films given way to the movies that are based more on the “art of the deal?”

FILIPINO MUSICIANS ON COMEDY CENTRAL
Comedy Central has selected P.I.C (which features 4 Filipino Americans) to be the house band for the long-running comedy showcase, Premium Blend. They will be performing tunes from their wildly successful debut album, hiphopunkfunkmamboska, and from their upcoming record, Sexy Picnic.

ASIAN DIVERSITY CONFERENCE
On November 14 & 15, 2002 - Asian Diversity Inc. and Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics (LEAP) are sponsoring a conference on diversity and a job fair in New York.

Some of their exhibitors include the following companies

  • Enterprise Rent-a-Car
  • Verizon
  • U.S. Department of State
  • U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  • U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
  • U.S. Coast Guard
  • New York State Police
  • Department of Veterans Affairs
  • U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services
  • Department of Energy
  • Mercedes-Benz and
  • Coca Cola

Some of their sponsors include the New York Times, Verizon, Daewoo Electronics, The Korea Daily, The Asahi Shimbun and Filipinas Magazine

Conference will cover the subjects of networking, career development, APA’s in the workforce and government careers.

KAHANAMOKU STAMP
U.S. Postal Service released a new 37-cent commemorative stamp honoring Duke Kahanamoku, the legendary swimmer and Olympian is best known as the father of international surfing.

URI AND HYUNDAI
Hyundai Motor America has named Uri, Los Angeles, as agency of record for its estimated $3 million Asian-American account.

HATE CRIME IN TEXAS
On Oct.5, a group of Asian-Americans is charging that Stephen P. Reid, owner of the *75 percent off* bookstore in the Plano Market Square Mall on East Spring Creek Parkwary (Texas) had singled them out of his store and refuse to sell them books without explanation.

STONY BROOK’S ASIAN AMERICAN CENTER
Wang Foundation provides Stony Brook's Asian American Center to study Asians and Asian Americans.

Six years in the making, the center is nearly three years behind schedule. But there is an excuse. A professor asked Mr. Wang to pay for a hallway renovation, and that talk blossomed into a proposed 25,000-square-foot center, a plan that has since mushroomed nearly fivefold to 120,000.

Mr. Wang's gift, through his foundation, is the largest private donation to the state university system, part of a welcome trend in these times of tightening government aid.

GET FUNNY ON A STIR FRIDAY NIGHT
Chicago's premier Asian American improv & sketch comedy troupe, Stir-Friday Night! and Hi Ricky Asia Noodle Shop & Satay Bar are teaming up to bring a delicious taste of comedy via their latest piece titled “Lucky Red Dragon Karaoke Night.”

AMERIE ON SOUL TRAIN
Be sure to check out AMERIE on Soul Train this Saturday, November 9th on the WB Network at 1pm. She will perform "Why Don't We Fall in Love" and "Talkin To Me."

APAIT Observes World AIDS Day on Dec. 1
The Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team (APAIT), Southern California's largest provider of HIV/AIDS services to Asians and Pacific Islanders, observes World AIDS Day on December 1, 2002 by presenting "A Journey to Hope" in Little Tokyo.
The event will be hosted by award winning actor/comedian Alec Mapa. The proceeds will benefit the Day Room for HIV-positive clients and general operating costs. Awards will be presented to actor Rodney Kageyama, Asian American Theatre Company, East West Players and the Red Dragon Nightclub, Southern California's first gay Asian weekend nightclub. Artists scheduled to appear include Dan Kwong and Deborah Nishimura/Tulis.  

EBERT’S REVIEW OF “CHARLOTTE SOMETIMES”
“Charlotte Sometimes” show Asian-American characters who do not "represent their community" or project a "positive image" or do anything else except what characters in all good movies do: be themselves, in a way that is fascinating and illuminating - so states Roger Ebert.
“Charlotte Sometimes” is not about those commonplace and moronic movie romances often seen. It is about very particular people with needs and fears, and the way they dance around the lies that separate them. Writer-Director Eric Byler’s film features the performances of Michael Idemoto, Eugenia Yuan, Jacqueline Kim and Matt Westmore.

"BUDDHAHEADS"
Brian Maeda's "Buddhaheads" is playing at Pasadena's Lammle Playhouse 7 Theater in Southern California. Movie features Calvin Jung, Eddie Mui and Helen Ota.

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