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APA
& MEDIA NEWS
PASSING OF PATSY MINK
On Saturday: September 28, 2002 - Hawaii
Rep. Patsy Takemoto Mink died at the age of 74 at Straub
Clinic and Hospital. She
was the first Asian-American
woman (and of color) elected to the U.S. Congress (House
of Representatives). This Democrat
accomplished this as a member of the House for 24 years over
two different stretches.
PASSING OF YUJI ICHIOKA
Professor
Yuji Ichioka, 66, passed on September 1, 2002 in Los Angeles
alongside his wife, Emma Gee. He
was an internationally renowned historian and Asian American
Studies pioneer was born on June 23, 1936 in San Francisco.
As the result of suffering through the infamous Internment
camps, he
dedicated his life to social justice. He
created the term “Asian American” in the late 1960’s and was
a key founder of UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center. He
was a writer of various books and winner of various awards
WILLIAM H. (MO) MARUMOTO APPOINTMENT
William H. (Mo) Marumoto, an Asian Pacific American trailblazer
for four decades, was named by President George W. BUSH to
the President's Advisory Committee on the Arts of the John
F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts. Marumoto,
originally from Orange County, California, is founder, chairman,
and chief executive officer of The Interface Group, Ltd.,
a boutique executive search firm headquartered in Washington,
DC. Previously,
he served for three years as Special Assistant to President
Richard M. Nixon from 1970 to 1973. He was the first Asian
Pacific American to serve on the executive level of the White
House.
ASIAN AMERICAN INCOME GROWTH FIGURES
During the past decade, Massachusetts'
Asian-American community experienced tremendous growth
(14%) in both population and income, according to new statistics
from The Boston Globe and the State University of New York
at Albany's Lewis Mumford Center. The
increased income brings Asian Americans nearly to the same
earning level of whites. Asian Americans earned 97 cents on
the dollar compared with whites, according to the study. The
median household incomes in 1999 were $53,051 for whites and
$51,273 for Asian Americans.
STORIES OF HMONG
TEENAGER SUICIDES
Unfortunate reasons on why Hmong teenagers are committing
suicide are listed below:
APA
1ST WEEKEND CLUB NEWS
- The
Debut - with nearly $1.7 million in box office gross, it
now hits New York.
- Lan
Yu (from Stanley Kwan) - playing at selected cities.
- Happy
Times (from Zhang Yimou) - playing at selected cities.
- Bend
It Like Beckham (Gurinder Chadha) - played at Toronto Film
Festival
- Long
Life, Happiness & Prosperity (Mina Shum) - played at Toronto
Film Festival
- Take
Care of My Cat (Jeong Jae Bun) - played at Toronto Film
Festival
- Small
Voices (Mga Munting Tinig) - played at Toronto Film Festival
- Quitting
(Zhang Yang) - selected theaters
- Wasabi
(Gérard Krawczyck) - selected theaters
- Big
Shot’s Funeral (Feng Xiaogang) - selected theaters
- Happiness
of the Katakuris (Takashi Miike)
- Hush!
(Hashiguchi Ryosuke)
- Truth
About Charlie (Jonathan Demme)
- The
Isle (Kim Ki-Duk)
APA’S ON TV IN SEPTEMBER
CANADIAN
APA’S NOT SEEN
Silent on the Set, a study released today by the School
of Communication at Simon Fraser University, reveals that
race and cultural diversity receive only lip service in English
Canadian prime time television drama. Report
notes that just 12 percent of the 1200 characters featured
in the sample were visible minorities, an incidence roughly
comparable to their incidence in the general population, according
to Statistics Canada figures (13.6%).
LODESTONE’S
“FREAK STORM”
Kipp Shitani is directing Matt Pelfrey’s “FrEAk StORM”
(a tale of responsibility and friendship) for six weeks, beginning
October 12th, 2002 as a Lodestone
Theater co-production with the Victory Theatre in Burbank,
California.
BOLLYWOOD’S
“THE FIRE & THE RAIN”
Arjun Sajnani's "The
Fire and the Rain" ("Agnivarsha") is an epic of power,
love, lust and sacrifice adapted from a play by Girish Karnad
and derived from "The Myth of Yavakri," which is part of the
ancient "Mahabharata" cycle. It's as if a DeMille spectacle
has been staged from a present-day perspective. Sajnani
proves to be a born screen storyteller in his ambitious and
directorial debut. He makes dramatic use of the majestic ruins
of Hampi, the capital city of the 13th century Vijaynagar
Empire, and deftly but sparingly integrates music and dance
sequences into the plot.
RICK
YUNE & LISA LING’S ASIAN MUSIC TOUR
Actor
Rick Yune, with his girlfriend Lisa Ling, has put
together a concert tour featuring artists such as god,
Park Jin Young, Park Ji Yoon, Rain, & Coco Lee. He hopes
to "demonstrate the diversity, size and strength of Asian
American consumers and, at the same time, bring the community
together for a day of celebration." The first
concert will take place at the Verizon Wireless Ampitheatre
in Irvine, California on Oct. 26, and will move on to
Washington D.C, New York, San Francisco, Houston, and
Vancouver.
ASIAN MASSIVE TOUR
The Asian Massive tour toured across the United States
in support of the new compilation CD, Asian Massive: A Six
Degrees Collection. The
Asian
Massive represents the meeting place where modern urban
culture weaves seamlessly with ancient South Asian traditions.
The event featured the following artists:
BOND’S NEW C.D. “SHINE”
BOND
- this popular International group, often called Europe’s
version of “The Spice Girls,” has released their 2nd album
called “Shine.”
MARGARET
CHO INTERVIEW
Read Margaret’s
views on her family, life, jokes on her mother, her films,
about being “politically correct,” discrimination and Asian
parents’ parental approval.
MEG
LEE CHIN MUSIC REVIEW
The Taiwan-born London resident Chin's high-energy headlining turn was a surprisingly funky
affair, with political and social overtones in such numbers
as "Nutopia," her Pigface-era reinvention of Allen Ginsberg's
classic poem "Howl."Far from the industrial music stereotype
of being relentlessly atonal or monochromatic, her sound incorporated
hip-hop rhythms, crunchy dub reggae, herky-jerky soul, thrashy
R&B and hypnotic blues.
ASIAN
AMERICAN JAZZ FESTIVAL
Asian
American Jazz 2002, oldest jazz festival in San Francisco,
celebrates “the Spirit of Improvisation” between September
20 to October 6, 2002.Featured artists include Malachi Favors
Maghostut, Cornetist Bobby Bradford, William Roper, Robbie
Kwock, Melecio Magdaluyo, Francis Wong, Miya Masaoka, Jimmy
Biala & Search Five, Al Robles, Rudy Tenio, Tatsu Aoki, Jeff
Chan, Jon Jang, Avotcja Jiltonilro, Destiny Muhammad, Tarika
Lewis,
JOHN
CLEESE IS LUCY LIU’S FATHER?
John
Cleese will be featured as Lucy Liu’s father in Charlie's
Angels 2: Halo (scheduled to be released on July 20, 2003),
the sequel to the very successful 2000 film starring Drew
Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, and Lucy Liu. The original made over
$125 million in the United States. John
Cleese’s scenes were originally written for a woman who would
play her mother. Lucy is a big fan of John and personally
asked for him.
QUENTIN
PAYS HOMAGE
Quentin
Turantino’s latest project (due in Fall of 2003), Kill
Bill, a revenge tale whose body count is belied by its simple
title, is the 39-year-old American filmmaker's homage to the
fight flicks that sparked his lifelong obsession with Asian
cinema. As
a result, he’s gone to great lengths to achieve his goal in
every element (i.e. fight scenes, locations, film techniques,
directing “The Chinese Way,” Yuen Wo-ping as the fight choreographer,
Sonny Chiba as combat coach, etc.) of this film.
1ST APA ON “SURVIVOR”
Shii Ann Huang, former 28 years old ASUC Senator, is
the first Asian American contestant to compete in the “Survivor”
Series. Shii
Ann Huang was an English major who graduated with honors in
1996 who presently works as an executive recruiter for a technology
company in Manhattan. She has a master's degree in interactive
media from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
DISNEY DOES MARTIAL ARTS
Disney is negotiating with Yuen
Wo Ping - Chinese choreographer of groundbreaking action
films "The Matrix" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," to
direct his first English language in this live-action take
on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" after finishing Quentin
Tarantino’s on "Kill Bill." Yuen
is already having helmed some 27 pictures there including
recent Dimension import chopsocky "Iron Monkey" (originally
released in 1993). He is credited for discovering Michelle
Yeoh, Jet Li and Jackie Chan.
HAWAII
MAKE PRIMETIME WAVES
Imagine Television and 20th Century Fox TV announced
the signing of writer-director John Stockwell (Blue Crush)
to create and oversee The Break for Fox TV in Hawaii.Paramount
Network TV said that it plans a new Hawaii-set series called
808 (the area code for the state) from writer-director Simon
West (Con Air, Tomb Raider).
DAVID HENRY HWANG’S “FDS”
Hwang’s “fresh and radical version” of "Flower Drum Song"
(created in 1996), was recreated in his own mold to deal with
the stereotypes surrounding Chinese Americans today. '''Flower
Drum Song' (which opened on September 23, 2002) was the
first and only Broadway musical about Asian Americans, starring
Asian Americans. Hwang's other musicals include "M. Butterfly",
a deconstruction of Giacomo Puccini's opera "Madame Butterfly",
and "Golden Child", an account of his own family history.
Hwang
doesn't feel obliged to portray Asians in a positive light.
"When my parents came to this country in the 1950's, the images
of Asians were of a poor and uneducated people; Chinese then
might have thought their problems would be solved if only
people would instead think of us as wealthy and educated.
Obviously, the latter image has now taken precedence, but
only evolved into yet another stereotype." "Flower
Drum Song" will be the first Broadway musical with an
all-Asian cast since Stephen Sondheim's "Pacific Overtures"
in 1976 and first Broadway musical with Asian lead characters
since "Miss Saigon" in 1991.
CHINESE FASHION DOLL
Yue
Sai Kan is the creator of a line of dolls called Yue
Sai Wa Wa (wa wa means both "doll" and "little girl" in
Chinese) that celebrates Asian beauty. It achieved on
the QVC home shopping network, a seismic $350,000 worth
of dolls were sold in the first hour.
OCA AND LEAP’S
9/11 MEMORIAL STATEMENTS
Read about OCA
(Organization of Chinese Americans) and LEAP’s
“Statement on September 11th Anniversary.
HAYAO MIYAZAKI’S “SPIRITED AWAY”
Disney’s Spirited Away” Japanese director, Hayao Miyazaki,
is a hero to American animators on a par with Walt Disney,
Chuck Jones and Tex Avery. Miyazaki
reasserts the power of drawn animation to create fantasies,
offering an alternate reality that is refreshingly free of
overarticulated details of 3D computer graphics.
Since 1985, he’s (along with Isao Takahata) has created a
string of critical and box office successes in Japan: "Castle
in the Sky" (1986), "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988), "Kiki's Delivery
Service" (1989), "Porco Rosso: The Crimson Pig" (1992), "Princess
Mononoke" (1997) and "Spirited Away" (2001) - which
was a blockbuster in Japan, earning more than $234 million
in a country with less than half the population and a fraction
of the screens of the U.S. and dethroning "Titanic" as the
highest-grossing film in Japanese box office history.
ERIC SIMONSON AND PHILIP KAN GOTANDA
Acclaimed director Eric Simonson will helm San Jose Repertory
Theatre's World Premiere production of Philip Kan Gotanda's
The Wind Cries Mary. The
Wind Cries Mary begins performances on October 19 and continues
through November 17. Over
his career, Gotanda has created one of the largest and most
varied bodies of Asian American- themed work with such plays
as Fish Head Soup, Yankee Dawg You Die, The Wash, floating
weeds and Yohen.
FILMS OF TAKESHI KITANO
Takeshi Kitano’s latest film Dolls (along with his
previous films), with their jaded gangsters and bang-em-up
showdowns, have a faithful following in the West.
This 55-year-old former stand-up comedian’s Dolls tells
three intertwined stories about love and fate involving
a young couple bound by a thick red cord, an aging yakuza
boss and the girl he left behind, and a disfigured pop
star and her devoted fan.
The stone-faced actor got his start as
a comedian known as "Beat" Takeshi who eventually shifted
toward more serious roles and directing. A horrendous
moped accident in 1994 partially paralyzed Kitano's face
and seemed to inspire him to make even more introspective
and serious movies.
2G’s CONCERT OF EXCELLENCE
Second Generation’s Annual Concert of Excellence on
Thursday: October 24, 2002 at Carnegie Hall will be hosted
by by Lisa Ling (host of ABC's The View) & Rick Yune (star
of the new James Bond film)
This year's Rémy
X.O Excellence honors Academy Award nominated director
Zhang Yi Mou (Raise the Red Lantern, the new film Hero
starring Jet
Li), Hollywood leading man Jason Scott Lee (Dragon:
The Bruce
Lee Story, The Jungle Book) and Tony-award winning
playwright David
Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly, Flower Drum Song)
“RAISING OUR VOICES”
Orange County Community Action Network (OCCAN) presented
"Raising Our Voices," a film that addresses the issues
of hate crimes and racism as a result of the September
11th Attacks with a forum on tolerance.
DR. BIN HAN & YIN QINGQIANG
"Not Guilty" was the verdict handed down by the jury
on Monday, August 19, 2002 for Dr. Bin Han.
Dr.
Bin Han was arrested at his home on May 18, 2002,
after being fired by the University of California at Davis
on May 13th. Dr. Han, a postgraduate researcher, began
working for U.C. Davis in 1989 and was a member of University
Professional and Technical Employees.
He was initially charged with 3 felony counts: (1) theft
of trade secrets, (2) possession of stolen property, and
(3) embezzlement. Dr. Han pleaded not guilty to all three
charges. Jury trial began on August 13th and the jury
acquitted him on August 19th.
Authorities allege that Yin, 38, a former postdoctoral
research associate at Cornell, stole bacteria and yeast
cultures for making an enzyme known as phytase, a livestock
feed supplement that scientists think will improve livestock
nutrition and reduce phosphorous excretion in animal waste.
Yin
Qingqiang is charged with conspiring to transport
stolen property in foreign commerce and conspiring to
bring biological substances onto a commercial airline.
If convicted, he could face up to five years in prison
and a $250,000 fine on each charge.
PATRIOT ACT THREATENS APA’S
Early in 2001 in a meeting with civil rights leaders,
Sen. Dianne Feinstein singled out the Asian American community
as the one that would face the greatest threat to civil
liberties in the foreseeable future. Because of the rise
of China as a global threat, Feinstein explained, Chinese
Americans and Asian Americans would be the target of increasing
hate violence and government targeting similar to that experienced
by Los Alamos scientist Dr. Wen Ho Lee.
API Legal Outreach attorneys (Victor
Hwang and Ivy Lee) states that
“As a community that has been historically branded
as perpetual and unassimilable foreigners, we Asian Americans
need to critically question the motivation, necessity
and reach of hastily passed legislation designed to target
those suspected of "domesticterrorism." http://groups.yahoo.com/group/asianamericanartistry/message/724
JACKIE CHAN INTERVIEW
Topics
include the first time having his stunts augmented with
special effects
(The Tuxedo) in his 100+ films, not doing any dramatic
role in what he calls a “crying movie,” making sure his
American films have “good chemistry” with his co-stars,
not playing villains (turning down a role in Black Rain),
how his
“American-style” (more dialogue, more drama, a little
bit of fighting) and his Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon
series.
ELAINE CHAO INCREASE APA’S IN GOVT.
The
U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao and Director
Kay Coles James of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management
partnership will work to overcome two of the challenges
faced by the federal workforce: a major human capital
shortage as the baby boomer generation retires over the
next five years; and an insufficient number of APA’s in
the workforce - currently, only 2.1 percent of APA?s serve
in the senior executive levels.
ASIAN WORKERS FLEX THEIR UNION MUSCLES
When the Chinese Daily News (largest Chinese language
newspaper in L.A.) threatened pay cuts in what it called
salary reconstruction, employees' frustration erupted
into the unexpected: the formation of a union that reflects
the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance’s continuing
efforts.
About
12% of Asian American workers belong to unions nationwide,
a figure that has remained fairly steady in the last decade.
Overall, 13.5% of American workers belong to unions, down
from about 20% in the early 1980s, according to the U.S.
Bureau of Labor.
KOREAN LANGUAGE MANDATED IN VOTING INFO
Based on Census 2000 figures, the U.S. Justice Department
announced in July 2002 that Korean-language voting assistance
was now mandated (for the first time) in Queens County under
the Language Assistance Provisions of the Voting Rights
Act.
New York remains the only state on the
East Coast to require language assistance in any Asian
language.
CALIFORNIA’S ETHNIC MEDIA’S EFFECTIVENESS
California's ethnic media reach nearly 90% of the state's
Latino, African American and Asian American consumers, according
to a Bendixen & Associates (a Florida-based research firm
partially funded by the the James Irvine Foundation and
the American Assn. of Advertising Agencies.
The study
also showed that about 40% of ethnic consumers polled
said they generally pay more attention to advertisements
in the ethnic media than in the general market media.
GREEN BERETS HELP MONTAGNARDS
Former Green Berets helped Vietnam’s minority hill
tribes, Montagnards,
settle in the US as a repayment for their help in staying
alive during the Vietnam War. The Montagnards are widely
remembered for having fought for the Americans and against
communism during the Vietnam war.
TOBACCO CO.’S MARKETING TO APA’S
'Tobacco Control', published by the British Medical
Journal, reveals that the tobacco industry actively courts
Asian American, African-American and gay and lesbian communities.
The
core features of tobacco company strategies included
emphasis on ''Asian-owned stores, direct marketing of
specific cigarette brands through community cultural events,
youth orientated promotions, and corporate sponsorship''
drivin by the rapid growth of Asian and Pacific Islander
populations.
RJ Reynolds has sponsored events by the National Association
of Asian American Journalists and the Organization of
Chinese Americans. Phillip Morris, the world's biggest
tobacco company, sponsored events such as the Nisei Week
Japanese Festival in Los Angeles.
NEW CLICK2ASIA FINDS YOU A DATE
Their latest message states “On Oct. 1st, 2002, Click2Asia
will be completely transformed into a new and exciting
ASIAN ONLINE DATING website!
