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below, please CLICK on the “Titles” listed below.
APA
& MEDIA NEWS
MANHATTAN'S
CHINATOWN
Nobody says much about Chinatown these days. Not Manhattan
Chinatown, anyway.
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HONG SUK CHON'S COMING OUT
Mr. Hong, a popular television actor, became the first well-known
figure in South Korea to state publicly that he is gay.
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BOBBY JINDAL
In Louisiana's race for Governor, Republican Bobby Jindal,
32, born and raised in Baton Rouge by parents who emigrated
from India whose experiences already include being a state
health secretary, executive director of the national commission
on Medicare, president of the University of Louisiana system
and a top health-policy adviser to the Bush Administration
could be governor.
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EWP'S SEASON
Lloyd Suh's "Masha No More," Philip Kan Gotanda's "The Wind
Cries Mary," and David Henry Hwang's "M. Butterfly" are part
of EWP's upcoming season.
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REVIEW: BYRON YEE'S "PAPER SON"
Byron
Yee has been honing his autobiographical one-man show,
"Paper Son," for several years on the small-theater circuit
and was reviewed at Variety.
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REVIEW: FLOWER DRUM SONG
The 1958 Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Flower Drum Song"
was a first. It is also a second. "It was the first Broadway
musical comedy to focus on Asian Americans," says playwright
David Henry Hwang.
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RUSH LIMBAUGH EFFECT
The NFL considers Limbaugh's comments insensitive to minorities,
yet all but six NFL teams feature blatant T & A shows on their
sideline and many, like the Eagles, sell lingerie or bikini
calendars featuring these women with their buttocks fully
exposed, with nothing but arms and elbows covering their breasts.
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HOLT
CHENG - MEDICAL PIONEER
Holt
Cheng was the first Chinese American who graduated from
a U. S. medical school and passed the California Medical Board.
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JESSICA HAGEDORN'S NEW NOVEL
A narrative collage hopscotching from year to year, from place
to place and from one point of view to another: that's what
Jessica Hagedorn offers in her intricate new novel.
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INTERVIEW: JASON SCOTT LEE
Though forever remembered as a young Bruce Lee in the film
Dragon (1993), Hawaii-based actor Jason Scott Lee is gearing
up for one of his best year's yet.
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PULMUONE STAYS IN CALIFORNIA
Despite California's high business costs, Pulmuone USA Inc.
(subsidiary of South Korean food giant Pulmuone Co.) has pinpointed
Southern California as its beachhead for conquering the U.S.
market for soy-based products.
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PARIS CELEBRATES CHINESE NEW YEAR
Actors Gong Li and Jackie Chan are honorary patrons of a nine-month
nonstop festival bringing Chinese opera, circus and ballet
- plus museum exhibits devoted to Chinese history, art and
pop culture - to cities throughout France.
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KREUK IN "SMALLVILLE" DVD
One of the WB's most acclaimed and popular series is "Smallville"
is being released on DVD with Kristen Kreuk.
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GROUCHO & MINORITIES
Although minorities were rarely seen on TV in the 1950's,
except in minor and stereotypical roles, "You Bet Your Life"
featured African American, Latino and Asian American contestants.
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GHETTOPOLY
The game
is Ghettopoly (created
by David Chang), which claims
to satirize ghetto
culture and gangsta-rap stereotypes.
And in the last two weeks, since sales have expanded from
the Web to the hip,
Philadelphia-based retailer Urban Outfitters, it has been
flying
off shelves - and drawing
protests from community
leaders from the Asian
and Black
community (in addition to a lawsuit from Hasbro)
to make the games unavailable.
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SUSAN CHOI'S "AMERICAN WOMAN"
Susan Choi, whose quietly skillful
first novel, ''The Foreign Student,'' recounted dislocations
in the life of a young Korean translator, could not have timed
the arrival of her second any better. ''American
Woman,'' a fictional account of the intersection of the
radical activist Wendy
Yoshimura with the fugitive Patty Hearst, takes us straight
into one of the strangest segments of our ever-surreal American
dream life.
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QUOTA ON ASIAN GOLFERS
Jan Stephenson said: "This
is probably going to get me in trouble, but the Asians
are killing our tour. Absolutely killing it. Their lack of
emotion, their refusal to speak English when they can speak
English. They rarely speak or challenge
the statements.
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TAIWANESE YOUTHS PREFER HIP-HOP & J-POP
Taiwanese youth are attracted by things Japanese, with 40%
like Japanese pop culture most, 23% like European and American
pop culture, followed by local pop culture at 19%.
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DATING HABITS
When someone argues that a woman like Lucy Liu, who plays
a sexy lawyer named Ling Woo on FOX TV's Ally McBeal, reinforces
stereotypes of Asian women as exotic sexual beings, the complaint
seems to ignore the larger reality that women - especially
women in film and television - are constantly portrayed as
erotic subjects. In other circumstances, Lucy Liu is accused
of being stereotyped as a "Dragon
Lady" that kicks butt.
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STORY BEHIND MEDIA PORTRAYALS
Until the late 1980s whiteness was consistently naturalized
in U.S. television--social whiteness, that is, not the "pinko-grayishness"
that British novelist E.M. Forster correctly identified as
the standard skin-hue of Europeans.
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YELLOW PORN
In the U.S. adult film industry, Asian women are a sexual
fetish and Asian men are almost completely absent. Prof. Darrell
Hamamoto wants to change that -- by producing skin flicks
with Asian male stars.
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VAN VO'S STRONG SHOWING
Perhaps the most surprising local showing came from Van Vo,
a talk-show host in Little Saigon. He campaigned heavily in
Asian American neighborhoods, boosting him to fifth among
candidates for California's governor in Orange County, with
0.4% of the vote.
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R.I.P.: DOUGLAS FANG
Douglas Fang, chief operating officer of the San Francisco
Examiner and other Fang
family Bay Area publications, has died. A graduate of
Lowell High School in San Francisco, Douglas Fang earned his
bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley. Master's and doctorate degrees
in computer science followed at USC, where he served briefly
on the faculty. After graduating, Fang helped start, develop
and operate several high-tech companies, including Bridgespan,
where he served as a senior vice president.
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SHIRIN EBADI WINS NOBEL PRIZE
Iranian jurist and activist Shirin Ebadi was awarded the 2003
Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her long fight for human rights
in her native land, becoming the first Iranian and the first
Muslim woman to win the honor.
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APAMC'S MEDIA REPORT
The grades in the Asian
Pacific American Media Coalition's report reflect the
progress
or lack of progress each network has made in its diversity
efforts relating to Asian Pacific Americans (APA) resulting
from their efforts - so states Karen
Narasaki.
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STATE OF CHINESE POP
During the 2003 Chinese Pop Music Forum in Beijing early last
week, more than 150 pop music composers, songwriters and arrangers
from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore
met to discuss the status of Chinese Pop.
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PLANET BOLLYWOOD
Indian musicals are hip, sure, but the Hollywoodization of
Bombay cinema may not be as imminent — or as desirable — as
advertised
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CHINESE BUSINESSMEN ARE HAGGLERS
"I just made that a policy," Uberdeveloper John Elkington
(who speaks for "Over-the-Rhine" business owners in Cincinnati
and paid by Counselman John Cranley and Mayor Charlie Luken
for consultant services) says. "Chinese businessmen are hagglers.
They use different math." The man singing the praises of diversity
won't rent to Chinese restaurants.
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KOREAN IT LEADERS
Prominent Korean/Korean American players in the worldwide
proliferation of the International technology industry include
Chong-Moon Lee, Dr. William C.Y. Lee, Sungshin Kwak, Tae Hea
Nahm, Anthony Sun, Sateesh B. Lele, Michael Yang, Sung Y.
Yoon and Dr. Fan Hsu.
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COKE APOLOGIZES TO YAO
Houston Rockets center Yao Ming and Coca-Cola's China subsidiary
have agreed to an out-of-court settlement over his contention
that the soft-drink giant used his image without his permission,
the company and the government's official news outlet reported.
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YOYO IS STILL #1
Classical Crossover's # 1 position belongs to Yo-Yo Ma! Obrigado
Brazil continues to chart on the Billboard top 200 and on
airwaves across the USA.
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INTERNMENT CAMP'S BASEBALL DIAMOND
Baseball was one of the positive points of internment camp
life. ``While we were interned,'' Kashino (an internee) told
William C. Rhoden of the New York Times, ``baseball saved
us.''
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CULTURE PERCEPTIONS
"What's the difference between minstrelsy and black behavior,
black culture?" Ms. Tricia Rose (teacher of an African American
studies course) asked the class of about 125, waving her hands
as she paced, her dark curls shaking.
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APA PORN FILM DISTRIBUTORS
Anh Tran, 27, and Danny Ting, 28, two former consultants who
worked for the now defunct Arthur Andersen are entrepreneurs
who are literally helping to change the way people look at
adult movies via their website Wantedlist.com.
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INDIAN SPICE
Kochia India's people, known as Malayalees, call it "God's
own country" or "the blessed land," not least because of its
irresistible food.
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LIGHTING OF CHINATOWN
In pursuit of a more distinctive ambience for the area, members
of L.A.'s Chinatown Business Improvement District paid $200K
to supplement the L. A. Bureau of Street Lighting's $300K
for 50 dark green poles & 42 "post-top" pedestrian lights
featuring windowed lamps shaped like Asian temples and decorated
with gold detail motifs, including a Chinese dragon.
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LAURA KIM @ WARNER INDEPENDENT PICTURES
Laura Kim,
a PR veteran, has been named EVP of publicty and marketing
at the new Warner Independent Pictures.
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ANDY LAU'S FOCUS FILMS
Andy Lau's Focus Films Limited will focus on films investment
and distribution, while constantly seeking opportunities to
finance or co-finance in films.
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R.I.P.: MADAME CHIANG KAI-SHEK
Madame
Chiang Kai-shek, the widow of China's
leader during World War II and the era's last surviving
global
figure, died in New York. She
was 106.
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BRUCE LEE - AFRICAN/ASIAN FUSION
Anyone who is not already steeped in the kung fu cult of Bruce
Lee movies may have a problem with "Black Belt," a puzzling
new exhibit at the Studio Museum in Harlem about the intersection
of African-American and Asian-American cultures in the 1970s
and '80s.
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SUCHIN PAK'S "MY LIFE TRANSLATED"
"My
Life Translated" follows young people who are juggling
two different cultures (and trying to find their identity
somewhere in the midst). The show
attempts to demonstrate how this experience shapes the decisions
they make, the lives they lead and the consequences they face.
\
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YU HUA'S "BLOOD MERCHANT"
Yu Hua has long been considered one of China's most important
novelists, and his novels To Live and Chronicle of a Blood
Merchant have just been translated into English for the first
time; recently, they were named two of the last decade's 10
most influential books in China.
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INTERRACIAL MARRIAGES
Interracial
relationships in the U.S. have a long, sometimes tortured,
history. Since the days of slavery, individuals of different
races have pursued relationships
in the face of adversity. Today, as the face of love is changing
and the numbers of interracial
relationships continues to rise, more and more interracial
couples are finding less opposition to their relationships.
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JUDY OTSUKA'S "WHEN EMPEROR WAS DIVINE"
Judy Otsuka's "When the Emperor Was Divine" (title is an indirect
reference to life before WWII) is a shockingly brilliant debut
novel.
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CANCER & ASIAN AMERICAN FEMALES
Cancer is the leading cause of death for female Asian Americans
and cancer has been the number one killer of Asian American
women since 1980.
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LOVE OF JAPANESE CULTURE
When Stuart Levy started Tokyopop Inc. in 1997, he had a tough
time convincing venture capitalists that Japanese comic books
could be popular in America. But "comic books" doesn't adequately
describe the mass appeal of manga, full-length black-and-white
graphic novels spanning every genre from hard-boiled action-adventure
sagas to sci-fi and fantasy.
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NETEAST'S WILLIAM DING LEI
Booming sales of online games and messages spurred a revival
in Chinese high-tech stocks and made William Ding Lei, the
32-year-old founder of a popular Internet portal, the richest
entrepreneur in mainland China with a net worth of $900M.
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WHINING DOESN'T WORK
Director Warrington Hudlin, who co-founded the Black Filmmakers
Foundation, counsels that group's members not to bitch and
moan, but to constructively engage Hollywood, convincing execs
that hiring minority talent is simply smart business.
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ZHANG ZIYI & ANITA MUI IN HERO SEQUEL
"Shi Mian" is set in the Ming Dynasty, involving the love
triangle between two constables (Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro)
and a blind singer (Zhang Ziyi).
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NBA GOES TO JAPAN
The affection the Japanese have for Allen Iverson and other
NBA
stars, some might call it an affectation, is more proof
that the N.B.A.
is not so much a sport as an attitude and a brand in Japan.
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DIEM SUM TO CEO AND BACK AGAIN
Anthony Mar started his working
career as a waiter at Yank Sing Restaurant in San Francisco
serving luminaries such as Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Douglas
and many others. He is serving
Diem Sum in his company - Anthony Mar
Advisors, a business wealth advisory firm quite similar
to serving Diem Sum to clients.
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JUSTICE DIVERSITY ISSUES
The Justice Department has "significant diversity issues,"
including the perception by its minority attorneys that hiring,
promotions and assignments are unfair.
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ASIAN FAIRY TALES
This is a country of immigrants, yet most of the best-known
children's fairy tales hail from medieval Europe. That may
change with the help of newly translated books from Asia.
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R.I.P.: KAMATO HONGO
Kamato Hongo, the world's oldest person, died at the age of
116 years, with her sense of humour still intact until her
last days.
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DENTSU GIVE $275M TO MLB
Dentsu, Japan's largest ad company, has signed a six-year
deal with Major League Baseball for $275 million, more than
three times the previous amount paid to MLB for Japanese television
rights.
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UPCOMING
APA POLITICAL CANDIDATES
From APAICS, this a partial list of APA political candidates
State
Election
Louisiana:
Bobby Jindal (R) - Governor, Run-off November 15
New Jersey:
Jesal Amin (R) - State Assembly District 18
Upendra Chivukula (D) - State Assembly District 17, re-elect
Phil Peredo (D) - State Assembly District 39
Local Elections
California:
Dean Chu - Sunnyvale City Council
Lawrence J. Chu - Larkspur City Council
Kamala Harris - San Francisco District Attorney
Paul Randhawa (D) - Fairfield City Council
Kris Wang - Cupertino City Council
Raymond Wang - Redwood City Council
Kwang H. Lee - Diamond Bar City Council
Liz Tadman - Cupertino Union School District
Jack Tanaka - Diamond Bar City Council
Tony Torng - Diamond Bar City Council
Don Suminaga - Lomita City Council
Allen L. Wu - Walnut Valley Water District; Division 1
Jin Suk Yang (R) - Town of Corte Madera, re-elect
S. Mahal - Dos Palos-Oro Loma Unified School District
Stuart Johnson - Manhattan Beach Unified School District
California School/Community College:
Carole Hayashino - Marin Community College District
Hien “Q” Kieu - San Mateo County Community College
District
Van Ton Quinlivan - San Mateo County Community College District
Trustee
Armin Reyes - ABC Unified School District, re-elect
Paul Bong-Soo Kahng - ABC Unified School District
A. Cecy R. Groom - ABC Unified School District, re-elect
Ilean Ochoa - Azusa Unified School District
C. "Sonny" Santa Ines - Bellflower Unified School
District
Annette Yee Steck - Carmel Unified School District, re-elect
Lynette Lee Eng - Cupertino Unified School District
Pamela Kawasaki - Duarte Unified School District
Russel Mendoza Paras - Duarte Unified School District
Linda Fukushima Broadman - Fieldbrook School District, re-elect
Anthony Wong - Garvey Unified School District
Mindy Mooc - Garvey Unified School District
John T. Tran - Garvey Unified School District
Henry Lo - Garvey Unified School District
Tom Chang - Hacienda LaPuente Unified School District
Norman Hsu - Hacienda LaPuente Unified School District, re-elect
Halit James Ma - Hacienda LaPuente Unified School District
Tuan Luu - Jacoby Creek School District, re-elect
Nicholas Aquino - Los Nietos Elementary School District
Jeffrey Aaron Hom - Manhattan Beach Unified School District
Connie Chin - Modesto City School District, re-elect
Bryan J. Wong - Monrovia Unified School District
Robert K. Taniguchi - N. Monterey County Unified School District
Richard Singh - Orchard School District
Marion Thom - Rio Dell School District
Albert Chang - Rowland Unified School District
Se-Yao Hsu - San Marino Unified School District
Melodie Lew - San Mateo-Foster City School District, re-elect
Karen Leong Clancy - Sequoia Union High School District, re-elect
Joseph Loo - South Pasadena Unified School District
Colorado:
Sum C. Nguyen - Aurora City Council
Connecticut:
Satish Chandra - Amity Regional District 5 Board of Education
Naogan Ma (R) - West Hartford School Board, re-elect
Massachusetts:
James Liang - Quincy Councilor at Large
Amy Mah Sangiolo (D) - Alderman-at-Large, City of Newton,
re-elect
Charithy Uong (D) - Lowell City Council, re-elect
Michigan:
J. Owen Diaz - Mayor of Milan
Andrew Luzod - Mayor of Melvindale
Amy Seetoo - Ann Arbor City Council
Minnesota:
Bao Vang - St. Paul City Council, Ward 1
Tou Mou - St. Paul City Council, Ward 1
Alfred Tsang - Independent School District - Robbinsdale Area
New Jersey:
Satish Poondi - Edison Town Council
Peter Suzuki (D) - Summit Town Council
New York:
John Liu (D) - New York City Council, re-elect
Ohio:
Jadgish K. Bhati - Indian Hill City School District
Pennsylvania:
David Oh (R) - Philadelphia City Council
Joshua Chung (D) - Montgomery County District Attorney
Texas:
Mark Lee (D) - Houston City Controller
Gordon Quan (D) - Houston City Council, re-elect
Tim Shen - Houston City Council
Aloysius Hoang - Houston City Council
M.J. Khan - Houston City Council
Virginia:
Young Duek Ahn (I) - Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
Ilryong Moon (D) - Fairfax County School Board
Washington:
David Della (D) - Seattle City Council
Kollin Min (D) - Seattle City Council
Cindy Ryu (D) - Shoreline City Council
Michael Park (I) - Federal Way City Council - re-elect
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