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W H A T ' S   N E W

 
OCTOBER 2004 NEWS
As we are fast approaching the 2004's Presidential Elections, there are various prominent issues facing our communities that deserves considerable thought and consideration.

Within this month's e-zine, we will provide information and resources on increasing one's understanding on subjects such as the candidates that are running for being the next U.S. President, the influence/apathy of the Asian/Asian Pacific American voters, news from throughout Asia, Wen Ho Lee's case, Yao Ming's book/movie, the Asian/Asian American Cinema scene in the United States and other items. Click HERE to review the various subjects that have been included.

In these days of constant changes and excitement, listed below are some words that were spoken that could provide invaluable insights on subjects such as the ability of having vision, the United States' lure to immigrants, the current status of Asian/Asian Pacific American actors and the ever-changing definition of terrorism.

Vision
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
- Sun-Tzu (The Art of War. circa fourth century B.C.)

Celebrating Today's Immigrants
There are many in today's United States who are suspect merely because they speak a foreign language, Arabic or Persian or even French, and to recognize that of the wonders of this country, what has always attracted people like me and Rushdie to its shores is its capacity to welcome what seems alien and celebrate its strangeness.

Current Status of the Asian Male Actors
Anderson Jones, film critic for CNN Headline News, says, "The problem that actors of Asian descent are facing now isn't that different from what African-American actors faced in the past. As far as America is concerned, Asian men don't have any sexuality. More bluntly, American women do not find Asian men sexy. Inspiring desire in people is critical to being a star."

Changing Standards of Terrorism
Contemporary terrorism has not just become indiscriminate, there seems to be a particular temptation to single out innocents, partly no doubt because these are much easier targets than well-guarded public figures. Terrorists, like the Chechens who took schoolchildren as hostages, have persuaded themselves that there are no innocents — after all, children will grow up and some of them could be soldiers or policemen one day.

In light of the vast spectrum of topics, issues and events that are related to our communities, we've divided the vast amount of news into various categories that are listed below:  

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 Literature Music Political News
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Please note that upon "CLICKING" on each link listed within this section, one will have the ability to obtain additional in-depth information on each even.

Recognizing that understanding how the Asian Pacific American communities interact with events within Asia and/or the United States is important, please feel free to review the information that are broken down to various categories for your benefit and listed below:

Brunei China India
South Korea Taiwan

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DAN "THE AUTOMATOR' NAKAMURA

 
 

Is “The Automator” part of the “Super Cool Asian Musical Mafia? Nah – he’s just a person who loves any good music and working with his friends. This ultimate musical connoisseur’s background consist of a steady diet of classical violin, Kraftwerk, old school break beats, R&B and rock and roll in the multi-cultural environment of San Francisco.

His music background provides him the ability to work as a collage artist incorporating any creative ideas around him that has led to producing wildly imaginative productions with an offbeat sense of humor while he is composing, producing and/or arranging.

"The Automator" has stated that "Playing the violin from ages three to fifteen taught me all about structure and reading music. Pop music has its verse/bridge/chorus, three chord, and circular progression. Classical music has flats and sharps in every other measure and it creates different moods; it's more linear, heading some place. I like to think of music as heading some place."

His influences range from Kool & the Gang and Earth, Wind & Fire to Arthur Baker's remixes. It also includes early hip-hop, Afrika Bambaata and Grandmaster Flash, but focused more of the mid-school, "The Show," "Needle to the Groove," "Fresh is the Word," and Boogie Down Productions.

As opposed to saying to artists that he is producing “Here’s your track” – he is able to achieve a high standard of artistic integrity that incorporates a true collaboration between the producer and artist that has made him one of the leading figures in the underground renaissance of alternative rap in the late '90s.

The “Automator’s” music career of this classically trained violinist (who can read, write, sample and play music) started as a club DJ in the 1980s that cultivated his love of pop, soul and rap.

In the 1990s, he was producing, mixing and remixing tracks for Mike D (the Beastie Boys), Herbie Hancock, Depeche Mode, Cibo Matto, DJ Shadow, DeLaSoul, Dust Brother Mike Simpson for Cornership, Blackalicious, Latryx, the Eels, DJ Krush, Primal Scream, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, DJ Shadow, Kool Keith, DJ Kid Koala, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, DJ qBert of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Stereolab, Sean Lennon, Damon Albarn of Blur, Wu-Tang Clan's RZA, Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies, Peanut Butter Wolf and Money Mark and Father Guido Sarducci.

“The Automator” alter-egos include his slick suits and tongue-in-chic appearances as Nathaniel Merriweather, half of Handsome Boy Modeling School and named after a skit on the Chris Elliott cult TV program “Get a Life.” In Deltron 3030, he was the Cantankerous Captain Aptos.

FEATURED SELECTIONS OF MUSIC
In 1988, "The Automator" cut Music to be Murdered By; it was the first record to incorporate break beats with noises to scratch with for DJs doing battle on the wheels of steel. His experimental music contributions at this time redefined how perceived how to use turntables in music.

IN 1996, his DJ Shadow album “Endtroducing” ended up at the top of many critics’ “Best of 1996” lists. The album’s success led to the Doctor Octagon ground-breaking album, Dr. Octagonecologyst, with Kool Keith and DJ Q-Bert of the Invisibl Skratch Piklz that included old-world strings, neo-Gothic synths and menacingly cool, dub-inflected textures that propelled by Thornton's pornographic rhymes and mind-bending meter

In 1998, he worked the board on the Bollywood sonic extravaganza, Bombay the Hard Way (Motel).

1999 saw the release of So....How's Your Girl? By Handsome Boy Modeling School, a collaborative effort between Automator and producer Prince Paul.

In 2001, Nakamura’s work in the cartoon band Gorillaz (collaboration with Blur's Damon Albarn, artist Jamie Hewlett, Cibo Matto's Miho Hatori, and former Talking Heads Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth) went platinum in the U.S. and produced his first hit "Clint Eastwood."

In 2002, Nakamura released his first-ever mix album, the well-received Wanna Buy a Monkey?: A Mixtape Session.

In 2004, his Deltron 3030 project is focused on the concept that brings a strange cohesion to an ambitious, eclectic and experimental album that features supper-club jazz, drum/turntable duets, alt-blues balladry and neo-industrial noise. Del the Funkee Homosapien, Kid Koala (a.k.a. Eric San) and Nakamura produced, arranged, mixed and composed the synth-swept, eerie and infectious sounds. Guests such as Sean Lennon, Damon Albarn of Blur, Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies, Peanut Butter Wolf and Money Mark back up the 3030 crew,

DUKE PAOA KAHANAMOKU

 
 

As a small boy, Duke learned to swim the Hawaiian way: His father and uncle took him out in a canoe and threw him in the surf. The method worked, for he became a fast swimmer. So fast that one day he'd become an Olympic champion. People would call him "The Human Fish."

Duke Paoa Kahanamoku was born in Honolulu on Aug. 26, 1890, when Hawaii still had a king. He learned how to swim the Hawaiian way – his father and uncle took him out into the ocean and threw him into the water.

He was known as “The Human Fish” because of his skills on the water where the waves gave him rides and its rough surf served as a trainer that constantly tested his strength as a swimmer throughout his childhood.

Duke was a muscular specimen who grew to being over 6 feet tall while becoming the most skilled waterman among his peers. He became known as the first Waikiki "beach boys." Their activities consisted of spending their time swimming, paddling canoes, repairing fishing nets, singing and while playing guitars/ukuleles. They were surfing well before it became an international sensation. In 1900, when Hawaii became a U.S. territory - Duke and the rest of the Waikiki “beach boys” caught the attention of tourists that visited Hawaii.

In 1911, Duke started the process of becoming a swimming champion though special flutter kick that he developed. William Rawlins, a former swimmer, offered to be his coach after observing his swimming abilities. At the Hawaiian Amateur Athletic Union’s first swimming and diving championship, held in Honolulu Harbor on August 11, he beat the world record in the 100 Yard Freestyle by 4 second in the time of 55.4 seconds.

At age 21, he qualified for the 1912 U.S. Olympic team. During the competition, he took the time to turn around to check on the other swimmers and since he was in the lead - he slowed down. Despite this “mishap,” Duke still won by 2 yards and breaking a record he'd set in the heats. A few days later the king of Sweden crowned Duke with a laurel wreath and presented him with his first Olympic gold medal. He also won a silver medal as part of the U.S. freestyle relay team.

Since 1820, Western missionaries and others discouraged surfing and many other traditional customs while bringing diseases that caused the death of thousands within the native population.

In his youth, Duke made a 10-foot board to ride the bigger waves and perform stunts such as jumping from one board to another, stand on his head and/or carry riders on his tall, bronzed and muscular stature. Like the ancient Hawaiian olo boards, they were made of thick solid wood, without a fin or "skeg."

In 1915 he introduced surfing to New Zealand and Australia. He thrilled the Aussies by surfing with an 8-foot, 6-inch surfboard he made out of wood from their sugar pine. In 1916, Duke surfed in New Jersey's Atlantic City Pier and becoming the first to do so on the Atlantic Ocean.

In 1917 he took off on a "bluebird," a rare gigantic wave that rolled in from the horizon. "To be trapped under its curling bulk," he later
wrote, "would be the same as letting a factory cave in upon you." He slid along the face of the monster for over a mile, stunning the brave observers in Waikiki.

More than any surfer of his time, Duke helped spread the popularity of the sport around the world. For this he is called "The Father of Modern Surfing

In 1920, at the age of 30, he won the Gold Medal in a record-breaking 100-meter freestyle race and in the 800-meter relay as well.

In 1924, at the age of 34, he won the Silver Medal in the 100 meters at the Paris Olympics. The 20-year-old Johnny Weissmuller (“Tarzan”) finished first and his brother (Samuel Kahanamoku) won the Bronze Medal.

In 1965, when he was 75, Hawaii's most famous athlete was inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame. That same year he was also inducted into the Surfing Hall of Fame in Southern California’s Santa Monica.

After his death on Jan. 22, 1968, Duke was given a Waikiki beach boy funeral. While crowds watched on the shore, his friends sang "Aloha 'Oe," the Hawaiian song of farewell. A flotilla of canoes, small boats and surfers on their boards headed out toward the horizon. First Duke's ashes, then dozens of flower leis were tossed into the ocean. It was the ideal resting place for the man who once said, "I'm only happy when I'm in the water, swimming like a fish."

      OUR GOALS
The purposes of this section are the following:

OPPORTUNITY
to discover more about our dreams
UNDERSTANDING
our fears and our hopes and
UNCOVERING
invaluable and missing information

APA & MEDIA NEWS

U.S. SUCCESS OF SOUTH KOREAN FILMS
The same South Korean films that receive praise abroad have found disdain at home, where Hollywood-style fare is preferred.
Read More>>>>>

DEVELOPING TALENTS IN ASIAN CINEMA
From one end of Asia to the other, younger filmmakers are providing raw, realistic looks at their societies.
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DEBRA YANG
As U.S. attorney in L.A., Debra Yang has made corporate fraud a priority. Admirers call her a tiger; critics say she's overzealous.
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GOLDMAN ENTERS CHINA
Goldman, the U.S.-based investment banking firm, is the first to get a foothold into the China's capital markets.
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RICK YUNE/SCOTT SASSA
Rick Yune is selling his Hollywood Hills home at just under $1.4 million for a larger one. Scott Sassa has sold his Holmby Hills home, previously owned by Vincent Price, for close to its $16-million asking price.
Read More>>>>>

ASIAN EQUATION IN FILM CINEMA
Asian Americans have been in the United States since the 1800s, and yet their portrayal on film, TV, and the stage has continued to be presented as more foreign and less American.
Read More>>>>>

BOLLYWOOD MEETS HOLLYWOOD
With the recent successes of the Broadway hit "Bombay Dreams" and the movies "The Village," "Bend It Like Beckham" and "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle," a new wave of entertainers of Indian ethnicity is cooking up a melange in the West spicier than any curry, cumin, coriander or chili powder.
Read More>>>>>

JAPANESE AMERICAN OLYMPIANS
At the 1948 Olympic Games, Harold Sakata became the first Japanese American to win an Olympic medal by capturing a silver medal in weightlifting. At the 1952 Summer Games in Helsinki, three Japanese Americans won gold medals Tommy Kono, Yoshinobu Oyakawa, Ford Konno and Evelyn Kawamoto.
Read More>>>>>

BRYAN CLAY - SILVER MEDALIST AT OLYMPICS
I grew up in Hawai'i. I'm half-Japanese, half-African American," Clay said. "My dad lives in Florida, my mom lives in Hawai'i. I went to Azusa Pacific — a small Christian school — so my faith and my walk with God is very important to me."
Read More>>>>>

JACL'S RESPONSE TO MICHELLE MALKIN
Michelle Malkin's book "In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror" is a desperate attempt to impugn the loyalty of Japanese Americans during World War II to justify harsher governmental policies today in the treatment of Arab and Muslim Americans.
Read More>>>>>

LITTLE INDIA'S STRUGGLES
With a bill on freeway signage expected to pass the Legislature, a debate continues in Artesia over the wisdom of such action.
Read More>>>>>

MICROSOFT'S MULTICULTURAL SAVVY?!?!?
Microsoft's lack of multicultural savvy cost the Redmond behemoth millions of dollars. The software giant has seen its products banned in some of the biggest markets on earth--and it's all because of eight wrongly colored pixels, a dodgy choice of music and a bad English-to-Spanish dictionary.
Read More>>>>>

JET LI SEEKS TO TOUCH YOUR SOUL
Jet Li wants to touch your soul before he kicks your butt. The Hong Kong action star says too many martial-arts movies ignore heart and emotion in favor of vengeance and gore - as seen in "Hero." He said his latest film to hit U.S. theaters, the Mandarin- language "Hero," is an antidote to other by-the-numbers action movies, an epic story about ancient China that aims to mesmerize moviegoers.
Read More>>>>>

FILM REVIEW: HERO
Through a crescendo of climaxes, the film arrives at a place of primal heroism, the point in history where reality blurs to myth. As different as the renditions of Nameless' adventures are, they all share common threads, the film's structure offering insights into how legends are born out of transfigured truth. Note: This movie is probably the most bootlegged DVD in history.
Read More>>>>>

HAROLD & KUMAR'S FUTURE
This is our big at bat fiscally," said John Cho, star of Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, on the eve of his film's July 30 release. "Hollywood has put out a product with two Asian American male leads, and the question is, Will the audience vote for it?"
Read More>>>>>

MIRA NAIR'S VANITY FAIR
Reese Witherspoon tries on something a little different for Mira Nair's "Vanity Fair." A lot of trust between the actress, the director (Mira Nair) and the designer for the film "Vanity Fair" because Mira Nair would be the last person you would expect to take on a stuffy adaptation of English literature of the early 19th century. Which is exactly why her witty and vibrant take on Thackeray's classic "Vanity Fair" isn't stuffy at all -- it's filled with the more colorful aspects of pre-Victorian life.
Read More>>>>>

KOREANS - LARGEST GROUP OF ADOPTEES
Since the 1950s, more than 150,000 South Korean children have been sent abroad for adoption, about 100,000 of them to the United States. Long before children began arriving in the U.S. from China and Russia — the two leading countries today for foreign adoptions — there were the Korean babies. Although the number of new arrivals has trailed off since the 1980s, they still make up the largest foreign adoptee population in the United States.
Read More>>>>>

DAE SUNG LEE'S DISCRIMINATION LAWSUIT
Dae Sung Lee, founder and master teacher at the United States Taekwondo Center in Aina Haina, filed suit in U.S. District Court against the U.S. Taekwondo Union and U.S. Olympic Committee, because he was removed because he is Korean American and had a good relationship with the union's former governing body, made up largely of Korean Americans.
Read More>>>>>

DONNIE YEN & PLIGHT OF AA ACTORS
Between Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen, which one of these action film stars grew up in the United States - or and which one of these stars had to leave the United States before he could make a name for himself in Hollywood? Answer is Hero's Donnie Yen. Anderson Jones, film critic for CNN Headline News, says, "The problem that actors of Asian descent are facing now isn't that different from what African-American actors faced in the past.
Read More>>>>>

MARGARET CHO AT THE APOLLO THEATER
In her professional life Ms. Cho has prospered by finding the edge and taking a few steps beyond it. Her transgressiveness derives from who she is - a bisexual Korean-American - and what she says. She compared the current first lady to a bomb-sniffing dog. Ms. Cho will say anything, not so much for a laugh, but because it is in her nature, a kind of social Tourette's syndrome not unlike that of Lenny Bruce that compels her to say unspeakable things.
Read More>>>>>

GURINDER CHADHA / BRIDE & PREJUDICE
Gurinder Chadha, whose Bend It Like Beckham, was a rage in India and abroad, is ready with her new film, Bride And Prejudice which is based on Jane Austen's classic Bride And Prejudice. Film features Starring Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson, Namrata Shirodkar, Sonali Kulkarni, Meghna Kothari, Nadeera Zaheer Babbar, Anupam Kher and Peeya Rai Chowdhary.
Read More>>>>>

DYSLEXIA IS NOT THE SAME IN EVERY CULTURE
Westerners shudder at the idea of reading even the most basic street signs and instructions in Chinese, a language with 6,000 characters to memorize to be considered fluent. A new set of brain images shows why: Reading English-style alphabets and Chinese characters use very different parts of the brain. The results also suggest that Chinese schoolchildren with reading problems misfire in a different brain region than the one used in reading alphabet-based languages like English. This demonstrates that the learning disorder dyslexia is not the same in every culture and does not have a universal biological cause, researchers said.
Read More>>>>>

HONG KONG MEETS BOLLYWOOD
Hollywood of the East, Hong Kong, is going all out to lure the Great Indian traveller still fixed on Singapore, Bangkok and KL - by cashing in on their Bollywood craze. "We want to strengthen the collaboration with Bollywood and attract producers to make more movies in HK and entice more visitors to come," says Clara Chong, executive director, Hong Kong tourism board. The latest in the Hong Kong-Bollywood link is The Myth starring Jackie Chan and Mallika Sherawat being shot in Hampi (Karnataka) and Shanghai.
Read More>>>>>

KANG JGYU - STEVEN SPIELBERG OF EAST ASIA
The Korean filmmaker Kang Je-gyu is the Steven Spielberg of East Asia, and not just because his movies routinely become blockbusters. Both his 1996 first feature, "The Gingko Bed," and his 1999 "Shiri" broke box-office records in South Korea by building compelling genre stories around questions of national identity, a formula that has long been a winner for Mr. Spielberg. And with "Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War," Mr. Kang seems to be deliberately forcing the comparison. Set during the Korean War, the picture is plainly Mr. Kang's "Saving Private Ryan," a tribute to a passing generation of heroes that begins with an elderly man's visiting a burial site, a sequence that practically quotes Mr. Spielberg's film.
Read More>>>>>

WEN HO LEE & AMERICAN PRESS
U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson held five reporters in contempt of court for withholding the identities of their sources who provided questionable personal information about former nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. The ruling was immediately hailed as an important victory for APAs.
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LOCKE PLANS CHINA TRADE MISSION
Gov. Gary Locke is heading to China and hoping to crack the growing Vietnam market. Trade missions are a highly visible way for businesses to get a foot in the door as the governor and other top state officials meet directly with foreign counterparts..
Read More>>>>>

INTERNMENT CAMP CURRICULUM CHALLENGED
Parents at Bainbridge Island's Sakai Intermediate School claim that the special social studies program "Leaving Our Island" is missing context and rises to the level of "propaganda." A group of residents are demanding that the program on Japanese Internment includes different opinions, including the view that the internment was justified - along with omitting discussions that hint at parallels between the internment and the U.S. Patriot Act.
Read More>>>>>

YOYO MA WINS AT LATIN GRAMMYS
Classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma picked up his first Latin Grammy for his exploration of Brazilian music, "Obrigado Brazil Live in Concert."
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ART OF SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS
Meetings are effective because the written word only carries 7% of the true meaning and feeling. Meetings are better than telephone conferences because only 38% of the meaning and feeling is carried in the way that things are said. The other 55% of the meaning and feeling is carried in facial expression and non-verbal signals. That's why meetings are so useful.
Read More>>>>>

CARTOONS & COLLEGE STUDENTS
Cartoon Network executives say the college marketing program, mostly made up of sponsored drinking parties at hot college bars, had a significant hand in creating buzz for the quirky, sometimes hilariously absurd block of cartoons.
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1926 MARRIAGE OF OTA & BANNING
In July 1926, Banning (daughter of a prominent family), 51, and Ota (prominent Japanese national), 31, drove to Seattle to be married; interracial marriage violated California law. Both were ostracized by their friends.
Read More>>>>>

NASCAR'S MARKETING
Already a multibillion-dollar business — second only to the National Football League in ratings for televised sports — NASCAR is shifting its focus beyond such race-crazy Southern strongholds as Darlington, S.C., to places where corporate sponsors and television networks can reach a broader audience. NASCAR has a program that shows their attempt to involve minorities, as fans, officials, mechanics, salespeople and, ultimately, drivers. Magic Johnson has been directing the project since February 2004.
Read More>>>>>

ASIAN RESTAURANTS BATTLE ON WEST COAST
The latest food fight in Southern California is between wok-wielding foes vying to dominate the market for fast, fresh and affordable Asian fare. Pei Wei Asian Diner, Pick Up Stix and others are expanding despite the hurdles: an abundance of mom-and-pop competitors, a shortage of prime restaurant sites and the complexities behind churning out shrimp with lobster sauce, vegetarian stir-fry and three-flavored dumplings.
Read More>>>>>

NENA RUIZ- FORMER INDENTURED SERVANT
Nina Ruiz, Filipina, who was awarded $825,000 in damages by a jury after alleging that she was held as an indentured servant by a movie industry executive and his wife says her dream is to remain in Los Angeles and to bring her husband and three children here from the Philippines.
Read More>>>>>

PBS KIDS SERIES AND DIVERSITY
PBS' "Maya & Miguel" revolves around 10-year-old twins Maya and Miguel Santos, their close-knit family and Paco, a linguistically gifted parrot, who live in a culturally diverse neighborhood. Maya constantly meddles in the lives of her friends and family, much to the consternation of her brother. The voice cast includes Lupe Ontiveros as the twins' grandmother, Elisabeth Pena as their mother, Erik Estrada as the friendly mailman and Lucy Liu as their outspoken friend.
Read More>>>>>

H.T. CHEN DANCE CO. & NYC'S CHINATOWN
On Mulberry Street in Chinatown, where choreographer H.T. Chen bases his 25-year-old contemporary dance company in a studio, small theater and school, the creative life inside reflects the picture outside. In Chen's work, cultures clash, blend and re-form. Stories are told of Asian-American immigration in the early 20th century and of life in Chinatown itself.
Read More>>>>>

SOUTH KOREA'S SOJU
Because of a 1999 California state law pushed by Korean restaurant owners, soju has a unique exemption among distilled spirits in California, and spots such as Southern California's Mutt Lynch's are taking full advantage. (New York has passed a similar measure.) Soju, a clear distilled spirit made in South Korea and Japan from a variety of ingredients that can include rice, barley and even sweet potatoes.
Read More>>>>>

LEXUS EFFORTS TO STAY #1
When Toyota Motor Corp. rolled out its Lexus brand 15 years ago, rival auto executives snickered at the prospect of a Japanese automaker hitting it big in the tough U.S. luxury-car market. The doubters were asleep at the wheel. By 2000, Lexus had shot past the Americans and Europeans to become the bestselling luxury auto brand in the nation. Now Lexus' challenge is to avoid the complacency that toppled other luxury leaders during its ascent.
Read More>>>>>

YUTA TABUSE SIGNED BY PHOENIX SUNS
" We are happy to announce that the Phoenix Suns and Yuta Tabuse have signed a contract." In a shrunken NBA world, where it's no longer a big deal to see players from China, Poland or Africa, few players can be considered exotic any more. Yuta Tabuse can be considered exotic.
Read More>>>>>

JULIE SA
This 53-year-old California businesswoman and former mayor of Fullerton is being widely touted in the South Korean media as the front-runner to head a special economic zone in Sinuiju, a Yalu River port.
Read More>>>>>

CUI JIAN WORKING WITH STEPHEN SCHWARTZ
American composer Stephen Schwartz, aided by Chinese rock star Cui Jian, will pen part of the score for a new musical about Hans Christian Andersen. The musical will be one of many events marking the 200th birthday of the Danish fairy-tale writer.
Read More>>>>>

WALMART IN SOCAL'S ROSEMEAD
Walmart will enter Rosemead, a middle-class bedroom community where 90% of the 53,000 residents are Asian or Latino, has struggled to attract more businesses and has been without a major grocery store since the local Ralphs closed two weeks ago. A city-sponsored study found that the Supercenter could create 325 to 500 jobs.
Read More>>>>>

DEAN CAIN IN CBS' CLUBHOUSE
CBS's Clubhouse is a drama about a 16-year-old boy who takes a job as a batboy for a professional baseball team. Mare Winningham plays his mom Lynne and Dean Cain plays the part of Conrad Dean - the basball team's captain and star third baseman and one of the boy's all-time idols who takes on the role of an older brother.
Read More>>>>>

GREAT FILM ABOUT MOVIEGOERS
Will Tsai Ming-liang's "Goodbye, Dragon Inn," arguably the greatest film ever made about moviegoing, finally imprint those four syllables in the minds of moviegoers? It's certainly not his most accessible picture. Like the methodical "Platform" and the hermetic "Flowers of Shanghai," this subtle work makes unusual demands on the viewer.
Read More>>>>>

BOOK REVIEW: THE LOVE WIFE
The tale of the Wong family (Chinese-American Carnegie Wong and his Caucasian wife, Jane Bailey, are part of what their neighbor calls "the new American family" that throws stereotypes to the wind) that Gish Jen tells in her latest novel, "The Love Wife," is also a big story: a story about families and identity and race and the American Dream, a story about how one generation deals with the expectations and the hopes of an earlier generation, a story about how sons and daughters make choices that define themselves against their parents.
Read More>>>>>

BLACK & WHITE LITERARY PARTNERSHIP
Sol Stein quotes a passage from an early draft of "Notes": "It is time for white people to stop feeling guilty about Negroes, and for Negroes to stop trying to make then feel guilty, unless they want to feel guilty about being persons on this earth." James Baldwin showed "that thought about the issues rather than anger was essential to establishing the sense that we are all human beings and not of color," Mr. Stein said. "Divisiveness works against that. Multiculturalism works against that."
Read More>>>>>

DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM
The movie "Evergreen" premiered at 115 AMC theaters in 27 major markets and represented the inaugural feature film offering of the chain's 3-year-old Digital Theater Distribution System, in which the movie is transmitted to theaters by satellite. Far cheaper than manufacturing and distributing 35 mm prints (each of which costs upward of $1,000), the system permits theater owners to show independent fare that falls through the cracks or, at best, ends up in limited art-house release. The quality of the technology — currently used by theaters to mostly show sporting events, concerts and educational programs — is on a par with that of high-definition TV. It is not, however, up to the standards of traditional projection or the high-resolution digital technology in the wings.
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YAO MING ON THE SILVER SCREEN
At 2.28 meters (seven feet six), Chinese basketball star Yao Ming has the hopes of 1.2 billion people on one shoulder and his sport's multi-billion-dollar dream of conquering his homeland on the other. It's a double burden which leaves Yao exhausted and torn between two masters, in a new documentary/book on his 2002-3 rookie year for the Houston Rockets in the US-based National Basketball Association. "I was caught between the expectations of China and NBA's Houston Rockets, the only thing I could do was forge ahead," the star says in "Year of the Yao," which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. (Note: Fine Line Features has taken the rights to the movie)
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KOREMATSU'S RESPONSE TO MALKIN
Fox News media personality Michelle Malkin claims that some Japanese Americans were spies during World War II. Malkin claims the internment of all Japanese Americans was not such a bad idea after all. It is painful to see reopened for serious debate the question of whether the government was justified in imprisoning Japanese Americans during World War II. It was my hope that my case and the cases of other Japanese American internees would be remembered for the dangers of racial and ethnic scapegoating. No one should ever be locked away simply because they share the same race, ethnicity, or religion as a spy or terrorist. If that principle was not learned from the internment of Japanese Americans, then these are very dangerous times for our democracy. Fred Korematsu was awarded the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medial of Freedom, in 1998.
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"BIRTH OF RACISM" HAS CURRENT RELEVANCE
Now, here's the problem with the idea that this film creates an opportunity for discussion: Americans are predominately ignorant. We don't read. We don't really have any knowledge of history. And so there is not going to be any intelligent discussion, on the whole, outside of this room.
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BROOKE LEE & FUSION TV
PACIFIC FUSION is an innovative and dynamic weekly half-hour, English-language television magazine that explores and illuminates the diversity and flair (i.e. culture, food, art, music, fashion, business, technology and history) of Asian Pacific American (APA) people and lifestyles. Our social goals are to connect the community, dispel stereotypes and misconceptions while presenting human interest stories and positive role models.
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NO MORE "SUCKER FREE CITY"
Sadly, one film you won't see at your local cinema is Spike Lee's SUCKER FREE CITY. An emotionally stirring film that follows the lives of 3 very different young men in San Francisco: Nick, an entrepreneurial white boy from Mission Point; K-Luv, a black gang- banger in Hunter's Point, and Lincoln, a debt collector for the Chinese Mafia. Despite coming from different walks of life, unforeseeable and violent events inevitably push these men together.
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LAST FEMALE MUSLIM COMIC STANDING
You wouldn't expect the teetotaling, Muslim virgin to be the funniest person in the room -- but if that person were Shazia Mirza, you'd be wrong. Originally from Pakistan but raised in England, Mirza began doing stand-up four years ago, and quickly became famous in the U.K. and Australia for her dry sense of humor and the fact that she challenges cultural expectations of what a Muslim woman is supposed to be.
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NYC'S FASHION WEEK / AA DESIGNERS
Fashion designer Thakoon Panichgul, who always felt more American than Thai. He is one of four young Asian and Asian-American designers — including Jeffrey Chow, Derek Lam and Peter Som — who stole the spotlight at NYC's big fashion show held under the tents in Manhattan's Bryant Park.
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FOOTBALL'S NORM CHOW
If Norm Chow is going to get his due as the impact player around USC and the first drop of oil to come down Pete Carroll's talent pipeline, he must learn to act the part. Did you catch that little high five during the Trojans' victory over Virginia Tech in the season opener? Not good. On the celebration scale, it was more Macaulay Culkin than Terrell Owens.
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INFERNO AFFAIRS' ANDY LAU
It's not likely that an actor like Tom Cruise would consistently cast himself as the homme fatale. But Andy Lau, 42, whose 2002 film "Infernal Affairs" (a trilogy directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak) finally will be released Friday in the U.S., has done just that. And he is perhaps Hong Kong's most bankable, respected star who hasn't yet crossed over into American films
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DANIEL DAE KIM & YUN JIN KIM IN "LOST"
Daniel Dae Kim and Yun Jin Kim want to make a few things clear just a day before the premiere of "Lost," one of the most anxiously awaited shows of television's fall season. The Korean-American actors who are part of the ensemble cast of ABC's castaway drama are not related, are not like the characters they portray, and don't know what's stalking them on the mysterious Pacific island that's home to the ABC series.
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TRICK PELVIS / MARVIN MITCHELSON
Feminism never advocated that women should manipulate men for financial gain, or that a girl with ambition, and in the words of Joan Rivers, "a trick pelvis," should use it to acquire a lifetime income.
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