10.31.02
Lots of bad news this week: 'Hawaii Five-O' Co-Star Kam Fong Dead at 84
10.30.02
Another Asian American pioneer passes on. Chang-Lin Tien, the first Asian-American to head a major U.S. university: Former U.C. Berkeley chancellor dead at 67
10.30.02
The National Organization For Women has released its 2002 Feminist Primetime Report. Its findings are pretty much what you would expect regarding diversity and representation, and at one point it makes a noteworthy observation: "Asian American women may be the most under-represented people on television. Last season only four Asian American actresses (out of 277 total female actors) filled substantial roles: Linda Park on Enterprise, Ming-Na on ER, Lauren Tom supplying three characters' voices on Futurama and King of the Hill, and Keiko Agena on Gilmore Girls." But we knew that. Personally, I'd actually argue that Asian American men are the most under-represented people on television...
10.30.02
Again, more TV stuff. Episode 10 of Angel will feature a character named Wo-Pang, described as a "dark mystic shaman." Who chants in Chinese and brings all sorts of evil into Angel's world, no doubt. Those crazy dark mystic Chinese dudes are really something, aren't they? The role is currently being cast. I should note once again that Daniel Dae Kim regularly shows up on Angel as Gavin Park.
An upcoming episode of Birds of Prey will feature Sung Hi Lee as Lady Shiva. Fans of the Batman comics know that Shiva is this deadly martial artist killer woman.
Alas, after only two aired episodes, girls club has been cancelled. Bad news for Eddie Shin, who had a regular role on the show. You'll remember That 80s Show got canned too. Hopefully he'll move on to something better...
10.29.02
The government of Vietnam is calling actor Don Duong a traitor for his roles in Green Dragon and We Were Soldiers: Angering Vietnam
10.29.02
The first trailer for Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle is now online. Co-stars my favorite Angel, Lucy Liu. Also, here's the poster. And that's presumably Lucy's booty on the right.
10.26.02
Beulah Quo, pioneer Asian American actress and co-founder of the East-West Players, died this past week of heart failure. She was 79. Beulah Quo, 79; Actress Started East West Players
10.26.02
The Truth About Charlie opened up in theaters on Friday. It's a remake of the absolutely un-remake-able classic Charade. (If you haven't seen it, you must rent it now.) Anyway, the remake features Korean actor Joon-Hoong Park (Nowhere to Hide) as one of the baddies after poor dead Charlie's money.
10.25.02
Got this from Jason:
I was watching Sportscenter at 7:30 pm pacific and one of the anchors an seemed to like to emphasize how Yao doesn't look very good because Shaq and Olajuwon had great stats in their debuts. After the highlights the anchorwomen asked how do they communicate with him. The biased anchor already looking like he's got something up the ass with Yao started making fun of how the players must be communicating to him almost sounding like how a person would make a dog fetch a stick. That pissed me off because I am sure there are a lot of NBA players in the league from other countries who can't speak English but are not as harrassed as Yao has been. They should give the guy a break!
For real. Keep your comments to the actual playing of basketball. Dang, let's see the anchor try to learn speaking some freakin' Chinese.
10.24.02
Even more TV stuff: Brittany Ishibashi as Vivian on Angel last week. Shady, you gotta tell me these things!
10.24.02
More TV stuff: I'm told Nicole Bilderback was on Dawson's Creek last night and Jennifer Shon was on Buffy The Vampire Slayer on Tuesday night.
10.23.02
TV Stuff: Eddie Shin as Mitchell Walton will be a recurring character on girl's club. (Why don't they capitalize the 'g' and the 'c'?)
This week's winner on Fear Factor: Thai Vanngo, a Portfolio Accountant from Dover, NJ. He walked away with the $50,000 prize. That's two Asians, two weeks in a row! Whoa.
10.23.02
Got this passed along ot me, and it sickens the stomach... Lili Wang, a 31-year-old computer science graduate student at North Carolina State University, was murdered on October 12 by Richard Borrelli Anderson, a white classmate who had become infatuated with her. Check it out: Racial "Infatuation" Leads to Murder of Chinese American Student. Truly disturbing.
10.23.02
This petition protests racist depictions of Sikhs in a video game: Petition to Eidos plc to recall the video game - Hitman2. I have not seen this game myself, but I'm taking Pav's word for it.
10.22.02
girls club premiered on Fox last night. The show is set in San Francisco, but none of featured 'girls' are Asian. That's the way it goes, I guess. Show looks like crap anyway. However, Eddie Shin (That 80s Show, Gilmore Girls) had a featured role in this episode as Mitchell Walton. We like Eddie Shin.
10.21.02
Got this from Lisa L. from the Louisville, Kentucky area:
I just thought I would share this with others. On my drive into work on Saturday the 19th at like 0530 in the morning, there is a DJ who has a whole redneck shtick, and he said...."first we're going to get the sniper, we're gonna get saddam, and then we're going to get those GOOKS in Korea." I was STUNNED! I've emailed a complaint letter to the radio station WTFX, the FOX; but haven't received a response. So please, email them and let them know that using racist language like this is TOTALLY unacceptable: michaellee@clearchannel.com
Is it funnier to make fun of Asians? Is it easier to get away with than with other ethnic groups? Radio personalities seem to think so, because this just happens all the freakin' time. That's racist!
10.19.02
Kelly Hu as Yuriko Oyama in X-Men 2.
10.19.02
I saw The Transporter. It was not good.
10.18.02
"We don't want Martinez to turn into Chinatown. The Chinese are buying up all the property downtown and we don't want that to happen. I especially don't want the Fangs to come to Martinez."
Racist comments comin' at ya, courtesy of the "Save Historic Martinez" committee of Martinez, CA. This has apparently caused quite an uproar in the small town. Check out the story, as reported by news station KRON: Does Martinez Committee Want Chinese Out? (Thanks to LayzeeD)
10.18.02
New York Times review of the Flower Drum Song revival: New Coat of Paint for Old Pagoda
10.17.02
It took a few weeks (I first wrote about it back on October 1), but protests against the "Kung Fool" costume are now getting national media coverage. I heard a brief bit about it on NPR yesterday. Here's an Associated Press article: Costume Maker Sorry for 'Kung Fool'. And here's an article in the San Francisco Chronicle: Bucktoothed Halloween mask bites the dust. (This reporter actually contacted me yesterday for the story, but I couldn't get back in touch with her!)
So Disguise, Inc. has apparently told the media that it will stop shipping the Kung Fool costumes and allow stores to return them until October 30th. This is ridiculous. The costumes should be recalled and returned NOW. The October 30th deadline no doubt allows Disguise and retailers to cash in and maximize sales on the costume right before Halloween. This is obviously the time of year where Disguise makes most of its profits. It's up to the retailers (major chains like Wal-Mart, Party City and Spencer Gifts) to take responsibility for the items they sell --and racist merchandise like the "Kung Fool" costume cannot be tolerated.
Here's some relevant corporate contact information. Do whatever you need to.
James Shea, CEO
Party City Corporation
400 Commons Way
Rockaway, NJ 07866
973-983-0888 (corporate- then dial extension)
x525 ìJimî Shea (probably James Shea, CEO, all other verified direct lines)
x516 Andy Bailen, Executive Vice President Merchandise and Marketing
x492 Linda Siluk, Chief Financial Officer
Email: Party City
John Hacala, Chairman and CEO
Spencer Gifts, Inc. (owned by Universal Studios which is part of Vivendi Universal)
6826 Black Horse Pike
Egg Harbor Township, NJ 08234-4197
609-645-3300 (corporate)
866-469-2259 (customer service)
Email form: Spencer Gifts
H. Lee Scott, CEO
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 S.W. 8th St.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716
479-273-4000 (corporate)
800-925-6278 (customer service)
Email form: Wal-Mart
(Thanks to H. Lien via Eugenia, who passed along the info...)
10.17.02
Let's hear it for the haters. Another fine day for the Angry Asian mail bag:
FROM: "ultrasaiyajin7" [email address withheld]
DATE: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 21:21:16 -0700
TO: angryminsoo@angryasianman.com
SUBJECT: For the love of god...
For the love of god, cant you shut up for 10 seconds about everything being racist? Is it your freaking catch phrase? I mean I know minorities have a right to complain, but for christs sake, some of the things you bitch about are plain stupid. Take the Queen Elizabeth thing. She didnt shake one asian boys hand. What about the several hundred WHITE peoples hands she never got to? No consideration for them? Course not. Fact of the matter is, she doesnt have time for every persons hand to by shook. What you're claiming is racist is just plain stupid. Also, Ive seen the transporter, and I have no clue what the hell your friend is talking about. Does he think its racist cause at one point they call an asian woman stuffed in the trunk "cargo"? Listen, Im all for equality and I hate bigotry, but you're going about it in an entirely wrong way. Just shouting "Thats racist" and having online petitions is stupid. White people are made fun of by every minority on the planet as much as everyone else, and there are far more minorities that bitch about it than white people. Just learn to take it once and a while. Fine. There are bigots. So what? There are also baby killers (which Im sure some loser with too much time on his hands has created a webring for). What about them? Just dont care? No. And neither do I. Whats my point? All of us just care about ourselves. I admit it, and I think its shameful you wont admit it. You are only protecting the "honor" of asian heritage, but are doing it at a near extremist level. All disrespect in this letter was not intended, and if you got offended then (like I said before) tough. Deal with it. I do every goddamned day.
I guess this is my way of "dealing with it." That's racist!
10.16.02
The WB has given Off Centre the axe and is dropping the show from its schedule. Sad news for John Cho, one of the few regular Asian American cast members on network television.
10.16.02
Generation Rice interview with Jin tha MC
10.15.02
Hyden won Fear Factor on Monday night. He fared quite well in the challenges, and walked away with $50,000. I'm only writing this because everyone and their momma wrote in to tell me. Not only that, several people actually know the guy. Friend of a friend, etc. Anyway, go Hyden.
10.15.02
Perspective from David Henry Hwang, on his Broadway revival of Flower Drum Song: A New Musical by Rodgers and Hwang
10.15.02
Asian contestant on Fear Factor last night. Hyden Yoo. Didn't see it myself --a friend tipped me off. Don't really care much for this show, but I wonder how he did. I'm also told Shii Ann on Survivor is still hanging in there and doing well. Well good for her.
10.14.02
Slight redesign. Just thought a change of look would be nice, that's all.
10.13.02
Been hearing not-so-good things about racist stuff going on in The Transporter... One dude told me he was so offended he actually asked for his money back! I wanted to see this movie, and I still do, but now I just want to see for myself what's up.
10.12.02
Interesting point/counterpoint perspective on Argentinian red wines by Natalie Tran of The Onion: I Hate You, I Hate You, I Hate You (Thanks Steve)
10.12.02
Read this article: Sexual Buzzzz Killer. This is the offending quote: "Even people in China can get their kicks with state-approved sex toys, according to Asiaweek." "Even" ? So what exactly is the writer implying? That's racist!
10.11.02
Actress Lela Lee (aka Angry Little Asian Girl) appears on tonight's episode of What I Like About You on the WB.
10.11.02
Target Corp. has apparently officially pulled the offending t-shirts from stores.
10.10.02
In case you missed the bit I posted last month about the racist shirts being sold at Target (I haven't seen the shirts to verify it myself, so I didn't pursue it further), here's an online petition: Target Corporation Stop Selling Racist Merchandise!
Also, yellowworld.org has started up an online petition against Disguise's racist "Kung Fool" costume: Petition to Stop Disguise.com from Promoting Anti-Asian Stereotypes
10.10.02
Sarah, my strong Asian sista, writes in with a little sumthin' about The Bacholor:
I don't know if you've heard about this already, but I watched the Bachelor
last night, and have updates on Anindita and Frances, the two asian women. So,
last night was the second rose ceremony (lame), where the bachelor narrows it
down from 15 women to 10 women by giving the women he wants to stay roses. My
friends and I are watching the show, commenting on how stupid and retarded and
sleazy the show is - but for some reason, we can't help but keep watching.
Anyways, so the women are all sitting in the room and the bachelor comes in for
the rose ceremony, and before he even starts giving out the roses, Anindita
stands up and puts herself out of the running, basically taking control and
rejecting the bachelor. HA! Everyone is all shocked when she does this, and
then after she leaves, Frances gets up and does the same thing, saying that she
doesn't like the guy or care as much as the other girls obviously do, and pulls
out to be fair to the other women. And the tables turned - take that, stupid
bachelor man. Anindita and Frances are smart women. Just thought I'd let you
know...
Wow. Interesting, sort of. Any remote possibility that I'd ever tune in to watch The Bachelor just left the room. Good for them.
10.10.02 http://shop.store.yahoo.com/halloweenshop/1115.html
The racist Kung Fool costume seems to have been taken off the Disguise website. Angry calls and letters will do that, I suppose. But you can still purchase the costume and mask at various online retailers:
http://www.bizrate.com/marketplace/search/search__cat_id--10160000,keyword--kung%20fool,de_id--200.html
http://www.hauntmasters.com/cart/masks4.html
10.09.02
Forgot to mention the series premiere of ABC's MDs a few weeks back. The show features Michaela Conlin as Dr. Maggie Yang in the main cast, and Anjul Nigam as a Nurse Manoj Nakshi (a regularly recurring character). Tonight's episode, "Open Heart," also guest stars Tim Lounibos (as a monk), Albert Wong and Ailee Lo.
10.08.02
Okay, being completely unfamiliar with Survivorcam, I have NO idea what this is all about, so I'll let this guy do the talking:
i dunno if you've been following the survivorcam 3 web-game
(http://www.survivorcam.us) at all, but things have turned pretty rotten..
though, it was pretty rotten to start with. i'll get to the point. the
attached cam image is the culmination of recent events transpiring on the
game.
so i suppose before you look at the image, you should direct yourself to:
http://www.survivorcam.us/gallery11.htm and ignore the title of the
challenge as it is inaccurate...
the purpose of this particular challenge was to, in the form of a webcam
image, describe why you are better than the other contestants that are/were
in the game ... there was (surprisingly) one asian girl.. chinese to be
exact that participated in the game but recently got voted off.. i think you
can see where this is going... her name is Jenni, so click on her name from
each of the entries submitted.. what you'll see ISN'T an image demonstrating
why these contestants are better than Jenni.. what's pictured are images of
blatant racism and racial stereotyping... instead of doing some parody and
poking fun at jenni herself, these remaining contestants, ALL THREE OF THEM,
demonstrated why they are better than the ASIAN RACE... (insert your
trademark "that's racist!" here :) ) [That's racist!]
it wouldn't have surprised me if 1 of them did it, but to think that all 3
of them did the exact same thing... it's amazing...
after a little spat in the comments
(http://www.survivorcam.us/archives/00000059.html#comments) the issue was
put to rest.. or so i thought.. i checked the site earlier today to find
the attached cam image.. it may still be there when you visit the main
site... so basically, she felt it was necessary to drag the topic out from
the garbage and not only make a fool of herself, but re-light a fire that
had already been stamped out... why? i have no idea.. i certainly can't see
any decent people laughing at it.. but maybe she's trying to make up for her
historically in-accurate challenge submission by just being a huge ass...
i'll let you come to your own conclusion...
Like I said, I'm not aware of what this survivorcam thing is all about, but I can tell you those pictures are pretty freakin' racist! Just plain wrong. They go out of their way to use racist stereotypes to offend and humiliate. And to me, that's racist!
10.08.02
Queen Elizabeth, why you gotta hate?That's racist! (Thanks Darren)
10.07.02
Sorry. I overlooked Anindita, another contestant on The Bachelor. She too, with the previously mentioned Frances, made it to the second round. Get out of there while you can! This cannot possibly end well for you.
10.06.02
Okay, several people have written in to express their opinion that actor Ken Leung rocks. Although I'll probably pass on Red Dragon, Ken Leung's role in Edward Norton's Keeping the Faith as Don the karaoke machine salesman is hilarious. Easily my favorite part of that movie. (He's also a bad guy in Brett Ratner's Rush Hour.)
10.04.02
Got this from Brian:
As you probably know, the 442nd regiment during WWII, made up of Japanese-Americans, was the most highly decorated unit of its size in history. This is often glazed over in history of course.
But today I was surfing the web and came across the website of Arlington National Cemetery. (http://www.arlingtoncemetery.org/) Click on "Historical Information" and you'll see a section about "Minorities" buried in the cemetery. Wait! Before you click on the link for "Japanese Americans," click on some of the others, such as African Americans and Jewish Figures. You'll see a nice little description of their histories and everything. NOW... click on the Japanese American one. All they have is a list of their names! The only other "Minority" section that has just a LIST OF NAMES is the "Foreign Nationals" section!
My point is, why is there not a description, a history, written for the Japanese American soldiers? They overcame much prejudice, with their families in the internment camps, and earned more medals than any other unit in history! I think, and I think you'll agree, that their story should be told.
The story of the 442nd has always been pretty inspiring to me. Seems grossly unjust that their "story" on the Arlington website has been relegated to a simple list of names. That's racist!
10.03.02
Accomplished U.S. Representative Patsy Mink died on Saturday at the age of 74. A true Asian political pioneer, she was Hawaii's first Asian female lawyer, and the first woman of color ever elected to Congress. Read more: Mink's Political History Filled With Firsts
10.03.02
Click here to have a good laugh.
10.03.02
10.01.02
You can also buy the "Kung Fool" Cap and Mask by itself. Warning: it's ugly. And racist!
Oh yeah. The Cesar Group is the parent company that owns disguise. Let them know what you think by emailing info@cesar-group.com or fill out their online contact form.
10.01.02
Check out this face. Disgusting right? It's actually a mask. Bruised, buck-toothed, wearing a handband with a Chinese character. Find it offensive? Does it make you angry? It gets worse: this thing is being sold as a freakin' HALLOWEEN COSTUME. Manufactured by a company called Disguise, the full costume is called "Kung Fool." The description of the costume reads:
Hiiiiiiiyaaaaa! Become a master of martial arts over night, or... well... maybe not, but have fun wearing the Disguise Kung Fool costume! Includes: Black and white kimono, belt and vinyl half-cap.
What the hell? KIMONO? This is just one big, ugly, confused, messed-up Asian stereotype. Honestly, is this company TRYING to be offensive? To produce and market something this offensive truly takes some effort. Does it come with the nunchaku too? Why not throw in some chopsticks for good measure? Why does Disguise feel that it's appropriate to caricature Asian stereotypes? In that case, are other ethnic/racial stereotypes fair game too?
Check out this online article about Disguise. The company's marketing director says, "The symbol on the headband is the Chinese character for 'loser.'"
Just in time for Halloween! This is truly disturbing. Imagine a kid showing up at your door wearing this thing, asking for some friggin' candy. You'd have to restrain me. I mean, I can handle ninjas and karate uniforms showing up at my front porch. But this is just jacked. Schoolyard taunts are bad enough without crap like this perpetuating the "kung fu clown" stereotype. And this racist thing is being sold all over the place. You can actually purchase it at Party America, Party City and other party/costume specialty stores all around the country. Disguise even provides with a convenient "Where to Buy" store locator.
Does this make you angry? Here's some contact info for Disguise's Main Office & Warehouse:
Disguise
11906 Tech Center Ct.
Poway, CA 92064
858.391.3600
858.391.3601 (fax)
Here's the info for Disguise's National Sales Office:
Disguise
200 Fifth Ave., Ste 430
New York, NY 10010
212.727.3267
212.727.7273 (fax)
All of this info can be found here. Write 'em, call 'em up, tell 'em exactly what you think. You know what I think: that's racist!
***(Props to Michael G. via Eugenia...)
