east west players presents the joy luck club

East West Players, the nation's pre-eminent Asian American theater company, is currently running their adaptation of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. You know—mothers and daughters struggling to understand each other. Cultural/generational clashes and misunderstandings. Weeping. Love it or hate it, it's one of the most influential Asian American literary works of the 1990s. And it's on stage now through December 21.

As part of their presentation of the Joy Luck Club, East West Players is also hosting a series of Saturday discussion forums about Asian American women. This Saturday, December 6, I'll be participating in a panel on Asian American beauty along with Jen and Diana from Disgrasian and Ada Tseng from Asia Pacific Arts. Here are some details:

Beyond Brains or Boobs: Beauty in Asia America 2.0
Date & Time: Saturday, December 6 @ 2:00PM
Location: Barnes & Nobel at The Grove, 189 The Grove Drive, Los Angeles, CA 90036

With the growing awareness of Asian fashion and pop culture among Asian Americans, how has the Asian American definition of beauty changed? Has it? Will it? How will the Internet affect this definition? Using the Joy Luck Club as an example of Asia America then, how far has Asia America come in deciding what is beautiful, and where is it going now?

So if you're in Los Angeles, come on out to The Grove on Saturday afternoon and sit in on the discussion. I'm still not entirely sure how it's going to go, or what I'm doing in the company of such cool ladies, but it should be pretty interesting. See you there.