Friday, December 8 at the Museum of Chinese in America
New York City! The Museum of Chinese in America invite you to an evening of food, drink and literary intrigue with author Ed Lin. Come celebrate the re-design and re-issue of Lin's crime novel trilogy, This Is a Bust, Snakes Can't Run and One Red Bastard, which follow the gritty exploits of NYPD cop Robert Chow in 1970s Chinatown. They'll have Chinatown snacks and desserts, and Ed will be signing copies of his books.
It's happening Friday, December 8 at MOCA. Here are some more details:
By now, literally nothing about this should surprise you.
When Donald Trump traveled to Asia a few weeks ago to meet with leaders in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines, you figured it was going to be a shitshow, or awkward at best. Turns out, for Trump, the trip gave him license to mock Asians after the fact, several weeks later.
On Wednesday, during a speech in St. Charles, Missouri, Trump said he told several Asian leaders that they need to increase their defense spending. Then Trump imitated what he claimed was their reaction, hunching and giving a look that he described as meaning "they know they're getting away with murder."
Remixed and re-titled book covers imagine all the bullshit Claudia Kishi had to deal with.
For a certain generation of young readers, Claudia Kishi is an icon.
Any fan of The Baby-sitters Club will tell you that Claudia is artistic, stylish, fashionable and a terrible student. She's also the Asian one. As the Japanese American member of The Baby-sitters Club, she was a rarity when Ann M. Martin's prolific, mega-popular novel series debuted in 1986. In a literature landscape so often devoid of characters of color, many Asian American readers saw themselves in Claudia.
In Keep Out, Claudia! (Book #56) the Baby-sitters Club is hired by a new family who are totally cold and rude to Claudia when she comes over to babysit their kids, for reasons she can't understand. But when the BSC's white sitters come over, they're cool. Then later, when Jessi, who is African American, comes over to sit, they won't even let her through the door. Turns out, the family is racist!
It was one of the few times the series addressed issues of racial prejudice, albeit clunkily, in its 200+ volume run. But it gets you wondering how that racism might have further affected Claudia, as one of the seemingly few Asian American residents in the fictional town of Stonybrook, Connecticut. As an Asian American character, Claudia busted some stereotypes. But realistically, she probably had to deal with her share of bullshit.
What would those books look like?
Let us imagine a few Baby-sitters Club stories, using re-titled and remixed covers of actual Baby-sitters Club books, that might have seen Claudia realistically and frankly grappling with her identity as a racial minority.
Liu Yifei, also known as Crystal Liu, will play the title role.
From The Hollywood Reporter: After a yearlong worldwide search, Mulan has been found.
Chinese actress Liu Yifei, also known as Crystal Liu, is set to star as the title woman warrior in Disney's live-action adaptation of the classic Chinese tale.
A team of casting directors visited five continents and saw nearly 1,000 candidates for the role, which requires credible martial arts skills, the ability to speak English and the most ineffable requirement of all: star quality. In deference to cultural accuracy, the studio focused on locating an ethnically Chinese young woman to play Hua Mulan, who disguised herself as a man to take her father's army conscription in fifth-century China.
Hasan Minhaj, Ivy Quicho and Junot Diaz narrate a passage from 'America Is In The Heart.'
In troubling times like these, when every day seems like a struggle for the soul of America, look to Carlos Bulosan. The Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center has released a beautiful video ode to America's immigrants, featuring a passage from Bulosan's classic book America Is In The Heart. The piece is narrated by comedian Hasan Minhaj, community organizer Ivy Quicho and writer Junot Díaz.
White guy C.B. Cebulski wrote a number of comics while pretending to be Japanese.
From Vulture: In what is surely one of the most bizarre stories to come out of the comics industry in recent years, incoming Marvel Comics editor-in-chief C.B. Cebulski -- a Caucasian person -- has copped to writing under the Japanese-sounding pseudonym "Akira Yoshida" in the mid-aughts.
The revelation comes after a few days of speculation and scrutiny from the comics commentariat and was first confirmed to news site Bleeding Cool, then subsequently to Vulture. Cebulski had previously lied to Bleeding Cool journalist Rich Johnston, saying Yoshida was a real person; he created a fake backstory for an interview with comics site CBR; and executives at Marvel once met with someone they believed was Yoshida, but was in fact a Japanese translator who happened to be visiting the offices. Yes, really.
A K-Drama re-watch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
Are you a fan of Korean dramas? Then this podcast is probably not for you. The Korean Drama Podcast is the K-Drama rewatch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
In season one, host Will Choi (founder of Asian AF) and I -- both self-professed Korean drama beginners -- with help and hand-holding by our resident K-Drama expert Joanna Lee, attempt to watch and discuss the 2009 megahit drama Boys Over Flowers in its entirety, episode by episode.
And that's a wrap on the season one! On this episode, we reunite -- a little over a year after recording episode 25 -- to reflect on our experience and the growth of the podcast over the past year. Thanks to all of our listeners who've stuck with our Boys Over Flowers discussions over the past few months. We can't wait to do this again.
Wednesday, November 29 at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center
Los Angeles! Hot Asian men! Poetry! You are invited to a special panel discussion, Haikus With Hotties x Dream Panel: Image Of The Asian American Man, which will also serve as the official launch of the 2018 Haikus for Hotties Calendar, a series that "celebrates Asian Male Hotness in all forms." The panel will include participants from the popular calendar series, including Yoshi Sudarso, Peter Sudarso, Ilram Choi, Saagar Shaikh, Jake Choi, Mike Bow, D'Lo, Simu Liu and Chris Pang, moderated by Sean Miura.
That's a lot of Asian male hotness in one room. It's happening Wednesday, November 29 at the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center in Little Tokyo. Here are some more details:
Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.
What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. Each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.
On our latest episode, recorded on the eve of Thanksgiving from three different parts of the continent, we welcome chef and food writer Soleil Ho, co-host of the podcast Racist Sandwich. We discuss food and thanks, as well as the Good, Bad and WTF of Thanksgiving.
Famed Hong Kong auteur to direct Chinese American gangster saga for Amazon.
It's true. Wong Kar-wai is doing TV. The legendary Hong Kong auteur is stepping into the episodic television format with the 10-part original Amazon series Tong Wars, "a gangster saga that resonates within the complex narrative of the Chinese American experience." The series follows the journey of Vicky Sun from a slave girl in turn-of-the-century Chinatown to the richest woman in 1970s San Francisco.
And they need actors! This open casting call notice for Tong Wars is currently being shared widely on social media. They're looking for Chinese actors of various ages who can speak fluent Cantonese and American English to play the series regular roles of Vicky Sun, Tom Sun, Lo Mo and Johnny Young.
"Celebrating middle-aged women everywhere through the Ajumma EXPerience."
Grab your visor and get that perm tight. It is on. The world-wide takeover of Ajumma EXP begins now.
Started by lead ajumma instigators Sonia Chin and Lee Ann Kim, Ajumma EXP is a self-described "crew of fierce women who embrace growing older, getting wiser, and being able to laugh at ourselves." They aim to create a fun platform to educate and entertain the world about the "Ajumma," and in doing so, celebrate all middle-aged women. Wait, what is an ajumma? Aigoo! Read here.
And what better way to demonstrate this fierceness than through dance? The badass ajummas of Ajumma EXP recently made their sun-shielded, perm-tastic debut earlier this month with by crashing the dance floor at the San Diego Asian Film Festival, with a flashmob dance set to JJ Fad's "Supersonic."
I was present, it was one of the most wonderful things I have ever witnessed. Check it out:
He played the cab driver in Wayne Wang's acclaimed indie film 'Chan Is Missing.'
Photo: Nancy Wong
From The Hollywood Reporter: Wood Moy, who starred as the cab driver in the acclaimed Wayne Wang noir film Chan Is Missing (1982), died November 8, his family announced. He was 99.
Moy portrayed Jo, who is out to buy a taxi license with his nephew, Steve (Marc Hayashi). When Steve's friend Chan disappears with the cash they need to purchase their license, he and his uncle become amateur detectives as they set about San Francisco's Chinatown trying to locate the missing man and their money.
The low-budget, black-and-white Chan Is Missing, believed to be the first Asian American indie film, was named for inclusion into the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 1995 for its cultural, historical or aesthetic significance.
"I enjoy trying to make eye contact with people who are constantly glued to their phones."
Good people of the internet! You know what time it is. It's time to meet the Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's Angry Reader is Shelby Rabara.
Lawsuit claims San Gabriel police maintained a "racially hostile" work environment.
From the San Gabriel Valley Tribune: A group of current and former Asian American officers of the San Gabriel Police Department claim they were routinely harassed and discriminated against -- both by other officers using slurs and stereotypes and by the department’s leadership, who they say passed them up for promotion after complaining about the alleged abuses, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday.
The lawsuit claims San Gabriel police maintained a "racially hostile" work environment in which they were demeaned "on a nearly daily basis," including other officers using "mock Asian accents" when speaking to them, as well as comments on their physical appearance and stereotypes about Asian culture.
A K-Drama re-watch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
Are you a fan of Korean dramas? Then this podcast is probably not for you. The Korean Drama Podcast is the K-Drama rewatch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
In season one, host Will Choi (founder of Asian AF) and I -- both self-professed Korean drama beginners -- with help and hand-holding by our resident K-Drama expert Joanna Lee, attempt to watch and discuss the 2009 megahit drama Boys Over Flowers in its entirety, episode by episode.
ALMOST PARADIIIIIIIISE! This episode, we're finally at the series finale of Boys over Flowers. How will chronic kidnap victim Jan Di get through to the amnesiac Perm Boy? Never fear though, this 11th hour amnesia storyline gets resolved with the oldest Jan Di trick in the book, getting rescued! After 25 episodes of K-Drama goodness, we finally take some time to reflect on what we've accomplished. Kudos and pats on the back all around!
From unknown office assistant to a starring role galaxy far, far away.
From Entertainment Weekly: In her first official Star Wars performance, she had to keep playing the role of Kelly Marie Tran, office assistant.
"The day I found out, [director Rian Johnson] was like, 'Oh we want you in this movie,' I had just left work on my lunch break to go to this meeting," she recalls. "Afterward, he told me that I couldn't tell anyone, so I went back to work and answered phones and answered emails, like nothing happened. It was the most bizarre experience. Inside I was like, Ugh! Crazy!"
Then came the announcement. Then came the production. Then came a whole cascade of happy-happy, joy-joy that struggling actors are unaccustomed to dealing with. "I still just sort of live my life the way that I was before," she says. "I don’t know when I will feel that it's different. Definitely, when I saw the action figures, I was like, 'This is insane,' but it still hasn't sunk in or registered on me."
"I just told the other girls to just hurt him and I'll hold the register."
This robber messed with the wrong restaurant -- a restaurant staffed with some badass ladies.
Earlier this month, a man attempting to rob the cash register at Tony's Breakfast in Northeast Washington was met with the full fury of four employees who smacked, slapped and thwacked the crap out of him.
On the morning of November 7, manager Justine Choe opened the cash register to make change for a customer, when a man suddenly lunged across the counter and made a grab for a cash drawer.
But Justine, whose parents own the restaurant, was not letting go without a fight. And this dude definitely got a fight. A crazy five-person tug-of-war ensued as three more of the restaurant's employees jumped into the fray.
GOP tax plan spells disaster for Asian-Americans: The GOP's proposed tax plan makes it clear that they are only interested in policies that benefit rich donors -- and Asian Americans are among the groups that will be disproportionately harmed.
Feeling Conflicted on Thanksgiving: "What is wrong with saying that Thanksgiving is about genocide as much as it is about gratitude?" Viet Thanh Nguyen ponders lessons for his 4-year-old this Thanksgiving.
The "Inscrutable" Voices of Asian-Anglophone Fiction: Through the use of first-person narrators, writers like Weike Wang, the author of "Chemistry," are engaging with the enduring stereotype of Asian impersonality in order to overturn it.
How ABC Found a Surprise Hit in 'The Good Doctor': Daniel Dae Kim developed The Good Doctor, his first foray as executive producer, while he was part of the cast of Hawaii Five-0 on CBS, but the network passed on the project. It has become a huge hit at ABC.
Tiffany Phommathep was shot five times, then drove herself to get help.
By now, you've heard about the California man who went on a violent shooting rampage Tuesday, killing five and wounding twelve others in Tehama County, before he was killed in a shootout with police.
Kevin Janson Neal killed his wife and hid her body in a hole he cut in the floor of his trailer house. He then murdered four other people during a 25-minute tear through the rural community that ended with a shooting at Rancho Tehama Elementary School. An additional six adults and six children were wounded.
But did you hear about the woman who was shot five times, using her body to shield her kids -- and lived?
"Today, I'd say I'm someone who isn't running away from who I am."
Hello, good readers of this blog. Here's what's up. Once again, it's time to meet the Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's Angry Reader is Jezzika Chung.
Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.
What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. Each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.
Live from the San Diego Asian Film Festival! This episode, recorded in front of a live studio audience, we welcome fellow Potluck podcasters Marvin Yueh and Ada Tseng to pitch our hypothetical "unicorn" Asian American movie projects to studio execs Fritz Friedman and Paula Madison.
Man calls Asian passenger racial slurs before repeatedly hitting him on a BART train.
Can't a guy just ride the train in peace without being accosted, called racial slurs and getting punched?
In the Bay Area, a man was caught on camera attacking an Asian passenger on a BART train, calling him racial slurs before punching him multiple times. The video, recorded Monday night, has since gone viral.
The assault happened on the Richmond line going south to Fremont around 10:00 PM. A man in a blue shirt boarded the train at the Coliseum station and got into a verbal altercation with another passenger, San Francisco Chronicle as Charles Wu, who was sitting down. According to a witness, the man was saying the n-word repeatedly on the train, and Wu stepped in and told him to stop. Blue shirt apparently didn't like that.
Video of the incident, recorded and posted to social media by fellow passenger Wiseley Wu (no relation), shows the man calling Charles Wu a "Chinese n**ger," among other profanities, and threatening to punch him. Things escalate when he reaches over and hits Wu in the shoulder and head.
A K-Drama re-watch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
Are you a fan of Korean dramas? Then this podcast is probably not for you. The Korean Drama Podcast is the K-Drama rewatch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
In season one, host Will Choi (founder of Asian AF) and I -- both self-professed Korean drama beginners -- with help and hand-holding by our resident K-Drama expert Joanna Lee, attempt to watch and discuss the 2009 megahit drama Boys Over Flowers in its entirety, episode by episode.
We are at the penultimate episode of Boys Over Flowers, and in this episode, they really pull out the big guns! Epic cries, sauna scenes, and the mother of all K-Drama tropes... AMNESIA!!!!!! Listen as we simultaneously roll our eyes and get drawn into the drama on this episode of the Korean Drama Podcast!
One-Year Anniversary Show - Friday, November 24 at UCB Sunset
Hey, Los Angeles! Looking for some good laughs? After stuffing your faces with turkey (and a side of kimchi), cure your post-Thanksgiving blues with Asian AF, the wildly popular monthly Asian American variety show at Upright Citizens Brigade. This month, celebrate Asian AF's one-year anniversary with a lineup that includes standup by Peter Kim, a special screening of Cartoon Network's We Bare Bears and improv by Voltron.
It's happening, Friday, November 24 at UCB Sunset. Here are some more details:
This is a joke, right? Or maybe some kind of performance art? A Florida woman claims that although she was born white, deep down inside she feels Filipino, and now identifies as "transracial."
A Tampa woman calling herself "Ja Du," who was born white, tells WTSP that she now considers herself Filipino. She insists that she is transracial -- someone born one race, but identifies with another.
"Whenever I'm around the music, around the food, I feel like I'm in my own skin," Ja Du says. "I'd watch the History Channel sometimes for hours you know whenever it came to that and you know nothing else intrigued me more but things about Filipino culture."
In stunning news for the Asian American community, beloved community activist and Star Trek star George Takei has been accused of sexually assaulting former male model and commercial actor Scott R. Brunton in a 1981 incident.
The Rohingya are facing genocide. We cannot be bystanders: We cannot allow people to be slaughtered and burnt out of their homes, while the world watches, write Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, Riz Ahmed and dozens of others, in an open letter.
You Love 'The Simpsons'? Then Let's Talk About Apu: Comedian Hari Kondabolu's new TruTV documentary The Problem With Apu wrestles with The Simpsons' stereotypical Indian convenience store owner Apu, a character that has haunted South Asian Americans for decades.
A Letter to My Daughter About Heroes: Amy S. Choi grew up searching for heroes -- and knows now that her daughter doesn't have to look far to find her own.
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The war between Vietnamese fishermen and the KKK signaled a new type of white supremacy: In the late 70s and early 80s, a small coastal town in Texas became the home of many Vietnamese refugees, who tried to make a living in the shrimping industry. Feeling threatened by the influx of non-whites, the Klan brought military support to white shrimpers, signaling a troubling shift in the white supremacist movement.
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Asian-American Cuisine's Rise, and Triumph: "These are American ingredients now, part of a movement in cooking that often gets filed under the melting-pot, free-for-all category of New American cuisine. But it's more specific than that: This is food borne of a particular diaspora, made by chefs who are "third culture kids," heirs to both their parents' culture and the one they were raised in, and thus forced to create their own."
"Life is too short to not be brave enough to stand up for what you believe in."
Greetings, internet friends! You know what time it is. It is time, once again, to meet the Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's Angry Reader is Lata Pandya.
Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.
What's up, podcast listeners? We've got another episode of our podcast They Call Us Bruce. Each week, my good friend, writer/columnist Jeff Yang and I host an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America, with a strong focus on media, entertainment and popular culture.
NERDS! This episode, we welcome friend and fellow geek Keith Chow, founder of the Nerds of Color empire. We talk about the rise of nerd culture, representation, bad adaptations, and the changing face of fandom.
More Asians on TV, maybe! Fox has given a script commitment with significant penalty to Model Minorities, a single-camera comedy from Fresh Off The Boat co-executive producer Sanjay Shah, Portlandia and Baskets co-creator, executive producer and director Jonathan Krisel and 20th Century Fox TV.
Written by Shah, Model Minorities is a stereotype-busting comedy that follows a highly educated but struggling Indian American who moves in with his uneducated, but rich, immigrant cousin.
So... like an Indian Perfect Strangers? Sure, I'm down for it.
This could be great. Shah, who got his start on the animated series King of the Hill and was a co-executive producer on the comedy Enlisted, has had a hand in some of Fresh Off the Boat's most memorable episodes.
That title though... I'm going to have think about it.
Hoboken city councilman emerges victorious after racist fliers called him a "terrorist."
The Jersey Journal
Awwww yeah. Take that, racists! The Hoboken councilman who was targeted with a racist flier calling him a "terrorist" has won the city's mayoral race, becoming the first Sikh mayor in the state of New Jersey.
Just days before the election, fliers attacking Ravi Bhalla were anonymously placed on car windshields in the mid-town area, warning "Don't let TERRORISM take over our Town!" above a picture of Bhalla, who is Indian American and wears a turban and unshorn beard in accordance with his Sikh faith.
The fliers appear to have been a modified version of a mailer previously sent by the campaign of mayoral opponent Michael DeFusco, claiming that Bhalla had an alleged conflict of interest. DeFusco denounced the fliers, saying his campaign had nothing to do with them. Whoever's responsible -- surprise, racists are anonymous cowards -- they were probably pretty disappointed with the election results.
On Tuesday, Bhalla emerged the historic winner atop a field of six candidates, garnering 34 percent of the vote. Congratulations to Ravi Bhalla, the first Sikh to be elected mayor of a New Jersey municipality. About time.
School board candidates Jerry Shi and Falguni Patel are not going anywhere.
Awwww yeah. Take that, racists! In New Jersey, the two school board candidates who were targeted with racist "Make Edison Great Again" mailers that made national headlines won seats in the election on Tuesday.
Last week, voters in Edison received postcards, mailed anonymously, warning "The Chinese and Indians are taking over our town!" and calling for the deportation of school board candidates Jerry Shi and Falguni Patel.
Shi and Patel, who respectively claimed their seats with 6,259 and 6,115 votes, will serve a three-year term on the Edison Township Public Schools board. So yeah, they're not going anywhere.
A K-Drama re-watch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
Are you a fan of Korean dramas? Then this podcast is probably not for you. The Korean Drama Podcast is the K-Drama rewatch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
In season one, host Will Choi (founder of Asian AF) and I -- both self-professed Korean drama beginners -- with help and hand-holding by our resident K-Drama expert Joanna Lee, attempt to watch and discuss the 2009 megahit drama Boys Over Flowers in its entirety, episode by episode.
Boys Over Flowers refuses to end, and so the Korean Drama Podcast valiantly continues our vow to see this series through! On this episode, we have crying, hospital scenes, cute picnics, bitter breakups, and all the other K-Drama tropes you crave! We also share stories of being starstruck, and wonder why nobody on this series looks each other in the eyes while talking.
Kelly Marie Tran drops hints about her 'Last Jedi' character.
As you know, we are hyped as hell for Kelly Marie Tran's role as Rose Tico in the upcoming new Star Wars movie. So we're pouncing on every little Rose-related morsel of story details, marketing and merchandising in the run up to The Last Jedi's release next month. The latest visual clue: space jewelry.
Entertainment Weekly's Holiday Movie Preview has dropped some more information about Rose, including the above image of Tran and John Boyega's Finn piloting a craft to the interstellar casino city of Canto Bight.
We already know that Rose is no-nonsense maintenance tech who usually works in the background of the Resistance, but finds herself caught up in a dangerous adventure with Finn. Tran offers some more details about her character, her background and what she brings to their mission in a galaxy far, far away.
"The journey that she and Finn go seems pretty impossible, you can tell in this moment that she's very much aware of the dangers that they are about to face, but she's also logically in her mind problem-solving on the way," Tran says. She knows exactly, probably, how many things can go wrong in a situation."
Racist flier attacks Sikh mayoral candidate in New Jersey.
What the hell, New Jersey? For the second time within a week, a racist flier attacking a local candidate has been circulated anonymously. The latest one targets a Sikh mayor candidate in Hoboken.
On Friday night, fliers attacking Hoboken councilman and mayor candidate Ravi Bhalla were anonymously placed on car windshields in the mid-town area. The fliers declare "Don't let TERRORISM take over our Town!" above a picture of Bhalla, who wears a turban and unshorn beard in accordance with his Sikh faith.
Bhalla shared the flier on Twitter, assuring supporters that "we won't let hate win."
Tuesday will show if racist fear-mongering can win elections: "The only way that these racial appeals will diminish is if they are rejected at the ballot box. Otherwise, we can expect a far greater number of candidates, incumbents as well as challengers, working to add race-baiting advertisements and appeals to their 2018 campaigns."
How Racism Made Me a Dodgers Fan: By now you probably know about Houston Astros player Yuli Gurriel mocking L.A. Dodgers pitcher Yu Darvish with a racist slur and gesture during Game 3. Fern Shen talks about how this moment brought up a lot of the author's own past, and how it made Shen a new Dodgers fan.
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For China's Gold Rush Prospectors, 'Bone Scraping' Was the Last Way Home: While many of the Chinese laborers who came to San Francisco during the gold rush came seeking fortune, many did not expect to return. In order to get the deceased's remains to China, relatives would pay for "bone scraping" services -- where remains were exhumed, cleaned, and neatly arranged into shipping boxes.
Coffee with John Cho: Debating good and evil, and revisiting that time he auditioned for The Office: A great interview with John Cho, who stars as Andy Kim in Fox's Exorcist. "Really, the harder thing [to think about] is, 'What do I have in common with Harvey Weinstein?' And that is what we as a society have to think about. Maybe the entertainment business also has to say, 'Who is, and what's close to Harvey Weinstein that we haven't identified around here? What do we have in common with him rather than uncommon with him?'"
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Randall Park's Kimchi Recipe: "Sometimes you find a kimchi recipe, sometimes a kimchi recipe finds you." Fresh Off The Boat star Randall Park shares his homemade kimchi recipe with The Mash-Up Americans.
"Literally cannot name my feelings with feeling words but will design you a citywide scavenger hunt."
Hey, folks! You know what's up. It's time, once again, to meet the Angry Reader of the Week, spotlighting you, the very special readers of this website. Over the years, I've been able to connect with a lot of cool folks, and this is a way of showing some appreciation and attention to the people who help make this blog what it is. This week's Angry Reader is Christy NaMee Eriksen.
Civil rights advocates file nationwide class action lawsuit on behalf of 100+ refugees detained by ICE.
Posda Tuot, cousin of Nak Kim "Rickie" Chhoeun, who was detained by ICE on October 20, 2017.
Cambodian refugees detained in recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have filed a nationwide class action lawsuit challenging their unlawful arrests. Since early October, ICE has rounded up over a hundred Cambodian refugees with deportation orders, making these the largest raids ever to target the Cambodian community. Nearly 2000 Cambodian refugees are at risk of being unlawfully arrested.
The complaint, filed last Friday by civil rights organizations Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Asian Law Caucus, Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Los Angeles, and Sidley Austin LLP, alleges the detentions are illegal, and argues that without that clear pathway to deportation, the detainees should be released.
The people detained in the raids arrived in the United States as refugee children fleeing the horrors of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. Many of them were born in refugee camps and have never set foot in Cambodia. They made the United States their home and became lawful permanent residents.
In the U.S., Cambodian refugee families struggled with trauma and poverty in violence-ridden neighborhoods. Some refugees made mistakes in their youth, which led to criminal convictions and ultimately deportation orders. But because Cambodia has refused to accept them for deportation, ICE had to release Cambodian detainees instead of keeping them indefinitely and unconstitutionally detained.
Our annual gallery of reader-submitted Halloween costumes.
All right. As we put Halloween behind us, here is one last look at your Halloween costumes. Here's the fourth and final round of our annual reader-submitted Halloween costume photo gallery (also see Part One, Part Two and Part Three). I put out a call for your awesome, tasteful, non-offensive costumes, and you delivered, dear readers. Thanks to everyone who submitted a photo. You all look great!
Entertainment Weekly's latest cover story goes behind the scenes of next summer's buzziest film.
Crazy Rich Asians fans, check it. Entertainment Weekly's latest cover story goes behind the scenes with an exclusive look at next summer's buzziest film, which features a rare all-Asian principal cast that includes Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Michelle Yeoh, Harry Shum Jr., Ken Jeong, Gemma Chan and Awkwafina.
Based on the hugely popular bestselling novel by Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Asians follows Rachel Chu, a Chinese American economics professor who accompanies her boyfriend Nick back to his hometown of Singapore for his best friend's wedding. That's when she realizes Nick's family is not just rich -- they're crazy rich. He is perhaps the most eligible bachelor in Asia, and every single woman in his ultra-rarefied social class is incredibly jealous of Rachel and wants to bring her down.
"This is about a girl going somewhere that's foreign to her, to really find out who she is," Wu, who plays Rachel, tells EW. "It's just such a beautiful story, to show an Asian American immigrant going back to Asia and finding the things that overlap and connect us all, things like family, things like love."
Racist mailers sent to voters in Edison, New Jersey.
With an election just around the corner, you can always count on some underhanded racist campaigning. But it's still pretty shocking when it's this blatant. The above mailer, targeting Chinese American and Indian American school board candidates, was apparently sent to voters in Edison, New Jersey.
With the super-original slogan "Make Edison Great Again," the postcard implores voters to "Stop Jerry Shi & Falguni Patel From taking over our School Board," with a red "DEPORT" stamped under Shi and Patel's faces.
"The Chinese and Indians are taking over our town!" the anonymous mailer declares. "Chinese school! Indian school! Cricket fields! Enough is enough!" But wait, they're not done yet.
The reverse side says, "Stop the overcrowding! Stop taking over our sports fields! Stop the McMansions! Stop the multiple families living in the same house! Stop wasting school holidays! Stop the outsiders! Let's take back our Edison & our Schools."
Our annual gallery of reader-submitted Halloween costumes.
Too... much... candy... As you recover from your Halloween candy sugar crash, let's take a look at some more of your costumes. Here is the latest found of our annual reader-submitted Halloween costume photo gallery (also see Part One and Part Two), one of our favorite holiday traditions. I put out the call for your awesome, tasteful, non-offensive costumes and you delivered, dear readers.
Mark your calendars. Crazy Rich Asians has a release date. Warner Bros. has announced that the comedy, starring Constance Wu and Henry Golding, will be released on August 17, 2018.
Directed by Jon M. Chu and adapted from the hugely popular novel by Kevin Kwan, Crazy Rich Asians centers on three wealthy Chinese families as they prepare for Singapore's wedding of the year.
The story follows Rachel Chu, a Chinese American economics professor who accompanies her boyfriend Nick back to his hometown of Singapore for his best friend's wedding. That's when she realizes Nick's family is crazy rich, he is perhaps the most eligible bachelor in Asia, and every single woman in his ultra-rarefied social class is incredibly jealous of Rachel and wants to bring her down.
