If you're in Los Angeles, you don't want to miss the world premiere of Tales of Clamor presented by the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, in association with Nikkei Civil Rights and Redress.
Tales of Clamor by PULLproject Ensemble is a 7-person play centering around two artists debating cultural versus institutionalized silence. Utilizing ensemble storytelling, circus arts and archival footage from the 1981 Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians hearings, this piece explores what it means to show up for each other, speak out, and generate the collective clamor necessary for social change.
The show runs February 1 - March 3 at the Aratani Theatre Black Box in Little Tokyo.
This video, circulating on social media, shows an Asian man -- reportedly an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department [EDIT: or, more likely, just a regular idiot asshole civilian in a police t-shirt] -- repeatedly saying "white power" and throwing up white power signs to antagonize a group of Black Lives Matter protestors demonstrating outside of a 24-Hour Fitness in Hollywood on Thursday morning.
University apologizes over email urging Chinese students to speak English on campus.
Duke University has apologized after a professor sent an email cautioning international students against speaking Chinese on campus and urging them to speak English instead.
The professor, Megan Neely, said in the email that two faculty members had come to her office complaining about students speaking Chinese "very loudly" in the student lounge and study areas. The faculty members wanted to identify the students and write down their names in case they sought to work with them in the future.
"They were disappointed that these students were not taking the opportunity to improve their English and were being so impolite as to have a conversation that not everyone on the floor could understand," Professor Neely wrote in the email. "To international students, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE keep these unintended consequences in mind when you choose to speak Chinese in the building."
Mindy Kaling Created Her Own Opportunities (and Doesn't Plan on Stopping)
Over the course of two hit sitcoms, best-selling books, and roles in Hollywood blockbusters, Mindy Kaling has cultivated an image as a kinder, gentler, and more relatable star than most -- with no plans of slowing down.
Filipino-Japanese American actor makes his debut in the Broadway musical's title role.
There have been Asian Americans in the cast of Hamilton since the hit Broadway musical's inception. But over the weekend, for the first time on ever on Broadway, an Asian American actor stepped into the title role.
Marc delaCruz, who is Filipino and Japanese American, made his debut Saturday in the role of Alexander Hamilton in the Broadway production of the acclaimed, award-winning musical.
The Marie Kondo Books Debate Has Classist & Racist Undertones That Can't Be Ignored
The KonMari method has captivated, inspired, and upset U.S. audiences since the premiere of Netflix's Tidying Up. Some have noticed that much of the backlash has classist and racist undertones, and are deliberate misinterpretations of Kondo's approach to decluttering.
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Marie Kondo's brilliant interpreter is the unsung hero of the KonMari phenomenon
For the past three years, writer Marie Iida has been trailing tidying guru Marie Kondo and helping explain the philosophy of mindful decluttering for English speakers the world over. Her appearance as Kondo's sympathetic, self-effacing sidekick on the Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo is winning fans over.
My Mother's Secrets
"Learning my mother's stories for the first time, I began to understand why so many of the refugees and migrants chose not to tell their children about their exodus from Shanghai."
Giving Up the Gaze: A Conversation with Sally Wen Mao
An interview with Sally Wen Mao, who recently released her collection of poems, Oculus. "To occupy this space, this body, is disorienting and at times disturbing, because you are never quite sure whose gaze truly sees you beyond the projections and assumptions and desires."
"The long arc of history bends toward justice -- if we make it bend."
Photo: An Rong Xu
Hello, internet. 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 Helen Zia.
Andrew Ramsey assaulted Harwinder Dodd and attempted to steal his turban.
In Oregon, a man is facing a hate crime charge after attacking a Sikh convenience store owner and attempting to steal his turban, in a violent altercation that started with a disagreement over a pack of cigarettes.
On Monday, 24-year-old Andrew Ramsey tried to purchase cigarettes at the 12th Street Market in Salem, but didn’t have identification with him. When the owner, Harwinder Dodd, refused to sell him the cigarettes, Ramsey became angry and attacked him, throwing his shoe at him, pushing him down and attempting to steal his turban.
According to a probable cause statement, Ramsey told police he thought removing the Dodd's turban would disrespect him because he was "Hindu and prays to Vishnu the catfish god." Ramsey was charged with misdemeanor second-degree intimidation -- a hate crime in Oregon -- and fourth-degree assault charges.
Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) was speaking to a room full of Asians.
Uh, no. I don't care where you live, what you eat, who your friends are, or who you're married to. It does not give you honorary Asian status, and it definitely does not make you an "Asian trapped in a white body."
That's a quote. That's what Rep. Ed Case (D-Hawaii) told attendees at an event for Asian American and Pacific Islander voters in Washington on Tuesday night. During remarks at the 2019 Celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Members of the 116th Congress, the congressman -- who is white -- told the crowd -- which was largely Asian -- "I'm an Asian trapped in a white body."
The comment was shared in a tweet by National Journal fellow Nicholas Wu, who was in attendance.
'Baby Cobra' comedian's living room floor routine is significantly less gravity-defying.
You may have seen the video of UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi's spectacular floor routine, which basically broke the internet. The gravity-defying performance earned her a perfect 10 and a legion of new fans.
Among Katelyn's new supporters: Ali Wong. The Baby Cobra comedian (and fellow UCLA Bruin) posted a video of herself performing a "tribute" to Ohashi's routine in what looks like her own living room, complete with a bored-looking spouse on the couch and baby gates in the background.
Let's just say that Ali's routine is significantly less gravity-defying.
18-year-old Noah Caleb Domingo's death appears to be alcohol-related.
A UC Irvine student died over the weekend after going to a party, and his fraternity has been suspended indefinitely amid an active police investigation. The death appears to be alcohol-related.
18-year-old Noah Caleb Domingo, a freshman member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, was apparently participating in a rush week event for his fraternity when he attended a "big brother/little brother" party on Friday night.
When Domingo was found the next morning, he was dead.
Help this mad genius make her first album in nine years.
All right, everybody. Our good friend singer/songwriter Jane Lui is raising funds for her new album Surrija -- her first in nine years -- and she needs your help. She's got new songs, a new sound, a great team of collaborators, and some good old fashioned Spanish inspiration to make what she believes is her best record to date.
"I took a much needed break after my last record and honestly didn't know if I had another album in me," Jane shares. "When I felt the songs again, I hopped on a plane to Barcelona, locked myself in a room for three weeks, and material came rushing through. During these Barcelona sessions, I deliberately wrote away from my normal tendencies to hatch an evolution."
The new series, from Star Trek: Discovery co-executive producers Bo Yeon Kim and Erika Lippoldt, would see Yeoh reprise the role of Philippa Georgiou, expanding on the character's current position as a member of Section 31, a shadowy intelligence agency operating within the Federation.
There have been serious rumors about a Yeoh-led spinoff since the end of Star Trek: Discovery's first season, when a deleted scene revealed the Mirror Universe version of Georgiou -- it's kind of complicated -- being approached and recruited by Section 31.
Over the weekend, UCLA gymnast Katelyn Ohashi basically broke the internet with her spectacular, joyous gravity-defying floor routine at the Collegiate Challenge, where she helped her squad win first place.
"A 10 isn't enough for this floor routine by @katelyn_ohashi," the UCLA Gymnastics Twitter account tweeted on Sunday, sharing the video, which has been viewed over 22 million times and counting.
Ngoc Q. Nguyen was killed after a dispute over an unpaid $35 manicure bill.
After eluding authorities for nearly two weeks, a woman accused of killing a Las Vegas nail salon manager after a dispute over an unpaid manicure bill has been arrested by an FBI task force in Arizona.
21-year-old Krystal Whipple was taken into custody in connection with the death of 51-year-old Ngoc Q. Nguyen. The fatal confrontation happened on December 29 when Whipple got her nails done at Crystal Nails but her credit card was declined for the $35 bill.
Whipple said she would get another form of payment from her car, but instead drove off. Nguyen tried to pursue her on foot, but was dragged by the vehicle. She was taken to a hospital where she died of her injuries.
Why We Struggle to Say 'I Love You'
An op-ed by Viet Thanh Nguyen: For many Asian Americans, the phrase "I love you" belongs to the wonderful world of white people we see in the movies and on television.
Plastic thank-you bags have a special history in Chinatown. It's changing.
Plastic bags have a certain nostalgia in some Asian American communities, both for their designs and as symbols of the thriftiness of reuse. As the bags are now being phased out due to environmental concerns, designers are reimagining them as reusable bags that still carry cultural significance.
2086
A short story from T.K. Le about a Vietnamese American family dealing with grief and loss after their grandmother disappears in a teleportation device.
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On Being a Woman in America While Trying to Avoid Being Assaulted
"Sometimes, I'll read a novel written by a man in which a woman walks home alone, late at night, in America, without having a single thought about her physical safety, and it's so implausible that I'll put the book down." Writer R.O. Kwon outlines the daily mental gymnastics many women perform in order to avoid being assaulted.
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Q & A with Senator Kamala Harris
California Senator Kamala Harris was the first female Attorney General of California, the first female Indian American Senator, and the first female Black Senator of California. Now, wiIll she run for president?
Bing Liu Sees Skateboarding as a Tool for Life
Bing Liu's acclaimed documentary Minding the Gap follows three young men escaping from volatile families, and who bond over skateboarding.
Asian-Australian Actors, Overlooked at Home, Flourish in Hollywood
Asian-Australian actors say there are few roles available to them in Australia, and those parts are often ancillary or based on outdated stereotypes. So rather than try to first make it in Australia, many Asian-Australian actors are heading straight to Los Angeles, and succeeding.
An all-expenses-paid journalism program for high school students.
Calling all student journalists! The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) is now accepting applications for JCamp 2019, a six-day intensive, expenses-paid, multicultural journalism training program for talented freshman, sophomore- and junior-level high school students of diverse backgrounds.
"They call it K-rage for a reason and it's not pretty."
Hey, everybody! What's going on? 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 So Yun Um.
'Terrace House' star will make her acting debut as a mutant named Switch.
Lauren Tsai, perhaps best known as one of the housemates on the Japanese reality series Terrace House: Aloha State, has joined the third season of FX's Legion.
Based on the Marvel Comics series, Legion follows David Haller, a man who believed himself to be schizophrenic only to discover that he may actually be the most powerful mutant the world has ever seen.
In her acting debut, Tsai joins the series in the role of Switch, described as a young mutant whose secret ability serves as the key to executing Haller's plan. The third season of Legion is slated to air in 2019.
Di Zhang, an adult services librarian at Seattle's Central Library, helped developed a new curriculum, "Fake News Survival Guide: Resources and Tips for Staying Informed." The free class, offered twice every three months in a library computer lab, promotes media literacy and helps participants -- mostly adult seniors -- navigate the ridiculous amount of misinformation on the internet.
Sounds like the perfect class for your uncle who is still forwarding you those insane Obama-is-a-Muslim emails.
Harry Shum Jr.'s career in Hollywood has been closely associated with director Jon M. Chu for years, having performed in several of his projects, including most recently in Crazy Rich Asians as Charlie Wu (if only for a few precious seconds). They've developed an enduring personal and professional friendship.
To show his gratitude and celebrate the success of their landmark film, Harry got Jon a very unique not-so-small token of appreciation: a ridiculously huge original portrait, custom-painted by Depicteur, featuring the entire cast of Crazy Rich Asians. It was so big, he apparently had to rent a cargo van to haul it over to Jon's place.
Sandra Oh calls out racist casting during Golden Globes monologue.
Sandra Oh went there. On Sunday night, during the award show's opening monologue, the Golden Globes co-host made a joke Sunday night about how Crazy Rich Asians was "the first studio film with an Asian American lead since Ghost in the Shell and Aloha. Heyoooooooo. Whitewashing joke!
Hey, everybody's watching. We had a huge year in Hollywood representation, and one of the people overseeing tonight's festivities is Asian. Whitewashing jokes are more than fair game. Aloha and Ghost in the Shell are easy targets. What we didn't expect: hearing Emma Stone yelling from the audience, "I'm sorry!"
"Son of a firecracker Filipino woman from Cebu" is the first Filipino American to win a Golden Globe.
In another historic moment at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, Darren Criss took home the trophy for Best Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie for his chilling portrayal of spree killer Andrew Cunanan in the FX anthology series American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.
Criss, whose mother is from the Philippines, is the first Filipino American actor to win a Golden Globe. In a heartfelt acceptance speech, he acknowledged his heritage and dedicated the honor to his mother.
"As we’ve seen, this has been a marvelous year for representation in Hollywood, and I am so enormously proud to be a teeny, tiny part of that as the son of a firecracker Filipino woman from Cebu that dreamed of coming to this country and getting to be invited to cool parties like this," Criss said. "Mom, I know you're watching this. You are hugely responsible for most of the good things in my life. I love you dearly. I dedicate this to you."
May you all win awards and take the opportunity to thank your parents in their mother tongue.
"Sandra Oh made history at last night's Golden Globes ceremony. Well, she made a lot of history. First, as a host: She is the first person of color to ever host the Golden Globes in its 76 year history, and the first Asian to host any major award show. And secondly, as a winner: By earning Best Actress in a Television Series Drama for Killing Eve, Sandra Oh became the first Asian performer to win multiple Golden Globes."
But perhaps most importantly, for so many of us, Sandra Oh's historic night made us feel seen. Like everybody else, I blinked away tears when her name was announced, as she walked out from backstage to accept the award, then took her moment to say "I love you" -- in Korean -- to her parents sitting in the back of the ballroom. And then bowed. May you all win awards and take the opportunity to thank your parents in their mother tongue.
Sandra Oh Wins a Golden Globe - And the Night
The ceremony's co-host, who also picked up a trophy, embodied the best of the evening: warmth, sincerity, and a willingness to recognize the many contributions made by creators of color.
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On Death: A Researcher’s Notes from the Field
After her father died, Heena Shah began to see the connections with his death, her scientific research, her upbringing, and the birth of her son.
The other abortion ban
"I wanted to provide abortions for my patients. My med school wouldn’t teach me how."
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The Asian American Movie Milestone That Was 25 Years Too Early
Decades before 'Crazy Rich Asians' broke box office records, 'The Joy Luck Club' seemed poised to open the floodgates for Asian-American representation in Hollywood. Eddie Lin, a production assistant on the 1993 film and now a culinary writer, reflects on why it didn't.
From Knott's Berry Farm cowboy to Indonesian movie star
Yoshi Sudarso's first professional gig as an actor was at Knott's Berry Farm's "Wild West Stunts Show." Now, he's a co-star in the action-western Buffalo Boys, a play about brothers brothers who travel from America's Wild West to their homeland of Indonesia to avenge the death of their father.
Comic explores the "surprising history" of the Chinese restaurant staple.
Today, the fortune cookie is a ubiquitous, commonplace element of the American Chinese restaurant experience, from your local mom-and-pop takeout joints to Panda Express. A little slip of wisdom tucked inside a crispy folded cookie. But did you know that fortune cookies didn't even originate from China? Not quite. The fortune cookie's close association with Chinese cuisine is actually an American phenomenon.
This great comic by Soleil Ho and Blue Delliquanti delves into The Surprising History of the Fortune Cookie, examining its true origins as a Japanese confection dating back to the 19th century, the cookie's trajectory to California, and its eventual post-war dissemination into an essential part of Chinese American dining.
Hey, everybody! Here's 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 Andrew Phung.
Leather-clad Philippa Georgiou is Section 31's newest recruit.
The second season of Star Trek: Discovery is upon us, and there's really only one thing I care about: Michelle Yeoh is back. Without giving too much away for those who haven't fully caught up with the show, she is not quite the Philippa Georgiou we met in the series premiere. But she is back. And badass.
In season two of the CBS All Access series, we find Georgiou as the newest recruit to Starfleet's shadowy Section 31. IGN recently unveiled some handsome new character posters, and a black-clad Michelle Yeoh is prominently featured alongside Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, the original captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise.
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. (Almost) 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.
Our pal, performance artist and provocateur Kristina Wong, is in the throes of raising money for season two of Radical Cram School, her kid-centric, unscripted web series that empowers Asian American kids and all kids of color to embrace their identities, fight for social justice, and be the revolution. Think that's a bit too much for kids to handle? Just watch season one. Under Kristina's tutelage, these kids are going to save us all.
