More than 30 Percent of Americans Have Witnessed COVID-19 Bias Against Asians
More than 30 percent of Americans have witnessed someone blaming Asian people for the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new survey conducted for the Center for Public Integrity. Sixty percent of Asian Americans, who made up about 6 percent of the survey's respondents, said they’ve seen the same behavior.
U.S. Senator Wants to Restrict Chinese Students From Studying Science
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) suggested that Chinese students should not be allowed to live in the U.S. for the purpose of obtaining science-related degrees from American universities. In an interview with Fox News, Cotton said that Chinese students seeking to study at U.S. schools should be limited to studying courses in the Humanities. "If Chinese students want to come here and study Shakespeare and the Federalist Papers, that's what they need to learn from America," Cotton said. "They don't need to learn quantum computing."
Nurse Who Fought for More PPE Dies of Coronavirus Days Before Retirement
A nurse who fought for more personal protective equipment (amid the coronavirus epidemic allegedly died of COVID-19 last week, days before her union says she was scheduled to retire. Celia Yap Banago contracted the disease while caring for an infected patient at Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri, where she worked for 40 years.
The Goonies Reunited!
This week, the cast of the beloved 1985 movie The Goonies held an epic online reunion -- including Ke Huy Quan, who played the intrepid, inventive Data. He was 14 when The Goonies was released, but has been fairly inactive as an actor in his adult years. However, he shares that thanks to movies like Crazy Rich Asians, there's been recent surge of interest in roles for Asian American actors. Now at age 50, he's gotten back into acting and has roles in the upcoming films Everything Everywhere All at Once and Finding Ohana.
Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival Virtual Showcase
As we head into May, we should have been gearing up for this year's edition of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications. It was slated to kick off this week. But given the state of the world, that's obviously not happening. But festival's organizers, undeterred by this set back, have announced the LAAPFF Virtual Showcase, a free digital showcase of films and panels to unite with audiences during this unprecedented time. The online showcase will highlight artists whose stories are critical at this moment in dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic. This first time event begins May 1st and will run through May 28 as part of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. For further information, and to see the full lineup, go here.