Han Lives! Sung Kang Returns in 'Fast & Furious 9'

Things to Know From Angry Asian America



'Fast & Furious 9' Trailer: Sung Kang on Justice For Han
Justice for Han! The new trailer has dropped for Fast & Furious 9, the latest installment in what is now officially being referred to as "The Fast Saga," and holy shit, it is on. Not only has Justin Lin returned to the director's chair, F9 gives us the shocking return of Sung Kang as fan-favorite character Han. To everyone's apparent surprise, Han did not die in a fiery wreck on the streets of Tokyo, but was apparently just chilling and sitting out the franchise for two movies. He is alive and in good health. And let's be honest: Han's resurrection is nowhere close to the craziest thing to happen in this franchise, or even in this trailer. Watch it here.

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Could this be the chink in Trump’s armour?
This is an actual headline regarding Andrew Yang's run for president. There's a disclaimer at the end of the piece explaining that author, columnist June H.L. Wong, is well aware of the term "chink" and its derogatory associations, even in the context of this specific idiom. Basically, she knows that the headline can and will offend, and is okay with it, in an attempt to "own" the word. Its placement is deliberate. And I am tired.

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Census 2020 & Beyond: New AAPI Mapping Tool
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the fastest-growing racial group in the country, yet apparently are the least familiar with the U.S. Census, and are the most reluctant to participate. Ensuring a complete count among AAPIs is crucial, which is why AAPI Data has launched a new research tool showing census-tract level maps for the 20 largest AAPI metro areas. The hope is to help journalists, decision-makers, and community organizations better understand the diversity and geographic settlement patterns of AAPIs.

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'Kung Fu' Reboot Gets Pilot Pickup from CW
The CW has ordered a pilot for Kung Fu, a reboot of the cult 1970s martial arts western. You may remember that show starred David Carradine, who is very much not Asian at all. This time around, the show is a contemporary take that centers on a Chinese American woman, with Christina M. Kim attached to write and executive produce. According to Variety, "a quarter-life crisis causes a young Chinese-American woman to drop out of college and go on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China. But when she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice, all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her." Let us hope for the best.

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Constance Wu Stars in the Sci-Fi Short Nine Minutes
Constance Wu stars as an marooned space explorer in the sci-fi short Nine Minutes, written and directed by Ernie Gilbert. In the near future, an experienced astronaut, Lilian, and her A.I. explore a newly discovered planet. After weeks of research, a malfunction during the return launch forces Lilian to choose between survival and completing the mission. Watch the 12-minute film here.

Where can AAPI voters have maximum impact in 2018?

AAPI Data identifies key house races where AAPIs can make a difference.



Your vote counts. Every vote counts. But in some of the most competitive races, our community's vote could actually help tip the balance. With midterm elections quickly approaching, AAPI Data took a look at the numbers and identified the areas where Asian American and Pacific Islander voters can have maximum impact in 2018.

Ethnicity data is critical to address the diverse needs of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

By Karthick Ramakrishnan and Janelle Wong. Cross-Posted from AAPI Data.



Karthick Ramakrishnan, director, and Janelle Wong, senior researcher, wrote this letter with respect to H3361, a bill in Massachusetts that seeks to improve state data collection on Asian Americans

We write as the Executive Director and Senior Researcher, respectively, at AAPI Data—the leading repository for data on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. We are also professors with over four decades of collective experience with original survey data collections on Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) populations and analyses of demographic and administrative data collected at the national and state levels.

Our research findings, as well as those in dozens of other studies, have shown that there are critical differences in life chances among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders that track by detailed origin. Thus, for example, Southeast Asian refugee populations have a distinct set of mental health needs that derive from wartime experiences of individuals and family members. Also, population health risks such as chronic Hepatitis B, childhood obesity, and cardiovascular disease vary significantly by detailed Asian origin. Importantly, language needs also vary dramatically by Asian detailed origin, with some groups such as Indian Americans and Filipino Americans having relatively high levels of English proficiency, and other groups such as Vietnamese, Chinese, and Korean Americans have the relatively low levels of English proficiency.

Asian Ethnicity Data Helps Students, Saves Lives

By OiYan Poon. Cross-Posted from AAPI Data.



There have been some recent, ill-informed protests by some vocal Chinese groups against the collection of Asian ethnicity data, and it has sparked a massive response by AAPI educators and community groups. The following is an account from an educator who has spent nearly two decades helping Asian American and Pacific Islander students, including Chinese American students.

Erica* was always academically successful in high school. Her Asian immigrant parents challenged and supported her scholastic development. But when she started college, she struggled to keep up with her classes, and realized she didn't want to study pre-med, the major her parents wanted. While other students seemed to be easily finding friends and getting involved in various campus activities, Erica didn't feel she could spend time outside of her books, for fear of failing her classes. Despite increasing her study time, Erica's growing social isolation and academic anxiety began eroding her sense of self-efficacy. Her sense of belonging in college quickly began to plummet, and she became depressed over disappointing her parents. At the end of her first term, the university notified Erica that she was being placed on academic probation. Instead of turning to campus resources and services to turn things around, Erica began to consider ending her life.

As a student affairs professional, I often worked with undergraduates like Erica. In fact, during my three years working on one campus, four Asian American undergraduates committed suicide. Around that same time period, fellow student affairs professional networks discussed what seemed to be a national outbreak of Asian American student suicides, with Elizabeth Shin, who set herself on fire in her dorm room at MIT being the most infamous case.

Announcing Elevate: AAPI Data Challenge

Guest Post by Doua Thor and Karthick Ramakrishnan



Quick... fill in the blank.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are ________.

   a) the fastest-growing racial groups in the United States
   b) incredibly diverse with respect to income and educational attainment
   c) poised to reach $1 trillion in buying power by 2018
   d) the ones most likely to enroll in remedial education
   e) all of the above

The answer is e) all of the above.

There are so many ways we can talk about the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community. AAPIs represent the fastest-growing racial group in the country, increasing over four times as rapidly as the total U.S. population and are expected to double to more than 50 million by 2060.

AAPIs are diverse on matters related to life experiences, socioeconomic status, and health outcomes. This includes factors such as holding advanced degrees and living in poverty, as well as factors like immigration and refugee experiences, languages spoken at home, English proficiency, unemployment rates, and a higher incidence to particular diseases such as Hepatitis B. In the past decade, there have been significant improvements in the availability of data on AAPIs, on issues ranging from socioeconomic status to education, health, and civic participation.

Asian American Voters Will Punish Candidates with Anti-Immigrant Views

By Karthick Ramakrishnan. Cross-posted from AAPI Data.



Last week, Jeb Bush and Carly Fiorina came under fire for their offensive comments on Asian immigrants. Bush noted in his visit to border city McAllen, TX, that the phenomenon of so-called "anchor babies" was "frankly, more related to Asian people," while Fiorina called in Le Mars, Iowa for the urgent resolution of "festering problems" like the Chinese birth tourism industry in the United States.

This brings up an important question of whether anti-immigrant rhetoric could hurt candidates among Asian American voters. In the 2014 APIAVote & Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC 2014 Voter Survey of registered Asian American voters, for which AAPI Data provided research support, respondents were asked:

"If a political candidate expressed strongly anti-immigrant views, but you agreed with him or her on other issues, would you still vote for that candidate, or would you vote for someone else?"

Asian Birth Tourism, Numbers In Perspective

By Karthick Ramakrishnan. Cross-posted from AAPI Data.


Photo Credit: New York Times
In a recent press conference, Jeb Bush clumsily (and erroneously) said that the phenomenon of so-called "anchor babies" was "frankly, more related to Asian people."

As others have noted, the phenomenon of birth tourism is distinct from most conventional understandings of the offensive term "anchor baby," which tends to imply that people use birthright citizenship from their children to avoid deportation or eventually gain U.S. citizenship for themselves.

There has been a fair amount of sensationalist reporting on birth tourism by Chinese immigrants, with little understanding of the number of estimated "birth tourists," and how they compare to the overall number of Chinese immigrants or visitors to the United States. Below, we provide some numbers in perspective.

AAPI Voices: Amplifying the Voices of Asian Pacific America

New data-driven storytelling project from 18 Million Rising and National Asian American Survey



Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. If you haven't checked it out already, I want to point your attention to the hot content coming out of the newly launched AAPI Voices, a collection of curated writing by AAPI journalists, activists, researchers, artists, bloggers, and culture creators.

A collaboration between our friends at 18 Million Rising and National Asian American Survey, each piece featured in the #AAPIVoices project will highlight data related to our communities and experiences. Their aim is to combine the power of compelling data with the brilliance of storytelling to paint a fuller, truer picture of what it means to be AAPI today.

Each week in May, in observance of Heritage Month, posts in AAPI Voices will focus on a different themed topic: Racial Identity and Categorization; Health; Immigration; Age and Generational Differences; and Education. Read it all here, and check back throughout the month for new, fresh content.

Call For Proposals: AAPI Voices, a new data journalism and storytelling venture

Calling all bloggers journalists, data nerds and storytellers

Freelance writers! Spreading word about an awesome new venture for fellow AAPI journalists, data nerds and storytellers... AAPI Voices is a brand new, experimental "data journalism and storytelling" platform developed jointly by AAPIdata.com and 18 Million Rising that will develop and feature data-inspired feature writing and provocative short pieces relating to AAPI communities and AAPI experiences.

Launched just in time for APA Heritage Month, the goal is to harness both the power of compelling data and the storytelling talent of AAPI journalist, blogger and academic communities, to inspire more news coverage and public understanding of key aspects and features of our growing and changing AAPI populations.

They're currently seeking proposals. Here are some more details about the project:

#GetCovered: Health Care, Open Enrollment and AAPIs

Why is health care important to you?



Today's the day. As you may have heard, open enrollment for health care coverage under the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare") begins today. What does this mean for our community?

First, here's a handy infographic, courtesy of our friend Karthick Ramakrishnan of AAPI Data, breaking down what the new health reform law means for two million uninsured Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders: