Meet the Messy Animated Asian American Siblings of DANG!

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

DANG!

Netflix just dropped the trailer for the upcoming animated series DANG! Starring Stephanie Hsu, Poppy Liu and Andrew Law, DANG! follows a brother and sister duo whose fun, messy lives in New York City are interrupted when their worst nightmare comes true: their high-achieving older sister shows up and wants to hang out with them. DANG! premieres September 8 on Netflix.

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'Spider-Man' director found his connection to the world at the movies

"As a kid, I would watch many movies with my dad, with our family, and that is how I traveled. That is how I was exposed to other cultures. That's how I understand how kids grew up in high school on the mainland. And one of my biggest takeaways was not how different we are, but how similar we are, emotionally." Destin Daniel Cretton, director of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, explains to NPR's Fresh Air about how movies connected to the bigger world outside of his upbringing in Hawaii.

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Lucy Liu Boards 'Reset,' Sci-Fi Short Being Developed Into a Feature, as EP

Lucy Liu has boarded Reset, a sci-fi dramedy from writer-directors Celine Tien and Jerry Hsu, as executive producer. Set in a near-future society where citizens are physically reset to six years old at the age of 65, the short premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival, is now being developed as a feature film.

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A History of the United States in 100 Objects: Nunchaku

In the early 1970s, Bruce Lee made nunchaku cool. But the "nunchucks" craze coincided with something much bigger: the birth of a radical new Asian American identity. Jeff Chang guests on BBC's A History of the United States in 100 Objects to talk about how nunchucks went from ancient weapon to symbol of resistance -- not only uniting Asian Americans in the fight for their own rights, but connecting them to every other group pushing back from the margins.

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Atsuko Okatsuka: Netflix Special

Save the date! Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka is taping her Netflix special in Los Angeles. January 30 at the United Theater. Clean up those bowl cuts and get your tickets at atsukocomedy.com.

I'm Good: Dancing Restaurant Robot Goes a Little Crazy

And Other Items of Note From Angry Asian America.

After wild dance goes viral, South Bay restaurant robot returns to its tame routine

Can't stop won't stop... the dancing robot. At Haidilao Hot Pot in Cupertino, California, restaurant-goers are reguarly greeted by a remote-control robot programmed to dance, say hi and do friendly hand gestures. But a viral video making the recently rounds shows three staffers having to restrain the robot when its dance moves get a little out of control. Someone apparently hit the "crazy dance mode" button. I don't know, I'm pretty sure this is how the robot uprising in Terminator got started.

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The Sunny Naqvi case shows how outrage, politics, and incomplete information collide

"As a journalist, it’s always been important for me to center the people directly impacted by injustice and tell stories that capture their full humanity, not just ones that fixate on their trauma. So, when I opened Instagram last Friday and learned that 28-year-old Sundas ‘Sunny’ Naqvi, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, had allegedly been detained for roughly 30 hours at O’Hare International Airport, I, like many others, was outraged. But, as more information about the situation has trickled out, it’s become evident the story is not as clear-cut as initially thought."

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Minnesota’s Laotian refugees with decades-old convictions swept up in mass deportations

They served their prison sentences and in many cases never reoffended. They built quiet lives in Minnesota, marrying and having U.S.-born children. But many Laotians whose families fled after the Vietnam War and legally settled here as refugees -- because of history, politics and crimes they committed decades ago -- now risk being sent back to Laos, where they don’t speak the language, don’t have family, and are unlikely to be welcomed as citizens.

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Walking Bruce Lee’s Oakland with Jeff Chang

Scholar and Bruce Lee biographer Jeff Chang, author of Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America, takes The Oaklandside on a tour of the sights and sites of the martial artist's roots in Oakland.

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The Sartorial Is Political in "The New York Sari"

The New York Sari, an exhibition at New York Historical, reminds us that the sari is a living art form, an heirloom, a document, and a political statement in one. The show serves as a primer on South Asian history in New York, framed conceptually and visually through the sari in all its infinite pleats, drapes, and patterns.

They Call Us Water Mirror Echo

Jeff Yang and Phil Yu present an unfiltered conversation about what's happening in Asian America.

Photo: Daren Mooko Photography

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.

In this episode, we celebrate the 300th episode of They Call Us Bruce and welcome writer/scholar Jeff Chang, author of Water Mirror Echo: Bruce Lee and the Making of Asian America, recorded live at Skylight Books in Los Angeles. He talks about writing a biography of Bruce Lee that authentically centers the man behind the legend, while doubling as a stealth culturally history of Asian America, in a way that it's never been told before. We discuss Bruce's rough-and-tumble (and highly cinematic) teen years; how young Bruce was actually kind of awkward (and annoying); and the hard-fought Asian American journey to becoming a global icon. Also: The Good, The Bad, and The WTF of writing Water Mirror Echo.

Angry Reader of the Week: Jeff Chang

"I just want to leave the world a little freer and more beautiful than it was when I got here."



Hello, my friends. 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 Jeff Chang, author of Who We Be: The Colorization of America.

Giveaway: Jeff Chang's 'Who We Be: The Colorization of America'

From the award-winning author of 'Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation'



If there's one book you pick up this week, it has to be Who We Be: The Colorization of America by scholar/author Jeff Chang, now available on shelves from St. Martin's Press. The book, a follow-up to his award-winning classic Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, examines the seismic racial and cultural transformation of the United States over the last fifty years.

"How do Americans see race now? ...After eras framed by words like 'multicultural' and 'post-racial,' do we see each other any more clearly?" Who We Be covers a lot of ground, offering a wide-ranging history of racialized culture debates and movements over the last half-century. The book is thoughtful, provocative and even playful, remixing comic strips, contemporary art and other media to paint a unique, timely portrait of today's America. Considering everything that's going down in our communities right now, as we speak, Who We Be is required reading.

On top of all that, it's just a cool-looking book. I anticipate that Who We Be will end up assigned on the syllabus of a lot of cultural studies courses. But instead of trading it back to the campus bookstore (what a racket!) at the end of the semester, you'll end up keeping it for your collection. It's that kind of book.

Anybody want to read it? I'm giving away a couple of copies of Jeff Chang's Who We Be to some lucky readers. Scroll down to the bottom for details. First, here's some more official information on the book:

'Who We Be' 2014 Book Tour

Jeff Chang's forthcoming book on race and America hits stores October 21



Heads up. One of the books you should be looking forward to this fall is Jeff Chang's Who We Be: The Colorization of America, due out on shelves October 21. It's about race, how we see race, and how that has and has not changed over the past half century. I've got my advance reader's copy, and it's damn good.

Who We Be: Jeff Chang + Kiese Laymon, April 18

New York! On Thursday, April 18, Jeff Chang (of Can't Stop Won't Stop fame) will be speaking with writer Kiese Laymon at NYU. The talk is entitled "Who We Be: on the Resurrection of Multiculturalism, the New Demographics, and the Post-Racial." It's all related to Chang's forthcoming book, Who We Be: The Colorization of America, in which the author analyzes the development of a multicultural society -- and questions why we still cannot hold frank conversations about race.