The First Cambodian American Elected Official in Long Beach

And Other Things To Know From Angry Asian America.



Suely Saro is the First Cambodian American Elected Official in Long Beach
When she is sworn in Tuesday, Suely Saro will become the first Cambodian American council member in the history of Long Beach, which has since the 1980s hosted the nation's largest concentration of Cambodian American refugees. She may also be the first Cambodian American elected to office in California.

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Anthony Veasna So, Author of Highly Anticipated Story Collection, Dies at 28
Anthony Veasna So, author of a highly anticipated debut story collection, had died. He was 28. His death was announced Thursday by his publisher, Ecco, which did not immediately provide additional details. In Afterparties, to be published in August, he drew upon the tragedies his family endured in Cambodia during the rule of the Khmer Rouge and his own struggles with sexual and cultural identity.

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😈 JACKSON HE FOR SIX 🔱

THE FIRST CHINESE BORN PLAYER TO SCORE A TOUCHDOWN IN FBS HISTORY.

🎥 https://t.co/ai5cgW0WIH pic.twitter.com/cAJoY90Jao

— Sun Devil Football (@ASUFootball) December 12, 2020

Jackson He Becomes First Chinese Player to Score TD in FBS History
On Friday, during Arizona State's 70-7 victory over Arizona, a little bit of history was made. Jackson He, junior redshirt from Shaoguan, China, scored a touchdown for the Sun Devils, becoming the first Chinese-born player to score a touchdown in Division I Football Bowl Subdivision history.

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The Joy Luck Club Added to National Film Registry
The Library of Congress has included 1993's The Joy Luck Club, directed by Wayne Wang, as one of this year's selections for the National Film Registry, an archive of motion pictures chosen for their “cultural, historic or aesthetic" importance to the nation’s understanding of cinema.

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Behold, Baby Bruce, Future Asskicker
This citizenship documentation, recently shared by the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, shows a three-month-old Bruce Lee, as presented to U.S. immigration officials in 1941.

White Chef Can't Handle Getting Corrected About a Typo

And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.



White Chef Who Cooks Vietnamese Food Accused of Harassing Asian Americans
Imagine whiteness so fragile, you lose your shit over being corrected about a typo. Peja Krstic, the (white) chef-owner of Dallas Vietnamese restaurant Mot Hai Ba, wrote an Instagram post in which he misspelled "bánh mì." But then three Vietnamese American women replied to correct the typo and Krstic lashed out, sending the women a series of angry messages in public and private, accusing them of "racial profiling," threatening legal action and calling one woman's boyfriend. And then it all came tumbling out..

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California voters will be asked to restore affirmative action in November
In November, California voters will decide whether governments and public colleges and universities can consider race in their hiring, contracting and admissions decisions. The state has banned affirmative action policies since 1996, when 55% of voters approved a constitutional amendment that banned "preferential treatment”=: based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. The state Senate voted 30-10 on Wednesday to repeal that amendment. But voters must approve it in November before it can become law.

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COVID-19 Multilingual Resource Hub
The UCLA Asian American Studies Center and the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health have teamed up for the COVID-19 Multilingual Resource Hub, available at translatecovid.org. The site is a growing collection of resources, including videos, about COVID-19 and health and safety practices in different languages. The site aims to equip our diverse communities with helpful information as we continue to navigate living in a world with COVID-19, and as we examine its current and long-term impact. Visitors can use the site to share information with everyone, from their elders to their neighbors, or even with social service clients, who could use resources in languages other than English.

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Sharon Choi Interviews Sandra Oh
This is delightful. Sharon Choi, who became one of the unexpected emergent stars of this past awards season as Bong Joon Ho's interpreter -- remember when Parasite won all those Oscars? -- chats with Sandra Oh about season three of Killing Eve, Korean culture, and Asian representation in Hollywood.

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Joy Luck Club Reunion
Joy Luck Club reunion! For the first time in decades, author Amy Tan and the "daughters" of film adaptation -- Lauren Tom, Ming-Na Wen, Rosalind Chao, and Tamlyn Tomita -- reunited for a conversation with executive producer Janet Yang and super-investor Aileen Lee on the iconic novel, groundbreaking movie, personal passage reading, personal stories, and the progress of Asian women over the last three decades.

A 'Joy Luck Club' television series is in the works

Casting call seeks Chinese American women to participate in research for the show.



There's apparently a Joy Luck Club television series in the works. Whaaaaaaat. Somebody -- Ellen DeGeneres, possibly(!?) -- is developing a new television series based on Amy Tan's widely-read 1989 novel, and they're putting the call out to Chinese American women to be part of a discussion as research for the show.

According to this casting call, producers are seeking a "professionally diverse group of Chinese American born women," ages of 26 to 34 years old in the San Francisco area, to "discuss their lives as a Chinese American female in today's society." The project will take place on June 20 in San Francisco.

Here's the casting call:

Big Trouble in Little Tokyo presents 'The Joy Luck Club'

New film series kicks off Wednesday, February 11 at the Japanese American National Museum



For all you movie fans in Los Angeles, join us next week for a special screening of 1993's The Joy Luck Club, kicking off a new film series called "Big Trouble in Little Tokyo," presented by the Japanese American National Museum in partnership with Angry Asian Man, First Pond Entertainment and Visual Communications.

It's happening Wednesday, January 11 at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo. The evening will begin with a light reception at 6:00pm, followed by the screening at 7:00pm, and a Q&A with director Wayne Wang and additional panelists (to be determined).

Here are some more details about the screening:

A Joy Luck Club reunion

Whoa. A Joy Luck Club reunion! Came across this cool photo last week on producer Janet Yang's blog. Janet recently met up with Lauren Tom, Tamlyn Tomita, Ming Na and Rosalind Chao -- the "daughters" from The Joy Luck Club.

Can you believe next year marks the movie's twentieth anniversary? I know it has its share of detractors, for various reasons, but you can't deny that The Joy Luck Club was a significant moment in Asian American cinema.

And these ladies still look good.