10 Things I'll Do With My Soon-To-Be Twin Brother

Guest Post by Dan Matthews



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Dan Matthews sharing about his journey to meet his biological family -- and his twin brother(!) -- for the first time.

This week I'll find out if I have a biological family. And I'll find out if I have a twin brother.

I mean, I know I have a biological family somewhere, hence... me being alive (maybe not necessarily a twin brother... unless everyone has a twin sibling they don't know about). But this week I'll find out if I'm actually related to the biological family that had recently revealed themselves to me. My honest to God, this is your blood, FAMILY. I'm maybe 5 days from finding out. And it's FREAKING me out.

So, I could think of no better way to fill up the void of this blog space left by Angry Asian Man than to write about how it feels to be in emotional limbo while waiting to hear back from DNA results determining whether or not someone is related to you.

Saving My Mother With a Safety Pin

Guest Post by Jen Wang



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Jen Wang of Disgrasian on her mother, happiness and life-saving safety pins.

A recent study published by the London School of Economics found that happiness peaks at two times in your life: age 23, and again at age 69. My mother turned 69 this year. And she'll tell you she's happy, very happy, in fact, the exact words she used to describe herself just the other day.

This was in the same breath as her telling me that she has no energy or the desire to do anything any more, and she's worried sick about getting older. She's worried that, like her own father, she'll get struck down by a heart attack. (She's had two angioplasties in the last 20 years.) She's worried she'll have a stroke. She's afraid when she comes to visit me for long periods how far away she is from her doctors. She vows that her next move will be to a home closer to the hospital.

"Oldest-and-still-running-Asian American blah blah blah..."

Guest Post by Traci Kato-Kiriyama



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Traci Kato-Kiriyama on art, community, and the unsung heroes of Little Tokyo.

If you've heard about a thing called "Tuesday Night Cafe" you might have heard this line: "We're one of the longest-running, free, public art+community series in Downtown L.A. and the oldest-and-still-running Asian American-run open mic space in the country..."

What does that even mean?

After saying that at a recent TNC celebrating several kick ass LA-based AAPI LGBTIQ organizations, it made me pause and take a look back...

How to Be Mistaken for a Prostitute in China

Guest Post by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Dorcas Cheng-Tozun with a step-by-step guide to being mistaken for a prostitute in China.

Step 1: Marry a white man.

When I was a senior in college, a Chinese American student wrote a scathing op-ed in the school newspaper about the bane of white men dating Asian women on campus. He blamed the men for poaching Asian women; he blamed the women for not giving their Asian brethren a chance; he blamed all parties for perpetuating nasty stereotypes. His column ignited a vigorous debate on campus.

The paper did a follow-up article on just who these outrageous white-Asian couples were. My then-boyfriend -- now husband -- and I were interviewed for the article. (Ned is technically half-Turkish and half-Jewish, but in this context, that didn't matter. He's white enough.) We talked about the challenges of cross-cultural romance and how we tried to be sensitive to one another's heritage. But we were confident we could find a way to make it work. And we did.

We married four years after graduating and enjoyed copious amounts of marital bliss. See? I wanted to tell that guy from college. Asian-white relationships can be a beautiful thing.

Three years later, we moved to China -- and I realized I had no idea what I was talking about.

Asian Americans: Yes, we're slackers. No, it's not a good thing.

Guest Post by Karthick Ramakrishnan



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Karthick Ramakrishnan on the dangers of Asian American slackerdom.

First, let me clarify that I'm not against all slackerdom. The model minority myth continues to have a powerful hold on our society, and it doesn't help when news organizations and research institutes continue to perpetuate them. And slacker exemplars like Harold and Kumar have single (double?) handedly taken down the myth by a few notches. And that's a good thing. There's very little good that comes out of seeing all of us as monolithic, hyper-ambitious, over-achieving, over-qualified. I get it.

Asian Bad Guys from Die Hard, The Karate Kid Part II & Rambo II Still Kick Ass

Guest Post by Stephen Dypiangco



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Stephen Dypiangco of National Film Society on his love for Awesome Asian Bad Guys.

Dreams come true. Seriously. This past June, I had the unbelievable privilege of collaborating with several of my childhood heroes while co-directing and co-starring in the forthcoming action comedy web series Awesome Asian Bad Guys. How and why did this all magically happen? Well back in 2011, my National Film Society filmmaking partner Patrick and I made a video celebrating the kickass Asian actors who played bad guys in countless action movies we watched growing up in the 80s and 90s. These actors were cool as hell, but we had no idea who they were or what they were like. Their characters rarely had any dialogue, and they usually ended up maimed, beaten to a pulp or dead.

Patrick and I wanted to make an Expendables-like project that called these Asian badasses out of the shadows and placed them front and center. Thus was born Awesome Asian Bad Guys.

Here Lies Love - A New American Musical Experience

Guest Post by Raymond J. Lee




Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here, Raymond J. Lee interviews Jose Llana, one of the stars the musical Here Lies Love.

There's a new musical taking New York by storm and it is composed of a majority Asian American cast singing and dancing to the electric music of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim. Here Lies Love tells the story of Filipina First Lady Imelda Marcos and her rise to political stature. Featuring a cast of amazing Asian American triple threats, the show is now enjoying its fourth and final extension at New York's acclaimed The Public Theater. Directed by Alex Timbers, the show has already won an accolade of awards including the Outer Critics Circle for Outstanding New Off-Broadway Musical.

I got the chance to see this show the past month and it absolutely blew my mind. Not only it is a vibrant show filled with sensational music and award-worthy performances, but it is one of the first full-out Asian American musicals solely about Asian characters that has reached widespread popularity and critical acclaim in the past few years.

I got the chance to sit down with Jose Llana, one of the stars of Here Lies Love to talk about the show and his career as an Asian American actor.

My Parenting Style: Ignorance and Optimism

Guest Post by Elizabeth Jayne Liu



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Elizabeth Jayne Liu of Flourish in Progress on parenting failures and shining moments.

I had two things working against me when I became a mother: ignorance and optimism.

I was 18 years old and operating on a very limited budget when I got pregnant, so I didn't buy any parenting books. It seemed simple enough. Did I need to spend $19.95 for an "expert" to explain in hundreds of pages what I could distill down into a few easy steps?

Hollywood isn't racist. It's worse.

Guest Post by Tak Toyoshima



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Tak Toyoshima, aka Secret Asian Man, on race, casting and Hollywood indifference.

For years, Hollywood has been a target for the Asian American community to fire off wave upon wave of wrath-filled petitioning and highly organized protests. Occasionally Hollywood rears its swollen head and notices and offers up a luke warm apology beginning with the words "We apologize to anyone who was offended. It was not our intention." Translation: "We're sorry you have a problem with it."

But after watching controversies come and go, from the flaccid hug between Jet Li and Aaliyah in Romeo Must Die, to the whitewashing of The Last Airbender, from the proposed all white cast of the hopefully doomed live-action Akira movie to the sadly soon-to-arrive remake of Oldboy by Spike Lee, I've come to the conclusion that Hollywood is actually not racist against Asians. It's indifferent. You know, the opposite of love.

Part of Memory is Forgetting

Guest Post by Cara Van Le

Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Cara Van Le, Angry Asian Intern, on awkward interaction and the question of ancestry.

I'm not a social butterfly. I like the warmth of my cocoon. It was only after a year of dodging invitations and one particularly difficult teaching day that I agreed to attend a happy hour with my co-workers. We arrived at the bar, assembled tables together, shuffled chairs, and before I knew it, I was locked somewhere in the middle, unable to make a getaway without getting my chair's legs tangled with those of someone else's. We exchanged the usual pleasantries. Work, weather, drinks of choice. And like clockwork, exactly what I was expecting to happen did.

Angry Thoughts

Guest Post by Roy Choi



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Roy Choi with a list of things that make him angry.

Phil asked me to write a post.
I said yes.
Here you go.

All the things I'm angry about and sometimes wonder about:

Why a "Little Bit of Racism" Isn't Something to Sing About

Guest Post by Jeff Yang



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Jeff Yang on his least favorite part of the musical Avenue Q.

You know the puppet-powered alt-musical Avenue Q? Well, I loved watching it. I thought it was smart and wickedly hilarious, a work of passing satirical brilliance, I'm glad it's still playing Broadway, and I'm weirdly happy to see a small play featuring foulmouthed muppets subversively ensconced in big-budget-extravaganza-laden Las Vegas.

But if there's one thing I really regret about its popularity, it's that it accidentally created the ultimate weapon of mass distraction for those seeking to dismissively minimize acts of racial insensitivity: A handy theme song. If you know the words, feel free to sing along:

How to Work It

Guest Post by Lisa Lee



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Lisa Lee on saying "yes," always asking, and doing what you love. And hustling. Always hustling.

Being asked to guest blog for this site is no joke. The invite was an honor, so I decided to procrastinate until the very last minute to see what I could possibly offer up in this space. Because you know, that's what feels truthful.

Jokes aside, I spent some time mulling over the words that you're about to read. I thought about doing a reflection on what Thick Dumpling Skin has taught me in the last two plus years, what it means to be an activist (if I can even call myself that) in corporate America, or the clichéd "Asian Americans past, present, and future!"

What I've decided, is to talk about the three rules that I've (tried) to live by these last few years. They may not be "Asian American" specific, so to say. However, I've found these golden nuggets to be exactly what I needed to help me curb what I think are learned behaviors, as an Asian woman, that have held me back from achieving my full potential.

Crossword Puzzle: Asian Americans in Film

Guest Post by Ada Tseng



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's Ada Tseng testing your knowledge of Asian American cinema.

Have you ever thought about how cool it would be to have an "Asian Americans in Film" crossword puzzle? A fun game to reward anyone who's been following and supporting Asian Americans in entertainment -- aka you, the loyal readers of Angry Asian Man?

Truthfully, I hadn't either, but when Phil asked me to contribute a guest post, an idea was born. I'm grateful for this opportunity to take some of the films I've watched and people I've learned about in my last (almost) decade of covering Asian American entertainment for Asia Pacific Arts online magazine and to stick their names in vertically and horizontally-linked squares.

Have fun!

Unmasking Boba Fett

Guest Post by Dante Basco



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Some batteries need recharging. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm gone. Here's actor Dante Basco, aka Rufio, on carving out our little corner in popular culture.

I'm here today at Comic Con, checking out the madness, rolling around and just enjoying the sights -- the crazy cosplay costumes, the amazing exhibits and the advertising displays. All of this has got me thinking about this blog post.

First off, I'm Dante Basco. I'm an actor, writer, poet and producer, but I'm known and remembered through the fandom worlds for two characters I played... Rufio, the leader of the Lost Boys in Steven Spielberg's Hook and Prince Zuko in Nickelodeon's Avatar: The Last Airbender. So here I am at the biggest fandom event in the world... just geekin' out with all the geeks.

You're angry too, you just don't know it yet!

Guest Post by Lela Lee



Hey, folks! I'm on vacation, taking a much-needed blog break. Time to recharge some batteries. But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here while I'm away. Here's Lela Lee, aka Angry Little Asian Girl, with some thoughts on being angry.

Hey everyone! Happy summer. I am honored to be a guest blogger this week. Phil and I are kindred spirits in that we are both angry Asian people. And lest you wonder, I am older and was angry first, but it doesn't really matter, as we need more Asians to realize that they too are angry.

Why am I angry? First off, for those who don't know me, I draw the comic strip "Angry Little Girls" which started with the original character "Angry Little Asian Girl." I created ALAG in video form in 1994 while I was an angry college student. Why was I angry? I was angry partly because my Korean parents were so frickin' strict and adhered to weird country rules about listening to the eldest even if the eldest was lying and making shit up. I was the youngest of four girls and sisters/girls/siblings can be mean.

Gone Fishin'

Hey everybody! We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to take a much-needed break from the sweaty business of blogging. I'm on vacation! But don't worry -- I've enlisted the generous help of some great guest bloggers to keep things fresh around here this week. Enjoy.

I'll be posting scattered updates on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, but for the most part, I'm off. Please try to make things a little easier on me by not emailing anything while I'm on break. Thanks. And stay angry.