Authorities offer $10,000 reward for information about Qinxuan Pan's whereabouts.
$10K reward offered in search for person of interest in Yale student's murder
With the person of interest in the shooting death of a Yale graduate student still at large, federal authorities on Tuesday increased the reward for information about the man's whereabouts. Officials with the U.S. Marshals Service said they are now offering $10,000 for information leading to Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student Qinxuan Pan. The previous reward was $5,000. "Pan should be considered armed and dangerous," the agency said in a statement announcing the higher reward. "Individuals should not attempt to apprehend him themselves." Pan, 29, is wanted for questioning in the February 6 death of Kevin Jiang, a second-year graduate student at the Yale School of the Environment who was fatally shot outside his car in New Haven, Connecticut.
And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.
Don't Use Asians to Maintain White Privilege
The Justice Department's latest accusation that Yale University discriminated against Asian American and white students is an attempt to pit marginalized students against each other, using Asian Americans as the conduit, experts say. Several Asian American activists and scholars criticized the DOJ's letter sent to the Ivy League institution on Thursday. In lumping white students with those of Asian descent, the administration is using Asian Americans as a pawn to dismantle affirmative action.
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Love and Dignity at the End of Life
In 1997, Vu was wrongfully incarcerated and sentenced to 60 years in prison -- for a crime that would normally get a 10-year sentence. His friend later confessed that he was at fault for the crime. Still serving his sentence, Vu was recently diagnosed with pancreatic cancer with less than a year to live. Due to COVID-19, he is not allowed visits and is dealing with medical treatment that leaves him susceptible to infection. Vu's family and friends are mounting a case to appeal to the state to allow him to live out his days around his loved ones instead of dying in prison alone. The've launched a GoFundMe campaign asking for assistance for their legal case. Read more about Vu's situation here.
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How Does a Restaurant Like This Happen in 2020?
"How do you mess up this badly? White people making Asian food isn't anything new, but this specific concept is especially inappropriate and confusing because this place doesn't seem to honor tradition or innovation. You usually open a restaurant like this and pick a lane: authentic or innovative. But they’re playing it straight down the middle. It's not authentic at all; it’s not executed to amplify well-made traditional or modern Korean food close to its authentic form. But it's not very creative or innovative, either -- just watered-down Korean food for white comfort and white taste buds."
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Open Casting Call: Korean Male Proficient in Korean, Japanese and English
This casting call for an unspecified series on a "major streaming service" is seeking "a Korean male actor in his 20s-30s that is very proficient or fluent in Korean, English, and Japanese. The language requirement is important because the character grew up in Japan and Korea, and came to the United States as a young adult." The series will shoot in Korea, Japan and Canada, and talent must be available September 2020 to March 2021. It doesn't mention the name of the series, but I'd put my money on the adaptation of Min Jin Lee's novel Pachinko, which is being produced as a series for AppleTV.
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Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang and Charles Melton To Star In Rom Come 'Love Hard’
Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang and Charles Melton are set to star in the Netflix romantic comedy Love Hard. Written by Danny Mackey and Rebecca Ewing, the film is described as When Harry Met Sally meets Roxanne, and "follows an LA girl, unlucky in love, who falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for Christmas, only to discover that she's been catfished. But the object of her affection actually lives in the same town, and the guy who duped her offers to set them up IF she pretends to be his own girlfriend for the holidays." Hm. I feel like I already know where this is all going.
And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.
Trump and His Campaign Amplify 'Birther' Conspiracy Against Kamala Harris
Well, that shit didn't take long. As soon as Kamala Harris was announced as Joe Biden's pick for vice president, the birther conspiracies were off and running. Some shitbag lawyer writes a racist, baseless Newsweek opinion piece calling Harris' eligibility into question, based on the fact that her parents were both immigrants. For the record, Senator Harris was born in Oakland, California, which indeed makes her eligible for the presidency, like anyone else born in the United States. But of course, Trump couldn't help dip his toe in the birther conspiracy. He's been here before, after all. "I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements," Trump said at today's White House briefing, referring to the Newsweek piece. "I have no idea if that's right. I would have assumed that the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president." Like I said, that didn't take long. Are we going to have to deal with this bullshit all the way to election day?
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Justice Dept accuses Yale of discriminating against Asian and White applicants
The Justice Department accused Yale University of discriminating against Asian American and White applicants in its undergraduate admissions process. The announcement, the culmination of a two-year investigation, represents the latest move by the Trump administration to undermine affirmative action policies that have bolstered diversity within higher education for decades. All I have to say about this as it pertains to Asian Americans: I refuse to be the Trump Administration's wedge, in this matter and all matters.
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Fonda Lee's 'Jade City' is Being Adapted for Peacock
Peacock has put in development Jade City, a series based on the first book in Fonda Lee's bestselling fantasy trilogy The Green Bone Saga. Written Dave Kalstein, Jade City is described as "an epic saga of magic and martial arts where two rival clans will fight to the bitter end for love, honor and power. Set in an Asia-inspired fantasy metropolis reminiscent of 70s Hong Kong, jade holds mystical powers and our two warring families will fight to the end over its control."
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1970s-Set 'Batman' Animated Movie Reveals Cast
The Dark Knight is headed to the 1970s for his latest animated adventure, the upcoming Batman: Soul of the Dragon. Directed by Sam Liu, the film is an original tale, rather than based on a specific comic book storyline, that sees Bruce Wayne face a deadly menace from his past with the help of three former classmates: world-renowned martial artists Richard Dragon, Ben Turner and Lady Shiva. It sounds like Batman by way of Bruce Lee, with a voice cast that includes Mark Dacascos, Kelly Hu and James Hong. Batman: Soul of the Dragon is due out in early 2021.
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Ruth Asawa Postage Stamps
Ruth Asawa was a pioneering Japanese American artist who transformed our understanding of art, culture, and education. USPS has honored Asawa with Forever stamps, available starting today. Showcasing Asawa's abstract wire sculptures, the pane includes 20 stamps, with two each of 10 designs. Get them here.
June Chu, Dean of Pierson College, wrote controversial remarks on Yelp reviews of local businesses.
At Yale University, a dean has been placed on leave after writing controversial remarks on her Yelp reviews of local businesses, including calling people who dined at one restaurant "white trash."
June Chu, Dean of Pierson College, has been reportedly restricted from her duties at the residential college after several of her past Yelp postings came to light. In one review for a Japanese restaurant, written seven months ago, Chu wrote that going to the restaurant is the "perfect night out for you" if you are "white trash."
"This establishment is definitely not authentic by any stretch of any imagination and perfect for those low class folks who believe this is a real night out," she wrote.
Correspondence tells the story of a young man's pursuit of higher education from behind barbed wire.
Saw this fascinating item tweeted out the other day by Slate Vault (though curiously, the tweet is now gone)... The National Museum of American History's online Japanese American Internment Era Collection includes a series of letters that tell the story of a young Japanese American man who applied to Yale University -- and was rejected -- while he was incarcerated in an internment camp.
As a teenager, Kinji Imada was one of thousands of Japanese Americans who were forcibly removed from the West Coast and relocated to an internment camp during World War II. When he graduated from high school at the Gila River War Relocation Center, he applied to colleges, including Yale.
However, as this letter from the Board of Admissions states, while Kinji's application was "carefully considered," he was rejected because the university was "not permitted to accept students of Japanese parentage":
20-year-old sophomore Luchang Wang was found dead in California.
At Yale University, community members are mourning a student who died in an apparent suicide. After an extensive campus-wide search, 20-year-old Luchang Wang is presumed to have died Tuesday in California.
Friends, classmates and family became concerned for Wang, a sophomore mathematics major, after she posted a "troubling Facebook message," prompting a search of various locations across the New Haven campus. They soon discovered that she had booked a flight to San Francisco.
Later that day, Yale College Dean Jonathan Holloway informed students that the California Highway Patrol had been in communication with Yale Police, and Wang was presumed to have died in an "apparent suicide."
Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association is holding its annual East Coast Conference, February 13-16 at Yale University. ITASA gathers Taiwanese American students in the East Coast for a series of workshops and the opportunity to explore their identity and network with leaders in peers within the community. The theme of this year's conference is "Work in Progress," with a particular focus on activism and service. Here's more info:
An invitation to scholars, activists and community leaders interested in critical race theory... Yale Law School presents Critical Race Theory: From the Academy to the Community conference on Friday, February 8-9. The conference will include speakers and community leaders whose scholarly work, legal practice, and activism can relate to critical race theory. Here's more info:
