new report on asian american political engagement

This being an important election year, there's been a lot of talk about the growing influence of Asian American voters and the important role we could have in electing the next president. But what does that actually mean? Super Tuesday showed that we can have an impact, and we certainly possess the numbers and momentum. But how do we keep it going where it matters?

Yes, our influence is growing, but more can still be done to increase voter registration and citizen rates in our community, according to a recent analysis conducted by the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, the UC Asian American and Pacific Islander Policy Initiative, and the Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics.

The report, based on 2006 U.S. census figures, charts Asian American electoral trends in the context of population growth, demographics and immigration status and highlights the challenges of translating Asian Americans' growing numbers into strength at the polls: INFLUENCE OF ASIAN AMERICAN VOTERS INCREASING IN STATE, U.S. ELECTIONS.

You can download and read the report here: Awakening the New "Sleeping Giant"? Asian American Political Engagement (PDF) by Paul Ong, Melany Dela Cruz-Viesca, and Don Nakanishi.

beninaha founder rocky aoki dies

Rocky Aoki, founder of the ubiquitous Benihana Japanese steak house chain in North America, died last week in New York. He was 69: Benihana Founder Rocky Aoki Passes Away. No cause of death was specified, but he had been battling diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, and hepatitis C.

Aoki was a former wrestler on the Japanese Olympic team, but apparently couldn't compete at the 1960 games in Rome because he was over the weight limit. He found his way to New York City in 1964, where he opened the first Benihana... a restaurant chain which has grown to about 90 restaurants worldwide.

The concept for the restaurant was inspired from specialty restaurants Aoki knew of in Japan where patrons sit around a communal grill as chefs prepare meals with a flourish (thus, the acrobatic knife performances). He chose to serve food Americans were familiar with, such as chicken, steak and shrimp.

The guy led a very crazy, colorful life, which included financial run-ins with the law, competing in a number of cross-country and cross-ocean races, and three marriages (three of his seven children were apparently conceived in a single one-year span by different women). His kids include model/actress Devon Aoki and Dim Mak Records CEO Steve Aoki. More here: Hiraoki 'Rocky' Aoki, 69; former Olympic wrestler founded Benihana restaurant chain.

racist remarks at the u.s. air guitar championships

The following email was sent to the organizers of the U.S. Air Guitar Championships by Francis Hsueh, who attended the Brooklyn Regional last week. Basically, it highlights some racist remarks made by one of the idiot judges at the competition. Read on for details:

Dear US Air Guitar Organizers:

Last night, a group of us attended the show in Williamsburg to watch our friend Jonathan Mendez perform in the competition. The Bee Gees metal band was amazing, and the opportunity to step back and enjoy a bygone era was fun and nostalgic.

It was a great time until the judges started talking.

Many of us were shocked and astounded that US Air Guitar would allow one of the judges (the man on the right) to spew racist comments about Asians (apparently referring to Japanese or other Asian contestants as "nips" and "riceballs"). The gist of his rant was that Americans had to defend their honor by not letting Asians dominate the competition, especially by not letting the Japanese, who "gave us Pearl Harbor", to continue dominating the competition. Ironically, there appear to be NO Japanese or Japanese-American contestants in the Hall of Fame. They have Korean or other Asian last names.

And yet, we can only imagine what would have happened if he had said something about African-Americans or any other race. Clearly US Air Guitar must be above this double-standard?

I myself am a guitarist and really looked forward to last night's show but I had to be reminded yet again that people like myself are not always welcomed at these events or in that world.

We only wanted to be able to rock out like everyone else and not be subjected to racist taunts for once. Is that too much to ask for?

Francis Hsueh
and
Steven Hahn
Jimmy Lee
Christine Lee

What the hell? It seems that anywhere you go, or whatever arena Asians are trying to make a difference in—even air guitar, where several Asian Americans have dominated—there's always going to some racist ass who has to shoot off his mouth like this. Never mind the fact that former champions David 'C-Diddy' Jung, MiRi 'Sonyk-Rok' Park, and Fatima 'Rockness Monster' Hoang are all indeed 100% American. That judge needs to get his head out of his ass. That's racist!

no dogs allowed on the menu

Next month, tourists from all over the world will visit Beijing for the Olympic games. I'm sure many fearful and reluctant foreign diners will be happy and relieved to hear this news: Dog meat off the menu during Beijing Olympics.

Dog meat has reportedly been removed from the menus of officially designated Olympic restaurants, and Beijing tourism officials are telling other outlets to discourage consumers from ordering dishes made from dogs.

Then again, tourists who are actually looking forward to trying dog dishes are going to be disappointed. According to city tourism bureau Vice Director Xiong Yumei, waiters and waitresses should "patiently" suggest other options to diners who order dog. Nice try, Beijing.

internment-era baseball players honored

The Sacramento Bee has another good article on the many Japanese Americans who played baseball in internment camps during World War II: California's Japanese Americans loved their baseball, even behind barbed wire.

Last week, 32 Japanese Americans from the era were honored at a luncheon and at an evening ceremony before a minor league Sacramento River Cats game. Now in their 80s and 90s, they were remembered for their contribution to baseball—a sport that didn't always welcome them.

help: benefit concert for burma and sichuan

Bay Area friends, mark your calendars... here's another cool event for a good cause. Over twenty community and professional organizations are partering up with AsianWeek to present help: Benefit Concert for Burma and Sichuan, Saturday, August 2 at Glas Kat Nightclub in San Francisco.

The event will feature American Idol semifinalist Paul Kim, Burmese-American singer Natalise, and local band Mud, performing a rare acoustic set. All net proceeds from the concert will be donated to UMCOR to provide food, water, and temporary shelter in the most devastated areas of Burma and Sichuan. Purchase your tickets here.

vote in caam's free your story contest

The Center for Asian American Media has narrowed down the pool of contestants for the Toyota Matrix Free Your Story Contest to seven semi-finalists. Six of these filmmakers will advance to the final round where they'll compete to be the grand prize winner. It's up to you to determine who moves to the next round. The winner will win a brand new HD camera and one year Supporter level membership to CAAM. Vote for your favorite filmmaker here. Voting ends on Monday, July 21 at 5:00pm.

5th annual 72 hour film shootout awards

The 5th Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout Awards are happening today, 12:30pm at Asia Society in New York. The Shootout Awards are presented with Asian Cinevision as a special program of the Asian American International Film Festival. Find out who will be in the Top 10 Films, who will be Best Of, who will win the Chinatown Award, who will claim the Audience Award, and who will be crowned Grand Prize Winner.

Oh, the suspense! I went to the awards presentation last year and had a really great time checking out all the films. It's amazing what you can accomplish with some very specific restraints. To purchase tickets, go here. Immediately following the awards, there will be a hors d'oeuvre reception at Stir NYC. Receive a free beer with your ticket stub compliments of Singha Beer (while supplies last). And who doesn't love free beer?

UPDATE: Here's the list of winners from the 5th Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout Awards, presented July 13, 2008 at the Asia Society in New York as part of the Asian American International Film Festival:

GRAND PRIZE WINNER
Team Big Egg
"No Holding Back"

1ST RUNNER-UP
Team Fish Grenade
"Drain"

2ND RUNNER-UP
Team Color TV
"Cold War"

TOP TEN FILMS
(Alphabetical Order by Team Name)

Azn Rejects
"Suspense’s How to Jedi Mind Trick the B*tches"

Big Egg
"No Holding Back"

CinemAsia
"Say Goodbye"

Color TV
"Cold War"

Fish Grenade
"Drain"

Inspirasian
"First Goodbye Cleaning Agency"

Last Minute Films
"Killer Headline"

Sans Humor
"A First Goodbye"

Vision
"Say Goodbye"

White Rabbit
"Miles Apart"

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Best Actor
Rain Noe
Team Color TV, "Cold War"

Best Actress
Tess Paras
Team Color TV, "Cold War"

Best Cinematography
Nara Garber
Team White Rabbit, "Miles Apart"

Best Direction
Derek Shimoda
Team Fish Grenade, "Drain"

Best Editing
Derek Shimoda
Team Fish Grenade, "Drain"

Best Story
CinemAsia, "Say Goodbye"

Most Original Use of Theme
Presented and Sponsored by Aspire Asian Film Circle
Team Color TV, "Cold War"

Audience Award
Presented and Sponsored by NINGIN.com
Team Grace, Wtf, "Discard"

Chinatown Award
Presented and Sponsored by Museum of Chinese in America's Chinatown Film Project and Deluxe
Team Zeitgeist ArtWorks, "Spofford Alley"

john woo's red cliff finally arrives

John Woo's long-anticipated epic movie Red Cliff opens this week in Asia. It's been a long, hard road for the project from the start, filled with major cast dropouts (then drop-ins, then dropouts again), a massive ballooning budget, and even a death on the set. But the movie has finally arrived, and according to the one person I know who's actually seen it, it's "spectacular." Could this be John Woo's return to glory? The world will soon find out: 'Red Cliff' ready for its closeup.

Red Cliff, adapted from China's classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is over four hours long. It's one of those big-ass costume action spectacles. For Asian territories, the movie is being split into two parts, with the first released yesterday in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea. Audiences outside of Asia will get a single movie, expected to be 2 1/2 hours long. We'll get to see it stateside here in January.

The story is set in the final days of the Han Dynasty, in the year 208, covering the war that established the Three Kingdoms period, when China had three rulers. The movie stars Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Fengyi, Chang Chen and Lin Chiling. Yeah, it's a big deal. Watch this 9-minute promo reel above to get a glimpse of the scale and scope of the production. Sorry, no English subtitles. But you get the idea.

Oh, how I want this movie to be good. I want to see the John Woo that made Hard Boiled and The Killer, not the John Woo that made Hard Target and Paycheck. I want Red Cliff to be awesome, and not a big, fat, four-hour piece of stink. I want a lot of things. Anyway, TIME recently did an interview with the director, featuring reader-submitted questions: John Woo will now take your questions. And here's video from the interview: 10 Questions for John Woo.

tv's second asian american family

This week at the Television Critics Association Press Tour, Margaret Cho talked to reporters about her upcoming "semi-scripted" comedy on VH1, The Cho Show: TCA: Margaret Cho brings television its second all-Asian series.

The show revolves around Cho's real-life parents (a frequent source of material for her stand-up) and her 3-foot-10-inch assistant Selene Luna. She describes it as "kind of a cross between Madonna's 'Truth or Dare,' 'Joy Luck Club' and 'Little People, Big World.' What the-!?

In truth, the series follows Cho and her family as they improv their way through scripted situations. During the first episode, Margaret tells her parents that a magazine has named her "Korean of the Year," and the show follows the family's trip to San Francisco, where she'll accept the award. More here: Margaret Cho says new 'Cho Show' promises tomfoolery.

I'm very intrigued about this show. Hopefully, it'll be so awesome, we'll all forget the suckiness of 1994's All-American Girl, Margaret's first attempt to bring the Asian American family to television. Those were dark years. The Cho Show premieres on August 21 on VH1.

lodestone's my man kono part of the l.a. history project

Phil informs me of the L.A. History Project, six new plays about the city of Los Angeles and its rich history. Presented by Edge of the World Theatre Festival, the Project features workshop productions of six new plays by six L.A. theater companies including Lodestone Theatre Ensemble's My Man Kono. Read on theater fans:

MY MAN KONO
(Act One: The Chaplin Years)
Written by Philip W. Chung (THE GOLDEN HOUR)
Directed by Jeff Liu
Featuring: Garrett Wang (STAR TREK: VOYAGER) as Toraichi Kono with J. Stephen Brady, Paul Byrne, Elizabeth Ho, Stephanie Lincoln, Nghia Luu, Donovan Oakleaf & Ryan Wilkins

The story of Toraichi Kono, who worked as movie star Charlie Chaplin's personal valet for 17 years before being arrested as a Japanese enemy spy on the eve of World War II. This is an off-book workshop presentation of Act One of the play which covers Kono's years with Chaplin.

FREE ADMISSION and PARKING
NO RSVP required.

Sunday, July 13 at 3:30 PM
Autry National Center of the American West (in L.A.'s Griffith Park, across from the L.A. Zoo)
Wells Fargo Theater
Griffith Park Campus, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA, 90027-1462
Info: information@edgeoftheworld.org
Info about the Autry Center including map/directions: http://www.autrynationalcenter.org/visit.php

For more info about Kono: www.myspace.com/toraichikono

Other plays include Tom Jacobson's The Chinese Massacre, based on the first race in Los Angeles history, and Judy Soo Hoo's At Risk, which explores the history of United Teachers of Los Angeles. For more information on all plays, go here.

america's best dance crew season 2: week four

Not the strongest week for America's Best Dance Crew. Most of the teams did decent jobs, but ultimately the speed-up challenge tripped a lot of people up. It doesn't seem like it should be so difficult—dance slow, then dance fast—but it definitely proved to be a challenge. My three favorite crews:


Fanny Pak. Easily the best performance of the night. From the very beginning, Fanny Pak have been the scrappy underdogs of the competition, but they've managed to hang in there, winning over more and more fans along the way. They totally killed this challenge. Go Cara.


Super Cr3w. After last week's shows-stopping performance, this one was a little underwhelming. Just a little. Still, there's no doubt that these b-boys are the top contenders in this competition.


SoReal Cru. There's really no one better in this competition than SoReal when it comes to doing the slow and smooth. They have it perfected. It's the second half where they sort of stumbled. Not their strongest performance, but how can you not like these kids?

man charged with killing daughter over arranged marriage

This week in Atlanta, a Pakistani man was charged with killing his daughter because she wanted out of an arranged marriage: Dad charged with murdering reluctant bride. In his first court appearance, 54-year-old Chaudhry Rashid was somber and tearful as he told the judge that he had done nothing wrong. A preliminary hearing in the case has been scheduled for July 24.

Chaudhry's daughter, Sandeela Kanwal, had recently wed in Pakistan in an arranged marriage. But she apparently wasn't interested in remaining married to her husband, which caused a great deal of friction between her and her father. According to police, she and Chaudhry were arguing over the marriage, and at some point during the altercation he ended up killing her.

I wouldn't be so quick to blame the arranged marriage for the murder. And it's certainly not a Pakistani thing. Let's face it, this news story has a tinge of sensationalism to it, discussing "honor killings" and all that. But what really killed this woman was domestic violence, which cuts across all communities.

takeshi kaneshiro is the new face of underwear

Damn, now that is a beautiful man. Takeshi Kaneshiro is the new face of Armani. The half-Japanese, half-Taiwanese heartthrob will reportedly be appearing in Emporio Armani Underwear's fall 2008 ad campaign alongside the likes of David Beckham: Meet Emporio Armani Underwear's First Asian Model.

That makes Takeshi the first Asian model to appear in one of Armani's major ads. I know you like that. Having starred in more than 30 Asian films since the 1990s, Takeshi's got crazy fans. So it's nice to Armani adding a little color to their advertising. Maybe some day we'll actually get see an Asian American male star or two shilling for high-end fashion lines. But one thing at a time.

chinese is the new english

At some point, we've all gotten a kick out of sites like Engrish.com, which point out examples of poorly executed English signage in Asian countries. For the past 18 months, teams of "language police" have been scouring Beijing on a mission to wipe out all such embarrassing mistakes before the world descends on the city for the Olympics next month.

But what if these sentences aren't really bad English? What if they're actually evidence that the English language is simply evolving into an entirely different, alternative language without us? This Wired article offers a very interesting theory: How English Is Evolving Into a Language We May Not Even Understand.

Thanks to globalization, the Allied victories in World War II, and American leadership in science and technology, English has become so successful across the world that it's escaping the boundaries of what we think it should be. In part, this is because there are fewer of us: By 2020, native speakers will make up only 15 percent of the estimated 2 billion people who will be using or learning the language. Already, most conversations in English are between nonnative speakers who use it as a lingua franca.

In China, this sort of free-form adoption of English is helped along by a shortage of native English-speaking teachers, who are hard to keep happy in rural areas for long stretches of time. An estimated 300 million Chinese -- roughly equivalent to the total US population -- read and write English but don't get enough quality spoken practice. The likely consequence of all this? In the future, more and more spoken English will sound increasingly like Chinese.

It's a fascinating thought. With huge, growing numbers of Chinese continually learning to read and write English, but without enough quality spoken practice, the language could very well take on a life of its own... and eventually look very different from our "proper" version. Hey, it could happen.

vote for secret asian man!

My man Tak Toyoshima, the guy behind Secret Asian Man, could use your help. The San Francisco Chronicle is currently running a vote, asking readers to help them choose some new comic strips. SAM is one of the strips being considered. Vote for Secret Asian Man here. Can you dig it?

They can even comment as to which strips they like and why. The paper is currently publishing a test run of eight comic strips they're considering for its comics page, including Secret Asian Man: Your vote on comics will count. I think Chronicle readers could really benefit from a comic strip like SAM, which is sort of an underdog compared to some recent industry darlings. So vote! Tak thanks you.

katee and joshua go bollywood on so you think you can dance

Lots of folks writing in to tell me about Katee and Joshua's Bollywood-inspired routine last night on So You Think You Can Dance. Very impressive. The routine was choreographed by Nakul Dev Mahajan, and the song is "Dhoom Taana" from the Om Shanti Om soundtrack.

They totally knocked it out of the park. I don't regularly watch this show, nor am I an expert on Bollywood dance... but damn, this looks pretty good to me. Which two contestants will go home tonight? It better not be these two. I'm totally rooting for Katee now.

the guy behind zappos

ABC News has a really interesting story on Tony Hsieh, the CEO of online shoe retailer Zappos: Shoe-ing Away Convention. The company, headquartered in Las Vegas, is basically doing for shoes what Amazon did for books. This year, nine years after going into business, Zappos is on track to sell $1 billion worth of shoes.

It also sounds like a really fun place to work, maintaining a cool company culture while avoiding the careless excess of pre-bubble burst startups. It helps that the CEO is setting an example by making a lower salary than some of the call center employees. $36,000 a year, apparently. Downright revolutionary.

But he can afford it. Just a few years out of college, Hsieh sold an internet company to Microsoft for $265 million. So I think he's doing okay. In the meantime, he'll continue running a kickass company and building his footwear empire. I wonder if friends and family bug him for free shoes. I would.

restaurant owner claims discrimination

In Monroeville, Pennsylvania, and Indian American restaurant owner is claiming that the city council has been biased in its consistent denials of the restauraunt's liquor license: Restaurant owner claims discrimination in Monroeville. Because sometimes, you want a little vino with your vindaloo.

Shingara Singh, owner of India Garden Classic Cuisine, said the council asked him questions regarding his immigration status—questions completely irrelevant to his eligibility to receive the license. That's racist! The council apparently raised a number of concerns over granting Singh the license, including the restaurant's "proximity to churches, residences and schools," and while those concerns might be relevant to this community, they have nothing to do with when and how Mr. Singh came to the United States. So why ask?

Mr. Singh was naturalized as an American citizen last year and has lived in Pennsylvania as a lawful permanent resident with a green card since 1994. Not that it matters. This man and his restaurant have been unfairly denied!

los angeles premiere of mighty warriors of comedy

Next week, ImaginAsian presents the Los Angeles premiere of Mighty Warriors of Comedy, Sung H. Kim's Emmy-winning documentary about the groundbreaking Asian American sketch comedy ensemble 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors. Featuring insightful interviews and performance footage, the film follows the troupe in the Bay Area as they struggle for success and deal with the ups and downs of life.

The film will screen on Thursday, July 17 at the ImaginAsian Center in downtown Los Angeles. The event will include Tamlyn Tomita as emcee, a live performance by 18MMW, and a special collaboration with Tuesday Night Cafe featuring Keiko Agena, Alison De La Cruz, Shin Kawasaki, and traci kato-kiriyama. Portions of the proceeds will benefit the Little Tokyo Recreation Center. Should be a fun time. Order your tickets online here.