In a surprise announcement on the 5th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the Trump administration announced yesterday that it would reverse one of the president's campaign promises and would instead continue the popular federal program. Founded in 2012, DACA granted renewable permits to undocumented immigrants who had been brought into the United States as children, protecting them from deportation and allowing them to work.
However, yesterday also saw U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly sign a memorandum to roll back a program proposed by the Obama administration in 2014 called Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA). DAPA was intended to provide legal protections for the undocumented parents of American citizens or residents in an effort to not break up immigrant families. That program was never put into place due to legal challenges in federal court filed by 26 states led by Republican governors.
In January, Trump was quoted as saying about undocumented immigrants, "They are here illegally. They shouldn't be very worried. I do have a big heart. We're going to take care of everybody." However, it is clear by yesterday's dual announcements that the Trump administration is less interested in "taking care of everybody", and more interested in taking care of Trump's approval rating.
Asian American participants needed to take an online survey for clinical psychology dissertation.
Here's a research study that could use your help with online survey. Nicole Himuro-Fitzgerald, a doctoral student in clinical psychology at Alliant International University in San Francisco, is working on a dissertation about whether culture impacts the relationship between romantic attachment and infidelity, and reasons for why people engage in infidelity. She's specifically focusing on the Asian American population because they're significantly underrepresented in the current research. Can you help her out?
The survey will take about 25-30 minutes to complete. They're looking for individuals who are 1) between the ages of 21-65; 2) identify as Asian Americans; 3) experience a romantic relationship lasting at least six months. Those who complete the survey can be entered into a raffle to win a $200 Visa gift card.
'The Walking Dead' actor will appear alongside Tessa Thompson and Lakeith Stanfield.
We still cry for Glenn, but coming up, departed Walking Dead star Steven Yeun will star alongside Tessa Thompson and Lakeith Stanfield in the drama Sorry to Bother You from first-time director Boots Riley.
Written by Riley, the film centers on "a black telemarketer with self-esteem issues" who "discovers a magical key to business success, propelling him to the upper echelons of the hierarchy just as his activist comrades are rising up against unjust labor practices. When he uncovers the macabre secret of his corporate overlords, he must decide whether to stand up or sell out."
Fruitvale Station's Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker of Significant Productions are producing along with 6 Years' Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams, Charles D. King (Fences), George Rush (Bully).
No details on what Yeun will be doing in the film -- I'm going to assume he's not playing the black telemarketer -- but the talent involved, both in front and behind the camera, already has me interested. According to Deadline, Sorry to Bother You will start shooting later this month in Oakland.
Next up, you can see Steven Yeun in Bong Joon-ho's Okja, which premieres on Netflix on June 28.
Gunman Jimmy Lam opened fire on his co-workers, then turned the gun on himself.
A United Parcel Service employee opened fire during a meeting with co-workers at one of the company's San Francisco packing facilities, killing three employees before fatally shooting himself.
According to witnesses, 38-year-old gunman Jimmy Lam appeared to specifically target three fellow employees. Durning a Wednesday morning meeting, Lam walked up to driver Benson Louie, 50, and shot him. As his co-workers fled the room, he shot Wayne Chan, 56, in the back, and then walked up to him and "finished him." Mike Lefiti, 46, was running from the building when Lam went out onto the street and shot him.
At least two other people were injured in the shooting, which prompted a massive police response to the UPS warehouse in Potrero Hill. When officers confronted Lam inside the building, he shot himself in the head.
"The suspect put the gun to his head and discharged the weapon," Assistant Police Chief Toney Chaplin told reporters, adding that police did not fire any shots. Two guns were recovered at the scene.
26-year-old Yingying Zhang was last seen on June 9.
At the University of Illinois, authorities are asking for the public's help in the search for a visiting scholar from China who has been missing from the Urbana-Champaign campus since Friday.
26-year-old Yingying Zhang, a visiting student in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, was last seen June 9 near the north end of campus. She had just gotten off a bus and was apparently on her way to an apartment complex in Urbana to sign a lease. Zhang's friends called police on Saturday when they couldn't get in touch with her and became concerned about her whereabouts.
University of Illinois Police released security camera footage showing a black Saturn Astra pulling up next to Zhang on the sidewalk just after 2:00 pm. She can be seen talking for several moments to the unidentified driver before getting into the vehicle. The car then drives way. She has not been seen or heard from since.
Diversity Speaks at the LA Film Festival, Saturday, June 17 at the Kirk Douglas Theatre
Los Angeles film fans! The LA Film Festival invites you to Diversity Speaks, two days of panel discussions focusing on expanding the definition of diversity and act as a call to action for the entertainment industry.
On Saturday, June 17, I'll be participating in a panel discussion entitled "Whitewashing: Asian and Asian-American Representation in Film/TV," along with Leonardo Nam, Kelly Hu, Kelvin Yu, Ally Maki, Bruce Thierry Cheung and Gloria Fan, and moderated by Jenny Yang. It's happening at 2:00pm at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City.
Here's some more info about the full Saturday lineup:
A K-Drama re-watch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
Are you a fan of Korean dramas? Then this podcast is probably not for you. The Korean Drama Podcast is the K-Drama rewatch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
In season one, host Will Choi (founder of Asian AF) and I -- both self-professed Korean drama beginners -- with help and hand-holding by our resident K-Drama expert Joanna Lee, attempt to watch and discuss the 2009 megahit drama Boys Over Flowers in its entirety, episode by episode.
In this week's episode, we return to take on episode 2 of Boys Over Flowers. Still getting used to all the K-Drama tropes, we are bewildered by "so many crimes," lavish school trips, and a bunch of semi-stalking. We give our preliminary ship. Also everyone loves the Pretty Unni/Cool Nuna.
Next week marks the 35th anniversary of Vincent Chin's brutal, racist murder at the hands of two white autoworkers in Detroit -- a case that set off a pan-Asian, nation-wide movement for justice. Thirty-five years later, what is the legacy of Vincent Chin? The New York Public Library will be hosting a panel discussion, Vincent Chin: Dead or Alive?, examining the case, what has and has not changed since Chin's murder, as well as the current state of civic participation and advocacy in API communities.
It's happening Monday, June 19 in the Community Room at Chatham Square Library. Some more details:
To attend this wedding, you had to be in shape. And I'm not talking about looking good in a dress or a tux. Last month, a Brooklyn couple ran a half marathon as part of their wedding day... along with 60 of their guests.
When Amanda Hughes and Joel Tse, who met while they were both training for the New York City Marathon in 2009, realized they had scheduled their wedding on the same day as the Brooklyn Half Marathon, they decided to incorporate the race into their nuptials. Not only would they run the half marathon, they invited their guests to run the distance with them to the finish line before they got officially tied the knot.
"We were going to organize a fun run, because without the running community, we never would have met," Hughes told Runner's World. "But the way it worked out was perfect because all of our running friends were going to be in town anyway."
They even sent out a training schedule with the wedding invitation -- with four months to train -- since many of the guests had never run a long distance race before.
21-year-old Maria Hsiao was fatally shot outside Q-Cafe in Palo Alto on June 10, 2001.
Maria Hsiao (far left) was enjoying an evening out with friends when she was fatally gunned down.
In Palo Alto, police are asking for the public's help and turning to social media for assistance solving a 16-year-old homicide case, in which a young woman was gunned down outside a downtown night club.
21-year-old Maria Hsiao was shot once in the head while standing outside the now-defunct Q-Cafe in Palo Alto, located at 529 Alma St., just after midnight on June 10, 2001. Hsiao, a student at the Academy of Art in San Francisco, was enjoying an evening out with her sister and some friends when she was gunned down.
Police never recovered the weapon nor developed a motive for the fatal shooting.
Over the weekend, on the anniversary of the shooting, the Palo Alto Police Department re-circulated a 10-minute video about the case, calling for anyone with information about the killing to come forward. The video, first released in 2015, includes interviews with police and Hsiao's loved ones.
A Parting Letter to My MFA Program: "What does it mean for me to learn how to make art in an environment that unquestioningly perpetuates and reinforces systems of dominance?" When Claire Zhuang withdrew from her MFA program, she read a letter outlining the failings of the program to the faculty.
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Mother Tongue: "Language is not only a means of communication or description. It’s a framework in which we process existence." For a bilingual new mother, parenting becomes an experiment in identity -- both her child's and her own.
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I Am An Immigrant: Survival to Sacrifice: Sevly Snguon's retells the sacrifices his mother made for him, from summoning the will to survive in one of the largest refugee camps in Cambodia to sacrificing her ambitions once she arrived in the United States.
My Hindu American Childhood: A Comic: Artist and comedian Soumya Dhulekar chronicles the ups and downs of her Hindu American childhood, ages 5-18, in illustrated form.
Why Hollywood Bet On "The Joy Luck Club": After 24 years, The Joy Luck Club remains the only Hollywood film to feature a majority Asian-American cast -- a feat most studios are still afraid to attempt today. Now, those behind the 1993 tearjerker tell BuzzFeed News how they pulled off the movie no one thought possible.
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Aziz Ansari is Still Searching: A hit Netflix show. A best-selling (and scholarly!) book. A powerful SNL monologue. Can you blame Aziz Ansari for wanting to hide?
What is up, my people? It is time, once again, 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 Ronny Chieng.
"The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth" - Thursday, June 15 at The Lyric Hyperion Theatre
Hey, Los Angeles! It's story time! Disoriented Comedy invites you to the latest edition of Family Reunion, a monthly live storytelling show co-presented by Angry Asian Man Angry Asian Man, Tuesday Night Project, Mishthi Music and KAYA Press, featuring regular everyday folks talking story. No notes.
This month's Family Reunion theme is "The Geek Shall Inherit the Earth." The evening's featured lineup of storytellers includes Pallavi Gunalan, Naomi Hirahara, Nathan Ramos, Jenny Yang, Tanha Dil, Ify Nwadiwe, Vivian Martinez and Scott Okamoto, with the proceedings hosted by Naomi Ko.
It's happening Thursday, June 15 at The Lyric Hyperion Theatre in Silverlake. Here are some more details about the show:
San Francisco Business Times posts article with photo of the wrong Jane Kim.
Will the real Jane Kim please stand up? Well, first, somebody at the San Francisco Business Times needs some help telling their Jane Kims apart. They recently published an article about San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim, but the individual in the accompanying photo was not Jane Kim.
Well, it was a person also named Jane Kim. This Jane Kim is Vice President of Revenue at CircleCI, and pretty much looks nothing like the Jane Kim who serves San Francisco's District 6 on the Board of Supervisors. A totally different Asian American woman named Jane Kim, which any competent photo editor should figure out.
Supervisor Jane Kim called out the gaffe on Twitter:
A K-Drama re-watch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
Are you a fan of Korean dramas? Then this podcast is probably not for you. The newly launched Korean Drama Podcast is the K-Drama rewatch podcast by (and for) people who don't watch Korean dramas.
In season one, host Will Choi (founder of Asian AF) and I -- both self-professed Korean drama beginners -- with help and hand-holding by our resident K-Drama expert Joanna Lee, attempt to watch and discuss the 2009 megahit drama Boys Over Flowers in its entirety, episode by episode.
Action drama set during the Tong Wars of San Francisco's Chinatown, from executive producer Justin Lin.
I am so here for this. Cinemax has given a 10-episode straight to series order to the period action drama Warrior, written by Jonathan Tropper, executive produced by Justin Lin and Danielle Woodrow, and inspired by an original idea from late martial artist Bruce Lee.
Set against the backdrop of the Tong Wars of San Francisco's Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century, Warrior tells the story of Ah Sahm, a gifted martial artist who immigrates from China to San Francisco and becomes a hatchet man for one of Chinatown's most powerful organized crime families.
Warrior appears to be a version of the long-rumored martial arts western that Bruce Lee had tried to develop as a star vehicle for himself, but was never able to materialize -- the idea that many believe eventually became Kung Fu... starring David Carradine, who was totally not Asian. In a now-famous 1971 interview on The Pierre Berton Show, Lee mentions he was in discussions to pitch a western called "The Warrior."
29-year-old Kelly Wong fell several stories during a training exercise.
Some tragic news out of Los Angeles... A firefighter died Monday morning, two days after he fell from a fire engine's aerial ladder during a training exercise in downtown Los Angeles.
29-year-old Kelly Wong was participating in an exercise Saturday morning when he fell several stories from an aerial ladder on to a fire truck, suffering numerous blunt force trauma injuries. He was transported to a local trauma center where he was listed in critical condition.
The Los Angeles Fire Department announced Wong's death on Twitter in a written statement.
Saturday, June 17. Hosted by API Forward Movement and Koreatown Youth and Community Center.
As of this writing, this class is already fully registered, but I had to make note of how awesome this sounds: How to Make Kimchi, hosted by API Forward Movement and Koreatown Youth and Community Center in Los Angeles. But wait, is this gonna be some legit Korean kimchi-making? Rest assured, just so you know that this is an authentic endeavor, the advertising makes clear that this class will be "TAUGHT BY KOREATOWN AUNTIES." Yes, real ajummas will be schooling you in the art, science and history of spicy fermentation.
It's happening Saturday, June 17 at Doulos Mission Church in Koreatown. Here are some more details:
Watch 'Misery Loves Company,' a comedic digital series by Emily C. Chang and Sara Amini.
The comedic digital series Misery Loves Company, recently released on YouTube, is a funny, female-driven exploration of racism, sexism, depression and other American pastimes in the post-Trump era, LA-style.
Written and created by Emily C. Chang and Sara Amini, the seven-episode webseries centers on a New Yorker who joins her friend in Los Angeles to live together amongst the man-buns, wannabes, and Kombucha-lovers of Hollywood. Along the way, they try to find happiness while taking on casual racists, YouTube "influencers," misogynists, cults, and general Millennial ennui.
Here's Episode 5, "Pu$$y," in which Sara and Emily deal with cat-callers on the street:
'Glee' star will play Charlie Wu in the adaptation of Kevin Kwan's best-selling novel.
The epic cast of Crazy Rich Asians continues to grow, with Harry Shum Jr. joining the likes of Constance Wu, Gemma Chan and Michelle Yeoh in Warner Bros.' adaptation of Kevin Kwan's best-selling novel.
Crazy Rich Asians follows Rachel, an American-born Chinese economics professor, who travels to Nick's hometown of Singapore for his best friend's wedding, only to discover that Nick is heir to a massive fortune, he's perhaps he most eligible bachelor in Asia, and every single woman in his ultra-rarefied social class is incredibly jealous of Rachel and wants to bring her down.
