Asians in America : Magazine

Tidbit Review from New York Asian Film Festival

By Michelle Geslani for AIA magazine | July 13 2009

Looking at Japan's dramatic take on the media blitz surrounding a national tragedy.

This review is coming a bit late, as the NYAFF ended over a week ago. (If you've forgotten what this festival is all about, read up on a previous post.)

But it's better late than never!

Climber's High directed by Masato Harada and starring Shin’ichi Tsutsumi, Masato Sakai, and Machiko Ono is a movie exploring the inside of a newsroom as the 1985 Japan Airlines crash unfolds. I'll be the first to admit that film is not my forte, but this Japanese work had me eagerly waiting for what came next. While the tragedy itself was an epic headline during the time, the event is not the main focus of the movie; but rather a poignant, yet heart-stopping sort of backdrop for the main actors, whose job is to report the news better and faster than other competing newspapers.

If Actions Speak Louder Than Words: Does Twittering Count?

By Michelle Geslani for Asians in American Magazine | June 25 2009

The internet has spread the news of Iran's political turmoil faster than actual word of mouth and quicker than major news outlets could send out correspondents. The question now is whether or not our generation's fixation with social networking via the interweb will translate into real activism and real change.

Apparently a popular equation online amidst Iran's election has been "Tiananmen + Twitter = Tehran," which obviously places a heavy emphasis on the idea that Twittering (or tweeting) has rounded up hundreds and thousands of people behind those protesting Iranians who feel robbed of their voices with the supposed re-election of Ahmadinejad.

It's true- everyday I receive at least 10 "Twitter updates" referring to online petitions I can sign, graphic icons I can create, and listservs I can join, all to show my support. Sometimes as I'm scrolling through them, I feel an indescribable sense of community, as if simply by reading I am declaring "Yes! I'm with you!" But to be honest, the sensation is fleeting.

OP-ED: The Unexamined Educational Experience of Chinatown Immigrants

By Theresa Zhen for Asians in America | Posted June 16, 2009

Ethnic enclaves and those newly arrived immigrants within them face a variety of challenges due to language barriers; one of these is basic access to information regarding education and schooling.

Imagine that you are a new student at a high school. Amid your English-speaking peers and unfamiliar surroundings, you find yourself walking into classrooms where you barely understand the words that your teachers say. When you go home to your one-room apartment, your parents have a pile of bills for you to translate, and your household's financial “stability” hangs in the balance by the unstable minimum wage jobs that your parents (and possibly you) hold. Furthermore, your homework space serves as a dining table, a computer desk and a food preparation station.

OP-ED: The Language of Invisibility

By Mandy Choie for Asians in America | Posted May 14, 2009

Vassar offers then cancels controversial class on "How to Woo Oriental Women"

Every year, Vassar College sponsors “minicourses:” non-credit, student-run classes that proffer "educational" activities like beer-tasting or paper-folding. This spring, freshman Daniel Abramson’s minicourse “The Language of Ladies,” described as taking a “critical look at dating across lingual/cultural barriers” through “experts in each local [sic]” so that “students should feel informed enough about different mating rituals to approach women of different national backgrounds” (Vassar College Calendar website), was approved by Megan Habermann, the Assistant Director of Campus Activities at Vassar. The first class (held on March 26) was taught by sophomore Nick Inzucchi who, having spent two months in Japan through a Vassar summer language program, was the resident “expert.” The class was entitled "Orienting Yourself for Women of the Orient" and featured a provocative slideshow of Asian women with a commentary about how Japanese girls are shy and like gifts.

Remembering Operation Babylift: Help Now, Cry Later

By Kevin Minh Allen for New American Media | Posted April 1, 2009

(New American Media) Editor’s note: This April marks the 34th anniversary in which thousands of Vietnamese infants were transported out of Vietnam at the end of the war. NAM contributing writer Kevin Minh Allen who was adopted when he was 9 months old woders if it was a good thing.

At the close of the Vietnam War, hundreds of Vietnamese children under the jurisdiction of Western relief agencies and orphanages, as well as any other child that was handed to them, were sent out of South Vietnam and placed with adoptive parents in Western countries, under the U.S. government code name “Operation Babylift” (OBL).

By the time the Vietnam War officially ended on April 30, 1975, approximately 3,000 infants and young children were taken out of Vietnam for the purpose of adoption. As one of those taken out of Vietnam, I believe it is worth re-examining this singular feel-good event that, to this day, many Americans consider “the one good thing that came out of the war.”

To read this opinion piece in full, visit New American Media.

Barack Obama: Our First Asian President

By Alex Chavez for AIA | April 1, 2009

Some compelling facts that may prove once and for all that the President is a "rice-brother."

Before Barack Obama was actually elected president, Asian American pop culture columnist Jeff Yang had suggested that the Hawaii-born, Indonesian-raised democratic candidate could be considered the first Asian American president in the same way Bill Clinton was jokingly referred to as the first Black president. Well, now that he's been our commander-in-chief for a few months, I've gotten to know Mr. Obama a lot better which leads me to believe that Jeff was even more on target than before.

If I may, I'd like to take this concept a few steps further (perhaps right off a cliff) and run through a list of qualities that, I believe, make Barack Obama, an honorary Asian American.

Happiness in a Small Corner: Intimacies in Becky Yee's "More than a Woman"

By Vivian Huang for Asians in America | March 10, 2009

The tables were almost turned on photographer Becky Yee last Tuesday afternoon when she welcomed me into her Tribeca home. After a brief meeting at the opening of her current exhibit "More Than a Woman" shot in the apartment of her photography subject, Yee warmly offered me tea while I gaped at the artwork adorning her walls: projected sweeps of colorful geometric prints on nude bodies, stark black and white photographs of women standing in a line with their backs turned, and a print of her forthcoming book's cover on the heels of her current exhibit "More Than a Woman" at hpgrp gallery on Little West 12th Street.
Photo credit: Roger Lanoue

If you haven't seen Yee's latest photo exhibit, you're missing out on what the Village Voice's Robert Shuster has described as an "artful creep show." Not a photo series for the timid at heart, "More Than a Woman" offers a glimpse into the home life of one Japanese man with a particular network of intimacy that some viewers might initially find off-putting. Yee brings viewers into the man's three-bedroom apartment where he has cultivated a home with his Dutch wives, or, as they are more commonly known, sex dolls. Over 70 sex dolls, actually, complete with closets and drawers of clothing, shoes and toys.

And yet, this photo exhibit shows us that sex is not all that these dolls are used for.

Gran Torino: How to Be Generous

By Vivian Huang for Asians in America | February 4, 2009

With the Academy Awards fast approaching on February 22, I pause now to reflect on the past year in film and my thoughts on movies that have gotten either too much hype (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: really?) or not enough.

Clint Eastwood’s Gran Torino has been called “Oscar roadkill” by film critics, garnering zilch nods toward the red carpet. This exclusion surprises many people since Eastwood, the star and director of the film, is usually a favorite with the Academy. My interest here is not so much in award nominations or Eastwood’s career as it is to offer thoughts on what I believe to be an important film of the past year. Politically relevant and engaged, Gran Torino has been criticized by some for its white-man-saves-the-ethnic-minorities plot trajectory. I think this reading is not generous enough and hope to recuperate aspects of the film that I find really redeeming and – dare this jaded heart write it? – hopeful.

Notes On The Eve Of Day One

By Jeff Chang for Zentronix Blog | January 19, 2009

Barack Obama was born in Hawai'i only two years after my father's generation voted for statehood, and that small fact illustrates the deep emotional cross-currents I am caught in over his inauguration.

On November 4th, when the TV pundits called the election for Obama, my two sons danced around the room in joy. Lourdes and I hugged, and then began to weep. Our boys stared. They already understand color lines, but they will never know how strange it was that we made a biracial Black man from Hawai'i the iconic face of hope and progress and change, then elected him president.

Read the complete article on Cantstopwontstop.com.

Shinseki at VA: The Right Ric for the Right Reasons

By Fred Laughlin for Star Bulletin | December 18, 2008

In reacting to the nomination of Army Gen. Eric (Ric) Shinseki to be secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the press has been quick to remind us of his differences with former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his "criticism" of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq. More than a few articles imply (inaccurately) that he was "fired" as Army chief of staff.

Many seem to suggest that Rumsfeld's rebukes are reason enough to award Shinseki a cabinet position in the new administration. They also stress his being the first Asian-American to wear four stars. While his ethnic background and his courage to speak the truth to power are noteworthy, these factors obscure the more important qualities that make Shinseki's appointment so appropriate.

Read the complete article at Star Bulletin