Mar

31

2008

(6) Comments

Is Sexual Attraction Manufactured by Society / Media?

07:10AM by Alvin Lin

“Your physical and sexual attraction is socially constructed,” says Elaine Kim, Ph.D., professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, “and it’s hard to escape from that.” If you’re Asian, the way you see yourself and the way you think about beauty, according to Kim, is very different if you went to high school in Monterey Park (a community in Los Angeles County with a large Asian population), where the kids voted most popular, the most beautiful were Asian, versus going to a high school where everyone is blonde-haired and blue-eyed.

Mar

30

2008

(6) Comments

Asian Inferiority Complex

07:00AM by Alvin Lin

-Why are White models and actors frequently used for ads and posters in Asia?
-Why do so many Asian women get eyelid enlarging surgery, dye their hair blonde, and wear blue contacts?
-How come some Asian youth are ‘not attracted to Asians’?
-How come if you are Caucasian or an English-speaking Asian in Asia, you are treated better everywhere you go?
-How come some Asians get ashamed from being around ‘too many Asians’?
-Why didn’t more Asian-Americans stand up after the ‘Vincent Chin’ murder?

Mar

29

2008

(3) Comments

Really Cute AF/AM Commercial

07:03AM by Alvin Lin

Here is a very cute commercial depicting an Asian male and Asian female, which is very rare to see these days on American television or film.  I heard this was shown in various parts of North America, and I hope to see more AF/AM pairs in entertainment.

Mar

28

2008

(33) Comments

Jabbawockeez Are America’s Best Dance Crew!!

12:15PM by Alvin Lin

The finale for MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew was last night, and surprise surprise, the Jabbawockeez took home the top prize, in a decision where a record 38 million people voted for the winner!!  They dominated the entire season with something new and creative every week, on top of their world class talent, style, and technique.  While accepting they were sure to give props to Status Quo, a deserving opponent, who they said they considered as family.  Judge comments for the Jabbawockeez included, ‘You guys are the sickest group I’ve seen in my life’...‘You all set the standard for the next 10 seasons’.  In the final episode, the judges mentioned how the Jabbawockeez have inspired a new culture, a hybrid genre of dance which mixes hip hop and theater.  In fact, here is a Youtube clip of an eight-year old imitating them, even the mask!  Additionally, this victory was even more emotional, considering they overcame the loss of one of their crew members (Gary).

America’s Best Dance Crew was ground-breaking in its representation of Asian Americans, featuring two amazing AA teams (Jabbawockeez and Kaba Modern) who proved, week after week, that Asian Americans not only can dance, but have style and personalities.  Far too often in media, Asian Americans as a group are stereotyped as stiff model minority types (engineers, scientists, geeks), or accented foreigners.  America got to see another side, letting people know Asian Americans are American too, and can have endearing personalities and artistic creativity and talent in dance.  Who knows, maybe this will also influence Asian American youth, into not being afraid of expressing themselves and pursuing dance or other creative pursuits.  Additionally, this show should be commended for showing stories of all the dance crews from different parts of the country, of all kinds of ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds.  It showed how the fabric of America is a lot more multicultural than we are used to seeing.

Mar

28

2008

(1) Comments

New Album from Shanghai Restoration Project: ‘Story of a City’

11:49AM by Alvin Lin

Congratulations to David Liang for recently signing a record deal with Warner! He has released his second album to coincide with Lunar New Year, titled ‘Story of a City’. I have heard it and it is excellent, highly recommended, if you loved the first album (’Shanghai Restoration Project’) you will definitely enjoy this one as well. Here is a note from David:
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“Here’s the info for the new album:

The Shanghai Restoration Project has just released its sophomore full length album entitled Story of a City. Inspired by the story of Shanghai at the turn of the 20th century, this 15-track compilation features artists who have worked with talents such as Moby, Kanye West, Wynton Marsalis, Erykah Badu, and Cirque du Soleil. It is the first album to be released under producer Dave Liang’s new partnership with the Independent Label Group, a division of Warner Music. Available on iTunes, Amazon, and other digital distributors.

[note continued below]

Mar

28

2008

(3) Comments

Japan’s Okinawans Rally Against U.S. Military Crimes

07:00AM by Alvin Lin

...it’s about time! If you look at the picture, it looks like mostly males who showed up to the rally, kind of an interesting note.
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TOKYO (Reuters) - Thousands of Okinawans rallied on Sunday to protest crimes by U.S. troops and demand a smaller U.S. military presence on the southern Japanese island after last month’s arrest of a Marine on suspicion of raping a schoolgirl…

Mar

27

2008

(8) Comments

‘Far East Movement’ Getting Radio Play in America

11:44AM by Alvin Lin

http://www.myspace.com/fareastmovement

They’ve got a great sound. Their single “Lowridin” has been getting some solid radio play on stations in cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, Palm Springs, West Palm Beach, Reno and others. Maybe more of us can call up stations and request this song.

These are the guys who made the ‘Satisfaction’ song that played at the end of Justin Lin’s ‘Finishing the Game’.  Their songs were also used in ‘Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’, ‘Undoing’, and the Wong Fu Production team.

Mar

27

2008

(3) Comments

My Take On Tibet

07:00AM by Alvin Lin

I think Tibet is similar in a lot of ways to Palestine. I don’t get how some Jews can be so against China on Tibet, when Israel/Palestine is a very similar situation. Tibet hasn’t been an independent nation for centuries, and before WWII, the Dalai Lama and the monks enslaved 95% of the Tibetan people as serfs until, ironically, Mao was the one who freed them. Look it up, I know it sounds crazy.

Also, imagine a similarly ridiculous opposite scenario, if China started a global propaganda campaign to ‘Free California and Texas’ from the Patriot Act, and saying the LA Riots were proof that Blacks, Latinos, and Asians were being oppressed by Whites in California. After all, it wasn’t too long ago that Texas was its own independent region, and both areas were part of Mexico.

Mar

26

2008

(5) Comments

Hollywood Remakes of Asian Films. Cultural Imperialism?

11:23AM by Alvin Lin

Over the past several years, we’ve seen more than a dozen remakes of recent Asian movies with the story/script kept essentially the same, but replaced with White actors.  Notable examples include ‘The Ring’, ‘The Departed’, and the upcoming ‘My Sassy Girl’ remake.  I find it offensive that the basis behind these remakes is that Americans supposedly will not pay to watch Asian faces in quality movies.  Non-White people all over the world regularly watch Hollywood movies starring White people in their theaters, so are these executives saying White America is more racist than the rest of the people on the planet?  I also don’t buy this reason, because certain foreign language Asian films have done very well in the United States.  I believe the real reason is that entertainment has powerful influences on people, not just for product placement or advertising influence, but also in its ability to ‘brand’ people and races of people.  And I would venture that Hollywood, run by mostly White males, would rather create a quality film or have an endearing hero be a White male instead of an Asian face.

Here is an article that explores this “cultural imperialism” of Hollywood.

Mar

26

2008

(3) Comments

Interview with John Chang, the real-life ‘Mickey Rosa’

07:00AM by Alvin Lin

This is more news about the upcoming ‘21’ blackjack movie, with racist casting.  Not only were ‘Ben Campbell’ and ‘Steve Fisher’ real-life Asian Americans Jeff Ma and Mike Aponte, but the teacher/professor ‘Mickey Rosa’ was also Asian American John Chang (scroll to the bottom).