The much hyped and highly anticipated drama remake, Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango), turned out to be a disappointment for everyone that tuned in including myself.

After watching two episodes, I find myself in disbelief. But then again were my standards too high? No because I just watched the Hana Yori Dango movie and it was bad ass as a romantic girl’s manga can get. Obviously Korea has a lot to make up for in the next few episodes.

For everyone who didn’t catch it, you can read the recap for episode one and two by Dramabeans. It’s the same story more or less with some bad Korean fashion (cough Jan-Di’s crappy military boots).

Tags: boys over flowers, hana yori dango, japan, korea, remake

This event happened last month, and the husband just died last week. What’s really weird about this news is that the woman, Rajini Narayan, burned her husband’s penis because she wanted to prove to him that his penis “belongs to [her] and no one else”. Basically she suspected him to have affairs and decided to punish him. She did not intend to murder him.

Talk about penis envy, man! Just kidding. Seriously, though, this news report reminds me of the Lorena Bobbitt story. Only I think this is slightly bit worse since Mr. Narayan died in the process.

Tags: australia, india, lorena bobbitt, rajini narayan, satish narayan

According to one RIAA study, girls actually purchase more music than guys do. So, screaming fan-girls mean big bucks (because we girls learn to covet idol related merchandise in our tweens)! With the latest influx of crossover artists, it is a mystery that no boy bands from Asia have began to at least think about breaking into the American market.

Boy bands in the past have had huge success in America using advertising tactics; such as The Beatles. For months local radio personalities would stop what they were playing and say things like  ”Get ready The Beatles are coming”. By the time the Beatles did arrive they were a instant success. Some fans never even heard a song but still showed up to greet the British band when they arrived.
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Tags: big bang, boy bands, dbsk, Sukiyaki, the beatles, volare

More or less, it is true that South Korea’s a homogeneous society. However, with globalization on the run, how many decades or centuries will it take for that “fact” to disappear? I don’t know the answer to that, but I hope that more South Koreans will stop being prejudiced against people of African and South Asian origins. Actually, I hope South Koreans will just stop being prejudiced to anyone, but that’s asking far too much for any society to overcome.

This article generalizes how South Koreans have more biases against people from Africa and South Asia (along with Caucasians to an extent). First of all, I’m actually very surprised that this article was even written up in the first place. My shock alone should be an indicator of how prejudiced South Koreans can be towards these people because of their origins and their skin colours. I see, hear, and feel South Korean views on different races here, so the results of the survey aren’t surprising at all.
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Tags: Africa, discrimination, heterogeneous society, homogeneous society, itaewon-dong, military, seoul, south asia, south korea, united states, yongsan-gu

Yesterday, January 6th, Ping Pong Playa was released on DVD and is now available on Amazon, Netflix, and Barnes & Nobles. You can check for it at your local video store too. I called my Blockbuster video store and they have it available for rent now. I had the pleasure of watching this hilarious movie at this past year’s San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival during March. I was too shy to come down the theater aisle after the movie was over to meet Jimmy Tsai back then. However, our paths crossed once again in the following interview that I had with him.
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Tags: asian film festival, basketball, c-dub, california, filmmaker, jessica yu, jimmy tsai, ping pong playa, san francisco

January 5th begins a month long festival that turns the city of Harbin into a wonderland of Ice and lights.  Held in Zhaolin park, this tradition which began in 1963 is now in it’s 25th anniversary year. Each year the locals, of this north-eastern city, show the world a culture based on ice and snow. 

Harbin’s wind comes directly from Siberia, so even in the summer the temperatures are only mild at best.  Their winter weather boasts below grade temperatures of -25f which helps this spectacular event to become one of the worlds top winter attractions.
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Tags: china, festival, harbin, ice, snow, winter

According to this article, I can’t look like that dude in the image. Especially at work. Apparently, many Koreans prefer you to look expressionless and stoic at a workplace. Oh, I’d so fail miserably at that aspect if I were to work out in the Korean economy. Apparently, it also affects your social life and everything.

Wow. I knew Korea and Japan are known to be a collective society, and that they cherish the people who don’t stick out in the group, but I think this is a bit much. But then again, that’s the cultural differences for yah! Although I wonder if this mentality affects all workplaces in Korea. I can’t imagine someone who works with preschoolers be stoic and boring with them. Hopefully, this is only for those office jobs. But even then, I can’t imagine how I’d concentrate on my work if I were to be too busy making sure my face constantly remain expressionless.

Tags: collective society, japan, south korea

I think I just found my whack off material for 2009. Oops sorry, I meant my calendar for 2009. Yes, let me present you the 2009 Asian Men Redefined calendar. Twelve Asian hotties will strut their stuff for you every month in 12″ x 12″ glossy pics shot by San Francisco photographer Dannydan. Half of the proceeds from the sale of this calendar will be donated to the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, a charity organization that fights HIV/AIDS in our communities. So you will be supporting a great cause if you buy this calendar. You should also buy a copy for the bitches you know who only date white guys.

By the way, if you think you have a hot face and a hot body and want to help promote the hotness of Asian men, you can apply to be one of the twelve models to be featured on the 2010 calendar. Just send your info with some impressive face/body shots to info@asianmenredefined.com. Please feel free to send them to me first for some constructive criticism if you like. I promise I won’t share them with the cougars I know.  There are tons of them running around in New York City.

Click here to buy the calendar.

Tags: 2009 Asian Men Redefined calendar, 2010 Asian Men Redefined calendar, Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, Dannydan

As most variations of history teach us, one of the greatest threats to an organized body of authority is the intellectual-activist. Of course, there’s the legitimate argument that those equipped with bombs and ill will are the most imminent threat, but what quintessentially drives any dissident–whether or not they’re the “goodies” or the “baddies”–is ideology: a system of ideas they are willing to stake their lives on.

Although my college roommate (endearingly) dubbed me “the angry one,” regarding Mainland Chinese politics, my initial reaction to Liu Xiaobo’s recent detainment abduction isn’t a simple case of hotheaded groans. Instead, I find myself generally level-headed about this situation simply because I feel like I’m not understanding a crucial aspect of it. In other words, something about this has me extremely confused and unable to fully digest the context of this particular case.
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Tags: china, criminals, globalization, human rights, intellectuals, Liu Xiaobo, Mainland, PRC, 刘晓波, 劉曉波

Not exactly in a perverted way but they have been showing their teenage fans a lot of love as of late.

The five hotties have been on a school attack tour for their Samsung Ha Ha Ha campaign and the Japanese show “Dreams Come True”. Their first school was an all girl school in Korea where they performed Jaurim - Ha Ha Ha. The second was in Japan which focused on three girls whose dream was to dance with DBSK. Well they were fulfilled and tears were everywhere. Aw!

However that’s not all. Lead DBSKer Yunho visited his old high school, Kwangil High School, to not only give an inspirational speech but pay for the scholarships of 6 Junior students (6,000,000 Won).
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Tags: charity, dbsk, jaurim, samsung, school girls, tvxq, yunho