Like George Bush, I recently took a trip to the border town of El Paso. My brother moved there in July to begin his four year stint at the nearby Holloman Air Force Base. El Paso is a fascinating place. Just across the border from Juarez, the fourth biggest city in Mexico, it is also home to Fort Bliss Military Base – which is receiving over 16,000 new troops this year from the series of military base closings and restructurings. Being in this super militarized border town made even a trip to the corner store steeped in layers and layers of socio-political context. My family refused to accompany me on a photography trip to the Juarez border after Thanksgiving, so I decided to visit the National Border Patrol Museum. I was expecting the skewed discourse about the hordes of illegal Mexican immigrants trying to break into America’s Southern Frontier at any cost, which there was plenty of. Occasionally the literature on the walls of the museum would ask questions like: “Will the trend of illegal immigration continue?” And the answer would be: “Yes. As long as people of the world quest for a better life, the rise of illegal entries will continue.”
Continue reading "Tule Lake at the National Border Patrol Museum"
Posted by Neela at 11:37 AM | Comments (1)
Bruce Lee was honored in Bosnia and Hong Kong with statues for what would have been his 65th birthday over the weekend.
However, a few hours after the statue in Bosnia was dedicated, it was vandalized.
Continue reading "Bruce Lee Statues Unveiled"
Posted by Harry at 3:07 PM | Comments (0)
The day after Thanksgiving, on what they call Black Friday, I was awoken by a phone call. It was from my sister and mother, who were pawing their way through an outlet mall. They had called to say they wished I was there to help with the shopping. (I suppose it's a tradition in my family, like so many other people's -- this shopping on the busiest shopping day.) They were a few hours ahead of me in Texas, so I forgave them for calling so early, mumbled a few words of encouragement, and fell back asleep. Later in the day, they called again to tell me what spoils they had won. The were at the mall for about 4 hours and had only managed to go to 3 stores. "We didn't even get to look at handbags and shoes!" my mother exclaimed. And I knew she would have stayed another 3 hours to look at handbags and shoes if only other family functions had not gotten in the way.
Continue reading "This Holiday Season, Buy Indie"
Posted by Melissa at 9:35 AM | Comments (0)
There's a story in today's SF Chronicle about Asian American entertainers becoming stars overseas. The first couple paragraphs sums it up nicely: audition for bit parts in Hollywood playing stereotypes, or take a gamble in Asia where you have a better chance of interesting work, even if you can't speak an Asian language.
Continue reading "Over Seas Fame"
Posted by Melissa at 6:56 PM | Comments (8)
R.I.P. Pat Morita, forever immortalized as Mr. Miyagi on The Karate Kid and formerly of Happy Days fame. A pioneering Asian American actor, comedian, and internment camp survivor, Morita was the first Asian American actor I ever saw in a lead role on the big screen.
Continue reading "Pat Morita Dies at 73"
Posted by LisaKo at 11:25 AM | Comments (1)
Hopefully, none of you will spend Thanksgiving like I did last year -- in bed with food poisoning from the night before, unable to eat anything but dry toast.
May you have a good day with loved ones.
Posted by Melissa at 11:19 AM | Comments (0)
There's been a lot in the news lately about overachieving Asian American students. You've probably already heard about the book above. The Korean American sisters who wrote it were recently profiled in the New York Times, extolling the virtues of strict Asian parenting. (Neither of them are educators or parents for that matter.) Their message seemed to be, "Hey, we're not really all that smart and neither are other Asians. We just work really hard and our parents made us do it!" Now, lucky you, they’ve written this book so that you non-Asians can learn these mysterious Asian secrets and succeed too!
Continue reading "Academic Overachievers"
Posted by Melissa at 11:21 AM | Comments (11)
An Asian American guy with a really bad haircut looks out from my TV screen. "All my life, I wanted to be an American," he says. "I'm sansei, that means I'm the third generation to be born in this country."
Continue reading "What is American?"
Posted by Jennifer at 9:25 AM | Comments (1)
OK, so this is not exactly serious hard news here, but we could all use a little hard body news once in a while... Daniel Dae Kim has made People magazine's "Sexiest Man Alive" list. On their website, you can see some of the photos of those who made the list, which includes the usual suspects (Matt Damon, Matthew McConaughey, blah blah). Vince Vaughn made the list (eh?) and there's a really super cheesy photo of Mr. Jessica Simpson (or maybe not anymore, is the ring on or off?) -- Nick Lachey. But who cares, back to Daniel.
Continue reading "Daniel Dae Kim - Sexiest Man Alive?"
Posted by Melissa at 9:48 AM | Comments (1)
Ng's name may look familiar to you because a year ago she was on the receiving end of some messed up racial remarks from Bill Singer, a Mets scout (and a former Dodgers pitcher), who derided Ng's Chinese heritage by speaking in mock Chinese. Thankfully, he got canned for that.
Continue reading "Baseball, Katrina, Porn"
Posted by Melissa at 1:57 PM | Comments (2)
Hello Hyphen readers. I'm back in town after traveling for two weeks. First, had to travel to a conference for my day job. I came back to the Bay Area just in time to vote, then packed my bags again for my hometown, Houston. I glossed over election news on my way to the airport.
Continue reading "Courting the Asian American Vote"
Posted by Melissa at 11:32 AM | Comments (3)
Last week I turned in my last story to Civiane (copy editor) and Cielo (art director) to take forward into the newly glossy realm of print existence in Hyphen. The story -- an investigation/"think-piece" by Wendy Cheng on the new role Vietnamese Americans can play in post-Katrina New Orleans -- is just the kind of story I imagined, even dreamed about, Hyphen producing when we first started the magazine. My dream Hyphen story combined political passion, investigative journalism, theoretical savvy, writing chops, and an ability/willingness to speculate, dream, prescribe, and stick one's neck out. Did this piece hit all of these notes perfectly? No, of course not. But for me, after struggling through eight issues to learn how to be an editor, finally getting to edit such a piece is ... satisfaction indeed.
Posted by Claire at 2:33 PM | Comments (2)
Our company throws lavish holiday parties every year. Last year there was a full-on carnival, with popcorn, booths, stuffed animals and spray-on tattoos. The buskers didn't care if you cheated and everything was free. It was a good time.
But they've just announced the theme for this year's party: Exploring the Forbidden City. I got real nervous.
Continue reading "Chinese for a Night"
Posted by Jennifer at 8:24 AM | Comments (5)
Those three unspeakable words get turned on their heads in N*gger, Wetb*ck, Ch*nk, a show that started as a student production at UCLA and is now on a tour.
Continue reading "N*gger, Wetb*ck, Ch*nk Can Be Funny Words"
Posted by Harry at 5:15 PM | Comments (4)
There were several articles in Bay Area papers recently about Sikh Americans. The first was a blasé piece about Sikhs continuing to be harassed after 9.11. I wasn’t sure exactly what the news hook on this story was, but it had one really gnarly quote that drove the point home for me. Sikhs from the Fremont’s gurdwara traveled to the Gulf Coast to provide Katrina relief and were met with some ignorance: “We asked if they knew who we are,” Ram Singh recalled with a sigh. “Almost everyone said, ‘You're from the Middle East and are here for the oil.’”
There was also a Sikh protest against the French ban on wearing turbans at the French consulate. The French ambassador was in town and Bay Area Sikhs took the opportunity to voice their strong opinions on the issue, which the French see as a part of their traditional upholding of secularism.
This protest made me wonder about whether there are any Asians involved in the riots in France, which are going on 10 days now. Most stories I’ve read focus on the Afro-French population, but the continuing Sikh protests allude to a South Asian population. Has anyone seen anything or know anything about this? A quick search brought me to an interesting article about the Bhangra scene in France. Also, Radikha Jha’s not-so-good novel is about South Asian refugees in France, but I am curious to see reporting regarding other marginalized peoples in France.
Posted by Neela at 2:46 PM | Comments (5)
On Halloween night, I went to San Francisco's Castro neighborhood, which is a SF tradition. On that night thousands of people converge on the city's favorite gay neighborhood, including lots of people who don't usually step foot there (let alone in any of SF really) otherwise. I had not been to the Castro on Halloween in 4 years. I was actually there to be an extra on a friend's friend's friend's movie. (His movie takes place on Halloween.) Honestly, I'm not sure what the attraction is with the Castro on Halloween. I'm all for people watching, but walking around in a big crowd of people who are just, um, walking around, is not very exciting, even if they are in costume.
Continue reading "Harajuku Girls Escape!"
Posted by Melissa at 1:50 AM | Comments (40)
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