Asianspotting: Hiroyuki Sanada Joins the Cast of 'Lost'
Throughout five seasons of Lost, Asian and Asian American characters abound: Korean couple Sun and Jin Kwon (played by Yunjin Kim and Daniel Dae Kim -- who probably boasts the sexiest male build on the Island), psychic ghost-whisperer Miles Straume (Ken Leung), Dr. Pierre Chang/Marvin Candle/Edgar Halliwax (Francois Chau), and several other minor characters.
If you caught last night's Season 6 premiere, you know Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada has joined the cast on the island, playing what appears to be the leader of a group of the Others.
Sanada is a major Japanese actor, who is perhaps best known for his role in the postmodern classic Twilight Samurai. He has recently crossed over into several major western films, including Danny Boyle's Sunshine, The Last Samurai, and Speed Racer.
While Sanada's character raises more questions in the Lost series (namely, who is he?), we know one thing already: he's a martial arts Asian! Every desert isle's gotta have one of those, eventually.
Seriously. What an awesome name. If I were to name my kid Apolo, he better live up to it, like this Apolo.
The end of the commercial is a little gross, but that's where DayQuil and NyQuil come in I suppose.
It looks like he'll be competing in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics short-track speed skating competition at Pacific Coliseum. The events will be held between February 13th and 26th, 2010. Break a leg, Apolo, and bring home the gold!
Asianspotting: Deborah Gibson Love Scene with Asian Guy
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus: the title alone should have kept me away, but flipping through the channels to SyFy, my curiosity was piqued when I saw that it starred 80s teen sensation Debbie Gibson (who's all grown up and goes by Deborah now). I started watching and lo and behold, before I knew it, her character and a fellow scientist played by Vic Chao were making eyes for each other and heading to the closet for some, shall we say, intense research.
Meant to put this up a while back. Look what I found! As someone who started wearing glasses before the tender age of nine, I find this advertisement pretty endearing. I think it goes without saying that there is definitely a much higher demand for glasses in East Asian countries, and with the increase of immigrants from those countries, I wonder if LensCrafters is trying to tap into that Asian/Asian American market. Or maybe they just can't tell the difference between Asians and Asian Americans and think that both have terrible eyesight.
Anyway I am done rambling. Enjoy the cuteness on this lovely Monday.
Why are the viral infant musical prodigies on YouTube always Asian? Here's the latest:
Which is less fun because the kid looks like he's having no fun at all. There's also this one I posted recently:
I'm having visions of stern Asian parents hanging their six-month-old infants' queues from a hook in the ceiling to keep them from falling asleep while they practice "Stairway to Heaven." But it's probably not abuse, per se. Because it's not that there are no non-Asian baby musical prodigies, it's just that the Asian ones are the most popular. Now why do you suppose that is? Can it be because having an Asian infant play pop music doubles the poodle walking on its hind legs effect? Is the child funnier or more incredible because he's Asian?
Diana Nguyen (left) and Jen Wang of Disgrasian. Photo by Derek Liu
We've got lots of stuff for you in The Trailblazing Issue of Hyphen, including having Diana Nguyen and Jen Wang, the bloggers behind Disgrasian, on our cover.
Disgrasian's wry and offbeat style is blazing a trail for Asian American blogs. So we thought the gals behind it would be great for the cover of an issue that highlights some of the Asian Americans who are making a mark for themselves.
Just to show you that Hyphen is not just an undifferentiated mass of the like-minded, I have to tell you I disagree with Sylvie Kim's rebuttal of Popmatters' racial analysis of the TV show Glee.
Oh boy. Here's an original idea -- according to this trailer, detective show Cold Case is featuring crime in Chinatown in tomorrow's episode. From what I gather from the trailer, the plot will be rife with Asian gangsters and lots of Chinese people doing some sort of mysterious, ancient rituals.
To state the obvious, crime shows seem to have an odd fixation on Chinatown, which is almost ubiquitously portrayed based on huge cultural assumptions and gross cultural romanticism.
I mean, just take a look at this trailer -- did I hear a gong?
Asianspotting: Asian Female in Miley Cyrus' New Hit
Check it.
After the whole Miley Cyrus "slanty eye" gesture incident a couple of months ago (which I don't think she ever apologized for since she believes she was merely making a "goofy face"; we're all just crazy right?)*, looks like homegirl is trying to make it up to the community she offended by strategically placing an Asian person in her chart-topping song, "Party in the USA." Hmmm...
Tell me I'm just reading too much into it.
*Apparently Miley "did" apologize the second time around, but in my honest opinion, I wouldn't really consider that an apology. Seriously. Someone needs to write a book on the art of apologizing. I'll stop before I get too mean.
Yeah, we're glad when an atypical Asian American family gets some press and breaks some stereotypes. But I'm pretty sure this is a family I don't want to claim. You might not feel so much sympathy for Balloon Boy when you see him in this video. (Video N exactly SFW, owing to three little boys swearing like sailors while promoting outrageous exaggerations of machismo.)
InterrogAsian Answers Your Asian American Culture Questions
Why are my Chinese neighbors so aloof and what's the deal with Korean tacos? InterrogAsian answers those questions in the latest issue of Hyphen, the Action Issue
If you haven't seen it in our print edition, InterrogAsian is Hyphen's sansei of Asian American culture. You might have heard of Ask A Mexican, so it's kind of like that, but with more soy sauce flavoring.
Though Friday is usually associated with movie nights, I thought I'd do an Asian American TV round-up instead. You can still make it to the theater to catch James Kyson Lee and Lynn Chen in White on Rice. Or if you're desperate, you can go see Jamie Chung get slashed in Sorority Row. Or if you're really desperate, you can see Megan Fox as a demon in Karyn (remember how good Girlfight was?) Kusama's Jennifer's Body.
But otherwise, I thought I'd get you up to speed on what's playing on the boob tube. Believe it or not, network TV execs like to employ Asian Americans from time to time! Maybe "like" is a strong word. But this fall we see some Asian representation in the returning shows and hopeful pilots pleading for our viewership and hoping to avoid the axe.
Edward Chen, Dolly Gee, Jacqueline Nguyen Nominated as Federal Judges
President Obama has nominated two Asian Americans to be federal judges in California. If confirmed, Edward Chen would be the first Asian American federal judge for the Northern District. Dolly Gee and Jacqueline Nguyen would be the first Asian American females judges for the Central District
Hyphen Lynks: The Extremely Boring vs. Totally Untrue News Edition
You know how during the election everyone was complaining that Americans were getting their news from Jon Stewart? Well, there's a reason for that: news is boring! Extremely! It's much more fun to hear shit that ain't true!
Real news doesn't do the interesting things that overprivileged people from Hollywood do inside their heads except for Paris Hilton who is as boring as the news and over too, and also Paula Abdul. No, I take that back, Paula Abdul is better than fiction because she's craaaaaazzzaaaay, and so is Gwenyth Paltrow. No, I take that back. Goop is crazy but not in an interesting way. And Bai Ling is annoying. And Asian.
Anyway, let's make some movies, is what I'm sayin'. For today's lynks, we're gonna compare the real news with some totally made up shit and you can decide which one you prefer. Then you can go here to vote on it, and the voter who best predicts how everyone else votes will win a huge-ass prize. Not really.
Brock Lesner and GSP may have had the headlines this past weekend, but the real MMA action was on Wall Street. Maybe some of you guys have seen this going around on the interwebs. It's a confrontation between a Korean American dude and some drunk fool.
Okay, I just wanna take the temperature quickly here.
I was just watching The Daily Show on hulu.com, and when it ended this advertisement (screengrabbed above) showed up. It's an ad for some antidepressive drug (which I won't link to), but the interesting thing is that the ad features an Asian man. An Asian man looking depressed.
Update: Military Board Says Lt. Dan Choi Should Be Discharged
Calling it a setback and "an opportunity to keep fighting," Lt. Dan Choi faces discharge from the Army National Guard for violating the "don't ask, don't tell policy" for gays and lesbians in the military.
A military administrative board recommended
Tuesday that Choi, who outed himself on national TV in March to protest
"don't ask, don't tell," be discharged for violating the policy against
homosexual conduct.
President Obama had promised to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" but hasn't done anything about it so far.
It could be a year before Choi is actually discharged, so stay tuned. In the meantime, support Choi by signing his petition.
Uh ... was anyone actually suggesting that Obama invade Iran? I mean, other than crazy mans on da streets?
Because (m)O('bettah)bama is the very opposite of a brutal regime dictator tyrant evil axis thingie. (m)O('bettah)bama is good. It is Ahmadinejad who is brutal 'n' evil. And Kim Il thingie. And, like, Angela Merkel, and Johnson & Johnson. And Metallica.
Actually, if you look around, the Brutal Regimes are everywhere. Everywhere. Wow. It's frightening.
Here's the speech Army Lt. Dan Choi gave on Saturday at the Pink Triangle unveiling ceremony in San Francisco as part of Pride weekend activities.
Choi is an Iraq war veteran, Arabic speaker and West Point graduate. Sounds great? But he is also openly gay, which the military has a problem with. Choi is fighting his dismissal from the Army National Guard for violating the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
Whoa. I feel so out of the loop. But seriously, who is this dude?
Nerd dance talk here: his technique is flawless. I'm so bummed that I won't be seeing him compete due to contractual obligations with Miami City Ballet (yes he's a professional ballet dancer), but way to represent Alex!
Hyphen Lynx: Sriracha Sauce Origins, Asian Americans Hit Silicon Valley Glass Ceiling
Every so often when I'm in Southern California, we take the drive out
from Los Angeles proper to the eastern suburbs, and when the exit signs
for Rosemead pop up, I always think of Sriracha hot sauce and wished I was the guy who came up with that gold mine.
The Rosemead-based company's stuff is in restaurants everywhere, and it was christened with an article in the New York Times this week that's being linked to all over Facebook and the Web.
Back in the San Francisco Bay Area, a study released this week shows that Asian Americans are few and far between in the corporate board rooms and executive offices of Silicon Valley companies.
Asian Americans make up more
than a third of the work force at some of Silicon Valley's biggest tech
companies but only about 6 percent of board members
and about 10 percent of corporate officers of the Bay Area's 25 largest
companies, the report says.
After watching umpteen sickly-sweet videos like the one above, in which the Jon & Kate Plus 8 lead couple indicates that their meet-cute was just plain love at first sight, you gotta wonder what's been edited out.
With the new Star Trek movie coming out on Friday, it seems appropriate to revisit Hyphen's interview with John Cho and our look at racial stereotypes in the Trek universe from The Spaces Issue.
Ahhh, for the good old days, when we didn't know our house was built on sand. (You know, there's nothing inherently wrong with building on sand, as long as there are no earthquakes or floods or landslides or nothin'. So, you know ... don't build in California. Or Louisiana. Or ... anywhere you'd actually want to build. Then it's a sound policy.)
Anyway, to bludgeon an already dead metaphor, our government built our house on a sand landfill in the San Andreas Fault, installing our gas and water mains across the crack. So it's no wonder that the faucets keep exploding and little jets of methane-fueled flame keep erupting from every mousehole. The only real question is if the whole thing's gonna blow.
And, of course, wherever there's a moneymaking scheme gone awry, there's an Asian American slinking around. Right? Am I right?
Watchmen Screenwriter Alex Tse Talks About Adapting the Groundbreaking Comic
Film adaptations of comic books are a dime a dozen in Hollywood these days, with a track record that suggests studios are pumping out more Batman Forevers than Dark Knights. But what happens when your task is to bring the words of history's most acclaimed graphic novel -- and one of Time magazine's 100 greatest novels of all time -- to the big screen?
Enter Alex Tse, a San Francisco native who is the co-screenwriter of the much-anticipated Watchmen adaptation, which opened last week to the tune of $55 million. Tse first came onto the scene as the writer of 2004's multiethnic crime drama, Sucker Free City, directed by Spike Lee. Now with the success of Watchmen, he's in demand but still making time to return to his roots. Hyphen caught up with Tse before his visit to the 2009 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival to learn about his climb from a kid in journalism camp to bona fide Hollywood screenwriter.
Read the interview in our web features area and comeback here if you have a comment. (Unfortunately, our publishing system doesn't allow commenting on articles.)
One thing we haven't talked about yet is the start of Women's History Month, which is March. It's a great time to highlight the accomplishments of women, and a lot of organizations are jumping on the bandwagon.
One of the coolest things I've seen so far is a Glamour photo spread showing female "American Icons," played by current celebrities. E.g.: Hayden Panettiere as Amelia Earhart and Lindsey Lohan as Madonna. It's a great idea, and highlights national treasures of sports and political action as well as entertainment.
Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus: the title alone should have kept me away, but flipping through the channels to SyFy, my curiosity was piqued when I saw that it starred 80s teen sensation Debbie Gibson (who's all grown up and goes by Deborah now). I started watching and lo and behold, before I knew it, her character and a fellow scientist played by Vic Chao were making eyes for each other and heading to the closet for some, shall we say, intense research.
Just to show you that Hyphen is not just an undifferentiated mass of the like-minded, I have to tell you I disagree with Sylvie Kim's rebuttal of Popmatters' racial analysis of the TV show Glee.
Why are my Chinese neighbors so aloof and what's the deal with Korean tacos? InterrogAsian answers those questions in the latest issue of Hyphen, the Action Issue 
Calling it a setback and "an opportunity to keep fighting," Lt. Dan Choi faces discharge from the Army National Guard for violating the "don't ask, don't tell policy" for gays and lesbians in the military.
Ahhh, for the good old days, when we didn't know our house was built on sand. (You know, there's nothing inherently wrong with building on sand, as long as there are no earthquakes or floods or landslides or nothin'. So, you know ... don't build in California. Or Louisiana. Or ... anywhere you'd actually want to build. Then it's a sound policy.)
