Pop culture can be a mirror that reflects the issues and values of its time—for good and bad. For instance, Hollywood initially embraced Asians, and two of the early film era’s biggest stars were Los Angeles-born Chinese American Anna May Wong and Japanese-born Sessue Hayakawa. Anna May Wong is now featured on a quarter; Sessue Hayakawa is probably best remembered...
My family moved from Japan to the Washington DC area in 1966 when I was eight years old, and I fell in love with American ways and U.S. pop culture. I like to joke that I learned every American cuss word and forgot most of my Japanese in three weeks. One of the things I embraced wholeheartedly was American pop music—specifically,...
“Always Be My Maybe,” a new movie on Netflix that dropped this month, is a wonderful, entertaining rom-com that reflects the reality of Asian America. ...
To lead up to October, which is National Domestic Violence Month, the Boston-based Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK)'s Youth Empowerment Project produced a rough-around-the-edges but sweet public service announcement video to educate people about how casual sexist attitudes can lead to abusive and violent behavior: I think it's cool that young Asian Americans created the PSA....
I met the affable, energetic Andrea Lwin last fall at the Banana conference of Asian American bloggers (Banana II details coming soon!). At the time, she had just launched "Slanted," a comedic web series based on her one-woman show of the same name, about an Asian American actresses' struggles to make her mark in Hollywood. I know, not a...
JACL Says “Get Everyone Counted in the 2010 Census†By Phillip Ozaki and Carla Pineda Another decade has gone by, so that means its Census time! The JACL is making extraordinary efforts to make sure everybody in our community gets counted. Over $400 billion in federal funding is at stake. One person left out is equal to a loss of $1,300 over the next 10 years to his neighborhood. Everyone deserves a piece of the pie so make sure to get your forms in at the beginning of April. Historically, racial minorities have been undercounted including Asian Pacific Americans, and the JACL hopes to prevent that in 2010.
In addition to the conversation that you can listen to as usual, via phone or webcast, we'll be showing Corky's work in a slideshow, and you can vote on your 10 favorite images from the 30 shown here, and Corky will share the stories behind the Top 10 during our talk!