Lucy Liu in a VAMPIRE MOVIE!!

One of my biggest gripes has always been the lack of Asian American representation in entertainment.

Back when I was in high school, I actually acted in a few shows and considered becoming an actor. One of my college recommenders actually saw me perform and encouraged me to apply to NYU Tisch.

But my mother, being the practical Asian parent, sat me down for a talk.

"Honey, I love you and want you to be happy," she said. "But you're an Asian male and to be totally honest, you're not good-looking enough to be successful."

So that was the end of that dream.

While many might see that as a really harsh conversation, I actually really appreciated my mom's candidness and am glad that I didn't take that path.

And after seeing the reception for a recent film starring a popular Asian American actor (who happened to also graduate from my high school), I can definitely understand the reality of why more Asian Americans don't pursue entertainment careers: the industry is just not very accepting.

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A few months ago, I attended the TriBeCa film festival and saw a movie starring Lucy Liu, called "Rise: Blood Hunter".

It was a horror thriller about a reporter, Sadie Blake, who was writing a story about teenage "vampire" cult, but ended up being turned into a real vampire herself. She wakes up in a morgue and spends the rest of the movie attempting to gain revenge against those who killed her. It was sort of like a mix of "Kill Bill: Volume 1" and "Underworld"-- but probably closer in quality to "Kill Bill."

Surprisingly, the movie was extremely entertaining and I found it especially interesting that Ms. Liu's character did not have any qualities that pegged her as Asian American; her part could have easily been played by a Caucasian actress!

But what I did not appreciate is how the movie poster completely changes Ms. Liu's face to a point of unrecognizability-- the eyes have obviously been enlarged and dyed a different color. And furthermore, the lack of promotion for this film has been extremely disheartening; "Blood Hunter" was put into limited release earlier this month and there's been virtually no word on this movie. Even clunker movies like "The Grudge 2" or "Gothika" received more marketing support than this!

I wonder if this says something about the amount of faith that the entertainment industry has in movies that are led by Asian American actors...

In case anyone's interested in checking out this flick, here's the website: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/rise/index.html

(And just as a sidenote, I wanted to mention that Marilyn Manson and Nick Lachey both make cameos in this movie! Hahahah.)

Remembering Vincent Chin...

On the night of June 19th, 1982, a Chinese American man named Vincent Chin was attacked by two Caucasian men, Ronald Ebens and Michael Nitz, who had just lost their jobs at a Chrysler auto plant in Detroit, Michigan.

They thought that Mr. Chin was of Japanese descent and blamed him for "stealing" their jobs.

On the night of his bachelor party, Mr. Chin was beaten over the head with a baseball bat by those two men.

Four days later, he died from injuries he sustained during the beating and the 400 guests, who were invited to his wedding, instead attended his funeral.

The two men who killed Vincent Chin were eventually given three years probation and fined $3,780.

This case is considered the incident that galvanized the Asian American community to start the pan-ethnic Asian American movement.

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Two nights ago, I saw a premier performance by the Pan Asian Repertory theater of "Carry the Tiger to the Mountain" - a staged documentary of the Vincent Chin case.

While I was touched to learn more about the story (I had studied it in my Asian American History class-- back in my days at good ol' U of Pee), I was seriously disappointed that today, twenty-five years after Mr. Chin's attack and subsequent death, the Asian American community has again slipped into seeming apathy.

The 25th anniversary of the case that supposedly brought together Asian Americans around the United States is barely causing a ripple in our community.

Hate crimes are unfortunately not a thing of the past and Asian Americans still experience the same ignorance and bigotry today that they faced twenty-five years ago.

For these reasons, I strongly urge anyone, who is interested in Asian American issues or wants to learn more about this case, to see the performance. It runs until tomorrow night- 25 years to the date when Vincent Chin died.

http://www.panasianrep.org/productionevents.htm?link=production

Back after a brief delay...

So I know haven't posted in a while (apologies to those who actually read this stuff!) and given that I am now a full quarter-century old, I've decided to come back!




There were about a zillion topics (many related to Asian American issues) that I've wanted to write about in the past few months, but internet access in my apartment has been limited and I was loathe to use my work time to blog. Now I have a t-mobile wireless internet account, so I might spend some more time posting.
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Some new events that have happened in between the lunar new year and the passing of my 25th rotation about the sun (and I will try to blog about all of these topics in due time...):

* Tragedy struck Virginia Tech in the form of an Asian American maniac, leaving me to question general Asian American values.

* Some lunatic tried to commit suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge during morning rush hour a few weeks ago-- causing tons of congestion and lost productivity, which made me quite annoyed. Some friends have since told me that I have "Asian ideals", as I believe that one should cause as less difficulty for everyone else, if they are really depressed to the brink of suicide.

* I met http://instantyang.blogspot.com/ writer, Jeff Yang, AND "Survivor: Cook Islands" winner, Yul Kwon, at this talk on Breaking Stereotypes of Asian American Men.

* My FAVORITE radio DJ's EVER were fired for being supposedly "racist" against Asian Americans-- which is total bullshit, since J.V. and Elvis' Doghouse Radio Show always made fun of EVERYONE (of all races and ethnicities) and was NEVER serious in its pranks.

* My interest in microfinance, especially through organizations like http://www.kiva.org/, was piqued; and coincidentally, I saw an off-broadway production, "In the Heights" (soon to be ON Broadway), that really related to this issue of investing in less affluent areas.

* I attended a Knicks game (vs. the Timberwolves) and those lewsers completely blew it.

And as these new developments were occurring in the world around us, the powers that be decided to give me more responsibility and entrust me to manage a new hire! Who woulda thunk that I'd have my own employee someday? heheheheh.

Anywho, there's just a sneak preview of what's to come. I'm also seeing a performance on the death of Vincent Chin (i.e. a Chinese man who was killed in Detroit 25 years ago-- by two white men, who thought he was Japanese and had "stolen" their jobs) in a few nights and I'm sure that'll be even more stuff to post!

Cheers to everyone!