Showing posts with label Asian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Asian. Show all posts

30 October 2013

All Together Now

Currently pushing: Strength in Numbers project. Chops of Mountain Brothers fame is trying to Kickstart the money for an album he made with a roster of current Asian American musicians. There's less than three days to go and they're short. So if you care about Asian American artists, then consider donating. Also, "21 Asian American Musicians You Need to Get Behind Right Now."

I’m cleaning up the rest of Eddie Huang’s memoir, Fresh Off the Boat. I went to go see Huang back in February but I’m only now getting around to reading my friend’s copy. Fresh Off the Boat, aside from being entertaining and hilarious, is important because it presents a point of view that is rarely seen. The experiences of our generation of immigrants that grew up in American but solidly had a foot still planted in Asia -- mainly due to how our parents raised us.

If you’re an immigrant, and especially an Asian-American one, you can relate to so much from this book, especially the stuff about dealing with the culture shock of whiteness. I forgot where the link went, but my friend forwarded me a piece where a twentysomething Asian-American shares her experience growing up and being placed in ESL classes even though her English was better than everyone else’s. The writer had a line in there, heavily paraphrased, about how growing up there’s a decision you make to assimilate to the white culture around you, or to resist. (Update here's the article: "The Asian-American Awakening: That Moment When You Realize You're Not White.")

When I was younger, I never felt that, but mainly because I was mostly oblivious. In retrospect however, every person of color has to make that decision at some point. In fact, that decision is always ongoing. That moment though, the “oh shit, I’m not like them” moment is true for everyone.

When the Huang family moves to Orlando, Eddie and his brothers enter a world where he’s continually picked on and made fun of for things like his otherness, the strange lunch food he brings to school (packed with loving care by his mom), and the usual shit that we Asian-Americans know about. Young Eddie eventually decides to stop taking shit and fight back, often literally. He decides he’s not going to assimilate and that’s that.
“Emery [Eddie’s younger brother] wouldn’t go talk to my parents about the things he really cared about or about how he really felt; he’d talk to me. When he talked to them, they just yelled at him. When he came to me, I’d always get stomachaches because I didn’t know what to do most of the time. I just told him what they’d taught me about ohw we should behave: respect your parents, respet your family, speak Chinese at home, take off your shoes at home, be polite at other people’s homes, don’t borrow money from people, but if other people need it from you lend it to them, as long as it’s inconsequential. Don’t fight, but if someone calls you a chink, fight.”
-Fresh Off the Boat-
The book isn’t all about race of course, there’s an equal amount in there about class and feeling inferior because he thought his family was poor. One of my favorite things about Fresh Off the Boat is how it really focuses on the (often crazy) family dynamics that come with moving to another country together. Also, there’s a ton of sports and rap references, which is a huge bonus. Plus some Encyclopedia Brown and Jonathan Swift for good measure too. Obviously, I’m recommending the book big time because even if it doesn’t speak to your experience, it speaks to one Asian-American’s experience that isn’t stereotyped. Regardless of you how you feel about Huang's antics, he represents an attitude and viewpoint that hasn't been shown before, much less in a book.

On a related note: Maurene Goo’s Since You Asked did the exact same thing for me as Fresh Off the Boat. It’s a young adult book with race, not about it. And if you read contemporary YA, that’s incredibly rare. s.e. smith’s review captures that aspect of the book exactly. Did I happen to see Eddie Huang walk by while I was having lunch in Fort Greene a few weekends ago? Yup I did. Did I quickly move to follow him down the street to the Brooklyn Flea? Of course I did. No shame in my stalking game. Did I say hello? Of course not.
The new NBA season officially started yesterday. I’ve been consumed the past week in drafting for my fantasy league. Seriously, I’m checking my phone every few minutes and researching players like all the time. I haven’t even been blogging anywhere because I’ve been cranking out articles for my sixteen team keeper league, SlamNation. This is probably the only writing related thing that I don’t dawdle at. Fake articles about each trade? On it. Full reviews of each team pre and post-draft? Did it already. If I could be this productive with other things, I would be a star.

I’m contemplating joining another league, one set up to mirror Bill Simmons’ suggestions for the ultimate basketball league. Even though I’m swamped by fantasy obligations already, I’m considering joining this thing. Key word there is “fantasy” because it's all fake obligations. "I gotta go do some work/writing, and by 'work' I mean fantasy articles. See ya!" Anyway, the fantasy team I’ve been slowly rebuilding has finally acquired enough parts to make it seem like a contender. I built a team around Rajon Rondo, which meant going big ball and acquiring power guys like Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, Al Jefferson, and Andre Drummond. Of course, now Rondo is out for a few months and my poor team will just spin its wheels.

Speaking of the Celtics, it was an off-season of transition for my team. If you don’t follow basketball at all, I’ll put it like this: The Celtics tore the house down this summer and are now rebuilding it brick by brick. Gone are stalwarts Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, in are a bunch of nobodies who won’t be around for very long. While I absolutely are dedicated to the Celtics, this is the season I happily (not-)watch them lose and instead focus my support toward the new old Celtics, aka Brooklyn Nets. I’m just a mile or so away from Barclays so I can pretend they are a semi-local team. While I couldn’t be sadder to see Pierce and Garnett go, I’m glad they have a chance to win a championship. Beat the Heat, beat the Heat!

24 June 2013

Maurene Goo

I'm super excited for Maurene Goo's Since You Asked for many reasons, but one of them is that having a contemp Asian-American book penned by an actual Asian-American is so rare. The last one I can even think of is Justina Chen's Girl Overboard. Since You Asked is a story that doesn't ignore ethnicity but also doesn't dwell on it, which is something to be admired all the way across the board. The lip curl on the cover girl perfectly captures the spirit of the book and it's going to be great to have a hip, intelligent, and sarcastic POC main character to cheer for.

Maurene herself is the coolest, and I know this because I've been following her ever since my friends Susie and Lilly told me about her upcoming book. I mean, Maurene used to journal into an old school Sanrio diary, loves Freak and Geeks, used to work in a bookstore, got a masters in book publishing, and once interviewed THE Ann M. Martin. Her blog is completely wonderful, as recent posts have featured things like learned manners, best friends, and not being the biggest fish in your pond. Plus here's this informative post about how The President's Daughter series helped spark her toward writing young adult.
"No, no one asked, but Holly Kim will tell you what she thinks anyway.

Fifteen-year-old Holly Kim is the copyeditor for her high school's newspaper. When she accidentally submits an article that rips everyone to shreds, she gets her own column and rants her way through the school year. Can she survive homecoming, mean-girl cliques, jocks, secret admirers, Valentine's Day, and other high school embarrassments, all while struggling to balance her family's traditional Korean values?

 In this hilarious debut, Maurene Goo takes a fresh look at trying to fit in without conforming to what's considered 'normal' in high school and how to manage parental expectations without losing one's individuality...or being driven insane."
Did I mention that Since You Asked is set in San Diego? I can't wait to see what local places Maurene dropped into the book. I'm guessing there's going to be a delicious burrito spot or two. Since You Asked is releasing a bit early, tomorrow in fact, due to high anticipation, and the official blog tour kicks off July 1st so be sure to look for Maurene's posts and interviews going up soon to learn more about SYA. Maurene's also a Lucky 13s so you can check there for SYA related posts too.

Later this month, Maurene will be dropping by Rich in Color -- a newish diversity in YA blog I'm contributing to -- for an interview and giveaway. I can't wait to dig into Since You Asked and then pepper her with questions. It'll be a celebration!

07 March 2013

Destroy All Everything

Listening to: Soko, "I'll Kill Her." From AMR via Et Musique Pour Toi, the most charming track about annihilating your ex's new object of affection. "If I find her, I swear, I swear… / I'll kill her, I'll kill her / She stole my future, she broke my dream."

Completely missed City Bakery's annual hot chocolate festival, which ran during Februrary and featured mysterious flavors such as Sunken Treasure, Love Potion, and Ode to the Polar Bear. Regardless, I must scurry over there to get one of their giant marshmallows.

Things recently seen: Martha Graham's "Phaedra Unbound" and "Achilles in Heels" at the Joyce Theater. "Art of Scent" exhibit at Musem of Arts and Design, Museum of Chinese in America's "Marvels and Monsters," and then last night we hit up Punderdome 3000.

We got to the event late so we were relegated to the back, but it was still quite the experience. The wall art for the Littlefield Theater featured a springbok antelope as David Bowie and a white tiger homage to (possibly) Kenny Loggins. Some of the competitor's names were fantastic. Pun and Teller. Punda Express. Big Pun. The Black Punther. Punky Brewster. I think I'd like to have been "Josie and the Pundercats" or simply "The Pundercats" but those must have been used already. In-between each round, members from the audience recite classic TV theme songs, which was kind of awesome. "It's a rare condition, this day and age, to read any good news on the newspaper page..."
And let's talk about "Art of Scent," which was basically sticking your head into a giant butt in the wall. I mean, to put it in a classy way. On the real, the exhibit is beautifully designed and you go around the room smelling classics like Chanel No.5, Drakkar Noir, L'Eau d'Issey (my old college standby), and Light Blue by Dolce & Gabbana. After a short time though, you'll get woozy because all that perfume and cologne will send your head spinning. There was also a guy there inexplicably carrying a flute around and occasionally blowing a few notes into it. I should have asked him if I could give it a go. We could have battled.
The night after we saw Martha Graham, we met my friend's new boyfriend, who turned out to be an ex-ballerino. You can't imagine how excited I was. I wanted to get his professional opinion about the quality of dancing in White Nights and Center Stage, but I held back. Having no opinion on Martha just a few short hours ago, after talking to him, I was ready to dismiss Graham's work as "too obsessed with mythology." Yes, yes, right on! What can I say, I'm easily influenced.
Awhile ago, I sent in a pitch for the sequel to Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology, but that was summarily rejected. That sequel released late last year, Shattered: The Asian American Comics Anthology (Secret Identities). I have to pick up a copy and see what kind of stories beat mine out. I mean, besides all of them. My dream of writing a comic book will have to live on for another day. I won't give up because I'm tenacious like Lex Luthor, but unfortunately, far dumber.

Alongside "Marvels and Monsters" exhibit, MOCA also had "Alt.Comics: Asian American Artists Reinvent the Comic Book," featuring the works of Gene Luen Yang, Lark Pien, and GB Tran, Jason Shiga, and a few others. I'd tell you to go check it out but the whole thing is over, sorry. For me, it was most interesting to look at the artists' old works, before they were published. All the childhood drawings, the chapbooks, the sketches, it was quite interesting and makes me hope that one day someone will want to collect my archives. Any volunteers? Mom?
While we're here: Occasionally I drop in to post stuff on Chinatown Do, a Tumblr that covers anything Chinese related that the contributors see during their Internet rounds. I've never met any of the other blog people -- aside from Joy (Swash Design), who invited me -- but it's interesting to see what catches their individual attentions. Mine tend to be articles and stuff about factories, so I'm glad the others do lots of images and videos. I'd already been trained to stop at anything online mentioning "Chinese," so Chinatown Do has been a nice outlet to repost stuff.

Angry Asian Man has been going at it for twelve years, and last week he featured my friend's sister, Ursula Liang, as his Angry Reader of the Week. Ursula is making a documentary about 9-Man, a streetball game played in New York's Chinatown. They hit their Kickstarter goal last year and I'm looking forward to watching the finished product.

And if there haven't been enough links for you, two blogs I've been into lately: Writing Like an Asian and Eating Asia. Explore at your leisure.

18 September 2012

Top of the Charts



Traditionally, Tuesday is when albums release, when incriminating Facebook photos from the weekend are posted, and when new books drop. This Tuesday is more special than all the rest though. Dare we call it historic? Let all future generations of humankind know that on September 18th, 2012, three Asian American YA authors released new books. Three!

Two major releases by Asian Americans would be a nice coincidence but three clearly indicates a conspiracy. Right? (What are those wily publishers planning next?) In a few years, when the entire young adult world is overrun and oversaturated by Asian American authors, you can point back to this Tuesday as the day everything totally happened.

And look at these books: a science fiction thriller, a scifi dystopian, and a contemporary revenge story. Delicious right? Lemme link you to them so you can read the wonderful blurbs and descriptions.
Malinda's a fellow 2009 Deb and I've been watching the creation of Adaptation from afar, start to finish. While her main blog is always full of great posts, Malinda also gives us a behind the scenes of writing and revising Adaptation's sequel. For people like me, who are always curious how other people work, Malinda's a person to learn from because she's a true professional. Seeing her output and discipline is both a challenge and an inspiration. You can read the first four chapters of Adaptation here, but you ought to just get the whole thing so you won't have to pause to take a breath.

Kat Zhang's debut, What's Left of Me, has been eagerly anticipated because I've been following her blog for quite some time -- since before she'd even agented or gotten a book deal. And now her debut is out! Kat sold the Hybrid Chronicles when she was nineteen and is still in college now, which easily makes her the youngest YAkuza member. (I believe.) When I was in college, I could barely get to classes on time, much less handle writing, revising, and handling all the stuff that comes with having a book come out. Clearly Kat is excellent at time management, among many other things. Watch her read from What's Left of Me, straight from a campus dorm room.

And everybody already knows Jenny Han, who wrote Shug, the best selling Summer I Turned Pretty Trilogy, and Clara Lee and the Apple Pie Dream. Burn For Burn is co-written with Jenny's former New School MFA classmate Siobhan Vivian (Not That Kind of Girl, Same Difference, The List) and the two of them are currently on mega tour so go see if they're looping around to a venue near you. Doesn't Jenny have such a great URL? dearjennyhan.com. Also, check out Jenny's tour nails on her Tumblr. See the little bow on the left hand? Perfect.

To top off this historic day, how about also celebrating the release of Lish McBride's Necromancing the Stone? It's the follow up to 2010's Hold Me Closer, Necromancer and if these two aren't the cleverest titled books around, I challenge you to tell me what is.

If you don't know what Lish's titles are in reference to, well, I just feel sorry for you. C'mon, Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner? Phoebe and Elton John? I want Lish to name everything in the world. Airports, sports arenas, job titles, babies, board games, new animal discoveries, my books, everything.

Lish also just successfully funded her Necromancing the Swag Kickstarter so while you may be too late to get some stickers, buttons, and totes, we can like, time share the t-shirt I'm going to get.

Go congratulate everyone on their book releases today, go go gadget!

17 February 2010

The Oak Park Story

"The Oak Park Story, the new documentary that captures the lives of a predominantly Southeast Asian and Latino community in an Oakland slum, will premiere at the 2010 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival. The film is directed, edited, co-produced and co-written by Valerie Soe and co-produced and co-written by Russell Jeung, both of whom are professors of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University."

Sylvie (Antisocial Ladder) sent this along to spread the word. I spent a whole week going to showings at the SF Asian American Film Festival last year and loved every minute of it. While I unfortunately won't be in the Bay this year for the event, you might be, so go watch everything and especially go check out The Oak Park Story! Here's their blog, Facebook page, and a video clip link.
"The film recounts the struggles of three very different families (Cambodian, Mexican, and white American) who find themselves together in a run-down apartment complex in Oakland, CA. Together, these three households encountered drug dealing, gang violence and prostitution right in their parking lot. Yet their worst problem was their Stanford-educated landlord, who raised rents even when El Nino rains flooded their units. Facing unsanitary housing conditions that led to the hospitalization of several children, 44 households of Oak Park banded together to sue and eventually won a landmark settlement, against their landlord. Despite the victory, this too brought about some surprising, unintended consequences."
-Hyphen Magazine-

Where: Sundance Kabuki Cinema, San Francisco
When: March 14, 2010 at 2:00 pm and March 15, 2010 at 7:00 pm
Tickets: Available at the SFIAAFF website

01 December 2009

So Sick of Love Songs

I've been meaning to highlight a few things from around the web that are related to Exclusively Chloe or me but I kept putting it off. So now I guess I'll just throw them all together into one post with lots of links. Bear with me as I wax unpoetically about myself.

Jordyn of Ten Cent Notes recently did a Debs '09 Playlist giveaway. When she asked me for a song to represent Exclusively Chloe, I immediately thought of "Glamorous" by Fergie. I know, I know, the book is about getting away from all that glamour and celebrity life. But when Fergie Ferg starts showing off her spelling skills ("G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S...") you can't help but get excited and dance along. I have a list of "songs that are inherently girl songs but are impossible to resist dancing to as a guy." Glamorous is a top three track on this list. Sandwiching it at number one and three is Britney's "I'm A Slave 4 U" and the Pussycat Dolls "Don't Cha." I mean, seriously, these songs have such great beats but as a guy what are you supposed to do with your hips when you're trying to dance along? And singing along seems wrong too -- even though you have to. The songs on this list force you to the dance floor and then it's just fantastic awkwardness.

Check out the rest of the Debs '09 Playlist track list for everyone's selections and thanks to Jordyn for putting such an awesome project together!

After a rankings reset and some obvious mathematics error, my profile somehow popped up in the top ten over at Rice Bowl Journals. During the course of the next week, I rose all the way up to number one and stayed there. Well, until this week, when I crashed and burned. So yes, all is well with the universe again. Your conception of good and evil can remain unchanged. Things are back to normal. But it was a thrilling few days as I've been around Rice Bowl Journals for awhile, back in the days when my favorite blog ever, Technicolor.org, was regularly top of the charts. To have stood where she stood, computational error and all, made me giddy with delight.

And just as exciting was realizing that Cindy Pon (Silver Phoenix), a fellow author and Deb, was the very first Rice Bowl Journalist, as you can see by her cool ID number. Being number one at anything is never bad is it?

And while we're here, a scan of another Chinese interview I did, this time with We Chinese magazine. I sat down with publisher and editor Ping Ma back in July and hopefully said some cogent things in my lackluster Chinglish. Much like my earlier interview with a Chinese newspaper, I have no idea what the text says. Oh those many years of Chinese school, all for naught apparently. Sorry Mom!

Also in a nice surprise, I got a review of The Rough Guide to Blogging from Down Under Views. Maybe this means the book has now made its way to Australia! Either way, thanks a lot Jamie for nice quotes like these, "Yang introduces you to the world of blogging in a way that won't overwhelm the beginner but also won't bore the experienced blogger. Blogging jargon is explained in a way that doesn't make the reader feel dumb or talked down to."

If you've made it all the way to the bottom of this post, maybe you should consider following my blog. I mean, for a limited time I've placed the box so conveniently on the top of the sidebar for you. Here, I'll even show you how. I have a dozen fans now but it would make me feel better to have more. Having more is always good. Having more of being number one is doubly good. And who doesn't like to feel good?

Thanks for visiting. Do come again.

23 November 2009

The Bloggers League

This Saturday was Bananas, the first ever Asian American bloggers gathering and round table discussion. The whole thing was organized and co-hosted by Lac Su, author of "I Love Yous Are For White People" (aka, the greatest title ever) and Steve Nguyen, a Los Angeles based film and video producer. I've had the event on my calendar for awhile but almost didn't make it. Waking up early enough to drive two hours to USC by three pm is not my strong suit. But I'm glad I made the conference because it was definitely well worth the time and incredibly interesting. I had high hopes of doing a running diary on the event but (a) I got there late (b) there were no power outlets and (c) at least four video cameras were taping the proceedings for posterity. So instead I spent my time taking notes, jotting down some questions, cruising the featured bloggers' sites, and trying to find their Twitters to get insta-commentary.

A lot of bloggers came out but unfortunately I missed most of their names and introductions so bear with me when I mess it all up. Here's a post panel picture of everyone. I was familiar with a lot of the sites but by no means a steady reader or follower of all of them. I was psyched to recognize Ernie (Little, Yellow, Different), who is blog royalty and well, someone I've been following for years. Immediately upon seeing him I wondered about the possibility of asking him to start another blog reality game -- heck, combine two things and have a blog reality game with Asian American bloggers. If someone knows and can influence Ernie, get him to do one asap, thanks.

When I walked in, the discussion was focused on the gender divide in the Asian American blogging world. Someone commented and said that this event had felt very male dominated so far. As I took my sweet speed limit time up the freeway, I'd actually been wondering what the male to female panelist ratio would be. As it turned out, the split was nearly fifty fifty and it was interesting because for this particular group of panelists, the women seemed to have a lot more to say.

For example, I really liked the things that Christine (pop88), Taz (Sepia Mutiny), Oiyan (APAs for Progress), Sylvie (Antisocial Ladder), Erin (Hyphen Magazine), and Julie (Kimchi Mamas) pointed out. Many Asian cultures traditionally value silent and weak willed women and these bloggers proved that they weren't going to play into that by being consistently eloquent, thoughtful, super educated, and willing to share their perspectives across the board.

To be fair to the guys, they definitely had some really well formed opinions and thoughts to share too but some of the topics -- blog stalkers, sexism -- didn't provide them with the opportunity to chime in much. Overall, I did wonder why the guys weren't speaking up as often though. I mean, I really liked a lot of what Byron (big WOWO) and the guy from Bicoastal Bitchin had to say and wanted to hear more from them.

I was actually hoping to get some perspective on the whole scene from the bloggers who were doing this pre-blogging. People like Nelson (AA Rising) and Gil (Nikkei View). They've been online since the early days of the Internet and I really wanted to hear what they had to say about the roles that these "new" bloggers had, the changes they might have witnessed or experienced, and what niches they saw being filled by this generation of blog writers.

A lot of the discussion actually wasn't focused on anything blogger-centric. Outside of some bits dealing with censoring comments and tips on overcoming writer's block, most of the topics were similar to things you'd find at the APA conferences you attended in college -- I mean, if you did, I went to school in the Midwest, we had a lot of them. I thought there would be more focus on blogging and since the group was diverse and clearly had different viewpoints about many things, I was hoping there would be some more insight into specifics as far as content covered, what friends/family/significant others thought about them becoming public figures, maybe some of their blogging inspirations, and if they felt like a part of the broader blogging community versus just an Asian American one. Of course, I could probably find answers to these questions by going through their blogs, so um, I'll just go ahead and do that.

One thing they did talk about was that the next forward step was to reach an audience of non-Asian Americans. Angry Asian Man revealed that a large part of his fan base isn't Asian at all and gave some insight into how and why. A follow up question, related to the blogging audience issue, was if it was easier to "preach to the choir." Actually, why am I recapping this thing? The video of the event will be up at some point I'm sure. So go watch it when it's ready.

One last thing though, speaking of diversity, Taz (Sepia Mutiny) asked Lac to bring up her question about whether or not Sepia Mutiny was invited along to be the token brown folk. Which was an amazing point. Out of all the panelists, the group definitely skewed heavily toward the "traditional" Asians. Chinese, Korean, Filipino, etc. Next year, will there be more South Asian bloggers represented, some Persians bloggers, some Indian bloggers? I'd hope that the guideline for "Asian American blogger" would be expanded. I'm not exactly sure how Hyphen delineates but maybe their definition would be a good rule of thumb? And part of expanding that diversity will come as more bloggers appear. As Lac mentioned, he wasn't able to find any Vietnamese bloggers for example.

I realized listening to everyone talk was that these bloggers (and the ones who couldn't be in attendance) are clearly the growing voice of Asian Americans nowadays. People know Angry Asian Man, they know Disgrasian, they know 8asians. When I interned at A Magazine post-college, they were close to shutting down and another influential magazine, Yolk, shuttered soon afterwards too. Since then, these bloggers have helped by stepping into the breach and they do it out of an honest love for the community, for activism and awareness, and to simply express themselves.

Attending Bananas was exciting because it echoed what it was like when blogging first started picking up steam in the early 2000s. The Asian American blogging world is really new and it'll only continue to proliferate, become more influential, and many of the voices that weren't represented here will be here in the near future. So for that alone, this was a landmark event and Lac and Steve really did a great job putting it together and pulling it off in a short time. At the end of the event, there was definitely a spirit of unity and hope for more community based togetherness and action.

The night certainly stirred my mind and opened me up to a slew of new sites. My Reader is packed. So yeah, even more time to spend on the computer. Fantastic.

Recaps of Banana from AA Rising and Nikkei View. Oh and from Absolutely Fobulous, who were also in attendance. Actually, I feel like a lot of the people in the crowd were Asian American bloggers, but unfortunately I didn't catch all their names. Obviously I need to learn to take better notes.

Update: Additional recaps from big WOWO, Hyphen, Julie from Kimchi Mamas, Minority Militant (plus apology), and AzN and CBruhs of Bicoastal Bitchin. Plus Channel APA, Asian American Movement, and Dariane of Racebending
Strange but true:
  • The guy from Militant Minority started off seated at the tables, added a few (mildly cogent) comments here and there, left to refill his drink, came back, moved off the stage to sit in the front row, moved back again to sit next to his friend, and then left the event entirely about an hour into it. Aside from being rude I couldn't help feeling like it was Puck-ish. If this were a reality show, he would definitely be the polarizing figure. The thing is, after checking out his blog, it's actually compelling and well written. So I guess his behavior can only be explained by the alcohol? Perhaps he was demonstrating that indeed, Asians can't hold their liquor.
  • One audience member asked/stated a meandering non-question about Asian women being the new blondes or something and his convoluted point got him a hasty "next question!" and a hearty hand clap from the crowd when he exited. I think he was driving at something about if the bloggers wanted their children to eventually marry non-Asian for a better future? I dunno, something offensive anyway. Afterwards I overheard him going on about the same thing and wondered if he could really be serious about his viewpoint. I kind of wanted to ask him how he arrived at some of his conclusions about the hierarchy of Asian-Americanness (he wasn't Asian). Wikipedia? Ouija board?

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