By Louis Nevaer, Oct 24, 2012 1:21 PM
In 2011, Chinese author and recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Mo Yan, was invited to speak before the Cervantes Institute in Beijing. Mo chose to speak about a Chinese view of something emblematic in Spanish/Hispanic society, namely bullfighting.
By Stephanie Minasian, Apr 24, 2012 6:17 PM
Under the budget crisis, school districts across the state have asked students to put down their paint brushes and pick up No. 2 pencils for their standardized tests.
By Peter Schurmann, Aug 16, 2011 9:32 AM
It’s rare when the media looks into the personal history of a homeless person, but a recent article in the Korea Times does exactly that. The story that emerges takes readers from the halcyon days of post war Seoul to Tokyo police stations and finally to the back streets of Oakland, where Hae-ok Gye now calls home.
By Peter Schurmann, Aug 10, 2011 2:11 PM
New York’s Holocaust Resource Center is set to open its latest exhibit, which focuses on the sexual exploitation of Korea’s so-called “comfort women” by Japanese forces up to and during WWII, reports the Korea Daily.
By Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, Jun 24, 2011 11:48 AM
I recently interviewed for a job launching a new online literary magazine about literature and social justice activism. (The interview did not go so well, but...) What a great idea to link the glamour of novelists and poets with the purpose of social justice activism. This gives literature more weight and meaning, and gives activism more color and style.
By Suzanne Manneh, Jun 6, 2011 10:25 AM
The San Jose-based Grammy Award-winning Mexican music group Los Tigres del Norte will be playing a special concert June 16 at the San Jose State Event Center Arena to benefit arts and music programs in local schools, reports Univision.
The concert is being organized by the Mexican Heritage Corporation of San Jose, which provides Mexican folklorico dance classes in San Jose schools and community centers.
By Andrew Lam, Apr 4, 2011 1:23 PM
Author Andrew Lam read excerpts from his new book East Eats West and discussed the unexpected consequences of the Vietnamese diaspora. He concentrated not only on how the East and West have changed, but how they are changing each other. Lam is an editor and cofounder of New American Media, an association of over two thousand ethnic media outlets in America. Followed by a film crew back to his homeland, Vietnam, he was featured in the documentary My Journey Home which aired nationwide on PBS in 2004. His book Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora won a PEN American Beyond Margins award in 2006.
By Vivian Po, Jan 18, 2011 10:41 AM
Ever since Yale law professor Amy Chua's article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" was published in the Wall Street Journal, an online debate has raged over whether the pressure Chinese parents put on their kids is a good thing. Now a local Chinese-language newspaper is weighing in.
By Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, Dec 20, 2010 10:30 AM
Last week, I went on a first grade field trip to Kensington Metropark. The naturalist assigned to our small group, Manfred Schmidt, took a few extra moments to learn to pronounce the beautiful names emblazoned on the children’s nametags (Indian names, Korean names, Chinese names, Greek names). He said by way of explanation that he was from Germany.
By Andrew Lam, Sep 16, 2010 12:11 PM
Since normalization with Vietnam, trade between the US and Vietnam has been on the steady rise. What’s not been reported on, however, is the cultural exchanges between the Diaspora and its homeland.
For the last few years, ,any Vietnamese American filmmakers and actors have been going to Vietnam to make independent films on the cheap.
For Dustin Nguyen – known for his role in the series 21 Jump Street in the late 80s that jump-started the career of Pamela Anderson and Johnny Depp - the result is FOOL FOR LOVE (De Mai Tinh). The film, directed by a Vietnamese American from San Jose, Charlie Nguyen, is now a box office smash in his homeland, Vietnam.
It’s the story about the travails of earnest bathroom clerk Dung (Dustin Nguyen), according to http://asianamericanmedia.org/, “as he falls in love and quits his job at a five-star hotel to pursue the affections of a beautiful lounge singer, Mai (Kathy Uyen).”
Mai, however, is being chased by a real estate tycoon. In order to finance his pursuit of love, Dung is forced to work as a chauffeur to a very rich but very gay businessman looking for male companionship.
Charlie Nguyen is from San Jose and the movie is opened to limited audience at Camera 12 Downtown last weekend. It’s sold out to mostly Vietnamese American crowd. It is also being shown in Dalas, Houston, Orange County and Atlanta, where there are sizeable Vietnamese communities.
Both Dustin and Charlie have made another movie in Vietnam in 1997 called The Rebel and it involves Vietnamese martial arts and it was also a box office smash in Vietnam.
See my review:
NAM Editor, Andrew Lam, is author of East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres.
By Elena Shore, Jun 23, 2010 9:00 AM
A new kind of protest music is springing up in reaction to Arizona’s controversial new immigration law SB 1070, which makes it a crime to be undocumented. From corridos (narrative Mexican ballads) to hip-hop, artists are voicing their opposition to the law through music.
The Alto Arizona Campaign is holding a contest for original corridos against the Arizona law. Shakira visited Phoenix to speak out against the law. Rage Against the Machine, Kanye West and Sonic Youth are among a group of artists has joined a “sound strike,” refusing to perform in the state. There's a Facebook drive to get 1 million people to support a concert against the Arizona law. And Carlos Santana, Maná and Willie Nelson are among the artists currently recording songs in protest of the law.
Here's a sampling of five of the songs, from a corrido to hip-hop, that have been inspired by SB 1070.
1. Los Cenzontles: Estado de Verguenza
(a corrido written by Eugene Rodriguez)
"Arizona, state of shame, what have you done with your fear?
Instead of being known for your beauty, you are now famous for racism and hatred."
2. Back to AZ (Anti-1070)
(Hip-Hop artists in Arizona featuring DJ John Blaze, Tajji Sharp, Yung Face, Mr. Miranda, Ocean, Da'aron Anthony, Atllas, Chino D, Nyhtee, Pennywise, Rich Rico, and Da Beast)
"Today it appears much hasn't changed
They dress a little different but they act just the same
It's an all-out war on all with a brown face...
1070 is code for hate
We're still being oppressed in this day and age"
3. Talib Kweli: Papers Please
(written and performed by Talib Kweli)
"The same mentality that put blacks in graves
That leads to the 'master race'
is making Arizona a battle state"
4. Mexia: Todos Somos Arizona
(written by Mexia, son of Los Tigres Del Norte co-founder Hernan Hernandez)
"There's something wrong with that picture there
No lo puedo creer, no lo puedo ver, tu forma de ser es lo de ayer
And we’re Latinos on the rise like blood pressure yeah, trying to control us with fear.”
5. Louie Cruz Beltran: By the Time I Sneak Outta Phoenix
(a parody of the Glen Campbell song "By the Time I Get to Phoenix")
"Governor Jan can't you hear the voice of Ronald Reagan
When he said now it's time to tear down this wall?
Obama, don't just stand there, you've got to do, do something
Even Schwarzenegger, even he is appalled."
By Ninoy Brown, Feb 10, 2010 6:34 PM
February 5, 2010, The New Parish in Oakland (previously known as Jimmie’s Nightclub) is filled with a diverse range of faces to celebrate and remember the life of Mike “Dream” Francisco. Three year old’s hit the floor rockin’ their best b-boy/b-girl moves along with veteran popper, Bionic Man. Older heads recollect their memories of chillin’ and mentoring the legendary graffiti writer, younger heads recall the pieces he created which inspired them to pick up a can, and his counterparts remembered the escapades.
(Via FOBBDeep)
By Sandip Roy, Oct 31, 2009 1:10 PM
Listen to this commentary on NPR.org
Every day at dusk, I go around the house turning on the lights.
My grandmother did it. My mother still does it. It’s well-known that twilight is the perfect time for wandering ghosts to sneak into the house.
Haunted houses in India don’t have just one ghost. It could be a whole family. There are shankchunnis and petnis, ghosts of women unlucky in love who wear saris and pounce on eligible young men. Brahmodoityas are the ghosts of Brahmans, and might bless you or curse you. The skondhokatas are the headless ghosts of people who died in train accidents. They sound terrifying, but because they don’t have heads, you can trick them easily. But you have to watch out for the very dangerous nishi, who call people by name in the dead of night and lead them away, never to be seen again.
By Inga Buchbinder, Jul 7, 2009 4:54 PM
There has been a lot of hooplah in the news about MJ's--The King of Pop-- death. Journalists all over the country are digging up the ultimate source hoping to get an inside look into this man who we all know through his music but not in any other way.
By Laura Goode, Jan 27, 2009 10:16 AM
Suppressing my inner cheapskate, I dropped $11 at the Metreon last night to go see Notorious, The Notorious B.I.G. biopic that just came out for no apparent reason. I've been aware of the film for longer than most because part of it (a very short chase scene, as it turns out) was filmed on my old block in Brooklyn (check out the link for more than you ever wanted to know about the Franklin Ave. shuttle, a relic of an MTA gone by that makes a brief cameo), much to my delight and that of my Prospect Heights neighbors. The imagery of Brooklyn, my lover from another lifetime, was unfortunately the best part of my Notorious experience. The street footage of Bed-Stuy-do-or-die is authentic; I could pretty much smell the familiar KFC refuse and blunt smoke every time the camera landed on the intersection of Fulton and St. James.
