Ky-Phong Tran

Columnist

Ky-Phong Tran is a public school, latch-key kid from North Long Beach, CA. He's written for the Nguoi Viet Daily News, New America Media, the Orange County Register, the San Francisco Chronicle, and of course, Hyphen, which published his short story "A Thing Called Exodus." In 2010, he was a Work-Study Fiction Scholar at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. He holds an MA in Asian American Studies from UCLA and MFA in Creative Writing from UC Riverside. He's into pop culture, street art, music festivals, literature, clever people, and keen ideas.

K-PoP: A Modern Take on Chinese-Vietnamese History

It seems eons ago that San Francisco State and UC Berkeley students fought for Asian American Studies and Yuji Ichioka coined the term “Asian American" in the late 1960's. 

Each decade of Asian America since has brought us pioneering activists, academics, and artists that have changed the paradigms of their fields and caused ripples, both large and small, across the country. So many, in fact, that I’m scared to make a Who’s Who List and leave anyone out and be lambasted on some obscure blog. (Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop’s Jeff Chang is my personal favorite, however).