The Inside/Out Issue takes a look at what it means to be on the inside yet the outside, to occupy the foreground yet the background. It also features our new Food section.
I want to say a lot about Macho Bravado, an in-house work premiering with Asian American Theater Company. I want to say it has some uneven bits. The doctor character, for example, is kind of a wuss. Also I have to wonder if we needed an old Western, broadcast from a television onstage, to bludgeon home the central theme of the play -- macho bravado, in case anyone had missed it.
But what I want to say most of all is that this production has heart.
Saturday April 10th -- San Francisco
International Lao New Year Festival
Promoting and welcoming unity, diversity, and cultural heritage, the International Lao New Year Festival is one of the largest Southeast Asian American festivals in the country. With cultural performances, a Miss Lao International pageant, and an evening gala. More info here.
10 am to 5pm (Evening Gala 7 pm to 1 am)
Shame on Shyamalan!
Hollywood's most successful director of color embarrasses us all with some lame-ass excuse-making about the whitewashed cast of his new Airbender movie.
Originally posted by Ravi Chandra at the Center for Asian American Media blog.
This SFIAAFF, there were two outstanding movies related to adoption. I sat down with Deann Borshay Liem (IN THE MATTER OF CHA JUNG HEE) and Stephanie Wang-Breal (WO AI NI MOMMY) for an hourlong conversation during the festival. The following is an excerpt of that conversation. (Both films will be on PBS later this year. WO AI NI MOMMY airs August 31, 2010, and IN THE MATTER OF CHA JUNG HEE airs September 14, 2010; in the intervening week is another documentary on adoption, Nicole Opper’s OFF AND RUNNING.)
Whoa. Talk about an issues intersect. Anyone have a race-spotting moment when they saw this viral vid? Yeah, me too.
Image provided by Catherine Shu
Over the Lunar New Year break, many stores in Taipei played classical Chinese music (or modern remixes of classical Chinese music). The songs made me feel uneasy and I wondered why. Was it because the melodies sounded atonal to my Western ears? Or was it because the music reminded me of being the fattest kid in my traditional Chinese dance class?
Actually, we're talking about Asian Americans online: the bloggers, the journalists, the YouTube celebs, and you -- the readers and viewers of above fare. And here's the kind of stuff we'll be dishing:
With newspapers and magazines folding like dominoes around us, what's a journalist to do? Much less one who thinks this niche called Asian America needs covering?
If bloggers (and KevJumba) are the rising voices of Asian American media, then does great responsibility come with great power?