As my colleague Chuck Barney says in today's Contra Costa Times [1], Chan "has neither the knockout looks or sizzling youth of your typical TV star," attributes that the previous Survivor winner, Yul Kwon [2], has in abundance. But Chan, 54, an information systems director at UC Berkeley, is nevertheless leading the pack on the show.

We seem to be posting a lot about reality TV on this blog, and I think it's because the genre is giving Asian Americans a chance to be seen on the airwaves, for better or worse.