bigWOWO » Asian American

Jeremy Lin: Our Generation’s Joe Louis

bigWOWO — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 04:58:08 +0000

Jeremy Lin scored 38 points tonight, a career-time high. I watched it live with my family. Jeremy and his team beat Kobe, the fourth Knicks victory in a row.

I’m not going to beat around the bush, nor will I wait to say this: Jeremy Lin is the Joe Louis of our time. I remember reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X, where Malcolm talks about the pride he felt when Joe Louis won the heavyweight crown. Well, we’re living in a different time, and we’re a different culture, but I’ll say it out loud: Jeremy Lin is our Joe Louis, whatever that means. These days no one cares about the boxing heavyweight champion of the world, no one cares about the MMA champion of the world. Instead, we value style and intelligence combined with style, size, and efficiency. In terms of the impact, Jeremy is the apotheosis of Asian American athletic achievement. In the world of sports, there is no bigger achievement than winning in basketball. And the fact that he beat Kobe is huge.

Joe Louis

Yes, we’ve had our Michael Chang. We’ve had our Apolo Ohno. And they are great athletes. But this is basketball. Basketball is the biggest sport in America, a sport where even in a team sport an individual can shine brighter than on any other stage. Eli Manning is no Michael Jordan. The fact is that within our culture, basketball is the world’s most prestigious stage.

The racists have already come out (e.g. Jason Whitlock). But who gives a shit? Really. One of our people just achieved an amazing feat on the world’s biggest stage, and that’s what matters most.

Holy Jesus, Jeremy

bigWOWO — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 04:56:11 +0000

I had a long discussion with an Asian American friend today whose religious view are similar to mine–i.e. they’re not existent. She asked me what I though of Jeremy Lin, and I said that his accomplishments are great for Asian Americans. I asked her what she thought, and she said she couldn’t get over the Christian thing. Normally I’d have to agree, but man, I may have to convert after the video above. As my old pastor said, “Can I hear an amen?”

By the way, this was the top link for “Jeremy Lin” on my google search: Asian Americans energized in seeing Knicks’ Jeremy Lin play.

(Thanks, Danny! I too had no idea he had dunking in his arsenal!)

Seeking Asian Female

bigWOWO — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:51:06 +0000

Seeking Asian Female Trailer from Seeking Asian Female Documentary on Vimeo.

Got this from Alpha/Mojo. I couldn’t tell if it was real or acted, but it looks like it’s real. It’s premiering at South by Southwest. As much as I question supporting this kind of thing, it does look from the trailer that it will work out fine. Dude seems nice enough. Older, but nice enough.

Here’s the description from their website:

Seeking Asian Female is an eccentric modern love story about
Steven and Sandy – an aging white man with “yellow fever” who is
obsessed with marrying any Asian woman, and the young Chinese
bride he finds online. Debbie, a Chinese American filmmaker,
documents and narrates with skepticism and humor, from the early
stages of Steven’s search for an Asian bride, through the moment
Sandy steps foot in America for the first time, to a year into their
precarious union. Global migration, Sino-American relations and the
perennial battle of the sexes, weigh in on the fate of their marriage
in this intimate and quirky personal documentary.

Superbowl Recipe and Xenophobic Superbowl Ad

bigWOWO — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 17:51:24 +0000

It was Superbowl weekend. Did y’all see it? I didn’t see it all, but it gave me an excellent excuse to try this awesome hot Asian wings recipe from Kai:

It was absolutely delicious. I was, however, surprised that the Sriracha sauce isn’t as spicy after cooking, and I wish I’d put in that “Asian chili flakes” that Kai said would “burn your ass.” The older I get, the more I find myself craving extremely spicy food.

Anyway, the Superbowl is known a lot for its commercials, and in keeping with the tradition, GOP Senate hopeful Pete Hoekstra ran the following ad saying that his opponent was spending too much money and borrowing from China. It depicts a Chinese woman riding a bike in the rice paddies and telling Americans how China is reaping the benefits of jobs and money from bad American policy. “Your economy get very weak, ours get very good.” Yeah, watch out for those Chinese women in the rice paddies–they’ll give you an earful about politics and economics if you let ‘em talk! Actually, I’m not sure what a woman in the rice paddies is talking about anyway…are the Chinese stealing jobs from American farmers growing rice in China?

The actress is clearly an American without an accent, but in keeping with the tradition, she’s gotta fake one. And this is one of the worst Chinese accents I’ve ever heard. Alexandra Wallace had a better accent.

Oh well, logic was never the forte of some of these politicians–at least not when talking to the American people. Hoekstra, according to his Wiki, is an immigrant himself, born in the Netherlands. So he can’t be racist! Err..right.

On a happier note, some black ministers in Detroit have gotten involved and have called on Hoekstra to apologize. At least Hoekstra is bringing the minorities together.

“The Asian woman speaking in this video would be no different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect,” Williams said in a statement Monday. “If Pete Hoekstra does not see any wrong in this commercial, he doesn’t deserve to be in the race.”

Jeremy Lin shines

bigWOWO — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 16:37:50 +0000

According to the NY Times,

Jeremy Lin, whose unusual résumé is more well known than his game, emerged as the Knicks’ momentary savior, packing the box score with career highs and leading his team to a stress-relieving 99-92 victory over the Nets.

Lin scored 25 points, nearly doubling his previous career high, and finished with 7 assists and 5 rebounds, energizing a Knicks offense that desperately needed a boost. He outscored his celebrity teammates, Carmelo Anthony (11 points) and Amar’e Stoudemire (17 points), and outdueled Deron Williams (21 points), the Nets’ All-Star point guard.

The entire article is about Jeremy. This guy could go far.

Edit: Just saw this:

Great video. But WTF kind of sign was that Asian guy in the audience holding up?

No related posts.

“But he hit me back first!”

bigWOWO — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 06:14:29 +0000

I thought this was a joke when I first saw it: African Americans in Dallas Target Korean Business. According to the article,

The customer, complaining that the price of gas at the station was much higher than at other stations, demanded he be able to buy gas by smaller amounts than what the owner set as the minimum sales unit. The owner refused and told him to go to another station, to which the customer responded by telling the owner to go back to his country. The owner responded by telling the customer to go back to Africa.

That triggered a boycott of the gas station by the black community in the region, followed by them speaking out against Korean and other Asian immigrant communities.

So the black customer told the Korean owner to go back to his country, the Korean responded by telling the black customer to go back to Africa, and now there’s a boycott? I thought maybe I was only getting one side (the Korean side) of the story, so I googled it, and no, it seems like everyone agrees on what went down.

I agree that many Korean businesspeople have no respect at all for the communities in which they open stores. But c’mon! I mean, really, if you’re a minority who tells another minority to go back to his own country, is it all that surprising that he might say the same thing to you? If you punch a guy in the face and he punches you back, can you accuse him of being violent?

American Dervish by Ayad Akhtar (Review)

bigWOWO — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:46:46 +0000

bigWOWO rating: Popular Fiction Gold

The problem with fiction reviews, especially with popular fiction, is that the reviewer can only give away so much without ruining the ending. As a result, I read American Dervish and expected a simple story of unrequited love and betrayal. Instead, it was much more. Ayad Akhtar uses this story not only to describe forbidden love and lust, but also to describe what it is like growing up Muslim. Check out this video where the author explains why he wrote it (he uses the “love story” description himself):

“American Dervish” Video Statement from Ayad Akhtar on Vimeo

The story is about a young Pakistani American man named Hayat Shah who reflects on the death of his mother’s oldest friend Mina from Pakistan. Mina comes to live with Hayat’s family, and she shares the Muslim faith with the young twelve-year-old Hayat, who embraces Islam and finds himself in love/lust with his Aunt Mina. Mina herself falls in love with a young Jewish doctor, and Hayat responds with a act of vengeance that destroys the lives of everyone involved.

I couldn’t put this book down. It was 352 pages, and I finished it in two and a half days. Akhtar wrote a very brave novel. Not only does it tell a story of forbidden lust in a coming-of-age story, but he uses the story to recount what it’s like growing up Muslim in America–a story that we hardly ever hear, even though it is as relevant as it has ever been. Growing up exposed to hypocritical religious fundamentalists myself, it was eye-opening to read a similar perspective from another religion. I’m sure people will read this and think, “No way, that can’t be how it really is!” but I hope people will read with an open mind. Check it out!

Facebook IPO

bigWOWO — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:08:09 +0000

David Choe

Man, this Facebook IPO is going to be making some people a lot of bank. Check out this Times article here: From Founders to Decorators, Facebook Riches. The guy pictured above is David Choe, a graffiti artist who painted the walls of Facebook’s first headquarters. For Mr. Choe’s artistic services, Sean Parker offered to pay him either thousands of dollars or Facebook stock. Choe took stock instead of money. His stock is expected to be worth upwards of $200 million after the IPO.

Although Mr. Choe initially led a rough life including run-ins with the law, he is wealthy even without the Facebook offering. (It is unclear whether he sold any portion of his Facebook holdings on secondary markets.) Now a very successful artist with gallery shows and pieces exhibited in major museums, Mr. Choe declined requests to be interviewed for this article; he said he wanted to maintain his privacy. He has, however, published an obscenity-strewn book of his art, “David Choe,” which includes images of the multimillion-dollar murals at Facebook.

Mr. Choe’s page on Facebook shows the life of a modern-day renegade artist. Among the images of his graffiti, there is a trail of images of him partying with scantily clad women and spending large amounts of money on alcohol. In recent weeks, Mr. Choe promoted photos of a $40,000 bottle of alcohol; a single shot, he boasted, costs $888.

And who says art isn’t a lucrative field?

6 on 1 Beatdown of Asian Man

bigWOWO — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 08:56:57 +0000

Does anyone want to comment on the video above? (NSFW because of violence.) It’s a very violent fight with 6 people beating on one Asian guy. I don’t know what to say, other than it’s highly disturbing, and it’s been making its rounds on the blogosphere. From what I’ve read on the web, a few of the assailants are also Asian, and there was one young Asian woman who posted a YouTube video, claims to know the assailants, and says that “they had their reasons” for what they did:

The woman says that there had been a fight before that was 20 against 2, and that this was revenge against one of the perpetrators. I’m assuming she’s telling the truth, or some version of it. The police seem to be corroborating the idea of an earlier fight (see an update here…7 people were arrested). It’s really weird how they’re calling him the N-word while throwing punches and kicks. I think that if you’re ever in this situation, it makes sense to throw and land some of your own punches and kicks, even if you’re down. People under the threat of violence often don’t fight back because they don’t want to enrage their attackers, but I wonder if it makes a difference–they may want to beat you anyway. So you might as well bloody a lip or break a nose or dislocate a jaw before they take you down.

This pack mentality is disturbing. From what I’ve seen and heard, it’s becoming big among Asian Americans these days. I remember not too long ago I was sitting in an internet cafe in Flushing, and an Asian tough guy and about ten other guys like him (and a few girls) got all thuggish on the cafe owner. I don’t remember what precipitated it, but the guy was threatening to create havoc unless the owner fired one of his employees. The owner wouldn’t do it, and luckily the pack eventually left.

Whenever I see stuff like this, I always think that the long-term answer is literature. People seeking greater understanding and participating in a war of ideas are less likely to get involved with this kind of fronting, posturing, and straight-out violence. I’m biased, of course, but it always seems strange to me that people are always trying to extinguish the energy of young men rather than redirecting it.

Two podcasts that address racism in the military, and Danny Chen the person

bigWOWO — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 20:47:14 +0000

1. Check out this old podcast (before I had my awesome mic!) in July of 2009 that I did with my good friend Hoang Nguyen for the Thymos Book Project: http://thymos.org/book-project/ It’s the first interview. (For those waiting for the book project, it’s coming out in the next few months!) Hoang is a former Marine who served in Iraq during the first Bush’s administration, and he talks about racism in the Marines. He talks about one issue he had with a Vietnam vet where he had to leave his platoon for a little while in order to prevent violence.

Overall Hoang said that racism didn’t prevent him from doing anything he wanted to do. He didn’t struggle like Danny Chen did (see the article in #3 below). He was a knife combat instructor in the Marines, and he’d probably be one of the last people I’d voluntarily mess with. I imagine few people in general would want to mess with him–that racist Vietnam vet would probably be dead from constipation with Hoang’s boot up his ass if the commanders didn’t separate them. Still, you shouldn’t have to be at the top in order to be free from racial harassment.

2. Also check out this awesome podcast here, in which Kwong Eng and Lt. Dan Choi talk about racism in the military, in light of the events surrounding the Danny Chen incident. I like the podcast because it addresses the culture of the military, and it’s good to hear it from the perspective of Dan Choi, who was a West Point graduate who was eventually discharged because of his sexual orientation. As Choi mentions, there are few Asians in the military, and it has to increase.

3. Check out this NY Magazine article on the life of Danny Chen. It’s especially sad given that despite his weakness, he was determined to make it work. The racists who hazed him punished him for his desire to serve the country.

By the way, these racists are going to get off pretty lightly, regardless of what happens. According to this article:

According to the Army, the soldiers charged are 1st Lt. Daniel J. Schwartz, Staff Sgt. Blaine G. Dugas, Staff Sgt. Andrew J. Van Bockel, Sgt. Adam M. Holcomb, Sgt. Jeffrey T. Hurst, Spc. Thomas P. Curtis, Spc. Ryan J. Offutt and Sgt. Travis F. Carden.

VanBockel, Holcomb, Hurst, Curtis and Offutt are charged with involuntary manslaughter, negligent homicide and assault and battery.

Under military law, involuntary manslaughter carries up to 10 years in prison and negligent homicide carries up to three years.

Three years for negligent homicide, 10 years for involuntary manslaughter? It’s a slap on the wrist for breaking down a fellow soldier and endangering the country. But at least we can fight for them to bring the trial here and to give Danny Chen a fair trial.