The Conversation
- Jeremy Lin: Our Generation’s Joe Louis (9)
- Amy Chua: Chinese Conceit, Chinese Ignorance, and the $24,000 question (247)
- bigWOWO: Not sure if you’re a “bot” or a real person, Andre, but I know lots of Chuas. Only...
- Andre M. Smith: Further on Chua as a Chinese surname . . . My wife, a gyn surgeon, hails from a family of...
- “But he hit me back first!” (44)
- King: I will be kissing Asian women like Linda against the wall without a shirt”. Yuck!!!
- Raguel: “I’m glad you guys are pissed off at blacks. It takes the pressure off of me while you are hating...
- Siegfried: I’m glad you guys are pissed off at blacks. It takes the pressure off of me while you are hating...
- Seeking Asian Female (8)
- Raguel: Yes! I mean with me. How did I miss that part out? And why do I suddenly feel some anxiety?
But here is an... - King: “If I ever get a mail order bride I will get her addicted to sex first.” I assume you mean with you...
- bigWOWO: Linda, Haha! Maybe that dude is on to something with the foreign language nagging. But to be honest, maybe...
- Raguel: Yes! I mean with me. How did I miss that part out? And why do I suddenly feel some anxiety?
- The Other-Directed Personality (1)
- Siegfried: Mitt got Obama worried. He is shaking in his boots. It’s over for Obama because Mitt is going to...
- Holy Jesus, Jeremy (9)
- N: @TD Good pick up on that one.
- trolldetector: @Colin I love how whites keep trying to troll their divide tactics Asian blogs under different guises.
- Eurasian Sensation: @ Colin: I’m pretty sure Jeremy Lin and his supporters are not the same person.
- Jeremy Lin shines (21)
- trolldetector: GO JEREMY LIN
- N: @danny You should youtube his college games. The two against Boston college and the one against UConn. Lol, he can...
- Lingyai: @Ben Efsaneyim Why would it be surprising a non Asian crowd cheering for Lin? Most of the NBA fans going to...
- What Cultures Value (22)
- trolldetector: @Colin. Dont you belong on a Lord Of The Rings filmset? Thats where most white trolls dwell isnt it?
- colin: A bit late to this, but bigwowo, you grossly underestimate the anti-work and anti-intellectual ethic here in...
- bigWOWO: Yeah, I could go for that.
- About A Boy by Nick Hornby (6)
- bigWOWO: That’s a really good point, Raguel. Like it or not, TV executives control everything (including what...
- Raguel: I could be wrong but the distribution windows for media and especially film seems very hierarchical. If you...
- bigWOWO: Illegal streaming? I had no idea anyone did that! Well, I really should check out some movies one of these...
- Superbowl Recipe and Xenophobic Superbowl Ad (22)
- Raguel: Time to get your concealed carry licences, folks!
- Eurasian Sensation: Jeff Yang has a good article about this ad: http://inamerica.blogs.cnn....
- Raguel: I haven’t even gotten to why the ad really is so offensive to us, ROFL
- Stop SOPA and PIPA (9)
- Raguel: ^ Nice one Byron! I’m reading through the NYT picks, they’re good!
- bigWOWO: The Times had an Op-Ed by the President of the RIAA, and I commented. My comment was picked as a...
- Raguel: Found a great website, take a look at this: https://www.cdt.org/ Why should privacy be important, in an age...
- The Perversity of Human Biodiversity, a.k.a. “Scientific” Racism (402)
- bigWOWO: Here’s an interesting suggestion coming out of MIT: Connectome by Sebastian Seung...
- Battle Hymn of the Kitten Daughter (36)
- Raguel: You know Andre, you and me, I think we and a lot of other folks may have gone through some pretty harrowing...
- Andre M. Smith: Russians call me German, Germans call me Russian, Jews call me a Christian, Christians a Jew....
- Two podcasts that address racism in the military, and Danny Chen the person (9)
- Raguel: The origins of racism in the American military as described by loudestfuckingazns is accurate. Very recently,...
- bigWOWO: Sorry, Larry, just noticed that the spam robot junked your comment. Approved!
- bigWOWO: Agreed. It just has more weight if you include your name. Not that the ideas are any less valid, but it just...
- Facebook IPO (5)
- King: Actually WOWO, I bump into plenty of Asians up at the Art Center College of Design http://www.artcenter.edu/a...
- bigWOWO: Agree with King. This might not be a bad thing for Asian Americans to hear about. We can jump off the STEM...
- Raguel: People are too accustomed to thinking about value only in terms of money. Even artists are guilty of it. Some...
- Activism is as activism does (10)
- trolldetector: Brooks also goes onto say ‘You should attach yourself to a counter-tradition and school of...
- bigWOWO: By the way, speaking of activism, there was a great David Brooks column recently. He talks about how people...
- Raguel: I have no experience whatsoever with activism. I simply do not feel safe participating in it. There is always...
- How to Win a Streetfight (18)
- bigWOWO: No worries. I feel the same way. Nothing against her, but just doubtful.
- Raguel: Hi Byron! I’ve been occupied doing a lot of reading and thinking recently. I suppose its just another...
- bigWOWO: Hey Raguel, What about your comments on ASSK?
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
- UFC 117 Sonnen vs. Silva Recap (1)
- bigWOWO: I think Michael Bisping solved the Chael Sonnen puzzle today, even though he lost a controversial decision....
- 6 on 1 Beatdown of Asian Man (36)
- King: “I mean I look around me and 99% of the time there are no women that look like or dress like Adriana Lima...
- SWR: Apparently the girl in the second video was not the girl who filmed the fight. It was probably unwise of her to...
- Raguel: I mean I look around me and 99% of the time there are no women that look like or dress like Adriana Lima in...
- Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids by Bryan Caplan (Review) (6)
- bigWOWO: Jeff, You called it! They were (if I recall correctly) 7 (twins) and 2. He’s still in the honeymoon...
- jeffat8asians: “Overpaying?” With the possible exception of college tuition (and even that is arguable),...
- Hitler: Kids suck lol.
- The Asian Rock Thread (16)
- ben: I’ve been getting into Asian rock music recently so thank you all very much for uploading all these videos.
- Simple Pickup on ABC News (132)
- Tommy: I think I’m coming here more for Moro’s comments than BigWoWO’s posts.
- “Lazy” Americans and the Decline of the American Middle Class (6)
- bigWOWO: But kobu, how can we have literature and art without money to support artists and writers? About...
Tag Archives: books
My next Amazon purchase (along with the aforementioned Secret Identities)
(See Jamie Ford’s with Borders interview here.)
I’d like to take a moment to embarrass some of my contributors. A few months ago, Winnovative, MinorityMilitant, Larry, and Jason sent me an Amazon.com certificate out of the blue. I was totally surprised and really touched. I LOVE Amazon–it’s my favorite store on the web. Thank you so much! I used to make a decent living before having kids, but with tons of expenses both in the present and future, I rarely spend these days. With the cost of diapers, food, and eventual college, I’m most likely going to spend the next 21 years in poverty.
Deep Pockets and Asian American Culture
(image from here)
The NY Times had a great editorial about Bernard Madoff and the allure of money: If Looks Could Steal. In the editorial, Daphne Merkin, sister of a Madoff investor, talks about how we as a society respect money and how money seems to validate everything that a rich person says. She brings up an example of a dinner with George Soros, and she describes it thus:
Posted in Activism, books, Writing
Tagged Activism, Asian American, books, money, Writing
2 Comments
Some Good News on the Community and Economic Front
Library usage up. At least something good is coming from this horrible economy. Will this create the educational revolution that we’ve all been hoping for since W brought his proud ignorance into the White House eight years ago? Could it help usher in the era of Asian American Lit that we’ve been awaiting for the last 35 years?
It’s a start.
There’s some possible good news on the way too. According to this NY Times blog, a bad economy can create an environment for inventiveness. Will we see creativity go up? Some entrepreneurs are already starting.
People Who See Dead People
(Picture from Amazon)
I’ve been burning through books this week. Two books and half the fiction section of a lit journal in three days so far, and I’m about to start another book. After the next book or two, I think I’ll have the reading-urge out of my system so that I can seriously write again.
Empathy and Kids
I just finished this book: Great Kids: Helping Your Baby and Child Develop the Ten Essential Qualities for a Healthy, Happy Life by Stanley I. Greenspan. The book focuses on ten different areas on which to focus when raising a child who is confident, creative, strong, and moral. Those of you in education have probably read tons of books like this one, but it’s a great little book.
My favorite part of the book was the part on giving your child the tools for moral integrity. It says:
Culture around a Book
Michael Muhammad Knight, author of "Taqwacores"
I’m a writer. Not a paid writer, but a writer who someday hopes to get paid.
At the same time, I wonder whether I have enough overlap with general mainstream tastes and values. I’m not a big fan of Chang-Rae Lee and Ha Jin, which is the kind of stuff that most Asian Americanists and non-Asian people like to read (and buy!). It’s not that I dislike Lee or Ha’s messages or think they’re poor writers; I just find their stories somewhat insignificant to my own view of the way things are or should be. Their use of language is fine, but there isn’t much that one can build upon their stories when it comes to self-conceptualization or self-actualization or empowerment. I finish their stories and think to myself, “what’s the point?” I’m more of a Gish Jen, Leonard Chang, Wayson Choy, or Terry Woo fan. (I won’t mention Frank Chin because you ALL know I’m his biggest fan when it comes to essays!)
