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The Conversation
- “But he hit me back first!” (13)
- Siegfried: If it was a Russian or any other white man who told blacks”to go back to Africa”, it would...
- Raguel: I saw that Spike Lee film “Do the Right Thing” years ago but still can’t understand it.
- bigWOWO: Stele: “Care to qualify that statement? Even if that were true, you have to look at this case on its...
- 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...
- Stop SOPA and PIPA (7)
- Raguel: Found a great website, take a look at this: https://www.cdt.org/ Why should privacy be important, in an age...
- Raguel: Following the temporary shelving of SOPA and PIPA in the long line of net neutrality battles, the feds and...
- Chr..: “Asian American men have to get more involved, not less. It’s a civic responsibility, and you have to...
- 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...
- What Cultures Value (19)
- 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.
- Moroboshi: I didn’t say that. All I said was guys who believe in HBD are the same guys who probably also follow...
- Chr..: Moro, I don’t want to argue with you anymore! You seem to think that AMs are just as popular as other...
- “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...
- kobukson: I don’t know why everyone seems to think the notion of the decline of the middle class is such a bad...
- bigWOWO: There are a lot of veterans (supposedly) on that site. I can kind of understand it–military guys are...
- Aung Sung Suu Kyi Movie with Michelle Yeoh (45)
- bigWOWO: Eurasian, Lee Kuan Yew has always been upfront about Singapore’s hybrid system. To the best of my...
- Eurasian Sensation: @ BigWowo: New governments following independence or a major power struggle often have the sort...
- N: @bww And ironically, one of the rare democratic successes in the region that is Singapore behaves much closer to a...
- Paper Pushers by the Stunt People (4)
- Andre M. Smith: I divide my year annually between New York and Shanghai. One of my common visitations in the latter...
- Raguel: Smiley tests 8 )
8( - Raguel: ROFL! Thank you for thoroughly destroying Amy Chua, Andre. WELL SAID ^_^ You know the destruction is so...
- Amy Chua: Chinese Conceit, Chinese Ignorance, and the $24,000 question (245)
- Andre M. Smith: I believe some useful purpose will be served by offering here, what the lawyers might like to call,...
- N: What’s your opinion on Yundi Li and Yoyo Ma.
- Andre M. Smith: Amy Chua has never lived in China. Her understanding of its culture, that is, the culture as it’s...
- How to Finish Life With No Regrets (9)
- trolldetector: ^ i’d agree with that. but i wouldnt call them ‘idiots’, just misguided. crazy media...
- N: Agree with Jeff that not one regret is unlikely, the key is learn from it. Another way to look at it is that...
- American Jobs and India (14)
- lingyai: I am not sure what happen there with my name, that is not my email, so just ignore.
- lingyai@hotmail.com: @bigwowo Just because the average income in India is $2 a day doesn’t make a person...
- AM/AF couple: Nottyboy, Yes, just like every place of employment, upper management needs to do a better job in terms...
- Literary Fiction vs. Realistic Fiction and the Literary Hierarchy (6)
- Sana Rose: Well, now I am confused. I still can’t classify the novel I am writing.
I wouldn’t say...
- Sana Rose: Well, now I am confused. I still can’t classify the novel I am writing.
- National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2012 (32)
- Raguel: http://www.occupydream.org/ ^ I heard about this from Russell Simmons. I hope that things develop well to...
- Raguel: So is that the reasoning for why you don’t need the right to due process? Are you some kind of fucking...
- N: @King The constitution gave power to the states to benefit white america or the constitution gave benefitial power...
- When Your Fan Base is Full of Crazy People (24)
- N: @American girl Too be honest, I don’t really see why this video that ‘disgusting’ –...
- Mitt Romney and the Problem of Wealth (6)
- Raguel: Where do people get their information and knowledge from, though? Media, and education, word of mouth only...
- “But he hit me back first!” (13)
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Tag Archives: Writing
Literary Young People
Interesting article here: The Literary Cubs. It’s about a group of young, recent grads who, disillusioned with or unable to make livable wages in the traditional publishing industry, took it upon themselves to form a literary group and web publication. They meet in person for regular meetings, and they publish. Their web publication has grown big, and it’s going into print very soon. You can see them at thenewinquiry.com.
I have no idea what the future of publishing is. I don’t think radical minorities would fit in with this club. But it’s great that there are people passionate enough to throw themselves into the mix like this. It should give people hope that no matter what the economy does, literature and criticism will still survive.
The Two Percent Solution and Building Asian American Arts

Fellow blogger and newspaper columnist Jeff Yang has an interesting article in the SF Chron: Looking for a “Hangover’ Cure. He writes about The Hangover 2, Ken Jeong, Asian stereotypes, and the dismal state of Asian American cinema and how hard it is to make a living making Asian American films. He writes about how we need Asian Americans to support Asian American art. He links Justin Lin’s YOMYOMF essay on how he’s lost money on Asian American films, as well as Oliver Wang’s Two Percent Project, which Jeff Yang describes as follows:
Universal Humans and the Privilege of Whiteness

In the YA Literature thread, King, Kobukson and I had an interesting discussion with Oriental Right, formerly known as Asian of Reason. Some of you remember AOR–he is a “human biodiversity” proponent from Johns Hopkins who believes that black people on average are not as intelligent as White people, and Asian men aren’t as masculine as White men. With all due credit to him, he defended these views in a podcast with me, Alpha, and King (who is black), which we recorded here: Podcast. Although everyone disagreed with his views and the logical leaps he took to stand behind his beliefs, people respected him for having the courage to step up.
Posted in Asian American, Features, Writing
Tagged human biodiversity, literature, racism, Writing
27 Comments
YA Literature/Someone Like Summer by M.E. Kerr
As a writer, it’s always good to read words of other writers–to get ideas on delivery, to develop a sense of rhythm, and to see different perspectives. I’ve mostly been reading literary fiction, so I decided to take a break by checking out the YA (Young Adult) literary scene. My library has pamphlets that recommend books by providing a short synopsis of each book, and when I read the synopsis for Someone Like Summer by M.E. Kerr, I decided to give it a shot because of the interesting storyline: a rich White girl from the Hamptons falls in love with an undocumented Latino day laborer.
Posted in books, Reviews, Writing
Tagged M.E. Kerr, racism, Someone Like Summer, Writing, YA Literature
24 Comments
Ed Lin Writer's Workshop on Monday, May 3rd–AAJA, Thymos, and Friends of Portland Chinatown
If you’re in Portland on May 3rd and you love writing, you will want to attend the Ed Lin Writer’s Workshop, presented by the Asian American Journalists Association–Portland and Thymos, co-sponsored by Friends of Portland Chinatown. It is a writing workshop, and Ed will be working to help attendees find their writing muse. It takes place at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association on May 3rd, 6pm, at 317 NW Davis in the heart of Portland Chinatown. It’s FREE, and there will be food. RSVP at portland.aaja@gmail.com. Much thanks to everyone who is putting this together.
J.D. Salinger, RIP

J.D. Salinger
J.D. Salinger, Rest in Peace. I loved his writing style in Catcher in the Rye, and his short stories were amazing for their boldness, imagination, and (believe it or not) symmetry.
One last thing about Mr. Salinger. Everyone writes for an audience. Authors often say they write for themselves, but who really writes only for himself? Very few. Even on this blog, I write mostly for you all. With my novel, I write for my eventual readers. I am the first reader, of course, but I don’t write with the idea that I will be the only one. I think that later in life, Salinger actually became someone who wrote only for himself.
Show me the money
Saw this post by Phillip at offendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com. I found it through TMM who found it through AAM, and now it’s here on BW (oh wow, I didn’t realize that my site has the same initials as my name. Wow.) In the post, Phillip mentions the protests against Ken Jeong–I’ll admit that I haven’t been following this one–and he mentions how he feels that these protest “victories” are not really victories at all, and that real change will come when Asian Americans start supporting Asian American arts with their dollars. The blog post is interesting, as are the comments that follow.
Posted in Asian American, Writing
Tagged Asian American, independent film, media, movies, Writing
8 Comments
3 Steps to Novel Writing
(pic from here)
Continuing our Strategy and Motivation series, Alpha-Asian has written about Overcoming Writer’s Block. As you all know, Alpha is a successful writer for bodybuilding magazines, as well as a successful self-publisher of fitness books. As an author, he has achieved what most of us dream of achieving. If you’ve got writer’s block, definitely check out his post–there’s lots of good info there.
Holden Caulfield shows his age

I don’t have time for a real Fathers Day post, so this will have to do for now.
I saw this interesting article this morning about the Catcher in the Rye. The gist of the article is that kids these days don’t admire the main character Holden Caulfield. They see him as a lazy slacker, and in the words quoted by the article, ““weird,” “whiny” and “immature.”” One teacher sums it up well: