The Conversation
- Scapegoating our own (13)
- King: ^Yeah, but so did Obama 4 years ago. It’s inconsistent to think that Obama can have an arch of decision...
- Frank Chow: @King He definitely said he opposed “same-sex marriage”, that didn’t change....
- King: @ Frank But Manny didn’t even say what he’s been accused of.
- Facebook co-founder renounces U.S. citizenship prior to IPO (13)
- Raguel: This is a storm in a tea cup, a new five minutes of hate. This is because despite the outrage, people will...
- Frank Chow: “The country is not over-taxed; in fact, tax rates are near 60 year lows.” -source,...
- bigWOWO: Linda, Mark Cuban is rich (richer than me anyway), and he’s just as horrified as I am. I don’t...
- The Perversity of Human Biodiversity, a.k.a. “Scientific” Racism (428)
- LadyBlack: Hello, you who believe that some races are inferior and that some are superior. As a Black (in particular...
- bigWOWO: Thanks, Grover!
- Grover Porquel: Excellent roundup. I have taken on these “biodiversity” types myself over the years and...
- Higher education: the next subprime bubble (5)
- bigWOWO: Let’s think hypothetically. Let’s say they had quotas, such as a company of X number of...
- kobukson: In the past, a high school diploma was sufficient for getting a job. Things changed and a HS diploma...
- bigWOWO: I do agree with you, Ei, to a certain point. I have heard that some lawyers and engineers are having...
- Americans Eat the World’s Cheapest Food (36)
- bigWOWO: A week in, and: I liked the mock chicken, but the family didn’t like it. I don’t know if...
- King: ^ But isn’t Anthony Bourdain the same guy who recently called Paula Deen the “Worst Unhealthy Cook” for...
- kobukson: I like Anthony Bourdain’s take on vegetarians and vegans: “Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like...
- Why Do Asian People Have Bad Eyesight? (37)
- Suing the Bachelor for racial discrimination (34)
- George: The problem with the entertainment industry is that they have already stated that blacks are not on the show...
- George: “Oh and prediction, you know the first female non white bachelorette will be Asian, and it will be...
- Chen: i’ve been reading about BFOQ cases, and it seems as if the entertainment industry wins unless they do...
- Reasons to eliminate black studies (23)
- Asian Men, Black Men, and the Competition for White Women (569)
- Raguel: Actually, white people may laugh at him even more, and that may be why they like him so much.
- Raguel: How does this nihilistic dog so filled with ressentiment and love of the slave morality even dare to mention...
- ChineseMom: (continued) Criticism of contemporary Chinese literature and Marxism Q: After the publication of your...
- Immigration records of Asian immigrants to be made available to public (2)
- American woman becomes hero to abused women in China (39)
- Chen: thats it. This woman got beat up, and that is wrong. I’m sure some assholes are going to use that and run...
- Eurasian Sensation: Patriarchal practices are incredibly ingrained in some countries and are extremely hard to shift....
- Raguel: Wasn’t it reported in one of the major american magazines like life, time etc that travelling ulamas...
- San Diego student left alone in cell for five days (3)
- bigWOWO: Haha…I know, Zach! This is the absolute worse kind of invisibility that there is!
- Zach Katagiri: Man — talk about asian american males being invisible!!
- Linda: this will be the next episode of “I survived….” I am surprised they don’t have video...
- Adventures of the Karaoke King by Harold Taw (Review and Question) (4)
- bigWOWO: Alpha, Glad that you see the precious metals rather than the ranking! Although I guess I should consider...
- Raguel: Why not make contact with other blogs and Asian American websites to feature your reviews? This way,...
- Alpha Asian: B, I know what you mean. A lot of reviewers just give very bland reviews and they don’t really...
- Asian women fetch high prices for egg donation (5)
- Dman: I don’t get the article Asian women in demand for donating her eggs. I did not see anything mentioned...
- bigWOWO: I think that buying an egg is financially easier these days than adoption from China. I know people trying...
- Linda: Also regarding about adoption. I think a lot of Americanized Asians are open to adoption in the US. (unlike...
- Re-Programming Your Mind (74)
- Chr..: I’m not making this up! I saw this guy in front of a Trader Joe’s here in NYC not too long ago as...
- Asian Women and the Invisible Chain (187)
- Chr..: @ King Yes, and what can the general masses do to stop with what’s going on right now? Not much I would...
- King: @ Chr Because the money, more than anything else, is ‘the system’ that affects everything else.
- Chr..: “The whole thing looks like a very twisted version of musical chairs, doesn’t it?” Why does this...
- Creative Monopolists (3)
- Asian husband-wife team on Shark Tank (3)
- Artists Who Refuse to Work for Free (5)
- Courtney: I have been drawing for 22 years. I think it’s really inconsiderate to ask an artist to sit down for...
- More Asian Americans Marrying Within Their Race (106)
- Chr..: “Look at some of the fatcats on Wall Street–a guy who can drop $800 on a single night out isn’t...
- The Richer Sex by Liza Mundy (Review) (12)
- Chr..: “dystopian mating marketplace where, like income inequality, the rewards of female sexuality will go...
- Whiteness and American TV (9)
- Linda: @hadoken – I don’t know why korean dramas are like crack. I go thru phases. since it’s a...
- Scapegoating our own (13)
Tag Archives: Writing
Forever Young
I saw this CNN video about Dora. As most parents of young children know, Dora is extremely popular, perhaps more popular than any kids show when I was growing up. Because we live in an era of total merchandising, kids can own Dora dolls, watch Dora DVDs, wear Dora backpacks and Dora clothing, and even use Dora toothpaste. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Dora is a huge enterprise. In this era of big money, Nickelodeon, according to the above video, is trying to extend Dora’s appeal by making an older Dora for tweens. They are doing this by creating a pre-pubescent Dora that the older crowd would find more appealing.
The Best TV Show Ever
Patricia Arquette as "Allison Dubois" in Medium
I don’t watch that much TV. I tune into Survivor occasionally, and I’m following the Amazing Race this season because of Victor and Tammy Jih. If I miss either of these shows, it’s not a big deal to me. I usually have better ways to spend my time anyway.
Chinese literary dreams through the web
Reading novels online
In America, the web is doing awesome things for people with hidden talent. People can become professional broadcasters, musicians, and even professional bloggers. Few writers, however, have made their bones by starting on the web. In the U.S., for the most part, literary careers still usually come about through traditional channels–agents, traditional publishers, etc.
Cloning Man's Best Friend
Lancy at the Memorial Tree
A couple in Florida recently paid $150,000 to a San Francisco biotech company to clone their recently deceased dog. Because it’s illegal here, they cloned the dog in South Korea.
The picture above shows “Lancy” pulling at a memorial tree where his original was buried. I wanted to say “predecessor” to describe the original–and to some degree it is a predecessor–but not really, since they may technically be the same being (though maybe not, since twins are separate entities). Man, what a conundrum! Imagine paying $150k for a cloned dog. Imagine being a cloned dog standing right above your deceased original. Now that’s weird.
Author of Slumdog Millionaire
Vikas Swarup, author of Slumdog Millionaire
In case you were wondering, Vikas Swarup, the author of Slumdog Millionaire, is a high ranking diplomat from India. He wrote the novel in 2003 while on an overseas diplomatic assignment in London.
I plan to see the movie. I haven’t yet, but it looks like a great, feel-good type of film. I doubt the novel is deep like Naipaul, but look at how a movie like this gets in front of so many people! The effect has to be transformative. Who in American knew that there could be such beautiful romance in India? It certainly doesn’t gel with the commonly held stereotypes.
John Updike Dies at 76
John Updike
See article here.
I’ve never actually read a book by John Updike, but I’ve read his essays. He was a great essayist and reader. Just a few months ago, I read the Best American Short Stories of the Century, for which he was a co-editor (and also a short story writer).
Rest in Peace.
Joe the Correspondent
Plumber-turned-reporter
I was having a conversation with a friend a while back about the troubles facing the publishing industry, and I said that the new internet economy would require a lot more promotion on the part of authors/writers. I said that it’s going to be hard for authors to get the word out while maintaining their sense of dignity. In other words, the economy may force authors to become attention junkies who push the envelope on getting the word out. Such hard sales, I postulated, might be necessary to get book contracts, etc. since margins are so slim these days. As an example, I mentioned the fact that Joe the Plumber landed a contract to write an autobiography. While real authors struggle with agents and publishing houses, someone in publishing got the bright idea to approach Joe the (unlicensed) Plumber and offer him a lucrative book deal.
Not getting it
Alexandra Penney
Just read this CNN story about Alexandra Penney, a best selling sex author who was one of Bernie Madoff’s victims. It’s pretty amazing that she invested everything with him. I’m amazed that people still don’t diversify their holdings, even after Enron and Wordcomm. Anyway, she was a bestselling author and former editor of Self, and she made tons of money during the 80′s. She’s not penniless, but most of it is now gone.
The interesting part of this story is related to writing and blogging. Apparently, soon after learning that she had been fleeced by Madoff, Penney blogged about her experiences on the Daily Beast, writing a series of articles called The Bag Lady Papers. She wrote:
Writing Contest: Win a copy of Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese!
The Deluder-in-Chief
The NY Times’s Frank Rich has a great retrospective look at highlights of the Bush 43 Administration. I personally am never going to forget this president. George W. Bush managed to tank our economy, get us involved in a murderous and illegal war, trample on our rights as citizens, increase global warming, and destroy America’s standing in the world. He’s our Worst President Ever. Nicholas Kristof said that he’d give Buchanan worse marks for splitting the country in two, but I’d disagree. Buchanan was a bad president only because he was too soft and failed to take bold action. Our current president took bold action in the wrong direction.
