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I wanted to take a moment to shift some attention to three amazing publications that I’ve been helping out with, or have helped me out a great deal over the last year.

Many of the organizations that were started to reach out, broadcast, and appreciate the amazing work of Asians and Asian Americans (or Asian Canadians, Asian Brazilians, etc.) are struggling under the financial burdens of the economic environment, especially in the journalism and print media industry.

Organizations like Giant Robot, Nichi Bei Weekly, and Hyphen Magazine are some of the few unique publications that cover and serve Asian Americans, but they are constantly in need of support.

3 Ways to Save Our Magazines, Our News, Our Community:

1. Subscribe

By subscribing to these publications, you get access to exclusive, awesome news, features, interviews, photos, art, and a way cool publication to put on your coffee table! But if that’s not enough, you give back to publications, as they earn not just cash from your subscription, but they can get better numbers and revenue from advertisement. It’s really a win-win situation when you subscribe.

• Giant Robot – 1 year subscription starts at $24, or more for cool GR swag
• Hyphen – 4 issue subscription for $18
• Nichi Bei Weekly – 3 months for $12

2. Donate

Donating gives you good karma.

But what’s more (tangible), Giant Robot and Hyphen offer free gifts with certain donation amounts! Amazing! Our favorite word: FREE!

• Join the Giant Robot Army of Donors, get amazing gifts by GR artists like David Choe and Takashi Murakami
• Join Hyphen magazine’s Overachiever’s Club, get free gifts and make your parents proud
• Donate through Paypal to the Nichi Bei Foundation or give goods

You can also get tax deductions by donating to non-profit pubs like Hyphen and Nichi Bei, which is pretty sweet for us working folk

3. Spread the word.

Whether or not you’ve got extra lunch money towards subs or donations, you can always cash in on free speech!

Spread the word about the importance and amazingness of these publications with your friends, parents, brothers, sisters, and hundreds of cousins. Got a rich engineering uncle? Accountant mom?

Also, share the scoop on the publications on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Tumblr, MySpace, your blog, wheatpaste, open mic nite.

More Info on the Publications:

Giant Robot:

Founded in Los Angeles in 1994 by Eric Nakamura and Martin Wong, Giant Robot started out as a hand-stapled photocopied zine. Within a few years, it became one of the strongest, most comprehensive sources for Asian and Asian American pop culture. It has since expanded into a Giant Robot empire, including four retails stores and one restaurant: 2 stores and GR/eats restaurant in Los Angeles, GRNY in Manhattan, and GRSF in San Francisco’s Haight neighborhood. Giant Robot just celebrated their 15th year Biennale show in Los Angeles’ Japanese American National Museum. Over the past 15 years, GR has showcased the work of hundreds of local and international Asian and Asian American artists to an audience of every color and shape. GR covers urban artists, amazing Asians doing crazy things worldwide, mainstream and underground cultural trends, cool toys, films, and as they say, “Asian Pop Culture and Beyond.”

Hyphen magazine:

Hyphen magazine was founded in 2002 when a larger Asian-focused publication, A. Magazine, ceased publishing. A group of recent college grads got together to dream up a way to fill the void left behind in Asian American news, community and culture coverage, while offering something fresh and new for readers.

Hyphen focuses on Asian American activism, issues, and everyday people doing amazing things. Check out the Hyphen site and blog for a sampling of subjects Hyphen covers.

Nichi Bei Weekly:

Formerly the Nichi Bei Times, the Nichi Bei Weekly is a part of the Nichi Bei Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to serving primarily the Northern California Japanese American community. Historically, the Nichi Bei Times was the leading Japanese American newspaper in the USA. Founded in 1946, the NBT’s goal was to connect the fractured postwar Japanese American community. Currently, the Nichi Bei Weekly strives to represent, cover, and address the concerns of the community.

Recently, the Nichi Bei Times had to close its doors and reevaluate its role in the community. As many subscribing readers are aging and younger readers are far and few, NBT was bleeding revenue. Determined to continue serving the community, Nichi Bei editor Kenji Taguma began the Nichi Bei Foundation, a non-profit organization designed to keep the paper alive in a weekly form.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee wrote today in a Los Angeles Times opinion piece about their story in North Korea:

Our motivations for covering this story were many. First and foremost, we believe that journalists have a responsibility to shine light in dark places, to give voice to those who are too often silenced and ignored. One of us, Euna, is a devout Christian whose faith infused her interest in the story. The other, Laura, has reported on the exploitation of women around the world for years. We wanted to raise awareness about the harsh reality facing these North Korean defectors who, because of their illegal status in China, live in terror of being sent back to their homeland.

I have been following the arrest, detainment, trial, sentencing, and finally, the release of the two journalists very carefully over the last few months, as well as the experience of another journalist, Roxana Saberi.

In a general sense, I feel a connection to these women, as a journalist, as an Asian American, as a person. On a personal level, I suppose I identify a bit with the women as well. Lee is a Christian, and like myself, Ling is from Sacramento and she graduated from UCLA.  I find her work inspirational, thought-provoking, and impressively revelatory. Their shared desire to give a voice, to empower, to inform–it’s the universal desire of journalists. Journalists are public servants, charged with a mission to bring the truth, the stories that matter, to people who listen, who can help. So in spite of the crappy pay, the terrible hours with nagging deadlines, a lifestyle often leading to consumption (of unhealthy amounts of alcohol), the constant threat of the death of an industry, journalists are still at it. And for Ling and Lee, in spite of their harrowing experience in North Korea, their priority is still to tell these untold stories.

Laura and Euna, thank you for sharing your stories, as painful as it was for both of you. I am deeply grateful that the two of you are back home, safe, and with your families.

I just listened to a pretty good NPR discussion on positive stereotypes.

Are Positive Stereotypes Racist, Too?

L’Heureux Lewis, assistant professor of sociology and black studies at the City College of New York, said, “…we have to recognize that [positive stereotypes] are gross generalizations. They may have a kernel of truth based on some social reality but ultimately they limit the choices and limit the opportunities and limit the things that people can do.”

In retrospect, I think this is…sort of…what the humor in Yo Teach! is trying to do with the teacher telling the Asian student that she will never be the president, and should instead aim for menial work. However, my problem is that the Asian kid is THAT “Asian kid.”

I think that the more common complaint about Asian American portrayal in the media these days is that the Asian characters are always either imported from Asia (and thus, Asian, not Asian American), or they are specifically ethnic Asian American characters. There are very few (though their numbers are growing*) simply “American” or “normal” characters that happen to be Asian American.

If you missed it earlier, check out this wonderful NPR piece:

Long Duk Dong: Last of the Hollywood Stereotypes?

It features founders of Giant Robot magazine, Martin Wong and Eric Nakamura, as well as Gedde Watanabe himself, the actor behind Long Duk Dong.

And here’s Adrian Tomine’s take on it (also on the NPR page):

—

*Here’s a short(hand) list of some characters that just so happen to be Asian American. Some aren’t the greatest actors, characters, or parts, but hey, “The Donger” set our standards pretty low, and anything is better.

John Cho and Kal Penn as Harold and Kumar in Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

I remember that when this first came out, “grownups” from my Chinese church were recommending that we go see this. “Finally!” they said, “A movie featuring two Asian protagonists in a non-stereotypical way!” I don’t think they realized that the main reason they aren’t stereotypical is because well…they’re in a stoner flick.

In any case, Cho is widely recognized a big groundbreaker for Asian men in the media, especially beginning with his work in Better Luck Tomorrow.

Not my favorite film, but certainly noteworthy as an Asian-Am film.

On to more recent stuff, Daniel Henney plays a pretty swell Agent Zero in the latest X-Men: Origins film.

Zero is a pretty slick character with some nice gun-handling skills, though he’s a bit of a d-bag and is pretty much William Stryker’s lackey. At least he makes it look good!

Aaron Yoo: I want him to be my best friend.

Yoo plays a really great best friend to Shia LaBeouf’s character in Disturbia.

Of course, he’s usually stuck as a supporting actor. Kind of like James Franco. He’s always stuck being the backup man: Pineapple Express, Milk, Spider-Man. Some actors never really catch a break.

As for actresses….this one’s a tough one. In my opinion, Asian American women have it the hardest getting into non-specifically-Asian roles in movies.

Well…here’s a shoddy list:

Maggie Q sort of gets the short end of the straw in Die Hard 4, and is pretty much the serious lady on the wrong side who gets owned by her prickish evil lover. And then by Bruce Willis. But who wouldn’t get owned by Bruce Willis?

At least she has a good sense of humor about it:

She was also in MI:3 and a bunch of Hong Kong films, where she got her start.

Hmmm..a bit like Henney, who also started in Korean films/dramas.

So…I guess for some of these newer stars, they’re following the ol’ Imported from Asia path, though in Asia, they’re imported from America.

Ah, Asia-America.

Dear E3,

It’s been my lifetime dream (ok, since 7th grade when I first learned about the awesomeness that E3 is) to attend E3.

I was 12 years old, and back in 2000, E3 used to be a really overblown event, inundated with booth babes, fanboy bloggers, and what someone ultimately decided was unprofessionalism.

I wholeheartedly agree with that decision. By 2007, however, the entire event restructured, and became invite-only. Mostly to weed out bloggers and welcome “real” journalists (yay newspapers!).

The video game industry needed to change its public face in order to match the new market it was pursuing. Video games are no longer just for children (and many games simply aren’t for children). The gaming generation is aging, and the industry must age with it.  Plus, with the millions of dollars poured into game development and marketing, the video game industry needed to distance itself from Anime Expo and Comic Con (sorry) in order to be recognized and even more aligned with say, the film industry.

But still, E3 is filled with so much promise, so much excitement, forward thinking! So many things that I also care for, deeply admire, and would love to be a part of!

However, E3’s decision to privatize the convention meant that despite the fact that I was working as a college journalist, reporting to the largest target demographic that the industry would be interested in, I wouldn’t be invited. I’m in the trade, for a print paper, I’m not a fanboy (I’m not even a boy) or a blogger (except for here). I dutifully attended the sparse, almost dull first year of E for All, the consumer “replacement” for E3. It really didn’t cut it. I even more dutifully attended a second year at E for All, which proved to be even slower. I was deeply disappointed. I strove to bring back video game reviews and coverage at the Daily Bruin, both to serve my gamer-heavy readership and peers, as well as to better link the industry better with its consumers. I even dared to suggest more video game coverage at my internship, and got to write a silly little blurb on competitive “professional” video gaming.

All that I’ve done was not simply to build a resume for myself. It was largely to one day get to see you.

But this year, I got cancer, had to move home (with my parents) for medical care, and lost three jobs at college, one of which was my job at the Daily Bruin. The job that would qualify me for this year’s E3, which is now open for applying members of the media.

I’m sorry…the one year you’re available to me, and I can’t be there for you.

And now that I’m graduated, it’ll probably be a very long time before I find a job, let alone one that will qualify me as a member of media reporting on the industry (that’s my dream job, still).

But…I have cancer, so who knows if that can ever happen. I hate to pull the cancer card, but you (hopefully) and I both know that this is a card that no one wants to have.

I thought we were destined to meet, E3. But each time…my plans to attend you were foiled.

This year is the most frustrating of all, ESPECIALLY since, I assume, you are going to be revealing the next Hideo Kojima project.

Alas, perhaps we were never meant to be.

But I still ask you, from the depths of my heart to yours, if you will grant me access next year, whether I’m reporting or not. Just to be there, with you.

Nevertheless, I hope you have a good time this year. I’ll be keeping up with you.

With Love,

Jessica

Just saw the latest movie.

Films are very telling of our times.

In the past, Indiana Jones flicks were all about relics, religion, legends, and lots and lots of ancient rich cultural (possible) history, plenty of dusting off artifacts, and looking things up in books.

And now what culture (and Jones) has boiled down to is one thing:

Knowledge.

Knowledge is our new God.

Knowledge is our new Gold.

I just finished watching Death Note today.

It really reminded me of the Flaming Lips’ song, Yeah Yeah Yeah:

“If you could blow up the world with the flick of a switch, would you do it?…So we cannot know ourselves or what we’d really do”

I hadn’t made this connection earlier, but the “person” (more or less a group of people operating under a pseudonym) who posted the Edison Chen scandal photographs called themselves “Kira”.

This is most likely in reference to a popular cult anime called Death Note (what I finished watching–ah life imitates art!); the main character is dubbed Kira (romanji/engrish for Killer) by the news media in Japan. Kira, a very smart, successful, but bored high-school student, Yagami Light, discovers a celestial notebook from a Shinigami, Death God. The notebook has the power to kill when a person’s name is written in it, either by the hand of a shinigami, or by the human who possesses the notebook. Light realizes this ability to kill strategically can be used to reform the world (which he will rule over as God), and he sets out to cleanse the world of evil people. He begins by killing criminals whose names appear in the nightly news, newspapers, and on the internet.

I imagine that in some odd way, the Kira in real life felt it was justified to post the scandal photographs and to reveal the hypocrisy in Hong Kong media.

But this is where things get tremendously fascinating. Ah, the parallels!

What is most fascinating to me is the prominence of the media in both the fictional anime and the real life situation. The media, in Death Note, is both a tool that Kira uses to find victims, and eventually becomes a tool that Kira uses to announce his intentions to the fearful public (that proves to have a malleable, manipulatable opinion of Kira).

In the Edison Chen situation, Kira and the media fed off of each other. The media simply ate up everything Kira posted, and for an estimated 28 days, Edison Chen ran on the cover of at least 3 periodicals or newspapers each day. Newspapers, which have suffered from the same trend plaguing print news internationally, suddenly began making profits again (but unfortunately fell into the trap of tabloid exploitation).

In the words of Tupac Shakur (again, ladies and gentlemen), “The media’s full of dirty tricks”. I find it terribly intriguing that Death Note was able to predict a very realistic behavior of the media and news industry–the media will jump on the gory personal details if they will sell. I’m referring mostly to the media in Asia, but of course we see this in all the Britney Spears coverage in the U.S. too.

(Not to rag on the media industry; I hope one day, however far or near, I can work for print. I just pray to God that I won’t fall into the tabloid trap.)

“Netizens” also played a special role as well. Netizens would plead Kira to post more photos, Kira would make deals, announce that he would post more on certain days at certain times. He enjoyed the control, knowing that thousands would be waiting at their computers, searching forums to find the photos.

After a certain point, it wasn’t vigilante justice to show these photos. Kira became a sick sycophant, obsessed with the power to ruin lives and end careers. And people loved him.

Well, all of that is over now. In other news, Edison Chen has made the big conversion to Christianity. I hope that he’s genuine; it’s so hard to be genuine even when you aren’t rich and famous.

Read here.

Few do.

This guy does not:

http://www.thecampuspress.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=c07cea4a-0e65-4465-a9c4-17d6deb357e8

So I’m guessing “all those Asians” he talks about comprise maybe…..5-10% of the Colorado University’s 13% “students of color”? (http://www.colorado.edu/pba/qfacts/demog.html)

Karson makes a sore attempt at being clever/witty/original/cava

http://www.angryasianman.com/2008/04/farewell-azn.html

It really seems like more people are angry about this station shutting down than people who actually watched AZN on a regular basis.

Why is this?

AZN, quite frankly, sucked. Perhaps it was doomed for failure from its conception. The programming was terrible, presentation bad, and for some reason, I recall that it looked really static-y.

I think it’s the name itself, AZN, that threw a bunch of us off. I mean, didn’t we invent that word in what, middle school? That’s right, a network named after a middle school slang. It’s like trying to call Comedy Central LOL, or Spike WTF. AZN is what the little wannabe gangsters with their left pantleg rolled up with a rubber band from the newspaper called themselves.

Okay, I called myself that as well, though sans rubber band. I was too poor to be cool like that. But I have to admit, my first sn (and current one, aside from my business AIM is “cheapaznz”).

So it comes down to this: despite the fact that none of us ever respected AZN due to its close association with our own silly dreams of middle school grandeur (the ever-elusive thug life), we still liked the fact that it existed. Perhaps it gave us a dose of nostalgia and hope that we like but didn’t really care much about. It’s kind of like watching reruns of Digimon before season 2 rolled around and ruined it all. We know it was horrible and doomed for an end, but while it existed and was okay, we put up with it. (Hannah Montana, anyone?)

But we’re still sad because despite AZN’s lack of quality and interesting programming, at least it was something. Versus now, nothing. Except Imaginasian (ok, one!). And we all know how thinly Asians are spread throughout the media.

Asian Reporter.
Hot exotic female.
Kung fu fighter.
Occasional awesome dancer.
…and thats a wrap.

This is probably why AZN existed, and why it fell. It bought into those genres, and limited itself to them. Nothing else. But Asians want variety. And Asian networks need to market to more than just those Asians who want variety. Asian networks need to market to non-Asians and Asians alike. Why are so many people interested in BET? Well, aside from half of the Asian Americans watching BET to get real, more than just black people watch it.

No one watched AZN, not even the Azns. What a horrible failure.

I hope you’ve learned your lesson, Asian American Media.

Now make some changes.