Disqus - Latest Comments for John

Re: Taking Care of Your Elderly Parents

John — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:51:21 -0000

The youngest daughter takes care of the aging parents? The link you provided was linked to a PDF report on Filipino culture...

Isn't the eldest son usually the head of a Chinese family and thus responsible for taking care of aging parents? Traditionally, daughters are to be married off?

Re: All-American Asian Mom in CVS Ad

John — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:52:05 -0000

@Chuck - that's coming up soon...

Re: [Norman Hsu] Clinton Donor Fails to Appear in Court Again

John — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 02:48:12 -0000

Update:
Fugitive Democratic fundraiser Norman Hsu arrested in Colorado
09/06/2007 09:52:19 PM PDT
http://origin.mercurynews.com/crime/ci_6822726

Re: Happy now, bitches?

John — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:00:32 -0000

You forgot that Adobe is dead - dead with Flash and Flash Lite!

"[Flash Player] too slow to be useful" on the iPhone.
[Flash Lite] "not capable of being used with the Web."
-The Real "Steve Jobs"

Re: Happy now, bitches?

John — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:53:49 -0000

I doubt Apple has any interest in Adobe, and vice versa. If anybody buys Adobe, it would be Google.

Re: Google putting up fence and gate to keep execs from leaving

John — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 17:47:27 -0000

Facebook poaches Google chef

April 4, 2008

There’s always a danger when a key employee leaves for a new company that he or she will stir things up by taking a few co-workers along, but some defections can be particularly grating. Looking to coddle its growing workforce a bit more, Facebook started shopping for its own executive chef in January. And when Sheryl Sandberg came over from Google to become COO last month, she said she knew just the guy at her old place. Everything panned out and now, as Carolyn Jung (until recently, the Merc’s food editor) reports at Food Gal, Josef Desimone has been whisked away to become the new Facecook. Valleywag tells us that Sandberg and Desimone blended well at the Googleplex, quoting one ex-employee saying, “Josef was Sheryl’s favorite chef at Google. Every time she moved buildings, so did he.” Apparently, though, not everyone is steamed at the departure. A health-conscious Googler tells Valleywag, “Everyone hated his cafes. He had the worst heavy, everything-fried menus.” We await the reviews from the new venue. Now the question is whether Google will retaliate — maybe Sergey Brin will hire away Mark Zuckerberg’s personal ski waxer or something.

http://svextra.com/blogs/gmsv/2008/04/facebook_...

Re: An open letter to Joe Nocera

John — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:33:16 -0000

Is Fake Jerry Yang now blogging on behalf of Fake Steve Jobs?

Yahoo!'s are leaving left and right off the sinking ship.

Re: The Foodwise Effects of the West in Asia

John — Wed, 09 May 2007 01:44:25 -0000

That photo is SCARY! Are you sure that photo isn't Photoshop'd ???

Re: I know you want it Asian Princess

John — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:33:59 -0000

OMG that was a funny post. I've never heard rice paddy fever!

Re: 6 (months) of 8 (Asians)

John — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 02:46:04 -0000

So when does the dough start rolling in Ernie? :-) - LOL.

Re: Chinese Women Crave Bill Gates’ Sperm

John — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:57:34 -0000

Funny, I was thinking of posting this story.

Re: An Eggshell Psyche, Mister Wong, and Why 8A Took a Stand

John — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 22:45:44 -0000

Having not gone to law school, it was very interesting to read about the "Eggshell skull rule." I am finishing reading The Chinese in America: A Narrative History and it is amazing how discriminatory the U.S. has been historically to Chinese. I think a lot of people, including Chinese Americans, don't realize this.

Re: Mister Wong takes down logo, International Flame war commences

John — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 15:21:02 -0000

Wow - Der Spiegel. All we need now is The New York Times in the U.S. to cover this :-). All PR is good PR!

Re: 15 Years of Rejections: UN rejects Taiwan’s application

John — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 02:24:06 -0000

Marc - yes, I know that www.8asians.com is blocked. I tried accessing it while I was in Beijing in July.

Re: Model Minority: Good or Bad?

John — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 04:56:12 -0000

Model Minority is a myth as the number of generations removed you are from immigrating to the United States (as with all ethnic groups). Also, it is becomes a greater myth as you go to higher concentrations of Asian Americans (i.e Hawaii & California/West Coast)

The positives are that Asian Americans are considered smart and hard working. The negatives is that for those who are not smart or hard working (or not good at math or science), there is a level of expectation that you need to "perform" too... It's sad and shocking to know that Asian American females from 18-to-35 (or something like that) have the highest suicide rate in the U.S.

Stereotypes can be good and bad. At the end of the day, stereotypes have some truths to them, but one must remember that we are all individuals as well.

I think fight is too strong of a word - Asian Americans should continually *educate* who we are as groups and as individuals.

Re: Why Asian Girls Go For White Guys

John — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 14:02:26 -0000

Interesting... I had come across this recent blog entry:

Why do so many white guys have Asian fetishes??
http://niniane.blogspot.com/2007/08/why-do-so-m...

Obviously inter-racial couples stand out more. A friend of mine, whom I assumed only wound up going out with white guys, said she always wanted to *marry* an Asian, and she did. A wedding I attended over the weekend, my friend dated white guys but wanted and did marry a Korean-American (she's Korean).

I'd say I know more Asian women dating or married to white men, than vice versa. But that is a small sample. I think generally, most (i.e. more than 50%) Asian woman wind up marrying Asian guys.

Re: China: Reincarnation is against the law without our permission.

John — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:38:21 -0000

I think China has a lot of other things to worry about - like Chinese export of toys, etc.!

Re: Survivor: China

John — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 06:49:35 -0000

What, no Panda in the logo? :-)

Re: Movie: Falling for Grace - Go See It!

John — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:44:03 -0000

I have no idea what YT stands for, but I imagine AF is an abbreviation for Asian Female. An audience member did ask the writer, director, producer, actress Fay Ann Lee how she got the idea for the movie and why the protagonist male was Caucasian.

Lee went on to explain that 1. she wanted to write a movie for herself to star in since there are so few roles for Asian American woman (and even less for Asian American men) 2. Her Caucasian character was based on John F. Kennedy Jr (the Caucasian male is a lawyer / prosecutor). Lee explained that living in NYC for a while, she actually saw JFK Jr. quite a bit in the streets of New York and saw how people, especially women, gazed upon him. She also wanted to explore the social class differences, and that is another reason why she had 3. Lee is aiming for a MAINSTREAM (i.e. caucasian) audience and distribution, and thus a mixed cast of caucasians and asians.

I am normally sensitive to the stereotypical Asian Female falls for Caucasian Male plot line and in general very skeptical of most plotlines where people fall in love over a span of a few movie weeks. Those weaknesses aside, I still think the movie is well made and entertaining and would recommend it, especially over other trash that is currently playing in theaters today.

Re: Movie: Falling for Grace - Go See It!

John — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:05:52 -0000

Ah, I get it now. YT. Clever.

Well, if I win the lottery, I'll make a movie with an Asian male protagonist and have a lot of adoring Caucasian women in the movie :-)

Re: As China Roars, Pollution Reaches Deadly Extremes

John — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:10:15 -0000

Well, I think there will only be more articles on China regarding everything as we approach the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Additionally, reports of product recalls and warnings only add to the public's interest in learning more about China.

Re: Movie: Falling for Grace - Go See It!

John — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:12:39 -0000

Ratrace - 8asians.com isn't necessarily trying to split the atom :-)

Re: Movie: Falling for Grace - Go See It!

John — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:13:57 -0000

John - I have been out of town for a while, so I only got to posting about Falling for Grace while catching up on emails. Sorry.

Re: What About Asians in the Empirical Analysis of Acting White?

John — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 04:22:08 -0000

Readers might find this article interesting. It was highly controversial when it came out:

The New White Flight
The Wall Street Journal. NOVEMBER 19, 2005.
In Silicon Valley, two high schools with outstanding academic reputations are losing white students as Asian students move in. Why?
http://wsjclassroom.com/teen/teencenter/05nov_w...

Re: ORIENTED.COM & Happy Hours around the world

John — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:44:27 -0000

Oriented.com is sort of like a LinkedIn.com for those interested in working in China/Asia and for companies interested in recruiting such people who are bi-lingual, mid-career and Western educated or trained.

Re: Bi-racial Couples - A first person account

John — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:27:43 -0000

FYI - Bill Gates' speech at Harvard is quite good in regards to wh

William H. Gates III at Harvard Commencement
Harvard Commencement
June 7, 2007
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/06.14/...

"I learned a lot here at Harvard about new ideas in economics and politics. I got great exposure to the advances being made in the sciences. But humanity’s greatest advances are not in its discoveries – but in how those discoveries are applied to reduce inequity. Whether through democracy, strong public education, quality health care, or broad economic opportunity – reducing inequity is the highest human achievement. "

Re: Bi-racial Couples - A first person account

John — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 15:34:59 -0000

Damn, my prior comment didn't post...

Re: Bush, After Talks With China’s Leader, Accepts Invitation to Beijing Olympics

John — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 11:06:27 -0000

Chook, I don't think the U.S. (as in government and popular culture) is soley morally superior to Asians and only demonizes Asians. How about Arab/Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, etc. Actually, with so much exposure to West by the Chinese, I don't think can be filtered these days in China (though I will agree China is not a "free" country) - China is no North Korea. "Because no Asian can be free anywhere until Asians are free everywhere." - not sure where you are going with this nor what kind of solution you are thinking of.

Re: Shameless hawking: We’re selling crap!

John — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:29:07 -0000

OMG, that was a funny post - yes, we're selling crap! I'll have to buy some!

Re: Females: Tampons or Maxipads?

John — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:02:12 -0000

Ernie, I didn't know you knew Sophia? Or did Sophia just contact you because of 8Asians.com? I think she knows I blog for 8Asians.com.

Re: Andrew Cunanan: The musical!

John — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 01:27:18 -0000

To be honest, I would have never known Versace, the brand, if it were not for the murder.

Re: Bionic Woman: Looks Like Starbuck Has Yellow Fever

John — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 20:08:50 -0000

Chook - who knows if the guy will be killed. I doubt it though, Bionic Woman is doing well in the ratings and I think the last thing NBC wants to do is kill a good thing.

Re: Indian-American Congressman Elected Louisiana’s Governor

John — Sun, 21 Oct 2007 14:15:15 -0000

I understand where you are coming from, but yeah, you have to start somewhere and it's not like a progressive candidate would get elected in the deep South (at least I don't think so).

I've seen Asian-American more often than Asian American in print, so I try to use Asian-American more often unless something I am quoting has the term written as Asian American.

Re: That Goth Kid Over There or That Asian Goth Kid Over There? Race, Cliques, and How We’re Still Viewed as the Other White Meat

John — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 02:17:38 -0000

Actually, if you've heard director Justin Lin talk, Hollywood considers Asian-Americans "white" / Caucasians because our movie attendance and spending patterns are quite similar. Justin Lin said this was a real shocker when he first became an "insider" in Hollywood.

Re: Secret Asian Man

John — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 03:00:44 -0000

OMG, the Starving Asian Actor cartoon was hilarious.

Re: The Amazing Race: Ronald & Christina

John — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 22:59:09 -0000

Ernie - now that would be entertaining - to see you and *anybody* on The Amazing Race. Maybe we should try out for the next one - Asian male bloggers, next season, on The Amazing Race!

Re: The Amazing Race: Ronald & Christina

John — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:01:33 -0000

The Amazing Race 12
Episode: Ronald & Christina
Despcription: This father/daughter Team is in synch when it comes to their goal—go fast, communicate and get to the finish first. Christina is her father's strength and his positive reinforcement.
http://www.cbs.com/innertube/index.php?src=emai...

Re: Paris Hilton loves Korea

John — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 17:53:13 -0000

Thanks. I found this entertaining :-)

Re: San Francisco Happy Hour for 8Asians.com, November 29th!

John — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:22:47 -0000

We have fans?

Re: WSJ: Chinese Dissidents Take On Beijing Via Media Empire

John — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:54:39 -0000

akrypti,

I don't think your flaming comments are all that helpful. I don't know much about the Falun Gong, so I don't know if I could compare it to Scientology or other beliefs such as Mormonism. But I think a more respectful tone towards debate would be appreciated by all.

John

Re: Asians ARE good at math and science

John — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 03:47:58 -0000

Oh please. The genetic differences between the races are so small that I doubt it is race. It is educational institutions, funding priorities, culture etc.... Nutrition alone I am sure could explain a lot of differences between North Koreans and South Koreans.

Re: A review of Lust, Caution

John — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 14:09:31 -0000

Funny, I just saw Lust, Caution last week. I would agree that the film is not as bad as the reviews, but it is a very long movie. I think the most interesting part of the film is seeing Shanghai in the 1940s and getting the feel of the times for this period piece.

There are several "pornographic scenes" which go on for too long. If they were shorten, I think the viewer would still get the sense of how the relationship develops from something that is more sexual to something that is more emotional.

However, Lust, Caution is definitely not Ang Lee's best work. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Eat, Drink, Man, Woman; Brokeback Mountain, etc.. I think were all better than Lust, Caution.

Yes, Tang Wei is really cute, but I'll take Zhang Ziyi over her any day :-)

Re: 21: Based On Real Life (without all those Asian kids)

John — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:32:53 -0000

I'm with Jesse on this one!

Re: Asian Americans flex political muscle in wider Bay Area

John — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 02:04:26 -0000

Thanks for the additional info. Although the title of the article was "Asian Americans flex political muscle in wider Bay Area," the article did focus initially on San Francisco and Chinatown and the Chinese within the city, then elsewhere in the greater Bay Area.

Re: 30 Rock: “My ‘No sex with Asians’ rule”

John — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:10:35 -0000

Bertie -

Yes, Tina Fey wrote "Mean Girls," but I never saw the movie, but have heard good things about it - I guess I'll have to rent it. I know Tina Fey mostly because she was on Saturday Night Live for "Weekend Update."

But like I wrote in the blog post, what really caught my eye for 30 Rock was Alec Baldwin's portrayal of Jack Donaghy. I really liked the episode where he is supposedly secretly dating Condoleezza Rice.

Re: Should Asian Americans support English as the only language?

John — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 02:08:05 -0000

Without giving this issue too much thought, I do think English should be the official language of the United States. All of our founding documents (The Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Bill of Rights, etc...) were written in English.

If English becomes a secondary language in the long-term in the United States (let's say to Spanish), then we could add additional languages as "official" languages. But I think changing the nature of a country's language is probably a bad thing - i.e. like China creating Simplified Chinese!

Bo - very interesting thoughts on French and France. The French language will always survive (for better or for worse) because the French people are dedicated to the preservation of their language - no matter how useful it is beyond its borders (though French is one of the official languages of the modern day Olympics due to its revival by a Frenchman)

Re: 30 Rock: “My ‘No sex with Asians’ rule”

John — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 18:15:25 -0000

Roger, you talking about me? I'll date Kiera Knightly, Natalie Portman or Uma Thurman :-).

Re: Asian guys with white girls: Redux

John — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:04:45 -0000

Having gone to business school in the Research Triangle Park (North Carolina), there are definitely not that many Asian Americans in the area - especially if you don't count undergraduate and graduate students attending the local university of Duke, UNC and NC State. So any Asian-White couple combination will be a lot different. For those Asian Americans who have never lived outside the West Coast or metro areas with a lot of Asians, I don't think you realize how much this stands out.

Hell, I remember working in Connecticut right out of college and when I first started, my co-workers were asking me where I was *really* from (no, where my parents were originally from - Taiwan).

Re: Asian guys with white girls: Redux

John — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:18:11 -0000

Bertie,

Yes, RTP is progressive. But if you don't count a lot of the transplants who go to college in RTP, I don't think that there are too many Asians. Maybe I am wrong - but that definitely was my feeling when I lived two brief years in Durham.

Re: LA Times: Jews, Asians are building bonds

John — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:16:54 -0000

Bertie - Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle - ? What's the connection between Asians and Jews?

Re: LA Times: Jews, Asians are building bonds

John — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 15:38:36 -0000

Bertie - thanks for the links - very interesting and educational. Didn't realize the screenplay for Harold & Kumar were written by two Jews - I always wondered...

I grew up on the East Coast in a somewhat Jewish town, so maybe I was just clueless, since I didn't recognize the Asian/Jewish jokes in the film.

Re: LA Times: Jews, Asians are building bonds

John — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:04:14 -0000

I was thinking more along the peninsula / South Bay rather than San Francisco itself.

Re: One Year Ago Today: Remembering James Kim (1971 - 2006)

John — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 16:56:41 -0000

Jesse!

Wow, that must have been incredibly sad indeed.

John

Re: Presidential Campaign Staff Diversity: Should it matter?

John — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 23:35:18 -0000

Giuliani has NO minorities on his staff? Even random hiring for one's staff, especially out of all the folks Giuliani knew during his New York City days would come up with some minorities? That's pretty sad.

Re: LA Times: Jews, Asians are building bonds

John — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 02:48:28 -0000

So if NYC didn't have a subway system, then NYC would be just as "segregated" as SF?

SF definitely needs better public transportation, that's for sure!

Re: AsianWeek: The 25 Most Infamous Yellow Face Film Performances (Part 1 & 2)

John — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 01:59:05 -0000

Phil C. - oh, wow - cool that the author of the article reads 8asians.com and contacts me - that's a first for me. Thanks for your kind words and interesting article.

Re: Heirs of China’s New Elites Schooled in Ancient Values

John — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:33:01 -0000

Yes, I am friends with folks who find Silicon Valley soulless or are involved with non-profits trying to raise money. But I would not say that is what I look for in friends - it's more the case that they happen to have some involvement in "non-capitalist community oriented activities."

Re: Barack Obama Wins Iowa Democratic Caucus

John — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:59:00 -0000

Ernie, I would not be too scared of Huckabee - 60% of the Republican caucus goers in Iowa self-identified as evangelicals - this is quite disproportional to other states. As much as \"I like Mike\" Huckabee is a \"nice\" guy, I think it would be great he won the Republican nomination because I think he would be beaten handily by any of the \"big 3\" Democrats.

Congrats to Obama - his win in Iowa is truly historic. But we\'ll see if Obama can take it to the end. Bill Clinton didn\'t come first in Iowa nor New Hampshire in 1992...

Re: Cashmere Mafia … this is … different …

John — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:53:26 -0000

Yeah, I watched this last night too. I was amazed to see an Asian American couple dating on mainstream prime-time network television! And both the characters were kind of surprising themselves acknowledging that fact as well. Too bad it looks like that is only going to last for another two episodes.

Re: If Obama loses California, you can point your finger at the Asians (and Latinos)

John — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:14:21 -0000

Well, you could also rewrite the title of this blog posting as "Clinton wins California, you can point your finger at the Asians (and Latinos)." :-)

Re: The Chinese in America: A Narrative History

John — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:43:54 -0000

Hmmm. The United States almost killed off native americans (can one use the word genocide?) and brought Africans over as slaves to the U.S. I'll have to take a look at Driven Out, but I'm not sure the Chinese-American experience can be compared on the same scale as African Americans and Native Americans.

Re: Eli Stone: “What happened to your accent?”

John — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 21:25:54 -0000

alienman - I don't watch Las Vegas. I guess I'll try to catch it to see what you are talking about in regards to Polly. - John

Re: Stuff White People Like

John — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:07:56 -0000

Funny, my college friend used to call "Bizarre Love Triangle" the Korean national anthem.

Asians like Japanese cars - Honda's, Toyota's, Nissan's, Acura's, Lexus's, Infiniti's, etc.

Re: In Ballet, Where are all the Asian swans?

John — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 14:24:26 -0000

Well, if there is a lack of Asian-American female ballet dancers, I can't even imagine how many Asian-American male ballet dancers there are... I could see Asian-American parents allowing their daughters to pursue dancing, but not their sons...

Re: Duel Love: Soft porn on your DS!

John — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:08:34 -0000

You know, "Hizashi no Naka no Rairu" is one of our most popular web pages, mostly from web searches. No doubt "Dual Love" will be a popular search term as well.

Well, I'm all for equal opportunity!

The next thing we'll know, those crazy Japanese will have female and male robots that you can "play" with on your DS...

Re: LOLcat Guys Can Has Media Empire

John — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:54:13 -0000

1.5 million page views a day? That is crazy! At least we have a goal for our future media empire :-)

Looks like MJ is kissing people again...

John

Re: This isn’t going to piss anyone off, I don’t think.

John — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:48:28 -0000

Funny, I have not heard that about Korean women. On the other hand, I have heard that Vietnamese women can be very tough. I have a good Vietnamese-American woman friend from college who I know I would not want to get on her bad side

Re: Should Asian Kids Be Forced to Play Sports?

John — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:22:02 -0000

My parents had zero interest in me taking up any sports, and at the time, I thought sports were for only dumb jocks. I did play intramural football one season because my friends were interested. I wish I had taken up sports though - and built up a habit of exercising regularly and getting into shape.

Re: ‘Fat Envelope Frenzy: One Year, Five Promising Students and The Pursuit of the Ivy League Prize’

John — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:00:00 -0000

David - I am aware of "The Price of Admission" - I just haven't gotten around to buying or borrowing it to read. As for top MBA programs, I went to one... not sure what you are talking about.

Re: Tibet - the next Tiananmen Square?

John — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 04:04:04 -0000

Considering how the Chinese government has treated Tibetans since the1950's, I don't there is too much sympathy for the Chinese that were hurt or killed. Of course, the loss of any innocent life is regrettable.

Re: Tibet - the next Tiananmen Square?

John — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:00:55 -0000

Ken - oh please. You are blowing my comments out of proportion. Remember, the Chinese authorities are occupying Tibet, of course the news is going to report about the death of Tibetans. And if you do read the news coverage, there has been some coverage of the Chinese.

Re: ‘Fat Envelope Frenzy: One Year, Five Promising Students and The Pursuit of the Ivy League Prize’

John — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:05:46 -0000

Ivy Leaguer - while what you say may be true, unless there is solid evidence of his plagiarized essay, I'd rather not have people speculate on this. As for Zhang cheating on his girlfriend - well, that's reality if it is true. Note: I do not know Felix Zhang.

Re: Tibet - the next Tiananmen Square?

John — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:12:58 -0000

News of Protests Is Hard to Find In China -- in Media or Online
The Wall Street Journal
March 18, 2008; Page A8
"...State-run coverage of the protests has been sparse. While China Central Television, China's national broadcaster, has run footage from the riots of people taking to the streets and overturning cars, it only showed Tibetans attacking ethnic Han-Chinese interests. It didn't show the armed police who have stopped the protests in Lhasa. Aside from the state-run Xinhua news agency, other media have largely been silent on the issue. Media haven't covered news that the protests spread beyond Lhasa to other Chinese provinces. Despite the dominance of the Internet in everyday life, this is one of the rare cases when the government's filtering technology, in addition to self-censorship among Internet media companies and media consumers, seemingly has been successful in stifling a big news item."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120577947315842...

Re: “Love Story”:GE Healthcare Re-imagined in China

John — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:52:57 -0000

Another person posted the same video on YouTube and provided details of the commercial: (I didn't post the other link because the quality wasn't as good)
Musical Artist: Fang Cao
Song: In Summer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpf70XEDMHI
Full Credits
Client: General Electric
Agency: BBDO, New York
Chief Creative Officer: David Lubars, Bill Bruce
Executive Creative Director: Don Schneider
Copywriter: Jeremy Pippenger
Art Director: Eric Schutte
Director of Broadcast: Regina Ebel
Agency Producer: Filomena Lovecchio
Production Company: Traktor
Director: Traktor
Director of Photography: Emmanuel Lubezki
Editing House: Mackenzie Cutler
Editor: Ian MacKenzie
VFX: The Mill
Musical Artist: Fang Cao
Song: In Summer

Re: Conversation with Kina Grannis

John — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 04:12:41 -0000

Cool interview! Ben - you have a pretty deep voice!

Re: If you live to 100, what do you want at your funeral?

John — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:31:42 -0000

jozjozjoz,

Like I said, I didn't go to my grandfather's funeral in Taiwan, but I did hear there were strippers or exotic dancers there. I can't see my grandmother or uncle hiring them. Maybe some of the town people. My grandfather was fairly well known in his town since he was the head of the farmer's union or something like that.

Re: San Jose City Council approves ‘Little Saigon’ banners

John — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:33:34 -0000

Here is a post from November that chronicles the whole controversy:

San Jose: ‘Saigon Business District’ wins
http://www.8asians.com/2007/11/21/san-jose-saig...

Re: Center for Asian American Media Interactive at SFIAAFF 08

John — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:44:58 -0000

Ernie,

Seriously, this was your first time at SFIAAFF ???

BTW - you do not have a fat face - I think maybe back in 2004... *I* on the other hand, well, that is another story...

Re: If you live to 100, what do you want at your funeral?

John — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 19:59:15 -0000

So I took a look on YouTube for Taiwan, Strippers and Funerals, and all I could find is, believe it or not is:

Moon Festival Stripper!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns854YVdDVI

The woman doesn't strip though - she dances, in front of kids... and near a store.

Re: Porn Fridays: Jenny, Jenny… who can I turn to?

John — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:32:04 -0000

Wow, I bet her parents find out about her photo shoot now...

Re: What do strong Asian women sound like??

John — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:38:49 -0000

That was awesome.

Re: “Love Story”:GE Healthcare Re-imagined in China

John — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:14:45 -0000

I was doing a search on the Internet, and someone thinks that the commercial was shot in Yangshuo, China. Still looking for the actor/actress...

Re: San Francisco Asians fret over insult to Olympic torch

John — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:21:25 -0000

Bo - hey, John Stewart on The Daily Show just mentioned that fact - that the olympic torch relay tradition was started in 1936 for the Nazi Germany hosted Olympics by Hitler himself.

Re: North Korea: Lets Take a Tour!

John — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:12:14 -0000

I've always wanted to visit North Korea. I think it would be a FASCINATING place to visit (and probably very Orwellian).

Re: Victoria’s Secret’s Asian mannequin

John — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:15:31 -0000

Ernie, OMG, that was funny. Let's put those potato chips on eBay :-)

Re: Kristi Yamaguchi: Dancing with the Stars

John — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:16:21 -0000

I think it is a no-brainer for Kristi to win - I mean, an Olympic Gold medalist has the physical coordination and skills that I assume match the skills needs to win a dance competition?

I always liked Kristi - great ice skater and quite cute, IMHO!

Re: Chinese Duke student gets threats after China protest

John — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:22:40 -0000

Huang - I certainly don't condone any Tibetan rioters who "burned, killed, and destroyed innocent people."

But the Chinese government doesn't exactly have a great track record on human rights. The students in Tiananmen Square weren't exactly rioting,looting burning or killing innocent people in June 1989 when they were killed by the PLA.

Without a free press in Tibet, we aren't totally sure exactly what happened afterwards when the Chinese government kicked out the foreign press.

Re: Chinese Duke student gets threats after China protest

John — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 15:55:33 -0000

Cara - sounds like a conspiracy theory to me - "a destabilized China," led by the United States, is the last thing the United States. No U.S. policy maker wants a country of 1.3+ billion people to be de-stablized.

The truth is - China and the U.S. need each other and it is in both country's self-interest to maintain a peaceful relations. Peaceful does not mean that the countries do not always agree.

John

Re: Like “Stand and Deliver” (Except Not)

John — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 19:41:33 -0000

Why the hell would Zhao Yan Feng be sent to South Central Los Angeles. That is crazy. An American teaching in that environment would have problems, let alone a foreigner! I feel really sorry for this guy - he got screwed.

Re: Chinese Duke student gets threats after China protest

John — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:47:11 -0000

Well, as the world's only "super power," its in America's best interest to weaken everyone else's influence. But with Bush, the Iraq War, etc... the U.S. influence is less and less.... Americans are dumb, or at least those who voted for Bush:

How can 59,054,087 people be so dumb?
November 4, 2004
http://www.thehumorarchives.com/attachment/232/...

Re: Chinese Duke student gets threats after China protest

John — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 22:13:44 -0000

Ben - actually, in general, it has been more difficult for foreign graduate students to get a visa to study in the United States after 9/11.

As for "Chinese spies" - well, I'm sure there have been some "real" spies and some Chinese-Americans (American-born and naturalized) who have taken the opportunity to sell information to the Chinese due to their access to sensitive commercial or military information. No different than Americans like Aldrich Ames selling CIA secrets to the Soviets / Russians.

However, I am concerned about the sensationalism of "Chinese spies" - which has lead to the illegal imprisonment of people such as Wen Ho Lee or even worse, back i World War II, the internment of Japanese-Americans - one of the greatest violations of civil rights in American history (probably behind the genocide of the Native American and the history of slavery in the United States).

Cara - there is one thing if people want to be assimilated into the greater society as a whole, but from my limited understanding and knowledge of Tibet's history, Tibetans have primarily stayed to themselves. Ironically, the Dalai Lama is for more openness of Tibet and access to the rest of the world and China. As for Ben's comment regarding dilution - this has been a typical tactic for governments to marginalized and slowly eliminate an ethnic minority. Whether or not this is China's intent is up for interpretation.

Re: Protesters target CNN after Jack Cafferty’s remarks on China

John — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:42:33 -0000

My father came to the United States (from Taiwan, native Taiwanese) for graduate school and stayed because he felt at the time, the opportunities in the U.S. were better.

Ernie - yeah, I guess one could call the Nationalists (KMT) a bunch of "goon and thugs" as well. Especially after the 228 incident. Taiwan wasn't really a true democracy until 1996.

Re: Protesters target CNN after Jack Cafferty’s remarks on China

John — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:00:22 -0000

Akrypti - I think “goons and thugs" would be too gentle a phrase for the Bush administration :-).

As for Hu Jintao being the George W. Bush of China, I think that is going a bit too far :-).

Actually, I have no idea what Hu Jintao has done or hasn't done for China.

Re: Elite Korean Schools, Forging Ivy League Skills

John — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 01:15:55 -0000

SC - I was wondering if anybody was going to bring this up :-). Although my impression was that civil service exams started before the Sui Dynasty in 605, like shortly after Confucious' time (i.e. after 479 BC)

Re: Thank Allah It’s Jumma

John — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:15:03 -0000

I grew up agnostic so I have no idea what a hat Jumma is, and i have real no idea what the differences are amongst Presbyterians, Catholics, Protestants, etc....

Re: ABCD’s: American-Born Confused Desis

John — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:32:44 -0000

That's funny - never heard 'Dummies' before.

Re: Korean Air targets you by your surname

John — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:37:41 -0000

At first, I thought the tv ad was for a perfume. Odd that Korean Airlines would be advertising in the South. I would imagine more so SF, LA, NYC, DC...

Re: The Imprisoned Stanford MBA - Stanford grads work to free pal held in China

John — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:16:55 -0000

Rob - that would be against U.S. law:

Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fraud/fcpa/

Re: End of the Bubble Tea Era: Asians Look Beyond Boba

John — Tue, 06 May 2008 23:13:29 -0000

I vote for shaved ice!

Re: AsiaSF goes Hollywood!

John — Wed, 07 May 2008 16:32:35 -0000

I remember going to AsiaSF the first time - it was with my brother and we were meeting two of his friends. I didn't realize the hostesses were transgendered male-to-female women and “gender illusionists, and thought the hostesses / waitresses were pretty good looking, then quickly realized who they were.

Transphobia - I didn't even know this was a word.

Re: May 17th: San Francisco, Union Square: Taiwanese American Cultural Festival

John — Fri, 09 May 2008 02:22:00 -0000

Yes, it is indeed - thanks for the tip / info

Asian Heritage Street Celebration
Japantown, San Francisco
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
http://www.asianfairsf.com/2008/

Re: Why American Chinese cuisine isn’t exactly Chinese

John — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:34:17 -0000

“Why American Chinese cuisine isn’t exactly Chinese” is sort of the whole premise of The Fortune Cookie Chronicles, which I've blogged about. You should check out the book!

Re: Deaths feared at five thousand in China 7.8 quake

John — Mon, 12 May 2008 15:09:52 -0000

I am sure Americans are more than willing to donate and help the Chinese in their time of need, and this will only demonstrate what I have meant when I say when commenting about Americans protesting against China & Tibet - you can be against the government and some of their policies, but still support the Chinese people.

Anybody know where one can donate for this earthquake?

Re: Difficult Consequences: Frat Guy Dead from DWI

John — Wed, 14 May 2008 00:52:40 -0000

Akrypti - nice to see you blogging again!

This is a sad story. Even sadder that this occurred because if my alma mater. I wonder how liable Cornell University is - as Slope Day is basically a condoned activity for everyone to get drunk at the end of the semester, including those not legal to drink.

Roy and Willie should have known better...

Re: Being Bi-racial in Beijing

John — Sat, 17 May 2008 02:19:46 -0000

andrew - well, as someone who seems to follow 8Asians, you know that I read The New York Times and Wall Street Journal regularly and try to post most articles I see relating to Asian Americans or Asia. Personally, I'm not exactly sure to what extent there is or is not the wide spread internalized racism within the Asian American community that you feel is so prevelant. I do understand the point regarding jaehwan makes on The Fighting 44's - especially his point on a "cultured and non-thuggish white man in order to draw a contrast." - which kind of reminds me of the AP article that Clinton was quoting saying that she was getting the "hard working, blue collar white male" voters.

Personally, when I was reading the article, it just reminded me of the time I met my half-Japanese / half-British friend. The "internalized racism" really didn't jump out at me except for the fact that the article was written by a Chinese-American woman married to a white man. I didn't necessarily want to point out that fact since we get enough trolls commenting on how Asian American women should only date and marry Asian men and how racist Asian American women are.

Had the article been written a Chinese-American man talking about how tall and blond his white wife was, would this also be internalized racism or simply a mere statement of fact?

Maybe I should read the article again more carefully.

Re: Yul Kwon’s Red Mango in Palo Alto

John — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:01:37 -0000

FYI - Yul Kwon is straight and engaged. Actually, I will probably drop by Red Mango this weekend to chat with Yul. Maybe I'll interview him too.

Re: Being Bi-racial in Beijing

John — Thu, 22 May 2008 18:05:33 -0000

minbo - you are taking this blog way too seriously.

Re: Being Bi-racial in Beijing

John — Fri, 23 May 2008 15:25:00 -0000

jaehwan - well, I think we can have a civil discussion, but 8Asians is not an academic blog dedicated to genetics. I was going to write a response to minbo's post, which I thought was good, but was going to point out some things, but figured, why bother getting into a tit-for-tat discussion on this blog. I'd rather spend more time doing something else.

I had sent this NYTimes article to my high school friend (white/Jewish) who is married to a Chinese women (born and raised in China). His wife and son are currently in China. It so happens that he just emailed me today saying that his wife said (who is visiting her parents in China):

"According to my wife, that is EXACTLY HOW IT IS. Everywhere they go, complete strangers want to hug my son and pick him up and have their picture taken with him. She says that she doesn't get upset by this, but I can't help but worry a bit about him losing any fear of strangers."

So I think some of the vitriolic comments regarding the Chinese-American woman in this New York Times article is a bit misguided in some sense.

Re: Being Bi-racial in Beijing

John — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:59:40 -0000

overseas chinese, Jaehwan,

>” we’re criticizing her racially arrogant attitude towards Asian people, as well as the >superiority complex she seems to feel towards the locals just because she married a >white guy.”

You are interpreting her comments as racial arrogance. What if she wrote that without any intent of racial arrogance and is completely unaware of what her article being *interpreted* as racial arrogance?

We will never truly know unless we get to know the author personally. Of course, the chances that we will ever know her true thoughts and feelings directly are slim.

Well, I knew this post would get some comments :-)

Re: Being Bi-racial in Beijing

John — Sat, 24 May 2008 20:59:52 -0000

Yeah, the woman wants to write in The New York Times to tell the world she is a racist. Maybe her observations were just that, observations.

"If you fight cannibals, expect to be eaten."

Please. You definitely have too much time on your hands. Well, you're entitled to your opinions, but this is a blog I contribute to, so I'm entitled to mine.

I don't think this really is a "fear China" article.

Re: Being Bi-racial in Beijing

John — Tue, 27 May 2008 13:32:14 -0000

I was thinking about the number of people posting, not the same people posting again and again in regards to this post getting comments.

Re: The Love Boat: Matchmaking, the Ultimate Government Service

John — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:09:47 -0000

Akrypti - want to send me some and I can post some? :-)

Re: Fugitive Dr. Tony Shiu, caught in Taiwan, back in the Bay Area

John — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:10:51 -0000

Jen, Efren - it is a "big" story because 1. local resident 2. the doctor violated a patient (and would be just as "big" if he were violating females) 3. he fled the country and was caught abroad.

Re: Single, Desperate and Ugly?

John — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:34:05 -0000

Peter - Singapore is too hot & humid for me!

Re: Obama says Asians are short…

John — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:09:19 -0000

On average, Asians and Asian Americans are shorter than Caucasians. I will have to listen to the YouTube posting at home. (I'm at work).

Re: NPR: The Slants: Trading in Stereotypes

John — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:32:47 -0000

I played a few songs on The Slants' MySpace and I just didn't think they weer all that great. Music is subjective. Plus, I didn't quite hear any of the lyrics in the songs that were supposed to be about Asian-American alienation. I posted about The Slants because I thought people would be interested.

Re: Christy Wong: Being Chinese American and embracing the ‘Twinkie’

John — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:10:00 -0000

Yes, I forgot about the term banana. I have heard of twinkie more often though. Twinkie's are artificial, unlike a banana, which is a fruit. So I think twinkie also conveys the idea of something not being truly 'real' or true to oneself.

Re: Rattling the Cage: Nice Jewish boy, nice Asian girl

John — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:00:02 -0000

uRB4N - the Borg is science fiction...where resistance is futile and assimilation forced. We all have free will to choose our partners, and mass assimilation is not forced upon us. White America does not tell or force people to assimilate. There may be cultural forces in the mainstream that may encourage assimilation, but there is a difference I believe. And with immigration, there is a renewed source of heritage of recent immigrants to strengthen that ethnic identity that makes America the unique tapestry that it is instead of the assimilated melting pot that you fear.

Re: Rattling the Cage: Nice Jewish boy, nice Asian girl

John — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:35:43 -0000

uRB4N - "..giving the appearance of choice when, in reality, your choice is already chosen for you by sheer persuasion."

What are we living in - The Matrix??? I'm not saying American society isn't innocent, I'm just saying that it is not as overt in its intentions as you paint it to be, even in "soft" way.

Re: LA Times: Why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos?

John — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:58:14 -0000

Um, my point is exactly what Sunny had blogged about living in China.

Re: Asian Americans going on a date in a Wells Fargo commercial

John — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:08:21 -0000

@Ken -
I just found the Home Depot commercial on YouTube (though a poor quality recording). Thanks for mentioning - I have yet to see this one on the air.

Re: pressure can make diamonds … how about gold?

John — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 03:59:01 -0000

@Brian - that is too funny....

Re: Lin Miaoke: Does This Count As Human Rights Violations?

John — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:33:44 -0000

That's too bad that they didn't use the cutie's voice... As for lip syncing - I don't have a problem with that. Hey, is rock stars can do it, surely you can do it at the Olympics!

Re: Lin Miaoke: Does This Count As Human Rights Violations?

John — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:24:31 -0000

I wasn't saying I didn't have a problem lip syncing someone else's voice with the cutie. I just didn't have a problem lip syncing one's own voice to oneself for a large performance. Obviously, what the Chinese did sucks.

Re: Lin Miaoke: Does This Count As Human Rights Violations?

John — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:46:47 -0000

I was watching local NBC 11 and they called the incident puling a "Milli Vanilli" which cracked me up. Maybe some of you are too young to remember this Milli Vanilli... Apparently there are efforts to get Yang Peiyi to sing in the Closing Ceremonies.

Re: Asian Americans Going for the Gold & thoughts on the Opening Ceremonies

John — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:59:25 -0000

@Grace Chu - funny, NBC 11 used the same phrase, "Milli Vanilli" move.

Re: Lin Miaoke: Does This Count As Human Rights Violations?

John — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:23:51 -0000

I heard that some are calling this the "Wrong Child Policy" - a play on China's "One Child Policy." Thought that was funny...

Re: US Mint releases new coins for the “Asian American” community

John — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 13:18:03 -0000

What, no samples? What an outrage! :-)

I don't get "The set contains two coins since it was decided that it would be easier to convert two smaller 1/2-oz. coins into jewelry as opposed to one larger 1-oz. coin."

Does the U.S. Mint expect people to melt the gold to make jewelry? Why would people want to melt the coins? Can't jewelry makers get gold elsewhere?

Re: Kelly Hu & George Takei “Embrace Your Power” to Vote

John — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:22:39 -0000

Cynthia - true, I didn't think of Lisa Ling. But what I meant when I mentioned Oprah was an Asian American as well known and well regarded as Oprah. I don't think Lisa Ling nor any Asian American woman (or man for that matter) has gotten to that level yet.

Re: In China, Jocks Don’t Rule School; But the Smart Kids, They’re Cool. And Chinese & Asian Americans?

John — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 05:03:57 -0000

Well, I played table tennis mostly for fun, in the basement, against my brother. As for tennis - nope, never played. Badminton - not really.

My brother I think did cross country and field & track when I was off in college I believe, but I think he did it instead of my parents pushing him.

Re: ImageGeisha: Is This Any Different from Mister Wong?

John — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:37:17 -0000

Maybe the tag line is offensive, but the logo of the geisha - I don't see anything horribly wrong with that...

Re: Final Thoughts on the 2008 Beijing Olympics & China

John — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:57:42 -0000

Interesting idea - I didn't think of the Winter Olympics in Harbin! I know every year they have a Harbin Ice Festival.

Re: Baldwin Yen, Asian American veteran profiled in video tribute

John — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:30:47 -0000

minoritymilitant - yeah, definitely feel free to use Baldwin as a poster child on your blog!

Re: Stephen Colbert Looking for an “Asian Guy.” I’m asking - where are the Asians as well?

John — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 16:17:41 -0000

Akrypti - true, but given that San Francisco is probably the largest liberal city in the U.S., one would expect that most of the Asian Americans in SF would be Democrats.

Re: ‘Samurai Girl’ coming to ABC Family this Friday

John — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:51:02 -0000

Ernie - OMG - that mug shot is pretty bad!

Stan - yeah, I wasn't going to comment on the white guy...

Re: ‘Samurai Girl’ coming to ABC Family this Friday

John — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 20:52:24 -0000

Juno - she looks pretty hot in the video....

Re: John McCain and a Steward

John — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:31:09 -0000

Wow, what a fascinating post - thanks for sharing!

Re: “What [Asian Media] … Would Be Appropriate for a 7-year old Girl?”

John — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 02:36:29 -0000

Don't know about websites, books or magazines, but there is:

Ni Hao, Kai-lan
http://www.nickjr.com/shows/ni-hao-kai-lan/inde...

Re: ‘Samurai Girl’ coming to ABC Family this Friday

John — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:36:57 -0000

Rob - I totally agree.

Re: See Ping Pong Playa… free afterparty with ticket!*

John — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:26:52 -0000

It's called table tennis - not ping pong! :-)

Re: ‘Samurai Girl’ coming to ABC Family this Friday

John — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:07:24 -0000

I saw "Pearl Harbor" with a Japanese friend of mine, and he said one of the Japanese generals in the movie spoke *horrible* Japanese...

Re: ‘Samurai Girl’ coming to ABC Family this Friday

John — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 13:52:46 -0000

@Jeff C. - great points.

So did anyone actually watch the show?

Re: “It’s Snow Beer for you.”

John — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 09:58:48 -0000

@darkmoon - I said "it sounds like" - I didn't mean it *was* poorly translated. I.E. It does not sound like a brand that transcend China, like Sony, Nokia, etc... or until recently, Samsung, or a better example, Heineken.

Re: SF Opera: The Bonesetter’s Daughter Premiering This Weekend

John — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 19:37:30 -0000

A friend of mine who is really into opera wrote this on his Facebook status regarding the Opera, "Stayed awake through probably the most horrific excuse for an opera ever.... Well i did overstate a bit. The opening of the opera sounded as if some animals were being tortured. The east/west fusion was a mess."

@Moye -
I'm sure once you become a mother and have a daughter, you'll be eating your words :-)

Re: San Jose council endorses post office honor for Chinese-American leader

John — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 03:12:53 -0000

That is a good point. Now if this was named in Western Massachusetts where I grew up, one would definitely notice.

Re: Sheena from Americas Next Top Model

John — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:19:38 -0000

I agree - how Sheena doesn't fall is amazing.

Re: Thai politician kicks and punches a TV journalist for asking tough questions

John — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 18:30:53 -0000

Call me crazy, but I always enjoy seeing those Taiwanese legislature fights - it gives the government a certain uniqueness and shows the passion of a thriving democracy. :-)

Re: Thai politician kicks and punches a TV journalist for asking tough questions

John — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:11:53 -0000

Yeah, the presidential debate last night was a real bore... basically repeating themselves from the first debate.

Re: South Park: “The China Probrem” episode

John — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:51:30 -0000

Yes, I loved it how the Asian parents spoke fluent unaccented English as well as Chinese - and were basically saying, WTF to Cartman.

Re: Former SF supervisor Ed Jew pleads guilty to federal charges

John — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 13:53:58 -0000

I heard the news about this yesterday. I hope we never have to hear about Ed Jew or Norman Hsu in the news ever again! Vote for Eric Mar and David Chiu for San Francisco Supervisors!

Re: Obama campaign needs to lose 80/20

John — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:47:22 -0000

http://www.80-20initiative.net/

"80-20 is a national, nonpartisan, Political Action Committee dedicated to winning equal opportunity and justice for all Asian Americans through a SWING bloc vote, ideally directing 80% of our community's votes and money to the presidential candidate endorsed by the 80-20, who better represents the interests of all APAs. Hence, the name "80-20" was created."

The Obama campaign has nothing to do with that PAC or who they endorse.

Re: Rocking the Vote Amid the Shrimp Dumplings

John — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:09:36 -0000

Of course I am serious.

Re: Saturday Night Live - Stereotyping Asian American Men

John — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 04:20:06 -0000

Of course he is an actor. SNL chose an actor to perpetuate the stereotype.

Re: 8against8.com: Asian-Am Blogger Raises $8,000 Against California Proposition 8 in 3 Days

John — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:25:32 -0000

Grace - ha ha - I guess you are trying to guilt us into donating. Maybe we can use some of our AdSense dollars to donate...

Re: John McCain enjoys wide support in Vietnamese communities

John — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:14:21 -0000

GooksForMavericks - actually, Jeff of 8Asians did blog about how McCain did defended a Filipino at the Naval academy:

http://www.8asians.com/2008/09/01/john-mccain-a...

Re: Reaching the Chinese-American & Taiwanese-American community to vote NO on Prop 8 in California

John — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:15:46 -0000

This was great - especially having this in both English and Mandarin.

Re: The Colbert Report: Yo-Yo Ma Interview & Performance

John — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:21:16 -0000

jozjozjoz - I think Itzhak Perlman is pretty well known, but I don't know about the other violinists.

Brianna - cool. I have a hard time imagining the audience singing along with Colbert. I want to attend a taping.

Re: Just Because Obama is a Minority is No Reason to Vote for Him

John — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:18:04 -0000

Am I voting for Obama because he is a minority: NO.

I am voting for him because he is the best candidate. I'd vote for Obama if he was black, white, yellow or red.

Re: Just Because Obama is a Minority is No Reason to Vote for Him

John — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:27:41 -0000

@Brian - I think Colin Powell is a pretty moderate Republican. Imagine if there had been an election of Colin Powell vs. Barack Obama - that would have truly been historic!

Re: So when are we going to see an Asian American President on mainstream TV or in the movies?

John — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 04:40:42 -0000

Of course we want qualified presidential candidates who happen to be Asian American - what is wrong with that? We are not talking about "our turn" - we are talking about expanding the talent pool of leaders beyond white males. What is wrong with that?

Re: So when are we going to see an Asian American President on mainstream TV or in the movies?

John — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:18:55 -0000

All of you are missing the point of this post. My point is that if we are ever to have a president who happens to be Asian American, that we should see Asian American presidents played on television and in the movies.

Without removing mental blocks and not imagining that there could be a president who happens to be an Asian American, we will probably never see one.

Re: So when are we going to see an Asian American President on mainstream TV or in the movies?

John — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:25:31 -0000

Huh? How many Americans do you think even *knew* that there was a Japanese Peruvian that was president of Peru? You just don't get my post.

Re: No on 8: How NOT to Run an Initiative Campaign

John — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:40:00 -0000

@Efren & @Rona_fernandez9 - Asian Americans in particular are very apathetic when it comes to civic engagement and involvement... something I have blogged about often in my posts... and why I try to go to the other extreme ....

@Ernie - www.fivethirtyeight.com rocks! One of the many sites I followed during the election season...

Re: Chinese-American activists oppose any Bill Richardson cabinet nomination

John — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 02:48:49 -0000

Angie - awesome comment. Keep them coming!

Re: David Chiu is the First Asian American EVER to be Elected to Represent Chinatown

John — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:23:16 -0000

@Jim - actually, I did know that the first Asian American was elected to an at-large supervisor position during the Harvey Milk, George Moscone era, but I was unable to actually Google info regarding the specific name/person until you mentioned it.

A Lawmaker's Legacy
S.F. mourns the death of its first elected Asian American supervisor
http://asianweek.com/042398/bay1.html

My point still stands though - no Asian American or Chinese American has specifically been elected to represent the very symbolic Chinatown San Francisco - the oldest and largest "Chinatown" in the United States.

@jozjozjoz - as I had said, I am *generally* happy that Asian Americans *are* elected to public office *because* Asian Americans *are* generally not as involved in civic and community service. This is a fact that I have unfortunately observed while being active in the San Francisco Bay Area. I had commented or blogged when I met another Asian American who had volunteered for the Obama campaign and he said when he was phone banking, he was the only Asian American volunteer, despite the fact that Asian Americans in most communities in the Bay Area represent 15% to 25% of the population on the peninsula / Silicon Valley.

Yes, it is nice to see an active Vietnamese American community in San Jose, despite the efforts to recall Madison Nguyen.

Re: A Lesson on JiaoZi (餃子)

John — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:42:34 -0000

Yes I can! I've made JiaoZi with my mother as a kid. And yes, we also used store-bought JiaoZi Pi. Haven't done this in a looooong while though. Maybe 8Asians should have a JiaoZi making party!

Re: Stating the Obvious: Cupertino has a lot of Asians

John — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:10:06 -0000

Unless you work in the East Bay, I am not sure why anybody lives in the East Bay? I know there are some good schools in the Fremont area, and I can understand the appeal of Berkeley. Being a transplant from the East Coast though, I don't know what the East Bay has to offer.

Re: Obama nominates Nobel physicist Steven Chu as Energy secretary

John — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:05:25 -0000

A Nobel Laureate in the White House
http://www.asianweek.com/2008/12/19/a-nobel-lau...

Re: Nothing Says the Holidays Like a Corpse in your Passenger Seat

John — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:34:33 -0000

Didn't Hollywood make a movie like this... called "Weekend at Bernie's?" (To be honest, I never saw the movie - seemed too ridiculous).

Re: China, the Birthplace of Marijuana!

John — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 11:56:35 -0000

I imagine that the Chinese Communist Party is not so keen on people smoking pot or taking any illegal drugs, especially given the history of China and opium?

Re: The 8Asians.com Writers (And Sassy Korean Guy) Wishes You a Merry Christmas!

John — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:51:33 -0000

I think this video just re-enforces the sterotype of bad Asian male singers, like William Hung :(

Re: Jero on Kohaku 2008

John — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 05:26:30 -0000

What are you doing in San Jose?

Re: The Berestain Bears Teaches Us About Wacky Chinese Neighbors

John — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:51:28 -0000

Berenstain Bears - damn, I remember those books. Brings back memories of elementary school, getting the Weekly Reader and Scholastic Book club. I came across an interview on NPR with Judy Blume and her talking about "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing."

Panda Bears as Chinese neighbors - makes sense to me in the context of the Berenstain Bears. I wonder what stereotypes the book perpetuated...? Are they Kung Fu Pandas?

Re: High Grades, High Stress for Asian-American Students in Bay Area

John — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:55:39 -0000

Great video. There was no link to that CNN piece in the San Jose Mercury News.

Re: High Grades, High Stress for Asian-American Students in Bay Area

John — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 18:21:51 -0000

@Andrew - thanks for your personal observations and thoughts! We really appreciate it!

Re: Pinkberry vs. Red Mango’s Ultimate FroYo Bay Area Smackdown

John — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:33:54 -0000

FREE FROZEN YOGURT ALL DAY @ Red Mango Valley Fair Sat Jan 24
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=59036537781

Re: Jason Wu, Designer of Michelle Obama’s Inaugural Ball Gown

John — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:53:59 -0000

@Phở Kinh Bích
"How I Became a Taiwanese-American and why It Matters"
http://www.taiwandc.org/twcom/65-no6.htm

Re: Mourning Comes Too Early

John — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 15:55:05 -0000

Tim, my condolences as well to you and your family. You are not alone in your experiences. Thanks for being so candid about your thoughts and feelings - something I agree is rare to discuss amongst Asians and Asian Americans when it comes to the subject of death.

Re: Jason Wu, Designer of Michelle Obama’s Inaugural Ball Gown

John — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:01:53 -0000

A nice profile of Jason Wu in The New York Times:

The Spotlight Finds Jason Wu
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/fashion/25WU....

Re: Yo-Yo Ma & Company Fake It at the Inauguration

John — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:12:44 -0000

@getreal - I singled out Yo-Yo Ma because he is an Asian American and this is an Asian American blog! Plus, I've blogged about Yo-Yo Ma before.

Re: Yo-Yo Ma & Company Fake It at the Inauguration

John — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 19:32:45 -0000

@Yǒ Dum Mǎ - I think Yo-Yo Ma is fairly well known .. he's like one of the most well known musicians in the world I think!

Re: Sharing a Meal at Ponzu: An 8Asians Bloggers Meetup

John — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:24:23 -0000

Rosemary - great photos. I need to get a better digital camera or better yet, an SLR. I look kind of out of it...

Re: The Onion Enters White Guy/Asian Girl Fray

John — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:45:22 -0000

This is *PURE* genius. I just posted this on Facebook and will email it out to all of my friends... :)

Re: The Onion Enters White Guy/Asian Girl Fray

John — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:01:02 -0000

@Efren - obviously Asiaphile Alert has not idea that The Onion is a satirical news site ... how sad...

Re: The Return of Hines Ward: The Hopeful, Happy Approach

John — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:40:57 -0000

@Stan & all - I agree - wow, EXTREMELY touching.

Re: Asian Americans and Mistaken Identity

John — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 02:29:13 -0000

Lucy Liu and Lisa Ling - well, both of their first and last names do start with L's, and Lucy and Lisa are common enough names, and to be honest, I have always found both of them to be pretty cute, so for some to confuse the two, I am not so surprised.

Re: Seoul Soo the Korean Cow Wants to be Californian

John — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:51:36 -0000

I'm totally confused - is this a new campaign by the California Dairy Council? Interesting, but bizarre.

I agree - I remember the first time driving on I-5 and smelling the cows for several minutes as I passed, to my astonishment, the wave of cows. But I think those weren't dairy cows...

Re: Gary Locke Likely to Become Secretary of Commerce

John — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:33:39 -0000

Obama nominates Locke for Commerce chief
CNN. February 25, 2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/25/obama.co...

Re: Model Minorities in Reality TV: The Amazing Race’s Tammy & Victor Jih

John — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:53:33 -0000

@Roger - I didn't catch Season 10 with Erwin and Godwin.
@Linda - I think the Jih's are Chinese. I will have to investigate further...

Re: The Chinese Language: Technology As Friend Of Tradition

John — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 16:43:31 -0000

I agree completely with Fallows. I've always thought that, although well intended, Simplified Chinese was a travesty to the Chinese written language. Thankfully, Taiwan has always maintained Traditional Chinese and those who want to learn the "real" written Chinese go to Taiwan to study.

I do wonder how difficult it would be to transition back from Simplified to Traditional in China, since Simplified has been taught in China for so long now.

Thanks for blogging about this!

Re: Peering Through The Glass Ceiling

John — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:19:17 -0000

Welcome to the stark reality of Silicon Valley...

Re: Peering Through The Glass Ceiling

John — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:55:03 -0000

@Tim - I've always wondered if greying my hair would improve my chances of looking older, more experienced, and wiser - i.e. "the look" for upper management.

Study: Americans Expect Business Leaders to Be White
http://www.8asians.com/2008/07/22/study-america...

Re: “Asian Flush” Means Higher Risk for Different Cancers

John — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:08:33 -0000

That is an awesome photo...

Re: Asian Noodles In The News

John — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 18:05:35 -0000

Having never had "fresh" ramen noodles until I moved to California, I think "instant" noodles does fresh ramen noodles an injustice! But I am still a fan of instant noodles - but there need to be more ramen noodle restaurants to let Americans know what the real thing tastes like!

Re: WANTED: Asian GMAT Test Taker

John — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:13:58 -0000

Oh cool, a new potential income stream :).

Seriously, I think there are more Asians that take the MCAT and LSAT over the GMAT. So there could be movies called 45, 180 and 800 respectively. I have a friend (not Asian) who actually took the MCAT, LSAT, GMAT AND GRE - she said the LSAT was the hardest....

I'm assuming the guy who posted on Craigslist is Asian and is looking for a similarly looking enough Asian to take the test. For a lot of Caucasians, Asians do look very similar and using an existing ID might actually work - especially in regions of the country where there are not a lot of Asians. I played off of that "ignorance" once... though not for test taking.

I used my friend's student ID AND his marriage certificate to get a pair of tickets to the Final Four back in 1999. His grad school had gotten into the Final Four as well as mine, and he won the student lottery to get a pair of tickets (I did not). He FedEx'd his ID and marriage certificate and I redeemed a pair of tickets in St. Petersburg, FL at will call / box office. His photo ID wasn't all that great and I think for the average white person in Florida, I could pass easily for him.

As soon as I got the tickets, a scalper offered me $1,800 for the pair of tickets. I declined! I didn't drive 10+ hours to not go to the Final Four - when else was I going to be a student and be at a Final Four to root for my school !!! Too bad Duke lost to UCONN in the finals! Go Duke Blue Devils!

Re: Video Zen: Pearl Cream Commercial by Nancy Kwan, circa 1988

John — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 16:05:59 -0000

OMG, I remember "Noble House" as a Richard Chamberlain TV mini-series, though I do not remember actress Nancy Kwan and cringe as she used the word "oriental."

Re: Asians Can Be Just As Racist Too!

John — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 19:56:33 -0000

I thought this was a great post and agree with your observations, since they coincide with some of my own observations, specifically with the Taiwanese immigrant population. But I'd have to say that amongst 1st generation Taiwanese Americans, a lot of their racial stereotypes have been formed and reinforced based on stereotypes perpetuated by the media (TV, film) when they lived in Taiwan, and the news when they live in the United States, rather than any direct contact or relations with other minorities in the U.S.

My mom has been perpetually asking me when I am going to get married. So I asked once hypothetically if it was okay if I got married to a black woman. She said yes. A few days later, she reconsidered and said no....

Re: Betty Brown: “Really, Just Change Your Name”

John — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 18:52:44 -0000

Join the "Down with Betty Brown" Facebook group here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=84118977753

Re: Betty Brown: “Really, Just Change Your Name”

John — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 13:23:56 -0000

@FLINC - Krzyzewski - yeah, totally! How that comes across being pronounced as "Shə-zhef-skee" is beyond me!

Re: What Yao Ming Not Dunking Tells Us About Asian Culture

John — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 19:30:04 -0000

Great post.

Re: 8Asians Interviews Bai Ling on “Crank: High Voltage” (And Some Other Stuff)

John — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 22:49:36 -0000

I saw "Dumplings" at the SF Asian American International Film Festival and thought she was quite good in the movie, even if the movie itself was a bit disturbing.

Re: Great Wall of China Longer Than Previously Thought

John — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 17:12:49 -0000

The Great Wall has been around, like forever! How could China not have an accurate length for the Wall???

Re: Giving Jackie Chan’s “Control” Comment A Second Chance

John — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:14:57 -0000

When I was in college, during the start of the Gulf War in 1991, I remember a CNN reporter based in Germany quoting a news source, Bild, that Saddam Hussein possibly had nerve gas (or something like that). A German exchange student was laughing, and basically explained that Bild was "worse than the National Inquirer." I've always been a little suspicious and cautious about what I've read and watch since that incident. That's the worse thing about the Internet and the 24 hours news cycle - a lot of misinformation can occur or events can be taken out of context very easily and also quickly...

Re: Where Are the Asian CEOs?

John — Sun, 03 May 2009 01:58:16 -0000

Thanks for posting. May 20th is my brother's birthday, but I am definitely interested in attending this event.

Re: On Matchmaking and Asian Male/White Female Interracial Relationships

John — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:40:43 -0000

I think Asian men also may feel to have a family obligation to date & marry an Asian woman. I know that was my father's desire and preference.

Additionally, in terms of inferiority complex, I thought maybe you were trying to say that maybe Asian men might feel as though they are inferior due to the stereotypes around Asian men in American society rather than like what Jason just commented on, having an equal partner.

In this context, Asian men's reluctance to ask or date white women would be due to the fact that they don't believe they can. And this is only reinforced by the imbalance of WMAF vs. AMWF that an Asian man sees.

The most prominent AMWF couple I've seen recently is Secretary of Energy Steven Chu with his white wife. I think what would be more surprising than a black president (half black, half white) and black first lady would be to have an Asian president with a white first lady!

Re: Ex-Power Ranger Patricia Ja Lee in Tostitos Commercial

John — Fri, 08 May 2009 03:54:24 -0000

@Matt - I was wondering if that was Roger Fan in that Verizon commercial!

As for the Jawbone commercial, I have seen it online, but not on TV... (I think it is strictly a viral web ad because of the length and all the swearing) and plus, I don't think a lot of people have heard of Jawbone...

Re: Tammy & Victor Jih Win The Amazing Race!

John — Mon, 11 May 2009 13:53:39 -0000

See Tammy & Victor on CBS's The Early Show this morning being interviewed and receiving their $1 million check:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500...

Re: Tammy & Victor Jih Win The Amazing Race!

John — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:11:38 -0000

TV Guide Magazine: Tammy & Victor, Amazing Race CUBICLE CONFESSIONS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C-vR-oGAxc

Re: How to be a Korean from the South

John — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:32:24 -0000

I really enjoyed your post.

I had blogged recently about a recent trend in China:

Why Americans Are Adopting Fewer Kids from China
http://www.8asians.com/2009/04/29/why-americans...

and made a comment on "I mean, if you are an ethnically Chinese woman raised in a white family from when you were a baby, I imagine that the likelihood she would be more likely to date and marry a white man compared to a Chinese American girl raised in a Chinese American family." - which I got some flack for. Just wondering your thoughts on my "theory."

Re: Openly Gay Asian Americans Discharged from the Military

John — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:07:36 -0000

Dan Choi Is Gay
The Daily Show. May 14, 2009. (03:50)
John Oliver acknowledges that Dan Choi may be a valuable Arabic translator, but he's gay.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?v...

Re: Political Aspirations of Latinos and Asians Clash in Congressional Race

John — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:25:04 -0000

opponent's campaign against judy chu gets dirty
5/18/09
http://www.angryasianman.com/2009/05/opponents-...

Re: Dr. Judy Chu Wins in Special Election

John — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:58:49 -0000

Two Chus among candidates for San Gabriel Valley seat
The Los Angeles Times. May 21, 2009

What's in a name? Just about everything, it turns out, in the 32nd Congressional District.

Democrat Judy Chu and Republican Betty Chu, along with Libertarian Christopher M. Agrella, rose out of a field of 12 in Tuesday's election to advance to a July runoff. Judy Chu's campaign consultant, Parke Skelton, calls it "the Chu-Chu runoff."

Judy, who outpolled Democratic state Sen. Gil Cedillo and six other party members, is considered the heavy favorite, given the district's strong Democratic tilt.

The two women share a last name, a Chinese American heritage, extensive professional accomplishment and even a family connection. Betty is married to Judy's first cousin. But from there, all political and personal paths diverge.

The race, peppered with harsh fliers and accusations that one Chu (Betty) was trying to confuse voters into thinking she was the better-known Chu (Judy), featured a frostiness that makes the upcoming runoff seem like a surreal family feud.

"They're not friendly," said Skelton. "Even less so now."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-congres...

Re: Disney/Pixar’s Up and the Voice of Russell, Jordan Nagai

John — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:55:13 -0000

Russell looks more half-Asian, half-white to me.

Re: New Intel Ad Stars Real Engineers (Except They Don’t)

John — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:12:31 -0000

I would have to say that if other Intel commercials are highlighting other Intel employees (of all ethnic backgrounds) and are employing better looking actors, then there is no controversy here. I'm sure it is easier for the person shooting the commercial to direct an actor than a non-actor, and a hassle for Ajay Bhatt's to fly down to LA for a day and spend it shooting a commercial. Or maybe Ajay Bhatt is just camera shy?

I do think that the Indian actor kind of does reinforce the look of an Indian American engineer. I think it would have been funnier if "Ajay Bhatt" would have been a hot Indian Bollywood actor type. But I think engineers of all ethnic backgrounds, including white, are stereotyped as geeky (i.e. anybody watch CBS's The Big Bang Theory?)

FYI - more info on Intel's ad campaign in a recent article:
A Tech Company’s Campaign to Burnish Its Brand
The New York Times. May 5th, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/business/medi...

Re: Asian Males Behaving Badly

John — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:17:56 -0000

Hmm.... I thought the posting was going to be more focused on the paparazzi on Jon and Kate plus 8.

I saw the Season 5 premiere last night. I'm sure when Jon & Kate first signed up for the TV show on TLC, they were not expecting it to be a huge hit. Now they have to live with the unfortunate unintended consequences of their "success."

Most reality TV shows or series usually highlight new contestants every season (Survivor, Amazing Race, The Real World, etc...). Maybe the best thing for Jon and Kate are to quit the show or take a break... but they are probably making too much money off of TLC right now... and vice versa...

Re: Asian Males Behaving Badly

John — Tue, 26 May 2009 15:25:56 -0000

'Jon & Kate Plus 8' season 5 premiere shatters TLC records
May 26, 2009, 02:45 PM | by Lynette Rice
The heavily promoted fifth-season premiere of Jon & Kate Plus 8 posted record ratings for TLC on Memorial Day. The hour-long episode -- in which tabloid cover queen Kate Gosselin admitted, "I have a lot of anger...this is not what I envisioned for us" -- attracted a whopping 9.8 million viewers, which more than doubled the audience that tuned into the show's season 4 finale in March (4.6 million). The premiere, which also lured unprecedented numbers of women aged 18-34 and women 18-49, was TLC's (and Jon & Kate's) most-watched episode ever.
http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/05/jon-kate...

Re: Racism Is Unacceptable.

John — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:48:46 -0000

It looks like the woman is eating a bowl of rice with some vegetables to me. I don't see any lettuce to make that bowl look like a salad. If it is a salad, then I agree that eating a salad with chopsticks is a bit unnatural.

Re: Asian Males Behaving Badly

John — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:51:54 -0000

My idea was that someone post about 'Jon & Kate Plus 8' since the new season premiere was coming up and Jon & Kate were in the tabloids, and I had originally thought that Jeff had blogged about the show (I swear I read a posting on 8Asians about the show). I don't know if Jon is an "Asian male behaving badly" - are we supposed to trust the tabloids?

Re: Racism Is Unacceptable.

John — Wed, 27 May 2009 14:11:57 -0000

@jozjozjoz - well, I guess using chopsticks "enhances" the woman's "asian-ness," but the guy is making fun of her slanted eyes. If there is a good size percentage of Asian Americans who bring their lunch to work and use chopsticks to eat their lunch, which I would not be surprised.

As for at work - when you are in a kitchen and there are only a few people, it's probably easier to make fun of someone, as opposed to an open cubicle space or if everyone has an office - that would be much more difficult.

Re: Japanese Dog Does Squats with Owner, in Better Shape than 90% of all Americans*

John — Fri, 29 May 2009 14:14:37 -0000

Yeah, I saw the first video yesterday, of all place on Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC.

Re: Disney/Pixar’s Up and the Voice of Russell, Jordan Nagai

John — Sun, 31 May 2009 02:14:23 -0000

I just saw the movie - it was fantastic. Jordan does a great job doing the voice of Russell.

Re: KFC vs. KGC: WTF???

John — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:38:46 -0000

@Joz - I think they are both saying, "No we can have both." - i.e. both Fried & Grilled chicken. That is what I also forgot to comment - that you can barely understand what the two guys are saying at the end of the commercial.... I agree with your comments in regards to CC.

Re: KFC vs. KGC: WTF???

John — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:54:49 -0000

@Cyberpunk - there have been some complaints on some sites regarding the KFC commercials and African Americans - but like I said, in this specific commercial, the white and black actors and actresses are all being portrayed as "everyday" people.

Why are the Asian actors depicted as cooks or martial artist type dudes? It makes no sense to me. And they are the only ones who have accents. And the accents are counter-productive since I did (as well as Joz) have problems understanding what the Asian actors were saying at the very end of the commercial. You would think as the commercial producer / director, you would want everyone to be able to clearly understand what is being said in a commercial...

Re: KFC vs. KGC: WTF???

John — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:08:40 -0000

@yoshi - I think most Americans (I can't say about the Japanese), as well as China and parts of Asia that were invaded or occupied by Japan (Korea, Taiwan, etc..) might associate the rising sun flag to imperialistic Japan of World War II.

Re: I’m Looking for a Virtual Assistant

John — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:53:05 -0000

My Outsourced Life
http://www.esquire.com/ESQ0905OUTSOURCING_214

Re: I’m Looking for a Virtual Assistant

John — Tue, 12 May 2009 17:55:46 -0000

More American Workers Outsourcing Own Jobs Overseas
http://www.theonion.com/content/video/more_amer...

Re: Rajeev Motwani, Google founders professor and early investor, dies

John — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:00:42 -0000

BASES = Business Association of Stanford Entrepreneurial Students. I believe the "E" in BASES used to stand for "Engineering."

I never knew Motwani, but he sounded like a great guy.

Re: 5 ways to break past the San Francisco echo-chamber

John — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 16:30:07 -0000

Nice post. I especially think "Talk to a lot of people different than you" as well as just generally keeping in touch with friends outside of the Bay Area, outside of technology and outside the U.S. helps give some great perspective as well.

Re: Meet the “Learning Lunatic”

John — Thu, 03 May 2007 10:34:42 -0000

I don't think you need to go back to the 1850s to recall the impulse of outsiders looking for gold in San Francisco :-) Just recall a short while ago in 1999 when the dot com boom was happening! (and the resulting bust). As a former Apple VP told me, watch out when the MBAs like him and me start coming out to the Bay Area (which I did back in August 1999!) - that's a leading indicator that bust 2.0 is around the corner :-)

Re: Mobile YouTube shows off cell phone app frustration

John — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 03:45:48 -0000

Nokia N95 does not have Flash Lite 3.0 - no phone does, but future phones wil, and Flash Lite 3.0 will support video.

Adobe Flash Lite To Support Video for Mobile Handsets
http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/press...

Re: Yahoo’s “accidental” genius

John — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:24:11 -0000

When I was a product manager at Yahoo! Photos, I, along with my web developer, were the first people to let Yahoo!s know about Flickr and I was a proponent of acquiring Flickr when Yahoo! was in "Google-bought-Picasa-so-we-need-to-buy-something" mode. Unfortunately, management wanted to acquired another company (which I was against) and that acquisition was rightfully killed by Jerry Yang (that company would eventually be bought by Microsoft to compete against and included in the Expressions line to compete against Adobe).

I met Bradley Horowitz when he first joined Yahoo! Great guy. I was a big fan of Horowitz since he was a co-founder of Virage - a company ahead of its time...

Re: Something’s up at Yahoo

John — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 03:28:20 -0000

I don't know - I met a few of my former Yahoo! colleagues who are still at Yahoo! - and they say morale is sooooooooooooooooooooooo low. Yahoo! is having a hard time keeping good people, and even reaching out to former Yahoo!'s like me (that must mean they are desperate :-) )

Re: Silicon Valley moments…

John — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 02:08:56 -0000

Interesting post on a lot of different topics, especially Silicon Valley beyond just trying to make a buck. Your thoughts on the lottery of life remind me a lot of Warren Buffett's thoughts on life and being in the "lucky sperm club." It would be great if you could interview him!

Things I've seen in my lifetime in my 36 years: the ATM, the PC, re-usable space vehicle (space shuttle), Compact Disc/ CD player, the answering machine / voice mail, Post It notes, cell phone, email, web browser, digital camera, mp3 player/ipod, car navigation system... I am sure I am missing a lot more.

Re: This guy just won a “mint”

John — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 13:10:32 -0000

I've been a Mint beta tester for a few weeks. It works pretty well. The only thing though is that I'd like to track more than just my savings and spending, but my investments as well.

What happens when Intuit brings Quicken online? I can totally see Mint being acquired by a Yahoo!, Microsoft (though they have Money), eBay (tie in with PayPal?) or Google.

Re: Callwave will change your phone system

John — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 01:26:52 -0000

The guy never answered your question as to how their service works? Do you get a new phone # and people have to use that phone number, and that phone # is a proxy so the company is able to record a copy of your voice messages, etc...?

Re: Halo 3 Launches

John — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:39:45 -0000

I was taking a look at Guy Kawasaki's photos and when I saw your photo, you remind me of the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Re: Thank you Marc and Laura Andreessen

John — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 21:07:45 -0000

Nice that Marc and Laura donated money, but to be honest, Stanford hospital really doesn't need the money as much as a lot of other hospitals in the area do. My doctor friend who works at Stanford has made comments about how Stanford has many wealthy patrons that want to donate $ - how about some $ for hospitals that really could use the money? (Oakland?)

Re: Mugnormous

John — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 13:37:12 -0000

So are we invited to the SmugMug party? Yeah, SmugMug is definitely unique. They've turned down offers to be acquired as well.

Re: I love my friends but why am I between them and you?

John — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 16:49:18 -0000

How the hell do you have the time to keep track of everything online with everything you are subscribed to, etc...???!!!

Re: The MacMini HDTV revolution

John — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:07:25 -0000

This just makes me think - when is Apple going to release an LCD flat panel display "smart TV." Maybe MacWorld 2008?

Re: Is Steve Jobs lying about Flash not working on iPhone?

John — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:39:43 -0000

It's funny to read some of these uninformed blog posting comments.

PDF support in Mac OS X and on the iPhone is using technology that Apple developed internally and independently of Adobe. (PDF is a published standard). The reason why PDF created by Mac OS X natively is PDF 1.4 is because Apple doesn't have a huge incentive to keep up with the PDF spec - people can just complain to Adobe :-). The latest spec should be PDF 1.7, when Acrobat 8.0 came out.

The reason why Preview runs so fast is because it just rasterizes the PDF page - displays the image. For better or worse, Preview owns the "MIME" type for rendering PDF. Most people do not need a lot of the advanced features that a PDF created by Adobe Acrobat (like filling in forms) or other Adobe applications. But Adobe Reader does support all the features - that is one reason why the Reader for both Mac and Windows is so fat. And Adobe, at least for the Windows Adobe Reader, has been working on improving the launch of Adobe Reader. If you launch Adobe Reader 7.0 or 8.0 - it will launch faster than previous versions.

No graphics professional is going to export PDF from Mac OS X PDF engine and send it to printer. They will export using InDesign, Photoshop, etc... where the PDF output will be to the latest spec and support the print options and info the print professionals are looking for (i.e. color separation, etc..)

Adobe nor Macromedia has ever charged for the desktop Flash Player for Windows, Mac or Linux for end users.
Adobe does license the desktop Flash Player to corporations if they need something customized or need to distribute it as part of their application.
Adobe does charge to license Flash Lite - the "mobile version" of Flash.

And there is a reason for this - because it takes a lot of work to develop and port Flash Lite to a wide and diverse number of platforms, and that work should be compensated as long as Adobe can derive licensing fees. But that day is probably coming to an end sooner rather than later, because I highly doubt Microsoft is licensing Silverlight as expensively as Adobe is for Flash Lite - in fact, it would not surprise me if Microsoft was giving Silverlight free to Nokia or even paying Nokia to include Flash Lite (unless there is something anti-competitive about that...)

As for the Flash Player 7 SDK - well, the reason why that hasn't been updated is due to Adobe's focus on the mobile handset and the lack of interest and ROI case to update that SDK as far as I can tell.

As for all the complaints about Adobe releasing Mac software late, especially for Creative Suites to be Mac OS X native, Leopard, etc.. native - Anyone who has developed software understand the complexities of multiple releases and bug fixes - it is a nightmare. Both Apple and Adobe have their own agendas, yet are still interdependent on each other for part of their success. Apple's OS releases don't fit perfectly with Adobe's releases - and also, neither of their development schedules also align with Microsoft's. Think about it - Adobe is one of the few remaining large ISV's that is cross platform for most of their applications for both Windows and Macintosh.

I'd say that in the early days, Apple and Adobe needed each other - and had a symbiotic relationship. The Mac would not have survived without the LaserWriter and PostScript. When Jobs licensed PostScript, he also bought 25% of Adobe. I think Adobe would have been fine without Apple because PostScript was really the only game in town for a great printing engine, and Adobe literally printed $ with PostScript (an old-timer Adobe friend of mine said that in the good old days, Adobe had the highest revenue/employee in the U.S.). All the major laser printing companies licensed PostScript from Adobe in the early days.

When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, Jobs visited Adobe to reassure Adobe management that he was going to fix Apple and wanted to reassure that Adobe was committed to the Mac platform.

After John Warnock retired from Adobe as CEO (he is still co-chairman), and Bruce Chizen took over, I think, for one reason or another, Adobe and Apple started drifting apart. Chizen was more Wall Street oriented.

I really don't think Steve Jobs has that much respect for Chizen. I met an ex-Adobe person at a MacWorld Expo about 2 years ago, and she told me the story about her first day at Apple, being in an elevator with Jobs. Jobs saw that she was a new employee at Apple and carrying stuff with her to bring to her desk, and he asked where she worked previously. When she said Adobe, Jobs went nuts and asked, "What the hell is Bruce trying to do at Adobe - make it into Microsoft!"

I wonder what Jobs thinks of Shantanu Narayen. At least Narayen has an engineering background, something that Jobs would respect a whole lot more than Chizen, who I think Jobs has always thought of as a "sales" guy.

Re: Shhh, no one is on Twitter

John — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:49:11 -0000

You are a super-early adopter. Not everyone's on Twitter. I don't really use it at all. When I signed up initially, it was almost indecipherable as to what to do.

Nice bumping into you and meeting you in person at Web 2.0 last Wednesday.

Re: Our DC trip in Photos

John — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:11:00 -0000

Awesome photos, especially the ones at The White House! The Air & Space Museum is my favorite place to visit in D.C.

Re: Is Microsoft trying to capture photography market?

John — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 19:43:22 -0000

Don't forget, Microsoft bought iView a few years ago and incorporated it into their Expressions line of tools.

Re: Interracial couples means multiracial kids

John — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 05:17:58 -0000

Eugene - I just noticed that you linked to my Love Boat post on 8Asians - thanks. My Love Boat experience was pretty prudish :-) - i.e. I'm not the type that really "snuck" out to go clubbing type, and generally, the folks I hung out with were pretty well behaved (i.e. not dissing the locals).

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