The views and opinions expressed on this site and blog posts (excluding comments on blog posts left by others) are entirely my own and do not represent those of any employer or organization with whom I am currently or previously have been associated.
Academic Version: Applying my personal experiences and academic research as a professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies to provide a more complete understanding of political, economic, and cultural issues and current events related to American race relations, and Asia/Asian America in particular.
Plain English: Trying to put my Ph.D. to good use.
As we move forward into the 21st century, I, like many other observers, predict that there is likely to be more cross-national influence and collaboration between Asian countries, similar to what the European Union has done. Previously I’ve written about some examples of this, such as closer cooperation among ASEAN countries and Korean culture becoming trendy and fashionable in China.
I received the following email from a reader, Alvina, asking me to help publicize a political rally on Monday in Las Vegas, in advance of Nevada’s state primary this upcoming week:
Politicians to Gather in Las Vegas to Rally Asian-American Voters
I’d like to let you know about an event coming up on Monday, Jan 14th at the Chinatown Plaza (4255 Spring Mountain Read More →
The final 2007 sales numbers for the automotive industry and as CBS News reports, the big news is that Toyota has surpassed Ford to become the U.S.’s second-most popular automaker, behind General Motors:
Toyota sold 2.62 million cars and trucks in 2007, which amounted to 48,226 more than Ford, according to sales figures released Thursday. Toyota’s sales were up 3 percent for Read More →
It’s clear that Muslim Americans face particularly difficult challenges in American society these days in terms of maintaining their cultural and religious identity in the face of pervasive stereotypes about them as potential terrorists. We might even say that such difficulties are even more intense among young Muslim Americans who also are trying to figure out where they fit within Read More →
For those who may not be familiar with China’s Three Gorges Dam project, it is basically an effort to dam up the Yangtze River to provide hydro-electrical power and expanded shipping routes to meet China’s growing industrial needs. It is also one of the largest engineering projects in the history of human civilization. The Associated Press has an Read More →
I hope many of you have already heard of Eric Byler — he was the director of Charlotte Sometimes and Americanese (an adaptation of Prof. Shawn Wong’s novel American Knees), both being critically-acclaimed independent movies.
Eric’s latest project, in collaboration with fellow independent filmmakers Annabel Park, Jeff Man, and Zhibo Lai, is entitled Project 9500 and is a multimedia documentary Read More →
In their end-of-year issue, Newsweek magazine profiles several dynamic, “up and coming” personalities that are likely to make news in the upcoming year. Among those profiled is the only Asian American on the list — Michelle Rhee, the newly appointed chancellor of the Washington DC public school system. As the article describes, her style is getting people’s attention:
On the eve of the Iowa caucus, officially kicking off the 2008 Presidential race, here’s a post for the politically-minded.
As reflected in my article on the 2004 Elections, national-level aggregate data tends to show that in terms of political affiliation among those stating a preference, about two-thirds of all Asian Americans lean Democratic and the other third identify with the Republicans. Read More →
It’s a well-known phenomenon that in virtually all Asian countries, there has been and continues to be a strong traditional preference of males over females. One of the consequences of this is that pregnancies are more likely to aborted if the fetus is a girl.
In turn, this has led to growing gender imbalances in many countries and worries Read More →
It’s a well-documented phenomenon that wherever capitalism spreads and grows, it brings rising class inequality with it, as it makes a very small group of people very rich while keeping the vast majority of a country’s population poor or working-class. As the Christian Science Monitor reports, this process is now becoming evident in one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, India:
In the academic and scientific research and development industries, it’s very common to find large numbers of Asian and Asian American scientists and researchers. For various reasons, a disproportionate number of Asians and Asian Americans are drawn to the sciences as a career and such fields have benefited tremendously from their work through the years.
I’ve posted before about the power of media images in influencing how Americans see people of color, since our society is so visually-oriented and media-centric these days. In that context, does the current television writers’ strike open up new opportunities for a more culturally diverse representation of television images for people of color? My Vietnamese American colleague and well-respected Read More →
