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.
For several years now, many hospitals, police stations, and other public facilities around the country have programs (Massachusett’s is called the “Safe Baby Haven”) where anyone can leave a newborn baby for someone else to adopt, no questions asked. The argument is that it’s better to give desperate mothers (and fathers) the option of giving their baby up for adoption Read More →
As Spring Training gets into ‘full swing,’, you’re probably familiar with a few of the more notable Japanese players who have achieved some success in Major League Baseball, such as Hideo Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, etc. This year, several more Japanese players are set to join their ranks and with them, as the New York Times reports, are their Read More →
Did you have a happy Lunar/Chinese New Year celebration a few weeks ago? Chances are that you did if you were in Las Vegas because as the New York Times reports, Las Vegas has been pulling out all the stops to incorporate the Lunar/Chinese New Year into its attractions, with the goal of attracting high-spending, big-roller Asian and Asian American Read More →
Many Asian American Democrats like me are still undecided about which candidate we should support — Barak Obama, Hillary Clinton, or someone else. In this context, Senator Clinton’s campaign just acquired one strike against it when it barred Chinese language media journalists from a recent fundraiser luncheon:
A spokesperson from Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign apologized to the Chinese-language media after journalists Read More →
You might have heard the accusations that throughout history, the U.S. government — mainly the CIA — has repeatedly recruited, supported, and/or promoted right-wing extremist political groups and governments that served some useful purpose for them, and ignored the atrocities that such groups and governments perpetrated on innocent victims. As the Associated Press reports, newly declassified documents illustrate how we Read More →
One consistent theme in this blog is the clash of tradition and modernity in Asian countries such as China. As another example of this increasingly common and intense phenomenon, Salon.com/The Associated Press reports that a recent murder of a journalist in China has prompted the Chinese to critically reexamine the nature of corruption within the media and journalism profession:
During the Viet Nam War, the U.S. military and CIA recruited several thousand members of the ethnic Hmong minority to help them fight the communists. Eventually, Congress recognized the contributions that the Hmong made and granted them refugee status that enable tens of thousands to immigrate to the U.S. But as the Associated Press reports, since 9/11, provisions of Read More →
For some time now, I’ve been a fan and supporter of AsianWeek magazine, a free weekly news-magazine published in San Francisco. Unfortunately, I have now lost virtually all of my respect for them after they printed an opinion piece by one of their regular columnists, Kenneth Eng, entitled “Why I Hate Blacks.” As the San Francisco Chronicle reports, Eng’s Read More →
Most Asians and Asian Americans know by now (or at least should) that during World War II, the Japanese military forced an estimated 200,000 women from lands that it invaded and occupied to serve as sex slaves, or what the Japanese euphemistically call “comfort women.” More than 60 years after the fact, Japan’s government is still in denial about their Read More →
The issues and controversies surrounding the presence of the U.S. military in South Korea have been well-documented by now — nationalist autonomy, incidents of U.S. military raping South Korean women, the U.S. accused of provoking North Korea, etc. With these issues in mind and in the context of the U.S.’s deepening war on terrorism, we now have news that the Read More →
Recently, there have been several articles in the news about different Asian countries pledging closer ties with each other and to promote more cross-cultural interactions. But I’m not sure if this is what they generally had in mind — more South Korean men have been using marriage brokers to find wives in Viet Nam — they travel to Viet Nam Read More →
Like Asian Americans in general, young Asian Americans frequently find themselves admired, reviled, misunderstood, and/or the subject of curiosity, all at the same time. Nationally-renowned performance artist Kate Rigg and SnapDragon consultants want to change that and, as published by Yahoo News, has come up with a list of Ten Things Every Brand Should Know About Asian-American Youth:
