Asian-Nation : Asian American News, Issues, & Current Events Blog

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.

May 3, 2006

Written by C.N.

What Being “American” Means

Have you ever really thought about what exactly does being an “American” mean? What does that identity include, or not include? A new study finds that for many Americans, behavior is more important than origin:

Ninety-four percent say that having US citizenship makes someone “truly American.” Also more than 9 out of 10 people report that speaking English well and Read More →

May 2, 2006

Written by C.N.

More Asians Than Whites in UC Admissions

For the first time in history, the largest racial/ethnic group admitted to the University of California universities were Asian American — even surpassing the number of Whites admitted:

Asians account for 36 percent of California residents admitted to study at UC schools, though they make up only 14 percent of seniors projected to graduate from the state’s public high schools. By Read More →

April 30, 2006

Written by C.N.

Lenovo, China, and the Fall of IBM Computers

About a year ago, the Chinese high tech company Lenovo bought IBM’s famous computer business unit and along with it, IBM’s much-heralded ThinkPad series of notebook computers. There were some apprehensions about a Chinese company acquiring a major U.S. company’s high tech assets, but the deal was finalized without much of a hassle.

Now however, many consumers are becoming more wary Read More →

April 27, 2006

Written by C.N.

Viet Nam Trying to Go High-Tech

We all know that Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are known for their high tech industries. China and India are trying to get there as well. Should we include Viet Nam in that group as well? There are signs that Viet Nam has plans to become the next Asian high tech country:

Although Vietnam has a long and hard Read More →

April 26, 2006

Written by C.N.

Asians in the Immigration Debate

By now, I’m sure you’ve heard about the massive demonstrations organized and led by Latinos around the country protesting unfair and punitive legislation being proposed to deal with the illegal immigration issue. So where do Asian Americans fit in? Although the Pew Hispanic Center reports that 78% of illegal immigrants are Latino, 13% are Asian, many of whom have Read More →

April 25, 2006

Written by C.N.

Asian Drivers: Good or Bad?

In my daily read of AutoBlog (a blog about automobiles) I saw a post mentioning that Garmin is coming out with a StreetPilot portable GPS device that is targeted to Asians in North Americans and will be able to give voice directions in five Asian languages. As expected, there were comments from other AutoBlog readers deriding the driving abilities of Read More →

April 23, 2006

Written by C.N.

Making Illegal Street Racing a Felony

I was surprised to recently learn that apparently, in California getting caught street racing is only a misdemeanor (i.e., there’s generally only a fine associated with it). However, as the phenomenon of street racing (and the injuries and deaths because of it) continues unabated, new legislation is being proposed that would reclassify street racing as a felony:

AB 2190, by Assemblyman Read More →

April 20, 2006

Written by C.N.

Citizen Power in China

Everybody should know by now that despite its historical legacy and rhetoric, China is not a true communist society — it’s a society controlled by a totalitarian regime. However, as China slowly lurches forward into the 21st century, it is inevitably beginning to confront the first instances of citizen power and grassroots democracy:

Ms. Liu’s experience, all but unimaginable as recently Read More →

April 18, 2006

Written by C.N.

Update on Asian Major Leaguers

As the 2006 Major League Baseball season gets underway, AsianWeek Magazine has a feature that briefly profiles the current list of major league players from Asia playing in the U.S. this season:

Japanese: Kenji Johjima (CA, Seattle Mariners), Ichiro Suzuki (OH, Seattle Mariners), Hideki Matsui (OF, New York Yankees), Tadahito Iguchi (2B, Chicago White Sox), Kazuo Matsui (2B, New York Read More →

April 16, 2006

Written by C.N.

Racist Adidas Sneaker

Adidas has a new limited-edition sneaker that features artwork by a half-Chinese graffiti artist. The problem is that the artwork on the shoe is a stereotypical caricature of an Asian with a bowl haircut, narrow slanted eyes, and buck teeth. This has led to a lot of debate over where the line between art and racism lies:

The character on Read More →

April 13, 2006

Written by C.N.

How China Censors the Internet

In a land of over 1.3 billion people and hundreds of millions of Internet users, how does China manage to censor so much information being exchanged through websites, forums, and email? CNN has a special feature that illustrates the specific ways and mechanisms China’s communist government uses to accomplish all of that censorship:

E-mail is filtered by service providers. The method Read More →

April 11, 2006

Written by C.N.

Racial Profiling Against Indian Convenience Stores

I wrote previously how, in the growing battle against methamphetamines, some law enforcement officials in Georgia have been accused of singling out South Asian-owned stores for sting operations. This week, the ACLU has made those allegations formal by filing suit against Georgian law enforcement, charging them with racial profiling and taking advantage of the South Asians’ lack of English fluency:

The Read More →

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May 3, 2006

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April 11, 2006

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