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.
Have you ever wondered how people type in Chinese? In other words, while English (and other letter-based languages) speakers like us have only around 26 Roman letters to use, the Chinese use thousands of characters to represent their language. Do they have a giant keyboard with thousands of keys on it? Of course not — it’s actually quite Read More →
Catholicism is apparently becoming more popular and institutionalized in Viet Nam. After decades of repression at the hands of the communist government, there are tangible signs of official tolerance towards Catholics in Viet Nam, along with optimism for establishing official ties with the Vatican:
Religion is still a sensitive subject in Vietnam. The US accuses it of violating the rights of Read More →
More than thirty years after it ended, Americans are still acutely aware of the legacy of the Viet Nam War. But in these ongoing discussions about the meaning and consequences of the war, apparently nobody bothers to ask us Vietnamese how we feel about it, as illustrated most recently by several high-profile conferences in which not one Vietnamese speaker was Read More →
Tuesday was International Women’s Day and thousands of women in many Asian countries rallied in support of themselves and their sisters worldwide:
Among leaders of the [Multan, Pakistan] rally was Mukhtar Mai, a woman who was gang-raped in 2002 on orders by a council of villagers near Multan as punishment for her brother’s alleged affair with a woman from a higher caste Read More →
Americans trends have usually been popular in Japan as well. But one of the newest Americans trends that is increasingly becoming common in Japan is being fat and overweight. In fact, the rise of this trend is threatening to tarnish Japan’s status as one of the healthiest countries in the world:
“I don’t know for how long Japan can maintain Read More →
Ang Lee became the first Asian to win the Academy Award for Best Director for his movie Brokeback Mountain, although Brokeback Mountain was upset for Best Picture by Crash.
With the exception of his movies produced in Asia such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, up to this point, Ang Lee really hasn’t featured Asian Americans in his movies. Nonetheless, Read More →
Can sports transcend war and politics? At the least, it could be a place to start trying — Christian Science Monitor in the continuing efforts to normalize relations between the U.S. and Viet Nam, a group of Americans that includes Cleveland Indians pitcher and Vietnamese Amerasian Danny Graves just inaugurated Viet Nam’s first baseball field:
The Washington Post describes a recent study conducted by the Gallup Organization that measured self-reported incidences of workplace discrimination. Among other things, the report notes that the Asian Americans report the highest rates of discrimination in the workplace:
For example, 31 percent of Asians surveyed reported incidents of discrimination, the largest percentage of any racial or ethnic group, with African Americans Read More →
Newsweek Magazine’s feature article this week is entitled “India Rising” and similar to their article about China last year, describes the political, economic, and cultural emergence of India on the international global stage:
Fascinated by the new growth story, perhaps wary of Asia’s Chinese superpower, searching to hedge some bets, the world has woken up to India’s potential. But does it really Read More →
Newsweek Magazine has an article describing Jet Li’s latest movie “Fearless,” a bio-pic of Huo Yuanjia, one of China’s most revered kung fu masters. The article notes that this is likely to be Jet Li’s last kung fu movie:
In an age when talented mainstream actors like Chow Yun Fat and Ziyi Zhang can dance their way through spectacular action scenes Read More →
On February 2, I attended Asian Pacific American Legislation Day at the State Capitol in Olympia, Washington. An annual event, it drew a large, organized crowd of Asian Americans from all over Washington. People heard Governor Gregoire give an upbeat speech, and afterwards disbursed in the drizzle to seek out their district representatives. Read More →
Toyota wants to be just another good ‘ol boy — they’ve recently announced that they will join Ford, Chevrolet, and Dodge as automobile manufacturers competing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup racing series. You may remember that this is the most popular racing series in the western hemisphere, anchored by the world famous Daytona 500 that took place yesterday.
