NIKKEI VIEW: The Asian American Blog

You read it correctly: MTV is looking for a host for a new Japanese Game Show to be produced here in the U.S. They’re casting around for a hip young Asian American dude. here are the details, copied from an email I was sent by an MTV casting producer for series development:
“MTV is searching for [...]

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The hip-hop dance scene of b-boys and b-girls isn’t exactly underground — 39 million votes were cast for the second season finale of “America’s Best Dance Crew” on MTV, and movies such as the 2007 documentary, “Planet B-Boy” and the movie “You Got Served” from 2004 (or, for that matter, the previous generation’s “Beat Street” [...]

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Erin and I got to see a really interesting traditional Korean dance and music performance last week.
Think about it — you’ve seen taditional Japanese dancig in kimonos, and heard lots of traditional Japanese music, with the wood flute, koto and taiko drums. You’ve seen Chinese dance and heard Chinese music. And at events such as [...]

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Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders definitely seem more engaged with the political process these days. Maybe it’s the DNC being in Denver that’s made me sensitive to everything that’s going on. Maybe it’s Obama’s Hawai’i connections. Or maybe AAPIs are finally coming out of the shadows and fighting to have our voices heard, and not [...]

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Sometimes, even a community like ours — Asian Americans who are normally imbued with deep-rooted cultural values that keep us from speaking out against slights and injustices — can get so riled up we have to express our outrage. Such was the case over the LPGA’s decision to enact harsh penalties on golfers on the [...]

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Sept. 24 update: Good news — CBS appears to have pulled all of the Farnfucious clips off their YouTube channel.
It’s hard to believe that a major U.S. broadcast network can get away with it, but there it is on YouTube: “Farnfucious Say,” a regular (apparently) skit on the “Farnsworth & the Fox” show produced by [...]

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The Washington Post ran an interesting story today about the lack of minority representation on the floor of the Republican National Convention.
It made some important observations and raised some thought-provoking questions. but I found myself irritated at the article, because it was all about black and white.
Why are Asian Americans excluded from discussions about race [...]

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Asian American ad man and marketing guru Bill Imada comments on Ad Age’s lively “Big Tent” blog (he’s one of a group of contributors) about how the LPGA is requiring English language proficiency for foreign golfers on the LPGA tour.
For those of you who do not follow golf nor sporting news, LPGA leaders recently [...]

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