NIKKEI VIEW: The Asian American Blog

I’m a big fan of Ang Lee, the Taiwan-born director of such terrific films as “The Wedding Banquet,” “Eat Drink Man Woman,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and “Brokeback Mountain.” He glides effortlessly between cultures, putting Chinese values to celluloid in one movie and reflecting America in the next. He [...]

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Tak Toyoshima, creator of “Secret Asian Man,” and Jeff Yang, one of the editors of the recently-published book “Secret Identities,” sign copies at the 2009 AAJA Convention in Boston. “Where are you from?” “So, where are YOU from?” “Hi, where’re you from?” I was in Boston a couple of weeks ago, at a convention where [...]

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Sometimes, protesting works. It took about a week of buzz on the blogosphere to get the attention of Paramount Studios for the obnoxious racism disguised as satire in the trailer for the comedy starring Jeremy Piven, “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard.” The scene shows car salesmen worked up by the thought of Pearl Harbor [...]

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Turnabout is fair play, right? It’s karma. In Japanese, it’s a bachi coming back — basically, you reap what you sow. McDonald’s in Japan has started using a laughable nerd who doesn’t have a clue in its ads, mangling Japanese, looking all uptight in glasses and ill-fitting khakis. You’d think it’s how an Asian would [...]

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I had to post this, although I haven’t had time to blog about the Asian American Journalists Association convention last week in Boston. This illustration was in the organization’s silent auction and I had to have it. Cartoonist Tak Toyoshima, who draws the syndicated comic “Secret Asian Man,” drew this the day before the start [...]

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This is a nice touch in the age of social media — direct communication with the people who supported their cause and hoped and prayed for their release with petitions, Facebook posts, Tweets and candlelight vigils. It’s nice timing, since the plenary session for the first full day of the Asian American Journalism Association convention [...]

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Pho has evolved over the years, from its invention in 1920s Hanoi to its popularity in the U.S. today. When the soup, with rice noodles and meats served in a hearty broth, first arrived in the stateside, the restaurants catered to mostly Vietnamese diners, like an exclusive club. As non-Vietnamese discovered pho, the restaurants became [...]

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The Minority Militant blog posted this (R-rated) trailer for the new Jeremy Piven comedy about car salesmen, “The Goods: Live Hard Sell Hard.” Towards the end of the trailer are two segments showing an Asian character played by Ken Jeong. In the first scene, which we’ve seen in the G-rated TV version of the trailer, [...]

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Our friend JozJozJoz came across this TV commercial on YouTube and posted it on the excellent team blog, 8 Asians, with a poll asking what aspect of the commercial was most racist. For me, it might be the fact that the person who posted it to YouTube titled it “Borderline Racist 1960′s Jell-O Ad” and [...]

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The next interview scheduled for Erin and my visualizAsian.com project is one close to our hearts. The free, live interview on Tuesday, August 25 at 6 PM PT (9 PM ET) will be with with Japanese American attorney Dale Minami. Dale is a rock star within the AAPI community — in fact, the entire U.S. [...]

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