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Kal Penn To Join Obama Administration As Liason To Asian-American Groups

April 14th, 2009

Kal PennWith the tragic demise of Dr. Lawrence Kutner on House last week (sorry for the spoiler!), arises actor Kal Penn’s new role in politics and the Asian American community as Obama’s liason to Asian American groups.

The 31-year-old actor and star of teen movie franchise Harold & Kumar got to know President Barack Obama and his staff during the presidential campaign this past year. Penn had campaigned for President Obama venturing across college campuses rallying the fickle 18-24 chunk of voters.

Penn, an Indian-American, will join the Obama administration as early as next month.

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Fast And Furious Sets April Openings With $72.5 Million Weekend

April 6th, 2009

fastandfuriousThe original crew from The Fast And The Furious - Paul Walker, Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, and Jordana Brewster – reunited in the fourth installment and broke the record for films opening in April. Fast & Furious is estimated to have pulled in $72.5 million this weekend, easily pushing past Monsters vs. Aliens to become the number one movie in theaters.

While Fast & Furious lacked a real plot and the racing scenes jumped to another realm of reality bordering a Jason Statham Crank meets Transporter type production, Fast & Furious nevertheless makes for an enjoyable mindless but entertaining feature.

As for Justin Lin, the Taiwanese-American film director known for his directorial debut Better Luck Tomorrow amongst the Asian American community and previously directing Fast & Furious’ predecessor, Tokyo Drift, the 36-year-old director breaks into the Hollywood scene with his biggest opening yet.

As Hollywood lacks a real presence of Asian American Actors, Lin, who I suspect played a large role in the casting of supporting actors and extras – managed to put together a large cast of Asian Americans to fill those roles. Throughout the movie, actors and actresses Liza Lapira, Sun Kang, Ron Yuan, and Jimmy Lin filled the silver screen in what I found to be a refreshing appearance of Asian Americans on screen.

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Asian Students Affected By University of California UC System New 2012 Admissions Standards

April 2nd, 2009

University of CaliforniaAs a product of the University of California – Go Aggies! – I will tell you from first hand that the UC demographic is all Asian. As it stands, having four- to five-times the amount of Asians represented in California’s premier school system isn’t necessarily a bad thing. But the breakdown is certainly telling in terms of where balance is needed. In a state funded education system where Asians make up only 12.4% of California’s population, Asians make up 40% of the university’s student body.

To address the imbalance, UC regents have decided to relax admission standards in order to expand the UC applicant pool.

As it stands, Fall 2008 admissions data from UC schools indicate the following breakdown:

University of California, Berkeley

  • Asian-American: 46%
  • White: 30.2%
  • Latino: 11.5%
  • African-American: 3.7%

University of California, Los Angeles

  • Asian-American: 38%
  • White: 34%
  • Latino: 15%
  • African-American: 3%

University of California, Davis

  • Asian-American: 42%
  • White: 36%
  • Latino: 12%
  • African-American: 3%

University of California, Irvine

  • Asian-American: 51%
  • White: 24%
  • Latino: 12%
  • African-American: 2%

University of California, Santa Barbara

  • Asian-American: 19%
  • White: 53%
  • Latino: 19%
  • African-American: 3%

Effective in 2012, UC Regents have changed the admissions requirements and process to drop the SAT subject test (SAT II) and to extend automatic admissions to the 91st percentile of California high school students.

Applicants are currently required to maintain a certain GPA and SAT composite score that combines SAT and SAT II scores in order to qualify for UC. The new requirements will lax the current standards. But UC estimates the new changes would qualify 1,800 more black, 7,500 more Latinos, 15,000 more whites, and 4,000 Asian-American students.

Although the test is aimed to increase UC’s applicant pool, Asian- and African-American students benefit the least. Especially since Asian-Americans perform better on the soon-to-be dropped SAT II subject test and other minority and white students perform better on the SAT (I) reasoning test, Asian American political pundits suggest the new requirements will greatly reduce the number of Asian Americans in UCs.

Further, the Asian-American community is most outraged in UC’s lack of outreach or consultation from the Asian community before instituting the changes.

I am a firm believer that admissions boards should admit individuals and not individuals from X-ethnic group. With that said, special attention does need to be paid to underrepresented minorities. While much of the Asian community suggest the requirement changes would lower the academic standards of the UC system, I believe any drop in academics are minimal as the increased diversity would outweigh any potential drop and will aid the melting-pot development of California youth.

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Asian American Music | Hip Hop, Pop, And Rock Stars Of Late

March 26th, 2009

Although Asian Americans are by no means prominent in mainstream music, a few Asian Americans have made it to Hip Hop, Pop, and Rock radio. 

While the artist I list as well as the playlist I made is incomplete, be thankful William Hung and Tila “Tequila” Nguyen didn’t make the cut.

     

Jin

Much love goes to Jin for being the first Asian-American solo rapper signed to a major record label. After dominating BET’s Freestyle Friday rap battles for 7-weeks, the Chinese-New Yorker signed with the Ruff Ryders in 2002 and released his first single Learn Chinese. Although Jin’s mainstream rap career faltered, Jin has since rebounded and signed with Universal Hong Kong and re-specialized with Chinese rap.

One Vo1ce

The all-Filipina group from Vallejo, California didn’t quite make it mainstream. But between 1997-2000, One Vo1ce was all over the radio in the SF Bay Area. 

Chad Hugo (NERD)

The Filipino Producer/Musician is best known for this work with Pharrell Williams as part of the Neptunes and NERD. Although Chad shares the workload with Pharrell, Chad rarely speaks in interviews, shows, or award shows, and come to think of it, I’ve never heard the producer’s voice.

Amerie

Born in Fitchburg, Massachusettes, the half African-American half Korean R&B star spent her childhood in Korea and spoke Korean as her first language. Amerie’s album Touch which includes the single “1 Thing” with Jay-Z was nominated for two Grammys in 2005.

Sean Paul

At the height of his music career between 2002-2004, I remember hearing him in the booth on a Bay Area Hip Hop station. Sean Paul showed up high as shit and the show host made a little jab suggesting so. Sean Paul jokingly responded “Well I got a little Chinese in me man.” I originally thought he was plain poking fun at the always fresh stereotype. But Sean Paul is in fact 1/4 Chinese. His mother’s Afro-Carribean and Chinese. Who knew?

Mike Shinoda (Fort Minor/Linkin Park)

Guitarist and Vocalist for both Linkin Park and Fort Minor, Mike Shinoda was born in the Los Angeles Metropolitan area. Shinoda’s father is Japanese and mother is Caucasian. Although Chester Bennington does most of the vocals – or just screaming – for Linkin Park, Mike takes care of the majority of technical aspects for creating all of the bands albums.

Vanessa Hudgens (High School Musical)

The Irish/Native American/Chinese/Filipina/Spanish mixed pop star is a member of the quadrupal-platnum Disney group, High School Musical. Though Hudgens probably made even bigger news in 2007 when suggestive and nude pictures of the Hudgens flooded the internet - apart from the band and scandal, Hudgens has released two solo albums, V and Identified.

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Korea Faces Japan For World Baseball Classic Title | Tonight 5PM PST On ESPN

March 23rd, 2009

Most Americans could careless that the for a second World Baseball Classic (WBC), the US has failed to make it to the finals. But don’t tell that to Japan or Korea. In Asia’s most heated baseball rivalry will meet tonight in Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Japan will go for their second WBC title against Korea on ESPN.

Since the inaugural WBC, Korea maintains a flawless record against every team except Japan. The Koreans will se their ace, the Greg Maddux of Korea, Jung Keun Bong (10.3 IP, .84 ERA in this WBC) to the mound to face Japan’s Hisashi Iwakuma.

The game’s slated to start at 5PM Pacific Time.

WBC World Baseball Classic Korea

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Asian Baseball Players, 2009 Fantasy Baseball Team

March 20th, 2009

2006 World Baseball ClassicWith Major League Baseball’s mission to spread America’s steroid-battered pastime to the international scene, the World Baseball Classic has indeed taken a strong hold overseas. Particularly in Asia, where long-time powerhouses like Japan and Korea continue to send quality players to the Major Leagues, Chinese-Taipei (Taiwan) is an up-and-coming power while China has shown tremendous improvement since their entry in the inaugural WBC tournament in 2006.

As the first Asian players to arrive (Ichiro, K. Sasaki, H. Matsui, Chan Ho Park, Hee Sop Choi, Chien Ming Wang), whom also were the very best players Asia had to offer, built their footholds in Major League Baseball, a large succession of young and successful Asian players continue to arrive each year.

Minus a third basemen, enough Asian and Asian-American players have made it to the majors that we can now build a decent – though one that won’t win any fantasy championships – baseball team.

Batters For The All-Asian Fantasy Team

ichiro1Catcher: Kurt Suzuki (Oakland Athletics), one of two Asian-Americans to make the list. An up-and-coming catcher with the Oakland Athletics, Suzuki enters his third year in the Majors. Kurt works great with the A’s young pitching staff and although his power numbers (2008: 7HR 42RBI) are mainly a result of a rebuilding team, the young catcher totaled 148 hits with a .279 batting average in 2008.

First Base: Travis Ishikawa (San Francisco Giants) is currently hitting .324 in spring training. In the eyes general manager Brian Sabean, that’s enough for the rookie to become the Giants starting first basemen beating out fellow rookie Pablo Sandoval.

Along with Kurt Suzuki, Travis Ishikawa is the second Asian-American to make the team. Ishikawa was born and raised in Washington. His father is Japanese and his mother is Caucasian.

Second Base: Kazuo Matsui (Houston Astros),  from Japan, made his MLB debut in 2004 with the New York Mets. Simply known as “Kaz,” Matsui’s an all around defensive second basemen and when healthy is capable of stealing 30-40 bases a year.

Third Base: In terms of fantasy, no eligible third basemen of Asian descent are in the Majors for 2009.  :-( sad face

Shortstop: Chin-lung Hu (Los Angeles Dodgers) is the fifth Taiwanese national to make it to the Majors. Signed by the Dodgers in 2003, Hu has spent the majority of his baseball career in the Dodgers farm system. Hu makes his MLB rookie season this year backing up All-Star Rafael Furcal.

Outfield: The most prominent and skilled players on our list reside in the outfield. Of the earliest Japanese players to arrive on American shores, Ichiro Suzuki (Seattle Mariners) and Hideki Matsui (New Yok Yankees) have cemented themselves as top-notch players in the Majors. Together, the two Japanese jugarnauts combined for 10 All-Star selections. But amongst a sea of accomplishments, Ichiro stands out with the Major League single season record for hits with 262 in 2004.

South Korean native Shin-Shoo Choo (Cleveland Indians) rounds out our outfield. Choo hit for an impressive .309 batting average in 2008 with the Indians. Though his MLB career is just beginning, the South Korean government has yet to pardon Choo fromhe t 2-years mandatory army service all South-Korean males face. 

Utility: Akinori Iwamura (Tampa Bay Rays) is simply known as “Aki” on the 2009 AL Champion Rays. While his Japanese teammates call him “Gan-chan”, Iwamura enters his 3rd season in the Majors.

Bench: 2008′s hot starter and freshly imported Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome (Chicago Cubs) and Taiwanese 2009 rookie infielder Yung Chi Chen (Oakland Athletics) completes the batters we have for our team.

Pitchers For The All-Asian Fantasy Team

t1_matsuzakaStarting Pitcher: Daisuke Matsuzaka (Boston Red Sox) was the MVP for the Japanese national team that took home the inaugural World Baseball Classic. In fact, the Red Sox paid “Dice-K’s” former team, the Seibu Lions, $52 million just to negotiate with the young gyro-ball throwing pitcher.

Starting Pitcher: Chien-Ming Wang (New York Yankees), the ace of recent Yankees pitching staffs, joined Major League Baseball in 2005 from Taiwan. 

Combined, Wang and Matsuzaka make a solid of starting pitching duo as any.

Relief Pitcher: After injury and losing the closer spot to Dodger reliever Jonathon Broxton in 2008, Takashi Saito (Boston Red Sox) has since joined the Boston Red Sox with fellow countrymen Matsuzaka and Okajima.

Relief Pitcher: Hideki Okajima (Boston Red Sox) interestingly enough signed with the Red Sox mainly so Matsuzaka would have a friend on the team to ease the Japan-US transition. As a bonus for the Red Sox, Okajima has become a solid and feared setup man for Jonathon Papelbon.

All Purpose Pitcher: Hong-Chih Kuo (Los Angeles Dodgers), a Taiwanese reliever for the Dodger, entered the Majors as a starter. But after two poor seasons, Kuo found his niche in the Dodger bullpen in 2008 where the long reliever pitched 80 innings at a 2.14 ERA.

All Purpose Pitcher: Hiroki Kuroda (Los Angeles Dodgers) played his first season in the Majors with the Dodgers last year and posted a respectable 3.73 ERA while winning 9 games for big blue.

All Purpose Pitcher: Kenshin Kawakami (Atlanta Braves) is unofficially 2009′s hot Japanese “prospect” to watch. Kawakami will start for the Braves after 10 years of professional baseball in Japan. Kawakami throws in the low 90s and favors the cut fastball. 

Bench:  To complete our pitching rotation, we have long time Major League veteran Chan Ho Park (Philadelphia Phillies) out of South Korea, fellow Korean starting pitcher Cha Seung Baek (San Diego Padres) and reliever Jae Kuk Ryu (San Diego Padres), and finally Japanese reliever Masa Kobayashi (Cleveland Indians).

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Why Asians Are Good At Math, Finally, A Legit Theory

February 19th, 2009

Asians And MathWhether you admit it or not, being raised in America, we all know the racial stereotypes that have traversed through our colorful history. For Asian Americans, we are all good at math right? It’s a stereotype, but a good stereotype right? Despite my frequent ramblings, political correctness concerns me little. Instead, I am interested in the roots and explanations to social phenomenon that we humans, out of ignorance, simplify with racial stereotypes.

What do people really think about the Asians-good-at-math stereotype? Oh, I know, it’s because they’re smarter. Well, no, if we accept Asians are good at math because Asians are smarter, we fall into the same whirlpool of ignorance the Conquistadors used to justify their dominance over Meso-Americans or 19th century American slave owners who believed African slaves could only become civilized through hard work. Fortunately, Malcolm Gladwell’s most recent book, Outliers, has shed some light on the Asian math stereotype.

First, what we know. American grade school students have always trailed continental Asia in math. Some claim Asian students are better because they spend more hours in school. But comparing school systems fails to account for Asian-American success. Asians in America go through the same education system yet in the 2003 SAT exam, Asian-Americans averaged 575 in Math while White’s averaged 534, American Indian’s 482, Hispanics 464, and African Americans at 426.

So if it’s not the schools, what accounts for Asians succeeding in math across different education systems? As English speakers, we may be unaware, but the English language is perhaps the most odd and irrational language around. Particularly with numbers, in English, after ten the teens each have an unique name and each tenth following that gets their own name. In fact, one would need to learn 28 unique words to count up to 100 in English while in any Chinese dialect, Japanese, or Korean, one only needs to learn 11 – one through ten and one hundred.

In Asian languages like Chinese, numbers after ten follow a precise logic. Eleven in Mandarin is shi yi or ten-one, twelve is ten-two, thirteen is ten-three, and so forth. When we get to fifty-nine, the logic continues, five-ten-nine. Five tens and a nine, 59. The internal logic in counting numbers with Asian languages results in kids who speak Asian languages are able to count beyond a hundred before English speakers can even count to 40. But the Asian language advantage doesn’t stop in counting. Remember those dreaded fractions? In English we would read 3/4 as three-fourths. But for languages like Chinese, 3/4 is literally translated, “out of 4 parts, take 3″.

When you think how much more sense math makes for Asian-language speakers and considering how many frustrated 3rd graders go home with there hands crossed because multiplication doesn’t make sense. How much fun would math had been if it did make sense? Wouldn’t you do more homework? In turn wouldn’t you pick up new concepts – in which case math heavily depends on learning piece by piece – easier. Quite simply,

The much-storied disenchantment with mathematics among western children starts in the third and fourth grade, [...] perhaps a part of that disenchantment is due to the fact that math doesn’t seem to make sense; its linguistic structure is clumsy; its basic rules seem arbitrary and complicated.

Asian children, by contrast, don’t face nearly that same sense of bafflement. They can hold more numbers in their head, and do calculations faster, and the way fractions are expressed in their language corresponds exactly to the way a fraction actually is—and maybe that makes them a little more likely to enjoy math, and maybe because they enjoy math a little more they try a little harder and take more math classes and are more willing to do their homework, and on and on, in a kind of virtuous circle.

When it comes to math, in other words, Asians have built-in advantage. . .

And as a child, you’re not discouraged at math, it’s likely you’ll continue to take math classes growing up and continuing to do homework because it just all makes sense.

While extensive study on languages affect on math, Gladwell’s assertions shed light away from simplistic racial explanations for which I personally rejoice over.

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