加油!

(clap clap) Jia You!

Meh. (Someone doesn’t have the Olympic Spirit yet. Her name starts with J and it ends in oz.)

Asian stoners, rejoice! Variety reports this morning that Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg, the writers of the first two Harold & Kumar movies, are back together for a third installment with Kal Penn and John Cho.

As much as I like to pretend to be a movie snob, I’m proud to admit that I’m super excited about this news.

I remember when I first heard about Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle (most probably on angryasianman.com) and my excitement to learn that it was the first major feature film starring Asian American actors in the lead roles. Yeah, I know we all supported Better Luck Tomorrow (starring John Cho, again!) but to actually see a widely released, mainstream film with Asian actors? CRAZY.

And then the sequel?? EVEN CRAZIER.

And now a TRILOGY??? AHHH!

Alright, in all seriousness, I know that this is just another pot movie and like the farthest thing from being the latest Oscar contender or breaking any sort of Dark Knight box office records…but I’ll say it first. I’m glad to see Hollywood embrace a movie franchise (can it even be called that?) that can combine good humor (YES IT’S FUNNY. DON’T HATE.) and the Asian American identity. Not only that, our Asian American duos clearly do drugs, thus breaking ground in the well-established model minority stereotypes. WE DO DRUGS. YEAH! Plus, both dudes hook up with white chicks in the second movie. Take that, America (and Esther Ku)!  Think Asian girls are out of their league?? Who cares when they can get with white girls!

Now I had heard that pole dancing had become popular in the United States, but had not hear about the rising popularity of the “exercise” in China. In today’s New York Times, the newspaper reports “From the Erotic Domain, an Aerobic Trend in China” and interviews the woman who brought pole dancing into the mainstream in China:

“The woman who claims to have brought pole dancing to China, Luo Lan, 39, is from Yichun, a small town in Jiangxi Province in southeastern China… She traveled to Paris in 2006 for vacation. It was there that she first saw pole dancing… Ms. Luo, who quickly discovered that pole dancing for fitness was popular in America, realized that if she could take away the shadier aspects of the erotic dance and repackage it into an activity more acceptable to mainstream Chinese women, she might create a Chinese fitness revolution. Here was an exercise that would allow women to stay fit and express their sexuality with an unprecedented degree of openness and freedom. But she remained keenly aware of the challenges in a society where traditional values dictate that women be loyal, faithful and modestly dressed.”

I am all for more exercise! :-). Seriously, I wonder if the average Chinese woman taking pole dancing lessons knows about the shadier purposes of pole dancing in West and whether or not she would take up pole dancing if she knew? I don’t recall seeing any strip clubs in my travels in China (but I wasn’t exactly looking). I don’t even know if strip clubs are legal in China ?

I had blogged about “Chinese-American women create a line-dancing craze,” but somehow, I just don’t see pole dancing at least in my parents’ generation becoming too popular… But maybe a future competition in the Miss Chinatown USA Pageant? I’d like to see that! (OK, I’m a pig…) Actually, I have never been to the Miss Chinatown USA Pageant competition - which is I believe held every year in San Francisco. Maybe I will in February 2009. Maybe I can get press credentials as a blogger (hey, 8Asians actually gets invitations for all sorts of events, screenings, etc.)

(see @ approx. 1:30-2:10)

You can’t take a comedian’s material literally; that defeats the purpose of the entire art form (Yes, it’s actually an art form.  We’re not assholes who wake up one day and say, “I’m just going to talk in front of strangers.”)  A comedian’s bits, stories and jokes are based on truth but it’s being reflected through a fun-house mirror; it’s perverted, distorted, digested and shat out for your listening approval; the cheesecake of truth we eat at noon becomes the feces of humor by sundown.  The end might bear only a faint resemblance to its beginning because the filtering process has taken its liberties.  Does Esther Ku really think Asian guys aren’t worthy of Asian women?  C’mon… use your fucking brain.  She’s making commentary.

I’ve been talking to some of the comics here in New York; and the general consensus echoes that of the show’s castmates: “She relies too much on Asian jokes”.  Maybe, I dunno. Being a comedian of sorts, I don’t like to judge another person’s material — it’s sort of an unspoken rule — but I will say this:  I hear Black and Hispanic comedians do it ALL THE TIME.  No one (White comedians) says shit.  Turn on BET’s Comic View and tell me 90% of the material isn’t self conscious racial humor.  But, hey now! The comedy police suddenly shuts the fuck up and hide behind their mommy’s skirts.  Why don’t they criticize the Black comedians?  I guess that’d be racist.

I’m not saying Esther Ku is the second coming; I’m saying if that’s her material, then that’s her material; laugh or don’t.  I do pedophile, rape, bestiality, incest, and midget-donkey-orgy jokes.  It’s not for everyone and I apologize to no one.  But if you’re going to criticize the subject matter of her material, then apply that criticism uniformly.  Don’t say Asians have to stop doing Asian jokes but then conveniently avoid criticizing comedians of other races.

Wait, how do we do it? Easy.

TWINS.

See, it works like this: you basically rope your identical twin into working the same exact job as you without telling anyone, share opposite hours and voila, the whole world thinks you’re a work-a-holic robot. It also helps if you and your twin are married to a pair of identical twins, too. Alright, so most of us don’t have the luxury of being a twin but a pair of twin couples in China made this work.

Customers dubbed the pair the “robot couple” because of their marathon hours, which involved opening the restaurant at 6am and apparently still being there to close it up at 3am.

But it has now emerged that the restaurant in the city of Yiwu in eastern China is actually run by two couples – and both the men and the women are identical twins.

Read more here.

Now that’s what I call a brilliant work ethic. So who wants to be my twin right now so I can go home and nap?

“That one’s the best,” I said, pointing at the panda.

So I was embarrassed to learn from a Wall Street Journal article that Han Meilin, the designer of the mascots, likes Jing the Panda the least. He originally wanted the mascots to simply represent the traditional Chinese elements of fire, wood, water, gold and earth. Then the Olympics committee made him turn them into animals, one of which had to be a panda.

The article about the 2008 Olympics mascots says that the Fuwa (the collective name for the five mascots) might be the next in a long line of unpopular mascots. Much of the criticism seems to be around the ambiguity of the mascots, because they look like they could be animals, aliens, or children- or some mix thereof. The author of the article quotes a sports blogger who said, “Why do the Olympic mascots have to look like some mutant Pokemon / Telletubbie thing? What’s wrong with a bull dog or a cougar or a sweat shop worker for a mascot?”

What’s wrong with that is that those are American sensibilities (and the sweatshop comment is obviously offensive and incendiary). If you look at the slideshow history of Olympic mascots, you can see that there is a different aesthetic going on, depending on the host country. And next to their hilariously deficient precedents, the Fuwa are really not that bad.

Their name, Fuwa, means “good luck dolls.” The alternative would have been to call them “The Friendlies.” In English. As for their individual names, if you know how to say Welcome to Beijing in Chinese, then you will remember them. Or if you learn their names, you will learn how to say Welcome to Beijing in Chinese. How cool is that?

The panda is a cliché and overused, but for a world event it’s okay and even advisable to include something globally recognized and loved. Apparently one of them might have been “an anthropomorphic rattle drum” (i.e., a human-looking drum). And they aren’t aliens– they have Asian eyes. Two of them do, anyway. Okay, they kind of look like aliens. It’s because they have dark beady eyes and pale faces. This is probably because they had to match the panda, to make them look like a set. Damn panda. But at any rate, why do they have to be something? We never knew what Goofy was and we liked him anyway. They can just be creatures, they don’t have to be anything in particular. They can be a melange of things.

In fact they do a good job of balancing and incorporating many aesthetics and symbolic elements at once. Note, in order: Bei, Jing, Huan, Ying, and Ni. A fish, a panda, the Olympic flame, a Tibetan antelope, and a swallow. Sea, forest, fire, earth and sky. Swimmer, all around athlete, ball games player, runner, and gymnast. And last but not least, the Olympic colors: blue, black, red, yellow, and green.

So you can pick your favorite sport/ color/ earth element/ animal. Hopefully those intersect in one of the Fuwu. Except, of course, those favorites aren’t going to line up so you have to prioritize. What’s more important, your favorite color or your favorite animal? It’s typical modern day multiple choice madness. Better just get the panda.

“Why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos?” - this is a question that a Los Angeles Times reporter asks a group of eight Asian and Latino students, some teachers, administrators and parents of students of a Lincoln High School in Los Angeles (Boyle Heights, El Sereno and Chinatown.) Lincoln High has about 2,500 students, where both the neighborhood and student body are about 15% Asian. But “as stereotypically usual,” Asians make up 50% of students taking Advanced Placement classes, 90% of the Academic Decathlon team is Asian.

Based on census data, the academic differences don’t appear to be due to economic differences - 84% of the Asian and Latino families in the Lincoln High area have median annual household incomes below $50,000. Basically, the primary reason that is distilled from this informal conversation was unsurprisingly (at least to me), parental expectations as well as peer expectations:

“Many factors influence academic performance: class size, poverty, and school and neighborhood resources. But as the discussions at Lincoln show, expectations loom large… Frank D. Bean, a professor of sociology at UC Irvine’s Center for Research on Immigration, Population and Public Policy, has studied the Mexican work ethic and found that work and education occupy the same pedestal, and in some cases, work is even more valued. “Latino and Asian families in Lincoln Heights were essentially in the same socioeconomic boat, she [UCLA sociology professor Min Zhou] said, but Asian immigrants were more likely to have been more affluent and had better education opportunities in their native countries.”

Now this makes a lot of sense to me, since historically, education has been highly valued in Asian societies. Sadly, especially living in California in Silicon Valley, I really do not know really any Latinos or much about Latino culture. So I don’t know if the comments regarding work vs. education’s value in the Latino community are true.

The article goes on about how teachers give Asian students the benefit-of-the-doubt in a lot of cases, from things like not being as strict with Asian students without hall passes versus Latinos - as well as teachers not necessarily encouraging Latinos to take Advanced Placement courses.

I had read about potential controversy that the animated film (which I have yet to see), Kung Fu Panda, might have in China, taking a Chinese cultural icon and commercializing it into an American film. Well, Kung Fu Panda was released in China recently - and guess what? it’s a hit. Now some Chinese are asking themselves, “Why can’t we make such popular films?” as reported in The New York Times’ “The Panda That Roared“:

“A few weeks ago, when the movie opened in China, there was already a call for a boycott — on the grounds that foreigners had lifted one of China’s most precious symbols, the panda, and were using it for their own profit. The boycott never got off the ground, and “Kung Fu Panda” was an immediate box office hit. In the last few weeks the movie has provoked a deeper discussion, even a degree of soul-searching and critical self-examination of the sort that China, which has an amazing mix of ambition, self-confidence and insecurity, goes through from time to time. The main question being asked is: How could Western filmmakers have used Chinese themes to create such a brilliant animated movie with such widespread appeal to the Chinese themselves? Why, in other words, doesn’t China itself seem to be able to use its rich traditions to such brilliant cinematic and commercial effect?”"

Some of the reasons are that China doesn’t have as big or historically strong animation market and industry like the United States. However, the broader questions brought up by some Chinese is the constrictive atmosphere of cultural and artistic freedom that China doesn’t enjoy. That’s not necessarily a surprise. I’m sure that in America, we take for granted our freedom of speech which leads to quite an atmosphere of freedom of expression and creativity.

About the author: KG Lew is a half Chinese, half French entrepreneur from Montreal, Canada. If you would like to learn more about him and how he makes a living online, feel free to check out his Internet Marketing blog at www.oneyearmillionaire.net.

“All Asians are Good at Math!”, “All African-Americans are Good at Basketball!”, “All Irish people like to get Drunk!”. Does this bother anyone? These kind of statements are stereotypes and while it may seem harmless; it does effect the way people think. Let’s take a look at a prime example.

I must admit that it does seem like a lot of Asian Americans/Canadians do excel at Mathematics and Science; however, it doesn’t mean that every single person of Asian descent should fall under that category.

Let me zoom back to my 9th grade math class. Anyone who has gotten through College or University will know that the whole concept of High School is a joke! The way I look at it… it’s just a way to kill some time while kids learn for themselves how to finally be mature. The funny part is that most of them will never finish that task. The teacher I had that year did nothing but ramble and had a pretty thick accent. It was frequently hard to understand what he was saying. Eventually, you don’t even bother paying attention anymore because you know that it won’t make a difference. That moment is when he called on me.. “What is the answer to this problem young man?” I looked up from my desk that I was practically sleeping on. “I don’t know.” The next few words that slipped out of my teacher’s mouth should have gotten him fired. He replied.. “I thought Asians are supposed to be good at Math.”

This kind of thinking will bring us back to the stone ages. You would think that western culture is moving forward, but there is always a few people who ruin it for the rest of us. My solution to that complex equation is to just ignore them and live my own life.

My relationship with numbers is very simple. I have a pair of hands (Yes, two of them!) and a calculator. Any addition or subtraction that needs to be done can be queued up on a handy electronic device! I am obviously capable of doing small mental calculations in my head, but when you start adding two Decimal Places, Compound Fractions, a little bit of Trigonometry and Algebraic Formulas - I might not be able to string together a logical answer in under 20 seconds!

It all comes back to a silly argument that I must have heard a thousand times. “Am I really going to use this in the future?” A question from an annoyed student aimed at a teacher who couldn’t care less about the future of the kids in his/her classroom. When it really comes down to it, does my lack of mathematic abilities really change my life that much? Not really. Today, I consider myself successful. I have a great career in Internet Marketing; spending less than 10 hours a week doing work, while I have all the time in the world to do the things I enjoy most!

At the end of the day: a Stereotype is a Stereotype. A little thing that bothers me shouldn’t become a road block. Meanwhile, I’ll just whip out my trusty calculator and add up my weekly earnings!

Do you Asian Americans suffer from stereotypes in the business world? Of course we do. I think so, even if it is subtle. After attending business school, I joined a Silicon Valley software company as a product manager and attended a lot of trade shows during my first year (just as the tech boom became a bust). Inevitably, people would ask me at the show booth or in meetings, if I was an engineer on the product and I would have to correct their presumption that I was in fact, a product manager (though I did used to be a mechanical design engineer in the aerospace industry.) I found this an odd question, since most companies did not bring any engineers to any of the trade shows (business travel was something new to me prior to becoming a product manager). Quiet, non-confrontational, back office software engineers is what I think most Silicon Valley folks perceive Asian Americans to be. But we can and are much more - but may be brainwashed to think otherwise. I’ve blogged before about the an Asian glass ceiling.

I came across this interesting study last week in the Journal of Applied Psychology titled, “The White standard: Racial bias in leader categorization” as announced in this Duke University News release: Study: Americans Expect Business Leaders to Be White:

“The participants consistently assumed the leaders to be white when the race was not disclosed, even when the racial composition of the existing leaders in the organizations were described as 80 percent African American, 80 percent Hispanic American or 80 percent Asian American. Yet, this same presumption of “whiteness” was not observed when the participants assessed non-leaders…The researchers found no relation between the study participants’ race and their impressions of the leaders’ race. Participants who identified themselves as racial minorities assumed the leader to be white as often as the white participants. In experiments where the leader’s race was identified, white leaders were evaluated to be a better match with traditional leader expectations, such as successful performances, than were racial minorities. Participants who were told that a leader was responsible for the organization’s success and then asked to rate that leader’s effectiveness judged white leaders to be more effective than minority leaders who had achieved the same level of success. “Our results challenge a common explanation for racial bias –- that people who are white give preferential treatment to other people who are white,” Leonardelli said. “Our finding that Americans of all races associate successful leadership with being white demonstrates just how embedded this bias can be.”"

Even minorities assumed that leaders were white and judged them to perform better than non-white leaders.

We all have an unconscious bias that leaders should be white. You’ve probably heard that there is a bias towards taller people for promotion and leadership positions, as well as often jokingly those with “good hair.” This has always been a very “Dilbert”-esque point, as the cartoonist Scott Adams has noted in his comic strip, books as well as blog posting, like in his blog posting: Looks Are Destiny:

“Hair and height are great predictors of future careers. If you’re a guy with a good head of hair, and you’re over 6’4”, you’ll probably have a career in upper management. The universe will also allow you to be an entrepreneur, lawyer, or doctor. You are not allowed to work in a toll booth.”

However satirical Scott Adams may be, there have been many scientific studies on this very subject, including a University of Florida study, as well as this older Journal of Applied Psychology (June 2004) published study, “The Effect of Physical Height on Workplace Success and Income: Preliminary Test of a Theoretical Model.” In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell says that 30% of Fortune 500 CEOs are 6-foot-2 and taller (vs. just 4% of all men). And even presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has commented that Asians are not tall. So where does this put Asians and Asian Americans in business? According to the Committee of 100 (a national non-partisan organization composed of American citizens of Chinese descent), in their 2007 Corporate Board Report Card:

“Asian and APAs currently hold 1.5% of corporate board seats among Fortune 500 companies, a modest increase from 1.2% in 2005. 81 Fortune 500 board seats were held in 2006 by 69 Asian/APA directors, an increase from 56 in 2005. The percentage of Fortune 500 companies with at least one Asian or APA director increased to 15% in 2006 from 11% in 2005.”

In a recent BusinessWeek article (7/21/08), “For Corporate Boards, a Global Search,” - “Western companies, especially tech multinationals like SAP and Nokia, have begun looking to Asia’s emerging markets for their next board leaders.” Hiring and grooming Asian Americans with the business, language fluency and bi-cultural understanding makes sense and is good for the bottom line. Too bad we’re not white nor tall?

The White Man’s Burden should no longer be tolerated in the corporate world today, and it is nice to see increasing corporate leadership being represented by non-white males. Obviously, the study shows we still have a long ways to go that even if Asian Americans and other minorities still expect that our business leaders be white.

As much as I love Steve Carell in The Office, the show often reminds myself of the realities of the corporate world and why I, as well as many others often ask ourselves - yourself included, “How did the boss, manager, VP, or CEO ever get to where he is today?”… Maybe we’ve answered part of the question today - he looked the part.