NIKKEI VIEW: The Asian American Blog

Next up on visualizAsian: Disgrasian’s Jen Wang & Diana Nguyen

Gil Asakawa — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 23:43:38 +0000

Erin and I are excited to announce the next call in our series of conversations with Asian American leaders and newsmakers. We’ll be speaking with Jen Wang and Diana Nguyen of Disgrasian on Tuesday, September 21 at 7 pm PT (10 pm ET — it’s an hour later than our usual calls). If you follow [...]

visualizAsian’s back! Meet Roxana Saberi, journalist & author of “Between Two Worlds”

Gil Asakawa — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:57:17 +0000

Erin and I took a summer hiatus, but visualizAsian.com is back, and proud to kick off a new season of interviews with a conversation with Iranian-Japanese American journalist Roxana Saberi, whose recent book, “Between Two Worlds,” chronicles the harrowing experience of being imprisoned, charged with espionage and sentenced to eight years in a notorious Iranian [...]

“Escape from Manchuria” chronicles a forgotten chapter of WWII history

Gil Asakawa — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:54:57 +0000

Emperor Hirohito of Japan gave an unprecedented radio address at noon 65 years ago today, on August 15, 1945, to announce that Japan would surrender unconditionally to the United States and the allied powers. The Victory over Japan Day, or VJ Day, officially ended World War II on September 2 1945 when Japan signed the [...]

KTown Cowboys: Web series with LA’s young Korean Americans

Gil Asakawa — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:10:05 +0000

Yeah, I know I’m late to the KTown Cowboys party. Fellow Asian American bloggers have been raving about this web series since the first episode (above) and now they’ve posted their 8th and final episode (below), with a bonus installment to come, featuring comic Bobby Lee. But I had a fabulous meal of all-you-can-eat BBQ [...]

3rd episode of Andrea Lwin’s “Slanted” is online

Gil Asakawa — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 15:35:18 +0000

I met the affable, energetic Andrea Lwin last fall at the Banana conference of Asian American bloggers (Banana II details coming soon!). At the time, she had just launched “Slanted,” a comedic web series based on her one-woman show of the same name, about an Asian American actresses’ struggles to make her mark in Hollywood. [...]

Atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki are faded memories in U.S.

Gil Asakawa — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:08:59 +0000

Mention August 6 to most Americans, young or old, and my guess is you’ll get a blank stare. “What about August 6?” Mention Hiroshima and you might get a second blank stare. Most Americans can’t name the date that the first atomic bomb was dropped, Aug. 6 1945 on the city of Hiroshima. Three days [...]

Do we still call ourselves “Asian American?”

Gil Asakawa — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:31:00 +0000

With Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month about to end, I thought I’d write a bit about the terms we choose to describe our identity. Like other ethnic groups, the labels we use for ourselves seems to be always evolving. Hispanic evolves into Latino; Negro to Black to African American; Native American to American Indian. [...]

Sushi Poppers: is sushi in a tube progress?

Gil Asakawa — Thu, 27 May 2010 21:41:19 +0000

Wow. As if buying crappy-tasting, unauthentic “sushi” at your local supermarket or Costco wasn’t enough, they’ve found a way to completely commodify sushi — sushi rolls, at least — as a mass-produced pre-packaged snack food. Sushi Poppers are individually wrapped sushi rolls on a stick that you eat like… a Popsicle, those quiescently frozen confections. [...]

16-year-old Maryland teen creates Good50 search engine for older web users

Gil Asakawa — Tue, 25 May 2010 01:30:34 +0000

I hate to say it, but that “Model Minority” stereotype is based on reality sometimes. Some young Asian Americans are just darned smart, hard-working good students. Take Sunmee Huh, a 16-year-old Maryland teenager, for instance. Last year, she noticed her grandfather struggling to use a search engine, and had she an idea. She decided to [...]

President Obama celebrates Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Gil Asakawa — Tue, 25 May 2010 00:15:55 +0000

THE WHITE HOUSE Office of the Press Secretary _________________________________________________________________ For Immediate Release May 24, 2010 REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT RECEPTION CELEBRATING ASIAN AMERICAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER HERITAGE MONTH East Room 3:50 P.M. EDT THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, everybody. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you so much. It is wonderful to see all of you — [...]