"IT" FACTOR
Charismatic people appear to tune in to other people to the exclusion of all else, leaving the recipients of all this glorious attention believing that there has been an emotional connection. As a result of the contact, the recipients feel special and consequently good about themselves. Charismatic individuals have more variance in the pitch of their speech — that is, their speech pattern goes up and down — they are more likely to smile and initiate physical contact and, consciously or unconsciously, they tend to mimic the body language of their listener. For more info, click HERE.

THEATER ACTING VS. FILM ACTING
Don't underestimate the difference between stage and film acting. Standing before an audience is like skiing down an Olympic slope. It requires supple physical technique, intense concentration and unlimited daring. Becoming the character is only half the battle. You have to convey your portrait to the back of the house while surviving the ogling stares of strangers, who can see you even when you have nothing to do and would be out of the shot in TV or film. And more frightening still, you have to duplicate it eight times a week — on time!
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OPTIMIST CREED
Promise Yourself —

• To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
• To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
• To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
• To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
• To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.
• To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
• To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
• To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
• To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
• To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
  

JOHN CHIANG - POLITICAL DRIVE-BYS
John Chiang, the Democratic candidate for California State Controller has received some good news and some bad news in the last couple of days. A dedicated public servant, the good news is that he received a ringing endorsement from the Los Angeles Times. (Editor's Note: He was a victim of some close family members - inadvertently and unbeknowst to John - participated in some actions where being more truthful and forthright in disclosing information should have been the preferred course of action, instead of being a potential obstacle to his excellent campaign.)
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LUCY LIU/SANDRA ON IN "THREE NEEDLES"
3 Needles is a 2005 dramatic film which was directed by Thom Fitzgerald. The film deals with the lives of three people when they make a deal with the devil in order to survive a global epidemic. Shawn Ashmore stars as a Canadian porn star who conceals that he is HIV positive, with Stockard Channing as his mother who learns the truth. Meanwhile, in China Lucy Liu is a blood buyer who's not taking the best precautions with the blood. In Africa, Olympia Dukakis, Chloe Sevigny, and Sandra Oh are Catholic nuns trying to care for those infected with HIV.
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CA'S SANJAY KUMAR IS SENTENCED 12 YEARS
Sanjay Kumar, the former chief executive of CA Inc., (Computer Associates) was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison Thursday for his role in a $2.2-billion accounting fraud at the computer software company that cost its shareholders more than $400 million.
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REVIEW: JODI LONG'S "SURFING DNA"
The strongest thread in Long's life is the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical "Flower Drum Song." Her father, Larry Leung, was a replacement actor in the original late-1950s Broadway production. Long — a memorable presence in such plays as Philip Kan Gotanda's "The Wash" and David Henry Hwang's "Golden Child" — earned strong notices for her appearance as the vivacious theatrical agent Madame Liang in the early 2000s revamp of that same musical.
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IMMIGRANTS DRIVES ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Immigrants are more likely to be entrepreneurs than native-born Americans, according to the annual national assessment by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in Missouri. Approximately 350 per 100,000 immigrants started a business each month of 2005 compared with 280 per 100,000 native-born Americans. "The United States continues to be a very entrepreneurial nation," said Kauffman Chief Executive Carl Schramm.
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DISNEYLAND TAPPING VIETNAMESE TALENTS
Disney held the event at Nguoi Viet Daily News in Little Saigon – the first time Orange County's largest employer stepped outside its amusement park to tap the talents of an ethnic community. Disney officials said they were attracted to Little Saigon, a Vietnamese business community in Westminster, because of its proximity to the children's theme park. It also benefits them at a time when it's difficult to find qualified entertainers for the job, Disney officials said.
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SOUTH KOREAN CINEMA & HOLLYWOOD
Hollywood is searching for its creative Seoul. Once a backwater of international cinema, South Korea has become one of the world's hottest film centers, churning out box-office hits and critical favorites that have studio executives and agents scrambling for remake rights, distribution deals and talent relationships.
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FIRST BOMBAY DREAMS, NOW LONDON DREAMS
Bollywood filmmakers are planning to head for London to film a musical, to be called London Dreams, about an Asian rock band. The movie will star Indian actors Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan in the leads, while other characters will be played by British Asians.
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JODI LONG CONTINUES FATHER'S TRADITION
"I (Jodi Long) saw it as subversive. My dad (Larry Leung) comes out and speaks pigeon Chinese. It's like, `Okay, I'm going to be the Chinky Chinese joke.' After seven minutes, my mother comes out, drop dead Western entertainer. He takes off his Chinese costume. What's so cool about it is once they shed the skin of what's expected of them and make fun of it, all of a sudden it turns, and then they start tap dancing. That was their control."
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CA'S AA POLITICIANS' GROWING CLOUT
Asian Americans in California demonstrated their political influence in Tuesday's election which marked a watershed moment for the community, with more than two dozen Asian Americans running for state office. Nineteen candidates won, giving Asian Americans a record representation in Californian public office with a total of 20 elected officials - an increase of 3 representatives.
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MICHELLE KWAN - A DIPLOMACY ENVOY
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced she has appointed figure skating champion Michelle Kwan as the first American Public Diplomacy Envoy. In her new role, Kwan will work with Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen P. Hughes and Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Dina Habib Powell, in their efforts to help promote cross-cultural dialogue with international youth and to increase understanding of America by sharing her story and life experiences. Kwan will reach out to international young people by visiting their schools and clubs to speak about leadership and to engage them in a dialogue on social and educational issues.
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FRANK JAO - SUCCESSFUL IN U.S. & VIETNAM
Frank Jao fled Vietnam in 1975 to escape communism and seek his fortune in Orange County. Now, after becoming the biggest developer in Little Saigon, Jao sees Vietnam as a new land of opportunity – a suggestion that once would have drawn death threats from some anti-communists. Jao is putting his money where his mouth is. For the first time after three decades in exile, he is investing in his homeland.
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SCOTT FUJITA - A LINEBACKER W/A CONSCIENCE
The leading tackler on the resurgent (NFL) Saints defense, Fujita was given up by his birth mother when he was six weeks old and adopted by Helen and Rod Fujita of Oxnard, Calif. Helen is white. Rod, now a retired school teacher and coach, is a third-generation Japanese-American who was born inside a Japanese internment camp in Arizona during the post-Pearl Harbor paranoia of World War II.
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AKI TAKAHASHI'S BEATLES, GARLAND & FELDMAN
Aki Takahashi, who made a rare Los Angeles appearance at REDCAT was an elegant pianist with an incandescent tone and the patience of a saint. When she brings into being an exquisite, weightless chord and allows it to slowly die out, radiant overtones linger amazingly long in the air like an unforgettable supernatural scent.
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DARK SIDE OF THE "GOOD WAR"
The centrality of race. In the context of World War II, the word "racism" is most likely to trigger immediate associations with Nazi anti-Semitism and the death camps. Yet, in fact, racism existed just about everywhere in the world of the 1930s and early 1940s. The entire globe was drenched in it — many different kinds of racism, with equally diverse origins and features.
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TATSUMI HIJIKATA'S "BUTOH"
"We shake hands with the dead, who send us encouragement from beyond our body; this is the unlimited power of butoh." — Tatsumi Hijikata (Butoh co-founder) Butoh was born in the decade after World War II as the ultimate underground dance idiom. From the first, it embraced the irrational, the violent, the morbid, the sexual and the sense of decay pervading Japanese life, rejecting "the calm beauty of Japan" and other clichés through which a conquered, deeply divided nation tried to reimagine and merchandise itself.
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FILIPINO AMERICAN WAR VETERANS HONORED
Six decades after their service during World War II, Filipino American veterans were honored in Los Angeles on Veterans Day with the dedication of a granite monument that tells their story. Designed by Silver Lake artist Cheri Gaulke, the monument consists of five tall, black granite slabs. Each one tells a piece of Filipino American history, beginning with U.S. colonial occupation of the Philippines. The narrative ends with the veterans' long fight for honor and status as American veterans that was the result of Congress reneged on Roosevelt's wartime promises of U.S. citizenship and full veterans benefits for them.
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DANIEL DAE KIM LANDS IN HAWAII
The latest to join the landed is Daniel Dae Kim, who plays Jin-Soo Kwon and was voted one of the sexiest men last year by People magazine. The 38-year-old actor bought a 3,500-square-foot house on Oahu that has four bedrooms, an office and a media room. He paid about $1.5 million, according to his Pacific Palisades-based Realtor, Rick Lombardo of Amalfi Estates.
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RITA OKAMOTO & "MEMOIRS"
Several years ago, Steven Spielberg found a Japanese Sayuri. He acquired the rights to "Memoirs" in 1997 (back then, Akira Kurosawa, the legendary Japanese film director who was a friend and hero to the American director, was pressing him to shoot the movie in Japanese with English subtitles) and within a year, he cast Rika Okamoto, a Tokyo-born, New York-based dancer, in the lead. "I was very lucky at that time," but filming kept getting postponed and, "as things dragged on, I had to move on with my life," she says.
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ACHIEVERS - TRAN/SAUND/MATSUHISA
David Tran, Dalip Saund and Nobu Matsuhisa have been described as "Strivers" (among others). The word alone says it all. Rich in struggle, long in effort, it hints at some unspoken nobility, some quiet vindication. Look it up in the dictionary, and there's a picture of a boy in a log cabin learning to read by the light of a {filig}re. Stories of strivers — those who started with nothing and reached great heights—have long been our propaganda, our come-on to the world. Some are bright and miraculous, fueled by luck and hard work.
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INTERVIEW WITH MASI OKA
Like Hiro, 31-year-old Oka is a fan of science fiction and fantasy ("amazing" is how he describes the new season of "Battlestar Galactica"), but he's also had experience working behind the scenes on special effects-filled blockbusters, including the most recent "Star Wars" trilogy and the first two "Pirates of Caribbean" movies. After studying computer science and math at Brown University, Oka graduated and went to work for George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic.
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TYLER THOMPSON - BLACK BEIJING OPERA STAR
Tyler Thompson is an African American 4th grader who sings and loves Chinese opera. He lives in an African-American neighborhood, but attends public school in Chinatown. Tyler was in first grade when, hearing his "angelic voice," his music teacher began teaching him Mandarin folk songs. He learned so well and was so enthusiastic she cast him in the school's Chinese opera production; as one of the leads, he must combine mime, song, and acrobatics. Tyler doesn't speak Chinese so he learns by rote from tapes. He must have a great ear, because his Mandarin accent is supposedly "impeccable."
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SIMON CHANG INTERVIEW ON "MORE THAN SAVING SOULS"
Why should evangelicals care about something as arcane as the ontology of the church?
Evangelicals traditionally have been noted for their concern for the ontology of the person. They preach the gospel with the view to getting the individual transformed or "born again." Persons are spiritual entities who, because of sin, need to experience the miracle of conversion. Unfortunately, they have not extended this understanding to the church. They fail to see that conversion is not about transforming the individual, per se, but is incorporation into a spiritual reality—the Body of Christ.
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STOPPING CULTURAL DRIFT (SIMON CHANG)
The church's role is to figure out how it fits into that larger reality: Christ against culture, Christ transforming culture, and so forth. "This implies," says Chan, "that the church derives its basic identity from the larger world."
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LUNG YEP - LAPD'S 1ST CHINESE POLICEMAN
Los Angeles Police Chief Charles Sebastian placed a badge on Chinese immigrant Lung Yep, who "stepped from the comparative obscurity of a clerkship in Sing Fat's store into the authority of a star and a club." He became "the first Chinese ever to be so invested in the United States or in the entire Occident, so far as the police records of the continent show." His appointment followed an investigation of conditions in Chinatown that a native policeman is needed, one who speaks the Chinese language."
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VIETNAMESE AMERICANS RETURNING HOME
They (expat Vietnamese Americans) also have Internet access and friends in other countries, and aren't too concerned with taking sides or hearing their parents' war stories. And neither are their Vietnamese-American counterparts, the well-educated sons and daughters of escapees who are coming back in droves and looking to develop the country while advancing their own careers. Even the term Viet Kieu, once synonymous with "traitor," has started to lose its negative connotation, especially since overseas Vietnamese sent an estimated $16 billion in remittances to the country between 2001 and 2005. As The Economist has noted, "America lost, capitalism won."
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LIU GUANZHI/EDWARD TIAN JOINS KKR
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, the New York-based private equity firm, has greatly enhanced its China team by retaining Liu Guanzhi, the founder of computer maker Lenovo Group and president of its partial parent, Legend Holdings, and Edward Tian Suning, a telecom entrepreneur and former chief executive of China Netcom, the country's second-largest landline telephone concern.
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BLOOD BROTHERS REMAKE W/LAU, JET & KANESHIRO
Veteran Hong Kong actor Andy Lau's new remake of 1973's Shw Brothers's "The Blood Brothers" about the tragic story of three good friends set in China's Qing dynasty will feature action star Jet Li and Taiwanese-Japanese actor Takeshi Kaneshiro with Peter Chan directing the US$30 million (euro 23.5 million) film.
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MICHAEL CHANG'S FRUSTRATIONS
Michael Chang is finding frustration in his bid to help Chinese tennis players capture gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Once ranked as high as No. 2 in the world, the Chinese-American is heralded as being responsible for the surge of tennis in not only China but all of East Asia. Now he wants to impart his knowledge to today's players.
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GOLDSEA'S 70 MOST INSPIRING ASIAN AMERICANS
Now Goldsea's method. We considered several hundred Asian American achievers in every field for which information is publicly available. We then valued and ranked candidates based on our appraisal of their positive impact, firstly, in inspiring other Asian Americans, and secondly, in inspiring Americans at large. We also weighed the social climate in which these men and women made their mark. Consider a one-armed World War II veteran who rose to prominence as a Senator in an age when some barbers refused to cut his hair. Consider an actor who made himself the world's top star in an age when Hollywood relegated Asians to playing servants.
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GOLDSEA'S HOT TV PERSONALITIES
But when the going got tough, the tough got going. Here are five Asian Americans who have not only survived, but bucked the trend to become familiar faces and even favorite personalities of American TV audiences. Goldsea included Suchin Park, Rob Fukuzaki, Grace Park, Daniel Dae Kim and Suzanne Whang.
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BEIJING'S BAD GIRL OF LETTERS - ANNIE WANG
My Beijing neighbors often said I was too wild, too direct, too rebellious, too uncouth," says Annie Wang. As a 34-year-old, she's still a shoot-from-the-hip kind of gal. Only, now, shock is no longer a liability. It's her selling point. And if you're curious about life as a successful Beijing authoress, just take a look at her characters.
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SURPRISING APA SUCCESS STORIES
There are two kinds of successes — the paint-by-numbers kind and the bolt-from-the-blue kind. In the first, those who follow all the steps can expect to become doctors, lawyers and corporate chiefs. But it's the second kind that fascinates us — the adventurous souls who defy conventional wisdom by shunning the beaten path to set off through the brambles in search of their own. Years later a few emerge scarred but stronger. The only way they know they've stumbled into success is the admiring look in the world's eyes. Dat Nguyen (Footbal Linebacker), Tei-Fu/Oi Lin Chan (Sunrider International), Shoji Tabuchi (Country Music Star), Vera Wang (Fashion Designer), Hubert Vo (Texas State Legislator), Morgan Chu (Irell & Manella Lawyer), Saori Kawano (Korin Japanese Trading Co.) and Noel Lee (Monster Cable).
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TEDDY ZEE'S NEW DIRECTIONS
The game he's hunting as President of Ironpond (His Ironpond partners are Peter Shiao and Yantan Shi, General Manager of the Shaolin Temple) remains the same game that all Hollywood dealmakers pursue, hunters and fishermen — movies that human beings of all nationalities will pay money to see. The main difference is that Zee now has both the opportunity and the obligation to seek out projects that have a trans-Pacific angle. That means movies made in Hollywood for Asian audiences and Asian movies that may translate well for American audiences. In refocusing his career on an Asian-centric future, Zee isn't some carpetbagger. He established his Asian American bona fides for most of the two decades he was deeply immersed in the Hollywood establishment.
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HISTORICAL APA MILESTONES
Goldsea - in their selection of events for inclusion focused on those that represented steps forward — the events that enabled, liberated and inspired Asian Americans to grow, prosper, excel and dream. Ultimately, milestones are just markers. They serve to remind us of the nameless daily struggles by countless Asian Americans on the road to winning fair and dignified treatment and establishing ourselves as valuable and essential components of American society. To read more about APA history, click HERE.
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LOUISA HUYNH THANH THUAN
She was just another aspiring television reporter, seemingly destined to try to claw her way to the U.S. networks from a small market in the boonies. Then Washington state native Louisa Huynh Thanh Thuan took a detour to Hanoi _ and skyrocketed to stardom. Last weekend, she was looking forward to emceeing a gala dinner attended by U.S. President George W. Bush and other leaders attending the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hanoi.
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YU YING-SHIH WINS AWARD
Princeton's Yu Ying-shih, who was a professor of history and East Asian studies, focused on three areas during a scholarly career that earned him professorships at Yale, Harvard and Princeton shared the $1M John W. Kluge Prize w/John Hope Franklin. He studied early and medieval Chinese history, intellectual and cultural history of the later imperial period and intellectual problems in modern Chinese history.
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STANLEY TONG / NANKING MASSACRE FILM
Hong Kong director Stanley Tong, best known for his work on action movies with Jackie Chan, is working on "The Diary," which would also be released by the Dec. 13 anniversary of the invasion. Tong says the $40 million project, by his China Intl. Media Group, has received approval from Chinese film authorities and adds that coin would come from Germany, the U.S., Japan and China. Other projects on the same subject include a $50 million-$60 million project being put together by producer Gerald Green's Viridian Entertainment and by the Jiangsu provincial government.
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EMI WADA'S OSCAR-WINNING COSTUMES
It seems an odd match at first: a Japanese costume designer famous for Asian period pieces takes on the decadence of ancient Rome. But Wada, who won an Oscar for "Ran" in 1986 and more recently worked on the films "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers," is no slave to tradition. Her royal line is on stage in Los Angeles Opera's production of "The Coronation of Poppea."
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GAJIN FUJITA'S NEW PAINTINGS
Gajin Fujita's new paintings feature the same cast of characters as his old ones: fierce samurai, sexy geisha, fabulous animals and otherworldly spirits. The settings are also similar: the mean streets of an anonymous metropolis, where silhouetted palm trees, tropical foliage and shimmering moonlight provide the theatrical backdrop for dazzling explosions of spray-painted tags and single words dolled up like customized low-riders.
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ANSEL ADAMS' PICTURES OF MANZANAR
At the Japanese American National Museum, there's "Ansel Adams at Manzanar," a collection of about 50 vintage prints from the photographer's four visits to the Manzanar internment camp in 1943 and 1944. Unlike his most famous works, most of these images concentrate not on landscapes but on people — some of the 10,000 Japanese Americans held captive within the Owens Valley camp during World War II. Meanwhile, the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana plans to open a new wing with "Ansel Adams: Classic Images," which includes the photographer's favorite 75 shots.
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BEP'S ALBERT PINEDA & FILIPINO PRIDE
So begins the story of Allan Pineda, a member of the hip-hop band the Black Eyed Peas, who two years ago wrote a song (Bebot - Tagalog slang for "hot chick") about his journey from a poverty-stricken district in the Philippines to Los Angeles' Atwater Village. The lyrics were personal, written entirely in Tagalog, the dominant language of the Philippines. Pineda wanted to recount his experience as a Filipino American but wasn't sure how much the song would resonate with others — especially the Black Eyed Peas' teenage fan base.
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STUDENTS BEING TAUGHT MANDARIN
English is rarely heard in Lisa Yang's class at the Chinese American International School, despite the fact that few students are native speakers of Mandarin and fewer than half come from families with Chinese ancestry. At a time when the United States is frantically trying to increase the ranks of students in "critical languages" such as Mandarin, students here are ahead of the curve — way ahead.
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KATHERINE MIN'S "SECONDHAND WORLD"
Katherine Min's "Secondhand World" is about many things: immigrant alienation, marital rifts, war, vanity, murder and guilt. But at its core, the novel — told from the perspective of a young Korean American woman looking back on her troubled childhood — is a meditation on the sometimes punishing nature of memory. Because sometimes the past is more vibrant and alive than the everyday grind, and the present merely secondhand.
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REV. SHIN'S SAM SUNG PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
Twenty-one years ago, huddled in a cozy living room, Rev. Wonkyu Stephen Shin and a small group of his family and friends joined to pray and share their faith. This was the beginning of the Sam Sung Presbyterian Church. Powered only by sheer determination and a love for his religion, Shin had dreams to expand the church, seeing it as an opportunity to better the community through faith.
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TOMOMI FUKUDA'S BRITPOP FASHIONS
From Japan by way of London, fashion designer Tomomi Fukuda knows all about that. Bored with selling exclusively vintage clothing after opening her Camdenlock boutique on Melrose Avenue in 1995, Fukuda began carrying what were then largely unknown British brands. Business was slow- at first.
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EASTWOOD'S "LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA"
Clint Eastwood says he wanted to make a movie about the way war intrudes and destroys young lives, and in "Letters From Iwo Jima," youth is seen sacrificed in huge, bloody, burned numbers. Japanese youth this time. "Letters" is Eastwood's Japanese-language companion film to the critically praised but commercially tepid "Flags of Our Fathers," completing the 76-year-old director's gamble that that he could make two different movies, telling two different stories, from the same moment and place in history.
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TELEMONGOL
"TeleMongol" is the story of a fictitious Asian American network whose executives are given the chance to program shows by Asian Americans, for Asian Americans. They want to smash stereotypes, comment on pop culture and educate their audience, but they also need to make money for their primary investor — which leads to experiments in programming, as shown through various sketches. (Editor's Review: Henry Chan and the actors have the best intentions of addressing stereotypes. Hopefully once they find their comedic focus and vision, it will take them to the next stage).
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MICHELLE BRANCH - MALIBU TO NASHVILLE
Michelle Branch (and husband Teddy Landau) bought the newly built five-bedroom, 5 1/2 -bathroom house in November of last year for about $3 million but were on tour with Branch's friend and duo partner, 24-year-old Jessica Harp, from February until August. The Wreckers were promoting their No. 1 song, "Leave the Pieces," from their debut album "Stand Still, Look Pretty."
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SUNDANCE'S ASIAN FILMS
"Never Forever" directed and written by Gina Kim, "Nanking" directed by Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, "Protagonist" directed by Jessica Yu, "White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki" directed by Steven Okazaki, "Driving With My Wife's Lover" directed by Kim Taisik, "Eagle vs. Shark" (New Zealand) directed and written by Taika Waititi, "Ghosts" (U.K.) directed by Nick Broomfield, "How Is Your Fish Today?" directed by Xiaolu Guo and "Crossing the Line" directed by Daniel Gordon.
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KO MATSUMOTO SUPPORTS LOCAL ACTS
The Cocaine — the name was conjured up solely as an attention-grabber, you won't find Pete Doherty holed up in a stall — is more like Rock 'n' Roll 101, a club where nascent bands try to entertain a room full of equally youthful patrons. The results can be wildly unpredictable, because Cocaine booker Nico Del Castillo and club owner Ko Matsumoto pride themselves on giving start-up acts a chance.
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JACKIE CHAN'S GOALS & HOPES
I've been seeking a breakthrough for many years. I've always wanted to change, to become a real actor, like Robert De Niro. I don't want to be seen as an action hero anymore. I mean, how long can I continue doing that? It's very hard to find a script which suits me in Hollywood. I've rejected so many projects because I didn't like the scripts. It's all the same: cop from Hong Kong, cop from China. Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat and I face the same problem in Hollywood. Our roles are so limited.
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C.Y. LEE
C. Y. Lee's work and career, however, have been largely overlooked because of the reception of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, which many observers felt perpetuated Orientalist stereotypes of Asians. Although Lee's novel was a New York Times bestseller, it quickly went out of print and rarely appeared on university reading lists. C. Y. Lee is the author of eleven novels and a collection of short stories, many of which have been translated into several languages. He is first and foremost a superb storyteller, a raconteur with a keen eye for detail and the vagaries of human behavior: his stories are informed by wit, humor, and a canny knowledge of Chinese and American culture.
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KAL PENN IN "VAN WILDER 2"
"Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj" is just such a day without sunshine. The Big Man on Campus baton has been passed from Van to protegé; Taj (Kal Penn, "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle"), who takes his newly acquired mojo to a student-teaching post in England. It is refreshing to see an Indian American protagonist in this kind of flick, especially since he's past his awkward stage and is essentially Van reincarnated.
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EW BANK & CATHAY'S DIVERSITY
Judging by growth, these (Cathay General Bancorp & East West Bancorp) and other Asian banks have left most broader-focused community banks in the dust. Cathay's assets have increased fivefold in the last 10 years and East West's, nearly sevenfold. The average growth in assets for a group of 19 California banks of about the same size was three times during the same stretch.
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DAN PERSKINS CONDUCTS IN VIETNAM
Dan Perskins (Dean of the Faculty of Concert @ Plymouth State University and Music Director of New Hampshire Master Chorale) has been invited to conduct many concerts in America and European countries, and has worked for free on many concerts organised by the Vietnam Opera and Ballet Theatre. In the words of Pham Hong Hai, Vice Director of Vietnam Opera and Ballet Theatre (VNOB), Dan Perskins has done so as in his heart, he has the love for Vietnam.
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MAGIC OF "TIGER" OKOSHI'S TRUMPET
Toru "Tiger" Okoshi was born just outside of Osaka in 1950, the year of the Tiger. When he was 13, however, a friend took him to see Louis Armstrong, who was touring in Japan. "He hit me too strong," recalls Okoshi. He took up the trumpet and immersed himself in jazz. "Tiger is a versatile trumpeter who has played both fusion and fairly straight-ahead jazz who first gained attention playing with Gary Burton; he also had a stint with George Russell's Living Time Orchestra in the early '90s and recorded with Bob Moses.
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