Recent times have seen the general public's perception of the Asian Pacific American / U.S. Asian communities vacillate a great deal. Much of this was created by the incident involving a U.S. spy plane crashing in Hainan Island of the PRC and its resulting consequences.
Various unfortunate "backlash" incidents within the general public and the media have created false images of the APA communities. Combine this with the revival of IceBox.Com's infamous "Mr. Wong," lack of representation in the media, NBC's "Lost Empire," etc. have provided no effective means of communicating what is actual real.
These just-mentioned situations provide greater evidence that correct and positive information contained within this website is important.
FEATURED ARTISTS
Since May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month,
the featured artists provide great tangible evidence of the great diversity that exists within our "Asian American Artistry!"
JUNE WATANABE
This artistic director, choreographer, dancer, educator, UCLA graduate and Associate Professor at Mills College is recognized for her starkly focused contemporary dance theater works and her one-of-a-kind collaborations with distinguished artists from diverse disciplines.
Illuminated by her Japanese American heritage, Watanabe’s work and passion has been to capture the universality of the human condition within an Eastern temporal and spatial framework from various perspective - as she sees all arts as one.
She was recognized by the San Francisco Isadora Duncan Dance Awards for a Special Award in 1991 (Time Over Time) and in 1994. Watanabe was one of thirteen Bay Artists profiled in 1991 for KQED's special series.
Her last work (5/15/45 - the last dance) is contextualized in the Japanese American incarceration during World War II but extends beyond to embrace the universal tragedies of war, prejudice, injustice, and destruction.
NEW SERVICES
Marketing
Our programs provide specialized internet promotion actions that brings a high level of
awareness to the fast-growing and influential
Asian Pacific American communities to your
company and/or your events. Despite the ever-changing
Internet landscape, the needs of these consumers still remains a great constant.
In the past, the companies that have worked with our events have included Pacific Bell, L.A. Dodgers, The Gas Company, Denny's Restaurants and AT&T Wireless.
IN 1869 Memphis TN conference of plantation owners proposed substituting Chinese labor for black slaves.
IN 1871 Nineteen Chinese were massacred in Los Angeles. October 24 marked the worst incident of Anti-Chinese violence in America up to that time.
IN 1912 Native Sons of the Golden State established lodge in LA Chinatown to defend civil rights of Chinese Americans. Name is
changed in 1914 to Chinese Americans Citizens Alliance.
IN 1917 All-Japanese Company D, 1st Hawiian Regiment of Infantry, is formed in Hawai'i to serve in World War I. There were, also, Chinese Americans also served in WWI.
IN 1917 All Asian immigrants except for Japanese and Filipinos banned by order of Congress.
IN 1918 Servicemen of Asian ancestry who had served in World War I receive right of naturalization.
IN 1927 The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the laws passed by the Hawaii Legislature to control the Japanese Language Schools
Act 152 (Apr. 1925)
Act 171 (Apr. 27, 1923) and
Act 30 (Nov. 24, 1920)
were all unconstitutional.
IN 1929 Unemployment rates in Chinatown rose to 50% during the Depression.
IN 1947 Truman grants full pardon to the Japanese Americans who had been convicted for resisting the draft while they and their families were held in concentration camps.
IN 1949 5000 highly educated Chinese in the U.S. granted refugee status after China institutes a Communist government.
IN 1949 FBI arrests the Hawaii Seven for communist activity. Their fines and jail terms are overturned in January 1958.
OUR GOALS
The purpose of this section is to provide the following: OPPORTUNITY to discover more about the dreams of US Asians / Asian Pacific Americans UNDERSTANDING our reasons for our fears and our hope for our future and UNCOVERING little known historical information that are not often illustrated in today's books
APA & MEDIA NEWS
TV SHOWS ONLY A "WHITE UNIVERSE"
More than a year after the major TV networks agreed to better reflect America's ethnic mix, broadcasters continue to marginalize minorities and women, according to a new study by the organization "Children Now."
NEA'S HSIN-MING FUNG
She was appointed by then-President Clinton to serve on the advisory board of the National Endowment for the Arts. Recent projects include restoration of the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, completed in 1999, and the renovation of the Hollywood Bowl. She is concerned about the NEA's role as an advocate for contemporary design.
YAHOO ENTERS PORN INDUSTRY Yahoo, in its struggle for profit amid a shaky dot-com marketplace, became the first top-tier Internet company to embrace the porn industry by opening an online store stocked with thousands of hard-core DVDs and video tapes. Move surprises many and risks tarnishing their highly respected "brand" with its present day base of visitors.
DISNEY HALL DESIGNED BY TOYOTA
Disney's concern that its concert hall is much more than real estate, structural steel and a burnished-wave exterior has brought Japan's leading acoustian - Yasuhisa Toyota (chief concert-hall accoustician from Nagata Accoustics). Its true virtue is empty space-and the air that fills it. How well sound travels through that air will determine Disney Hall's ultimate success.
ANTI-ASIAN BACKLASH
Unfortunate and tragic backlashes at the APA communities, as the result of the U.S. Spy Plane incident with PRC have occurred. OCA reports that Ray Lytle, a radio personality on WQLZ in Springfield, Illinois, suggested that Chinese should be placed into a "Japanese camp;" he also contended that "they all have slant eyes." Lytle also called a woman in New York City's Chinatown to taunt her.
"Slats," a radio personality on WMMS in Cleveland used the word "Chinks" on the air; Janice Coffey of KSTE in Sacramento referred to Wang Zhizhi, the first Asian-born NBA player, as "Chinaman."
APA POPULATION INCREASED 50%!
APAICS Chairman William H. "Mo" Marumoto said, "According to the 2000 Census, there are at least 3.5 million more Asian Pacific Americans now than there were in 1990, an increase of nearly 50%. We want to see our population growth reflected in political representation.
ASIAN GAMBLING ADDICTION
The Chinese Community Problem Gambling Project (CCPG) and the San Francisco-based NICOS Chinese Health Coalition to address the gambling addition within the US Asian communities. "Two to 6 percent of the mainstream population are problem gamblers, but in the Chinese community it is some 20 percent," said Dr. Eddie Chiu of the Richmond Area Multi Service Center.
KOZMO.COM SHUTS DOWN
New York-based Kozmo said in a statement it is "ceasing operations in all nine markets and liquidating its assets. The closing is effective immediately."
Last month, Kozmo also announced the end of its five-year, $150 million deal to place rental movie drop-off boxes inside Starbucks stores.
YAHOO GIVES UP PRON
In response to public outrage, Yahoo changed direction and decided not to enter the porn industry.
A DYING "FLOWER DRUM"
As reported in the LA Times (March 29, 2001), David Henry Hwang's new "Flower Drum Song" has been moved to Music Center's smaller Mark Taper Forum - from the original Ahmanson Theater. Reportedly because of scheduling and fund-raising problems, things have been changed. In light of Mr. Hwang's Lost Empire series's lackluster ratings and the inclusion of "updated" dialogue such as "chop chop chop" - one can only imagine the support he is receiving.
Insiders told Theatre.com that the following actors have been featured in workshops of the revised Flower Drum Song: Deedee Lynn Magno (Miss Saigon) as Mei-Li, Timothy Ford Murphy (The King and I) as Ta, Emily Hsu as Linda Low, Luoyong Wang (Miss Saigon) as Wang and Kati Kuroda (Picture Bride) as Liang.
CENSUS & MIXED RACED-RACE HERITAGE
Results from the 2000 Census have focused additional attention on what is race? With racial backgrounds serving as critical factors from redrawing congressional districts to distributing federal funds and enforcing civil rights laws - our understanding has become very important.
LACK OF POLITICAL CLOUT IN NEW YORK
Despite New York's Asian Americans reaching 10% of the city's population, the largest of any ethnic minority in the Big Apple, community leaders needed to form a special coalition to stopped the closing New York's bustling Chinatown's main subway stop for four years on July 1, 2000 while a nearby bridge is repaired. There was no public hearing, no consulting with the community.
Although New Yorkers have elected a multitude of African Americans and Latinos to office, no Asian American has ever won a local election.
WAYNE WANG'S NEW PROJECT He is currently adapting David Sedaris' autobiography "Me Talk Pretty One Day, which is a skewed look at the author's life from speech therapy in North Carolina where he attempted to thwart his maniacal teacher by never saying words with the letter "s" (which would reveal the lisp he was trying to correct) to his stint as a "remarkably unqualified" teacher who would watch soap operas with his class and assign "guessays" in which the student would attempt to guess the following day's storyline.
Stompanato is projected to be Wayne's next film that will be shot with Sharon Stone and Antonio Banderas.
CHINATOWN FIGHTS THE OPENING OF A NUDE BAR Chinatown merchants
unite to fight the opening of a nude dance club.
The club owner lost its bid for city permission but has gone to federal court. Meanwhile, outraged residents are building support.
