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.

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

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."

WAYNE WANG LATEST FILM
Wayne Wang's latest film (the adult-oriented Artisan project entitled "The Center of the Earth") shot footage exclusively for the movie's interactive website that allows you to "interact" with a character from the film.

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.