JODI LONG & FAMILY
Jody Long has followed her parents' (Larry and Kimiye Leung - now divorced) dancing footsteps and acting ambitions since she was 6 weeks old.
Her recent performance in the theatrical adoption of Flower Drum Song continues the tradition of her father, who was in the original version of the musical for several years.
Long's 82-year-old father has retained his Chinese father's original name, Leung, which was anglicized to "Long" in his native Australia. When Larry Long became a performer in America, he reclaimed "Leung" as his stage name, but passed on his legal name, "Long," to their daughter.
Jodi's parents, Leung and Kimiye Tsunemitsu, met as performers in 1947 at New York's "China Doll" nightclub. Kimiye adopted the stage names "Trudy Kim" and then "Kim Leung." They worked as a husband-and-wife act at the Forbidden City nightclub in San Francisco and on the road.
On May 7, 1950, they performed on the Ed Sullivan's TV show where Leung (aka the Chinese Gene Kelly) began by talking in pidgin Chinese, wearing a Chinese robe. Then he took off the robe to reveal a tuxedo and transformed into a Western-style tap dancer.
Leung, whose Cantonese father married a Scottish woman, became a teenage tap dancer in the music halls of Sydney. After WW II, he was half of an act called the Wing Brothers.
Kimiye Tsunemitsu is a Japanese American, born in Oregon, whose family was sent to an internment camp in Idaho during World War II. She found work in New York as a "pony"--one of the shorter dancers as opposed to the taller "showgirls"--at the China Doll.
Her parents formed their own act featuring impressions, dancing and jokes about Chinese laundries and other subjects that was seen at the Forbidden City Night Club and other theaters nationwide.
Jodi credits include Sidney Lumet's "Nowhere to Go But Up," Michael Weller's "Loose Ends" with Kevin Kline on Broadway, Mark Taper stint in "The Wash" in 1991, the TV series: "Cafe Americain" in 1993-94 and "All-American" Girl" in 1994-95.
EDWAARD LIANG
He was born in Taipei, Taiwan and began his ballet training at Marin Ballet in California at the age of five. Entered the School of American Ballet, the official school of New York City Ballet in 1989. He became an apprentice with New York City Ballet in the spring of 1993 and join the Company as a member of the corps de ballet in the fall of 1995. He was promoted to Soloist in November 1998.
Since joining New York City Ballet, Mr. Liang has danced numerous corps roles in the Company's vast repertory. In addition, he has danced principal roles in Bob Fosse tv program, Jerome Robbins' WATERMILL and in Peter Martins' CALCIUM LIGHT NIGHT and JAZZ (SIX SYNCOPATED MOVEMENTS). He also originated a principal role in the world premiere of David Parsons' TOUCH.
EDDIE SHIN
Roger on "That 80's Show," received his degree at the University of Chicago and studied acting at the University Theater and the Steppenwolf Theatre Arts Intern exchange program. In his hometown of Chicago, he's appeared in productions such as "M. Butterfly," "A Christmas Carol," "The Berlin Circle," "Romeo & Juliet" and "Life's a Dream."
His past roles include a recurring role on "The Gilmore Girls" and a recurring role on "ER."
In "That 80's Show," Eddie Shin portrays Roger, Corey's upwardly mobile friend to who is driven to ride the Reagan train to success... but just can't quite catch a break.
SUCHIN PAK
SuChin Pak, who was born in Seoul Korea, is the newest news correspondent of MTV News.
Her first show interview, when she was 16, was cut short when she mistakenly called Ice Cube - "Ice Pick" - which local evening news reported on this mishap.
Pak hosted numerous Bay Area shows and an infamous reputation for crashing local morning show parties.
She was one of the hosts of the longest-running science show on PBS' "Newton's Apple."
She hosted "Trackers," a two-hour live entertainment/music talk show on the Oxygen Network.
This UC Berkeley graduate producer/writer has 9+ years of television experience.
EVENTS IN HISTORY
IN 1869
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Memphis TN conference of plantation owners proposed substituting Chinese labor for black slaves.
IN 1871
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Nineteen Chinese were massacred in Los Angeles. October 24 marked the worst incident of Anti-Chinese violence in America up to that time.
IN 1879
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the Arizona Weekly Star ran an editorial in 1879 portraying Chinese Americans as "an ignorant, filthy, leprous horde" and "the most pernicious and degraded race on the globe." Chinese workers were attacked in railroad camps and mining towns and driven out of Arizona's mines and railroads.
IN 1923
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Justice Sutherland, speaking for the Supreme Court in 1923, said that Bhagat Singh Thind and other Asian Indians were aliens ineligible to citizenship because they were not white, as only whites and blacks could become citizens.
IN 1924
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In the Hanapepe Massacre, police attack union headquarters in Hanapepe, HI where 16 sugar plantation workers and 4 policemen are killed.
IN 1930
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Anti-Filipino riot occurred in Watsonville, California and in Kent Washington. The Japanese American Citizens League's first national convention was held in Seattle on August 29.
IN 1930
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Nearly 3000 Filipinos working in Alaskan canneries.
IN 1947
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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
- FBI arrests the Hawaii Seven for communist activity. Their fines and jail terms are overturned in January 1958.
IN 1959
- Confession Program pardons undocumented Chinese immigrant
IN 1959
- First Chinese American to be elected to the United States Senate.
IN 1971
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Japanese American Citizens League wins its fight to repeal the Emergency Detention Act of 1950, thereby eliminating the threat of ever reactivating concentration camps in America.
IN 2001
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Patrick Oliphant's racist cartoon was an offshoot of the recent stand off between the U.S. and China over the U.S. spy plane incident.
