Wednesday, March 30, 2011

AML: In Wake of Infamous YouTube Rant by UCLA student, Responses Show Humor, Grace - NAM EthnoBlog

I did not want to write about now-infamous UCLA student Alexandra Wallace and her ignorant racist YouTube rant complaining about Asian American families, manners and Asians talking on their cellphones in the library during “the tsunami thing,” complete with mocking ching-chong nonsense. I found her young and dumb and hoped that it would all blow over and she would be forgotten.

No such luck. The story is all over The New York Times, National Public Radio and MSNBC. Asian American students at the University of Michigan and across the country are discussing it.

click on link for more In Wake of Infamous YouTube Rant by UCLA student, Responses Show Humor, Grace - NAM EthnoBlog

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Speaking at Eastern Michigan University March 29

Speaking at Eastern Michigan University March 29, 2011, with Roland Hwang and Kathy Gee. Screening of Vincent Who? Documentary. APA Heritage Month. Halle Library Room 300, 6:00 pm.

Monday, March 28, 2011

Adventures in Multicultural Living: In wake of infamous YouTube rant by UCLA student, responses display humor, grace - AnnArbor.com

Posted: Mar 27, 2011 at 6:12 AM [Mar 27, 2011]

I did not want to write about now-infamous UCLA student Alexandra Wallace and her ignorant racist YouTube rant complaining about Asian American families, manners and Asians talking on their cellphones in the library during “the tsunami thing,” complete with mocking ching-chong nonsense. I found her young and dumb and hoped that it would all blow over and she would be forgotten.

No such luck. The story is all over The New York Times, National Public Radio and MSNBC. Asian American students at the University of Michigan and across the country are discussing it.

Wallace is the Amy Chua Tiger Mother thorn in the side of the college set and evoked an amazing outburst of angry, creative and funny responses, including comedy, parodies, dubstep remixes, raps, rants, poetry, dance, animation and even Japan tsunami relief efforts.

Some responses were crassly sexist, and rumors of death threats (unconfirmed by police) and yakuza gang violence (oh please, give me a break) swirled around her until even Angry Asian Man was calling for temperance.

The best of all the responses by far is Jimmy Wong’s “Asians in the Library Song” which responds with intelligence, creativity, talent, humor, and largess, thereby diffusing the entire situation.

I tell my children, “This is the sort of person I want you to marry, no, grow up to become.” (He has already received 18 marriage proposals over Twitter).

click on link for more In wake of infamous YouTube rant by UCLA student, responses display humor, grace - AnnArbor.com

Friday, March 25, 2011

APIA Social Activism Conference

APIA Social Activism Conference March 25-26, 2011, University of Michigan, with Grace Lee Boggs, Grace Lee, Helen Gym, South Philly High School students, Bao Phi, more.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Speaking at Michigan Chinese Fellows

Speaking at Michigan Chinese Fellows Thursday March 24, 2011, with Roland Hwang and Ron Aramaki re APA History and the Law. UM School of Education, Brownlee Room.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Adventures in Multicultural Living Remembering the dolls of Girls' Day, facing forward from Japan's tsunami - AnnArbor.com

Posted: Mar 20, 2011 at 5:52 AM [Today]

The first time I went to visit my parents in Hawaii, I went during mid-winter break at the end of February, scheduled to return to Michigan on March 1 or 2. Strangers were indignant. “What? You’re leaving before Girls’ Day?”

March 3 is Girls’ Day or Hinamatsuri, a Japanese and Japanese American holiday to celebrate girls. Girls are given one beautiful Japanese doll a year in order to build a collection of dolls which they bring out every year on Girls’ Day to create a red-tiered display of emperor and empress, ladies, musicians, and guardians.

I am entranced by the idea of bringing the big box of treasured dolls out of the closet, quietly unwrapping them, one by one, and gently arranging them for all to see. To recall each dolls’ familiar face like an old friend, to remember beloved parents and grandparents who gave which one, to replay one’s memories of Girls’ Days of years past.

click on link for more Remembering the dolls of Girls' Day, facing forward from Japan's tsunami - AnnArbor.com

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Speaking at King School March 18

Reading APA books for March is Reading Month at MLK Elementary School First Grade March 4, 2011.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Speaking at UAAO March 16 on APA Civil Rights Activism

Speaking at UAAO March 16, 2011, with Roland Hwang, on APA Civil Rights Activism. University of Michigan, Yuri Kochiyama Lounge, 6:00 pm. Talking about Alexandra Wallace and Jimmy Wong.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Adventures in Multicultural Living: Just being there at Losar Tibetan New Year and standing with our Muslim American neighbors - AnnArbor.com

The woman at Jewel Heart temple recognized me, “We have met before,” but she could not remember my name.

“I came last year for Losar,” I said. “And the year before.”

I was a little embarrassed to admit I was like those once-a-year-Christians my Catholic School nuns used to complain about, the folks who only went to church once a year on Christmas, “If they are only going to go to church once a year, they ought to at least go on Easter. Easter is the more important holiday.”

However, I was even worse. Not only did I only come once a year, I did not even arrive until after services had ended—the three-hour services, I should add. I passed the restless children playing outside in their Tibetan silks, “Are services still going on?”

click on link for more Just being there at Losar Tibetan New Year and standing with our Muslim American neighbors - AnnArbor.com

Friday, March 11, 2011

Tsunami

My parents are fine, thanks to everyone who asked. The tsunami was just under 3 feet tall when it finally hit where they live, nothing to worry about. I'm really starting to understand how twitter works with breaking news.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

ADVENTURES IN MULTICULTURAL LIVING--One perfect day with my professor: real connections with real people - NAM EthnoBlog

On the first day of my Philosophy of Mind course my junior year of college at UC Berkeley, Professor John Searle picked me out of a crowd of 200 undergraduates and gruffly barked, “You look troubled. Come see me in office hours.”
I was scared to death, but I dared not disobey. With the help of all my friends, I managed to come up with some passable questions worthy of asking this very famous philosopher. Then — for reasons I still do not fully understand — he took me under his wing and taught me philosophy.

click on link for more ADVENTURES IN MULTICULTURAL LIVING--One perfect day with my professor: real connections with real people - NAM EthnoBlog

Monday, March 7, 2011

AArisings - Thoughts on the BANANA 2 Conference

AARisings.com Nelson Wong's take on the Banana 2 APA Bloggers Conference. Read to the end for a good laugh. (For a glimpse of what he's talking about, check out my twitter favorites http://twitter.com/#!/fkwang/favorites)

Thanks for the play, rides, and photos Nelson! and Congrats on the lifetime achievement award!

click link here: AArisings - Thoughts on the BANANA 2 Conference

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Adventures in Multicultural Living: One perfect day with my professor: real connections with real people - AnnArbor.com

On the first day of my Philosophy of Mind course my junior year of college at UC Berkeley, Professor John Searle picked me out of a crowd of 200 undergraduates and gruffly barked, “You look troubled. Come see me in office hours.”

I was scared to death, but I dared not disobey. With the help of all my friends, I managed to come up with some passable questions worthy of asking this very famous philosopher. Then — for reasons I still do not fully understand — he took me under his wing and taught me philosophy.

For the next two years, I spent nearly every day walking with my professor to cafes and bookstores and lecture halls, learning how to ask questions, how to extend arguments, how to analyze the structure of thought and action, how to search for logical inconsistencies, how to fight intellectual battles like a prizefighter.

Under his tutelage, I was thinking a mile-a-minute all the time. I loved philosophy, and I loved being a philosopher.

I had no idea how special and rare this sort of teacher-student relationship was. I thought it was normal.

click on link for more One perfect day with my professor: real connections with real people - AnnArbor.com

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Social Media for Social Change, Recorded on 2/26/11 banana-2 on USTREAM. Conference

Here is a video of our Banana 2 APA Bloggers panel, on social media for social change, about which Angry Asian Man live-tweeted: "This panel on activism is pretty darn awesome. #banana2" (and more:). Panelists include Frances Kai-Hwa Wang, Fatemeh Fakhraie, Jehanzeb Dar, Cynthia Liu, and Marissa Lee. Keith Kamisugi was the moderator. Eddy Hong organized the panel.

Social Media for Social Change, Recorded on 2/26/11 banana-2 on USTREAM. Conference

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/12963184



Social Media for Social Change, Recorded on 2/26/11 banana-2 on USTREAM. Conference

Speaking at King School March 4

Reading APA books for March is Reading Month at MLK Elementary School First Grade March 4, 2011.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Politics Talaga?: What We Face, and What We Can Do

Additional thoughts I wrote to answer an unhappy audience member’s comments on social justice activism and social media after the Banana2 Conference on the Politics Talaga blog: What We Face, and What We Can Do

http://politicstalaga.blogspot.com/2011/03/what-we-face-and-what-we-can-do.html

click on link for more Politics Talaga?: What We Face, and What We Can Do