Filmmaker Arthur Dong, who created Coming Out Under Fire, Licensed to Kill, Family Fundamentals and other LGBT films, has finished a new film Hollywood Chinese, a vivid and entertaining journey tracking the experience of Chinese Americans in America’s film industry. The film opens in the Bay Area on April 11 at San Francisco’s Sundance Kabuki Cinemas and at Oakland’s Grand Lake Theater. Here is a talk between Arthur Dong and Bay Times. Click here for the original article
“Dark Matter,” the filmmaking debut of Chinese-born opera and theater director Chen Shi-zheng, gets full credit for slamming head-on into any number of hot-button topics in American society. First and most interestingly, Chen’s film captures, from the inside, the strange and insular world of the Chinese graduate students who increasingly dominate the math and science fields at major American universities. It also engages the subtle forms of racism and stereotyping that continue to inform non-Asians’ perceptions of this “model minority.” I guess this is a spoiler, but there’s no way around it: Finally, “Dark Matter” tries to convey how an underslept, overworked, culturally dislocated student could erupt in a psychotic outburst of violence, as has happened in a couple of notorious cases.
Chen’s film (written by Billy Shebar, from a story he co-wrote with Chen) is based on a shooting incident at the University of Iowa in 1991, and was completed well before the Virginia Tech shootings in April 2007. Neither the movie nor the Iowa case bears any resemblance to the Virginia Tech case, in which the shooter was an undergraduate English major and a longtime legal resident of the United States, not a foreign student. (If you don’t want to know more about the plot of “Dark Matter,” don’t read news accounts of the Iowa case, as the fictional events follow the real ones closely.)
“Dark Matter” is rich with interesting themes and ideas, from the slippery, sycophantic nature of academic success to the Orientalist attitudes of rich Americans and the outer edges of astrophysical theory.
The new Arthur Dong film Hollywood Chinese is considered as a film devoted to the history of Chinese people in American feature films.The major thesis of this movie is that the American film industry has long traded on depicting Asian women as exotic eye-candy, the playthings of white men, while at the same time feminizing or desexualizing young Asian men.
Click here for the original article
Jackie Chan, Lee-Hom Wang, Zhang Ziyi and Stefanie Sun will team up to sing ‘Stand Up,’ the theme song for ‘The One,’ a film about China’s first Olympian. The film, which is being made as a tribute to the 2008 Beijing Games, is based on sprinter Liu Changchun, who represented China at the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, despite the efforts of Japanese occupation forces in Manchuria to stop him. Click here for the original article
Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in association with The Institute for Vietnamese Culture and Education (IVCE) announces the North American premiere of THE MISSING WOMAN which is written and directed by NGUYEN Thi Minh Ngoc and music by TRAN Vuong Thach and HAI Phuong.THE MISSING WOMAN is performed in Vietnamese with English narration and plays April 2nd – April 12th at the West End Theater, 263 West 86th St. and it mainly tells about an artist’s renderings of historical Vietnamese heroines materialize after the painter’s wife leaves him for a better life.
The hip-hop pioneer Wayne “Frosty Freeze” Frost whose acrobatic performance helped set off a worldwide breakdancing craze died at the age of 44 on April 3 in New York after a long illness. Frosty was known for his energetic style, intricate choreography and fearless moves including back flips and head spins. He toured the world with the Rock Steady Crew and other hip-hop artists.
Earlier this week, the Apple Store in Soho was packed with visitors trying to catch a glimpse of movie director Wong Kar Wai:
when asked to elaborate on the themes of his films Wong remained quiet, admitting that he follows the Matisse quote that “artists should cut out their tongues” for fear of not letting their work be self-explanatory. But he did summarize the following concerning “Blueberry Nights”: “I’ve noticed that American cuisine is full of sweets. I don’t like deserts myself, but I feel like the theme of the film is finding the bitterness under the sweet. But it’s also about that moment in our lives when we have to let go, when something just isn’t working and it’s time to go.”
If you’d like to support an entertainer that has ridiculed our community for her own personal gain, check out Margaret Cho! She’s the bomb-diggity.
Want of find out just how much Margaret Cho supports us? Check out this awesome video!
According to Insidenova.com:
Outspoken comedian Margaret Cho, who plays three shows April 10 and 11 as part of her “Beautiful” tour, is breaking the chains of self-hatred and embracing self-love next week at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C. Cho, 39, has shared past struggles with self-image in her comedy. She has admitted to battling eating disorders, alcoholism, media pressures and Asian stereotypes and feels being candid in her material is essential. Click here for the original article
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One of only two Asian-Americans ever to break into American Idol’s Top Ten saw her dreams of becoming the first such singer to win the prize dashed Wednesday night. Ramiele Malubay, who is of Filipino descent, was sent home for her wobbly rendition of “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind,” a song penned by this week’s musical mentor, Dolly Parton. In season three, Asian American singer Jasmine Trias made it all the way to No. 3.
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It looks like Paul Kim doesn’t count as an Asian American, as far as the NY Daily News is concerned…
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Lets analyze why this show is freaking racist to Asians. First the offensive caricatures featuring stereotypical slanted eyes, bun hair, fu manchu whiskers, and dumb martial arts outfits. Second the name of the show, what do you get when you combine chinks and gooks? You guessed it, the name of the show, Chooks. Please help spread this around, and write emails to Cartoon Network protesting this very offensive cartoon show!
- Wenfang L.
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Click on the comments link below to tell us what you think should be done here, if anything.
Earlier this week, the Apple Store in Soho was packed with visitors trying to catch a glimpse of movie director 
