A couple under siege: the asian man and woman

As explained in section IV of Remember, the Asian-American Man and Woman are a couple under siege from mainstream America.
Those that choose to remain with each other are stamped as 'Asian and foreign', while on an unspoken but quite apparent level - only Asian women are afforded the opportunity to mingle and integrate into white social circles and white families.
The psychological pressure on the Asian woman to conform becomes immensely powerful, given the life-long indoctrination she is given by a mainstream American media that is completely devoid of images of Asian faces and depictions of viable Asian-American couples/families. This will gradually and inevitably destroy the kindred bond the Asian female shares with the Asian male from a young age, and the damage is thorough and complete.
In other words, the internalized racism that Asian-American children learn from the American Media destroys their ethnic self-esteem - and this in turn erodes the ability of the Asian-American boy and girl to love each other as adults.
Cinema Me Short Film Competition
Since the Asian American film burst onto the scene thirty something years ago, many of those filmmakers, such as, Christine Choy, Wayne Wang, Mira Nair, Ang Lee, Justin Lin and among others are now comfortably part of the American cinematic mainstream.
Each year, hundreds of filmmakers from around the Asian Diaspora submit their short films to Asian American film festivals. They have given us stories of immigration and assimilation, adversity and triumph, motivation and inspiration of all genres: narrative, documentary, experimental, animation, music video.
Common reoccurring themes include identity politics, alienated youth, hypersexualization, math nerds, over-achievers, stereotypes, suburban alienation, and kung-fu waiters.
Been there? Done that?
Tell us YOUR Asian American story.
Innocent man beaten at home by Vancouver Police
VANCOUVER — A 44-year-old man whose face was left swollen and battered after being arrested in a case of mistaken identity did not resist arrest, Vancouver police said Friday — contradicting an earlier version of events offered by police.
Yaowei Wu is recovering after two plainclothes officers knocked on the wrong door during a domestic-assault call early Thursday.
Officers were called to the southeast Vancouver house at 2 a.m. after a woman called 911 to report that her drunken husband had struck her in the back of the head and she was concerned for her baby's safety.
The officers apparently didn't realize there were two suites in the home and the complainant was actually Wu's tenant, who lives in a ground-floor suite.
"The cops didn't ask clearly — not even ID me or anything — before they started beating me," Wu said through a translator to the Ming Pao newspaper.
"I think they have an attitude problem."
Chinese-American Past Rescued From Chop Suey Cliche
Dec. 31 (by James S. Russell) -- I didn’t want to let the year close without reflecting on the new Museum of Chinese in America designed by Maya Lin.
The location, on Manhattan’s lively Centre Street, poignantly underlines the mutability of ethnic identity. It is steps from the bargain-hunting throngs on Canal Street, around the corner from what’s left of Little Italy, and smack in the path of SoHo’s encroaching slickness. It’s the perfect spot to consider what it is to be a hyphenated American.
The museum’s tinted-glass storefront, half-framed by a long horizontal L of wood, is a rather tentative invitation to a building with richly entwined stories to tell and tough questions to ask.
It’s too bad that Lin, famous for the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., avoided the tough task of making a specific statement rather than a generalized one.
26 Asian Students Attacked at Philly High School
To the people who thought racism was a thing of the past and no longer exists in the 21st century.... you are dead wrong. Some of us probably live in the nicer places in the country with some good multicultural friends but the people in the next town/city may not be so friendly.
To all my other dearest Asian Brothers, Sisters, Families, Civil Rights Advocacy groups, Asian Activists in western countries. We know racism is very much alive and it comes in all shapes and forms in mainstream society.
While we continue to experience it's reoccurring unpleasantness and Deja Vu's, I am all convinced we are still living as second class citizens and are still sunjected to different forms of racial oppression.
Ancient Taoist once believed the driving universal life principles are found in Yin and Yang, nature will seek neutrality and find balance between interchangeable opposing forces. Though my analogy might sound a little ancient in the philosophical works but you would eventually understand my point in our society at present.
Passing as an Asian

Passing as an Asian - an article written by an asian adoptee raised by two Russian Jewish caucasian parents, sharing her experiences while growing up in self hatred but surprisingly finds an awakening that puts her back on the road, acknowledging her asian side and forever searching for the missing pieces.
Passing as an Asian Written by Maya Fleischmann (11 January 2009)
I spent the first fifteen years of my life trying to ignore the fact that I am Asian. Ironic, considering I was born and raised on the small island of Hong Kong and its population of 6 million other Asians.
Adoptions must stay in Korea, no Hollywood trend adoptions please.
Ever felt a little uncomfortable or weird when you see these types of pictures circulating in Hollywood? it seems rather too frequent that these western celebrities have sudden decided to show off their new Asian babies.
Although we could never quite put the finger on it but if you were suspicious enough then perhaps your instincts could be enough to show that you care. The answer is YES it;s likely something is 'fishy' going on.
There is a possibility that these kids should not have been placed in their hands to begin with.
From a westerners perspective they are starting the "Happy Family with the odd Asian baby trend" or the stereotypical " I-Know-whats-good-for -Asian-people". While they parade around showing of their Asian babies these celebrities could just as well be quite ignorant. Sure at a glance some would say 'Oh they look so nice together' but in reality these kids were probably possessed through adoption exploits and scandals.
Angry Asian Man' aims to trump stereotypes
Scholarly blogger deals with cultural fallacies, ethnic misconceptions.
When you think of an angry Asian man, the image of a ninja wielding formidable weapons comes to mind. The stereotype isn’t far from the mark when you visit “Angry Asian Man,” a blog run by University of California, Berkeley alumnus Phil Yu.
“The name of my blog is provocative and scary,” said Yu. “It’s different from most people’s idea of what an Asian person is supposed to be. Most Asians in this country are not seen as people who are willing to rock the boat. We’re seen as meek people who just let things slide, but that’s not true at all.”
At a panel in the Texas Union on Thursday, Yu and Nhi Lieu, a UT American studies professor discussed Asian-American media representation and identity in America, as well as the influence of Yu’s blog on the Asian-American community.
Murder Through the Looking Glass By Pang-Mei Natasha Chang
We all know her story. She was a beautiful, bright 24-year-old graduate student in Yale's pharmacology department who went missing just four days shy of her wedding. Her body was found on what was to be her wedding day hidden behind a wall in her laboratory, a Yale building at 10 Amistad Road in New Haven. A few days later, a 24-year-old animal technician who also worked at her laboratory was arrested for her murder.
I first read about her in The New York Times in my apartment in Manhattan. Across the globe, my brother read about her on Bloomberg News in his office in Hong Kong. We felt the pain and horror of her death and of the tragedy facing her family.
Annie Le was also Asian-American. As her story appeared all over the Internet and on 24-hour news updates, blogs, commentaries, Facebook and Twitter posts, the fact that she was an Asian-American female was to become an important part of her narrative, speaking to uniquely American anxieties about sex, violence, gender and race.
Vancouver Asian Film Festival goes beyond identity
By Craig Takeuchi
It's been a while since there's been an Asian North American box-office hit. The Joy Luck Club, The Wedding Banquet, and Snow Falling on Cedars were all from the '90s. Indie successes like Better Luck Tomorrow and Eve and the Fire Horse (by Vancouver's Julia Kwan) have been few and far between over the past decade. Other filmmakers of Asian descent (Jessica Yu, In the Realms of the Unreal; Cary Fukunaga, Sin Nombre), have established themselves by tackling subjects unrelated to their heritage.
The most consistent local source for such works remains the Vancouver Asian Film Festival, which runs from November 5 to 8 at the Cinemark Tinseltown (88 West Pender Street). Unlike other local events that showcase films from Asia, VAFF emphasizes stories by and about Asian Canadians and Americans.

