By Jeff Yang, Special to SF Gate
Thursday, February 25, 2010

The notion that Asians and Jews are two shoots from the same cultural rootstock is an old but evergreen meme.

You see it in fringe theories about the Lost Tribes of Israel -- there's an entire body of cryptoarchaeological canon that uses similarities between customs, language and naming convention to "prove" that the ancient vanished Jewish clans ended up in China, India or Japan. (Japan's 50,000-member Makuya sect, which has as its central dogma that the Japanese are descendants of a lost Jewish tribe, keep kosher, speak Hebrew and use the seven-armed menorah as their symbol.)

Halfpipe gold medallist Xuetong Cai of China is flanked by compatriots Zhifeng Sun (left), silver, and Xu Cheng, bronze as they stand on the podium at the FIS snowboard world cup Friday, Jan. 22, 2010 in Stoneham Que. (CP) Source: CIV

We knew during the Beijing Olympics the media took every opportunity to mock the Chinese Athletes just about anything they could find.

When it comes to talking about Chinese athletes, it seems like every article must reemphasize the words  'government-funded', 'state owned', and rather acknowledging the concept of dedication, hard work and discipline as athletic qualities in the Chinese they prefer to call it 'cultural oppression' or even 'inhuman torture'. 

The same rhetorical defamation recycles itself again and in the 2010 Vancouver Winter games the media has taken another stab at it.

Harvard University is known for its top notch academics, but not exactly as the hotbed of hoops excellence. It has been more than 60 years since the nation's top-ranked academic institution has been invited to compete in the NCAA March Madness tournament. But that could change this year, thanks, in part, to star basketball player Jeremy Lin, who some say has a shot to going to the NBA. Host Michel Martin talks with Lin about his skills on the court and some of the racism he's faced as an Asian-American player.

Vote for Jeremy Lin for the Bob Cousy Award by clicking here. 
Let's give him the recognition he deserves.

You can also catch the the Jeremy Lin interview NPR.org

Our summarized transcript:

The Moustache Brothers Burmese comedy troop, a tribute to Asian American activist Chris Ijima, Taiwan’s ”foreign brides,” America’s Next Top Immigrant, a mock game show and a fresh look at eyelid surgery, a rite of passage for Korean American women are among the subjects realized by filmmakers at the 32nd Asian American International Film Festival 2009 (AAIFF09).
Asian CineVision proudly presents the 2009/10 National Festival Tour featuring the year’s best independent cinema - narrative and documentary features and shorts - from AAIFF09. The National Festival Tour offers institutions and organizations the rare opportunity to bring many Asian and Asian American films to local communities across the country.

Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun is set to appear alongside Chinese movie star Zhang Ziyi in a new film by Wayne Wang, according to her agency Sidus HQ on Wednesday.

The film, titled "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan", will be based on the 2005 novel of the same title by Chinese-American writer Lisa See.

Set in 19th century China, the film chronicles the lives of two women -- Lily and Snow Flower -- and their intimate lifelong friendship. Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi is set to play the main character Snow Flower while Jun's role in the film has not been decided as of yet.

Wanye Wang, a Chinese-American filmmaker, has directed several notable movies such as "The Joy Luck Club" (1993), "Maid in Manhattan" (2002) and "Smoke (1995)", for which he won the Silver Bear award at Berlin International Film Festival.

In this new year of 2010 I hope everyone can continue to be optimistic as this ever struggling economy still has a heart beat, although we have been told our economies have recovered our wages are still just as terrible ( I think not ). There is still no excuse for not making the best of what we have and we should continue to strive for new heights.

In the past, this website had primarily worked on with publishing Asian related content, intelligent opinions, informative articles and any positive Asian media.

This year there will be a slight adjustment to the style of posting, usually we would publish news without actual commentary but as of today we will be adding in our 2 cents worth to everything post. Ideally would like to throw topics in the air and have people take it upon themselves to think about issues. 

We'll try to remain objective about each issue.

The first fear mongering article I've come across since the beginning of this new year sums up all the forecasts of "experts" panic stricken and fear mongering media who can only see this world burning in hell.

Certain truths are tied to March Madness, that time of year when the NCAA men's basketball tournament turns every cubicle-dweller into a college hoops junkie. That batty lady who picks the winners based on the cuteness of the mascots will crush you in your office pool. Duke will have a guy that gets under your skin. And the Harvard basketball players will be locked in the library instead pulling off the Cinderella upset.

 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.

Some thing's are better as never said and when words are spoken people should be accountable for what they say. Given that as responsibility, it could also be seen at another angle that there is also the responsibility for not saying what needs to be said.

Much could be said about the media little racist scheme during the U.S president's visit to China to improve economic ties and collaboration between the U.S and China.

Obama was on business trying to look for ways to fix up his bankrupt economy that was left to him in the worst state.

Firstly the white media tried painting China as anti-black racists and claims China disliked "chocolate coloured skin". Though this was not something that came from the Chinese mouths it was indeed straight out the mouth of white media who thought that they could make racists statements without taking responsibility by using China as a scapegoat.