As Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month comes to an end, was the weekend for honoring our nation’s lost warriors the opening of “The Little Mermaid” or the finale of “Succession”?
Or maybe you just chilled.
I had a vegan hot dog.
I must confess this: I was a “Succession”...
I don’t know about you, but I think I’d rather be an American idol than a Harvard matriculate. But we all know it takes skill and luck. So maybe the answer to that affirmative action lawsuit is—a lottery?
In the meantime, let’s all sing our praises to Iam Tongi, the young man who put the “NHPI” in ...
How are you feeling? No, honestly. Tell me.
By the end of this column, if you need it or want it, I’ll have some advice for you on how to feel better. You can also choose to ignore it.
But first, let’s think about Xuan-Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax, Virginia.
He needs it.
Pham is our reminder th...
If you were an Asian American watching that CNN Town Hall in New Hampshire this past week, then you know there’s cause for concern.
This was Donald Trump’s big national reveal of his new xenophobic tic.
The man who made the phrases “Kung Flu” and “China Virus” the scourge of Asian America–leading ...
Sadly, we interrupt the all-inclusive Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which now includes the quintessential American experience.
Mass gun violence.
What can we expect in an era of unprecedented anti-Asian violence–whether it’s intended or not? In this month honoring...
As May is our month, now known as the all-inclusive Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander Heritage Month, keep in mind it’s intended as a celebration of culture and traditions–not necessarily our history. Culture and tradition are always festive.
Our history is much more ironic and bitter...
I hope President Joe Biden learned a trick or two from South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol this past week.
Yoon showed his cool appeal at the White House State Dinner by breaking into a version of “American Pie.”
It was the perfect opportunity for Biden to break into his BTS medley?
Or maybe Jay...
As Joe Biden announces his run for a second term for the presidency, you’d be hard pressed to find an Asian American Filipino more important to him than Loida Nicolas Lewis.
Not if, as the saying goes, “money is the mother’s milk of politics.”
Lewis–the Filipina who married the African American bu...
His mother called him Thai-Thai.
17-year old Thai Khin was a young Asian American you never heard of unless you live in Stockton, Calif.
Unlike many 17-year-olds who are thinking about college and their future, there is no tomorrow for Khin.
Instead, he’s a 17-year-old with a GoFundMe page–to hel...
Jesus was resurrected in three days; Justin Jones needed five.
And then the newly minted voice of the voiceless, an advocate for an assault weapons ban and an overall generational change for a more inclusive democracy in America, was not just back in the Tennessee state house–to all the world, he w...
Justin Jones?
I admit I wasn’t paying close attention to what was going on in Tennessee when concerned students and citizens went to the state house in Nashville and demanded action on gun violence in our schools and society.
And then I saw Jones in his white suit, the first to be expelled from th...
If you’re Asian American, there may be something more important than the future of American democracy.
Yes, Trump getting indicted, arraigned, and arrested in New York City is historic news. But from an AAPI parent’s perspective, it’s not like he got into Harvard.
The coincidence last week of Harv...
Did you hear the one about the Filipino in The New Yorker? Magazine, that is.
I don’t mean Jia Tolentino on the weight loss drug Ozempic, but the assessment of one male Filipino American Harvard applicant, written on official Harvard admissions stationery.
Jose is said to be the son of a farmworke...
I’m still in Manhattan, performing in a play off-Broadway at Theater for the New City.
Being in the city has totally impacted my perspective on everything.
I’m not a New York tourist, I’m more like a working resident. Acting like a New Yorker.
That’s not to say I’m brash or rude, but when it come...
The race to the Oscars started with a string of award shows, from the Globes to the SAGs, letting people know about a hot Asian American-themed film called “Everything Everywhere All At Once” (“EEAAO”). Who really knew it would be the big winner on Oscar night?
But it happened.
The film about laun...
“Bloody Sunday,” the day of the 1965 Selma march for voting rights and social justice and the violent response to it by white Southerners, was publicly commemorated over the weekend.
But March 7 falls on Tuesday this year. So we get to linger with the history into the week, giving us time to apprec...
When the Asian American stars of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” (EEAAO) were raking in their well-deserved Screen Actors Guild Awards Sunday night, I was off-Broadway doing my one man show at Frigid.NYC (get tickets here).
I tell my friends that for Lent, I’ve given up real life and become an ...
Presidents Day weekend is our weekend to ski down the hill of oppressive history. There’s a lot of it against Asian Americans.
“Emil Amok: Lost NPR Host…,” the one man show I’m doing at Under St. Marks Theater in New York City now (click here for tickets), wasn’t really intended as a history show. ...
I’m officially coming out of hiding. I’m in New York City doing my live one-man show, though considering the venue, maybe I’m still hiding. It’s the small and intimate Under St. Marks theater, Feb. 16-March 4. Click this link for tickets.
It’s actually under a tattoo parlor and not a church as I or...
If my father were alive, he’d be 118 today (Feb. 8). More on dad at the end of this piece. I just know that as a union restaurant worker all his life, he would have loved President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address.
If you thought you were invisible, left out, and unseen in America, Joe Biden ...
