Asian America: May 2013

Compiled By Mary Tablante

1) Tianlang Guan

Augusta, GA—At age 14, China’s Tianlang Guan was the youngest player to ever compete at the Masters Golf Tournament, which took place April 11 to 14. Guan earned a 1- over 73 in his Masters debut. To put that number in perspective, Arnold Palmer debuted at the Masters in 1955 with a score of 76 when he was 25 years old, according to ESPN.

*Photo from dailyrecord.co.uk

2) Hmong-American Conference

Fresno, Calif.—Hmong-Americans from around the U.S. gathered in Fresno the weekend of April 5-7 for the 6th Hmong National Development Conference. The conference is sponsored every year by Hmong National Development, Inc., a D.C.-based nonprofit. The theme of this year’s conference was ”Journey Forward: The Next Chapter of Hmong Americans.” One of the goals of the conference this year was to support Hmong youth, according to the Fresno Bee.

3) “Chink” Premiere

LOS ANGELES—The movie “Chink,” which is about a Chinese-American serial killer who idolizes Ted Bundy, premiered at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival May 4. The movie was directed by Stanley Yung and written by Koji Steven Sakai. Yung said he made the movie in part of challenge the ‘model minority’ stereotype.

*Photo from channelapa.com

4) AP Drops “Illegal Immigrant”

On April 2, The Associated Press Stylebook made the decision to stop using the word “illegal” to describe a person. “AP executives said that decision was made to accommodate and be more sensitive to immigrants. The stylebook now tells users to only use “illegal” to describe an action, not a person.

 

5) Nail Salon Sign Sparks Controversy

Dallas, TX. —A nail salon in Dallas posted a sign on its window that read, “American owned. American staffed.” Many in the Dallas community took this as an attempt to offend nail salons that are owned by Vietnamese-Americans or other Southeast Asian-Americans. The owner of the nail salon, however, had no clue why people were offended by the sign and chose to keep the sign up, reported the Dallas Observer on April 3.

*Photo from blogs.dallasobserver.com

6) Jeremy Lin on “60 Minutes”

Houston Rockets point guard Jeremy Lin appeared on “60 Minutes” April 7 to talk about his rise to stardom and “Linsanity.” He also reflected on his upbringing and struggles with recruitment when he was first starting out. Lin said he’s had to overcome barriers, often being the only Asian American on his teams growing up. But after dealing with racial slurs and being stereotyped, Lin also said it’s made him a stronger person.

*Photo from CBS

7) Actress Lawsuit

SEATTLE—Vietnamese-American actress Huong Hoang, also known by her stage name Junie Hoang, sued the Internet Movie Database for publishing her real age on her profile page. She first filed the lawsuit in 2011, claiming that she was denied roles because of her age. Hoang, now 41, said she wanted to fight age discrimination as well as maintain online privacy. However, at trial, Hoang did not present any testimony or evidence that she lost any money due to IMDb publishing her real age. A federal jury in Seattle rejected her claim April 11.

*Photo from IMDB

8) Koreatown and the Lakers

LOS ANGELES—Time Warner Cable hired five Korean-Americans to be play-by-play announcers for Lakers games, reported the LA Times on April 6. For many residents of Koreatown who have long been fans of the Lakers, this service has made it easier for them to understand what is happening in the games.

*Photo from LA Times

9) “Nine Days”

Washington, DC—Ti-Anna Wang, the daughter of Chinese activist Wang Bingzhang inspired a young-adult thriller novel released April 9. The novel, “Nine Days” by Fred Hiatt, is about an American teenage boy and his friend, a Chinese girl, who must find her father who’s been kidnapped and they only have nine days to find him. In real life, Wang’s father was part of the Chinese Democracy Movement and has been a political prisoner since 2002 with little hope for freedom. Wang and Hiatt spoke at Politics and Prose April 11 about the novel.

*Photo from goodreads.com

10) Republicans Reach Out To Asian-American Voters

The Republican National Committee released a Growth & Opportunity Project report, which included a plan to target Asian-American voters. This included hiring Asian Pacific American communication directors and promoting APA staff and candidates within the party. This project was in response to the recent exit poll reports that showed Asian Americans voted overwhelmingly Democrat in the 2012 election.

11) CDC Targets Asian-American Smokers

Oakland, Calif.—The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started a new campaign to help Asian-American smokers quit. The CDC plans to place ads in Asian-language newspapers nationwide that encourage smokers to call an Asian Smokers’ Quitline hotline. The services the CDC will provide involve counseling over the phone and language services in Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese. They also have a website, asiansmokersquitline.org.

*Photo from asiansmokersquitline.com