The conundrum of Asian-Americans in sports and entertainment

With Jeremy Lin bursting onto the scene, there is a lot of focus already on the NEXT Jeremy Lin.  For example, there is some buzz over Chris Tang, a 6'3' high school sophomore.  Tang was born in China though has lived in the US for the past three years.  He is currently playing basketball in Virginia and high on scouts radars:

Meet Chris Tang:  The Next Jeremy Lin?

It is quite unfortunate, but until Asian Americans start regularly playing in the NBA, almost every good Asian-American player will be looked as the "next Jeremy Lin".   As has been explained many times over, Jeremy Lin was overlooked.  Some may call it racism or stereotyping.  Whatever is was, the fact is that scouts / coaches had no frame of reference for an Asian-American basketball players.  Now that Jeremy Lin has shown up, there is a frame of reference and that will be (at least in the short term) what future players will be measured against.

That is definitely NOT a good thing if you look at the entertainment industries.  For example, the biggest ever Asian-American movie star today is still probably Bruce Lee.  Even thought Lee's been dead for years, he remains as the standard with which Asian / Asian-American actors are measured against.  Asian stars such as Jackie Chan and Jet Li have been unfairly measured against Bruce Lee due to their martial arts backgrounds.   The fact is that Hollywood has been looking for the next Bruce Lee for years and still has not found him.   Yet they continue on the search while Asian-Americans languish in supporting roles.

It is somewhat the same in the music arena.  Before the Far East Movement broke out last year, there had been no major Asian-American music stars.  However, after having two solid songs, Far East Movement has faded somewhat into the background though their single with Justin Biebber is set to break into the Billboard Top 100 next week.

This reminds me of something I saw a few years ago.  There was an Asian American band called At Last.  They were competing on the show America's Got Talent:

At Last - American's Got Talent Semi-Final

As you can see on the video, they are pretty good.  Ultimately they didn't win the competition but had a small following and even released a few independent albums.   After the competition, I followed the band to see how they were doing.  The band kept busy with new albums and tours but otherwise were not signed by any major labels.

I remember reading something online where one of the band members stated:  "Producers told us they didn't know how to market us".  The implication was that Asians aren't seen as music stars and American audiences wouldn't support them.

That indeed is the conundrum that faces Asian-Americans wishing to pursue careers in sports, music, movies and TV.  Jeremy Lin forced the NBA (and  now the basketball world at large) to take a second look at Asian-Americans who may have been previously ignored.  Now, the entertainment industries need to do the same.

I firmly believe American audiences are not dummies.  Like the many different ethnicities that support Jeremy Lin, I believe American audiences CAN and WILL support Asian-American stars in movies, music and TV.  The problem is the entertainment industry wasn't willing to take a chance in the past.  Jeremy Lin's success may have some indirect impact. Once the door is open, it cannot be closed again.

In the meantime, Asian-Americans should continue to pursue their dreams.  It may not be the easiest or smoothest ride but as Jeremy Lin showed, your opportunity may just be around the corner.

How Could Bay Area Colleges pass on Jeremy Lin

(This was a response to something on a Jeremy Lin blog):  


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You know, getting passed by all 300+ schools is an interesting point that has been noted over and over again. However, it never dawned on me until Anonymous / Sydney posted just how big a deal that was. But let's take a step back and only tackle certain schools (to be fair). 

Jeremy Lin sent tapes to the Patriot and Ivy league schools. Only Brown and Harvard showed interest so boo to all the other schools. Jeremy himself said he was interested in UCLA, Stanford and Cal which all didn't work out. I personally wouldn't discount most of the other schools not on this initial list. It seems that Jeremy was looking for good academic schools with athletic programs and not just basketball powerhouses. There may have been lower tier schools that could have used Jeremy but who knows if Jeremy would have attended just because a school offered a scholarship. 

But I don't gave the other Bay Area colleges a pass. Among the Bay Area schools that are Division I, how many of them are "good"? University of San Francisco (USF) and Santa Clara have been mediocre in the WCC. San Jose State is not that good in the WAC. The only team that has been pretty good is St. Mary's. If Jeremy Lin has broken out while playing in the Bay Area, imagine all the attention he would have brought to the programs (then and now that he is in the NBA). 

There are other smaller colleges in CA (UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, etc) that probably could have used Jeremy. But there's always complaints about how CA loses it's star basketball players to other schools. They had a chance to keep one and missed badly. Now that is pretty inexcusable.


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Still Here.........

I realized I hadn't blogged on this domain in quite some time.  In fact. I was thinking of merging this blog with my more "personal blog".  However, it appears I have a decent amount of readership here so will maintain this for the near future.  Much of my Jeremy Lin thoughts have been on my personal blog but I will put in some additional thoughts here as well.

See you all soon.

BB Playbook

Yesterday, i got a nice gift in the form of the 16GB Blackberry Playbook tablet.  i'll leave the details of how i got the gift.  However, i've been using it and its not a bad little machine.  Yes, it's had its critics but free is free.  Just like the HP Touchpad users, the Playbook makes for a nice little web browser and can do a few other things.  In fact i am writing this posting as we speak.

Overall, the Playbook is nice but probably enough to be my primary computer.  The OS isn't bad but tbe browser hiccups a bit.  App choices are a little limited but there's useful stuff if you look for it.  Is it worth the regular price?  For me, no.  But for free?  I cannot complain!

iPad for Seniors: Personal Experience

As a person that work on a computer most of the day, has a computer at home and carries around an iPhone, I did not have a need for an iPad.  Yet,  I spent a lot of time playing with the machine at Apple stores.  While I enjoyed playing with it, I felt is a glorified iPhone without the ability to make calls.

I had a change of heart when I realized the iPad 2 could be an interesting device for my mom when she's not out doing stuff.  I thought it would give her an additional option beyond just watching TV.  Like many elderly folks, my mom is not much of a technology person.  The only piece of my technology actively uses is her cell phone.  However, that cell phone is a very basic one.  You would never see my mom using an iPhone or Android phone.

If not the iPhone, then how come I suddenly thought about the iPad?  Well, I felt the iPad would be simple enough so I could teach my mom a few simple things to do.  I initially planned to teach her how to surf the Web, watch YouTube and play a few games.

After thinking about things for a couple of weeks, I ended getting the iPad.  Alas, only one out of the three items I wanted to teach my mom has worked out.  My mom doesn't know much about the Internet and doesn't watch a lot of videos.  So, those two ideas went out the door quick.

However, the games have saved the day.  I had to teach my mom to do some basic navigation of the iPad.  Once she got that down pat, she has spent a lot of her free time playing a few games (2 card games + one bowling game).   The two card games require some thinking and strategy so that is helping my mom stay mentally active.

The nice benefit is that some of the games can be played on both the iPad 2 and my iPhone (as both are using my iTunes account).  So when we both have time, I can compete against my mom on some of the games.  Good family bonding time!

In addition, while the iPad is not a phone, I've installed an app that allows the iPad to make and receive calls.  I have the same app on my iPhone.  While the cell phone will be the primary form of contact, it's nice to have a backup option.

If you've never thought about getting an iPad for yourself, consider it for your family member.   It is definitely worth the investment.

"Mighty Warriors Of Comedy"

Almost two years ago, the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors came back to the Bay Area for several performances after spending a couple of years in Southern California.   This was to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the group's founding.   I went with a friend to watch one of the performances and blogged about it here:

15 Years Of The Mighty Mountain Warriors

This past week, I found out that the group's documentary "Mighty Warriors Of Comedy" was available On Demand on my local cable system.   The documentary had been out on DVD since 2007 and even want an local Emmy award.  Despite being a big fan of the group, I had never purchased the DVD.

However, my curiosity finally got to me and I plunked down the $1.95 to watch it on cable.  I'm not going to review it here but as someone who likes history and appreciates independent artists in all forms, the documentary was both revealing and a bit sad.

The documentary talked about the history of the group and what they represented (especially in the late 1990's) when Asian representation in the media was so lacking.  Yet, despite putting in 12 years of hard work (at the time of the documentary) and having a solid fan base in the Bay Area and Southern California, the group never really broke out as they hoped.

The documentary showed me that independent groups like the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors and other independent artists really do these things for the love of their craft.  Being rich and famous would be nice but I'm sure that is not the ultimate goal.

These days, it seems the majority of the 18 Mighty Mountain Warriors group have moved on to other things.  The three remaining performers (Michael Hornbuckle, Greg Watanabe, Peter Wong) continue to press on though.   They have a new show coming in August in Los Angeles.  The group has also been putting out YouTube videos like this:

The History Of China in 3 1/2 Minutes

In closing, the Warriors have been around for years and continue on.  I don't know what the future holds for them but I am hoping their long standing dedication to their craft and the Asian-American community pays off.

The "Brian Yang" Phenomenon / How the Internet Has Changed Media

For the first time this year, I watched an episode of new "Hawaii 5-0" TV show this past Monday.  Of course, it was also the SEASON FINALE of the show so that meant I had not watched the show this entire season!

There is some good reasons why I hadn't watched the show previously.  One reason was that I played in a basketball league on Monday nights for about three months.  By the time I got home most nights, the show was already over and I wasn't particularly inclined to watch the show via On-Demand.  The second reason is that I generally don't watch network TV (CBS, NBC, ABC) must these days.  I tend to watch cable networks like Food Network, Game Show Network, CNN, ESPN, Syfy or the History Channel.

However, I had a good reason to watch the season finale of Hawaii 5-0 this week.  There was actor I knew (sort of) that was playing a character on the show.  The actor's name was Brian Yang and he was playing a crime lab tech named Charlie Fong.  This would be Brian's second appearance in the show.  The prior had come about two episodes prior to the season finale.

I don't claim to be Brian's friend at all but I knew of him through his involvement in some basketball leagues that I had been involved in as well.  I had actually met Brian once about a year ago and I had added him to my Facebook friend list and tracked his comings and goings (he has many things going on).

Prior to watching the season finale, I plugged Brian's name into Google and found several articles (Hawaii 5-0 fan sites and others) that talked about Brian's character AND about Brian himself.  Apparently, Brian's appearance in the prior episode had sparked a little buzz on the Internet on who this "new guy" was.   People were impressed with his chemistry with co-star Grace Park.  Also, some ladies apparently thought Brian was a cute, good looking and/or hot guy!  I'm sure he appreciates this......hahahaha

In all seriousness though,  this got me thinking that the Internet these days can make anyone become a minor celebrity.  Think about the YouTube stars (KevJumba, NigaHiga, etc) or even a Brian Yang.  In looking at IMDB, Brian has a pretty long acting resume but it's been with small productions and he's hardly a household name.  But by just appearing on Hawaii 5-0 and with the ability for people to easily search for information online, Brian's name is becoming a bit of a known quantity.   With the ease of communication these days, people like me (and others) who like Brian can easily support Brian via social media, email and other means to let CBS know that we want Brian's character back for the 2nd season of Hawaii 5-0.

I compare Brian's current situation to 10 to 12 years ago when I was trying to search for some information on an actress.  I'm a fan of the original "Friday the 13th" movie franchise (yes, I am weird!) and was watching "Friday the 13th:  Jason Takes Manhattan" either in the movie theater or at home (don't quite remember).

At some point during the movie, there was an young and cute Asian actress that appeared.  I don't think she was on screen long as Jason killed her off pretty quick.  However, the actress stuck with me and I tried to find information on her.  Well, keeping in mind that "Jason Takes Manhattan" was released in 1989 and probably popped up on TV somewhere between 1990 to 1992, trying to find information on actresses was pretty limited.  In fact, I don't think I even got her name from the closing credits as I had forgotten the character's name.

Well, after the Internet and Google became mainstream, I remembered to try and look up the Asian actress that appeared in "Jason Takes Manhattan".  In a major surprise, it was Kelly Hu (Martial Law, The Scorpion King)!   I'm sure Kelly wishes that movie wasn't on her resume but can't change anything about it now!  In fact, Kelly Hu is the reason I am writing this post.  Kelly was a guest star on Hawaii 5-0 though her character was killed off in the season finale so I guess she won't be back next season.

I don't know what Brian's future holds but with Hawaii 5-0 being renewed for another season, maybe we will see more of his character in the future.   Who knows, maybe Brian's work in Hawaii 5-0 will lead to bigger and better things as well and one can thank the Internet for building his fan base.