My Journal
Round-up of my Oscars coverage for PRI’s The World
Listen to me on PRI's The World here! What it's like to be the butt of the joke. One of the kids at the Oscars speaks out. The precocious child star who was on stage as an "accountant" at the Oscars didn't know she'd be the butt of an anti-Asian joke when she agreed...
Revisiting ‘Colma,’ the Micro-Budget Film That Became a ‘Cult Classic’
"It's not going to be for everyone" was a mantra that then-first time filmmakers Richard Wong and H.P. Mendoza often told their cast and crew back in 2005 while shooting their micro-budget movie, "Colma: The Musical." But that was before its 2006 release, and before...
Millions of Americans celebrate Lunar New Year, but this episode of ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ will be a network TV first
Originally published on PRI's Global Nation At a preview of “Fresh Off the Boat’s” Chinese New Year episode, the show’s creator, Nahnatchka Khan, was asked if this is the first time the holiday would be portrayed on American TV shows. Khan thought about it. “Maybe....
‘The Birth of Saké’: Documentary Lifts Curtain of 2,000-Year-Old Tradition
Originally posted on NBC Asian America. At a 2012 New York fundraiser for his short film series "I Am What I Eat," director Erik Shirai met a young man named Yasuyuki Yoshida, who had been hired to pour saké at the event. There, Yoshida invited Shirai to his family's...
Is Shah Rukh Khan the gateway drug to Bollywood addiction?
written for PRI's Global Nation Natasha Panda Desai remembers watching the 1993 Bollywood filmKing Uncle when she was six years old and falling for Shah Rukh Khan. “I love him from his old-school mullet days,” she says, though she’s seen every one of his more...
One of K-pop’s Biggest International Fansites Is Run From A Laptop in Los Angeles
Published in LA Weekly At a performance at KCON earlier this month, Tiffany Hwang, one of nine members of the popular K-pop band Girls’ Generation, recognized a fan in the audience. It was Oanh “Soy” Nguyen — who was particularly noticeable because she'd recently dyed...
Audrey Fall 2015 Cover Story: Constance Wu
Constance Wu has had one surreal year. As Jessica Huang on the hit ABC comedy Fresh Off the Boat, Wu not only jumped from a relative Hollywood unknown to a Critics’ Choice nominee for Best Actress in a Comedy Series, she took a character — who could well have been, at...
The Road Untraveled: It’s Never Too Late to Chase Your Dreams
It may be cliché to say that as Asian Americans, we’re often pressured to forgo our more artistic or creative passions for a stable career path. And yet this was even more the case for generations past, who had few role models and their sights set on a better future...
Reaching 50 Years, East West Players Soldiers On
Tucked inside the Union Center for the Arts in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo District sits the David Henry Hwang Theater, home to East West Players, the country’s first Asian American theatre organization that is celebrating a milestone 50th year. A lot of history...