Wok this way

NYTimes.com: Chinese City Is Chilly to a Sex Theme Park

2009-05-19T10:34:00.002-04:00

NYTimes.com: Chinese City Is Chilly to a Sex Theme Park

Sex in China has a long and varied history, as evidenced by accounts of carnal excess in “The Plum in the Golden Vase,” a Ming-era classic, and more recent tales of Mao’s insatiable appetite.

But an attempt to open the first sex theme park in China was quashed by local officials over the weekend, well before construction was completed.

Officials in the sprawling city of Chongqing, where Love Land was being built, recently became incensed over the risqué nature of the park and ordered its destruction, according to a report published Sunday in the Chongqing Evening News, a state-run newspaper. Angry Internet postings about the park had been proliferating, and China Daily, the official English-language newspaper, published an article about the park last Friday.

I'm surprised that they actually started construction of the theme park before it was stopped. This seems more of a fit for Las Vegas and I don't even think they'd approve of something like this.

Now, I wonder what they're going to do with those legs?

Hee hee

2009-04-14T18:17:00.001-04:00

Get it? Raff out roud?

Pepcid AC stops the Asian Flush? Time to put it to the test...

2009-03-28T11:25:00.000-04:00

As a follow up to Morris's post about the Asian flush, I wanted to mention a remedy that my sister swears by. It's to take a Pepcid AC before drinking.

Usually before I believe these things, I need: 1. Some sort of scientific rationale and 2. Empirical evidence (i.e. it works on me, or some sort of data).

A fellow Asian friend provided me with #1... she said Pepcid AC has enzymes in it as an active to neutralize stomach acid, and the same enzymes help neutralize something (maybe it's acetaldehyde, if I apply what I learned from that article). OK, sounds rational.

As for empirical evidence, I figured what they hey, I'll try it myself. So one night I took a Pepcid and went out for a couple of beers.

So what happened? Well I must say I didn't feel as flushed, nor the increased heart rate that I typically get. However, as I had my beers, I started to feel the other effects... i.e. a headache. That night, in addition to the headache, I felt overall a little crappy. I wonder if this is what a hangover feels like? I've never had one, because I couldn't drink enough before I got sick.

So I wonder if Pepcid AC does take away some of the symptoms of the Asian flush, but leaves all the other underlying issues of not being able to metabolize alcohol right? Maybe I should do a little more research...

NYTimes.com: Drinkers’ Red Face May Signal Cancer Risk

2009-03-26T11:37:00.004-04:00

NYTimes.com: Drinkers’ Red Face May Signal Cancer Risk

People whose faces turn red when they drink alcohol may be facing more than embarrassment. The flushing may indicate an increased risk for a deadly throat cancer, researchers report.

The flushing response, which may be accompanied by nausea and a rapid heartbeat, is caused mainly by an inherited deficiency in an enzyme called ALDH2, a trait shared by more than a third of people of East Asian ancestry — Japanese, Chinese or Koreans. As little as half a bottle of beer can trigger the reaction.

The deficiency results in problems in metabolizing alcohol, leading to an accumulation in the body of a toxin called acetaldehyde. People with two copies of the gene responsible have such unpleasant reactions that they are unable to consume large amounts of alcohol. This aversion actually protects them against the increased risk for cancer.
...
Reducing drinking can significantly reduce the incidence of this cancer among Asian adults. The researchers calculate that if moderate- or heavy-drinking ALDH2-deficient Japanese men reduced their consumption to under 16 drinks a week, 53 percent of esophageal squamous cell cancers in that group could be prevented.

I'm one of those who turns red when drinking. So, I guess it's important for me to cut back to under 16 drinks a week.

Happy Jin Tao Wow to you!

2009-03-18T14:09:00.002-04:00

CNN's Lou Dobbs is a little nuts these days, but what is this ethnic holiday rant about? I guess he doesn't really consider Independence Day to be an American Holiday.

Would you buy this product?

2009-03-12T10:24:00.004-04:00

If you're Asian would you buy this product?

The Tag line on their website

Chinese girl meets Jewish boy... and Soy Vay! All natural, kosher sauces, marinades and dressings since 1982.

It just seems a little wrong to me.

Which team would I play for?

2009-03-08T21:29:00.003-04:00

The World Baseball Classic is like the World Cup to soccer. I absolutely love the competition and the patriotism in this tournament.

The last time the WBC was played was in 2006, when Alex Rodriguez was involved in a controversy as to which team to play for: the Domincan Republic or the US? I absolutely disagree with Ozzie Guillen's quote in the article... that guy isn't in touch with life as a XXXXX-American.

Since then I've wondered which team I would be asked to play for if I were a baseball player, and which team I'd pick. So I looked up eligibility:

Q: Who is eligible to play in the World Baseball Classic?
A: A player is eligible to participate on a World Baseball Classic team if:

The player is a citizen of the nation the team represents. (Additionally, if a player is qualified for citizenship or to hold a passport under the laws of a nation represented by a team, but has not been granted citizenship or been issued a passport, then the player may be made eligible by WBCI upon petition by the player or team.)
The player is a permanent legal resident of the nation or territory the team represents.
The player was born in the nation or territory the team represents.
The player has one parent who is, or if deceased was, a citizen of the nation the team represents.
The player has one parent who was born in the nation or territory the team represents.

Note: In the event a player appropriately appears on more than one provisional roster, he may select the team for which he wishes to play.

So with this, that means that I would be eligible to play for the US obviously, and also I would be eligible to play for China because my parents were born in China. But I wouldn't be eligible to play for Chinese Taipei (the laughable politically correct name for "Taiwan"... can you imagine being called "American Washington DC"?) even though my parents grew up there... unless of course they have dual citizenship, which I don't think they have but I don't know.

So assuming I had a choice, who would I play for? Who would YOU play for?

Pronunciation of Chinese last names

2009-03-04T11:56:00.004-05:00

Since we're on the subject of last names and romanization/anglicization...

My last name is Tsai, which is a common Taiwanese romanization of the Chinese Character 蔡. I pronounce it in the Mandarin Chinese way with the strong "ts" sound. This sound is often difficult for non-Chinese speakers to say. The Taiwanese pronunciation is different still, and I don't use that unless I'm speaking to a native Taiwanese person.

Growing up in Cincinnati when I was younger, I'd intentionally mispronounce it "sigh" to make it easier for people to say. Most likely it was the first time they had ever seen a name like that.

But, that changed when I went to college. It was refreshing when people there would pronounce my name correctly more often than not. I decided from then on, that I would forsake convenience and say my name the way I wanted to sound when asked. Now the process of when I'm asked my last name is to say it slowly and then spell it for them. Sometimes they'll try to repeat it back to me and I'll spend the time to try to teach them to say it correctly.

Here's a little guide on how to pronounce Chinese names.

Guess the ethnicity- Gary Locke

2009-03-02T12:18:00.003-05:00

Barack Obama has appointed Gary Locke to be the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Gary Locke, former governor of Washington, the first Chinese-American Governor.

This brings to mind the burning question: If you're really, really Chinese, would you seriously name your kid Gary?

That's a joke- about Gary. Though, I actually don't know an Asian people named Gary either.

The last name Locke, however, is a very unusual Anglicization of a Chinese name. Most Chinese names when Anglicized still maintain some distinctive Chinese look. Anglicizing of last names is pretty common for Europeans coming to the United States, but it's just a little strange to see a Chinese name Anglicized to the point where it's no longer recognizably Chinese.

From Wikipedia, Gary Locke's given name is: 駱家輝 (Lok Gaa-Fai)

I am extremely loving of Chinese people

2009-02-15T10:09:00.002-05:00

In light of the recent posts, I'd like to give you:

The top 10 reasons you should be extremely loving of Chinese people

10. Chinese New Year, where you get red envelopes full of money
9. We age really well
8. We value our families
7. Apparently all races love our women
6. We tend to be more insightful and believe in living a balance
5. We can solve your math problems
4. We tend to be good listeners and collaborators
3. If you need an impromptu violin or piano recital, you can count on us
2. Our language consists of one syllable words, so we don't need acronyms
1. We have really good, cheap food (if you know where to go)

The mystery behind the Google search

2009-02-12T19:02:00.001-05:00

So like everyone else, I was pretty curious about what the "extremely terrified of Chinese people" thing was all about. Well I did some digging and found out. It's a actually a posting from an ultra conservative Christian website ripping on communist and how they're atheist. I won't post a link here because I really don't want it to get any more publicity.

So mystery solved!

Gizmodo: 303,000 People Extremely Terrified of Chinese People

2009-02-10T11:34:00.004-05:00

From Gizmodo: 303,000 People Extremely Terrified of Chinese People

If you type in "I am extremely" into the Google search box, you get this:

African Canadian?

2009-02-09T08:35:00.001-05:00

I remember a few years ago, a bunch of Asian friends and I took a trip to Cananda. One of my friends wondered what they call African Americans in Canada, since they're not American per se. One Canadian said they just call them "black" because there is no history of racism in Canada, so they haven't needed to create new terms because the old terms were never derogatory in the first place.

I don't know much about Canada's history on racism, but to echo my thoughts from the Miley Cyrus letter... wouldn't it be nice that racism was gone so we wouldn't need to worry about what the right name to call someone is?

An open letter to Miley Cyrus

2009-02-06T11:22:00.005-05:00

Dear Miley,

I'm an Asian American, and you probably know what I'm writing to you about. I have a slightly different take. You probably were having fun with a bunch of friends and thought it'd be funny to take a picture and play a joke on the one Asian guy.

In the past, Americans have been ignorant and discriminated against people for the way they look. They would judge people, look down upon people, and hurt people only because their skin color was different or their eyes looked different. People would do this slanty eye pose to put an Asian person down. That's why people are so upset.

I'm assuming you're not racist, and you only did took that picture for fun not knowing the history behind it. My advice to you? Apologize and tell people that. My dream is someday racism is completely wiped out, so a picture like this really is just fun and games like you meant it to be.

Does Miley Cyrus wish she were Asian?

2009-02-05T16:55:00.005-05:00

I see one Asian dude and six Asian wannabes. Or maybe in the case of the guy in red an American Indian wannabe.

From DailyMail: Pictured: Miley Cyrus pulling the 'slant-eye' pose that has upset Asian fans of Hannah Montana

Stuff White People Like

2009-02-03T10:02:00.003-05:00

From CNN.com: Finding humor in "Stuff White People Like"

CNN: What are some of the entries that elicited the most negative responses and really pushed people's buttons?

Lander: One was written by Miles. Now Miles is Asian, and I can't stress that enough. He wrote post No. 11, which is "White People Like Asian Girls." That has been by far the most commented on. The other ones have all been pretty level in terms of drawing responses from people.

There are 378 pages of the 10,937 comments on their website about this.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-26T10:33:00.005-05:00

Do you know how to make your holidays last longer? Celebrate Chinese New Year!

If you celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, AND Chinese New Year, you get around 6o days to enjoy the holiday spirit!

I've done my part this year to extend the holidays, though it was not something I was planning on doing before the holiday season started. I bought a live/cut Christmas tree at Findlay Market a week before Thanksgiving. It's been sort of a new tradition of mine, making a break from the really fake looking artificial Christmas trees that I had grown up with. Artificial trees are popular with cost conscious Asian families, but are lacking in the overall aesthetic.

I've been meticulously caring for my tree, adding water to its container daily. So when the non-Chinese New Year rolled around, the tree was still beautifully lush with all its needles intact. I've been raised not to waste things, so I opted to keep the tree up with all its Christmas lights on. I'm the last house on the street with decorations still up. But it's OK, Chinese New Year is here now. My tree is coming down this week, but it will have been around to help me celebrate the year of the Ox.

May your year be happy and prosperous!

(According to Wikipedia, it's either year 4706, 4707, or 4646. In any case, we've been around a long time!)

Yellow fever

2009-01-25T09:49:00.003-05:00

In case you haven't seen it yet... a couple of Asian guys try to figure out why so many Asian girls with white guys but not vice versa. Bugs the heck out of me, it messes up the mass balance...

Asian Americans getting into politics (in Louisiana?)

2009-01-23T09:49:00.000-05:00

As a follow up to my entry on the advantages of having diverse people within your ethnic group, I came across this article about Asian Americans getting into politics. I think this is a wonderful thing, the next step for us to be a major player in the country and the economy. There may even be an Asian American presidential candidate in the future, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana.

Sidenote: I find it really interesting that two of the Asian Americans mentioned in the article as examples of Asians making it to Congress and governorship are both from Louisiana... If I had to guess which state would have Asian American firsts, I think Louisiana would've been my 30th guess. I wonder, why Louisiana? I think it's great, just curious.

The downside of everyone learning math and science

2009-01-21T22:39:00.000-05:00

I recall a conversation I had with my dad many years ago. We were talking about the movie Schindler's List, and he was lamenting that there weren't any movies about the Chinese holocaust. I told him maybe it was because all the Chinese kids were being told to study math and science instead of film. Can you imagine the Chinese kid going to his parents and telling them he wanted to study filmmaking?

Morale of the story: There are advantages to having diverse expertise amongst your people.

Ad for Interracial dating website

2009-01-21T17:13:00.004-05:00

I saw this banner ad while browsing and I found it a little odd. There's a difference between being "race blind" when dating and someone seeking out "interracial partners". I'm not sure what I would think about dating someone who was primarily just interested in finding someone of a different race. I'd almost feel like a checkbox being filled. Asian? Done it.

Insights on race on this MLK day

2009-01-19T16:37:00.004-05:00

An absolutely wonderful post about race, on this Martin Luther King day... from a surprising source: A blog about escaping the corporate world!

Pamela Slim talks about her mixed race kids and has great insights on how they talk about race. And how noticing the color of one's skin doesn't make you racist. Her attitude on race is right on. I would even tell her to teach her kids to take the best of both worlds!

Absolutely wonderfully written. It'll send chills down your spine (in a positive way). I hope you check it out!

Chinese speaking white guys

2009-01-19T06:44:00.000-05:00

Pardon those of you who read my blog on Wisconsin sports, but this story crosses over into the Asian world... the Milwaukee Bucks' first round draft pick last year was a guy named Joe Alexander. He grew up in China and was born in Taiwan, and speaks fluent Mandarin. Click here to see the 30 second interview.

For the non-Chinese speaking people, near the end of the interview the reporter asks him in Chinese (a question that inevitably always comes up when Chinese people talk to Americans) what his favorite Chinese food is. He says, "Kung-pao chicken." Then later adds, "All Americans like Kung-pao chicken." Really funny stuff coming from a white guy!

Asian sideline reporter!

2009-01-17T10:33:00.001-05:00

I'm watching the Sacramento Kings broadcast of a Milwaukee Bucks game, and lo and behold, it's an Asian sideline reporter!
I must admit, she's not very good... her delivery is a little forced. But then again, most sideline reporters on local broadcasts aren't very good. I wonder if her parents are disappointed that she wasn't a doctor.

Chthonic- Taiwanese Death Metal Band

2009-01-14T11:03:00.005-05:00

This morning I got this email from the Cincinnati Taiwanese Association

I am pleased to announce that Mr. Freddy Lim, lead singer of "ChthoniC" and head of "Guts United, Taiwan" will be in Indianapolis, Indiana very soon to deliver an imporant speech to the Taiwanese American community of the Midwest.

I was kind of curious about Chthonic so I visited their website and their entry on Wikipedia.
It turns out they're a Taiwanese death metal band that has performed at Ozzyfest.
From Wikipedia.org:

While some songs have their lyrics partly or entirely written in Taiwanese, Japanese, or Taiwanese aboriginal language, most of the band's songs have their lyrics written entirely in classical Chinese (with Mandarin pronunciation), which is rarely seen in contemporary Chinese music. Taking advantage of classical Chinese's feature of being a monosyllabic language, many songs, especially those in earlier albums, used plenty of parallel sentences in their lyrics to create an epic atmosphere.

The themes mostly surround early Taiwanese colonizers' defiant spirit, fictional war between aborigine's gods with Han's gods, Taiwanese folklore and mythology, and the historical event known as Wushe Incident, which is a rebellion against Japanese governor by Seediq people.

Although the lyrics are quite profound compared to most contemporary Taiwanese songs, many Taiwanese people don't prefer black metal vocals and said that they couldn't understand anything sung by Freddy, which is probably why Chthonic is said to be more famous in western countries than in Taiwan.

Ok, a Taiwanese death metal band that's popular in the West. That "sings" their songs in Taiwanese. That's a little unusual. However, things are not always they appear on the surface.

Freddy Lim, the vocalist is a highly respected political activist. Especially with the Taiwanese and Tibetan Independence movements.

Here's a picture of Freddy Lim's recent visit with the Dalai Lama.And a video of the same event.

If I had a child who started listening/singing death metal music, I think I would be in a panic and questioning my skills as a parent. Instead, the band members are meeting the Dalai Lama and are positive role models for the next generation of Taiwanese! I was talking to my father about Freddy Lim and he knew all about him and proceeded to go on and on about his courage, spirit, and his ability to mobilize the youth of Taiwan. My father is not alone in his admiration. When Chthonic travels in the United States, many older Taiwanese go to their concerts to support them and to bring them home cooked Taiwanese meals.

If you're curious you can hear their music while looking at their pictures on Chthonic's gallery.

Oh, the bass player of the band is slightly attractive.

A cut above

2009-01-10T21:33:00.001-05:00

One of the more interesting and underrated intricacies of being an Asian American male is how hard it is to find a place that knows how to cut your hair. Back in my hometown of Milwaukee , there was one place my dad and I would always go to. When I moved out to Cincinnati, I went to Great Clips and kept trying different ones, hoping to get find someone who would cut my hair right.

I learned from a few of the barbers I talked to that Asian hair is one of the hardest to cut because it's so thick and straight. If you cut it the wrong length it sticks straight out. Asian women have the option of leaving it long. I guess guys do too (one of my barbers said my other option was to leave it long and put it in a ponytail… it did sound like it might work, but it just wasn't me). I've seen many Great Clips barbers struggle with my hair, sometimes taking a long time because they kept on having to fix and refix things.

I have found a place that I go to now. Amit, one of my Indian friends, introduced me to it… It's Martin's Barber shop in Sharonville. I go to one guy there all the time, because I'm always satisfied with the cut I get there. I also got a recommendation from another Asian friend to go there, and I happen to run into a 3rd Asian friend there too.

So that begs the question… how much untapped demand is there for services or products aimed towards Asians, and specifically the underappreciated Asian male?

CNN's Sanjay Gupta approached for Surgeon General

2009-01-07T10:57:00.002-05:00

From CNN.com: CNN's Gupta approached for surgeon general

The Obama transition team approached Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's chief medical correspondent, about becoming U.S. surgeon general, according to sources inside the transition and at CNN.
...
The transition team is impressed with the combination of Gupta's past government experience, as a White House fellow in 1997 and a special adviser to then-first lady Hillary Clinton, along with his medical career as a neurosurgeon and his communication skills, the transition source said.

Gupta is a member of the staff and faculty of the Department of Neurosurgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. He regularly performs surgery at Emory University Hospital and at Grady Memorial Hospital, where he serves as associate chief of neurosurgery.

I think this is an interesting choice for Surgeon General. The role of Surgeon General doesn't seem all that important in terms of policy, but is a very public position for shaping American's attitude towards health. As Surgeon General, Dr. Sanjay Gupta would be one of the most recognizable Asians in government.

According to Wikipedia, the Surgeon General reports to the Assistant Secretary for Health who is the principal adviser to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. In the Obama Administration, that will be Tom Daschle.

I find it refreshing to have a candidate with a background that I can relate to as a second generation Asian American.

Chinese food in New Hampshire?

2009-01-07T10:29:00.000-05:00

From Yahoo Sports...

Jeff McDonald, San Antonio Express-News: "Spurs center Matt Bonner didn't have any specific plans for celebrating New Year's Day. He says he likes only the holidays that involve food. 'I'm more of a Thanksgiving and Christmas guy,' Bonner said. 'I don't think New Year's is known for feasting.' Growing up in New Hampshire, Bonner's family did sustain one food-related New Year's tradition. Every Jan. 1, they ate Chinese food. 'New Hampshire is known for its Chinese food,' Bonner said. 'You didn't know that?'"

Is this true? Maybe we should take a road trip and see if he knows his Chinese food or not.

An experience

2009-01-05T20:29:00.000-05:00

I hadn't had to deal with something like this since I was in grade school, but by handling it with a calm but firm voice and by education, I made the best of the situation and I think everyone came out for the better.

I went to the batting cages on Friday to take some swings. There were two kids there, probably 8-10 years old, and African American. Apparently they had biked there on their own. One of them kept yelling "swing batter batter" as I was trying to hit. After one series of pitches I stepped out, found him, and asked him to not do that (in a game, maybe it was OK, but in a batting cage it didn't seem appropriate). He said OK and stopped.

As I left, he and his friend came back in the door. I stepped out of the way to let them through, and I was walking out I heard them snickering behind my back as kids do. Then I heard one of them say "konichiwa" (the Japanese word for "hello"). I wasn't about to let that go. I went back and confronted both of them. At one point I thought about asking the facility to throw them out, but I figured they were a couple of ignorant kids and this might be a good learning experience.

It turns out it was the second kid who made the comment (the first kid that I had talked to before didn't want anything to do with it). The first thing I told him was "konichiwa" is Japanese for hello, and I'm Chinese (thinking back, I should've taught him how to say it in Chinese). I told him that I don't make fun of him, and he shouldn't make fun of me, and we're here to have a good time. The first kid kept trying to help me out ("yes, you shouldn't talk to him like that").

I know that they were kids and didn't mean much by the comment. But I did want to make sure they understood that Asian people were more than just "konichiwa." He had the typical "I'm intimidated but I'm trying to look cool" look on his face, but hopefully he will be better off after this experience.

I invite anyone else who has an experience like this to calmly but firmly confront it, and take an educational approach to the situation.

Failure and the Asian culture

2009-01-03T19:04:00.000-05:00

Being an Asian American means you live with Asian culture and American culture at the same time. Sometimes it conflicts, which makes it really difficult, especially if you're still young and impressionable.

I'm reading the book "Bounce" by Barry Moltz, which talks about the role of failure in success. Failure is a natural part of being successful, but in our society failure means you weren't smart enough, you didn't work hard enough. On page 66 of the book it talks about how failure is taken in the Asian culture... i.e. you've shamed yourself, your family, and the entire galaxy. Getting a B means you were that far away from getting an A. Asian parents believe that 2nd place is the first loser.

The advantage of the Asian culture in this case is the concept of humility. If we can take the humility part from the Asian culture and the risk-taking part of the American culture, we'd be very successful. One of the things the book talks about is failing with humility allows you to learn the most out of the failure.

Conforming our faces to Western glasses

2008-12-29T15:40:00.000-05:00

There's this movie called Iron and Silk, where a white man goes to China to teach English... It talks about the culture differences and he gets to experience discrimination. He builds a nice rapport with his students, and one day they're talking about the differences between the Western world and theirs. One of his students says, "Your face... it's so 3-dimensional..."

I recently went to see the movie "Bolt" in 3-D at our local theater... I'm wearing 3-D glasses for this movie, and coming out of the theater I get these marks above my cheeks from where the glasses were sitting. This reminded me of how uncomfortable my safety glasses at work were... they wouldn't sit at the bridge of my nose and instead cut into my cheeks. This is because these glasses were designed for non-Asian faces. Maybe it's time we design safety glasses for Asians and stop trying to conform our faces to the Western world!

Frozen Pork Mini Buns - Any good?

2008-12-24T09:43:00.000-05:00

So I was at Jungle Jim's, which is what I would describe as a grocery store crossed with Disney World. Fun place to go shopping, they have more international stuff that many of the mom and pop Chinese stores... all in the outskirts of Cincinnati Ohio.

I picked up a package of "Wei-Chuan" brand frozen pork mini-buns (there's got to be a "that's what she said" double meaning in here somewhere), figuring it could tide me over if I had any dim sum cravings.

After steaming in the rice cooker, I pulled one out, took a bite... and it was actually really good! Even complete with the juices that flow out of the bun, which gives it even more authenticity (Chinese people will know what I'm talking about). The meat had the right flavors, almost (dare I say) Chinatown like taste?

Is voting for your own race right?

2008-12-12T22:18:00.001-05:00

So in one of my friend's blogs, she mentions how it irritates her that people vote along racial or gender lines... i.e. African Americans voting for Obama because he's African American. I used to think that way too, but with experiences over the last couple years, I've completely changed my tune.

At work, they wanted to improve the numbers of Asian Americans to reflect the population of the P&G consumer. So they created "affinity groups" where people of similar backgrounds got together and tried to help each other and the company. Like most people, at first I was very skeptical. I was born and raised in the US, I fit in with Americans, but now you're taking me out and now pointing out how I'm different. Now, I realize just how great it is to be a part of an affinity group... some of us may have been born here, some of us may have been born in Asia and only lived in the US for a few years, but one thing I learned that we had in common: We all had Asian parents, and we learned that they did all the same quirky things as my parents did. I started to understand why I was who I was.

Now I realized I wasn't the only kid who felt guilty about watching Saturday morning cartoons because I should've been studying math. And why I play the violin. And why until recently why my dad was so stressed out about my sister not being a science major. And why at the age of 6 I wanted to be an engineer. And why I feel so conflicted when my parents want to buy me a car after I got my MBA. And why my mom was really surprised to find out that Xavier University was a real college after I toured them. I'm sure any of my Asian friends out there can add more.

So the answer to why voting for an African American president when you're African American is right? It's not that a black person is voting for Obama because he's black... it's because he's grown up with similar experiences as they have. There's no one better to understand race relations than someone who's gone through it. If an African American person votes for an African American president because he's African American, I would venture to guess that they agree on maybe 60-70% of their values. Now if you vote for a Republican because he's Republican, I would venture to guess that percentage is much lower. And for some reason it's OK to vote Republican if you're Republican.

I just read an article that immediately illustrates why having Obama as president changes things... suddenly racial diversity is no longer a taboo subject; instead it should be embraced. Although I wouldn't have been so quick in dropping the "a mutt like me" remark, I actually would call someone like him a "mix." I think of it as best of all worlds... Tiger Woods is a mix. My sister's kids will be a mix. When hitting on non-Asian women I try to use that as a pick up line. Hasn't quite worked yet, maybe a mixed-race person as president will help my cause?

Chinese Characters- not just pretty pictures

2008-12-11T00:14:00.000-05:00

From Independent.co.uk: Chinese 'classical poem' was brothel ad

A respected research institute wanted Chinese classical texts to adorn its journal, something beautiful and elegant, to illustrate a special report on China. Instead, it got a racy flyer extolling the lusty details of stripping housewives in a brothel.

There's a lesson here. Chinese Characters-not just pretty pictures.