Kevin Tsujihara, The 1st Asian American To Run A Major Hollywood Studio

Okay, I'm late to the party on this one, but I had to blog about it regardless since it is a Jeremy Lin like watershed moment for Asian Americans. Kevin Tsujihara will become the first Asian American ever to be CEO of Warner Bros, let alone any major Hollywood studio and will be replacing Barry Meyer who has held the position for almost 14 years. According to the LA Times, Meyer had some kind words to say about Tsujihara,

"Everyone needs a leader, and Kevin was the person best equipped to unify the company at this time," Meyer said in an interview. "We just thought he was the best choice for the whole company...It was about the person and the character of the person," Meyer said. "The digital transition is one that is happening and it is affecting every part of our company. Kevin has really been at the forefront of that, and leading that charge, but Warner Bros. is really about the products that it makes."

I hope this means that more Asian Americans will finally have a fair shot at the big screen devoid of tokenized stereotypical Asian characters.

WongFu Reminds Us Why It's So Important To Approach A Girl In Under 3 Seconds

Have you ever heard of the 3 second rule when it comes to approaching a woman you're interested in? For those of you who haven't, the rule is basically this. If you notice a girl you find attractive and want to talk to, you should do it in under 3 seconds the moment you see her. As WongFu Productions little short "This is how we never met" illustrates, the longer you wait to think of something to say before you just go up and talk to her, the more likely it is that you won't do it.

Check Out Jeannie Lin, The Award Winning Author Of Historical Romance

If you've been a D2R reader for the last few years you might recall a blog I wrote up on how Asian men even get shafted in literature due to the dearth of authors who portray them as the romantic lead or better yet, don't even get included in the storyline at all. It even stirred up quite a ruckus on YOMYOMF. Look, I know what you're thinking,

"But MaSir, what about The Joy Luck Club? Obviously, there's irrefutably no better book out there at describing what a wonderful experience it is to date an Asian male besides that one." 

You are absolutely right! Amy Tan did her best to make Asian men look incredibly awesome, romantic and financially generous. After its release, Asian Americans from all over the world hail and swear by that novel as the most accurate depiction of AA men.

However, I still wasn't satisfied and thought to myself, "There has to be a female author who knows how to write a different kind of Asian love story." You know...where the Asian guy actually gets the girl...like how it is in the real-world. Searching high and low I was fortunate enough to find Jeannie Lin, a writer of historical romance novels set in ancient China. (And no, her stories do not parallel The Last Samurai if you know what I mean.) American entertainment, literature included, retells the same propagandizing love story. Jeannie, however, is different in that her stories center around the Asian male as an actual love interest, unlike what I call the BLS*. 

*Bruce Lee Syndrome (BLS) - Asian male protagonist kicks the shit out of a thousand men, but never gets the girl or is deemed as an asexual creature. 

Thus, I decided to sit down with Lin for a one-on-one interview and learn more about her and her work. You can check out Jeannie Lin's website here.

MaSir: Tell us about yourself. Let's start off with a "Jeannie Lin" boilerplate introduction.

Jeannie:  I'm Jeannie. I write historical romances set in Tang Dynasty China. Surprisingly, my background is actually in cognitive science and education. I'm a techie by day and writer by night.

MaSir:  By any chance, are you related to Jeremy Lin?

Jeannie:  Heheh...no relation. I do occasionally refer to him as cousin Jeremy as a joke online. No relation to Justin Lin either....

MaSir:  Damn it. Okay. Interview's over...

Just kidding. So when did you start writing? And when did you officially become "Jeannie Lin" the author?

Jeannie:  I started writing around 2005. I was still teaching and looking for something to do as a hobby to balance things out. I took a class on romance writing and at first it was just something non-teaching to do on weekends, but the more I invested in the story, the more I realized I had always wanted to publish a story, so I committed to going for it. It took about four years of writing before I got noticed and received my first writing contract.

MaSir:  Do your parents know that you're a romance novel writer?

Jeannie:  Ha, they do! 

MaSir:  What are their opinions of it? I know Asian parents are so particular about their children pursuing STEM related careers but it looks like you already have that so maybe they don't mind so much?

Jeannie:  My mother is quite proud and actually sent my first book to a major Vietnamese paper because she knew the editor. (She publishes poetry under a pseudonym). My father requested a copy of my books -- just to have as a souvenir I'm sure -- so I may be the only romance author who has shipped their books to a Buddhist monastery. He's not a monk, he was just rooming at a monastery. 

Writing is my side job. My parents are very practical people and I'm no different. I'd starve if I tried to feed myself on writing money alone. I have a day job that pays the bills. [Just a side note] A lot of the shame that comes with writing romance or genre-fiction comes from how you feel yourself. I've never been ashamed and everyone I know, family and friends, have always been positive.

MaSir:  I actually stumbled upon your website after a blog that I had written up about the lack of AA female authors writing stories with Asian males as love interests and romantic leads. I was pleasantly surprised that there was someone representing for the Asian male race. What prompted you to stay within your ethnicity and not go off following the typical WM/AF love story that is so mainstream and overdone?

Is Your Girlfriend Phasing You Out? Eliot Chang Explains

Eliot Chang is part of my original list of Asian men changing the face of American entertainment. Obviously that list has at least doubled in size since and will need to be updated in the future, but Eliot still remains to be one of the major Asian American trailblazers using comedy to entertain, educate and get straight to the point. Take for instance this recent video I found of his on YouTube called, Dating 101: You Are Being Phased Out. For those of you who might not have a clue that you are about to get dumped, Eliot breaks it down for you.

I thought he did an excellent job explaining why certain signs are indicative of relationship abandonment. However, there is one more sign I'd like to add to Eliot's monologue in being able to detect if you're about to get dumped. It might have been an accidental omission on his part, but I also believe that if a girl is "phasing you out" she will begin to pick fights with you over stupid shit. And yes, men are just as guilty of this kind of asshole-like behavior also.

LeendaD Shows Girls How To Pick Up Guys

I love it when I discover funny YouTube videos. If matchmaking ain't your thing, not to worry ladies. You can always try hunting for the perfect mate yourself. This skit comes to us from LeendaD Productions, a group of girls from British Columbia, Canada, who demonstrate for us how to pickup guys at the gym. What makes this skit so comical is that no girl will ever try to hit on a guy at the gym and secondly, its usually the other way around where guys are the ones gawking. Plus, people there are just focused on working out (and checking out the meat market).

Check out part 2. How to pick up a guy at the library.

Even US Employees Are Outsourcing Their Work To China

This story is too hilarious for me to pass up and share. I'll have to categorize this one under comedy. It just goes to show you how China is becoming a bigger part of the US economy whether you see it with your own eyes or not. Based on a story published by The Next Web, Verizon discovered that a US developer was outsourcing his work to China. A guy by the name of "Bob" sent his work over to a Chinese consulting firm paying them only one-fifth of his six figure annual income to do all of his work for him so we could watch cat videos and read Reddit.

I'm going to make an assumption that Bob is Chinese. How else would he have been able to find those connections given the language barrier, but who knows? Maybe he hired a Chinese translator too. Nonetheless, genius.

Apparently, Bob was running this scheme at several companies simultaneously, and they only caught him after the US company contacted Verizon about a possible security breach coming from China. However, it wasn't a hack from the outside in but vice versa. As stated in Verizon's Security Blog,

As it turns out, Bob had simply outsourced his own job to a Chinese consulting firm. Bob spent less that one fifth of his six-figure salary for a Chinese firm to do his job for him. Authentication was no problem, he physically FedExed his RSA token to China so that the third-party contractor could log-in under his credentials during the workday. It would appear that he was working an average 9 to 5 work day. Investigators checked his web browsing history, and that told the whole story. 

A typical ‘work day’ for Bob looked like this: 

9:00 a.m. – Arrive and surf Reddit for a couple of hours. Watch cat videos
11:30 a.m. – Take lunch
1:00 p.m. – Ebay time.
2:00 – ish p.m Facebook updates – LinkedIn
4:30 p.m. – End of day update e-mail to management.
5:00 p.m. – Go home

Bob managed to use a mix of social engineering and outsourcing fundamentals, which he learned from the best, to write all of his code for him paying only a fraction of what he was making. Sound familiar? Hint: Every major American corporation.

At first glance, the story is all chuckles and yes, what he did was definitely in the wrong. Its a violation of company policy to be sharing trade secrets not to mention a blatant security breach to send over your credentials to an outsider. However, I can see how some people may lionize this man, for he was simply "working smarter, not harder".

I don't know of a single American corporation that doesn't outsource these days to China or India. If you want to compete in this global economy these days, you absolutely must outsource some of your labor, production or customer service to either East Asia or Europe due to the tremendous cost advantages over employing your own domestic workers.  

What makes Bob look like a bad guy in this instance is simply his title. That's it. Had he been a CxO or Vice President of the company, he might've been handsomely awarded a raise or fat bonus for saving the company money and making it more operationally efficient. Looks like China isn't just making all of our hardware now but our software too, at least behind the scenes.

Ka-Ching Dynasty! 

Comedian KT Tatara AKA "The Poon Sensei" Is Brutally Honest But Always Funny

For those of you who've never heard of KT Tatara, you can all thank me now. I'm not sure what his ethnicity is, but from his last name I'd assume he's half Japanese and half white. Don't quote me on it though. What appeals me about KT is that he has a brutally honest style of delivery. I wouldn't go so far to say it's as extreme as Daniel Tosh but its definitely real. Check out this awesome bit he did at The Laugh Factory in LA.

As you can see, the guy's got skills. KT started getting recognition as a legitimate comedian around 2006 and since then has continued to tour and do stand up. Here's another really good set he had at The Ice House. He kills it!

I didn't know he had an alter ego called "The Poon Sensei" either. You can learn more about KT from his website here.

Police Lockup Asian American Teens For 15 Hours Without Food Or Water

Stories like these serve as an unwelcome reminder as to why Asian Americans need to band together and speak out against the injustices deliberated upon them or any other minority. Adam Kim, an Asian American teen of Newark, NJ, is filing a civil suit against the Fort Lee Newark Police Department for unlawfully arresting him and violating his civil rights. Kim and a few others were held like hostages, locked inside a van for 15 hours straight in below freezing temperatures without any food, water or even a place to take care of nature's calling. Had a passerby not taken noticed of the boys locked inside the vehicle the next day, who knows what might've happened to them.

Source: Daily Mail Online

Reported by the Daily Mail, the incident occurred back in March, 2011. According to Kim, the officers "displayed a pattern of racial bias and/or indifference" by using racial slurs to reference Asian-Americans. There was an internal investigation but the department said that they did not find any evidence of malicious intent or discrimination. I'll take those findings with a grain of salt. Seriously, what police department is going to confess that they have a racist unit? Although the officers remain innocent until proven guilty, if what Kim alleges is indeed true, I would be deeply saddened, because entrust these individuals and depend on them to enforce the law, not violate it.

Jeremy Lin - Asian American Male Of The Year

It's about that time again where we start anew, but before we do, I want to give an Asian American Male of the Year award to the one and only Jeremy Lin. What Lin accomplished this year alone is truly remarkable. To go from being an NBA player who nobody had really heard of outside of the Asian community before his breakout game against the Nets, to a megastar athlete in a span of a few months calls for a resounding applause.

Far too long have Asian American men had been desperately seeking an Asian male role model to look up to outside the relic of Bruce Lee, though an unadulterated actor, fighter, philosopher and legend by anyones standards, Lin on the other hand has graced the front pages of major newspapers, magazines, mainstream media and entertainment outlets. Most Asian American parents that I knew of growing up didn't encourage their children to go into professional sports. The main focus has always been studying, which isn't a always a bad thing, but Lin achieved more than that. As a Harvard graduate, Lin not only turned the conventional wisdom surrounding Asian American men on its head, that of course being strictly academic, un-athletic and feeble, but also made up for the lost time and painful setback by the American idol reject William Hung.

"A Leading Man" Depicts The Asian Male Actors Struggle In Hollywood

Its no surprise that Asian American actors have struggled to receive acceptance from the mainstream audience in America, let alone obtain leading roles in Hollywood films. And if you compare the hardships that Asian American males have to endure to break into the entertainment industry compared to females, its arguably even harder. As reported by Meniscus Magazine, Steven J. Kung decided to do something about this particular systemic issue by writing and directing the film "A Leading Man", which explores the harsh realities and setbacks when confronted with Hollywood's "quiet racism".

Courtesy of Meniscus Magazine

I don't know much about Steven Kung, but I applaud his gallant efforts in producing a film that challenges the very system that he is a part of and also pays his bills. When asked how he came up with the idea for the script, Steve answered verbatim what many Asian Americans have been contesting all along.

”I originally came to Hollywood because I was sick of seeing Asian men in particular emasculated in front of the camera...No one was making the films that would portray Asian American men in a more well-rounded way. I'm 35 now and this still hasn't come so I'm like, you know, things aren't entirely socially equal, and let's make a film about that.”

Now the lead actor Jack Yang is a good looking guy. He sort of reminds me of the Batman animated version of Bruce Wayne with longer hair. Although that says absolutely nothing about his acting abilities, if he actually has the talent and is getting rejected left and right from Hollywood casting directors consistently then it's obvious that what he's experiencing parallels the "soft bigotry of low expectations" that plagued Jeremy Lin. In other words, he's a benchwarmer, a 3rd string, B-Movie actor. You can see from his portfolio on IMDB Yang's been in a quite a few Hollywood films and TV series, but rarely, if ever, as the leading male character.

Non-English Speaking Chinese Guy Gets The White Girl

Happy Holidays to all of my readers out there!

AbsolutelyFobulous shared this video below featuring cross-cultural love between a Chinese guy, AJ, and his British-Spanish aka white girlfriend Natalie. I've been meaning to share this with all of you frustrated Asian guys out there looking for love (from white girls) in hopes to inspire you.

If AJ, who can barely speak any English, can manage to get with Natalie, a woman who has her own set of Mandarin and cultural obstacles to overcome, there's zero excuse for Asian American guys not being able to get attractive women regardless of their non-Asian background.

I have to give this guy major props because he actually did what a lot of Asian American guys don't do. He initiated. He approached, and I've seen more guys being aggressive with women over in Asian countries than I have here. Now that's inspiring.

RIP To Recent Victims To Gun Violence

Folks, I had to take a break from blogging.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, I had to sit down and reflect upon my life outside of Asian American issues that seem far too petty relative to the recent tragedy where 28 people died. 20 elementary school children, 6 faculty heros, Adam Lanza and his gun toting mother. I'm not going to argue about gun control as I've done more than enough debating for stricter gun laws during the last week. The one thing I will say however is that I don't believe in guns, period.

Thanks for those of you checking in. I have more stories I'd like to share with you soon.

The Next Big Asian Comedian: Zhangster

For some of you who already know of the Zhangster, call me a late arrival to the party but I just stumbled upon his clips on YouTube. He's a Chinese American straight out of the Bay Area, San Francisco to be exact. Hands down he's one of the funniest Asian American male comedians I've seen in a while. His jokes are pretty clever and he's really quick with the comebacks.

Zhangster going off on the UCLA Wallace's racist rant against Asians.

Asians Majority of Silicon Valley Workers

San Jose Mercury reports that Asians are now the dominant workforce in Silicon Valley. Is it really surprising though? I guess, but when did Asians not dominate math, engineering and sciences? Its been going on for the last several decades unless you've never met an Asian person in your entire life. What I would prefer to see though is more Asian college graduates pursuing sales and marketing roles that require a different skill set and prepares for senior management.

Courtesy of San Jose Mecury

When one looks at most company management teams, the majority is still predominantly white. I don't have a problem with it personally as long as everyone has a fair shot at making it to the top. The way I see it is that Asian Americans are always hustling. As you can see from the pie charts above, it took a decade for Asians to increase their footprint in Silicon Valley by 12%. That's some impressive growth numbers and it just goes to show you that hard work and persistance pays off. 

Naturally, this can create stereotypes and lead to an imbalance where one ethnic group dominates a particular sector leaving other hidden talent to be overlooked. I believe this is unhealthy for the same reasons many Asian Americans argue for greater diversity in other arenas. For instance, blacks dominate 78% of the NBA. Yes, the same one that overlooked Jeremy Lin. And we all know whites dominate Hollywood. This infographic below says 70% of casting calls show preference for white actors.

That said, pursuing an engineering career for Asians is the perfect ice breaker for the world of technology and business, but can be limiting when there's a desire to climb the corporate ladder. The beauty of this country is that if you don't like it, you can do something about it by starting your own company as long as you have the right idea and the balls to risk everything for a shot at tremendous success. 

Take entrepreneur Brian Wong for instance. He's not based in Silicon Valley, but he is a business development techie. This guy is a smart mothafuckin' hustler i.e. a sales guy. At 21 years old he already has his own company, Kiip, that offers embedded rewards for mobile gaming apps. Okay, so he looks a tad dorky but he is only 21. Remember what Larry Ellison looked like when he founded Oracle? Look at him now: CEO, Playboy, Business Tycoon Extraordinaire. If Brian becomes a multi-millionaire or even more so a billionaire, which is highly probable, I don't think he'll have any trouble finding a hot date. 

He better watch out for gold diggers though. Yikes! 

Red Dawn Encourages More Asian Racism And Threat Construction

OMFG. Here we go again. As if the barrage of racist tweets against Psy for performing at the AMAs weren't enough, Hollywood coincidentally, had to add fuel to the fire by releasing an offensive, vociferous movie where an exclusive group of white American teenagers, the Wolverines, counterattack the North Koreans who invade my homeland, not North Korea, but the United States of America. I was going to let this story fall by the wayside, but I encountered too much of this kind of bullshit throughout my life to just sit here and let these ignorant assholes degrade what my country stands for.

I get it. Many of these tweeters are adolescents or young adults, immature and still learning what it means not to be ignorant. Nevertheless, one would think that the collective consciousness of the American youth has continued along its evolutionary tragectory and not regressed to this pre-Civil Rights or Civil War era.

Ah yes. Brings back memories of growing up Asian in the U.S.

Someone will incessantly argue, "Its just a movie. Its fictitious. Get over it."

Really?

True Or False: Asians Want To Be White

This YouTube rant speaks on behalf of many Asian Americans, myself included, and I'm glad she set the record straight for anyone out there who thinks that all Asians want to be "white". Its simply not true. Why do people assume that just because Asians, Koreans especially, get some facial plastic surgery that its because they want to mirror the white physical features. C'mon really? Asians - minus the self-loathing embarrassments like this one - care more about their aesthetic appeal irrespective of race.

Look, there are beautiful people of all races. I believe women are less likely to agree with me on this topic, but the fact of the matter is every ethnicity has its subset of beautiful people. Does it mean you're necessarily attracted to them? No, but you can't deny a person who's beautiful. So to assume that Asians who get plastic surgery, wear colored contacts or dye their hair color do it to intentionally be "white" instead of simply enhancing their looks is not only reductive, but also an implicit self-concession on your part that being white is the de facto standard of beauty. 

That, in and of itself, is a false assertion. Asians want to look beautiful just like any other goddamn human being or creature on this planet. Race is irrelevant.

I don't know about you but I've seen plenty of ugly white people. Plenty. I have also seen plenty of ugly Latinos, Blacks and Asians. And for the ones that are good-looking, guess what? They all share similar characteristics of beauty. Beauty has no racial preference. These are physical characteristics that are borderless, timeless and vary depending on the era. No race is biologically predisposed of looking more beautiful over another. That is not reality. That is however, the unfortunate perception of reality due to the influence of the mass media. For instance, let's compare and contrast how American and Asian entertainment portrays Asian males (I'm feeling positive that Hollywood is finally getting their act together or they'll just yellowface the shit out of us).

Han Lee (Actor: Mathew Moy) from 2 Broke Girls

Vs.

Tae-Shik (Actor: Won Bin) from The Man From Nowhere

Get my drift?

Psy Called Racial Slurs Post AMAs On Twitter

My last two blogs covered how ignoring Asians is no longer an option given the changing landscape of the world economy and the socioeconomic rise of Asians in America and back East. The Far East. Unfortunately, there are those individuals filled with hate who make themselves feel better by letting the world know that they don't like "chinks" and wish for us to "go back to Asia". At least that's what these Twitter users said after Psy's performance on the American Music Awards courtesy of Public Shaming's tumblr.

Now I haven't been completely onboard with the K-Popstar's claim to fame, but that's not to say I won't give him props for his accomplishments. I respect him as an artist and think he does have real talent. It took Justin Bieber 4 years to amass 800 million views on YouTube whereas Psy has almost achieved the same view count in about 4 months. That's pretty impressive.

I get that Psy is not American and he was singing a song that wasn't in English which may have made some folks feel alienated, however he did close the show with MC Hammer who is 100% American. This duet is a reflection of America's changing cultural landscape in that we're becoming more of a melting pot. Dude, we have a Black president! But what also pisses me off is the fact that countries all over the Asia-Pacific have been open arms embracing American music for nearly a century. Korea especially. There's not a single night club you can go into without listening to American music and its been that way for generations. It's like what Swizz Beats said when he referred to Big Bang's release of Blue. America never rolls out the red carpet for Asian artists, and yet when American artists go overseas to Asia, countries over in the region show them all kinds of love rolling out the red carpet, inviting them on talk shows, having them perform, etc. etc. I'm glad to see we're moving forward.

Why can't these Tweeters above embrace Asian artists the same way? I grew up feeling alienated many times simply because I wasn't white. It made me feel like a permanent outsider hearing these kinds of hateful remarks and it pains me to see this sentiment is still pervasive in America today. Its 2012!!

Look, if you want to get really anal about it, none of Scooter Braun's artists' are American proper. One Direction gets plenty of mainstream airplay and they're a British boy band. Yes, they do sing in English, but that doesn't make them anymore American than Psy. And if we're strictly speaking of the United States of America, well both Justin Bieber and Carly Jae Repsen are not US Citizens so maybe they shouldn't be at the AMAs either. And while I'm at it, maybe we shouldn't have Shakira on any of our American TV shows too since, you know, she's from Latin America which isn't America proper.

Perhaps Psy should've sang an English version of Gangnam Style at the AMAs? Maybe, but it doesn't make sense. Gangnam Style is about a district in Seoul, Korea not America and there's really no American city center that parallels the same shallow and arrogant 'tudes as that particular geographic location. Psy created this song for his home country, not the American market. It just so happens Psy stumbled onto fame when the rest of the world fell in love with its high-energy, infectious beat. Don't blame Psy or the AMAs.

Another surprising tidbit. Most of the anti-Psy tweets came from women of the caucasian variety. Granted, this is only a sample of the entire universe of tweets, negative and positive, but never would I have expected that much of a backlash to having Psy on the AMAs. In fact, after scouring the Twitter feeds, I see more guys all around giving Psy props! Well look at it this way. If President Obama got all kinds of flack on Twitter for being Black and re-elected, then no doubt that the same bunch will probably post a racial slur about Psy.

Moving on...

Correction: Ignoring China Is No Longer An Option

One of my buddies sent me this video on YouTube documenting the dramatic rise of a wealthy class in China. This is one of the rare times I've seen someone of white or European descent kissing the asses of Asian big shots and definitely won't be the last. As I mentioned in my previous blog how ignoring the Asian community is no longer an option, I can say confidently now after watching this piece that not only ignoring or belittling Asians will no longer be an option, but also suicidal move for ones professional and personal endeavors.

Let's face it. Asians have always been under the mercy of European Imperialism and American "Big Stick" foreign policies. There are two sides to this history of course. Not all of it was necessarily bad e.g. capitalism, democracy, Vietnamese sandwiches, etc. I will say however, that even as an American born Asian I frequently felt like a second-class citizen compared to my white counterparts, naturally yet disagreeably so. Asians were always economic subjugates of this domineering West, but as you can see from this video, times are changing.

Ka-Ching Dynasty isn't all glitz, glamour and gold. As much as I like the idea of a rising Asia, I believe there's a lot of damage it could bring to the collective consciousness of the people in that geographic location. One of my friends made a very good argument that such rapid growth creates bubbles and a nation of hollow individuals that become enchanted with opulence, greed and a disregard for the environment. Another Gangnam Style perhaps? Who knows? At this point I say it's too early for me to make that judgement call, but I hope that isn't the case.

Ignoring Asians Is No Longer An Option

For the longest time I have felt that Asian American voices have been ignored or simply drowned out by the cheers and jeers of non-Asian audiences, but this past 2012 election and the changing landscape of the world economy should serve as a wake up call to everyone that Asian Americans are no longer the silent minority.

In fact, Asian Pacific Americans pulled off the most historic wins in politics growing their clout in the US. And what about our social standing relative to the world economy? Well for one thing, my displeasure for Cloud Atlas's yellowface of Asian men probably isn't held in solitude, and I'll bet the collective outrage has adversely impacted their box office sales worldwide.

According to IMDB as of November 2012, Warner Bros raked in merely $18 million, roughly $82 million short of their initial investment in the film. I'm glad the film tanked and I think a substantial number of Americans, regardless of their ethnic background, are fed up with Hollywood's perpetual promotion of white heroines against the backdrop of other ethnicities, and they're speaking up about it, not just with their voices, but also their wallets. Looks like the executives over at the film studios didn't get the memo that its a bad idea to alienate the entire Asian male population.

James Cameron, the director of mega blockbuster Avatar, is as shrewd with business as he is talented behind the camera. Word has it Cameron is working on the incorporating Chinese Na'vi into an Avatar sequel.

“Within five years, China could easily be as big a gross-revenue market for film as North America, and there are very specific economic incentives for having both Chinese content and Chinese co-production."

I'll make another bet that Cameron is intelligent enough to include Chinese characters with equal or ample screen time as their white or blue counterparts. Unless he has no qualms about pissing off the largest country in the world that owns a huge chunk of our national debt, I doubt he'll portray these Chinese Na'vi as strictly antagonists.

How Not To Pickup A Girl

The other day I witnessed a pickup flop right before my eyes. Now before I go on criticizing the way I saw this hapless Asian guy trying to pickup a girl at a local coffee shop, I commend him for at least trying and I have to admit that I've made some big mistakes too; by no means does it make me less guilty.

Here's one example of me being lame. One time I was walking down the street and saw this hot Asian girl carrying her laundry basket. She wasn't even struggling with it but I went ahead and asked her, "You need any help with that?" as kind of a lame joke. She immediately blurted out, "No thanks!" and so, I just continued on walking. #FAIL.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't my greatest moment in pickup history. I've had better comebacks before, like at the gym one time when I saw this girl working out on a leg press machine and I intentionally went up to her with a cheesy opening line.

Me:  Hey, do you need a spot? 

Girl: Ummm. No thanks. 

Me:  Are you sure? Those weights look pretty heavy. 

Girl:  I'm sure. Thanks.

It was a freakin' leg press machine! You don't really need a spot for a leg press and definitely not for 20 pounds, but I was persistant nonetheless. I marched forward anyway after pretending to turn around as if I were about to leave and responded back,

Me: Can you pretend like you need a spot? *half smiling*

Girl: *Two second pause.*  Oh...I get it. 

         *She starts to giggle a little*  That's pretty good!

Actually no, it was pretty horrible because I didn't have much else to follow up with. I resorted to some small talk but I didn't really get anywhere because there was another, bigger issue. I was trying to pickup a girl at the gym - a place where women feel gross with all of these guys staring at them. You're sweaty, they're sweaty and most women probably don't want to be bothered which is why they have their headphones on. In fact, whenever I see a woman with her headphones on I interpret that as, "Leave me the fuck alone. I don't want to be bothered." Not to say its impossible to achieve success at the gym, but I'd much rather prefer a bar, lounge or coffee shop, which brings me to my next story.