We have posted quite a number of instances where the Asian-American community has been forced to endure racism, negative stereotypes, and even death threats because of our ethnicity. We continue to deal with this ignorance and we plan to keep fighting until such racism has stopped. With that said, it is extremely disappointing to see stuff like this amidst our struggle for equality. Clearly, Asian-Americans are not exempt from the list of people who perpetuate racial ignorance.

In UC Irvine, Asian-American fraternity Lambda Theta Delta released a video where one of the brothers performs Blackface. In addition to this, the video is posted with “Disclaimer: No racism intended” which we personally feel is no excuse (especially in a University where Asian -Americans compromise more than half of the student body population while African-Americans make up less than 3%).

Unfortunately, this isn’t even their first time to create a stir. On Lambda Theta Delta’s 2012 Rush Video, there is blackface yet again and an individual wearing a  sombrero and poncho as a costume.   (Watch the video here ) Needless to say, the fraternity’s actions has caused chaos. Lambda Theta Delta has released an apology  claiming that the video does not represent the views of the house and the individuals responsible for the video have been reprimanded.

As Asian-Americans, we have faced our shared of racism, stereotypes, and racial mockery. Is it not our goal to fight against it rather than turn around and commit these acts towards other people of color? Let us know what you think.

(SOURCE 1, 2)
(PHOTO SOURCE 1)

At Audrey Magazine and KoreAm Journal – we put on pretty cool events. Case in point: Audrey’s Night Out and Unforgettable. Be a part of that experience by becoming our event intern! Learn more about it below.

Description:
Looking for a full time meticulous and organized intern for the Events Director. Responsibilities include organizing, executing, and handling post-recaps of advanced screenings, tournaments, and helping plan for the end of the year gala. Must be prompt with responses and able/willing to work outside of normal hours. Preferably someone who can communicate in Korean. Potential for full time position.

Period: Three Months from NOW until Mid-July
Paid: $1000/month
Hours: M-F 9:30am-6:30pm

Please send resumes to joyce@iamkoream.com.

We’re big on social media here at Audrey – and Instagram is no exception. Check out some of our favorite asian celebrities/personalities on Instagram! (You never know if your favorite celebrity is on it!)

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DEPT Pop-arazzi
STORY Olivia Ouyang
ISSUE FALL 2012

Go On, NBC

Suzy Nakamura plays teacher’s pet to Matthew Perry’s class clown in the highly anticipated return of the Friends’ star to NBC.

Suzy Nakamura

Matthew Perry (Friends) returns to NBC as Ryan King, a sports newscaster who loses his wife in a texting and driving accident. Ryan thinks he’s ready to go back to work, but his boss, played by John Cho, is insisting that he go to therapy. Ryan reluctantly complies, wreaking havoc at the group meetings led by a woman whose only training is her previous work with a Weight Watchers outreach program. Among the group therapy members is annoying teacher’s pet Yolanda, played by Suzy Nakamara.

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Photo via Jezebel

Margaret Cho is not known for biting her tongue. The outspoken Korean American comic has never shied away from confronting homophobia, racism, sexism and body intolerance in her stand-up routinees and in her personal life.

But a recent incident left the funny woman at a loss for words.

While attending a well-known Los Angeles Korean spa, or jjimjilbang, Cho began to feel uncomfortable and unwanted. It should be noted that she is heavily tattooed — extensive body art she wears proudly. An otherwise pleasant spa experience went downhill
after other patrons complained about her appearance, specifically her tattoos, as being offensive.

Cho recounts the experience in an editorial piece for Jezebel, where she explains that after she was prompted to cover up to avoid further upsetting anyone in the spa, the indescribable frustration she felt at being treated differently.

“My tattoos represent much of the pain and suffering I have endured. They are part of me, just like my scars, my fat, my eternal struggle with gravity. None of our bodies are ‘perfect’. We live in them. They aren’t supposed to be ‘perfect’. We are just us, perceived flaws and all. I am just only myself. … Their intolerance viewing my nakedness –- as if it was some kind of an assault on their senses, like my ass was a weapon – made me furious in a way I can’t really even express with words -– and that for me is quite impressive. This bitch always has some shit to say.”

Cho, a native of San Francisco, has arguably paved the way for many Asian Americans in popular culture, film, and television.

Despite the emotional reaction the incident caused, Cho still found a way to find humor in the situation.

“I restrained myself from saying “joo-goo lae?” which loosely translated means, “you want to die?” I didn’t say it. I thought it. but I didn’t say it.”

Reposted from KoreAm. 

Dept: Pop-arazzi
Author: Ada Tseng
Photographer: Diana King
Hair: Sunny Campos
Makeup: Shelly Samia

Although Twilight fans know Booboo Stewart as an actor who plays the kindhearted shapeshifter Seth Clearwater (he recently starred in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2), longer-time supporters have been following Stewart, the singer/dancer/guitarist/drummer/martial artist, on YouTube as early as 2007. There are videos of young Booboo performing as a member of the Disney pop group T-Squad and rocking out in his band Echoes of Angels. Booboo — along with his sisters Maegan, Fivel, and Sage — grew up on movie sets, since their father was a stunt coordinator in Hollywood. Booboo did his first movie stunt around age 10, and when Fivel saw her big brother doing it, she wanted in on the action. Their martial arts training taught them to be comfortable onstage, and they’ve both been singing and dancing in front of huge crowds since they were pre-teens.

“I think the first concert we did together was in Chicago, opening for Demi Lovato,” says Fivel. “We did it last minute, and our dad ended up driving 36 hours straight, so we could perform there.”

Now 18 and 16, Booboo and Fivel have joined forces with friends Davin Baltazar and Ryan Cook to create their new band 5L.

“5L is just a cool way to spell Fivel’s name,” explains Booboo. “It’s her band really, so it’s only appropriate.”

Fivel dances and sings lead vocals, while Booboo plays the guitar and sings supporting vocals. This arrangement takes advantage of their strengths: Booboo started playing the guitar when he was about 10 years old after receiving an electric guitar for Christmas, and Fivel has wanted to be a singer for as long as
she can remember.

Next up, they play twins in the film Hansel and Gretel — fitting, as people always thought they were twins growing up. Their music will also be featured in the film’s closing credits.

Dept: Pop-arazzi
Author: Kanara Ty
Title: Where My (AA) Girls At?

Don’t like what HBO’s Girls is saying about this generation? Then tell your own story.

Mindy Kaling.

Before HBO’s Girls was set to premiere this past spring, the comedy about 20something struggling post-grads in New York City sparked a debate about race and representation in Hollywood. My initial thoughts after I finished the first episode of Girls? Sure, it was hard for me to relate to anything that was going on on the show (I’m not white, I don’t come from a privileged, wealthy background, nor do I live in New York City), but I was immensely surprised at how
entertaining I found the show to be — namely the awkwardness/quirkiness of the female lead characters. Lena Dunham, who impressively writes, directs and stars in the show, has already been hailed as the next Tina Fey.

Dunham has yet to be dubbed the “voice of her generation” (as her character in Girls states) — and rightfully so. Having such a title bears the social responsibility of, well, speaking for a diverse generation of people who come from different backgrounds and experiences. Fact of the matter is, Dunham is talented — her writing is witty, intelligent
and full of charisma. Girls speaks of her own personal experiences; as that saying goes, write what you know. And she does a damn good job of it. Instead of pointing fingers at Dunham, we should be asking the programming departments of major television networks about the diversity in their programming — I mean, they are responsible for
what gets on the air.

Shortly after Girls aired, the extended trailer for FOX’s The Mindy Project premiered and, of course, was met with much applause. It’s been a while since an Asian American woman has taken the reigns of a comedy on a major televisionnetwork and, well, it looks like Mindy Kaling has hit it on the head. However, Kaling still sits alone, as we have yet to really see excellent programming starring Asian American talent that’s also relatable. (Sorry Maggie Q — I wish I could relate to your kick-ass assassin character, but it’s just not happening.) One could argue that Asian American programming now has a place on YouTube. You have your WongFu boys, KevJumbas and Ryan Higas. In a significant move, there’s now the YouTube Original Channels, which features programming in entertainment, beauty, sports and technology. This includes Michelle Phan’s FAWN (For All Women Network) and the Asian American pop culture blog’s YOMYOMF (You Offend Me, You Offend My Family). Speaking of the YOMYOMF Channel, I should make note of BFFs. BFFs is a comedy webseries that features Asian American actresses in the leading roles. While the series was met with lukewarm reactions, I have to say it’s a start, which is better than nothing at all. 

If there’s anything I can truly criticize, it’s that there’s not enough self-expression among this generation. When the reality show K-Town (on YouTube’s Loud Channel) surfaced, it was met with so much negativity from Asian Americans whwere afraid of how they were going to be represented. But in all honesty, have our purported “positive” stereotypes (read: the model minority) played in our favor in American society? Going along with this idea of social responsibility, the key thing to note is that there are multiple voices of this generation, but many of them go unspoken. Dunham, Kaling or YouTube celebrities should not be the only ones speaking for us. Whether their work makes us happy, angry, sad or stir any sort of emotion, rather than sit back and mouth off on our soap boxes about what we think others are doing, think about what we can do right. We’re all quick to hate on each other; instead, let’s let theseconversations inspire one another.

CAAMfest Festival and Exhibition Director Masahi Niwano, filmmaker Nadine Truong, Producers of Linsanity, Brian Yang, Christopher Chen, Allen Lu, director Evan Jackson Leong, and Festival Managing Director Christine Kwon.

It was a beautiful night, and The Castro district was buzzing with Jeremy Lin fans and movie buffs. It was the opening night of CAAMfest, and my photographer Erilou and I couldn’t be any more excited for what was in store. We got dolled up, but on our cute dresses and drove out to SF. On our schedule was the premiere of Linsanity and a gala at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, Ca. We had such an amazing time and met so many amazing people. Check out our coverage on this year’s CAAMfest opening night!

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We’re giving away tickets to Music Matters Asia in San Francisco for March 7-8! To enter:

To enter:
1. Like Audrey on FB & follow us Twitter
2. Leave a comment on this post with your name and Twitter handle!

About:

As a special preview for CAAMFest (formerly the San Francisco International Asian-American Film Festival), Asia’s premier music industry event, Music Matters, has teamed up with an alliance of Asia’s leading indie music promoters (China : Maybe Mars / Korea : DFSB Kollective / Taiwan : The Wall) and Singapore’s Viki.com to proudly present the launch of San Francisco Music Matters Asia (March 7th-8th, 2013).

A brand new extension of the highly successful Music Matters Live festival in Singapore (http://AllThatMatters.Asia/LIVE), the two-day San Francisco showcase will spotlight Asia’s top indie music artists. According to Music Matters Founder and CEO Jasper Donat, “Asia is smoking hot for talent at the moment and we’re delighted to have some biggest and best live bands from the region sharing the same stage for the first time ever in America.”

Tthe inaugural showcase headliners include the following critically acclaimed, SXSW music acts from China, Korea, and Taiwan:

CHINA
Carsick Cars (2009 China MIDI Awards : Album of the Year – Nominee)
The Gar (2012 China MIDI Awards : Song of the Year – Winner)
White+ (2012 China Douban Awards: Electronic Music Album of the Year – Winner)

KOREA
3rd Line Butterfly (2013 Korean Music Awards : Musician of the Year – Nominee)
Galaxy Express (2011 Korean Music Awards : Musician of the Year – Winner)
Goonam (2012 Korean Music Awards : Modern Rock Album of the Year – Nominee)
Lowdown 30 (2013 Korean Music Awards : Album of the Year – Nominee)
No Brain (2007 Korean Music Awards : Band of the Year)

TAIWAN
The Chairman (2011 Taiwan Golden Melody Awards : Band of the Year – Nominee)

High school: such a pivotal time in young women’s lives for college/career decisions, familial tension, first loves, first rejections, no-holds-barred attitude and unexpected self-discoveries.

And when high school years are depicted on American film and television, extracurricular activities may involve solving murder mysteries (Pretty Little Liars), and unrequited love is sometimes best told through song (T.V. Carpio’s cover of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in Across the Universe).

One could argue that Tamlyn Tomita’s Kumiko was the ultimate Asian American high school “girl-next-door” crush, even if, back in 1986, the Karate Kid had to travel all the way to Japan to be in the right neighborhood. But in the past 25 years, there have many memorable Asian American girls  – as well as British Asians, Asian-Scots and Asian Canadians that we snuck onto the list — that we can look up to (or reminisce with) in these classic tales of high school.

Below are our Top 10 Asian American High School Girls Next Door:

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