Alpha Asian

There is a hotel on the same block as my work place and on occasion, I go to the Starbuck's in the hotel. Other times, I stop into the hotel to take a break and walk around this small eatery connected to the hotel. This week, I discovered just by chance that the Asian American Journalist Association was having their annual convention. Moreover, I kind of  crashed some of the convention. Hey, I blended in, so why not hang around and pick up conversation threads? I actually didn't talk to anyone though, I didn't want to get caught as not being a journalist! But today, I unknowingly caught part of a break out session in one of the hotel's meeting rooms that was moderated by Phil Yu from Angry Asian Man. Also of note was C-SPAN was filming it. The panel touched upon some interesting things about Asian American media representation. Furthermore, speaking of representation, I noticed from the crowd that it seemed as if there were more women than men. It sure would be nic...

Writer Bryan Thao Worra posted an interesting observation on The State of Asian American Blogs : "Back in 2009, the website connected to the excellent documentary Vincent Who? featured a list of over 50 Asian American blogs . It certainly wasn't meant to be comprehensive, but was an interesting snapshot of many of the voices writing regularly in our community. I wanted to see how many are still active and operating... "This year, on the 20th anniversary of Vincent Chin's murder, it's surprising to see who's still standing and posting out of the sample Vincent Who? noted three years ago. "Out of 55 listed, fewer than 30 are still around. I wouldn't call this a 40% attrition rate but it suggests there are some changes happening on the internet and how Asian Americans are developing their voices." Not listed among the dropouts were The Fighting 44's and Sepia Mutiny , both of which closed shop just recently. I didn't keep up...

"It was a blessing in disguise..." I'm sure you've used this to describe a setback in your life. As if it was fate that your girlfriend broke up with you or fate that caused you to get fired from your job all so that better things could fall into place. I use this phrase all the time to describe when things don't exactly play out as planned. Though I may use it, I hate what it assumes. It assumes I had no role in how the scenario turned out. It implies that this mysterious force called "fate" is the one to blame or thank. What if I told you that you can turn every bad situation into a blessing in disguise? I know it's hard to believe but you can create these miracles at will . If it's so easy why don't more people do it? It's because everyone likes being the victim and this leads to the first step in turning your setback into a little blessing.. Stop acting like a victim. I can be your hero baaaaby

Before the Asian American blogosphere, there were Asian American discussion boards. You had Model Minority, Yellow World and the Fighting 44's. These sites were extremely popular for a time, because they provided platforms in which Asians all over the Anglosphere could connect, discuss and vent on everything from the personal to the political. Eventually blogs came into prominence, and the Angry Asian Man became the first to aggregate news stories of interest to Asian Americans. Now we have tons of AA blogs, everything from Channel APA to the Minority Militant to Slant Eye for the Round Eye to Big WoWo. The rise of AA blogs brought about the demise of AA forums, because blogs address a need for self-expression. Although forums do allow for individual expression, what usually happens is that a core group of posters dominate the threads. Cliques form and what was once a very open forum now becomes a private cyber hangout for disaffected intellectuals who snipe at those they ...

In response to the recent violent attacks against the Asian American community in the San Francisco Bayview and the city of Oakland, we are organizing a peaceful rally at the steps of SF City Hall on Tuesday, May 4 @ 6pm. This rally is first and foremost an opportunity for the Chinese and Asian American community, particularly immigrants and elders, to speak out about their experiences with violence in their communities and to demand that San Francisco city leadership act immediately to address this crisis. We will demand that city leaders take immediate actions to address the issue of violence against the Asian community. We believe that long-term solutions are needed to address violence in all communities, however in the short-term, immediate actions must be taken. We understand that violence happens in all communities but we, the Chinese/Asian American community, have been silent on this issue for too long and need to make our voices heard and join with other communities of color. ...

I once had an email correspondence with Will of Better Asian Man . I told him how I enjoyed the Fallout Central podcasts and that I was sad to see Fallout Central go. For those of you who don't know, Fallout Central was a site that featured podcasts on Asian American issues, current events and interviews with AA celebs and activists. They were a crew of four that came out with a professional and informative series of podcasts during their site's 2-3 year period. Here's what Will had to say about the demise of Fallout: I hear what you're saying regarding the void on the internet, and I believe that this has to do with the CNN-style of news reporting that we did with regards to Asian American news. We have an assortment of blogs that report on what each respective blog author thinks is important, but none of them have quite the same edge. For example, Angry Asian Man doesn't really report on news, his take is basically "here's something that happ...

On March 15th, 2010, Facebook bans the group "People Against Racebending: Protest of the Cast of The Last Airbender Movie" for violating their terms of use.

I watched a great video on the Big WoWo blog. Here's Byron's synopsis of the video: "Nigerian writer Chimamanda Adichie talks about what she calls 'the danger of the single story' and how stereotypes can warp a culture’s perception of the people of another culture when there are not many stories told about that other culture. She talks about growing up in Africa reading the stories of Americans and British, and how she felt people like her could not 'exist in literature.' She talks about how power comes into the equation, and how stories can make or break the dignity of a people." I think we know the single story for the Asian American experience: The Joy Luck Club . For better or for worse, that movie and book has become the single story for Asian America. I remember watching Better Luck Tomorrow with a Caucasian female friend, and after watching the movie she said, "That was disappointing. I thought it was going to be the Asian male versi...

GT talks about apathy in the community.

So here's a comment that caught my eye at the Single Asian Man blog: For the most part, all AA’s are the same. And most just strive for what everyone else wants – nice house, 2 car garage, 2 kids, yard, decent job that pays the bills, middle class, go to church maybe, not break any laws and pay your taxes, and be a good nice citizen/neighbor. All AA’s care about is what’s inside their little bubble – anything beyond that or outside of that, it’s irrelevant and unimportant. If it doesn’t have anything to do with us directly, we don’t care. That’s pretty much it. None of us strive to be some CEO of a fortune 500 company, none of us date supermodels, or become rock stars, and none of us travel the world and see the 8 natural wonders of the world. All we want to do is live in our little bubble, commute to work, eat out sometimes, hang with friends, play poker, drink at a bar, and come home, hope to get some sex from the wife, and go to sleep. And the entire cycle repeats next morni...

  Why is it that when crap like this happens, that non-Asians say, "Oh it's just kids fighting" or "It's not racial"? Asians are constantly being attacked in poor neighborhoods and on buses and when the Asian community brings it up as a legitimate safety concern, some pissant who lives in another neighborhood downplays it. Asians deserve dignity and deserve to be safe from violent racist fucktards.

So I'm sure you've noticed that I've got a book out: The Alpha Asian Mindset . It's a compilation of my writings here on the Alpha Asian blog from the first year, organized into nice neat chapters. If you've enjoyed my insights into life, psychology and the Asian American consciousness, then this is my gift to you. For those who are fans of my Strength and Physique books, you will find a chapter in The Alpha Asian Mindset on strength training with a training program. The book is available now through Amazon.com . All sales of The Alpha Asian Mindset will go to an Asian American cause. I'll provide you the causes, and you the reader will vote on which cause the profits go to. Causes will change every so often. And yes I stole this idea from Kev Jumba. For this round of causes, I've chosen the traditional non-profit organizations. Take the time to vote on the poll on the side. Here are the links for each of the organizations: 80-20 Initiative...

You know progress is never linear. If you lived during the time of Anna May Wong and Sessue Hayakawa , then you would have thought that Asians would become a significant force in Hollywood in the latter half of the 20th century. There were always blips of progress in cinematic history with regards to representation of the Asian American male: The Crimson Kimono (1959), Flower Drum Song (1961), Bruce Lee (1972), Vanishing Son (1994), Better Luck Tomorrow (2002), Harold and Kumar (2004). Every time one of these movies appeared, it looked like, "Yeah, things are getting better! We're on the road to full representation for the Asian American male!" But representation always comes in spurts, and we've never been able to reach a point of critical mass. I'm hoping that now with all the Asian guys in movies, Internet and TV that we'll gain some traction as far as representation, but more importantly… respect. Divide and Conquer The thing is Alph...

Let me tell you, I'm not a big charity guy. I'm also the most apolitical person you'll run into. I don't watch the news at all. I get my news from Angry Asian Man, but even then, I skip over most of his stuff.  Which probably explains why I'm such a happy-go-lucky person. It's not that I don't care about social issues, but I'm selective as to which issues to be active about and how to be active about them. Otherwise I'd spread myself thin worrying about everything.  Asian American issues mean a lot to me, but I focus on self-improvement as the way to enrich our communities. Money runs out, time is limited, but idea viruses spread like, well... viruses! But if you're blessed with a lot of disposable income to donate $2,000 to a cause every month, then consider donating to the following: 1) The Asian Law Caucus- These guys do a lot of great work for the Asian American community, but unfortunately, they're located in a really sh!tty part of ...

So I was featured in the Pacific Citizen , an award-winning Asian Pacific American semi-monthly newspaper published by the JACL. The article is about the Asian American blogosphere and its influence on the community. You can check out the article HERE. In the meantime, here are a couple quotes from me: "I started the Alpha Asian Blog as a way to showcase the creativity and positive energy of Asians and Asian Americans," said James Chan, creator and administrator of Alpha Asian Blog, which showcases original videos and forums by APAs. "I've observed lots of talented Asians representing the community in a positive manner and contributing to society. I wanted to compile these positive and talented role models and present them to the world." "I want Asian Americans to understand that our community has a wealth of talent that is largely untapped. My hope with the (blog) is that Asian Americans would develop a more confident and positive outlook," Chan s...

So I got a question from another blogger: Q: "Are you an activist? Do you do stuff outside of the blog? I heard your Better Asian Man podcast . Good stuff." My Answer: I am for "The Cause" (my friends and I use this code term for Asian American causes), but I am not an activist. I dislike the terms "activism" or "activists," because hard core activists make The Cause too personal. They become so shrill, that nobody listens to them anymore. I would rather put my faith in an Asian American who is for The Cause and has a background in marketing, business or psychology than an activist who has extreme dedication to The Cause but no persuasion skills. People are moved by stories (particularly ones that offer hope at the end) and talent (see previous post), and they are not moved by theoretical lectures, no matter how rationally the points are laid out. A really good book to read on this topic is Influencer . In a sense, this blo...