Asian American- CHINESE FOOD

Chinese food, what is the first dishes that come to your mind???
Chao Man!! Chao Fan!! will this two foods are the most common that American will eat while they went to chinese restaurant.  Also American will learn how to use a chopstick when they are eating Chinese food.  American like to eat chinese food and sometime they will learn how to cook the chinese food at home. However when they finished cooked the food and they  taste the food but it is very different from they eat at the restaurant because they don't know the FIVE important things when you cook CHINESE FOOD.

 This FIVE things are.....The Chinese dishes are exquisitely prepared, delicious.They are very good in color, flavor and taste.  see, just by looking at the picture it will made you wants to eat !! haha~~ anyways...this five are the most important things when we are cooking the FOOD for our family, friends or even when we go to the restaurant because cooking food is to let others to feel happy not let them feel sad. When people eat your food that you cook for them  you will feel very happiness because they are enjoy of eating the food. This is how I felt when I cooking the food for my family and my friend. They always told me that the food is very delicious and I am happy about it and I do feel HAPPINESS. There has a lot  famous Chinese restaurant in the bay area and a lot of people went over there are mostly AMERICAN and yes it also has Asian American go to chinese restaurant.

Angela Long

Taiwanese Hip Pop and break dance

"It seems impossible for Taiwan, a country that has long imported American culture to escaped from the cultural mechanism of American culture." said Hip Pop  culture in Taiwan. “The output of the hip-hop industry reaches US$2 billion in the garment industry alone. Clothes, accessories, shoes, sports, mobile-phones, movies, TV, records, magazines, commercials, soft drinks, liquors, fast foods, models, cosmetics, the art industry and the banking industry have all been infiltrated.”

When I live in Taiwan, I know that a lot of Taiwanese singers or group bands are singing Hip Pop or do the break dance in the MV. For example, the singer will dance like robot and they move like a robot. This is how Taiwan implication to Aamerica also has the same culture consumption symbols. In our school, we can also see that many of the Asian students are dancing break dance and sing the hop pop songs or in my high school many of asian students join the dancing class and they feel very happy about it. so now in days the hip pop and breakdance are become populary.

Angela Long

HAPPY!! Mid-autumn Festival

       Yesterday was Mid-Autumn Festival, we also named that Moon Festival which takes place at the 15th day of the 8th Chinese lunar month. The reason for us to celebrate the festival is that it is the time when the moon is at its fullest and brightest which is stand for together .During this time Chinese families always get together  to celebrate this .They eat dinner together and after that eating moon cakes together while watching the full moon .Moon cake which is the traditional food for mid-autumn festival and it symbolizes reunion,the pic below is sample of it. If you want try ,you can go to someother chinese supermarket to buy it

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         Americans may not know the Mid-autumn festival is one of the two most important festival in China,and the other is the Chinese New year (the same as Spring Festival)and it becomes an official holiday since 2008.
         Last weekend the Chinatown Merchants Association presents the 20th Annual Autumn Moon Festival Live entertainment, arts and crafts, food and drink, and parades this is the way the Chinese who are in America to celebrate.Two weeks ago ,also some activities about the Moon Festival held it Irving St.
          For us -international student we use our own way to celebrate it ,we eat the hot pot at home with frends and ate the mooncakes,we felt our nostalgia is more strongly during the festival time.




YIHUA HU         

Brown Eyed Girls 'Abacadabra' (Performance Version)

So.....this is who Timmon was talking about. Im disappointed I missed it but the brown eyed girls look like real pop stars. Although i cant understand what they are saying the music and tune is catchy. keep it heemin!!

-chris harrold

Myx Bash 2010

So for those who are not familiar with Myx, it is a music and lifestyle channel for Asian Americans. This year in conjunction with Comcast they formed the first Myx Bash 2010 in May and I unfortunately missed it so I watched it yesterday on the myx channel. So the event is a concert catering to the Asian American community with performers Bruno Mars (Puerto Rican and Filipino decent), Poreotics crew (all of them Asian Americans and winner of America's Best Dance Crew Season 5), Brown Eyed Girls (famous Korean pop female group), and T-Pain. How after going through the list your probably thinking why the hell T-Pain is in there? Well according to the press conference, the Asian American community has established him as part of the community so he called himself "Blackenese" Now when I heard that being Chinese myself I was thinking to myself there are people out there who are mixed with African and Chinese but T-Pain is not Chinese. He also says that he loves the Asian culture, and so I was thinking what aspect of the culture is he talking to himself? Could it be because of "yellow fever" meaning that Asians are seen as sexy/exotic which ties to being Oriental and that Asians especially women are obedient and will do whatever is asked. Although he didn't say that he loved Asian women I was just wondering about that in the back of my mind.
The show was really good and it also paved a way for Korean pop music to be experienced by other Asian Americans who haven't heard about that. Besides the Wonder Girls I'm pretty sure most Asian Americans don't know any other Korean pop groups or artists so the event helped establish this kind of music. I believe that Korean pop music is going mainstream and that it's kind of becoming an Asian American thing because you see the Korean artists sell their albums on itunes and actually doing very good on the charts so it makes you wonder if the Asian American community has embraced this kind of music, but then again Korean pop music is heavily influenced by African American music mainly hip-hop, which of course started in America and to be more specific in the east coast meaning New York but people may argue about it being from the west coast (that's a whole different topic to go over). But my point is that a large amount of the Asian American population is accepting Korean pop music and I am one of the population and I am spreading the music by dancing to the songs by adding hip-hop elements. I hope Korean pop music makes it mainstream and for the genre of music to strive for bigger goals.

-Timmon Li AA TEAM

Asian America and Hip-Hop

So I was reading the new Hyphen magazine and as I was going through articles I found one that really intrigued me which talked about Asian Americans and hip-hop. The event that they covered in the article was actually something I wanted to attend but due to money and scheduling I couldn't make it, but I do know quite a few people who were performing but unfortunately I couldn't make it. Like it was addressed in the article, the main reason why Asian Americans are seen in the hip-hop scene/culture is through MTV's America's Best Dance Crew (a show that I would always watch) and for someone who is really infused in hip-hop dancing and culture I think that Asian Americans were definitely exposed in the mainstream media after the first season. The winners for the first season were called the Jabbawockeez Crew and 90% of the crew was Asian Americans and for me to see that on screen as I was watching the auditions episode and as soon as they were finished with their routine I immediately stood up and I was applauding in front of the television. What they just did was not only send a message to the audience and viewers that they can dance, but because they were Asian Americans it made it even more sweeter for me. The reason why I was so proud is that they were breaking so many barriers and stereotypes regarding Asian Americans and how we are perceived as passive and quite people who just study and get good grades and not do anything else, but after the Jabbawockeez did their thing, people had to recognize and respect the fact that Asian Americans do have talent. Aside from the Jabbawockeez I was really impressed by Kaba Modern and how creative they were and the article mentioned the founder of Kaba Modern at UC Irvine and his incite for the future of Asian Americans in hip-hop dancing is quite true. He talks about how it's going to be harder for upcoming crews who are predominately Asian Americans to rise up to the mainstream media due to the fact that the standard is set really high so they would need to "go hard or go home". Although I do agree with that statement addressed I will still support the Asian American hip-hop dancing community and just respect all the different crews out there because it is not easy doing what they do so much love to all of them and hope they continue to be creative and work hard not only representing themselves but the Asian American community as a whole. Thank you for reading.

-Timmon Li (AA TEAM)

Hmm as I listen to Korean pop music, I wonder to myself what exactly is Asian America.  I just asked my roommate ( I’m his first Asian friend ^_^) what Asian America means to him, and he says “Panda Express” hahaha!  I really don’t like Panda Express cuz I feel the food is too “whitewashed.”  Ok back to prompt.  At first, I thought Asian America would be something like Chinatown, but then I realized I was also stereotyping my own race.  There is more to Asia than China, there are lots of more countries in Asia.  To me, someone who is from Asian America would eat white rice on a day to day basis, as in rice all the time.  Someone who plays too much online games, like Maple Story, World of Warcraft, gunbound, gunz,  the list goes on.  Someone who knows who NigaHiga, Kevjumba, David Choi, and WongFu Productions are.  Someone who loves boba, Thai tea, and goes to tea shops on a weekly basis.  Who spends too much time on the computer watching animes like naruto and bleach, and reads too many mangas.  I’m new to the whole K-pop thing but I think people in Asian America would know who Taeyang is, Big Bang, SNSD, 2NE1, 2PM, 2AM, B2ST, and some other ones I don’t know about.  Asian America would have a big variety of cup noodles that’s for sure hahah.  Girls would love Hello Kitty accessories.  It’s where your parents work their hardest to earn money for you and your siblings.  They plead and beg you to do good in school in hopes that you have a better life and living than they do.  In Asian America, people would eat things that nobody has heard of and it would look funny but would taste really good.  They would be going to temples to pray a couple times every year and would be used to the smell of incense.  They would know where to get the illegal fireworks for a really low price.  Those are my thoughts on what is Asian America to me.
Peace out,
BrAnDoN LeE