March 26, 2018

San Francisco

In a world in desparate need of heroes - we have a real life one.

Decades before 'Diversity" and "Inclusion" became fashionable terms, Justice Harry W. Low was already at the forefront making positive change in our world. 

This month Justice Low celebrates his birthday and is as busy as ever arbitrating cases all over the country. 

My colleague ABC7 KGO TV's David Louie and I, a former KRON TV - NBC reporter Suzanne Joe (Kai), co-hosted this video celebrating Justice Low's extraordinary career and service to our community.

While researching for a film project, I visited the archives at UC Berkeley.

The head archivist said there is a resurgence of young people searching for their identities.

I saw them going through old, fragile, dusty newspaper clippings of the 60s and 70s to learn about the revolution when youth stood up to save our world.  

On one of the newspaper's front page was Justice Harry W. Low.  

Let's celebrate and honor our living heroes now.

This video was originally produced and edited by Steven Joe for Asian, Inc.'s Lifetime Achievement Award honoring Justice Low.

Click here to our Happy Birthday video honoring Justice Harry W. Low!

Or this link to the video:

https://youtu.be/wQRR_p_jzms

Gangneung, South Korea

February 17, 2018

18 year old American figure skater Nathan Chen from Salt Lake City, Utah came to the Winter Olympics to win a medal.

He didn't, but instead he wowed audiences worldwide by making history as the first person in Olympic competition to perform six unprecedented quad jumps.

Nathan's historic performance of six quads, included five clean quad jumps, and on the third quad his hand touched the ground.

Despite his extraordinary talents and record as the only international skater who was undefeated on the Grand Prix circuit this season, at the 2018 Winter Olympics Nathan came in 17th in a short program, and in the team event short program, another dismal score.

"I already fell so many times, I might as well just go out, throw everything down, and see what happens," Chen told the press.

On his third day of competition, in men's free skate, Nathan skated as the star that he is, and rose from 17th to 5th place. 

Reigning Olympic champion Yuzuru Hanyu from Japan won the gold, becoming the first back-to-back gold medalist in the event since 1952 when American figure skater Dick Button won the gold.

Chen, the son of Chinese immigrants, began taking skating lessons at the age of three. By the time he was ten, he was competing in the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. He is expected to compete in March for the 2018 World Figure Skating Championships.  

February 13, 2018

Pyeongchang, South Korea

Congratulations to Chloe Kim, 17 year-old USA team snowboarder who just won the Gold medal in the women's halfpipe.

The American snowboarder from Torrance, California, Chloe Kim won with a score of 98.25 on her final run with China's Jiayu Liu taking silver and United States' Arielle Gold winning bronze.

Kim, became the first woman to score a perfect 100 score in the halfpipe in 2016 and has won three X Games gold medals.

Kim's parents emigrated from South Korea to the U.S. in 1982 reportedly with just $800 in cash.

Chloe's father, Jong Jin Kim gave up his job to help his daughter train in snowboarding and reach her Olympic dreams.

February 15, 2018

San Francisco

Happy Lunar New Year! The Lunar New Year begins Friday, February 16, 2018!

Ben Fong-Torres and Julie Haener co-host Southwest Airlines® Chinese New Year Parade on February 24 in San Francisco beginning at 5:15pm PST. Organizers expect 1.2 million people will be attending in person.

The Parade will be broadcast live on KTVU Fox 2 or KTSF Channel 26 6:00-8:00pm Saturday February 24, 2018 on television! Watch the Parade live from the streets in San Francisco - the largest of its kind outside of Asia! It will weave its way through San Francisco Chinatown and ends at Jackson and Kearny Streets. Here's a report which includes comments on the 60-year parade tradition from Ben Fong-Torres on NBCNews.com. 

Named one of the top ten Parades in the world by International Festivals & Events Association, this is truly a sight to see.

The parade began in San Francisco more than one hundred years ago, and is one of the few remaining night illuminated parades in North America.

This year the Southwest Airlines® 2018 Chinese New Year festivities range from the great Chinese New Year parade, to street fairs, a fashion show, and many other events beginning February 10 and run through the month of February and into early March. Bobo the parrot says Gung Hay Fat Choy!

This Lunar year marks the Year of the Dog. Here is a beautiful watercolor rendition of the Dog, as painted by the late, great former US Ambassador and former longtime Secretary of State...

January 5, 2018

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi has a new character named Rose Tico that fans are buzzing about.

The character is the first major Star Wars role played by an Asian American woman.

That woman is 29 year old Kelly Marie Tran, an actress of Vietnamese American descent from San Diego.

After filming wrapped Tran took time off to travel to South Africa where she worked in an endangered wildlife reserve without electricity, internet or running water.

Then she accompanied her family to visit her  father's village where he showed her where he slept as a homeless street kid for seven years. 

“I could have had this life,” Tran told Buzzfeed News, “and now I have this one, and it’s purely because my parents dropped everything and moved to a country where they didn’t know the language [and] didn’t have any opportunities.

I very much have felt this whole time that I’ve been living for multiple generations of life.”

Tran says, alot of “Star Wars” fans who are specifically Asian never had a character they could dress up like, or they would and people would always call them “Asian Rey” or “Asian fill-in-the-blank.”

I get very emotional when I see people who are able to identify with this character. That means a lot to me and I don’t think it will ever get old.

It feels like a big deal because it’s so rare, I wish it wasn’t.