Michelle Krusiec and Alex Moggridge star in the critically acclaimed West Coast premiere of David Henry Hwang’s recent Broadway comedy Chinglish, in the Roda Theatre of the Tony Award-winning Berkeley Repertory Theatre, directed by Leigh Silverman, which opened to stellar reviews, and has been extended through October 21, 2012. The cast of Chinglish also features Vivian Chiu, Celeste Den, Austin Ku, Brian Nishii and Larry Lei Zhang.

Chinglish received its Broadway premiere in Fall 2011, was named “Best American Play of 2011” by TIME magazine, and as one of the Top 10 Broadway shows of the year by Bloomberg Radio, NY1 and WNYC.

David Henry Hwang won three Obies and the Tony Award for Best Play with M. Butterfly and FOB. Now he’s back with a canny comedy of cross-cultural errors. Leigh Silverman returns to the Roda Theatre to stage the twists in a terrific play she took to Broadway. Love is on the line, and laughter fills the ledger in Chinglish. Love is on the line, and laughter fills the ledger in Chinglish, a co-production with South Coast Repertory, where it will play in 2013. It...

The cast of the World Premiere of Allegiance – A New American Musical at The Old Globe. Photo by Henry DiRocco.

Today, January 1, 2012 marks the day that a major hotel chain, The Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, Limited (HSH), owner of the Peninsula Hotels finally made it official - no more shark fins will be served. We hope many more hotels, restaurants, and fishermen will also stop killing the millions of sharks for their fins for soup.  

Let's make 2012 a year that you also take measures in your own hands to help our world become a better place. 

This is one of the most important stories of our lives, our Earth.

Not only is banning shark fins from menus one tiny step forward (and not ordering shark fins if it is still on other menus), eating fish, particularly the larger fish is not necessarily healthy.

Dr. Sylvia Earle, 75, scientist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence has been studying our oceans for more than 50 years. Dr. Earle urges everyone, "We have the power to make a difference and its time that we use that power positively not just for the dolphins, not just for the whales and the fish. It all comes back to us. We all share space on this little Blue Planet."

Earle told AsianConnections' Steven Joe at a Greenbuild Conference for GreenPlanet.TV "What we are doing to the oceans, we are doing to ourselves." She told Steven Joe in a video interview that it is a myth that eating all fish is healthy. She warns that eating larger fish-eating fish is not healthy at all. She says the larger fish such as swordfish, tuna, and marlin...

By Lia Chang

Academy award winning director and actor Chris Tashima can currently be seen in three very different films.

He is in Jeffrey Gee Chin’s narrative short Lil Tokyo Reporter as Sei Fujii, an immigrant pioneer, leader and publisher.

In Lily Mariye’s impressive directorial debut feature Model Minority, Chris gives a rich multi-layered performance as the Sansei alcoholic father.

And in Eric Byler’s Americanese he plays the romantic lead opposite Joan Chen, which won a Special Jury Prize for Outstanding Ensemble Cast at the South by Southwest Film Festival.

He has appeared in several noted independent features including Rea Tajiri’s Strawberry Fields, starring Suzy Nakamura, and Sherwood X. Hu’s Lani Loa -The Passage (from executive producers Francis Ford Coppola and Wayne Wang), as well as Hu’s ensemble drama, On the Roof.

Tashima received an Academy Award® for the dramatic short film, Visas and Virtue, which he directed, co-wrote and starred as Holocaust rescuer Chiune Sugihara. For television, he directed, co-wrote and acted in the PBS Special, Day of Independence, receiving an EMMY® nomination. Visas and Virtue and Day of Independence is available on DVD and can be found here.

Directorial stage credits include world premiere’s of Dan Kwong’s Be Like Water at EWP,...

4 Wedding Planners (formerly Knots), written by and starring Kimberly-Rose Wolter, and directed by Michael Kang, has been a fan favorite at film festivals across the country, and is now available on Video on Demand, Digital Download, amazon.com and Itunes. (See below for a full list of providers.)

Island Film Group's 4 Wedding Planners, a charming “UN-romantic comedy”, is a witty take on the lives and loves of a family of Honolulu wedding planners. 

The film also features Illeana Douglas (Cape Fear, “Entourage”), Sung Kang (The Fast & The Furious, Better Luck Tomorrow), Mia Riverton (Red Doors), Janel Parrish (Bratz: The Movie, “Pretty Little Liars”), Christopher Taloa, Henry Dittman and Cathy Foy (Battleship, “Lost”, “Hawaii 5-0”).

In 4 Wedding Planners, Kimberly-Rose Wolter tells the story of thrice divorced matriarch Miriam (Illeana Douglas), with one daughter born from each husband. What ensues is a recipe for comical family strife as the daughters finally reach the breaking point of addressing feelings repressed thanks to mom’s poor choices in men.

When eldest daughter Lily (Kimberly Rose-Wolter) rejects her boyfriend’s...