New York City

Signature Theatre (James Houghton, Founding Artistic Director; Erika Mallin, Executive Director) and Lark Play Development Center (John Clinton Eisner, Artistic Director; Michael Robertson, Managing Director) are presenting the Contemporary Chinese Playwriting Series, curated by Signature’s Residency One Playwright David Henry Hwang, whose play THE DANCE AND THE RAILROAD, directed by May Adrales, opened at Signature on Monday, February 25, 2013 and has been extended until March 24, 2013.

David Henry Hwang. Photo by Lia Chang

The two theatre companies also hosted a group of distinguished playwrights, directors, translators, adaptors, and actors in a cross-cultural dialogue through the development and presentation of English-language versions of four contemporary Chinese plays. The play translations—co-commissioned by the companies—were presented in readings as part of the translation development process on March 15, 16 and 17 in the Studio Theatre at The Pershing Square Signature Center (480 West 42nd Street between 9th and 10th Avenues).

UPDATE:

We received alot of positive feedback to our posting of Guy Kawasaki's Spring, 2013 talk at the UC Berkeley Startup Competition (Bplan).

The former chief evangelist of Apple and co-founder of Garage Technology Ventures is such a good speaker that you wanted to hear more of him.  He was the keynote speaker at the first Donald W. Reynolds Governor's Cup Business Plan Competition at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond in 2005, and its timeless. 

You can click on the top blue headline to the full story and his video or

Berkeley, California 

Memories of Sweet Caroline,

and of Oakland’s Chinatown 

by Ben Fong-Torres

Caroline Chin was a neighbor and classmate of mine when we grew up in Chinatown, Oakland, in the ‘50s. We went to Lincoln Elementary, Westlake Jr High, and Chinese school together.

She went on to become a teacher, an administrator and, finally, principal at (full circle) Lincoln School, in the early 2000’s, just before retiring. Under her leadership, it became a California Distinguished School, and would go on to become a National Blue Ribbon School. At her various stops, she encouraged kids and teachers alike to "work hard; learn a lot."

A large, overflow crowd--maybe 750 or 800--learned a lot about Caroline Chin Yee, who passed away last month, at her services at the First Presbyterian Church in Berkeley.

Caroline had what appeared to have been a full and perfectly balanced life. She and her husband since 1968, Gary Yee, were devoted to their church – and to traveling the world. She even combined globetrotting with teaching, once in Zhongshan; another time, in Edinburgh, Scotland.  She had wonderful siblings, two children, grandkids and in-laws. One niece, Terri Lee, introduced herself as “the oldest of her nieces. So I’m guessing I was her favorite.” 

She and others, family and friends, told of Caroline’s dedication to them, and to children in general, and to the wider community.

Little Tokyo - Los Angeles

March 23, 2013

More than 200 people attended a summit yesterday in Los Angeles, provocatively titled "Beyond the Bad and the Ugly." The meeting was appropriately named as it took aim at the continued use of offensive images, ethnic slurs and stereotypical caricatures of Asian Americans in American media, and its impact on just about every aspect of American culture, politics, education and society.

AsianConnections.com applauds Jeff Yang, Wall Street Journal Online writer of the "Tao Jones" column for organizing this first summit devoted to the problem, and enlisting public dialogue and empowerment. Yang brought together activisits, bloggers and others to examine the issues and encouraged people to take action against the negative stereotypes and portrayals of Asian Americans in the media. 

Stereotypical images of Asian Americans in the media have negatively impacted the lives of Asian Americans for more than a century.

Yang told LA Times writer Anh Do the event is "the culmination of a dream, seeing people not only talking about these issues - but doing something about it," "The point is to empower everyone, telling them, "Change is happening, and it's happening inside - with us." 

The March 23, 2013 summit officially kicks off Jeff Yang's new book he co-edited with Parry Shen, Keith Chow and Jerry Ma, Shattered: the Asian American Comics Anthology (Secret Identities). SHATTERED’s 2013 tour

Tens of thousands flee Bangkok fearing beach of river banks. Click here for the full story.