Last fall, Korean pop star PSY changed the music scene with the release of the “Gangnam Style” music video. To date, the video has over a billion views on YouTube and the first to reach that milestone. Many wondered if he can repeat the same success or just be another one hit wonder here in the states. Turns out the haters were wrong thanks to last Saturday’s release of “Gentleman.” PSY’s newest single has been breaking records left and right from the fastest to 100 million views on YouTube (on only its fourth day). To date, it… Read More

Yesterday I came across artist Hong Yi's painting of Yao Ming with a basketball - that's right, she painted a potrait of Yao Ming with nothing but a bucket of paint and a basketball.  I was really impressed by her skills of her painting of Yao, which you can see below in the YouTube video.  

Hong Yi, who also goes by the name "Red", is a Malaysian artist-architect.  But she is more than that. She has a YouTube Channel "ohiseeRED" and a website ohiseered.com blogging about her works.

Hong Yi is a painter but she doesn't… Read More

Jeremy Lin’s long awaited 60 Minutes’ piece finally aired.  We have known since last summer that 60 Minutes has been following Jeremy when he visited China and Taiwan during his now annual trip to those two countries, where he has a large following as well as families on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

Much of the interview by 60 Minutes’ Charlie Rose was about being passed over in college, despite being a well regarded high school player in California, where he won the Player of the Year award in his senior year.  He… Read More

It has only been two months since K-Pop superstar PSY’s “Gangnam Style” music video first surfaced on YouTube and it is currently the biggest social phenomenon in pop culture today. The video recently reached over 107 million views in that short span, which is phenomenal and numerous parodies have seen surfacing ever since. Even popular U.S. artists like Nelly Furtado performed the hit song at one of her recent concerts at the Philippines. The song is indeed everywhere as I even heard it at Dodger Stadium during a Dodger game recently. If you don’t know what “Gangnam Style”… Read More

Taiwan, a little island off the coast of Mainland China, was once described by Portuguese traders as Ilha Formosa, or "Beautiful Island." This title has stuck with Taiwan over a long and eventful history, and visitors to the Beautiful Island often find themselves swept away by friendly locals, delicious cuisine, and an abundance of traditional Chinese culture. Unfortunately, said visitors aren't nearly as many as they should be, since for some mysterious reason, Taiwan has never registered in the public conscious like Mainland China or Hong Kong. This is changing in recent years, however, with Taiwan pop stars… Read More

Hot on the heels of the recent Pew Research study showing that Asian American are the, "highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States" comes a video by Wells Fargo & Company that highlights the contributions of Asian Americans to the global economy. This fast-paced, typography-based video presents Asian Americans as an integral part of building a future that includes an openness to new technology, an entrepreneurial spirit, and international relations.

This data from Pew Research Center has been used in many ways over the past few weeks since it was released but this… Read More

The Asian American Journalists Association is hosting V3 Digital Media Conference on August 24 and 25 at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.  "V3: Vision, Visibility, Voice" has its roots in a blogger conference, but is hoping to expand its horizons to include online journalism, social media, and other emerging communication platforms. "As someone who straddles the two worlds of digital media and traditional news, I’m excited to have AAJA-LA’s stewardship of V3, and the new, enhanced dialogue the organization’s involvement brings to the conference," says Gil Asakawa, journalist, editor, blogging and steering committee… Read More

  As far as Asian videogame industries go, Japan’s is the oldest and most respected, having birthed a vast collection of software and hardware since the 1980s. South Korea is also now known in the videogame world, particularly for the multiplayer online titles that the country has been rolling out by the dozens ever since broadband internet became affordable to the masses. China, on the other hand, has only gained international attention in the last few years due to large numbers of mobile phone games that are published by Western companies but actually outsourced and created by Chinese developers.… Read More

Hulu has made multi-year agreements with AMC and HBO to license content for Hulu Japan and adding Mad Men and "select HBO shows" including The Sopranos, Sex and the City and, later in the year, Entourage and Band of Brothers.  

With this addition, Hulu Japan will be increasing its library content by 300 percent.  Launched last fall, the Hulu Japan content library has now grown to over 800 films and approximately 6,900 TV shows.  

Hulu is also investing heavily in creating original subtitles for shows never before available in Japan such as Sons of Anarchy, The Office, and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. 

Japan is the… Read More

The Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) is currently underway in New York City.  In its 35th year, AAIFF is one of the first and longest running festivals featuring works by Asian and Asian American filmmakers. It runs through August 5.

Shanghai Calling which our own Greg O. wrote about earlier in May was the feature film that opened the festival.  Closing the festival is Knots an "un-romantic comedy" feature film staring Sung Kang of Fast and Furious and YOMYOMF fame. 

For a full line-up and to purchase tickets visit… Read More