In the 2001 Hong Kong sci-fi hit drama “A Step to the Past” actor Louis Koo portrayed a sizzling-hot secret agent who goes back in time to document China during the Warring States Period.  In this series, his character, Hong Siu Lung, uses modern wit and charm to aid the other characters in unifying China. His dealings leave a long lasting impact that is shown in several episodes where his image is on a terracotta soldier and him leaving some pretty specific modern day technology in a tomb. In fact one of this drama’s pivotal beginning scenes are of an archaeologists finding that modern technology that he so carelessly left. More »

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Asian American International Film Festival is calling for entries for 2009!

Held by Asian Cinevision (ACV), New York City’s longest running festival of Asian and Asian American films is looking for new talent. Films featured at last year’s festival included “Half-Life“, “Ping Pong Playa“, “Kissing Cousins”, “Princess of Nebraska“, and “Wings of Defeat“. (Click to see what Ningin had to say about those films!) More »

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The arctic blast that has plunged China’s temperatures has inspired the staff at The Wild Zoo of Chongqing to get creative in keeping their animals keep warm. To help the animals cope, they began using items like electric blankets and fire pits, and have even installed plug-in heaters. While a herd of giraffes enjoy their days around a very charming fire, their latest boa constrictor is snugly under his own little fluffy, heated blanket.

“They are doing anything to help beat the cold weather,” says one of the workers.

The city is famous for its hot pot cuisine and is one of the largest and most populated cities in China. The Wild Zoo is the pride and joy of it’s locals, as well as one of the city’s hottest listed tourist attractions, besides The Peoples’ Great Hall, Dazu Grottos and Ci Qi Kou (Porcelain Village). The Zoo occupies more than 150 acres of land and has more than 230 species of rare, wild animals on display, including their famous Giant Pandas and the extremely rare South Chinese Tiger.

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ETA: They fixed it later, but not before I got a screenshot of it!

Today was a normal day for me. I went to work, and I came home to be reunited with my lovely computer. I decided to visit Korea Times, and what greeted me on the front page made me pause and stare at the screen. Seeing “Maesttro Chung Exttends Conttractt Wiitth Seoull Phiillharmoniic” made me click on the article link and made me blink again. Then, I went to my dad and asked him to visit Korea Times on his computer, and his screen showed me the same thing.

In my last several blog entries, I mentioned some of Korea Times‘ mistakes and problems. Well . . . here’s another problem. Don’t get me wrong, out of all of the English newspapers out there in Korea, I love Korea Times. Korea Times has the most user friendly website (compared to Korea Herald) and has more varieties of articles (compared to Chosun Ilbo). However, they really need to think of the quality of their finished product. I’m no journalist, but I’d be embarrassed to be associated with them if they keep this up. More »

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With Asian entertainment companies recently seeking to expand their global outreach, the increase in the amount of international talent searches isn’t surprising. It also isn’t surprising that I happened across the idea of investing in fame while doing my business in the bathroom of a Korean restaurant, staring at a wall adorned with random posters announcing open-call auditions for SM Entertainment. More »

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Even tho Benson didn’t tell me to tell you this, I’m sure he’d like you to know that “Planet B-Boy”, the incredible documentary which sold out at film festivals and cool indie theaters nationwide, will be airing on MTV this Sunday, Jan 11, 11am & midnight, and again on Wednesday, Jan 14, 1:30am & 8:30am. Those are East Coast US times so you’ll have to check your local MTV for exact times wherever you are.

If you miss it on MTV or have seen it and know how much azz it kicks, you can buy a copy on DVD direct from Benson and Friends: http://planetbboy.com/dvd.html. He’ll throw in a free limited edition “Planet B-Boy” wristband cause you gotta keep that sweat out of your eyes when busting out windmills in the heat of B-Boy battle.

It’s only a few days away, so I’ll keep looking for that Evite from Benson to come over his place, chill with the Gamblers Crew, and watch “Planet B-Boy” on MTV.

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Quite the week with Kpop thanks to KBS being on “crack” but that’s another story.

We’re finally through with a whole week of the New Year! I hope you guys are starting out with a great one as I’ve been stuck at home in fear of the cold and Boys Over Flowers.

Moving along, this is your 2nd round up of the 2009 year. Enjoi! More »

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Because of Lan, I discovered a really bizarre cross-dressing Japanese variety show of some sort. I know Japan is known to be “weird,” and I know they (like Korea) like to have some weird television shows, but this is one thing I would have never expected to see on TV.

Anyway, during the show, a guy comes out all primped up. (I’ve been told that the guy’s friend makes him become a contestant, which in itself is ironic?) The host (some perverted old dude) then yaks on about something, and in some of these “episodes,” they even bring out a picture of what the guy really looks like. Then after more yakking, this group of guests rates the guy on a scale of 1 to 5 (one being bad and five being awesome). There are 102 “episodes” of these. I went through all of them and decided to choose several to showcase just how pretty some of these guys are. Oh, and there are also these sort of mean ones and really mean ones. I thought the second one was really cruel. But anyway, here are the ones that are nice and “normal.” More »

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The much hyped and highly anticipated drama remake, Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango), turned out to be a disappointment for everyone that tuned in including myself.

After watching two episodes, I find myself in disbelief. But then again were my standards too high? No because I just watched the Hana Yori Dango movie and it was bad ass as a romantic girl’s manga can get. Obviously Korea has a lot to make up for in the next few episodes.

For everyone who didn’t catch it, you can read the recap for episode one and two by Dramabeans. It’s the same story more or less with some bad Korean fashion (cough Jan-Di’s crappy military boots).

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This event happened last month, and the husband just died last week. What’s really weird about this news is that the woman, Rajini Narayan, burned her husband’s penis because she wanted to prove to him that his penis “belongs to [her] and no one else.” Basically, she suspected him of having affairs and decided to punish him. She did not intend to murder him.

Talk about penis envy, man! Just kidding. Seriously, though, this news report reminds me of the Lorena Bobbitt story. Only, I think this is a slight bit worse, since Mr. Narayan died in the process.

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According to one RIAA study, girls actually purchase more music than guys do. So, screaming fan-girls means big bucks (because we girls learn to covet idol related merchandise in our tweens)! With the latest influx of crossover artists, it is a mystery that no boy bands from Asia have begun to, at least, think about breaking into the American market.

Boy bands in the past have had huge success in America using advertising tactics, such as those of The Beatles. For months, local radio personalities would stop what they were playing and say things like  ”Get ready, The Beatles are coming.” By the time The Beatles did arrive, they were an instant success. Some fans never even heard a song, but still showed up to greet the British band when they arrived. More »

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More or less, it is true that South Korea’s a homogeneous society. However, with globalization on the run, how many decades or centuries will it take for that “fact” to disappear? I don’t know the answer to that, but I hope that more South Koreans will stop being prejudiced against people of African and South Asian origins. Actually, I hope South Koreans will just stop being prejudiced to anyone, but that’s asking far too much for any society to overcome.

This article generalizes how South Koreans have more biases against people from Africa and South Asia (along with Caucasians to an extent). First of all, I’m actually very surprised that this article was even written up in the first place. My shock alone should be an indicator of how prejudiced South Koreans can be towards these people because of their origins and their skin colours. I see, hear, and feel South Korean views on different races here, so the results of the survey aren’t surprising at all. More »

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Yesterday, January 6th, the DVD release of the movie Ping Pong Playa was released and made available at Amazon.com, Netflix, and at Barnes n Nobles. You can check for its availability at your local video stores too, because I called my Blockbuster video store and they will have it available for rent on January 6th. I had the pleasure of watching this hilarious movie at this past year’s San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival during March. I was too shy to come down the theater aisle after the movie was over to meet Jimmy Tsai back then. However, our paths crossed once again in the following interview that I had with him. More »

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January 5th begins a month long festival, which turns the city of Harbin into a wonderland of ice and lights. This tradition, which is held in Zhaolin Park, began in 1963 and is now in its 25th anniversary year. Each year, the locals of this northeastern city show the world a culture based on ice and snow. 

Harbin’s winds come directly from Siberia, so even in the summer, the temperatures are only mild at best. Their winter weather boasts below grade temperatures of -25℉, which helps this spectacular event to become one of the world’s top winter attractions. More »

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According to this article, I can’t look like that dude in the image. Especially at work. Apparently, many Koreans prefer you to look expressionless and stoic at a workplace. Oh, I’d so fail miserably at that if I were to work out in the Korean economy. Apparently, it also affects your social life and everything.

Wow. I knew Korea and Japan are known to be collective societies and that they cherish the people who don’t stick out in the group, but I think this is a bit much. But then again, those are the cultural differences for yah! Though, I wonder if this mentality affects all workplaces in Korea. I can’t imagine someone who works with preschoolers being stoic and boring with them. Hopefully, this is only for those office jobs. But even so, I can’t imagine how I’d concentrate on my work if I were too busy making sure my face constantly remains expressionless.

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I think I just found my whack off material for 2009. Oops sorry, I meant my calendar for 2009. Yes, let me present you the 2009 Asian Men Redefined calendar. Twelve Asian hotties will strut their stuff for you every month in 12″ x 12″ glossy pics shot by San Francisco photographer Dannydan. Half of the proceeds from the sale of this calendar will be donated to the Asian & Pacific Islander Wellness Center, a charity organization that fights HIV/AIDS in our communities. So you will be supporting a great cause if you buy this calendar. You should also buy a copy for the bitches you know who only date white guys.

By the way, if you think you have a hot face and a hot body and want to help promote the hotness of Asian men, you can apply to be one of the twelve models to be featured on the 2010 calendar. Just send your info with some impressive face/body shots to info@asianmenredefined.com. Please feel free to send them to me first for some constructive criticism if you like. I promise I won’t share them with the cougars I know.  There are tons of them running around in New York City.

Click here to buy the calendar.

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As most variations of history teach us, one of the greatest threats to an organized body of authority is the intellectual-activist. Of course, there’s the legitimate argument that those equipped with bombs and ill will are the most imminent threat, but what quintessentially drives any dissident – whether or not they’re the “goodies” or the “baddies” – is ideology: a system of ideas they are willing to stake their lives on.

Although my college roommate (endearingly) dubbed me “the angry one,” regarding Mainland Chinese politics, my initial reaction to Liu Xiaobo’s recent detainment abduction isn’t a simple case of hotheaded groans. Instead, I find myself generally level-headed about this situation simply because I feel like I’m not understanding a crucial aspect of it. In other words, something about this has me extremely confused and unable to fully digest the context of this particular case. More »

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Not exactly in a perverted way but they have been showing their teenage fans a lot of love as of late.

The five hotties have been on a school attack tour for their Samsung Ha Ha Ha campaign and the Japanese show “Dreams Come True”. Their first school was an all girl school in Korea where they performed Jaurim - Ha Ha Ha. The second was in Japan which focused on three girls whose dream was to dance with DBSK. Well they were fulfilled and tears were everywhere. Aw!

However that’s not all. Lead DBSKer Yunho visited his old high school, Kwangil High School, to not only give an inspirational speech but pay for the scholarships of 6 Junior students (6,000,000 Won). More »

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Perez Hilton, aka the crown prince of Hollywood gossip, has gone and done it again. He has brought Kpop to the masses of America in his latest blog “Watch & Listen: In Any Language, This Is HOT!!!!!”

YGfamily should be proud of the solo SeungRi because it was his video that inspired the mega columnist. I am feeling the love for Perez! This internationally cool post was followed up by a few foolish comments from his readers like, ”Go noodle nation,” but I might take things too seriously. Let’s face it, the usual readers of Perez are not used to hearing non-English music in the mainstream, but let’s have hope that the many who found the video enjoyable got curious for more. The positive feedback was very agreeable on the singer being attractive and talented. Some even admitted to looking for the song on iTunes after they heard it. There were so many comments on how there aren’t enough Asian singers in the US. This proves the only way is up, and we are sure this Hallyu hottie can do it with a BigBang, so THANK YOU, Perez!

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This article is really insulting. The article is about how half of the Native English instructors in Korea didn’t renew their annual contract. I am not one of those English instructors here, but I found this entire paragraph very unpleasant:

Lee Young-chan, an education Ministry official in charge of native teachers said it was not necessary to renew every contract. “They are neither regular teachers nor lecturers who can conduct classes independently. They are ‘assistant teachers,’ hence their teaching experience doesn’t matter much,” he said. “Rather, it’s better for students to have more new teachers so that they can meet various kinds of foreigners,” he added.

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