YES!!! Two of Ningin’s favorite music groups are hitting the US coast-to-coast for two kick azz weekends in May - EPIK HIGH and FAR EAST MOVEMENT! A long time favorite around here, Epik High’s “1 Minute, 1 Second” made it into Ningin’s Best Songs of 2008 list. Now we’ve got a rare opportunity to see them outside of Korea. This is also a great chance to catch FM live outside of their native California. MYK and Kero One will also join the tour. Tickets are on sale now from CGNLive.com! More »

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Ningin’s Kevin Desmond got to visit Kev Nish and Prohgress at Far East Movement headquarters last week. The FM duo talked about the past, present and near future of FM, producing with Jin the MC and Se7en, the hotness of the “Girls On The Dancefloor” contest, upcoming tour dates with Epik High, and another International Secret Agents show for 2009! With all that info, we split the interview into two parts. As promised, here’s Part 2. More »

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SECRET IDENTITIES: The Asian American Superhero Anthology officially hits bookstores today! The editing team of Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow, and Jerry Ma have pulled together the first anthology of superhero comics reflecting on the Asian American community’s role and place in American culture. More »

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Registration is now open for the 2009 Miss Chinese New York Pageant! This year’s pageant is organized by the Miss Chinese Beauty Pageant Committee and Hong Kong’s Television Broadcasts Limited (USA), also known as TVB. The winner will become the next spokesperson for New York’s Cathay Jewelry and go on to represent New York at the Miss Chinese International 2010 in Hong Kong. More »

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On April 10th, blasting from America’s big screen, half Korean Daniel Henney and “Wolverine” Hugh Jackman took a visit to the red carpet in S.Korea. Will “Agent Zero” Daniel Henney be a slash above the rest? Hugh Jackman seems to think so and provided enthusiastically his utmost support. More »

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Youtube has done the amazing and brought several musicians together over the web. Launched on Dec. 1, 2008, this is the first ever online collaborative orchestra.

Auditions were held until January 28, 2009 where entries were asked to play “Internet Symphny No. 1 ‘Erotica’” by Tan Dun, a world renown Chinese composer famous for his scores for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero. Finalists were voted for by the Youtube Community from February 14 – 22 and announced March 2. More »

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Ningin’s Kevin Desmond stopped by Far East Movement headquarters for a little tour with FM’s Kev Nish. Afterwards, they sat down with Prohgress for some interview time. The two MCs spilled the beans about FM’s origins, working with Jin the MC and Se7en, the popular “Girls On The Dancefloor” contest, their upcoming tour with Epik High, and another International Secret Agents show later this year! Whoa, that’s a lot! So we split the interview into two parts. Enjoy Part 1 today. Part 2 will be up tomorrow. More »

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Today is the 14th of April which means it’s Black Day! Singles all over Korea are going out to eat “ja jang myeon” or black noodles in hopes of meeting other singles. It’s like national speed dating holiday for free. Well, almost.

As much as I like ja jang myeon, it’s not exactly best thing to eat if you’re looking to hook up with someone. Despite being delicious, it’s quite messy and can make your mouth black. Unless you chug some Chilsung Cider then I guess you’re okay. More »

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2PM has been dubbed “most viewed musicians channel” on Youtube this week with 123,610 views worldwide. Looks someone has been making a scene in the video streaming world. Could it be due to their latest teaser video? Of course! More »

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While I’ve always been turned off to Koreans covering American songs, this one by 8Eight has opened my mind.

Not only have they made a new rendition but they actually did really well. Singing “Alicia Keys - No One”, this trio blew away the audience on Lee Hana’s Peppermint. In addition to Alicia Keys, they performed a cover of “Eminem feat Dido - Stan” which was also quite impressive plus their own single “Don’t Have a Heart”. More »

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Another one? Seems like Samsung and SM Entertainment are best friends as SNSD is now the new face of the HaHaHa Campaign.

They’ve changed up the song this time around after Kim Yuna and DBSK have beaten the song to death. I can’t say whether or not I like it but the girls definitely look cute. More »

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One of kpop’s oldest groups have said their final goodbyes yesterday on SBS Inkigayo. The duo has decided to split up and pursue separate musical careers. Their final performance included “Day by Day” and a new single called “Restrictions” from their recent album.

What a sad day in kpop! While they’ll still be around, there’s no certainty as to whether or not these two will work together ever again. But we all know that there’s money to be made there once time passes by. More »

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For all the talk about how Asians are the model minority in this country and how much disposable income we have, there’s not much talk about how 10.2% of Asians in this country live below the poverty line. That number is higher of course in urban areas. More »

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The Brooklyn Botanic Garden is prepping for its annual Sakura Matsuri on May 2 & 3. The weekend-long family festival is a celebration of Japanese culture and arts. This year over 50 performances are scheduled that include taiko drumming, an anime voice actor panel, bonsai pruning workshops, Jpop DJs, and a traditional kimono show. In the meantime, you can keep track of the gradual blooming of the Garden’s more than 200 cherry trees online with the CherryWatch Blossom Status Map! More »

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Se7en is going to bring Atlanta some love this Saturday, April 18th at the Velvet Room nightclub. Word is that Se7en is officially going to perform! Take it from me, the man can sing! (The proof is right here.) Also Akon and Flo Rida have confirmed to make an appearance! This event is being brought to you by Red Queen Media (Se7en’s US management) and AllKpop. Local event promoters Elev8 will be running things on the ground in Atlanta. More »

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The 2nd Annual Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF) is now accepting submissions for the following festival award categories:

Narrative Fiction (70 mins+) Documentary (35 mins+) Short Film (1-30 mins) More »

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If you’ve studied an Asian language in the US, there’s a good chance you know about educational publishers Cheng & Tsui. Based in Boston, their motto is “Bringing Asia to the World”™ with a wide range of language-learning materials, translated literature, dictionaries, reference books, films, and software. Cheng & Tsui’s catalog encompasses Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Southeast Asian languages. This year marks their 30th Anniversary! To celebrate, Cheng & Tsui are holding a 30th Anniversary Contest: “How Learning an Asian Language Affected My Life”. Submitting your story with a video or essay by June 1st. More »

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Happy Easter everyone! Hope you all bought your own little baby chickens and rabbits. Or not.

Social news is back up if you didn’t know! We’ve completely revamped how it works so that it’ll be easier for you to be the little newscrawler that you are. Also, we’re still looking for bloggers for our gaming website!

Here’s this week’s wrap up! More »

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Juice boxes are adorable and cute but like all things Japanese, they’ve been reinvented in a whole new way.

Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa has revamped juice boxes to look like the fruits they contain. So far there are banana, kiwi, strawberry and soybean which feels like “silken tofu skin”. I know I want my hands on those bad boys. More »

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What better to do on your trip to Tokyo than visit the Pokemon center? Nothing! Well, except for Tsukiji fish market and Tokyo Disneyland but the Pokemon Center Tokyo comes in third. Sadly it outranks Japan’s most popular shrines and temples, Asakusa and Kinkakuji. More »

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