Texas lawmaker says that Asian-Americans should change their Asian names into American names to make polling easier on the government. Also, because the Asian names are too hard to pronounce. These two articles talk about this incident. More »

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I admit, I am not one for political cartoon of anything, much less ones about North Korea. However, the latest development of North Korea’s so-called rocket/missile launcher being all over the news made me feel a bit apprehensive. But all that’s gone away after my friend showed me the best political cartoon that’s floating around the net. More »

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WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILER TO THE FOX TV SERIES “HOUSE”!

For those of you who watched the shocking season finale of House last week, you were probably shocked by the death of Dr Lawrence Kutner (played by Kal Penn), who apparently shot himself in the head. Why such sudden and dreadful departure? Did he piss of the writers on the show? More »

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When Tila Tequila’s trashy reality show A Shot At Love with Tila Tequila was canceled, I thought we would never see her again. But sadly, that wasn’t the case. Sure, the paparazzi seemed to have forgotten her for a while, but bitch found a way to get their attention again. More »

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Here is yet another incident of racism and prejudices against people of Asian descent. I pulled out my lovely cell phone to look at some of headlines this past morning. Iowa Senator Grassley immediately grasps my attention with his fuming remarks against AIG. Who isn’t mad as hell at AIG these days? More »

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China’s censorship efforts were recently hadouken’d by internet material about the mythical “grass-mud-horse” creature. Understandably, it seems like just another day in China’s war against all things arbitrary… but the amazing thing about the grass-mud-horse phenomenon is that it managed to bypass China’s “profanity and vulgarity” scanning system. For those of you who speak Mandarin, sound out the pin yin for grass-mud-horse (草泥馬)… go on, don’t be shy. More »

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Like I’ve said several times, censorship in any shape or form simply sucks. I guess a new form of censorship and a violation of freedom of speech (if South Korea has such rights) has come down on South Korea, and this time it affects the online gaming industry. Korea Game Industry Agency (KOGIA) and game companies are bleeping out words they consider profane, vulgar, and unacceptable while online gamers chat with each other. While that’s all fine and dandy, I suppose, as an effort to minimise vulgar language among young people and to promote intelligence in individuals’ speech, reading this article makes me go buh and huh. Their reasoning for banning such words are: More »

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One thing I notice about South Korea — or at least in Seoul — is that it’s not handicap-friendly. Compared to ten years ago, I’d say South Korea came a long way in trying to be more friendly for disabled and handicapped citizens, but I still think they need a bit more work. More »

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“Black Box” Reduces Traffic Accidents is the article’s title. To veer off onto an entirely different direction, I have to say that I’ve been playing Chrono Trigger too much. When I read “black box,” I immediately thought these taxis had those sealed black chests, and I nearly yelled WTF. More »

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I am concerned that if films like XXXXXXX are screened in theaters, it will cause moral chaos.

Oh, really? What about violent films? Films about drug usages and trafficking? Films about psychological issues? There’s already an abundance of porn, so I doubt some film will really cause “moral chaos”. Okay, so maybe the media is a powerful tool for influence for a person, but really, South Korea, just stop being so repressed and conservative!

Considering how conservative South Korea is, I’m amazed they passed that law where they deem that “restricted screening on sexual content films is unconstitutional”, which means that films that are too raunchy for the general audience is viewed in selected theaters — but that process is now abolished. Is this really South Korea? Holy cow, they are turning progressive! Let’s see how long this freedom last until the court rules the original law back into place.

Despite my pessimism, though, I hope this works out. And that Shortbus film the article mentioned sounds intriguing.

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To celebrate the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama, Ningin asked members of the Asian American political community to blog about what this historic event means to each of them. This guest blog post is from Keith Kamisugi, director of communications at the Equal Justice Society, a San Francisco-based strategy group working on race issues in law and in popular culture. He served on the steering committee of the Asian American and Pacific Islanders for Obama Leadership Council, the campaign’s official AAPI advisory body. He blogs at equaljusticesociety.org and at hapihour.org. More »

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I don’t want to sound like I’m being xenophobic towards China or anything, but is it okay to say that I’m not surprised at how Chinese media censored President Obama’s inauguration speech? As someone who hates censorship in any forms, it’s ironic that I can sort of see why they did it, but at the same time I do not agree with it.

Censorship is a mean to hide or prevent information from being known to the common public. However, it just seems odd that the Chinese translation of the speeches are changed, but they left the speech alone in English — but then again, the English speech is already all over the internet, so I guess they can’t do much about it. Nonetheless, I guess the Chinese officials are hoping that most of their people do not access English website or know English to understand the original speech. I do hope they realize that there are multilingual citizens in China, so to censor the information around like that is pretty pointless.

On a more positive note, yay for President Obama! Woo hoo!

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Within the last several months, new images and videos have been released on the net. These images showcase Korean War from 1950 to 1953. Amongst images of combat, people, rubbles, and even celebrities like Bob Hope and Marilyn Monroe, seeing these pictures seem to make the war more real than surreal.

Pictures and videos are all here.

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No, not Minerva McGonagall from Harry Potter, but rather a man named Park Dae Sung, who has been arrested on charges of spreading lies over the Internet by blogging. Lies about the South Korean government. Lies where he somehow “predicted” economic situations and whatnot. It sounds more like he wrote many articles that criticized the government and their policies, but I guess the South Korean government doesn’t like to be trashed, so they decided to arrest this blogger to tell the rest of the country to STFU? More »

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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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I admit that I am not a fan of Condoleezza Rice and of the rest of the Bush administration. However, my lack of respect for her went way beyond the ninth level of Hell after I read this lovely article.

While I agree that trusting North Korea blindly – without any precautions – is not exactly a good idea, I don’t think calling someone – who trusts them – an idiot is right, either. I mean, seriously. She said “I mean, who trusts the North Koreans? You’d have to be an idiot to trust the North Koreans.” How about we turn that statement around say, “You’d have to be an idiot to trust the Americans.” I’m sure she’d be insulted and angered by that, but hey, she’s the one who said that about North Korea.

And yes, North Korea isn’t the best country out there, but what she said was really offensive and insulting. I have Korean blood in me. I’m sure I have ancestors and relatives so far removed from me that they are North Koreans as well. So, yeah, Rice, I am insulted by your statement, big time.

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This article is about how the US State Department considers Hongdae and Sinchon, two famous clubbing and bar hopping districts in Seoul, “dangerous areas”. This article brings out two clashing viewpoints from me. One is bewilderment and the other is anger.

I am trying to see why the US State Department would even consider those two areas dangerous. For a city where crime isn’t huge as some major cities, I just cannot fathom what could be listed as dangerous. I mean, yes, since it is a bar district, running into drunkards is not my idea of safe, but it just makes me wonder what they mean by “dangerous”. Yes, crime will always exist, but is it really high in those two areas or is it just another way to prevent Americans from going there? And by Americans I mean those who are affiliated with the US military. More »

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Talk is cheap, barbers give it away for free with a haircut; however, there are moments in conversation that you’ll remember for the rest of your life. The following celebs have left their mark in media history by saying the wrong thing at the wrong place and time. While most can simply be laughed off, others will haunt them forever. More »

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Don’t act like you’ve never subjected an hour of your time watching an E! special on top (insert topic here.) You’ve been bored before, don’t lie. Ningin.com is certainly not going lie about this: 2008 experienced a few Asian scandals. Not enough to warrant an E! special, but enough for Ningin.com’s sake. In no particular order, save for the last scandal (the biggest scandal), 2008’s scandals: More »

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I left Kentucky a decade ago, but news of southern redneck shenanigans seems to follow me. I first heard about this on local news radio—JapanToday.com has a full write-up. O.C. Welch, owner of a Ford dealership in Hardeeburg, South Carolina, has taken out a one-minute radio spot to deride Japanese cars and everyone who buys them. “They’re rice-ready…they’re not road-ready.” More »

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