By Stacy Nguyen
Northwest Asian Weekly
Butler University president Bobby Fong speaks during a pep rally for the Butler men’s college basketball team in Indianapolis, on March 31. (Photo by Darron Cummings/AP)
It was a heartbreaking loss last Monday night. The clocked ticked down at Lucas Stadium in Indianapolis. Butler University, the underdog team, was only two points down. Gordon Hayward aimed for the win, but his half-court shot slammed against the rim. Read the full story
By Jason Cruz
Northwest Asian Weekly
Ed Wang in his Virgina Tech uniform
“I’m a big Chinese guy,” said Ed Wang, explaining his nickname, Godzilla.
Note that Wang is not Japanese.
“I tell [my former Virginia Tech teammates] that all the time,” Wang said, laughing. “But it’s all in fun.”
Wang, a left tackle from Virginia Tech, will be the first Chinese American football player to be drafted in next month’s National Football League (NFL) Draft. Read the full story
By Andrew Hamlin
Northwest Asian Weekly
Performers from last year’s Yoni Ki Baat prepare backstage before the show. (Photo by Carina A. del Rosario)
When Anjulie Ganti was young, she enjoyed performing the Bharatanatyam, a well-respected Indian form of dancing. She retained her love of Asian culture and this month, is directing a play.
She was born in San Jose and grew up in Seattle. Though she has spent a lot of time performing onstage, she has never been formally trained in directing live theater. As a young girl, she certainly didn’t see herself directing the South Asian equivalent of a popular, but controversial, American stage play exploring the depths of female sexuality.
“Yoni Ki Baat,” translated as talks of the vagina, is the South Asian version of Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” an episodic play made up of a number of monologues read by women. The theme of the piece is that the vagina is a symbol of female empowerment and individuality. Read the full story
By Amanda Strombom
For Northwest Asian Weekly
Esther Park-Hwang will be one of the speaker at Vegfest. (Photo by Rozarii Lynch )
Asian chefs are among the many chefs featured at this year’s Vegfest. The event is to be held on April 10 and 11 at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. Vegfest is the biggest vegetarian food festival in the United States and features more than 500 different kinds of dishes. The event is ideal for people who have questions about how to improve their diet, what to buy, and how to cook it. Read the full story
Filmmakers of Asian Pacific Islander descent can submit their entries for free to the third annual ID Film Festival organized by the Japanese Americans National Museum in Los Angeles. Read the full story
The Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) received a $125,200 grant from State Farm this year.
The grant will be utilized in 2010 to support OCA’s APIA U: Leadership 101, an Asian/Pacific Islander American college leadership training program, and the upcoming Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)/OCA Leadership Conference in May. Read the full story
By Michael Alison Chandler
For The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Dixi Wu finished middle school in Kunming, China, she had a hard decision to make. The skilled violinist and top-ranked student tested into one of the most competitive high schools in her province. Yet Bullis School in suburban Maryland, faced with falling applications during the depressed economy, also wanted her. Read the full story
By Ken Thomas
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. faces a maximum penalty of more than $16 million, a record civil penalty against an automaker, for failing to promptly notify the U.S. government about defective gas pedals among its vehicles. Read the full story
By Alex Kennedy
SINGAPORE — Last month, The New York Times Co. apologized and agreed to pay Singapore’s prime minister and his two predecessors approximately 160,000 Singapore dollars ($114,000) for a story that described the city-state’s leaders as an Asian political dynasty. Read the full story
The Weyerhaeuser Company announced a grant of $5,000 to the Japan–America Society of the State of Washington (JASSW) for their Japan in the Schools (JIS) program. Read the full story
By Andrew Hamlin
Northwest Asian Weekly
Peter Chan’s Chinese battle epic, “The Warlords,” opens with a creepy voice narrating, “He told me — that dying was easy and living was hard.” But who is speaking? And who is he speaking about?
The film continues with an air of mystery. Crucial elements in the characters’ war-ravaged lives remain hidden. Certain elements may seem confusing to the moviegoer. Sometimes, the mystery adds depth to the saga. Other times, it seems calculated to cover the plot’s weak spots.
The international version of “The Warlords” runs sixteen minutes shorter than the original version. In the international version, significant material seems to be left out. Characters change their minds for no identifiable reason. Some crucial battle sequences fly by with very little time devoted to their unfolding. Read the full story
Washington’s New Americans (WNA) program hosts Citizenship Day, an event held at sites across the state offering services from immigration attorneys, paralegals, interpreters, and community volunteers in helping to prepare naturalization applications at no cost. Read the full story
