Holy Tokyo Drift! That’s Sung Kang—bigger than life. This mural’s on the wall of Taiwan-based Jump Shoes’ flagship store in SoHo. But how did it get there? Meet David Foox—a New Zealand artist with an eye for Asian symbolism. Plus, see Sung Kang’s last three short films with Jump Shoes and Arowana Films.
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Tags: Arowana films, art, Daivd Foox, Fashion, Jump Shoes, marketing, mural, painting, sung kang

Part 1

“I never thought that my relationship with food would result in me opening a restaurant,” says Sung Kang, acclaimed American actor and co-owner of Saketini in Brentwood, CA. But he gives credit where it’s due—to the special ladies in his life. Here’s a more introspective side of Sung Kang’s dinner table.

Sung Kang has developed a reputation for playing bad guys…most recently, he appeared as a car-racing thug on NBC’s Knight Rider. Click to watch the full episode.

But in real life, he talks softly and carries a big wok. Check out this video interview with journalist Sara Sohn:
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Tags: Fast and Furious, Jump Shoes, Knight Rider, Miki, Ninja Assassin, Saketini, sung kang

Part 2

Two basic questions reveal much about any animal: What does it eat? Where does it live? Sung Kang’s a breed of his own in the film world, winning fans with roles that shatter Asian stereotypes. He lives in Los Angeles, and he eats, well, some interesting stuff. Since he owns a restaurant, I thought it would be fun to talk chow with Sung. And it was. You won’t believe what he does with ice cream.

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Tags: asian american, cuisine, finishing the game, Food, K-Drama, Saketini, sung kang, The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift, The Motel

You probably knew about Tiger Woods, Steve Byrne, and Kimora Lee Simmons. Yeah, they’ve got Asian in ‘em. But did you know that funny man Rob Schneider is half Filipino? Or that model Naomi Campbell had Chinese blood? Vladimir Lenin, the father of Communist Russia, was part Mongolian, and Bruce Lee had German ancestry. Here’s more from Frank Agostinelli and asiansofmixedrace.com.

Plenty of famous, and talented people have partial Asian ancestry. And good-looking people….well, maybe not Rob Schneider. Ann Curry of NBC News is Japanese and Irish. Eddie Van Halen is Indonesian and German. New York Yankee Johnny Damon is half Thai, and singer KT Tunstall is a quarter Chinese. But the tag line on asiansofmixedrace.com is, “Percentages Don’t Matter!” Even if you have only a tiny fraction of Asian in you, be proud of who you are.
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Tags: asian, celebrity, Frank Agostinelli, Jason Tobin, Kelly Hu, Kimora Lee Simmons, mixed Asian, race, Russell Wong, Tiger Woods

He’s not a celebrity, just a regular Rhode Island guy. But what he has to say about race in America today is funny, hard-hitting, and well worth a read. He’s Frank Y. Pak Agostinelli, founder of asiansofmixedrace.com. With Frank, what you see is what you get. Everything about him, from his name to his “Random Thoughts of an Angry Half-Asian Man,” sets a powerful example of self-acceptance.

I wanted to learn more about the mixed-race experience because of my own half-white, half-Korean children. A mixed-Asian friend introduced me to Frank and the awesome content of his site. In the first part of this interview, you’ll get to know Frank. Stay tuned for Part 2, which features more about his site, including the fascinating issues and celebrities covered there.
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Tags: asian, Frank Agostinelli, hapas, Korean, mixed race Asians, race, white

It was Saturday night, at my weekend waitressing job. I saw them at the host booth, and hoped they would end up in my section. It was slow, and I needed another table. But I also wanted a chance to say “Hi.” It’s not every day that you see a mixed Asian family in Clermont County, Ohio.
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Tags: asian, family, multiracial

Yeah, I’m the lucky girl standing next to Roger Fan. When I finally met him at “Finishing the Game”’s New York City premiere last October, I felt like we’d known each other forever. Roger, one of the film’s stars, was the unofficial blogger of FTG’s 2007 Grassroots Tour. Besides spending most of the year at film festivals and campuses, connecting with the fans, Roger also spent countless hours documenting the tour in pictures and funny descriptions, much to the delight of rabid fans like me. If you got a MySpace comment from Finishing the Game, it was most often Roger’s doing. We emailed back and forth, and I teased him about how great he looked, bare-chested and suntan-oiled, as the cocky Breeze Loo circa 1973.

Then I interviewed him by phone while writing up Finishing the Game for a local newspaper. Truth be told, I was lucky the article got run at all. Asian-American film is pretty much off the radar where I live; I had only 850 words for a review of Finishing the Game AND a “wide angle” on Asians in Hollywood! But Roger, smart Brown alum that he is, gave me so much great material that would not fit in that tiny box. And I had the tall order of editing it and giving my fellow Midwesterners a taste of what’s happening in the Asian-American community.

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Tags: actor, asian american, breeze loo, finishing the game, interview, justin lin, myspace, new york city, ping pong playa, premiere, roger fan, stereotype, sung kang