At Forest Hills Stadium, on a chilly Saturday afternoon in Queens, throngs of Asian Americans crowd the grounds of 88Rising’s Head in the Clouds festival. Among the sea of concertgoers, one uniform crops up again and again: black jerseys with white piping, one name splashed across the back — ILLENIUM. …
Read More »Lucy Liu, Padma Lakshmi, Saweetie and More Celebrate Asian Excellence at 2024 Gold House Gala
More than 600 guests converged at Los Angeles’ Music Center Saturday for Gold House’s third annual Gold Gala, one of the most extraordinary celebrations for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in Hollywood, with those in attendance representing the 22 million Asian Americans with roots in more than 20 …
Read More »Why Charles Melton's Oscar Snub for 'May December' Really Stings
In a post-Barbie universe, it’s a strange feeling to have pity for extremely wealthy, famous, and attractive heterosexual men. Yet this has been the predominant sentiment following actor Charles Melton’s Oscar snub for his turn as a traumatized sexual assault survivor in May December. Directed by Todd Haynes, May December …
Read More »Randall Park Fought Like Hell to Get Here
Randall Park is seemingly everywhere nowadays. He’s FBI Agent Jimmy Woo in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, popping up in this year’s Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and the upcoming The Marvels. Over in the DC Extended Universe, you can see his Dr. Stephen Shin, who’ll feature in the Christmas release …
Read More »'Shortcomings' Could Be This Generation's 'High Fidelity'
Randall Park‘s Shortcomings opens with a fake-out: A Chinese-American woman in an evening gown gets insulted by a casually racist white hotel clerk. She turns on her heels, walks over to her dapper-looking husband, exchanges a few words, and walks back to the front desk. They’ve just bought the hotel, …
Read More »'Joy Ride': Sex, Butt Cocaine, and Raunch-Com Representation for the Win
Raunch-coms live or die by their ability to make you go “Oh my god!” or “Ewwww!” or do a spit-take that spews popcorn over whoever is unlucky enough to be sitting in front of you. So you can give it up for Joy Ride, director Adele Lim‘s variation on the …
Read More »'Joy Ride': The Asian Squad Raising Hell and Crushing Stereotypes
The new movie Joy Ride, a riotously funny comedy about a group of four Asian-American pals — Audrey (Ashley Park of Emily in Paris), Kat (Stephanie Hsu, Oscar-nominated star of Everything Everywhere All at Once), Lolo (Sherry Cola), and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu) — who head to China to try to …
Read More »Bowen Yang Went Through Hell to Get to 'SNL'
I n only a few years, Bowen Yang has emerged as the breakout star of Saturday Night Live. I defy you to watch his Gay Jafar rant against Ron DeSantis and not completely lose it. But that’s not all. He also stars in the Comedy Central sitcom Awkwafina Is Nora …
Read More »'American Born Chinese' Is a Thrilling 'Everything Everywhere All at Once' Reunion
Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan plays a fairly minor role in the Disney+ family series American Born Chinese. But there may be no more important character to convey what the show is trying to do, and how well it succeeds at most of it. Chinese is a complicated mix of …
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