djchuang.com - Latest Comments in who could speak for all Asian Americans

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

Dennis Choy — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 02:38:20 -0000

DJ when you say Asian American are you talking about someone who would represent all generations or just 2nd generation and beyond. I know in the Korean community (sadly) there is usually more respect given to someone who is either Korean born and/or speaks the language fluently from the 1st generation Koreans. I'm one of the Pastors at an American Church but my mom's Korean 1st generation church doesn't necessarily see me the same as there pastor.
In saying that it's a great question and I throw in my nominee - HINES WARD - Pittsburgh Steelers

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

Pete Sung — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:08:49 -0000

Wow, very cool topic and nice comments. How about adding director Justin Lin to the mix? (better luck tomorrow, fast and the furious, etc). I would think he'd have an interesting perspective on the Asian American community.

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

Jeremiah Owyang — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:15:55 -0000

Humman3rror

Wow, thanks for the vote, but I stand by my conviction that each Asian American should tell their own story by doing, and using social tools.

Why have a representative that represents us? Why can't we individually represent ourselves? Gene suggests that we're stereotyped, the best way to beat that is to not have a 'representative' but to do it and change it.

Let's not focus on nominating anyone, and just self-represent ourselves. That's what I'm going to do.

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

djchuang — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 01:05:48 -0000

All, thanks for the recommendations and comments thus far!

Someone else recommended other notably accomplished AAs: George Takei, Mako Fujimura, Steve Chen (YouTube), Sandra Oh, Jennifer 8. Lee, David Ho (scientist) - cf. http://twurl.nl/3bbciv

While there are many more very accomplished Asian Americans, and would be able to tell their personal lessons learned, I don't know how many of them would be conversant about the Asian American community.

@Jeremiah, well, my thoughts have developed over time about this; I used to think we don't need a representative voice. I now see the value of having some representative faces and voices.

While there are social media tools available, and many who've attained great accomplishments, without representatives to speak up for the community, Asian Americans stay marginalized, stereotyped, and its community needs stay hidden.

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

LT — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 21:35:42 -0000

I'm not sure if we've reached household Asian American names. Some celebrities may come to mind but I'm not sure if we want to be so quick to suggest them.

Apart from the Christian community, I think these few names should be mentioned.
- Jeff Yang, one of the founders of A. Magazine, SF Chronicle's Asian Pop Columnist, Author
- Carmen Van Kerckhove, President of New Demographic, a diversity education firm. Her perspectives on race and diversity have been featured on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, USA Today, and The New York Times.
- Guy Kawasaki, Apple legend, founder of Garage Technology Ventures, co-founder of Alltop.com and more.

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

Daniel K. Eng — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:32:32 -0000

While the Asian-American Christian leaders mentioned above have a lot of notoriety and press, I feel like I need to balance them by suggesting some pastors who have more conservative leanings. Hoover Wong, Cory Ishida (Evergreen SGV), Steven Chin (Boston Chinese Evangelical Church), and Dan Low (Bread of Life Church) would fit into this category.

For more public figures from sports, there are the American-born Michelle Kwan and Michael Chang, and Norm Chow of UCLA.

For figures from politics, there are U.S. House representatives Mike Honda and Patsy Takemoto Mink, Doris Matsui, and Senator David Akaka. Former Governor of Washington, Gary Locke.

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

Lon — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:01:27 -0000

what a great question... let me know if you stumble across 'the' canadian leader too... we've got 2 million or so in canada.

btw, are there asian ghetto's in the states?

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

John Saddington — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:36:25 -0000

Margaret Cho: http://www.margaretcho.com/ she's funny.

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

John Saddington — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:36:00 -0000

i would nominate jeremiah.... he's the man in the tech space. charlene li also, perhaps?

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

John Saddington — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 14:35:15 -0000

hah. i like that.

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

Jeremiah Owyang — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 06:42:56 -0000

Excellent Question, you've got my attention.

Two things come to mind: 1) we can be our own individual spokespersons, we have the tools to do this with social media, why do we have to lean on someone else?

2) If that doesn't work, and the world really wants a true reprenatitve, why not have a business leader, sports leader, or someone that transects a larger segmentation of the Asians in US.

Lastly, I'm not sure these are representative of Asian Americans --putting a religious filter (whether it be Christian, Muslim or Buddhist isn't 'representative')

Your cousin in law--- Jeremiah

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

Dave Ingland — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 02:59:53 -0000

Since Asian-American encompasses different heritages such as Chinese-American, Vietnamese-American, Hmong-American--heck, even some people group Indian people as Asian--how could one person represent several groups of people that really are diverse?

I've heard Asian-Americans discuss this subject by saying we don't have much representation in media. True, but would we settle for someone like Dave Gibbons representing all Asians, or would he better-represent Korean-Americans and not Chinese-Americans? Culturally, each of the microdivisions within the Asian-American groups will cause us to be different in several important factors.

African-Americans can unite under the cause of oppression and racism, but for any of us like me that have been called negative aspects of being Chinese, yet I am not Chinese, can't really relate on that level.

Re: who could speak for all Asian Americans

Steve Knight — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 21:56:58 -0000

Here's another one: Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang.