On Friday, May 11, AABANY fielded a team at the 7th Annual Trivia Bowl organized by the Asian American Journalists Association of New York (AAJA-NY) and held at Golden Unicorn Restaurant in Chinatown.

AABANY has sent a team to Trivia Bowl every year since inception except for one year when we had a schedule conflict. We took first place a couple of years ago, beating out the New York Times. We hoped to repeat that first place finish last year but ended up in fifth.

Our team this year included: Chris Kwok (Team Captain), Lia Tieu, Gabriel Arce-Yee, Gary Malone, Francis Chin, Jonathan Hernandez, Albert Suh, Beatrice Leong, Tsui Yee and Yang Chen. Through five rounds of tough questions, we managed to finish fifth out of about 20 teams, most of which were from news organizations. Last year’s winner, Newsday, sent at least three teams! Congratulations to New York Times, which won the Tea Cup Trophy this year. We believe it is the third victory for this venerable team.

While we were not able to claim victory this year, we all enjoyed the challenge and team spirit that Trivia Bowl brings out. And again this year, we had better luck in the raffle drawings that took place between rounds. Francis Chin, AABANY’s Director of Technology, took home a Cabot Cheese box set gift certificate as well as an olive oil spa product set. AABANY co-founder Rocky Chin, who played with the AARP team, took home a bag from the Museum of Food and Drink as well as a levitating Death Star.

Thanks to Hon. Doris Ling-Cohan, Hon. James d’Auguste, Hon. Alex Tisch, Hon. Kathryn Freed, and Marc Cohan for serving as judges, scoring the answer sheets submitted by all the teams. Some challenges were raised, which the judges had to resolve. A notable one was for the question: What is the name of the Chinese satellite that crashed to Earth in April? The accepted answer was Tiangong 1. One team submitted the English translation of that name, which is Celestial Palace. Another team pointed out that the rules state that answers “must be in English.” The ruling: Tiangong 1 is an answer in English and that was the answer that would be given credit.

Proceeds from Trivia Bowl fund scholarships for Asian American students pursuing degrees in journalism. Congratulations to AAJA-NY on another fun and successful fundraiser!