Summer Reception at Kenyon & Kenyon

For the last few years, AABANY’s July Board meeting has taken place at Kenyon & Kenyon thanks to the graciousness of past AABANY President John Flock.  John was also recently honored by AABANY’s Prosecutors’ Committee, along with Hon. Randall Eng and Hugh Mo, at the Third Anniversary Reception of the Prosecutors’ Committee held at NYCLA on June 30.

In keeping with tradition, and to enjoy the marvelous views of New York Harbor from the 11th floor terrace of Kenyon & Kenyon, AABANY held a summer reception open to all right before the Board meeting.  We also took the opportunity to invite the 2011 Joint Minority Bar Judicial Internship Program (JMB JIP) participants to pick up their stipend checks for the summer.  Thanks to all the JMB JIP sponsors for making the stipends possible.

To make the party even livelier, Issues Committee Chair Joe Gim hosted a meet-and-greet for all those who were interested in joining AABANY’s Issues Committee to come and hear from Joe what the Committee is about and how anyone interested in legal issues affecting the APA community could get involved.  Joe collected many names and e-mail addresses from those who were in attendance.  We anticipate that at least some of those people knew they were signing up for the Issues Committee.  If you wish to get involved with the Issues Committee but were not able to attend the reception, you can reach Joe at [email protected].  He will surely be glad to hear from you.

The hour-long reception lasted a little over an hour, after which Board members and committee chairs who were present headed down to the third floor conference room for the Board meeting.  Quite a few of the reception attendees decided to stay for the Board meeting, making for a very crowded conference room.  It was great to see so many people interested in attending an AABANY Board meeting.  We hope you found the experience instructive and not soporific.  And for those who wish to attend AABANY Board meetings, they are usually held on the first Tuesdays of the month at various locations.  The next one will take place on Tuesday, August 2, at Constantine Cannon, starting at 7 pm. Register your attendance at this link.

Jane Hyun and Wesley Yang talk about the “bamboo ceiling” on NPR, All Things Considered

Flipping through the Twitter feed this evening, I came across a re-tweet from MOCA with a link to a July 5 segment on NPR’s All Things Considered which featured Wesley Yang and Jane Hyun as guests.  Wesley Yang wrote the recent Paper Tiger article published in New York magazine and Jane Hyun wrote the book “Breaking the Bamboo Ceiling."  The re-tweet is quoted below but in case it doesn’t come through in full, here’s a link to the NPR segment: http://www.npr.org/2011/07/05/137631005/looking-at-the-bamboo-ceilling

Yang claims not to have experienced the Bamboo Ceiling but in the short segment, Michelle Norris failed to bring out that, as described in the article, Yang did not spend time in corporate America.  He does, however, talk about the Asian Playboy teaching a room full of Asians about how to pick up women and describing the Asian men instantly recognizing he Asian Playboy’s reference to "the Asian Poker Face."  Yang admits that he has an Asian Poker Face.  Norris pleaded ignorance to that description and asked Yang to explain.

Hyun’s response to the question of her encounters with the Bamboo Ceiling came in the form of an anecdote from an early point in her career, describing herself as the (stereo)typical keep-your-head-down industrious Asian who grinded out spreadsheets as she was assigned to do but noticing that one of her colleagues would routinely stop in to the boss’s office and engage in banter.  Hyun speaks in broad terms about certain cultural traits developed from her Asian upbringing that may have led to her hitting a Bamboo Ceiling on her way up the corporate ladder.

Asian Poker Face? Asian upbringing creating workplace barriers to advancement?  Does any of this sound familiar?  Is Yang in denial about a Bamboo Ceiling?  Is Hyun correct about the existence of a Bamboo ceiling?

What do you think?

quoted from aabany

RT @mocamuseum: Wesley Yang & business adviser Jane Hyun @npr on the "bamboo ceiling,” Asian assimilation, career challenges/stereotypes …