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September 24, 2012

Into the Picture; Images of Asian Pacific America by Corky Lee

Come if you are in the Philadelphia neighborhood…or go to www.asianartsinitiative.org for details.

Reception: Fri 9/28 @ 5:30 PM
Gallery talk: Sat 9/29 @ 11 AM.

The Gallery talk will be fundraising for AAJA Philly chapter and Asian Arts Initiative, $10/15.

Afterwards stay for 17th annual Mid Autumn Fest sponsored by Asian American United (local civil rights organization) in Philly Chinatown, a 2 block walk from gallery.

Via public transit, take NJ Transit @ 34th St. Penn station to Trenton, NJ. Get off & stay on same platform for SEPTA train into Market East station (Chinatown) & walk 5 blocks (crossing
over Vine St. Expressway) to gallery at 1219 Vine. St.
$24.25 one way weekday rates.

August 3, 2012

ASIAN AMERICAN GROUPS HOSTED A MOVIE NIGHT TO SEE AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY

From Julie Huang, PR professional and President of Kaimen Company (and AABANY member):

On Wednesday , August 1, Asian American organizations [including AABANY] hosted a special Movie Night at the IFC Center to see Alison Klayman critically-acclaimed new documentary film, “Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry”. Many attendees took advantage of the IFC promo code at the box office for this particular showing of the film. Others who cared more about convenience than the IFC community ticket promo bought their tickets on www.movietickets.com ahead of time.

One of the Asian American groups, Asian Cinevision, included this message, in its event announcement, “AI WEI WEI NEVER SORRY follows Ai Wei Wei, a political delinquent, who challenges the notion of freedom through his art and conceptual work. In a country that celebrates censorship, he makes us imagine possibilities beyond limitations: what does it mean to use art as a political tool? Ultimately, he puts out a call for transparency, but how will the Chinese government respond?”

Based on our count, 150 people came out. The crowd was multigenerational and multicultural with a wide range of reactions to the film. Attendees we spoke with told us they have no idea about what Ai Weiwei faced in China. Like what Ai Weiwei said in the film, “If it is not publicized, then it is like it never happened.” So if this film was not made or if the video footage was not taken or if people have not watched this film, then how would they know what happened. Where’s the proof, baby? I wrote some more about this film in this blog post, "Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry – Do not Wei to see this! Ai Weiwei.“ If you are looking for a more intelligent write-up, read Sue Lain Moy’s ”No Need to Apologize: Alison Klayman’s documentary, AI WEIWEI: NEVER SORRY, is a work of art and Ryan Wong’s Portrait of an Artist as a Activist | Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry.

On a yummy note, the @NesquikLiveNYC street team were nearby to hand out free bottles of Nesquik chocolate milks! Some of the moviegoers got their chocolate fix on Nesquik. Thanks Nesquik.

It was a wonderful night – chocolate milk and all!

Not in NYC and would like to see the film? Visit this page for listings in your area.

FeliCity

with support from the

and special thanks to

June 8, 2012

“On the Menu for Asian Pacific Heritage Month: Two Career Perspectives and Tables of Delicious Fare”

In honor of May as Asian Pacific Heritage Month, the Diversity Committee hosted a dialogue and lunch reception last week with Peggy Kuo, General Counsel for the City’s Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings, and Alan Chang, Deputy General Counsel and Vice President of Legal Affairs for the New York Yankees.

Mr. Chang, who grew up in Queens, began his legal career as a litigator in Los Angeles before joining cable sports giant ESPN. A longtime Yankees fan, he recalled telling his wife that ESPN was his “number two dream job,” with the Yankees occupying the top spot. Two years into his role at ESPN, Mr. Chang learned that the Yankees were seeking an attorney with cable sports news experience. He had just bought a home and was feeling settled, but the job was an opportunity he felt he couldn’t pass up.

“And 13 years later, they can’t trade me,” he joked. “I feel like I found my dream job.” When he joined the team, Mr. Chang was one of just four Asian-American attorneys in Major League Baseball (one of whom worked for the Mets). He has done significant work on a Yankees cable television venture and the team’s new Bronx stadium. “It’s never boring,” he said.

Ms. Kuo cited the importance of her City roots. Her father, an immigrant from Taiwan in the 1960s, worked for the Department of Environmental Protection for 44 years, where he designed sewers for the City, and Ms. Kuo was a product of the City’s public school system. Unlike her father, however, she was eager to explore many different careers.

“I have a curious mind, a restless spirit, and no aversion to risk taking,” she said. “Opportunities come up, and you have to be ready to take them.”

Following law school, she pursued trial work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “It’s a job I would have done for free,” she said. Years later, she was getting settled into Washington, D.C. and about to buy a home, when she learned of the chance to prosecute crimes stemming from the war in Yugoslavia. Ms. Kuo journeyed to The Hague, where she prosecuted the only mass-rape case in Bosnia, as well as a torture and murder case against a camp commander.

Her return to New York four years later felt like a homecoming. “I always think of the City like a family,” she said. After work in private practice and with the New York Stock Exchange, she took her present role at OATH (which involved an interview with the Corp. Counsel.)

During the Q&A, Mr. Chang and Ms. Kuo were asked what qualities they feel their cultural and ethnic backgrounds contribute to their respective legal careers.

Mr. Chang said that he felt his background lent him an increased sense of cultural sensitivity and understanding that could be applied to the Yankees’ diverse fanbase.

Ms. Kuo noted, “I can see things from more than one viewpoint. My mom struggles with English, and when I was making arguments to the jury, I’d, in my mind, be making those arguments to my mom. I’d say, ‘Would my mom understand this?’”

Editor’s Note: The discussion was complemented by two tables of delicious food. Thanks to the Asian American Bar Association of New York, the South Asian Bar Association of New York, and the Korean American Bar Association of Greater New York, which graciously provided the refreshments.

Thanks also to Andrea Chan, William Ng, Tanisha Byron, Stuart Smith, Michael Wasser, and Raju Sundaran of the Diversity Committee – and Lisa Forrester-Campos, Stephen Kim, Keith Miloscia, Connie Pankratz, Madhu Parthasarathy, Liza Sohn, Peter Tsai, and Gloria Yi.

-NYC Law Department, HEARSAY

– reprinted with permission from NYC Law Dept

May 24, 2012December 4, 2018

May 22, 2012December 4, 2018

December 1, 2011

Asia Society Survey on APA Employee Engagement

For Immediate Release

For More Information, Please Contact:

Jonathan Saw

212-327-9269 or 917-273-6498

[email protected]

Asian Pacific American Employees View Their Companies Less Favorably
the Longer They Have Been in the U.S.

“Time in U.S.” Could Be a Critical Factor in Asian Pacific American Employee Engagement

New York, NY, (November 28, 2011) – The longer Asian Pacific American (APA) employees live in the United States, the less favorably they view their companies, an annual Asia Society survey found. The 2011 Asian Pacific Americans Corporate Survey indicates that this decline starts after about 10 years and is most apparent amongst APA employees who have lived in the U.S. 20+ years or who are U.S.-born.

The favorability decrease is especially true in the critical area of professional growth. Among those surveyed:

49% of APA employees who have been in the U.S. for 20+ years view their companies favorably in terms of professional growth.
A bare majority – 53% – of APA employees who have been in the U.S. from 11-20 years view their companies favorably on this dimension.
While 62% of APA employees, who have been here for 10 years or less, view their companies favorably in terms of professional growth; this group constitutes only 24% of APAs in the U.S.

The model minority stereotype assumes that the hardworking, intelligent, Asian American employee, who does not “rock the boat,” has no problem rising up the corporate ladder. This is especially true for those who are culturally “American.” But a look at the senior ranks of most companies shows that the reality is quite different. Asian-American faces are almost entirely absent.

“New Asian immigrants are singularly focused on establishing a foothold both economically and culturally in the U.S. – similar to immigrants of any ethnicity,” said Vishakha N. Desai, President of Asia Society. “On the other hand, Asian-Americans who were born here may recognize more easily where Corporate America’s formal policies and commitment to diversity are not fully realized on the day-to-day level.”

This is not to say that companies have not made efforts, but the data suggests they may be focused on the wrong thematic areas.

“The implications of this data are striking.” said Desai. “It suggests that efforts to engage Asian-American employees need to include ‘time in the U.S.’ as an additional filter. For example, while the offer of assertiveness training may be welcomed by an employee recently arrived from Shanghai, it could be viewed as deeply objectionable when offered to an APA employee who was born in San Antonio.” Desai continued.

The country of origin differences are real and should not be overlooked. However, the survey data suggests that this could be less true as time goes on. With the APA population growing faster than any other ethnic group, except for Hispanics, the disengagement suggested by the data will fast become an even larger issue.

About the Asian Pacific Americans Corporate Survey

Asia Society first began conducting the APA Corporate Survey in 2010, to address the need for independent information, backed by statistics, about the APA workforce. At that time, there was very little information about APA employees and their perceptions and experiences, and the APA Corporate Survey was the first to exclusively measure and to recognize practices related to developing APA working at Fortune 500-level companies.

2011 Award Winners

KPMG LLP: Overall Best Employer for Asian Pacific Americans

Colgate-Palmolive Company: Best Company for Asian Pacific Americans to Develop Workforce Skills

PepsiCo, Inc.: Best Company in Promoting Asian Pacific Americans into Senior Leadership Positions

Cardinal Health, Inc.: Best Company for Support of the Asian Pacific American Community

GE: Best Company with the Most Innovative Practices

2011 Other Finalist Companies:

Cisco

Corning Incorporated

Freddie Mac

Goldman, Sachs & Co.

HSBC Bank

Kaiser Permanente

Kraft Foods

Lear Corporation

McDonald’s Corporation

New York Life Insurance Company

Pfizer

PG&E Corporation

Sodexo, Inc.

Time Warner Inc.

To speak with representatives from one of these finalist companies or for questions about participating in the 2012 survey, please contact: Jonathan Saw, [email protected], 212-327-9269

About the Asia Society

Asia Society is the leading global and pan-Asian organization working to strengthen relationships and promote understanding among the people, leaders and institutions of the United States and Asia. The Society seeks to increase knowledge and enhance dialogue, encourage creative expression, and generate new ideas across the fields of arts and culture, policy and business, and education. Founded in 1956, Asia Society is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational institution with offices in Hong Kong, Houston, Los Angeles, Manila, Melbourne, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C. Asia Society is on the web at www.AsiaSociety.org.

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November 23, 2011

Careerist on Nerdy APA Lawyers

Vivia Chen was at the NAPABA National Convention in Atlanta and reports about the non-dweeby APA lawyers she saw there. She asks:

So are APA lawyers still saddled with a nerdy, not-ready-for-prime-time image? Is this the way law firms and corporations perceive Asian Americans, or the way we perceive ourselves? Whose stereotype is it?

Read the article and share your thoughts.

August 19, 2011

Obama Judicial Appointments Infographic

Seen on Twitter from @jesseclee44, great infographic about Obama’s successes and obstacles encountered in making appointments to the bench. While Obama has made great strides in increasing diversity on the bench, including doubling the number of APAs on the bench, he has faced lengthy confirmation delays – 151 days for circuit judges, 103 days for district court. Take a look and share your comments.

August 18, 2011

Q&A: Why Redistricting Matters to APAs

Last month, AABANY announced that it joined ACCORD, the Asian American Community Coalition on Redistricting and Democracy. We reached out to James Hong, Civic Participation Coordinator at MinKwon Center for Community Action, the lead organization behind ACCORD, to tell us more about what ACCORD is all about.

AABANY: What is ACCORD?

MinKwon (James Hong): We are a group committed to APA and minority communities’ opportunity to meaningfully participate in the political process. Such opportunity is fundamentally changed by the results of redistricting, which completely re-organizes boundaries of districts, and hence creates the population that will be voting in elections.

A: Why does redistricting matter to the APA community in New York?

M: Redistricting matters to all communities, ethnic and otherwise. However, APA communities – and the enclaves in which they live – face a history of having their neighborhoods gerrymandered and thus having their voters split into multiple districts.

APAs living in ethnic enclaves are routinely divided into several adjacent populations/districts so that they constitute only a minority of those districts, when they could easily be the majority population of a single district. Therefore, hundreds of thousands of APA voters often cannot exert the power of their numbers, even though – and this is the real point here – numbers are the foundation of democratic government, where the will of the many is supposed to be expressed in the political process.

I believe one reflection of this is that despite the APA population being 13% in NYC – meaning 1 out of 8 people is an Asian American – there is not a single State Senator or Congressman that is APA (overall, only 1 in 50 of the elected officials representing the city’s various districts are APA), and less than one-quarter of 1% of public spending goes toward Asian or Asian-led social service organizations. While ACCORD is not promoting APA candidates, these discrepancies are revealing.

A: How can the APA community learn more about redistricting?

M: This guide has been a good reference for me: http://www.advancingequality.org/attachments/files/410/Impact_of_Redistricting_in_YOUR_Community_2010.pdf.

And if you aren’t aware of what your own district looks like, use the NYC GIS to see how the lines are currently drawn (click “Show Additional Data on Map” module on right side of page): http://gis.nyc.gov/doitt/nycitymap/

For the legally-minded, this page focuses on the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its relevance for redistricting: http://www.publicmapping.org/what-is-redistricting/redistricting-criteria-the-voting-rights-act

A: What is ACCORD doing now to educate the APA community about this issue?

M: We are holding educational sessions at various community organizations, in English, Chinese and Korean. If you or your organization are interested in hosting a meeting, please contact ACCORD at [email protected] or James Hong at the MinKwon Center for Community Action (718-460-5600). We can come out and do a 15-minute presentation to your group and have Q&A.

A: What is ACCORD doing now to advance the cause of redistricting for the APA community?

M: Each of the ACCORD member organizations plans to give public testimony in the upcoming public hearings on redistricting. This is the first of two rounds of hearings, with each borough having one hearing each round. We will be focusing on bringing both testimony and constituents to the Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan hearings, for both rounds. All first-round hearings begin at 10am and the locations/dates are as follows:

Queens is on Wednesday, September 7^th at Queens Borough Hall, Meeting Room 213-1&2, 120-55 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens;

Brooklyn is on Tuesday, September 20^th at Brooklyn Borough Hall, 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn;

Manhattan is on Wednesday, September 21^st, in the Assembly Hearing Room at 250 Broadway in Manhattan.

If you would like to get more involved with ACCORD, let us know at [email protected].

August 11, 2011

Ascend National Convention in New York City: 8/27-29

Ascend logo

Ascend is the premier non-profit professional association dedicated to enabling its members, corporate partners and the community to realizing the leadership potential of Pan-Asians in global corporations.

Ascend has 5,000+ members with 37 professional and student chapters located in major business hubs and campuses. Ascend membership is open to individuals of all ethnicities and business backgrounds.

The theme of the convention is “Competing in a Borderless World." It takes place at the New York Hilton. Although the organization and event seem to be geared towards APAs in the corporate sector, "aspiring professionals, managers and executives, at all levels, in any industry” are encouraged to attend. For lawyers to network with other professionals is not a bad idea. A Corporate and Career Fair takes place all day on Monday. It might be worth checking out.