http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrO87ItXoNg

A free showing of the classic film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” in Sacramento has been canceled after it was pointed out to organizers that Mickey Rooney’s yellow-face Mr. Yunioshi scenes are offensive to many Asian Americans. After the first protests, Rooney’s scenes were going to be deleted from the film for the screening.

Sacramento Vice Mayor Steve Cohn included the movie in his annual Screen on the Green free film festival. When he was alerted to the fact that many Asian Americans found the Rooney character offensive, he decided to delete some scenes and use it as an “educational opportunity.”

Cohn’s response is one way to handle it even if initially there was no thought given to how offensive Rooney’s character is. As Cohn says in the article, he may take some criticism for censorship, but I could easily see an instance where the organizers would dig their heels in and say, we’re going to show it and not give in to the PC police.

Another way to handle it would be to show it in its original form and have a discussion about why it is offensive. That would be an effective learning tool as well for those of may not get it.

In the end, cutting the scenes proved cumbersome and “Ratatouille” replaced “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” for the festival.

Rooney, contacted by the Sacramento Bee, insists that Yunioshi is not offensive. The fact is there are many movies with Yunioshi-like characters or plot lines out there. In their time, they may have been more acceptable, but how do you deal with them today?

A version of this post is also published on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

OK, had to geek out over this for a minute. Now I’m better. This movie poster with John Cho, whom you may know as Harold of “Harold and Kumar,” for the new “Star Trek” movie was released this week.

As you also may know, Cho is taking over the role of Sulu, originally played by George Takei. The movie, a prequel that restarts the “Star Trek” franchise, will be released May 8, 2009, just like the poster says.

If you haven’t seen The Spaces Issue of Hyphen, get it for a Q&A with Cho and a story (by me) delving into the racial stereotypes depicted in the utopian future of the “Star Trek” world.

Fellow Trekkies, I know you’re out there. Don’t tell me you’re not waiting to see this movie.

This post is also published on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Asian Journal has an interview with Coughlin in which she talks about her career, her family and how her grandmother’s chicken adobo is the best.

Filipino athletes seem to be making a splash, and not just in swimming, lately.

Are there any Asian American athletes out there you’ve seen that haven’t gotten much attention.

This post is also published on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

I have to admit, I rarely watched iaTV. One reason was the channel guide never showed what was on iaTV, so it was hard get interested. That said, I do believe, as iaTV Media President Adam Ware says, that having English-language programming for Asian Americans is important.

iaTV is still available in Los Angeles, New York, Hawaii and a few other areas with large Asian American populations.

Does anybody out there watch iaTV on a regular basis? Or if you don’t have access, would you watch if you could?

This post is also published on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

According to the San Jose Mercury News (full disclosure, I work for the company that owns the Merc), Chinese Americans have mixed emotions, while the San Francisco Chronicle says the Olympics bring pride to Chinese Americans. The Detroit Free Press reports the expatriates say the games mark a turning point for China.

Those are just a few of the stories that will be published this week. I sort of wince at reaction stories like these because they tend to pigeon hole people.

For newer Chinese immigrants, the ties to the old country may be closer and they may have some strong opinions about what’s going on in China. Someone like me, who was born in the United States, may not necessarily have as much a connection. Certainly there be some sense of ethnic pride, but my opinions may not be that different from non-Chinese Americans.

However, the Olympics in China will be a big deal and the whole world will be watching. Whether you’re Chinese or just look you might be Chinese, people are bound to ask something like, “how do you feel about the Olympics being in China.”

If China cracks down on protesters or does something stupid like that, Chinese Americans will be asked for their reaction and maybe even have to deal with some backlash. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen and the games go off without a hitch.

For me, there will be a number of Asian American athletes participating in the games and that’s something I’ll probably keep an eye on. And being an old high-school hurdler, I’ll be watching Liu Xiang, the defending Olympic champion and former world-record holder in the 110-meter high hurdles.If you’re Chinese American or even if you’re not, what’s your reaction to the scrutiny the games?

This post is also published on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Espineli’s parents are immigrants and he and his siblings were born and raised in Houston. He’s a relief pitcher for the Giants who was just called up from the minors.

Lincecum, a starting pitcher, was recently featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated and is one of the rising stars for the Giants.

There have been a number of Big League players who’ve been part Filipino. Benny Agbayani is a recent one who comes to mind.

It’s great to see more Asians and Asian Americans in the majors, though the players from Asia still outnumber those from the United States. I’ve always been curious about this and have never come up with a reason why there wouldn’t be more Asian Americans baseball players.

This post is also published on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Yang, in his Asian Pop column, makes the case the Obama’s upbringing in Hawaii, a state with a large Asian and Pacific Islander population, gives him an affinity for the Asian American experience.

“A lot of aspects of the senator’s story will be recognizable to many Asian Americans,” Chris Lu, Obama’s legislative director, says in the column.

It’s an intriguing premise.

This post can also be found on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Chicago is a great city and has a sizable Asian American presence, but it’s nowhere near Los Angeles, New York or San Francisco, where I live. Maybe a generation ago, an Asian American writer from Chicago could have written a piece for Hyphen magazine’s “Across Asian Middle America,” a series of vignettes in The Road Trip Issue about living in places that are far away–geographically and spiritually–from areas where there are large populations of Asian Americans. Chicago is changing and no doubt the Asian American population is growing. A couple of mini-vignettes from my time in Chicago made me wonder if I would have experienced the same thing had I been in San Francisco.

Panhandlers are common in San Francisco, so I’m used to people coming up and asking for money. My first night in Chicago, walking on a downtown street to a restaurant, a young black man in his 20s comes up from behind me and hands me a copy of The Onion newspaper and starts telling me about a charity that helps the poor he’s collecting donations for and then he gives me two postcards with featuring Chicago tourist sites. I’m sort of half listening to his pitch and half wondering why I’m holding The Onion and two postcards and quickly realizing this is a clever panhandling ploy.

Eventually, I politely decline his offer and for a half a city block, I’m berated for wasting his time and not only that, I’m a “racist” for not giving him any money.

Where does that come from? How has his view of Asian Americans been formed? I’ve experienced my fair share of aggressive and even rude panhandlers but I’ve never been called a racist.

When we finally get to the restaurant, my friend and I, both Chinese American men in their 30s (though my time as a 30-something runs out soon) sit down at a table. The waitress, who is white, comes by and asks us what we’d like to drink. We ask, “what’s on draft” and she runs through the options. We both make our choices (I had a hefeweizen), and she asks us for our IDs.

Even at my advanced age, I still get carded occasionally, and for me it can be a compliment. But it just seemed that, in the waitress’s eyes, being the only two Asian Americans in the room, we didn’t look “man” enough to order a beer. The stereotype about Asians looking younger than they are is out there. I’m sure there was no malicious intent on her part, but again, perhaps her views of Asian Americans are shaped by her environment.

My Onion-wielding friend accused me of being racist, but I would by no means characterize Chicago that way. Like the places you’ll read about in “Across Asian Middle America,” Chicago and the rest of the country is changing. Attitudes about Asian Americans and race in general are changing. It’s not an easy road, but we’re getting there.

A version of this post can also be found on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

More Asian American women date or marry outside their race than their male counterparts. Asian American men and black women are viewed as undesirable and share many of the same obstacles. As such, they could be a good match for each other if nobody else will have them.

I was intrigued by the by the social networking sites for Asian men and the non-Asian women who love them, such as AznLover.com, that Jeff talks about, although this subject made a blip on the radar a few years ago with Newsweek’s “Asian men are on a roll” article.

I’ve got articles filed away from the early 1990s that deal with these subjects and have written about it myself, though this was a long time ago when I was single and full of angst. Asian-Nation.org slammed me, and in retrospect, I don’t disagree entirely with the criticism. I don’t know if I would write that column now, at least the conclusion. I’m not as insecure today as I was in 1998.

It has been 10 years, and we’ll probably still be talking about this 10 years from now.

This post can also be found at Hyphen magazine’s blog.