May 12, 2008 by willng24.

This morning a 7.8 magnitude earthquake hit central China with a death toll rising close to 9000.  This earthquake was so large that vibrations were felt as far away at Thailand and Vietnam.   

Besides the major disaster that this earthquake has caused, it couldn’t have come at a worse time as China still struggles with relations with Tibet along with preparations for the looming Olympics in August. 

We can only pray for those involved in the disaster and their family members.  Even though I don’t have relatives in that area I can surely feel for the magnitude of this disaster.  Surely there will be relief efforts in play and hopefully it won’t be anything like the barriers that Myanmar is facing. 

For more information, please visit: CNN & Boston.com

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April 17, 2008 by Chinatown Blogger.

On the day taxes were due, the Chinatown Blogger received this email from the office of City Councilor Sam Yoon. Below is a copy of the the email I received about a phone scam that has been targeting Chinese residents in Boston.

“Dear Community leader,
Councilor Yoon wanted to alert you to a fraud that is targeting elderly, non English speaking Chinese residents in Boston. This happened to the mother of a friend of the Councilor’s. The people running this phone scam are very aggressive and convincing. They tell the victim that they “won the lottery” and the victim should send a check to them for processing fees and they will deposit the winnings in their bank account, so could you please give us the account number, and etc. They did get the social security number of the victim. Fortunately I don’t think she gave them a bank account number.

Sam wants to try and do more to put out the word in the Chinese community about this. We will probably reach out to various Chinese social service providers and community groups and Elder Affairs and etc. I was wondering if you have run into this before, if you have a sense of how prevalent this is, if you have some safety tips that we could circulate and maybe what more we could do about prevention.

I am pasting in a copy of the daughter’s earlier email describing how the group operated. I did a check of the phone number that they gave her mother, and it is in Hong Kong. Thanks for your help. – Richard.

Richard Giordano
Aide to At-Large Councilor Sam Yoon
Boston City Hall, 5th floor, Boston, MA 02201

Please forward this to your friends, yahoo group etc, but most importantly call your parents/grandparents about this. I didn’t think it would happen in Chinese, but it did. It’s a SSN scam that has now moved to the east coast. A three person Mandarin speaking team(supposedly based in Hong Kong) has been contacting my mother last week about this promotional vacation meeting she should go to. She didn’t attend. They contacted her again in this week and chatted with her for a bit all under the guise of getting her birthdate, social security number, and other personal information. They told her she won their lottery, and she needs to provide her SSN so the money can be sent. Then they ask her for checking account number(she didn’t give them that).

Well, she gave away all the information, but thank goodness she didn’t go to the meeting else she could have been coerced on the spot to give them access to her checking account. Once they have access they will clear it all out. Now the disturbing part is this was very popular in San Francisco up until the public started warning the community through newspapers, radio, TV etc. I’m starting a one woman PR campaign to get the word out. I extremely upset this happened to my mom, AND I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. I want to let the community know so no one else will be caught, and these con artists can move their operation out of the state. They are targeting unsuspecting non-English speaking Chinese elders, who probably don’t know what to do when fraud is committed. Well, they messed with the wrong victim!”

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April 7, 2008 by willng24.

As in any Olympics the journey of the ceremonial torch from Greece to the site of the Olympics is always adventurous. Not only does the team have to be concerned with weather conditions, but also protesters. This year, it seams like the torch is confronting more protesters than I’ve ever seen. Well it can probably be explained by:

1 – Media has gotten a lot better in getting information to the public. Additionally, everyone likes to see the drama of the Olympic torch.

2 – Since my heritage is Chinese it probably catches my attention more than before.

Keep in mind that the torch has yet to even arrive in China and it is already hitting all sorts of speed bumps. Just looking at the map above you can expect some craziness as the torch hits China.  Sadly, the torch isn’t coming to Boston anytime soon, but hopefully in the future we can host the Olympics.

I personally think that attacks on the torch are the biggest waste of time for protesters. The best protest is probably to not attend or watch the Olympics. If you really want to go to the extreme, don’t spend any money on businesses that support the Olympics and tell others why you are doing so. I think the business ratio is 1 happy customer tells 8 others, but 1 unhappy customer tells 32 others.

I have views on the issues with Tibet and China, but that isn’t going to stop me from watching the Olympics. Plus, it will surely be exciting to see how the Chinese plan to secure the whole Olympics event. Funny, I actually considered going to the Olympics as a graduation gift to myself. Thank god I’m too broke to do so.

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March 28, 2008 by willng24.

This is the same post I have on my own site, but I thought it would be an interesting topic for this site.

The big movie coming out today is 21. This movie is based on the book Bringing Down the House about a few MIT students who took Vegas for millions. Many Asians are angry because of Hollywood’s decision to change the race of a few of the characters. In actuality a majority of the MIT group were Asian, but Hollywood decided to cast Jim Sturgess and Kate Bosworth instead. Is this Hollywood’s way of white washing a movie so it is more appealing to the general population? Yes. Does Hollywood think that Asians can’t hold a lead role? Yes.

A recent article by the Angry Asian Man provides more insight to the character changes and response by Jeff Ma, the character who Sturgess plays in the movie. Jeff does have a cameo in the film as a Planet Hollywood dealer (ironic).

I don’t think that this is a racist move targeting Asians, but more of a financial move. The bottom line is if statistics show that movies with lead characters played by monkeys make more money, well we’d see more monkeys on film….simple as that. However, I also consider that if the roles were reversed, would the general Caucasian population have a similar response? How about other races. If Malcom X was played by Spacey instead of Denzel we’d surely hear about it everywhere.. I think it is up to us to voice our concerns to movie producers, but I don’t think this is racism…is it?

Remember, we make up the statistics that movie producers go by. If you are offended by this, don’t watch the movie.

Just because a movie isn’t true to life doesn’t make it a bad movie. Hollywood has been doing this since day one. Keep in mind it is a movie. It is designed to entertain you for 2 hours for $10. If you were entertained, then you should be satisfied. I’d probably watch this movie as I’m a huge fan of movies involving Boston.

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March 24, 2008 by willng24.

Recently there hasn’t been much in Chinatown that has caught my attention to write about. However, that hasn’t stopped me in the past so…

I had the privilege of dining at King Fung Garden on Kneeland St. a few weeks ago. This place is as much a part of Chinatown culture as the pagoda. Yes, I should be ashamed that it took me 29 years to step foot into this place. However, it may be my last trip. I knew what I was expecting after reading a few reviews on Yelp (great food, horrible atmosphere), but these are the places I love. Sadly, the food didn’t live up to expectations. The meal began with steamed dumplings and scallion pancakes. I have to admit that the scallion pancake was great, but the dumplings weren’t much better than what I’d get at the frozen food section of C-mart. The noodles that followed were even worse. A greasy dish with sub par ingredients.

I didn’t get the Peking Duck that everyone was raving about, but maybe if I was daring…again.

Steven Chow’s new movie CJ7 is playing at the Kendall Square Theater. I’m a huge fan of his comedy and can’t wait to see this one. If you’ve already seen it, drop me a review. Until then, enjoy the trailer from Youtube.

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