Is your mom a fob? Wouldn’t it be great if there were a collection of all the fobby mom-isms that your mom has ever said to you? Your wish is Teresa and Serena Wu’s (no, they aren’t sisters- just two friends with the same sense of humor) command. They proudly present, mymomisafob.com! MyMomisaFob.com is a user generated website showcasing the emails, IMs, conversations, mispronunciations, pictures etc of our mothers.

Check it:

Is that awesome or is that awesome?

Teresa and Serena are juniors at UCSD and UCBerkeley, respectively. MyMomisaFob.com started as a brainstorm between the two of them and rapidly took off from there. Not surprisingly, some of the inspiration comes from Teresa’s own Taiwanese mother. In fact, her mom used to rock one of those huge plastic visors. You know what I’m talking about, your mom wears one too. In Teresa’s words,

“A cute fob mom is painfully out of touch with American culture yet tries every day to connect to her kid’s lifestyle, whether that’s suggesting a night out at the club together or learning to text message for the first time. She gives a combination of the best, worst, and most unintentionally hilarious advice.”

Moms. Gotta love ‘em.

To add icing to the cake, MyDadIsAFob.com recently launched. Same concept, different parent.

Check out their sites and submit your fobby moms and dads to Teresa and Serena!

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Violet is a guest blogger for GOProductionsLA.  She’s a twenty something, Asian American chick  livin’ up the party life in Los Angeles. Find her at Cabana club on Fridays  and the newest restaurants and bars every other day of the week. If you’d like a fresh perspective, have a topic you’d like to see discussed or just want to say hello, email Violet : Violet@GoProductionsLA.com

The East West Players theater in Little Tokyo proudly presents The Joy Luck Club. The Joy Luck Club is written by Amy Tan and a best selling novel, turned movie. The performance is written by Susan Kim and adapted from Tan’s novel.

From November 6th to the 9th, seats are $20, and $12 with a student I.D. These seats are significantly discounted as they are “preview performances”.

Opening night is November 12th, 2008, seats are $65.
The performance officially runs from November 13th to December 7th, 2008. $45 for orchestra seats, $40 for balcony seats.

November 28th is “Pay-What-You-Can” night… $1 minimum. $1!

If you don’t already know, The Joy Luck Club highlights the complex relationships and connections between Chinese American women and their Chinese mothers. The Joy Luck Club intertwines themes of pride, family history, love and culture.
It has been a while since I’ve read or seen the Joy Luck Club but I remember two things:

1. Some of the relationships and characters depicted were (unfortunately) stereotypical- especially the portrayals of Asian men.
2. There were some touching parts in the movie that I could relate to.

However, overall, I remember enjoying both the book and movie. I will be checking out this performance.

Although this movie is about Chinese mothers and Chinese American daughters, any Asian American would be able to appreciate the cultural misunderstandings and generational problems that the movie highlights. How many times has your mother told you something, which you ignored, only to realize she was right?

Check out the East West Players for more info on The Joy Luck Club performance. Support the theater and the actors. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and hopefully call your mother and tell her how much you appreciate her.

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Violet is a guest blogger for GOProductionsLA.  She’s a twenty something, Asian American chick livin’ up the party life in Los Angeles. Find her at Cabana club on Fridays  and the newest restaurants and bars every other day of the week. If you’d like a fresh perspective, have a topic you’d like to see discussed or just want to say hello, email Violet : Violet@GoProductionsLA.com

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Verizon is attempting to create awareness. Verizon gave 60k to five organizations in the Bay Area that focus on fighting Domestic Violence in the Asian American Community. These agencies (Asian Americans for Community Involvement, Asian Women’s Shelter, Chinese Community Health Resource Center , Korean Community Center of the East Bay and Maitri)  say they will use the money (each got from 5k to 15k) to “support new and existing domestic violence prevention programs” such as emergency shelters, youth peer counseling and in-language staffing support.

Although we know that domestic violence isn’t only limited to Asian Americans and could happen to anyone, Verizon says they chose the Asian American community because:

1. Verizon is based in San Fran where there is a large Asian American community.
2. Verizon believes the Asian American community faces unique challenges and risks because of “language and cultural” barriers.

I don’t think the language barriers have anything to do with Asian American domestic violence victims not asking for help. Cultural barriers? Maybe. I’d say cultural differences instead of barriers but it some would argue a case of semantics. Ultimately, those who are victims of domestic violence have their own reasons for not asking for help or getting out of the relationship. They could be embarrassed, scared or hopeful for change. It’s hard to say unless you’ve been in an abusive relationship yourself.

Either way, Verizon is doing a good thing here. Now if they could just get rid of that annoying “Can-You-Hear-Me-Now” guy with the emo glasses.

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Violet is a guest blogger for GOProductionsLA.  She’s a twenty something, Asian American chick  livin’ up the party life in Los Angeles. Find her at Cabana club on Fridays  and the newest restaurants and bars every other day of the week. If you’d like a fresh perspective, have a topic you’d like to see discussed or just want to say hello, email Violet : Violet@GoProductionsLA.com

Twenty year old Xueting Zhao, is one of 123 Chinese exchange students in Beijing who are studying abroad at Northern State University. Her major is in business, but she also teaches informal Chinese dance classes at NSU. Most importantly, she is learning about the American Culture. She’s discovered a new love for pancakes but is puzzled by the abundant amounts of cheese Americans use. She’s also been pleasantly surprised by the cultural differences in friendliness and hospitality.

Reading about Zhao reminded me of an experience I had when I was in high school. I had a friend whose family often participated in foreign exchange student programs and there was one girl whom I will never forget. She was a Chinese student and was terrified by Americans. She thought Americans to be loud, boisterous and obnoxious. She couldn’t understand why my friend and I always had an opinion about everything and why we were so outspoken. After many awkward experiences, she finally got used to us and “Americans” in general.  She said she learned to be more outgoing, direct and assertive. She and my friend kept in touch over a couple years and she thanked us for helping her “understand” Americans.  To this day, I’m still not quite sure what my friend and I did other than be a friend to her.

Aside from associating America with cheese, pancakes and Wal-Mart, I hope Zhao’s experience in America will be as informative and helpful as the exchange student I once knew. Being Asian American, older and wiser(?), I wonder what I would tell Zhao or any other foreign exchange student. Perhaps I’d start with a socio-cultural analysis of StuffWhitePeopleLike.com…
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Violet is a guest blogger for GOProductionsLA.  She’s a twenty something, Asian American chick  livin’ up the party life in Los Angeles. Find her at Cabana club on Fridays  and the newest restaurants and bars every other day of the week. If you’d like a fresh perspective, have a topic you’d like to see discussed or just want to say “Lei Ho”, email Violet : Violet@GoProductionsLA.com

You can’t ignore it, nor should you. The elections are coming up and your vote as an Asian American matters! Asian Americans could be the deciding vote in some swing states. According to the National Asian American Survey, “the study found 41 percent of Asian Americans are likely to vote for Barack Obama, 24 percent support John McCain and 34 percent are undecided.”

If you don’t know who to vote for, or have a friend or relative in a swing state who is undecided or unaware of the candidate’s views, send them this quiz: Glassbooth.org. Glassbooth claims to be nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that is unaffiliated with any political ideologies, political party or organization. The quiz is quick and just as easy as the quizzes on Facebook, Cosmopolitan or Maxim you’re always taking at work anyway.

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Violet is a guest blogger for GOProductionsLA.  She’s a twenty something, Asian American chick  livin’ up the party scene in Los Angeles. Find her at Cabana club on Fridays  and the newest restaurants and bars every other day of the week. If you’d like a fresh perspective, have a topic you’d like to see discussed or would like to buy her a drink (she’s a fan of White Russians)… email Violet : Violet[at]GoProductionsLA.com

According to this article, the buying power of us Asian Americans is close to $600billion. Additionally, Asian American households are more affluent than any other population group in the country. We are digitally savvy and are more likely to use new media (ie: online mediums of communication).

This article also states that hunting for bargains is a key aspect of the Asian-American consumer profile yet we “possess an above average penchant for shopping”. Thus, we aren’t shy about making high-end purchases. As a side note, who doesn’t like a good bargain?

So what does all of this mean? Are we an untapped, lucrative market for marketing and advertising? Will we be seeing more ads and marketing campaigns specifically geared towards Asian Americans? What would an ad geared towards Asian Americans look like anyhow? Let me guess… an Asian girl and a White guy shopping at Tiffany & Co. for an engagement ring?

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Violet is a guest blogger for GOProductionsLA.  She’s a twenty something, Asian American chick livin’ up the party life in Los Angeles. Find her at Cabana club on Fridays  and the newest restaurants and bars every other day of the week. If you’d like a fresh perspective, have a topic you’d like to see discussed or if you’d like to buy her a drink, email Violet :  Violet [at] GoProductionsLA.com

Margaret Cho!
We all know and love her. Are we surprised that Margaret Cho was named Korean of the Year? I’m not, only because she is the only well known Korean comedian in mainstream media. It was a shoo-in! Congrats Margaret Cho! I’ll buy you a drink when I see you at Cabana…

Her stand-up acts touch upon eating disorders, gay men (she refers to herself as a “fag-hag”), gay rights, drugs and Asian-American stereotypes. Some Asian Americans I know admire her audacity and others I know think she is perpetuating Asian stereotypes in her stand-up routines and encouraging more negative stereotypes. What’s your take? Do you think Cho is progressive and empowering to Asians and Asian Americans or just the opposite?

Cho is also coming out with a new series on VH1 this Fall, “The Cho Show”… so be sure to check that out and support her if you’re a fan.

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Violet is a guest blogger for GOProductionsLA.  She’s a twenty something, Asian American chick  livin’ up the party life in Los Angeles. Find her at Cabana club on Fridays  and the newest restaurants and bars every other day of the week. If you’d like a fresh perspective, have a topic you’d like to see discussed or just want to say hello, email Violet :  Violet [at] GoProductionsLA [dot] com

Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s nest is a piece of high-energy, emotional roller coaster ride of performance art, starring Kristina Wong.  Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is about the high suicide rates among Asian American women. This is a heavy issue that is often ignored or swept under the rug.

Wong was the one-and-only star of the play; she unapologetically tackled the perpetuated images of Asian American women in the media, the heavy societal pressures on Asian American women, communication barriers in Asian families, and the disconnect between our government/health care system and those who are in need of mental health care– all with sharp sarcasm and bold honesty.

The performance was zainy, off-the-wall and shocking at times. Occasionally, I found myself curiously raising my eyebrow, while other times I laughed and I found myself looking around to gauge the reactions of the audience. Wong cleverly engaged the audience during the performance, which pleasantly surprised me. I also have to add that there were graphic sexual innuendos and crude language, thus, I wouldn’t bring your adorable, 9 year old almond-eyed, pigtail sportin’ little sister to this performance.

I didn’t walk out of the theater feeling enlightened or empowered (I’m an Asian American woman myself who has studied this issue in the past) and I wonder if others did. I talked to a gentleman after the show who told me his key take away was, “All Asian women are crazy”. I most certainly disagree with him but I could see where someone who may be ignorant to this issue may think this way, based on Wong’s unconventional performance. Overall, I enjoyed it but if you saw the performance, I’d really like to hear your thoughts. What did you think of Wong’s performance? Do you think it covered all the issues of depression, suicide and Asian American women or do you think it was baloney?

Unfortunately, October 5th was the closing show but if you are in Santa Monica, be sure to check out TeAda Productions- they’re the group that organizes these shows.

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Violet is a guest blogger for GOProductionsLA.  She’s a twenty something, Asian American chick  livin’ up the party life in Los Angeles. Find her at Cabana club on Fridays  and the newest restaurants and bars every other day of the week. If you’d like a fresh perspective, have a topic you’d like to see discussed or just want to say bonjour, email Violet :  Violet [at] GoProductionsLA [dot] com

If you haven’t already heard, the 9th Annual Asian film festival will be in San Diego starting this Wednesday (Oct 9th). All of the films are either directed and produced by Asians, star Asians/Asian Americans or focus on Asian American issues (or all three).

Some of the movies that will be playing:

• Ping Pong Playa
• Yours Truly Miss Chinatown
• Dirty Hands
• The Killing of a Chinese Cookie
• The Meaning of Tea

Check out the full Asian American film festival schedule, if you are so inclined. All the movies, with the exception of one are being played at the Ultra Star in Mission Valley. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the area, here’s a tip: unless you dig Quizno’s, Joe’s Crab Shack or Applebee’s, there isn’t much to eat in the plaza. Check out Mission or Fashion Valley for restaurants and frivolous shopping before and after the films. At night, get your drink on at the Hong Kong Nite Club dive bar (note: cool place, may not strike everyone’s fancy).

So if you aren’t doing anything this weekend (other than Cabana, of course), want to support independent media (which you should) and need some culture in your life (you know you do), head on down to sunny San Diego!

p.s: The film festival will be scootin’ on over to Riverside Oct 21-23 so you’ll have a second chance to catch the flicks if you’re going to be too hung over from Cabana this week.

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Violet is a guest blogger for GOProductionsLA.  She’s a twenty something, Asian American chick livin’ up the fab-u-luz party life in Los Angeles. Find her at Cabana club on Fridays and the newest restaurants and bars every other day of the week. If you’d like a fresh perspective, have a topic you’d like to see discussed or just want to say hello, email Violet :  Violet @ GoProductionsLA.com