Asian American Entertainment Now

by Genessee Kagy

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• San Fransicco International Asian American Film Festival

• Asian Americans on Primetime

• AA Celebrity Blogs

• Asian Excellence Awards

• Asian Pop Music Scene

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logs have democratized free expression, channeling a flow of new literary voices and marginalized opinion. Whether past the summit or barely at basecamp, actor or author, blogs give great publicity to burgeoning artists. It's a problem when an Asian American screen presence can be defined as "the Asian dude from American Pie," (John Cho). More appealing than making tabloid headlines, online journals allow for cost-effective distinction and reputation preservation, while giving normal folk glimpses into a glamorous life.

     Established actors like Daniel Dae Kim, Kal Penn and Kelly Hu don't bother, while headliners like Margaret Cho on the other hand, enthusiastically chronicle such personal milestones as getting new ass, hip and thigh tattoos. But kooky as it sounds, Cho might be on to something: intimate familiarity leads to stronger support. Just take the case of Apollo Ohno. His relationship with Dancing with the Stars partner Julianne Hough swayed some in their favor.

     That's not to say that there's a typical disclosure style when it comes to connecting with the fans. Militant Azn prider Jin, writes about his tours, mingling shaky stick figures and thug-style photographs with minimal text. Funny, apt, and G-rated, his observations preserve his bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold style and wicked social observation outside the realm of his typical race-dominated dialogue. In Shanghai, a city of over 20 million Chinese people his political complaints are void. And his entries flow like those of a typical twenty-something blogger with a sense of humor.

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     Lovely Cassandra Hepburn writes to promote. Determination pierces through her avatar's eyes and third-person press releases mingle with first person encouragement to read on. Asking for acting advice is about as personal as she gets, "And please send me your thoughts on my performance on the show."

     Actress Michelle Krusiec blogs for fans too. Her blog is collaborative. How do we know that? "And now Zoe, sadly, is moving forward in the world with other endeavors besides running my site and my blog." Clearly, there's something contrary to the raw spirit of blogging going on here. But the effort at self-representation is commendable.

     Actresses like Maggie Q don't actually write but they do get written about. Pretty faces and photospreads are their keys to popularity as evidenced by posts like, "ok who the hell is Maggie Q... No wait who cares shes hott." Sure it's easy, but is that kind of publicity useful? So far she's been limited to minor roles in the United States while more proactive career girls like Krusiec have captured audiences with character variety.

     Blogs or web logs date back to 1998 and were started by those whose posts consisted of favorite links or mundane life details. In the last five years they have gained popular status in mainstream culture, finally catching on as the choice du jour of entertainers who want to keep their fans in the know. Whether for pure publicity as in the case actresses like Hepburn or treated as a genuine journal if more articulate than the norm, in the case of Margaret Cho, the blogs of Asian American entertainers cultivate a fanbase and provide a unique perspective on life on the fringes of fabulous.

Jin thugs it up.

A Cho-candid taken from her hilarious blog.

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