Hyphen's new print edition is on newsstands now.

After four  years as editor in chief of Hyphen magazine, I announced my retirement in the Editor’s Note of The Survival Issue, which just came out. You can read the Editor’s Note on Hyphen’s website.

It was a great run. Before becoming editor in chief, I was a staff editor for about four years. It never ceases to amaze me that the great work produced is all done by volunteers with virtually no budget. It’s definitely a labor of love for us. OK, I guess it’s not “us” any more. Hard to let go after eight years even though my stress level has dropped about 100 levels.

Really, though, it was a good stress being part of something special. I’ll miss it, but Hyphen’s in good shape, and maybe even better shape, without me. Thanks again to all the volunteers, and the readers, who’ve stuck with Hyphen.

Nick Strayer behind the camera and Harry Mok behind the microphone last year at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View.

As someone with roots in print media, I got a kick out of this photo when I came across it on the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory website. It was taken when my University of California colleague Nick Strayer and I were videotaping interviews at the NASA Ames Research Center last May.

We were at NASA Ames and the lab’s media event held inside the world’s largest wind tunnel to show off new aerodynamic technology that will boost the fuel economy tractor-trailer trucks. The interviews we did were used in a story and video about University of California research partnerships with industry that help create jobs in the green economy. Sustainability is part of what I cover for UC Newsroom at the UC Office of the President.

Multimedia seems to be where things are headed, and I’ve had the chance to receive some training at UC Berkeley and the chance to do some work with video, audio and photography in this job. Like news media outlets, we’re taking strides toward doing more multimedia, and hopefully will do so in the future.

]]> http://www.harrymok.com/2011/09/06/adjusting-to-multimedia-cameras-and-microphones/feed/ 1 http://www.harrymok.com/2011/03/08/8asians-com-puts-me-on-the-apa-spotlight/ http://www.harrymok.com/2011/03/08/8asians-com-puts-me-on-the-apa-spotlight/#comments Wed, 09 Mar 2011 05:32:34 +0000 Harry http://www.harrymok.com/?p=767 8Asians.com put me in its APA Spotlight feature last week. You can read the Q&A on the 8Asians blog. Some of the insights gleaned about me are that I’m no good in math, and I like dim sum.

Keni Styles stars in Bruce Lee XXX: A Porn Parody

I blogged at Hyphen magazine about  a Bruce Lee porn parody that’s being produced. And while the pop icon probably is turning in his grave over being immortalized in an adult movie, the prospect does raise issues of race, sex and stereotypes, particularly of Asian American men.

“Bruce Lee XXX: A Porn Parody” stars Keni Styles, the only Asian male working in straight porn produced by major studios. Styles’s uniqueness in porn is similar to the dearth of Asian Americans in mainstream movies and TV: they’re stereotyped as unattractive or lacking audience appeal.

A few years ago I wrote about similar themes when UC Davis Asian American studies professor Darrell Hamamoto made a porn movie featuring an Asian American couple as a way of reclaiming Asian masculinity and the sexuality between Asian males and females that he say has been lost to Western colonization and stereotyping.

Read more in my post at Hyphen.

Jackie Chan trains Jaden Smith in the remake of "The Karate Kid."

Aly Morita contacted me the other day about publicizing her call for a boycott of the remake of the Karate Kid, saying it’s another example of Hollywood perpetuating stereotypes about Asian Americans.

It was right after I started seeing commercials for the new movie that made me wonder how Asians (it’s set in China) and Asian Americans would be portrayed, so it was good timing. I gave Aly a call to find out why she wanted a boycott.

The remake has blockbuster written all over it. Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are among the producers of the new movie and it stars their son, Jaden, as the young martial arts student. Jackie Chan plays the wise mentor, updating the iconic and Oscar-nominated Mr. Miyagi role played by Aly’s father, Pat, 25 years ago in the original film.

Aly, who wrote about her relationship with her dad in the Inside/Out Issue of Hyphen, told me she’s aware that she’s criticizing a film that stars two actors of color, which is a rarity. And she’s aware that she opens herself up to criticism by passing judgment on something she hasn’t seen.

“All I’m asking is they not pay to see it in a movie theater, wait for the DVD or Netflix,” she said of her Facebook boycott page. “Be conscious of where the money is going.”

That would be Hollywood, which many would agree hasn’t given Asian American actors many good roles, or many roles at all, and hasn’t moved much beyond kung fu imagery created for characters such as Mr. Miyagi.

“Growing up, I always struggled with fact that my father played Mr. Miyagi as my own identity politics started to form,” she said. “I’ve come to my own personal peace with it.”

But she says not much has changed since her dad taught Ralph Macchio to “wax on” and “wax off.”

“It’s been 25 years since the original came out, and we’re still dealing with the same stereotypes,” Aly said. “Where are the other roles for Asian American actors? Why is the karate master the one role that people can respond to?”

The original Karate Kid movies, despite the stereotyping, were a step forward.

“For anyone that grew up during that time period, finally there was a movie starring an Asian American actor,” Aly said. “It had a good 10-year lifespan, and I think for a lot of Asian Americans, even those who had problems with the character of Mr. Miyagi, it was like, ‘Wow, I could star in a film if I was Asian American.’ I think it was very inspiring for a lot of people. We haven’t had that in some time.”

Of course, boycotting the movie doesn’t allow you to judge it on its merits. Aly’s protest is more about the entertainment industry than it is about the Karate Kid remake. Like she says, we’ve been complaining about Hollywood for years with not much to show for it.

Whether it’s a boycott or blogging about it, she says the only way Hollywood imagery of Asian Americans will change is if people inform themselves about the issue and speak out.

“I don’t know, maybe we should boycott every movie that’s not representative of who we are as people,” she said. “That remains very frustrating because it’s 25 years later.”

So, will you boycott Karate Kid?

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Daniel Dae Kim moves from "Lost" to a role in the new "Hawaii Five-0."

The new “Hawaii Five-0,” with Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, will feature two of the most high-profile roles for Asian Americans on TV this fall.

Kim moves from “Lost” but stays on the islands for the new ”Five-0,” playing Chin Ho Kelly. “Battlestar Galactica” alum Park plays Kona “Kono” Kalakaua. Alex O’Laughlin plays the lead as Steve McGarrett, son of the character played by Jack Lord in the original series. Scott Caan plays Danny “book’em Danno” Williams.

The show is not a remake of the original but a reboot set in present day. Here’s a preview of the show.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the cool theme song.

Who can’t get into that?

Recent shows set in Hawaii have been busts. With “Flash Forward” canceled and Lost ending its run, Kim and Park, along with Sandra Oh on “Grey’s Anatomy” are pretty much it for Asian American characters with big roles on TV. Maybe some of that “Lost” island magic will keep Kim and Park on the air longer than “Flash Forward.”

How’s “Five-0″ look to you? Will you watch?

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

John Cho plays FBI agent Demetri Noh in "Flash Forward."

ABC has  canceled “Flash Forward,” the  sci-fi show that starred John Cho in one of the most visible televison roles for an Asian American actor in recent years.

Cho played FBI agent Demetri Noh, who was part of a team that was investigating why everyone on the planet blacked out and saw visions of the future.

The high-concept show started with a bang and seemed to have promise. After a few bad episodes, I thought the show was starting to pick up. But it never caught on with many viewers, and a  three-month hiatus didn’t help, so ABC canceled it.

The show was also notable for having Noh in an  Asian-black interracial relationship with a character portrayed by Gabrielle Union.

At least  we’ll see Cho in sequels to “Harold and Kumar” and  ”Star Trek,” but I’m disappointed ABC didn’t give “Flash Forward” a chance. Anybody else wish it was renewed?

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Mr. Hyphen

Mr. Hyphen Pahole Sookkasikon wants you to take a sneak peek at The Inside/Out Issue of Hyphen, with him on the cover, which is now posted on the Hyphen site.

The print edition is on its way to  subscribers and  newsstands, and the Hyphen staff is gearing up for our next issue, due out in August.

A few full articles from Inside/Out are up on the web now, including  InterrogAsian and Aly Morita’s  First Person about her late father, Pat. Photo Director Andria Lo’s  Editor’s Note talks about the great images from the magazine, and here’s a  blog I posted the other day about our new  Food section.

We’ve also got web exclusives, including tips for  picking a wok from chef Thy Tran that augments our story on the science of the wok;  an update on artist Gina Osterloh, who is featured in  Artwell; and outtakes from our  cover photoshoot.

So take a look at Hyphen’s new issue. I think you’ll like what you see. Hyphen welcomes comments or letters to the editor. Send them to editorial@hyphenmagazine.com.

A version of this post is also on the Hyphen magazine blog.

Because of this, many of the stereotypes about Asian Americans come from food. It’s one of the reasons Founding Editor Melissa Hung proclaimed Hyphen would  never publish a recipe or cover food in a way that doesn’t uphold Hyphen’s ideals.

Well, we broke her rule about recipes a few issues back with our story about  sustainable seafood practices. And, we have another for Afro-Asian jung in the new Food section that debuts in The Inside/Out Issue of Hyphen, which will be out soon.  Subscribe or look for it at a newsstand near you.

The Food section will hold true to Melissa’s other goal of covering food from a social justice angle, which influences much of what Hyphen does.

In her  introduction to the new section, Food Editor Nina Kahori Fallenbaum references  Michael Pollan and his book,  The Omnivore’s Dilemma, for raising awareness about farming, food, politics and how they are thoroughly intertwined. His work provides a model for how we hope to cover the subject.

“Food is a real link to our heritage, so we should be the ones to craft the storyline about how Asian food became hybridized in the United States,” Nina says.

We’re open to suggestions for our Food section. Contact Nina if you have ideas about what to cover.

The rest of the Inside/Out Issue takes a look at what it means to be on the inside yet the outside, to occupy the foreground yet the background. Stories to look out for include a feature on the relevance of  Asian American museums, how Asian American basketball hotshot and NBA prospect  Jeremy Lin is still just a regular guy, the new face of the “outsider” enclave in  Las Vegas’ Chinatown, and the sassy stories of an all-Asian drag queen troupe, the  Rice Rockettes.

We’ve also got stories on  Asian American actors finding work as non-Asian characters, Asian American authors writing non-Asian American stories (and the best Asian American characters written by non-Asians) and a feature on a topic that is both ubiquitous in American politics and rarely discussed at Asian American dinner tables —  abortion.

And you won’t want to miss a moving First Person  essay by Aly Morita on the life and career of her father,  Pat, the actor best known for his Academy Award-nominated role as Mr. Miyagi in  The Karate Kid.

The cover model is Mr. Hyphen  Pahole Sookkasikon, who shows a side of himself that no one has ever seen.

In addition to the  Afro-Asian jung recipe, the new Food section illustrates the  science of the wok, and we learn about the issues facing restaurant workers in a fascinating conversation with  Bonnie Kwon of the Restaurant Opportunities Center of Washington, DC.

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

If you’ve not heard of it, the Utne Reader is a magazine that digests and reprints the best from alternative and independent media from around the country. Its Independent Press Awards recognize the excellence in alternative and independent publishing.

We were nominated for best new title in 2004 and best design in 2007.(And while we’re on the topic of awards, Hyphen won for best cover at the Independent Press Association in 2006 for our Body Issue.)

In January, our story about eco-friendly nail salons by Momo Chang was reprinted by Utne. Back in 2007, our story about the Asian obsession with earwax cleaning by Sabrina Tom was also published by Utne.

Thanks to Utne for nominating us. It’s a great honor and recognition of all the hard work that Hyphen’s volunteer staff and contributors put into the magazine.

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.