There are Hindus who haven’t set foot in a temple in a decade, but still refuse to order a burger. And Muslims who smoke and drink, but won’t eat a pork chop. And Jews, like 25-year-old Stacey Banchek, who hasn’t attended synagogue services regularly since she moved to Washington D.C. a few years ago, but still picks bacon bits out of her Cobb salad, piece by piece. Read the rest of this entry »
Bollywood the American Way
All it took was a dash of insomnia, a long plane journey and a big helping of boredom for Jennifer Hopfinger to get hooked on the world of Bollywood.
Listening to her relate the experience of watching her first mass dance sequence, the lip-synching stylings of actor Shah Rukh Khan, or the sultry moves of actress Rani Mukerji is an out-of-body experience for me – having grown up watching Amitabh Bachchan and Brad Pitt on screen (although not together… yet!)
But while most fans would keep their obsession limited to the couch and perhaps a cup of steaming chai (maybe a bhangra lesson or two), Hopfinger turned it into a full-time project and created The Bollywood Ticket. Watch the video and see what I mean: Read the rest of this entry »
This Muslim-American life: A virtual round table
No single voice or organization can speak for the colorful, diverse spectrum of Islam in America, so here we give you ten of them. Read the rest of this entry »
This Muslim-American life: Allah and the Arts
With bold, messages on contemporary religious, social and political issues, young Muslim-Americans are stepping onto the stage and into the studio. Read the rest of this entry »
This Muslim-American life: Meet Ahlam, a Chicago activist
Ahlam Said, a 23-year-old working for a Muslim community-organizing group in Chicago, talks about her take on race and religion.
Bay Area Filipino newspaper reaches for the stars
In the face of today’s recession, the poor health of mainstream media, and the general decline of print outlets, one San Francisco-based newspaper is given a strong bill of health.
The FilAm Star expanded circulation on August 13, from a bimonthly to a weekly, based largely on audience demand, said the paper’s editor-in-chief, Jun Ilagan. “The complaint we have been receiving from our readers and consequently from advertisers, is we have a visibility problem,” he said. “It takes us about three days after the issue comes out to the press and we distribute to the outlets. When all those copies are gone it takes about 11 to 12 days to come out with another issue.” Read the rest of this entry »
I am proud to be South Asian because…
So I took a hike to the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. for the South Asian Carnival on Aug. 15 and Aug. 16. In light of India Independence Day and Pakistan Independence Day, I thought it’d be neat to ask people there just why they were proud to be who they are. Listen to their responses and share your own below.
Hindu mythology + Twitter = Philosophical musings of the 21st century
When Lord Ganesha (the elephant-faced Indian deity who removes obstacles) wrote the Mahabharata as dictated by Sage Veda Vyasa, it was probably written on the 4th century BCE equivalent of bamboo paper.
These days, you can follow140-character pieces of this Sanskrit epic on Twitter. Read the rest of this entry »
Moving to the motherland: Finding work and community in Korea
The end of August marks a special anniversary for 25-year-old Linda Kye. She will have lived and worked in Korea for one year. It will most likely be the beginning of a few more years of her sojourn in the motherland.
Kye moved to Seoul from her hometown Vienna, Va., after graduating from college and working at World Vision. She needed a change of scene.
“I wanted to live overseas and the job opportunity I had to teach English at a public school offered an ideal living situation,” she said. Read the rest of this entry »
Generations and cultures gather around Korean dramas
When most kids watched Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs after school, I watched telenovelas in Spanish with my nanny.
Though I couldn’t speak Spanish and Betty spoke little English, we made do with short phrases: Ella es mala, ella es buena. I learned to identify the villains and protagonists and the gist of various plotlines. I was seven, but I liked those soaps better than clichéd, cartoon cat-and-mouse chases. Read the rest of this entry »
Q&A with a Korean drama aficionado
Yoonmi Kim is a 28-year-old college student from Los Angeles who is an avid fan of Korean dramas. Adopted at the age of five, Kim says these dramas were a window to her cultural roots. She writes reviews for budding fans here. Read the rest of this entry »
Q&A on Korean dramas with president of YA Entertainment
Tom Larsen is a 35-year-old entrepreneur who knows an opportunity when he sees one. After living in Korea for a few years and taking Korean language courses in college, Larsen decided that he wanted to make Korean dramas readily available for Americans. Read the rest of this entry »
Children of the 80s: Have you stopped believin’?
Either coming out as atheists or living in church limbo, many adults in their 20s (dare I make another rock reference? YES.) are “losing their religion.”
The Wesleyan world of social networking
Online ministries have become a must for churches trying to engage a generation living in the instant-gratification, constant-communication world of Twitter and Facebook.
But before the Internet, before computers… and well, even before electricity, Christian movements still relied on a kind of social networking. Read the rest of this entry »
Despite Khan-troversy, Bollywood ‘Badshah’ keeps his cool
By now you may have heard the story of how Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, also known as ‘King Khan,’ was questioned by airport security for 66 minutes (previous reports say two hours) at Newark Liberty International Airport on Friday. Khan’s name reportedly appeared on a security checklist, and he wasn’t released until after Indian diplomats intervened.
