OCTOBER 13, 2022

Hello, everyone!

“The Joy Luck Club,” a story about Chinese American mothers and daughters navigating life and culture, is getting a sequel in a joint-writing effort by novelist Amy Tan and Oscar-winning screenwriter Ron Bass (“Rain Man”).

Debuted in 1993, the film spearheaded Asian American representation, and now the original cast will be coming back to revitalize their roles as grandmothers and mothers with a new generation of Chinese American daughters.

While a director has yet to be announced, the production team hopes to bring another iteration of authentic stories on the Asian American experience.

Spotlight 💡

Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American actress in Hollywood, has had her outstanding legacy cemented in film history.

Now, her face will be plated in all-American copper and nickel: Wong will be featured on the U.S. quarter as the first Asian American to appear on U.S. currency.

Wong’s quarter, along with other famous women in this new batch of coins, will be available later this month.

Race in America 🌎

Hmong American farmers have rented their farmland in Minnesota for decades, but for the first time ever, families were able to come together and purchase 155 acres for themselves.

Around 16 families in the group were part of The Hmong American Farmers Association (HAFA), and now the community can own the land they’ve worked for years. This will be the first Hmong-owned and Hmong-operated farm in the U.S., and the “only minority-owned farm on that strip of Highway 52 between St. Paul and Rochester."

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The Filipino American International Book Festival, one of the nation’s largest book festivals highlighting Asian American literature, is returning this weekend after a long COVID hiatus.

This year, the Festival will be hosted at the San Francisco Main Library on October 15-16 with more than 50 writers attending and about two-thirds of invited guests identifying as women or genderqueer. Various panels will be held during the event to highlight this year’s theme of “hiraya,” the Tagalog word for imagination.

On Sunday, the finale will feature a pre-recorded conversation between Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa and investigative journalist Benjamin Pimentel.

In Other Asian News 🗞

Even though same-sex marriage is prohibited in China, couples are finding ways to get marriage licenses from the U.S. over Zoom.

Despite being a traditionally conservative state, Utah has become a popular virtual destination for couples. As the state carries no residency or citizenship requirements for these marriage licenses and with COVID-19 restrictions having pushed everyone online in 2020, Utah County began conducting virtual weddings. It soon became an international option for couples seeking to acquire documentation of their relationships.

The county has noticed an uptick in marriage applications from same-sex couples in China. So far, nearly 600 Chinese couples have gotten married in Utah.
 

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In the U.K, new analysis from the Labor Party has found that minority women have significant pay differences in comparison to the average male worker in the nation, with Bangladeshi women experiencing a 28% pay gap and Pakistani women experiencing a 31% gap, the worst rating out of any other minority group.

Calculated by taking the median hourly pay and percentage difference between hourly earnings from women and men, these numbers show the need for mandatory ethnicity pay gap reporting.

The Shadow Women and Equalities Minister, Anneliese Dodds, demanded that the government “get a grip” on the racial dimension in the cost of living crisis: “The pay gap for all women is already bad enough; disturbingly, these figures show it’s even worse for many Black, Asian and minority ethnic women.”

Entertainment 📺

Michelle Yeoh is joining the cast of the upcoming film “Transformers: Rise of The Beasts.”

Yeoh will voice the transformer Maximal Airazor. This latest project from Hasbro and Paramount is described as a 90s globetrotting adventure that will introduce the robot factions the Maximals and Terrorcons as the Autobots and Decepticons continue to feud on earth.
 

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Payengxa Lor became the first Hmong woman to be named Miss Universe Laos.

Lor will represent Laos at the Miss Universe pageant in New Orleans next January. Besides pageantry, Lor is an English teacher and co-founder of the Hmong Women Network.

What else is on our minds? 🧠
 

• An analysis and historic look at the diaspora of Korean cuisine. 

• A display called Lantern Stories in San Francisco's Chinatown features 29 different lanterns of Asian icons like Bruce Lee, author Amy Tan and chef Cecilia Chang.  

• Pikachu-themed donuts are back at Mister Donut in Japan. 

• Hawai’i governor David Ige signed an executive order which will protect Hawai’ian residents who get an abortion on the islands from punishment in other states.  

• A first look and behind the scenes of the Studio Ghibli theme park.