Taiwan Documentary ‘Invisible Nation’ Airing in May AND Streaming NOW on PBS

Posted on May 5, 2026 by John

I’ve been a big fan of the documentary Invisible Nation ever since I first saw the film back in October 2023 at the Mill Valley Film Festival. I have even become friends with the director/producer Vanessa Hope.  I am excited now that the documentary will be broadcasted on PBS this month:


“Beginning May 1, 2026, the acclaimed documentary Invisible Nation will air on PBS stations across the United States, bringing Taiwan’s democratic journey, its geopolitical tightrope walk, and its pivotal role in the global technology order into American living rooms during Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month and Taiwanese American Heritage Week. The film will also be available for streaming on the PBS App and PBS.org, expanding access to audiences nationwide.

Directed and produced by Vanessa Hope, Invisible Nation invites viewers on an unprecedented journey with Taiwan’s first female president, Tsai Ing-wen, as she works to secure her nation’s future. Through intimate observational filmmaking, the documentary offers an in-depth look at Taiwan’s past, and present as a young democracy with robust civil liberties and fair elections, navigating pressure from China, relations with the United States, and its place on the world stage.

Premiering on public television at a time when Taiwan is central to geopolitics yet still underrepresented in American media, Invisible Nation reframes the country not as a distant flashpoint, but as a frontline democracy whose future is deeply intertwined with the United States.”

Former Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen in Invisible Nation, a film about Taiwan.

This documentary does a great job of profiling Taiwan’s long journey towards democratization and highlighting the first female president of Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen (a fellow Cornell alum – Cornell Law LLM ’80).

If you want to watch the film immediately, it can be streamed here. Check your local listings here for when it will appear on PBS. As the press release above stated, you can also watch now via the PBS App.

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Jamie Ding’s Jeopardy Winning Streak Ended: More Love and Hate

Posted on May 1, 2026 by Jeff

Jamie Ding’s Jeopardy Winning Streak ended this week. On the same day that I posted about his success too! As with when he was winning, his exit has generated both love and hate.

What did he do that has drawn controversy? In an interview with People Magzine, he said:

“As an immigrant and a person of color, I was able to become part of the history of an American institution. Jeopardy! really is an institution and America’s turning 250 years old and the federal government is going after immigrants in a way unlike anything that we’ve seen in the recent past.  So I hope that immigrants can be seen in a positive light too.”

That last comment generated a mixed reception.

Ding was beaten by Greg Shahade in a runaway. For those of you not familiar with Jeopardy terms, that means that Shahade had a large enough lead to make sure that Jamie could not beat him in any circumstance. Shahade a good run this week, wining three games including the win over Ding.  I am glad that Shahade did well – it would seem sad to lose to someone who was only a one game winner.

While Ding’s time on Jeopardy has ended, he goes home with $882,605. He has a number of solid positions on the Jeopardy Leaderboard of Legends.  Ding signed off on his final response with TTFN (Ta Ta For Now).  He will be definitely be back for the Jeopardy’s Tournament of Champions next year, and I am looking forward to seeing him compete again.

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Love and Hate for Jeopardy Contestant Jamie Ding

Posted on April 27, 2026 by Jeff

Nothing increases Jeopardy ratings like a long winning streak.  Jeopardy contestant Jamie Ding has a current 31 game winning streak that has people taking notice, including Good Morning America, which interviewed him last week. Some of that notice is bad, with some saying he has no personality and is bizarre. Mostly that notice is good, as many praise him for being a good sport.  Even his competitors say he is a really nice guy.

I personally don’t think he is boring. He is low key, but has many (IMO) interesting aspects about him.  His favorite color is orange.  Ding graduated from Princeton with a degree Molecular Biology (partially explaining the orange preference, as Princeton’s colors are orange and black). He works as a “bureaucrat” to help build affordable housing.  Ding and his sister host an Instagram dedicated to rating General Tso chicken.

Other Asian Americans have recently been very successful on Jeopardy recently, including Paolo Pasco who won the 2026 Tournament of Champions and Yogesh Raut, who on the 2024 Tournament of Champions and the 2025 Masters Tournament. Despite these victories, having a long winning streak really brings attention (and increased ratings) to Jeopardy. These streaks did the same for 11 game winner Arthur Chu (even though he was widely disliked) and 32 game winner James Holzhauer (I count him as Asian American because his grandmother was Japanese).

Jamie Ding holds a number of positions on the Jeopardy Leaderboard of Legends.  Will he move up higher on those rankings?  Tune in today if he will tie James Holzhauer on the most consecutive games won list.

(photo credit and permission:  VL)

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Laufey’s Madwoman video with Alysa Liu and other hot Wasians

Posted on April 17, 2026 by Jeff

Picture of Laufey. Laufey's Madwoman video with Alysa Liu and other hot Wasians has been generating some press.Laufey’s Madwoman video with Alysa Liu and other hot wasians is more than just a music video with attractive people. For those of you don’t know, Icelandic-Chinese singer Laufey Lin Bing Jónsdótti has won two Grammys with her unique mix of jazz, pop, and classical music.The casting was very intentional, as Laufey reveals in this article from The Hollywood Reporter.

Growing up, I felt a general lack of representation for people who looked like me in music and media. With the ‘Madwoman’ video, I wanted to be that representation.

Gold House executive producers Christine Yi and Maiqi Qin worked on the video after Laufey and her team reached out.  Madwoman is Gold House’s first music video.  Christine Yi, GM of Gold House Studios and Creative Equity Fund says:

Across our different initiatives and mediums, perhaps the only constant is that we want to support storytelling with AAPI characters and moments that feel like firsts. That feel like they’ll become cultural moments that our community can feel the impact of and take pride in.

The video includes famous and good looking wasians starting with as ice skater Alysa Liu. Alysa Liu notably used a Laufey song in her Olympic short program. Other wasians the Hudson Williams, star of the hit show Heated Rivalry.  Actress Lola Tung from The Summer I Turned Pretty is in the video along with KATSEYE singer Megan Skiendiel.  The video sneaks in Havana Rose Liu and Chase Sui Wonders as magazine cover girls.

Madwoman was directed by Warren Fu.
(photo credit: Foundations Management licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license)

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Asians and Asian Americans at Coachella 2026

Posted on April 14, 2026 by Jeff

Coachella scene at sunsetAsians and Asian Americans at Coachella made quite a splash this past weekend.  Global girl group KATSEYE (missing Manon) performed Golden along with Huntr/X singers, EJAE, Audrey Nuna, and Rei Ami. I loved the harmonies in this version!

BINI, a P-Pop girl group from the Philippines, stoked excitement too.  Their presence at Coachella generated some press as well as featured performances in Coachella’s YouTube Channel (Pantropiko performance embedded below). I am amazed to see Filipino faces on the stage, and singing songs in Tagalog no less!

BINI will return for the final weekend of the music festival.

(photo credit Jason Persse licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.)

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Ruth Asawa’s Art Gets Permanent SF Home

Posted on April 10, 2026 by Jeff

Books on Ruth AsawaWhile Ruth Asawa’s art has been touring across the world, from San Francisco to New York and now at the Bilbao Guggenheim in Portugal, the San Francisco artist has lacked a permanent home for the bulk of her work.  That situation will soon change.  The Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco will have a permanent gallery for her work.

Ruth Asawa Lanier, Inc. (RAL, Inc.), which runs her estate, opens the gallery space on May 9.  Curators will rotate exhibitions that show the huge variety of her work.  The first one is called Ruth Asawa: Untitled, curated by her daughters. RAL, Inc. plans to exhibit art by her friends, contemporaries, and teachers. The gallery will also show work from students and teachers from Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts.

While the gallery space will be a Bay Area focal point for her work, Ruth Asawa’s work can also be seen at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, the Cantor Museum at Stanford University, and as public art in San Francisco and other places. The Minnesota Street Project is located at 1275 Minnesota Street in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood.

 

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Asian American Commercial Watch: Farmers Insurance ‘Fountainhead’

Posted on April 7, 2026 by John

I saw this Farmers Insurance commercial following college basketball during March Madness:

“Cutting corners can leave you drowning in regret. If it’s important, it’s not worth compromising. That’s why with Farmers® you can get quality and savings.”

Farmers Insurance Commercial with Asian Woman and White Man

It highlights an Asian American woman and her husband, who apparently cut corners putting together a fountain in their backyard. 

As I’ve blogged before, a mixed race couple of a white male and Asian female is a very familiar pairing in commercials – in fact, the most common.

According to Google’s “AI Summary,” actor J.K. Simmons has been starring as Professor Nathaniel Burke in Farmers Insurance commercials since 2010and has appeared in over 65 ads for the company. I remember him giving me a huge impression on me when I first saw the Spider-Man film in 2002, thinking that he portrayed newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson *perfectly* how I imagined him as in the comics.

As far as all the other actors, I imagine they are struggling, but working actors? I don’t recognize any of them.

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China’s Tricked Out Lao Tou Le 

Posted on April 4, 2026 by High School Voices

(Photo courtesy of Land Rover Media Centre)

By Guan Xiong Qiao

A 76 year old man named Sun from Henan Province driving without a license racked up 279 traffic violations in one year. In China, you get 12 points when you get your driver’s license, and when you lose the 12 points, you will be required to take a 7-day driving course in order to have a valid license. For this grandpa, he had over 800 points taken off his record, but what’s even worse is that he never even had a driver’s license in the first place. Because in China, a driver’s license isn’t required for the vehicle this traffic-violating grandpa drives, a lao tou le, which literally translates to English as “old head’s joy”, meaning an “old man’s joy”. The lao tou le is a popular small electric vehicle, usually driven by the elderly in China.  While Sun’s case gets more attention because of how extreme his situation is, there’s legitimate concern over road safety and how these types of drivers and their tiny lao tou le vehicles will put other normal drivers and pedestrians in danger, increasing public risk and the chance of traffic accidents.

The electric lao tou le vehicles usually have 3 or 4 wheels, and in all outward appearance looks just like a normal car, but it’s not large enough to be classified as an actual car. Instead, it’s classified as an e-bike, which also allows it to avoid many vehicle regulations. Lao tou le are some of the cheapest vehicles to get in China, with a price range normally around 10,000 to 30,000 yuan or about $1,500 to $4,000 USD,  making them especially affordable for elderly and low income citizens. Why is it so cheap? Aside from being small and electric, and drivers of this type of vehicle not needing a driver’s license to operate them, there’s no tax and no insurance needed in owning a lao tou le, which lowers the overall cost, so buying one isn’t any harder than buying a bicycle. 

Continue reading →

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John Doe Chinaman wins 2026 Bancroft History Award

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Jeff

Joe Doe Chinaman book cover showing old picture of a Chinese man

The book John Doe Chinaman by Princeton Professor Beth Lew-Williams has won the 2026 Bancroft Prize. Columbia University gives the Bancroft Prize annually to distinguished works in either or both American history and Diplomacy. A quick synopsis of this book:

In this eye-opening account, Beth Lew-Williams describes a legal architecture redolent of Jim Crow but tailored specifically to people often referred to only as “John Doe Chinaman” or “Mary Chinaman” in official records. Enforced by police and tax collectors, but also by schoolteachers, missionaries, and neighbors, these laws granted the Chinese only limited access to American society, falling far short of equality or belonging. Cementing stereotypes of Chinese residents as criminals, invaders, and predators, they regulated everything from healthcare to education, property ownership, business formation, and kinship customs. Yet in the face of these limitations, Chinese communities reacted resourcefully. Many fought, evaded, and manipulated these laws, finding ways to maintain their prohibited traditions, resist unfair treatment in court, and insist on their political rights.

Interestingly enough, Lew-Williams is a descendent of one of the Rock Springs Massacre survivors. The Princeton History Professor is also the author of The Chinese Must Go.

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Ube’s Popularity Causing Shortages

Posted on March 30, 2026 by Jeff

Picture of Ube root - Ube Popularity Causing ShortagesA few years ago, I asked whether Ube is becoming ubiquitous.  The answer today is in some ways yes, yet in other ways no, with Ube’s popularity causing shortages in some Filipino American neighborhoods. A definite downside of mainstream representation.

How did it reach this point? Ube flavor is being incorporated into more and more products. Starbucks sells a iced ube coconut macchiato. UK based coffee chain Costa is also selling a sweet Ube hot chocolate and an Ube Frappe. This demand strains ube suppliers worldwide. Philippine production has actually dropped, while China and Vietnam are increasing shipments. Climate change is said to contribute to the problem. There are reports that people are substituting purple sweet potatoes or even using purple coloring to cash in on the hot ube trend.

While I mentioned representation, some reports say that many people have no idea that ube is from the Philippines. I could not find evidence for this either way. Still, many, probably most places that that sell ube flavored products don’t mention the Philippines or Filipino cuisine at all.  Says Eater food writer Bettina Makalintal:

Everyone’s drinking ube now, but they don’t even really know the flavor. They’ve reduced it to this thing that’s just purple. The thing that’s hard is that it feels like one of those things where it feels like the byproduct of your culture … hitting the mainstream, where you just lose control of it in the cultural conversation. That is the trade-off of visibility.

(photo credit: Remi Tournebize licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.)

 

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Forgotten Island Movie to Explore Filipino Folklore

Posted on March 27, 2026 by Jeff

Forgotten Island Movie Poster showing two hands clasping, with bracelets showing Filipino mythological monstersAs 8Asian writers, John and I get press releases from movie studios promoting their work. I was pleasantly surprised to see an announcement about Filipino culture being explored in the upcoming Forgotten Island movie. From the synopsis in the movie trailer:

While celebrating their last night together, Jo and Raissa stumble upon a mysterious portal that transports them to the fantastical island of Nakali, packed with magical and mythological creatures they grew up hearing stories about from their Filipino families.
Some of these figures will become friends, some foes. Joined by well-meaning-but- hapless weredog Raww (Dave Franco) and a small-but-mighty pack of pals, Jo and Raissa must face The Dreaded Manananggal (Tony winning icon Lea Salonga), the most feared creature on the island. When they discover that the memories of their entire friendship are the price for returning home, Jo and Raissa will race to find a way to leave the island before they forget each other forever.

The movie boasts a number of Filipino and Asian American stars, with singer/songwriter and actor H.E.R. as Jo. Liza Soberano voices Raissa.  In addition, the synopsis lists the following:

The film’s all-star voice cast also includes Emmy nominee Jenny Slate (Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Dying for Sex), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place, Top Gun: Maverick), BAFTA nominee Dolly de Leon (Triangle of Sadness, Ghostlight), global comedy superstar Jo Koy (Haunted Mansion, Jo Koy: Live from Brooklyn) and Emmy winner Ronny Chieng (The Daily Show, M3GAN).

For those of you that don’t know, a manananggal is a vampire like creature whose upper body with wings can detach from its lower body. Somewhat different for Lea Salonga to play a villain – interesting casting!

Polygon somewhat cynically calls its KPop Demon Hunters meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. One does have to wonder about if the creators Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado of (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) used KPop Demon Hunters success in their pitch for this movie. I have included a featurette below about the creation of the movie.

Forgotten Island is set to premiere in theatres on September 25.

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Larry Itliong’s Son Responds to Cesar Chavez Abuse Revelations

Posted on March 24, 2026 by Jeff

In the response to a New York Times investigation, Larry Itliong’s Son Responds to Cesar Chavez Abuse Revelations in this Emil Guillermo Op-Ed.  Jonny Itliong tells Guillermo:

I’ve been fighting people for years who think Cesar Chavez was a saint.He never f****ing was.

For those of you who don’t know, Larry Itliong was a Filipino labor leader who was a co-founder of the United Farm Workers. The abuse news and Dolores Huerta’s account that Chavez raped her did not surprise on Johnny. He and others have long been upset about how Filipino Americans’ role in the UFW has been downplayed by Huerta and in movies like the 2014 Movie Cesar Chavez.

Jonny Itliong has some other choice words in Guillermo’s piece. Check it out. Some other pieces that may be of interest:

(Cesar Chavez photo credit: the Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection at the UCLA Library the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.)
(Larry Itliong Mural photo credit:  Timothy Biley under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license)

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