Author Archives: Tim

About Tim

I'm a Chinese/Taiwanese-American, born in Taiwan, raised on Long Island, went to college in Philadelphia, tried Wall Street and then moved to the California Bay Area to work in high tech in 1990. I'm a recent dad and husband. Other adjectives that describe me include: son, brother, geek, DIYer, manager, teacher, tinkerer, amateur horologist, gay, and occasional couch potato. I write for about 5 different blogs including 8Asians. When not doing anything else, I like to challenge people's preconceived notions of who I should be.

Asian American Superheroes Need Help

Posted on April 18, 2009 by Tim

A few weeks ago I wrote about the upcoming graphic novel, Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology. The book released on April 15, but you’d be hard pressed to know that if someone didn’t already tell you. According to … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, Current Events, Discrimination, Entertainment, The Arts | Tagged | 8 Comments

Betty Brown: “Really, Just Change Your Name”

Posted on April 9, 2009 by Tim

Texas Democrats are demanding an apology over state Representative Betty Brown’s comments during Texas House testimony on voter identification. She was quoted as saying voters of Asian-descent should adopt names that are “easier for Americans to deal with.” Ramey Ko, … Continue reading →

Posted in Discrimination, Politics | 29 Comments

Qingming, Chinese Tomb Sweeping Day

Posted on April 3, 2009 by Tim

Qingming, Tomb Sweeping Day for the Chinese traditionally falls on the fifth day of April, but this year is the fourth of April due to Chinese leap year. While celebrated culturally by Chinese for centuries, Qingming returned as a nationally … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Family | Tagged | 4 Comments

No, Seriously: Asians are Good at Math

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Tim

The stereotype that Asians are good at math has probably haunted every Asian reading 8Asians at one time or another. It’s certainly not a new topic, and 8Asians covered this topic in 2008 and twice in 2007. This week the … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Discrimination, Education, Family | Tagged | 18 Comments

Outdated Immigration Laws Cause Kids To Suffer Most

Posted on March 29, 2009 by Tim

Supporters of Proposition 8 in California argued that it didn’t take away any rights from same sex couples, and couples could still get domestic partnerships. This was of course little comfort to the 18,000+ couples that already married in California … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Discrimination, Family, LGBT | Tagged | 13 Comments

Secret Identities: An Asian American Superhero

Posted on March 27, 2009 by Tim

When I was growing up, I always wondered where the Asian American superheroes were. I wasn’t a comic book junkie, but I was a fan of Saturday morning cartoons, Sunday comics, and the occasional comic book. In college I discovered … Continue reading →

Posted in Announcements, Current Events, Entertainment, The Arts | Tagged | 17 Comments

Asian Noodles In The News

Posted on March 26, 2009 by Tim

Food seems to be an all important topic among Asians, so what better food to talk about than Asian Noodles. 8asians has of course written about instant yakisoba recently and even had a discussion about instant noodles in reference to … Continue reading →

Posted in Food & Drink | Tagged | 11 Comments

Do You Have To Be Chinese To Produce Chinese Art?

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Tim

Princeton University’s Art Museum has a new exhibition called “Outside In”, a showcase to modern Chinese Art. There are six artists featured, and the exhibition suggests that Chinese Art does not need to come from someone who is Chinese ethnically. … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Observations, The Arts | Tagged | 24 Comments

Peering Through The Glass Ceiling

Posted on March 18, 2009 by Tim

Readers of 8asians may not realize this, but writing for this blog doesn’t pay the rent, so most of the writers here have day jobs. I’m no exception. My day job is in marketing for a high technology company in … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Current Events, Discrimination, Observations | Tagged | 14 Comments

Finding Religion

Posted on March 16, 2009 by Tim

My parents each had their own religion. My mom was a practicing Buddhist and my dad would profess to anyone who would listen that he was Catholic. As for attending church or temple, as a family we rarely did either. … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Family, Observations | Tagged | 27 Comments

Looted Dragon May Be In Taiwan

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tim

I recently wrote about the French auction of Yves Saint Laurent’s artworks which included two Chinese bronze animal heads from a collection of twelve which were looted in the 19th century from the old Summer Palace in Beijing by French … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Family, Observations, The Arts | Tagged , | 6 Comments

The Chinese Language: Technology As Friend Of Tradition

Posted on March 13, 2009 by Tim

My father was a child of two worlds, he was born in China and moved to Taiwan when he was 8 years old. He left relatives behind in mainland China, yet still had much of his family in Taiwan. With … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Family, Observations, Technology | Tagged | 11 Comments