Posted: October 10th, 2011
Filed Under: Back Issues , BLOG , FEATURED ARTICLE , October 2011
Photo by David Studarus
She was the shy, cute singer with the soft voice. Next to gospel singers with booming vocals that easily won audience applause and wows from the judges, NBC’s The Voice contestant Dia Frampton seemed a little out of her element.
Then, on June 7, Frampton delivered a unique, stunningly haunting performance of Kanye West’s “Heartless” that left everyone breathless. Her manager Mike Kaminsky recalls the moment: “You felt the air get sucked out of the room, and everyone collectively gasped. And when she finished that song, you just knew her life was going to change.” Continue Reading »
Posted: October 10th, 2011
Filed Under: Back Issues , BLOG , FEATURED ARTICLE , October 2011
Pastor Gage Jung, founder of Hipster Church in Queens, New York, is reimagining worship to make it exciting and relevant for a new generation.
story by David “Rek” Lee
photographs by Minnow Park
Gage Jung is a victim of cyber-bullying.
He tells me about it between bites of Margherita slices at South Brooklyn Pizza, his tattooed forearms on display as he reaches for napkins. When he gets up to grab a Coke, he stands over 6 feet tall. He doesn’t strike me as the victim type.
But ever since his church was featured in the New York Daily News, he’s become the target of anonymous hate mail. His critics question his focus on Flushing, an area in Queens where churches sit elbow to elbow, and Hipster Church, the arresting label he chooses to call his movement. Mean-spirited as they are, their concerns are understandable even by his own admission. So it’s a discussion he’s willing to have, if only they would listen.
I tried to attend the monthly service, twice, once at the Queens Crossing mall in the heart of Flushing and, a second time, at the summer-appropriate Flushing Meadows Park, next to Citi Field baseball stadium; both plans were thwarted by miscommunication and bad weather. From what I read in the Daily News, it sounded like a good time: “Congregants use a Bible app on iPhones … participants listen to indie rockers like MGMT and Arcade Fire and chat over donuts.” It might sound contrived to some, but the forward-thinkingness doesn’t end with snacks and tech savviness.
Jung is rethinking worship by using slightly modified secular songs and even incorporating raps into praise. He’s challenging the established model of regurgitating sermons throughout the day with plans to dedicate whole services to non-believers. Think less eternal damnation talk and more of a Q-and-A approach.
“People need to feel like they can express themselves without being judged,” he explains. “That’s a challenging environment, but it can be done.” Continue Reading »
Posted: September 26th, 2011
Filed Under: Back Issues , BLOG , FEATURED ARTICLE , September 2011
Photo credit: Timothy Archibald
The Trials of Daniel Lee
An internet smear campaign nearly destroyed the South Korean star, but he fought back with the only weapon he had: the truth.
by Joshua Davis
ON AUGUST 19, 2010, Dan Lee stood on the steps of Meyer Library and pointed to a nearby patch of grass.
“The Rodin statue,” he said nervously. “It was here.”
The Korean television crew following him noted that there was nothing there, just a well-mowed lawn. Students on bikes zipped past, paying no attention to the cameras or the skinny, dark-haired 30-year-old they were filming. In Seoul, it was hard for Lee to walk down the street without being mobbed. To Koreans, he was known as Tablo, a chart-topping rapper who was also married to one of the country’s most prominent movie stars. Until recently, he had been one of Korea’s biggest celebrities. Now his career was in tatters, he’d parted ways with his record label, and his family was receiving death threats.
The reason? Hundreds of thousands of Koreans refused to believe that Lee graduated from Stanford.
The cameraman for the television crew closed in on Lee as he looked at the empty lawn. They were here to document for Korean national TV whether or not Lee was a liar.
“It’s not here anymore,” Lee said, staring at the spot where he knew The Thinker had been. He rubbed his face and wondered if maybe he was going crazy.
When the program aired two months later in Korea, this was the opening moment.
Posted: September 15th, 2011
Filed Under: Back Issues , BLOG , FEATURED ARTICLE , September 2011
In this photo, taken this past February, several malnourished 1-year-olds at an orphanage in North Pyongan Province are being hydrated intravenously, but with only a saline solution, as “there was no glucose solution or other therapeutic food to treat malnutrition,” according to Mercy Corps’ David Austin. Saline—which will keep an individual hydrated, but provides no nutritional value—was all that was available at this orphanage, outside of the World Food Program and UNICEF catchment area. Photo by David Austin.
When Apples Fall Far From The Tree
A case for humanitarian aid to North Korea
by Christine Hong
Humanitarian relief efforts have faced doubts about whether they are actually reaching the people of North Korea who need them most. The difficulties are tied to political debate, in the United States and South Korea, and the wariness of philanthropic interests to contribute money or resources to any effort that can be exploited by the North Korean regime.
David Austin is a program director for Mercy Corps, which has provided food assistance, agricultural development, medical relief and cultural exchanges for more than 12 years in North Korea. The agency’s core projects and relationships stem from apple orchards planted in Gwail County, South Hwanghae Province. Having worked with the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture and with the U.S. Department of State Interfaith Cooperative Initiative, Austin brings to bear experience that demonstrates how humanitarian efforts are reaching their mark in North Korea, that is, connecting aid with individuals and communities, and addressing the causes of suffering.
Christine Hong: Tell me about the work of Mercy Corps in North Korea.
David Austin: Mercy Corps, like other U.S. NGOs such as World Vision or Samaritan’s Purse, does humanitarian assistance. We mostly stay away from development work. There are some strict guidelines on doing work in North Korea that are set up by the Department of Commerce. We focus on humanitarian work around food security and medical relief, and we’ve been working on apple orchards for about 10 years. We first got involved in North Korea back in the late ’90s. As an organization, we’ve been going back two or three times a year. We’ve brought in a lot of medical equipment in hospitals. We helped five hospitals in South Hwanghae Province, in Haeju City, and in Gwail County, with X-ray machines, ultrasound equipment, patient monitors, and medicine on various occasions. It depends on what the need is.
CH: Can you speak about some of the challenges of arguing for humanitarian food aid for the people of a country with which the U.S. has been at war for 61 years? Continue Reading »
Posted: September 13th, 2011
Filed Under: Back Issues , BLOG , FEATURED ARTICLE , September 2011
Kool & The Kang
TIM KANG, star of CBS’ The Mentalist, has managed to stay clear of stereotypical roles throughout his career, creating memorable characters in TV and film. How does he do it? The actor—and adrenaline junkie—IS ALL ABOUT PUSHING LIMITS.
by Oliver Saria
It’s a tranquil, warm summer evening with nary a breeze to rustle the leaves in a wooded area in the back lot of Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The serenity is momentarily shattered by intermittent gunfire and shouts emanating from two men, ducking for cover behind an abandoned car. The director yells “Cut!” Calm is restored, and Tim Kang—the 38-year-old actor who stars as Agent Kimball Cho on the hit CBS show, The Mentalist—walks off set with a hint of a swagger.
It’s easy to tell that he loves this macho stuff.
“When we get to run around and shoot guns, and do fight scenes, I’m all over it,” Kang says.
He holds a black belt in taekwondo and performs most of his own stunts. An avid thrill-seeker, Kang also loves to scuba dive, sky dive, race high-performance motorcycles, surf and pretty much any other activity that risks life and limb. On the day I visited the set, he had a new motorcycle delivered to him—his eighth, a neo-vintage, low-slung, beefy cruiser that he can’t wait to ride. Unfortunately, he’ll have to because the dealer forgot to ship the keys with it. The oversight may have warranted a pampered Hollywood celebrity tirade, but, despite any assumptions one might have made after reading about Kang’s bravura and penchant for Red-Bull-guzzling extreme sports, he is not a douche bag. He nonchalantly shrugs it off and says he’ll patiently wait for them to overnight the keys to him. Continue Reading »
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Featured Event
One of the the biggest Asian cinema events to hit Southern California opens on May 10. The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications, features the latest works by established and emerging filmmakers, along with seminars, panel discussions and symposiums on topics relevant to Asian Pacific cinema.
Opening Night features “Shanghai Calling,” directed by Daniel Hsia and starring Korean American Daniel Henney, who plays a Chinese American expat lawyer navigating his way through the mean streets of Shanghai (the picture above also indicates he is a raisin smuggler). But does he take off his shirt? Go watch the movie to find out! read more
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