Harry Shum Jr. Cast in ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ Sequel

Glee star Harry Shum Jr. joins the cast of the sequel to the legendary martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

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Saving Innocence Summer Benefit Concert: Join the Fight Against Human Sex Trafficking in the US

PSA – Saving Innocence

Did you know…

At least 100,000 to 300,000 youth are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation annually in the U.S.

The average age of entry into the commercial sex industry in the U.S. is 12 years old.

#SaveInnocence

It’s a difficult subject to talk about. Many of us are aware of the human sex trafficking problem happening internationally, but did you know it’s also a large and growing problem within the United States?

On Saturday, August 2nd, Kollaboration is teaming up with Saving Innocence and Ford Theatres to present the Saving Innocence Summer Benefit Concert, in order to spread awareness on the issue of domestic human sex trafficking.

Enjoy a beautiful summer night at the Ford Amphitheatre for a night of empowerment and music, featuring five of the best indie artists and bands in Southern California. As always, you are welcome to bring your picnic baskets of food & wine.

Saving Innocence, Summer Benefit Concert
Saturday, August 2, 2014
7:30 pm (Doors open at 6 pm)
at the Ford Amphitheatre
2580 Cahuenga Blvd E, Los Angeles, CA 90068

Live performances by:
Hana Kim
Lucy Schwartz
Hotel Cinema
Belmont Lights
Jane Lui

Special Guest Jubilee Project will release the trailer of their new documentary “Save My Soul” about human trafficking at the concert.

Online Pre-Sale: $20
General Admission: $25
VIP: $50 (limited supply!)

VIP tickets include preferred seating and a special gift bag.

Please help us spread the word on this issue and the benefit concert.

For ticket information, visit http://bit.ly/SavingInnocenceBenefitConcert
To learn more about the concert, visit http://blog.kollaboration.org/losangeles/saving-innocence/

All proceeds will benefit Saving Innocence, a non-profit organization commissioned by the LA Superior Court to rescue and restore child victims of sex trafficking. Its services include safe housing, medical care, counseling, court advocacy, mentorship, and education for victims. To learn more about Saving Innocence, visit http://www.savinginnocence.org/.

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The Bamboo Ceiling—Is It Finally Broken?

Asian Americans have made tremendous progress over these past few years, from Obama doubling the number of Asian American federal judges to Kevin Tsujihara becoming the CEO of Warner Bros.  So, one has to ask, “Is the bamboo ceiling finally broken?”

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How One South Korean Magazine Set Out To Change Asian Body Image

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Asian girls and women are usually expected to be very thin, and that’s not a standard most young women go out of their way to break. Recently in South Korea, a country famed for its beauty products and nearly unattainable standard of beauty, model Vivian Kim (also known as Kim Ji-Yang in Korea) began her own magazine celebrating plus-sized figures in men and women. With 66100, the respective numbers for women’s and men’s extra-large sizes in Korea, Kim hopes to encourage positive body images and help people accept who they are and how they look.

Kim, who’s 5’5” and 154 pounds, was the first Korean model in Los Angeles’ Full Figured Fashion Week and used her own funds to print the 1,000 debut copies 66100. She said it’s hard to find plus-sized models in Korea to pose for the magazine, but hopes 66100 will encourage more women to feel more confident with themselves and show Korean clothing companies that there is a market for plus-sized clothing.

“Beauty is not about whether a person is fat or not,” Kim’s motto says. “It’s about having the confidence to know you are beautiful the way you are.”

I’m a Chinese adoptee on the curvy side who wears a size large in American stores and an XL or XXL in Asian sizes. For me, 66100 is a much-needed breath of fresh air. I feel out of place when I see other Asian girls my age weighing thirty pounds less than me while eating just as much as I do. I know I don’t live a very food-conscious and active lifestyle, but if society expects me to be a skinny twig, and I’m not, then I must be a freak of Asian nature. Along with my tanned skin, short legs, and non-flat stomach, I fail the Asian beauty standard on all counts.

Further driving the pity party home, I’m also a big fan of Kpop. Even though I know their look is very image-conscious and the pop industry promotes plastic surgery and wearing more make-up than Barbie, I can’t help but compare myself to the beautiful female idols. Watching music videos on top of hearing the stereotype that all Asian girls are skinny, my body image has plummeted. There are times when 2ne1’s “Ugly” became my personal anthem and I refuse to listen to Girls Generation out of jealousy.

My wallowing never lasts long, I know everyone is beautiful in their own right, and I too could look like a Kpop star if I set aside college and instead invested in massive plastic surgery. But seeing a strong and confident woman like Kim publish 66100, it helps instill the same confidence in my own body image and remind me that I’m not some Asian freak of nature.

Celebrity Guests, Surprise Performers, and a Marriage Proposal

Anderson Paak
Fourty4B Judges

On Thursday, June 26, Kollaboration Los Angeles celebrated its 15th anniversary in Hollywood at The Troubadour—previously named NBC’s “Best Venue in LA” and Rolling Stone’s second best American rock club of 2013. Celebrities Harry Shum Jr., Joe Hahn (of Linkin Park), Parker (aka Dumbfoundead), Clara C, and Mike Song were among the hundreds of guests who came to support Kollaboration.
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‘Snowpiercer’ Breaks Free of Hollywood’s Distribution Model

Directed by South Korean director Bong Joon-ho, post-apocalyptic sci-fi flick Snowpiercer breaks away from the traditional Hollywood distribution route and becomes available for online downloading and Video on Demand – just two weeks after its first U.S. theatrical release.

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Asian American Bookworms: July Recommendations

Summer is officially in full swing and that means it’s time to bust out your beach books.  Here are three books penned by some lovely Asian American ladies to help combat the July heat.

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15 Asian-American Celebrities Without Eyebrows

Since it’s Thursday, let’s #TBT all the way back to 2011, when photoshops of celebrities without eyebrows were making the rounds on social media, particularly Reddit and Tumblr. The one thing I found mesmerizing about them was that on a lot of celebrities, you can barely tell that their eyebrows are missing; whereas for others, removing their eyebrows completely destroyed their beauty, turning them into what I imagine David Icke’s reptilian humanoids must look like. Well, during the process of photoshopping away eyebrows of Asian-American celebrities, I came to one conclusion: we Asians NEED our eyebrows!

Steven Yeun

Jamie Chung

Bruno Mars

Brenda Song

Bobby Lee

Arden Cho

Ryan Higa

Sung Kang

Margaret Cho

George Takei

Harry Shum Jr.

Jay Park

John Cho

Nicole Scherzinger

Lucy Liu

(I’m sorry, Lucy!)