Asian Women in Politics

The match of Hilary and Obama makes this year's presidential election the most interesting ever. Either one wins (at least for the Democrats Party) will make the history, because they are minority – woman and African American. Imagine it was an African American woman versus a white man. How about an Asian American woman? Trust me, it will happen one day, just not soon.

According to Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at Rutgers University of New Jersey, there are 86 women serving in the 110th U.S. Congress, only two of them are Asian Americans. Of the 1,741 women state legislators serving nationwide, only 30 are Asian-American women. Consider 5% of the population in the U.S. is Asian; we are definitely underrepresented in Asian women politics.

Knowledge and culture could be the major reasons for the disproportion. Many Asian women immigrants simply do not know much about American politics. Some of them do not even realize women have the right to and should vote. They think their husbands, fathers or sons would represent the families.

Another issue is the complex composition of Asian Americans. Chinese, Filipinos, Asian Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, and Japanese are only some of the subgroups under the Asian American label. We speak different native languages and have different community issues. The challenge is to unit the Asian American. Only then, Asian voice – men and women alike – will be heard in politics.

When it comes to Asian marketing, I always remind people to be sensitive about the differences among subgroups of Asian Americans. As for politics, I urge all the Asian American to look at our similarities instead.

To unite is to empower. I sincerely hope I will have a chance in this lifetime to vote for a capable Asian American woman to be the President of the United States.

Asian American's Median Earnings Increased The Most In This Century

Since 2000, American's median earnings were basically flat after adjustment for inflation. If we break it down by demographic groups, Asian's income growth significantly suppresses the others.

White	0.6%
Black	-0.4%
Asian	11.9%
Hispanic	4.5%

Data: Bureau of Labor Statistics

Eastern Countries Outperformed In The Business Cycle 2000-2007

I found some interesting data from Business Week 3/31/08 issue.

For the share growth of global economy, here are the leaders in the past business cycle (2000-2007):

	2000	2007	% Point Change
China	7.2	10.9	3.7
India	3.7	4.6	0.9
Russia	2.7	3.2	0.5
Iran	1.0	1.2	0.2
Ukraine	0.4	0.5	0.1
Indonesia	1.2	1.3	0.1
Korea	1.8	1.9	0.1
Kazakhstan	0.2	0.3	0.1

Countries that have shares decreased in the cycle:

	2000	2007	% Point Change
Brazil	3.0	2.8	-0.2
Netherlands	1.1	1.0	-0.1
Canada	2.1	2.0	-0.1
Mexico	2.3	2.1	-0.2
Britain	3.6	3.3	-0.3
France	3.7	3.2	-0.5
Italy	3.4	2.8	-0.6
Germany	5.2	4.4	-0.8
Japan	7.7	6.6	-1.1
U.S.	23.7	21.4	-2.3

China's share was one third of the U.S. seven years ago; now more than half. What does that mean? Watch out!

Daniel Wu's 吳彥祖 AliveNotDead.com and Hollywood Stories

I've just found from the SFIAAF (San Francisco's International Asian American Film Festival) about the great artist community site Alive Not Dead (http://www.alivenotdead.com/), which was found by Daniel Wu 吳彥祖, Conroy Chan 陳子聰, Andrew Lin 連凱 and Terence Yin 尹子維.

AnD is dedicated to strengthen and connect the artist communities worldwide. The site provides artists a platform to connect with their audience as well as other artists. Artists can share their creative works, and seek opportunities to collaborate with each other.

In the AnD spotlight today, I learned that Anthony Ng who is a former child actor in Hong Kong graduated from NYU Film School. His award winning short films helped him secure grants for his first feature film "212" that premiered at Sundance… And Anthony is just one of many great talents (many are Chinese) I found from the site. I am so excited!

In the SFIAAF panel discussion, Daniel Wu told us how "turned off" he was about the Hollywood productions years ago. He remembered people were not as interested in him after they found out he was an American born Chinese and therefore not really from "the Orient". Then, in the production of Around the World in 80 Days, he was asked to speak in English with Chinese accents – the caricaturized version of it. I could imagine how he felt.

But situation has changed. Since the turn of millennium, China's global economy share has increased from 1/3 to 1/2 of the US. Bollywood now produces more films and has more audience than Hollywood. US filmmakers finally recognize Asia as the untapped market. Many of them are educating themselves about Asian market and artists.

Things are heading to the right direction. Keep it going that way!

Asian American Films

In the past 3-5 years, we have seen increasing number of Asian stars being featured in Hollywood movies. Meanwhile, Asian production companies are also starting to take an interest in Asian American filmmakers and Asian American projects. It perhaps began with Korea and its Pusan Promotion Plan (PPP), a financing forum where filmmakers can pitch their projects to Korean financers. Grace Lee's American Zombie, Gina Kim's Never Forever, and Michael Kang's West 32nd that are all co-produced by Korean production companies.

Ted Kim, executive VP of CJ Entertainment, Korea's largest media conglomerate which co-produced Michael Kang's West 32nd talked about the trend at the SFIAAF (San Francisco's International Asian American Film Festival).

He believed this natural flow came from PPP and the Asian American filmmakers who could speak the language, identify with the production companies, and have that ease of dialogue.

In fact, Korean has a very clear mindset about Korean films. For films that are mostly in English, they would be considered as a foreign film in the local market even if they are Korean American films. Such productions are not great commercial endeavors and Kim believed filmmakers noticed it. He stated, "I don't think you go into English-speaking, Asian-dominant films because you think you're going to make a lot of money. It's really to see the market, grow the market, and then hopefully be right there when it lifts off, and then you can ride along with the wave."

Tracing back the history and growth of the African American film industry, there were very similar stories and situations. These Korean companies are trying to accomplish a proven path by giving Korean American filmmakers opportunities to work on their craft.

"Young filmmakers need guidance," said Kim, "You have to go through the process once or twice to really know what you're doing from an efficiency standpoint. So that's what I am worried about. I just worry that these organizations will not be able to hit their benchmark and won't be able to find their success. And if they don't see the quality of film that they're looking for, will they become discouraged? I hope not."

Neither do I. Please support the Asian and Asian American film industries.

National Association of Asian Publishers

A group of Asian American publishers had recently established the National Association of Asian Publishers (NAAP). Congratulations!

Extract from their press release:

NAAP's mission is to develop the Asian American market and to increase advertising share for Asian Pacific American publishers, including both English language and Asian language media. NAAP’s first priority is to reach out to over 400 identified Asian print, electronic and online publishers throughout the United States. NAAP will focus on three areas: (1) market research, (2) matching circulation verification and analysis with the needs of advertisers and (3) developing new leaders in the field of Asian Pacific American publishing.

Recent statistics show that Asian Pacific American buying power is growing proportionally faster than any other group: at $427 billion in 2006 and expected to top $622 billion by 2011. Buying power of Asian Pacific Americans is growing three times faster than APA population growth.*

Linguistically and culturally, Asian Americans are primarily an immigrant population but with the highest English literacy rate of any minority group, and among the highest birthrates in America. This means that Asians and Pacific Islanders are retaining their cultural heritage and cultural sensitivities while at the same time functioning and contributing to American society. Studies have shown that most Asians socialize with other Asians, and use English as their preferred language.*

"Asian and Pacific Islander publishers are experiencing major growth all over the country, and we know no limits – from newspapers to magazines to electronic publishing, we are helping to drive the new economy. NAAP welcomes all API publishers and seeks to represent our common goals," said Ted Fang, publisher of AsianWeek.

"It was exciting to witness history in the making as I watched the formation of the National Association of Asian Publishers. I expect this market segment to experience significant growth and look forward to the future success of this worthy organization," said Alan Levy, vice president of marketing and sales for Verified Audit.

* Sources: Kaiser Family Foundation/San Jose Mercury News 2004, Selig Center for Economic Growth, InterTrend Communications, 2006

While most traditional print publications in general market struggle with decreasing circulation, Asian American publications indeed have been growing remarkably. Both marketers and general market publishers should make a note of it.

Presidential Election in Taiwan

I had dinner with my family in a Chinese restaurant tonight. I couldn't help but keep watching the TV. It was all about the presidential election in Taiwan and how people were celebrating on Ma Ying-Jeou's victory. I wasn't alone. Many of the patrons were more interested in the TV than the food.

As usual, I paid more attention on the commercial than the program itself. It was a satellite TV station I was watching. The program was 100% fed directly from Taiwan. The commercials were mixed – some local and some global. How could I tell?

HP's commercial featured their Compaq slim desktop, which is not available in the U.S. McDonld's offered their coffee at 50% off; I don't think we have the same discount here. In couple other commercials, celebrities were holding boxes of CIBA Vision's Focus Dailies written in Chinese.

I suspect these spots were not placed by the US office of the brands, but the office in Taiwan. They most likely were added value. Taiwanese marketers of course would not pay for such placement, but they might think more spots – regardless anywhere – was good for global brands like theirs; and so accepted the added value offer. They forgot the brands had different products, promotional offers and packages around the world. Though the audience does not mind – in fact, they are used to it, it could cause legal issues.

I am not saying overseas marketers should not accept such added value. They just need to be mindful about the creative placed around the world.

Claridge Casino Hotel in Atlantic City

Everyone in the casino industry knows Asian is very important to the business. All the major casinos in the nation – or probably around the world – dedicate specific areas catering to Asian customers, especially the Chinese.

Back in the early 1990's, I was in the team to promote Claridge Casino Hotel in the Chinese market. Claridge was and still is the smallest casino in Atlantic City. It was among the last players to make effort to target the Chinese.

The management team at Claridge was the type that agencies would love to work with. Though the budget was relatively small SOV-wise, the executives were very open-minded and most important of all, they believed in us. We had their full support.

As a result, not only we developed a major integrated marketing campaign to re-brand Claridge, we also convinced the casino to change its "product". We worked with the management to change the casino floor layout, recruit Chinese hosts, add Asian dishes to the restaurant menu, host first-time-ever Chinese talk show, and more. The Chinese American marketing initiative was very successful. We had so much fun… and many sleepless nights. Some of my clients now even become my close friends.

Ever since Claridge was acquired by Bally's years ago, things changed. Claridge no longer smiled, he became very corporate. I took a tour with my old friend who used to be one of the executives at Claridge. It was depressing. There were not many customers. Almost everything was closed. We couldn't even find a restaurant for a drink. Then, we went to the basement. There we found a group of Chinese playing Baccarat in the Asian Pavilion… and the Chinese noodle bar that both of us worked hard to set up.

It was sad to see where Claridge is heading. But I must say I was so proud – and so do my friend – that what we built still stays at Claridge. We must have done something right to make the new management keep the section.

And I am telling you: Chinese are big gamblers. They play even when the casino has nothing, but the tables and noodle bar.

Asian Languages

Here is an old story. Unfortunately, it still happens a lot.

A company asked me to translate a brochure into 5 languages. Which five? Whatever their current customer speak the most.

So, I reviewed their customer profile. There was no language information. Why? They thought it was legal issue. In fact, although the law says you can't ask people ethnicity background, it doesn't say you can't ask your customers their preferred communication languages.

How about the diversity survey the company had done some time ago? That should help. Let's see. Here was the customer ethnicity breakdown: x% African American, y% Hispanic and z% Asian American. Sir, please note that while all Hispanics speak Spanish, Asians speak a million different languages.

Could we review the customer's last name? Sure, but there were tens of thousands of customers.

Final solution: Review where the Asian American customers are. Compare it to Asian subgroup population. Then, make an intelligent guess.

There is another easy alternative: Just pick the top foreign languages Asian American depend the most – Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese. FYI, most South Asian, Filipino and Japanese speak English well.

Start Over Again

I started this blog anonymously two years ago. Back then, I was working for an Asian advertising agency full time. I had to be careful what I said. It wasn't easy. So, I stopped.
Now, I am working for general market. No conflict of interest. I think I can pick up again. But this time, I will proudly be who I am.