Introducing Henry Cho

Henry Cho (not Henry Chow) is an Asian American comedian. Raised in Knoxville and going into stand-up comedy in 1986, Henry Cho eventually made way into the American mainstream, winning a Comedy Central special entitled 'Henry Cho: What's That Clickin' Noise?' in 2006.
In 2007, it was announced that he signed a deal with Touchstone Pictures and American Broadcasting Company to write, produce, and star in a television situation comedy series centered around Korean Americans living in the South.

Cho's an interesting phenomenon. He's what we call a cognitive dissonance,an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The "ideas" or "cognitions" in question may include attitudes and beliefs, the awareness of one's behavior, and facts. We see one thing; but we hear another. What to make? Henry's an important cultural symbol for North Americans.

New Voices Project

A project started by University of British Columbia students in Vancouver, the New Voices Project is a student-initiated, non-profit community project that is aimed to publish an anthology of literary and artistic works by self-identified Chinese-Canadians. The purpose of this project is to give voice to new Chinese-Canadians currently living in the Lower Mainland. The idea for this project grew out of a discussion between several Chinese-Canadian university students from UBC on the politics behind the representation of Asians in mainstream North American culture. Realizing that the so-called “Chinese-Canadian community” is actually a very limited representation, the project is about challenges the “railway narrative”, originating from previous generations of Chinese who came to Canada up to 150 years ago to escape poverty and political plights, and continuing on Chinese who descended from these pioneers.

ACWW Neighbours Go Down In Flames

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The Mount Pleasant Area has been home to ACWW's Ricepaper Magazine for many years now. It's been the heart of the artist community in Vancouver, the hub of magazine production in Vancouver, the soul of one of trendiest community in North America. But alas, two recent fires have destroyed the homes of our two closest neighbours in the area of Main and Broadway. A three-alarm fire on Christmas Day engulfed several stores, restaurants and artist spaces at the Kingsway-and-Broadway hipster hub of Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.

Among the East Broadway businesses destroyed were two Chinese restaurants — the New Maple Wonton House and the King and I Restaurant — plus a new Mexican restaurant, a health-food store, a pizza outlet, a martial-arts operation and a medicinal cannabis storefront. Disturbingly, the fire came just six weeks after another fire one block away destroyed several cafés and restaurants, including the popular Slickety Jim’s Chat ’N’ Chew. Artist studios such as Carrie Walker's have been destroyed as a result of the fire. The Main and Broadway intersection is one of the hottest neighbourhood in the city now, demanding inordinate amount of real estate speculation.

The two recent fires leaves us in an uneasy about the fate of the gentrifications of the neighbourhood. The fate of Vancouver's arts community is at a crossroads. Let's hope and wait that better news is to come our way.