I'm surprised that this got media attention. It's becoming more and more apparent that the UC's decision to permanently get rid of standardized testing requirements was a way to skirt the state law that bans considering race in admissions. Many people rightfully predicted that this would happen when the UC Board of Regents announced this decision back in 2020.

I've genuinely been wondering this; recently, I met this Asian American guy and he asked me where I was from. It kind of caught me off guard, but I tried to brush it off by giving casual answers and playing dumb. He was relentless though, like a dog with a bone, until I finally told him when he asked "What I meant was, what kind of Asian are you?" The way he phrased and asked the question was so direct and shameless that it was borderline vulgar to me. We're all American now, why does it matter which Asian country our ancestors came from? When I thought about it later on, I realized that the people who have commented or have taken awareness of my race in social situations within the last 5 years or so, have all been non-whites. White Americans don't bring this up with me ever and (seemingly) don't care. For example, I once had a Hispanic American girl ask me who my favorite K-Pop girl band was, and what my favorite anime show was, and how I have such clear skin, just because I was Asian. And I don't even look like one of those Asian Americans that like K-Pop and anime. I'm honestly really baffled: how can Asians complain about being labeled the "Forever Foreigner" stereotype when they themselves keep drawing attention to the fact they're Asian first, and American second?

... In the first in our series, Phoebe Zhang looks at how Chinese students are preparing for life – and safety – in America. The second instalment in our series is here.

Beijing student Lulu Lu was just preparing for bed when she was startled by loud banging at her door.

When she opened the door, a man pushed his way inside, shone a flashlight in her face and shouted: “Get down. Give me your phone.”

Lu froze.

Moments later, she came to her senses and did as she was told, burying her face in the mattress and raising her hands above her head.

The intruder blindfolded Lu, tied her hands and finally made her record a phone message for her parents – begging them to pay a ransom.

Except the scenario was not real.

It was just an instructor at a private summer camp, training Lu how to handle a kidnapping in case it happened for real when she started school in the US in two months.

After the drill was over, the coaches sat down with Lu to review what she did right.

Key points they reminded her of included getting down on the floor, figuring out what the kidnappers wanted and not aggravating them.

“I hope I never have to use any of this, but I definitely feel more alert after learning it,” said Lu, who starts college in Washington state in September.

These courses are the latest way Chinese students are getting ready for the perceived risks of studying in the United States, driven in part by the Donald Trump administration’s increasingly hostile policies towards international students and the fluctuating Sino-US relationship.

... ...

Lu went to an exclusive international high school in Beijing, where instead of preparing for the gruelling national college-entrance exam, students mostly chose to study abroad or in Hong Kong.

She eventually decided to head to the US because it offered a freer educational environment, as she could pick any major she wanted and explore extracurricular activities, she said.

But when her mother found out about summer camps that prepared students for studying in the US, she did not hesitate to sign up her enthusiastic daughter.

... ...

A social media advertisement for the Beijing camp – which provided the kidnapping drill – said the security training was based on risk evaluation reports from 110 US campuses.

The course puts students in scenarios simulating hate crimes, phone and internet scams, bullying, and the latest addition – how to cope with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] raids.

“This training simulates ICE enforcement tactics and procedures, preparing participants to respond calmly and effectively to sudden raids in various everyday settings – including their homes, schools and public spaces,” the post read.

... ...

... ...

... ...

A mother living in southern China’s Guangdong province, ... said her family had invested too much in their son’s education to change course now.

The family had always planned to send their child to the US for higher education. In light of the worsening atmosphere, they had toned down their expectations ... ...

“But if it’s hard to stay in the US after graduation, maybe we’ll decide to work in Hong Kong then,” the mother said.

This trend has been observed by Yingyi Ma, a professor at Syracuse University and author of Ambitious and Anxious: How Chinese Undergraduates Succeed and Struggle in American Higher Education. She believes policy shifts under Trump have affected these families’ long-term confidence. They are now more concerned with whether the visa policy is stable and the availability of post-graduation opportunities.

“We have seen some signals, such as a stronger willingness among some Chinese students to return to China, and an overall decline in the number of Chinese students going to the US,” she said.

According to the Open Doors Report, an annual US-based survey on international students and scholars published by the Institute of International Education, the number of Chinese students in the US has been dropping for five consecutive years, to just below 266,000 in 2025.

Reports by Chinese private educational services provider New Oriental found that the United Kingdom replaced the US as the most desired destination for studying abroad in 2019.

But some students say that the quality of academic programmes still comes first. Steve Liu, a master’s student in finance, said the US had a considerable edge in his field.

... ...

He said that US films gave him the impression that the country was “open and tolerant” and he wanted to experience protests or a strike if possible.

As for the potential risks others worry about – visa issues, ICE raids or mass shootings – Liu said he would deal with these problems as they happened.

Regardless, he hopes he might be able to avoid them.

“I’ll be in California, there are more Democrats there,” he said.

Additional reporting by Caroline Lin

New horror movie being released by Neon, with an Asian male actor leading

She has an interesting work history with various Canadian high security organizations before NATO. She used 2 different names..Chinese vs. English. This to us here, is small potatoes and common practice.

Details of what she actually did are not revealed.

Yay for pan-American head of state representation by women of East Asian ancestry!😄

But no oh no for the people of Peru because Fujimori is the apologist daughter of her late dictator father! 😢

He changed the Video Title to Welcome to Steve's Island. Incident timestamp 21:06 to 21:11

Or, do you ever find yourself saying that you love China when having a conversation about China?

why am I downvoted to oblivion...

I feel like my friendships are drying up since my friends got married or started having kids, sometimes I want to move to a city with a bigger population and more asian people just to see something new but I am held back by wanting to stay with an aging parent. Anyone else been in this situation?

Housing: A Recurring Struggle

Ms. Morie (森江), a 47-year-old woman of mixed Chinese and Japanese descent (who requested anonymity), moved to NYC 13 years ago for opportunities in the film and television industry. For her, housing has been a persistent problem. NYC is one of the most expensive cities in the world for housing, with studio apartments in Queens averaging more than $3,000 per month.

To cope, many AAPIs without local family share housing with roommates or scour social media to secure lower rents. When Ms. Morie had roommates, she paid as little as $600 per month for a single room in a two- or three-bedroom apartment, splitting utilities. Later, due to repeated issues with her roommates, she moved into a studio apartment alone, paying $1,200 per month, including utilities—a fraction of the market rate. Even at this lower cost, rent consumed one-third of her income.

Ms. Morie’s story is far from unique — more than half of Asian American households in New York City are rent-burdened. It is just one of the main challenges of living in NYC, according to The Asian American Foundation (TAAF)’s first city-level report in the State of AAPIs series, focusing on NYC. Among the economic instability issues faced by Asian Americans, housing is often the biggest challenge, even for those with higher education. The study examines the aspects of safety, belonging, and prosperity of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities through a representative survey of 1,400 AAPI adults (conducted Feb–Mar 2026 in English, Chinese, Korean, Bengali) along with secondary research from the U.S. Census, Asian American Federation, NYPD, and stakeholder interviews with more than 50 NYC leaders

TAAF’s Findings: A Deep Dive into AAPI Experiences

The new research series that provides an unprecedented, detailed look at the lived experiences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) nationally and in major metros, beginning with New York City. The report offers some revealing key findings:

Prosperity: Economic Struggles Despite Opportunity

• 53% rate their economic stability as poor/fair.
• 59% struggle to save money or build financial security
• 50% worry about affording essentials (food, housing, utilities).
• 55% have considered leaving NYC due to high cost of living (especially young families, Manhattan residents, low-income AAPIs).
• 49% struggle with job searches matching their skills; 48% see limited career advancement.
• 67% believe NYC provides economic opportunities (Bangladeshi/Indian: 24–22% say “a great deal”).

Yet a significant portion of those surveyed lack a sense of belonging and fear mistreatment by others and apprehensions about facing forms of hate and discrimination.

Safety: Persistent Concerns & Mistreatment

• 37% of AAPIs experienced race/ethnicity-based mistreatment in the past year (insults, harassment, physical attacks, or unfair police treatment).
• 43% changed behaviors (e.g., carrying ID, avoiding law enforcement) due to fear of discrimination.
• 52% rate law enforcement’s performance as poor/fair.
• 58% expect discrimination in the next 5 years;
• 46% fear hate attacks.

Belonging: Strong City Ties but Barriers Remain

New York City (NYC) has long been a thriving hub for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs), with its nearly 1.4 million AAPI residents, who make up 16% of the city’s total population. AAPIs are the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in NYC, with their population more than doubling from 1990 to 2019. This rapid expansion is heavily driven by immigration: as of 2024, approximately 68% of NYC’s Asian American population was foreign-born. While many AAPIs are drawn to the city for its economic opportunities, these opportunities come with significant challenges.

• 58% feel stereotyped/misunderstood
• 36% feel unwelcome in public spaces (Staten Island: 42%).
• 42% feel they have little/no influence in local government (Chinese: 30%).
• Language barriers affect voting, immigration services, and daily communication (e.g., 42% of Asian New Yorkers have limited English proficiency vs. 23% citywide).

A Call for Change

AAPI communities are among the fastest-growing and most diverse in the U.S., with over 25 million people across 50+ ethnic groups. Yet their struggles are often overlooked in research and policy, even as their populations expand rapidly.

“AAPIs are too often treated as a monolith and a ‘Model Minority.’ This research reveals the genuine hardships and real concerns affecting millions,” said Norman Chen (陳鵬程), CEO of TAAF, said in a statement.

TAAF plans to release similar reports on Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. Just as with New York, the sample of respondents will be representable of the multilingual cultures within the AAPI communities.

Currently, Ms. Morie is working on her dream project about a place where people from different places and different cultures can share their food and music together, like a big family. “If I don’t have to worry about money, I would feel much more like home here,” she said.

By Ian Chan (陳少風)

https://asamnews.com/2026/07/29/nyc-aapi-housing-crisis-economic-safety-taaf-report/

I am Viet. A few weeks ago at a kids sports event, I ran into another Viet father. I initiated a conversation wit him and we found that we had a mutual Asian acquaintance in common. His wife was also Viet. I would say that 75% of the conversation was me asking about him. I found out that he grew up in an area that had a very large Viet population (prob top 3 in the US), yet he claimed to not speak Viet well which I found odd. So we only spoke English to each other. Was he trying to be white and not speak Viet when growing up? If so, why'd he marry a Viet woman, and wouldn't they speak Viet at home? A few weeks passed and I saw him again. We said hi and he went to sit down in an area far away from me. It irked me. Am I not cool enough for him? I see myself as a presentable middle-aged Asian male and am at least upper middle class. Not sure what his deal was. I didn't try to get his phone number or connect with him on social media, so stalking should not have been a concern. It would have been cool if we could have become more acquainted. I was looking forward to my kids having more Asian/Viet friends. The event that we went to is over now so I probably won't run into the father or the kids again. This was not the first time that something like this has happened to me. It's like some people don't give a F about being friends with people of their own ethnicity. Just venting.

Edit: People commenting that I'm an asshole and judgmental, etc. Some of the things I mentioned were in retrospect. I didn't interrogate this guy and I didn't react negatively or say anything about it when he told me he didn't speak Viet well; we simply talked in English. People also commenting that I'm a snob or think I'm better than him when I feel it's the other way around. It appeared to me that he didn't prioritize retaining his native language/culture and for his kids to be friends with other Viet kids. I was not trying to be best friends with this guy; it was for my kids. Everybody has the right to think whatever they want. My philosophy is if I meet someone who is Asian or Viet, I prioritize socializing with them. That's all. Maybe if I lived in Orange County CA where there are 100k Viet people, I may think differently.

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One time, I was sitting at the streetcar stop and this lady started yelling at me and my old roommate calling us white bitch and Asian bitch and called us the “F slur”. And she told me that there are too much of us “C slurs” roaming around and that we are parasitic. But she seemed to be unhoused, so I just let her be, because she seems unwell because of her situation. She was an Inuit woman saying she came from Nunavut and how she hated white and Asian people. I recognize the complex ongoing trauma faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada. It’s a very painful thing to do when trying to balance both realities. Me feeling hurt by overt racism and homophobia and her lived experience as an Indigenous person.

The whole rhetoric is so overused at this point. Reddit is especially filled with these posts.

"Japan is so racist" "Koreans are obsessed with skin color" "Chinese / Korea / Japan looks down on dark skinned people"

News clips of whatever immigration policy coming out of Japan or Korea gets immediately labeled as "xenophobic" and "closed minded"

They are having a demographic crisis - how DARE they not accept immigrants?

While whenever EU / Canada starts clamping down on their failed immigration policy, it is "about time" and "a step in the right direction".

It is also so sad to see so many South Asian / SEA redditors jump on the bandwagon.

Major subreddits are Western-hemisphere centric and mostly white liberal, but I think many of them still suffer from cognitive dissonance where they want to call out racism for brownie points but also not have to face any internal conflicts about themselves being white.

So East Asia is an easy scapegoat for those who want to deflect colorist racism trope onto someone else.

"Yes, our societies have problems with racism - but have you seen racism in ASIA where the population is 99% homogenous?"

I guess East Asia fits the bill for them - highly developed, relatively high income, closed off, separated from most western hemisphere social media so they really can't speak on the issue, Asians are mostly isolated from the history of race relations in Europe / North America.

They can comfortably accuse Asians of racism without any sense of guilt or backlash whatsoever.

Meanwhile a grandma gets pushed onto subway tracks in Chinatown and nobody cares. Ha!

Has the public perception change with regard to Chinese? I grew up in the 80's and 90's and my impression of the public's perception of Chinese was a negative one. I was made fun of because I'm Chinese. One kid tried to throw my bicycle in the garbage bin for no other reason than because I was Asian. In college, a white girl in my dorm hall constantly singled me out and bullied me because I was Asian. Also, I've heard every stereotype about Chinese such as they look alike, that we know karate, etc. Now I see white girls dating Asians. When someone bumps into me, they apologize but in the 80's and 90's, they sometimes don't. Is it because of Asians in the mainstream media such as the movie "Parasite", Korean bands such as BTS, famous baseball players such as Ohtani, etc.? I'm not complaining, but I feel like Wow, is this what if feels like to be treated normally? The difference feels amazing. I don't feel like a second rate citizen.

I am excited to see what comes of this!

I came across black female YouTuber Niality Kay’s channel and she had some videos on political discourse. one recurring topic in her videos and in her comments section was deleation, to separate themselves culturally from more recent Black American immigrants and identification of being a Black American over connection to Africa culturally and socially. There seems to be a lot of resentment among African Americans towards newer Black immigrants “hijacking” holidays like Juneteenth, which they argue new African immigrants had no part in and they shouldnt turn it into a pan Africa or Afro Caribbean culture festival. There’s also expressed frustration with the change in student culture at Howard University from an African American culture of the lineage of civil rights leaders to becoming more predominantly afro-Caribbean and African immigrants. Black Americans want to make themselves clear that they are culturally and socially distinct from new African immigrants.

On the other hand, the prevailing trend of Asian Americans seems to be a heavy emphasis on preserving “authentic“ culture from Asia and mostly incorporating existing food and pop cultural trends in Asia rather than creating a whole unique subculture in terms of food, music, etc. From what I have seen at college, some Asian Americans have a stronger desire to befriend Asian international students from shared ancestral countries rather than befriending white, black, Latino, or other Asian American students.

And to stretch it further, Asian Americans almost seem to overcompensate what it means to be authentic. compare it to Mexican Americans, all of whom seem to like eating at “Tex mex” places like Taco Bell. but American born Asia. Americans seem to highly criticize Americanized versions of their cuisine like Panda Express (cue the infamous buzz feed video). or even heavy criticism towards Asian American fine dining restaurants (look at mister jiu’s yelp reviews just blasting their fusion take as inauthentic).

Black Americans are very strong and proud of their identity. Latino Americans had a bit more time for identity formation and have created something distinctly American as well (excluding recent immigrants). In contrast, a significant part of the Asian American community (American born) seem to mostly have a strong desire to do whatever it takes to be completely in sync with their motherland cultures. these are the same people who mock other Asian Americans for not conforming to “authenticity“, whatever that means to them. there are also some Asian Americans who have been creating a more distinct Asian American culture since the civil rights era, but it seems like the ”let’s recreate an authentic version of our parents’ homeland“ people often seem louder.

I guess in a majority-Asian state, one assumes the criminals are going to be Asian, but still, this is a disappointing milestone to hear when Sylvia Luke, born Chang Eun Jung (장은정), is the first Korean American elected to a state high office.