AsianWeek was a widely circulated publication of Asian American news, across all Asian ethnic groups,^[1] providing coverage of Asian-American issues such as the killing of Vincent Chin, Asian American college admissions, and quotas on Chinese students in competitive San Francisco examination schools. Today, AsianWeek continues to publish national commentaries, Bay Area news, cartoons, commentaries, and cultural features.

Location[link]

AsianWeek headquarters and offices are located in San Francisco's Chinatown, 809 Sacramento Street, San Francisco, California 94108.

History[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

AsianWeek is the largest and longest and established English language newsweekly for Asian Pacific Americans. In 1965, after the Hart-Celler Immigration Act ended over 80 years of race-based exclusion of immigrants from Asia, America for the first time experienced an influx of Asian immigration. As Asian Americans became the fastest growing minority in the U.S. and as they became more settled, they began forming organizations and associations to serve their communities.

Realizing the need to provide a voice for Asian Pacific America, John Fang, founded AsianWeek newspaper in 1979 in San Francisco.^[2] Currently, it has a circulation of over 58,000. AsianWeek continues to be the longest and largest running weekly published from a shared Asian American perspective using the English language to connect and outreach to not only Asians and Asian Americans but to all interested in learning and reading about the Asian American experience.

In 1995, AsianWeek changed its format to full-color and converted itself from an exclusively paid circulation newspaper to a publication consisting of both free distribution and paid subscribers.

AsianWeek newspaper is also involved in a wide array of community activities. Committed to promoting and participating in events that celebrate the diversity the Asian-American community, the publication plays an active role in sponsoring and hosting community events, spreading health awareness on Hepatitis B^[3], and promoting cross-cultural and interracial cooperation with major outdoor events in San Francisco, including the Castro Street Fair, Chinatown Autumn Moon Festival Street Fair, Haight-Ashbury Street Fair and Nihonmachi Street Fair. AsianWeek is also on the planning committee for the Asian Heritage Street Celebration, Northern California Cherry Blossom Festival, and Pistahan Filipino Parade and Festival.

“For the last 28 years, AsianWeek has been the mirror of our community, showing our triumphs and shortcomings, serving as both the face and conscience of Asian America,” said AsianWeek President James Fang. “AsianWeek has acted as a forum in advocating for those Asian Americans who were defenseless and voiceless in the face of an uncaring power. Whether it was in bringing much-needed national and decisive exposure to the killing of Vincent Chin or in demanding justice for Wen Ho Lee and Capt. James Yee, the strength of AsianWeek has been its unequivocal eagerness to support our community.”^[4]

On August 20, 2007, AsianWeek launched a completely redesigned version of their website that is no longer live as of April 2011.^[5]

On January 2, 2009, AsianWeek ceased print publication; nevertheless, it continued to operate online, but has long since gone dark.^[6]

Major sections[link]

Opinion[link]

The Opinion section includes AsianWeek's Letters to the Editor, Emil Guillermo's column "Amok", and a community contributed article, "Voices".

Emil Guillermo has been a journalist for more than 30 years. After ten years in television news, Guillermo became host of NPR's All Things Considered, in 1989. After leaving NPR, Guillermo worked as press secretary and speechwriter for then congressman Norman Mineta. He returned to media as a local television and radio talk show host in Washington, D.C., Sacramento, and San Francisco. As a writer, Guillermo has contributed jokes for Jay Leno's monologues. His written often satirical commentaries have appeared in newspapers throughout the country. His book Amok, a compilation of his AsianWeek columns won the American Book Award in 2000. Guillermo is also the winner of both a California Newspaper Publishers Association Award and a National Inland Press Association Award for his mainstream newspaper work. He has won awards from the Radio-TV News Directors Association, Society of Professional Journalists, the Asian American Journalists Association, and has been nominated for local TV Emmy Awards. A native San Franciscan, Guillermo graduated from Lowell High School and Harvard College.

On Monday, February 4, 2008, AsianWeek launched a new daily blog by award-winning journalist Emil Guillermo. Guillermo is already the most widely read APA columnist, and his new daily commentary will remark on timely and fascinating stories and ideas that affect the broad APA community. The blog is available online at http://amok.asianweek.com/.

“It will be a place readers can get my take on the issues that concern them,” said Guillermo, whose column, “Amok” has appeared in AsianWeek over the last 14 years. “And it will be a place where they can share their ideas with others. Consider it the water cooler for APAs across the country.”

Nation and World[link]

The Nation and World section includes "Washington Journal" authored by columnist Phil Tajitsu Nash. It covers topics that range from the Olympic Torch Protests in San Francisco to national issues that affect the Asian American community.^[7]

Nash is the CEO and co-founder of Nash Interactive. He has provided commentary to BBC World News radio and other news outlets, and served as host of a nationally broadcast weekly public radio program reporting on the U.S. Supreme Court. Nash practiced law in New York and New Jersey, and taught law at Georgetown University Law Center. On behalf of the Japanese American redress movement, he testified before Congress, and served as a strategist, lobbyist, and litigator.

Bay and California[link]

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, AsianWeek dedicates a section to issues and timely news items that are relevant to the Bay Area's Asian American community.

Arts and Entertainment[link]

The Arts and Entertainment section includes "Asian Eats", "AskQ" and "The Yin-Yang with Lisa Lee".

Asian Eats column provides an inside look at the Bay Area's Asian American cuisine. Formerly known as "Picky Eater" the column covers price, environment, customer service, cleanliness, menu selection, and taste of the Bay Area's most popular restaurants.

AsianWeek's AskQ is an advice column to reflect everyday life in Asian Pacific America. It includes readers’ questions and solicited queries. Q is a 30-something urban male who is "happily partnered — a manager by profession, a writer by desire", according to the column.

The "Yin-Yang" column is authored by Lisa Lee, an AsianWeek columnist. According to the AsianWeek website, "she gives a provocative look into the arts and entertainment industry. The Yin-yang Blog brings you up to date with Asian-American celebrity news, gossip and more."

Controversies[link]

Kenneth Eng[link]

AsianWeek was severely criticized for publishing Why I Hate Blacks on February 23, 2007, a column by freelance writer Kenneth Eng. Prior to this incident, AsianWeek published other inflammatory race-themed columns by Eng, including: Proof that Whites Inherently Hate Us^[8] and Why I Hate Asians^[9]. Several Asian-American organizations called for an apology, as well as a repudiation of the columnist and his views, and circulated an online petition to that effect.

AsianWeek's slogan "The Voice of Asian America" combined with freelance writer Kenneth Eng's hateful columns gave some the impression that all Asians are hateful, while others felt that everything published in AsianWeek represented the publisher's views. However, AsianWeek has always stated that its intent was to serve as a forum for all Asian Americans to be heard, and that not all views published represented the publisher. Nevertheless, many criticized AsianWeek for having hired Eng, despite his previous racist writings, and only condemning Eng's anti-black column while ignoring his anti-white and anti-Asian columns.

AsianWeek published a front page apology in its February 28 issue, severed all ties with Eng, held various public forums, and declared that it was reviewing its editorial policy. AsianWeek also published in its March 16 issue of "Voices" an article titled "I'm Afraid and Feel Helpless" ^[10] to tacitly repudiate all of Kenneth Eng's work without making any statements of its own that could add fuel to the fire. Then in late March 2007, AsianWeek quietly made editorial staff changes, evidenced in the masthead of its March 30 issue. Former editor-in-chief Samson Wong’s title became Senior Editorial Consultant ^[11] and Ted Fang, formerly editor-at-large, became Editor and Publisher.

References[link]

External links[link]

United States portal

• Official website
• "AsianWeek's Statement and Apology". Archived from the original on 2007-03-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20070303063856/http://news.asianweek.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=35777980afa2fbc1aa0d041d7342ab08. Retrieved 2007-03-05. 
• "AsianWeek On Notice Eng Was Racist Prior to Recent Column". http://www.beyondchron.org/news/index.php?itemid=4264. Retrieved 2007-03-09. 

Surin Pitsuwan สุรินทร์ พิศสุวรรณ Surin Abdul Halim bin Ismail Pitsuwan سورين عبدالحاليم بن اسماعيل ڤيتسووان
12th Secretary general of ASEAN
Incumbent
Assumed office 1 January 2008
Preceded by	Ong Keng Yong
MP for Nakhon Si Thammarat
Secretary to the Speaker of the House of Representatives
Assistant Secretary to the Minister of Interior
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 1992–1995
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Congressional Fellow to the U.S. Congress
Personal details
Born	(1949-10-28) October 28, 1949 (age 62) Nakhon Si Thammarat, Thailand
Alma mater	Thammasat University and Harvard University
Profession	Diplomat
Religion	Islam
Website	http://www.asean.org/SG.htm

Surin Pitsuwan (Thai: สุรินทร์ พิศสุวรรณ; Malay: Surin Abdul Halim bin Ismail Pitsuwan; ^[1][2] Yawi: سورين عبدالحاليم بن اسماعيل ڤيتسووان; born 28 October 1949) is a longtime Thai politician. He was born in Nakhon Si Thammarat, into an assimilated Thai family of Malay descent.^[3][4]

Early life[link]

Pitsuwan studied at Thammasat University, Thailand. He graduated cum laude from Claremont McKenna College, California, in political science in 1972. From 1977 until 1980, he was a researcher for the Human Rights Studies Program, Thai Studies Institute and the Ford Foundation, Thammasat University, and from 1974 until 1978, he was a fellow of The Rockefeller Fellowship Program, The Rockefeller Foundation, Harvard University and American University, Cairo. Surin Pitsuwan earned a Master of Arts from Harvard University and did research at the American University in Cairo as a scholar of the Institute of Higher Council for Islamic Affairs of Egypt from 1975 until 1977 before returning to Harvard, where he received a Ph.D. in 1982.

Political career[link]

Surin Pitsuwan was elected Member of Parliament from Nakhon Si Thammarat for the first time in 1986 and became Secretary to the Speaker of the House of Representatives the same year. In 1988, he was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Minister of Interior. From 1992 until 1995, he served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs before becoming Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1997, serving in this capacity until 2001. Surin Pitsuwan was Chairman of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum from 1999 until 2000.

In addition to his political career, he taught at Thammasart University and wrote for two English daily newspapers in Bangkok between 1980 and 1992. From 1983 until 1984, Surin Pitsuwan worked in the U.S. Congress as a Congressional Fellow, Congressional Fellowship Program, The Asia Foundation and the American Political Science Association (APSA), while at the same time teaching International Relations at the American University in Washington, D.C. Since 2003, he has been a member of the board of trustees for The Asia Foundation.^[5]

He was Academic Assistant to the Dean of the Faculty of Political Science and later to the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs at Thammasart University from 1985 until 1986. Surin Pitsuwan is a member of the Commission on Human Security, a member of the Advisory Board of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, and a member of the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation.

Surin did not protest the 2006 military coup that overthrew the elected government of Thaksin Shinawatra less than a month before a hotly contested election. This led to speculation that the military government would support Surin to succeed Kofi Annan as the U.N. Secretary-General, replacing Surakiart Sathirathai, the declared candidate of the elected government.^[6] However, the junta ended up not backing Surin.

On June 18, 2007, the Thai cabinet unanimously endorsed the recommendation from the Thai Foreign Ministry for Surin Pitsuwan to be nominated as the Thai candidate to be the next Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). He was confirmed by the ASEAN Foreign Ministers during their 40th annual meeting in Manila in July 2007 and succeeded Ong Keng Yong from Singapore on January 1, 2008.^[7] His term of office is five years. The Economist magazine, commenting that most Secretaries-General are "usually a senior regional official rewarded with the post as the crowning boondoggle in a career of not rocking the boat", states that Pitsuwan is different in that he seeks an activist role in member states.^[8] Surin Pitsuwan is the first ASEAN Secretary-General with significant political background.

References[link]

External links[link]

• PROFILE Surin Pitsuwan: A Bridge between East and West
• Biography
• Video Speech by Pitsuwan
• Insurgency in the south
• Malay-Muslim Insurgency Gaining Ground