Daily Archives: May 1, 2008

APA Month Day 1 – YouTube co-founder Steve Chen

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May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, so every day this month we’ll try to profile Asian Americans and Asian American videos on the ‘Net.

The first person we are profiling is Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube. According to ComScore for Janaury 2008, 78.5 million viewers watched 3.25 billion videos on YouTube.com (41.4 videos per viewer). YouTube.com also accounted for one-third of the 9.8 billion videos viewed online in the U.S. during the month. You can also watch Steve Chen’s channel.

Steve Chen is Chief Technology Officer of YouTube and co-founded the company in 2005 after he and Chad Hurley resolved to provide a more simple way to share videos online. Steve has been instrumental in building YouTube into a viral video phenomenon and helped lead YouTube through the Google acquisition for $1.65 billion less than a year after launching the site.

As the company’s key technologist, Steve is credited with developing the company’s massive data centers and helping build YouTube into a premier entertainment destination and one of the most popular Web sites on the Internet today. He oversees all areas of both engineering and product development, including managing site operations, and developing features and services that are compelling and easy to use for everyone.

Before YouTube, Steve was one of the first product engineers at PayPal. He led development efforts and served as an engineering manager on a variety of critical projects. Steve studied computer science at the University of Illinois.

Here’s a video message from co-founders Steve Chen and Chan Hurley after Google ‘s acquisition of YouTube for $1.65 billion:

Learn more about Steve from the 2007 Committee of 100 Panel: Personal Journey with Steve Chen (Part 1 of 6):

Personal Journey with Steve Chen (Part 2 of 6):

Personal Journey with Steve Chen (Part 3 of 6):

Personal Journey with Steve Chen (Part 4 of 6):

Personal Journey with Steve Chen (Part 5 of 6):

Personal Journey with Steve Chen (Part 6 of 6):

Hollywood Chinese

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Hollywood Chinese is a captivating revelation on a little-known chapter of cinema: the Chinese in American feature films. From the first Chinese American film produced in 1916 (Oakland filmmaker Marion Wong’s THE CURSE OF QUON GWON) to Ang Lee’s BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN nine decades later, HOLLYWOOD CHINESE brings together a fascinating portrait of actors, directors, writers, and iconic images (including Ang Lee, Wayne Wang, Joan Chen, David Henry Hwang, Justin Lin, B.D. Wong, Nancy Kwan, Tsai Chin, Lisa Lu, James Hong, and Amy Tan) to show how the Chinese have been imagined in movies, and how filmmakers have and continue to navigate an industry that was often ignorant about race, but at times paradoxically receptive.

Watch the trailer for Hollywood Chinese:

Watch a clip of Joan Chen from Hollywood Chinese:

Hollywood Chinese is ending it’s run in San Francisco today at the 4 Star Theatre. Catch this while you can. Next up for the film is New York. You can see the film at the Quad Cinema in NYC and at the Rochester/High Falls International Film Festival. Then off to Southern California May 30-June 5, 2008 at the Laemmle’s Music Hall in Los Angeles/Beverly Hills and Laemmle One Colorado in Pasadena.

If you like this film also, check out Slanted Screen.

Ping Pong Playa

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This is a hilarious Asian American comedy. Props to Jessica Yu and Jimmy Tsai. The C-dub character is awesome. We love the whole relationship that C-dub has with kids. We hope Cherry Sky Films continues to crank out quality Asian American films. If you are in Los Angeles, catch this film on the opening night of the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

Christopher “C-dub” Wang is a suburban guy who sports an urban swagger, waxes political on all things Asian American, and clings to pipe dreams of a career as a pro basketball player. Blaming genetics for his failure to make the NBA, C-dub lives at home, works a dead-end job, and squirms in the shadow of his older brother, Michael, a doctor and ping pong champion.

With a family-run store devoted to all things ping pong and a mom who teaches it at the local Chinese Community Center, the Wangs’ entire world revolves around the sport. But despite the family legacy, C-dub opts to spend his free time playing video games and daydreaming about get-rich quick schemes with his best friend JP Money.

C-dub is kicked back into reality when his mom and Michael are hurt in a car accident, leaving his father to watch over the store and forcing C-dub to take over his mom’s ping pong class of misfits. C-dub starts to appreciate the benefits of ping pong when he starts using the class to make some extra money on the side and befriending one of the kids who happens to have a beautiful older sister.

But when the Wang family livelihood is threatened by a rival ping pong player’s attempts to lure the kids away, C-dub begins to take things more seriously. With the National Golden Cock Tournament coming up and an injured Michael unable to defend his title, C-dub must become the player he pretends to be and defend his family’s ping pong dynasty.

Add C-Dub as your myspace friend.

Here’s some of C-dub’s favorite things:

See an interview with C-dub from Ping Pong Playa:

Asian Excellence Awards on E! tonight

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The 2008 Asian Excellence Awards will air on E! Entertainment Television on May 1 at 6 p.m. ET/PT, 5 p.m. CT and will be available on Comcast on Demand, beginning May 7. Enjoy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with Asian American celebrities. See our previous coverage for the Asian Excellence Awards.

Watch Albert Lim from Fallout Central at the red carpet of the 2008 Asian Excellence Awards