Daily Archives: March 12, 2009

The New Hot Cuisine: Korean

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Korean food is so trendy that the Wall Street Journal is covering it. In New York, you’ve got Momofuku with Korean American chef David Chang (See the video below to make japchae by Youngsun Lee of New York’s Persimmon). In Los Angeles, there’s the Kogi BBQ truck where crowds are lining up for street food from from a Korean taco trucks. You learn the location of the truck only on twitter. (BTW – Chef Roy Choi says Kogi will be in New York by 2010 hopefully.)

The tart Korean fro-yo is covering this nation with the likes of Pinkberry and Red Mango along with a host of many imitators. Survivor winner Yul Kwon owns a few Red Mango shops himself. (Remember when tapioca drinks were the craze!!) Even California Pizza Kitchen is getting in on the trend by developing Korean barbecue beef pizza and testing Korean fried-chicken salad. Check our more at the WSJ article here.

If there’s no Korean restaurant near you, no worries. You can learn to make Japchae at home with Youngsun Lee of New York’s Persimmon (Food Network doesn’t have an Asian American that will how you how to do it.)

2009 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival

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For all the peeps in San Francisco, the 2009 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival kicks off today. channelAPA.com sat down with festival director Chi-hui Yang to learn what’s hot at the film festival.

Watch some film from Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. His latest film is Tokyo Sonata, which is coming soon to theaters. There’s a double feature at the Castro Theater on Friday, March 13, 2009. (That’s two flicks for the price of one in these hard economic times.)

What’s better than cheap is FREE!! Saturday, March 14, 2009 is the return of Festival Forum, a day-long fair of in the Japantown Peace Plaza. The Festival Forum will feature a Japanese-American bluegrass guitarist, a Brazilian drum ensemble, rock bands and breakdancers performing live on stage, and more. Here’s some of the people that will be there: Eth-noh-tec: Asian American Kinetic Story Performance, Jane Lui, Toshio Hirano, Sambasia, Goh Nakamura, Cast of Thousands, MUD, Dance Performance by Hung Dynasty. Of course the winners of the 2nd annual DIY Music Video Contest will have there videos shown there. Finally, a Free Outdoor Screening of Hitoshi Matsumoto’s BIG MAN JAPAN (Dainipponjin, Japan, 2007) at 8pm. Can you believe it all this is FREE? Action takes place from 12:00 – 9:30pm.

Other screenings we recommend are Children of Invention, White on Rice, Dirty Hands, The Forgotten Woman, You Don’t Know Jack: the Jack Soo Story, The Chaser, Is It Worth It? Lemme Work It, Mixtape 4 the MSG Addict. Some are sold out and there’s too many to list. You can learn more and buy tickets here.

2009 Forbes World Billionaires List – Asian edition

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Forbes just released the list of 2009 World Billionaires List. We combed through the list to find the Asian billionaires. Of the top 50 world’s billionaires, only 5 billionaire are Asian. Some of the interesting thing we learned were the way billions are made is pretty diverse. Billionaires on the list made their fortunes from things like Redbull, 7-eleven, Nintendo, Espirit, Kingston Technology and more. Take a look at he list:

#7 Mukesh Ambani

Net Worth:$19.5 bil

Fortune:inherited and growing

Source:petrochemicals

Age:51

Country Of Citizenship:India

Residence:Mumbai

Industry:Manufacturing

Education:University of Bombay, Bachelor of Arts / Science, Stanford University, Drop Out

Marital Status:married, 3 children

Oversees Reliance Industries, India’s most valuable company by market cap despite stock falling 40% in past year. Merging his Reliance Petroleum with flagship Reliance Industries. As part of deal, will exercise right to buy back Chevron’s 5% stake in Reliance Petroleum at $1.20 per share—the same price at which he sold it 3 years ago. Today the stock trades for $1.80 a share. Increased stake in Reliance Industries in October; paid $3.4 billion to convert 120 million preferential warrants into shares. Reliance Petroleum refinery on India’s western coast began operating in December despite falling global demand and declining margins. Late father Dhirubhai founded Reliance and built it into a massive conglomerate. After he died Mukesh and his brother, Anil, ran the family business together for a brief time. But siblings feuded over control; mother eventually brokered split of assets. Brothers may be looking to bury hatchet; played joint hosts at mother’s recent 75th-birthday bash. Has yet to move into his 27-story home that he’s building at a reported cost of $1 billion. Ardent fan of Bollywood films. Wife, Nita, oversees school named after his father.

#8 Lakshmi Mittal

Net Worth:$19.3 bil

Fortune:inherited and growing

Source:steel

Age:58

Country Of Citizenship:India

Residence:London

Industry:Steel

Education:St Xavier’s College Calcutta, Bachelor of Arts / Science,

Marital Status:married, 2 children

Indian immigrant heads world’s largest steel company; ArcelorMittal was formed via hostile takeover 3 years ago. Stock in company makes up bulk of his fortune; shares at a 4-year low with steel prices down 75% since last summer. Company forced to pay heavy fines after a French antitrust investigation found 10 companies guilty of price-fixing in European steel markets. Arcelor posted $2.6 billion loss in most recent quarter; announced plans to slow acquisitions, cut capital expenditures, pay down debt. Started in family steel business in the 1970s, branched out on his own in 1994. Initially bought up steel mills on the cheap in Eastern Europe. Company bought 19.9% stake in Australia’s Macarthur Coal last year. Also owns pieces of Mumbai’s Indiabulls Group, London’s RAB Capital; owns stake in, sits on board of Goldman Sachs. Holds substantial cash; owns 12-bedroom mansion in London’s posh Kensington neighborhood.

#16 Li Ka-shing

Net Worth:$16.2 bil

Fortune:self made

Source:diversified

Age:80

Country Of Citizenship:Hong Kong

Residence:Hong Kong

Industry:Diversified

Education:High School, Drop Out,

Marital Status:widowed, 2 children

“Superman’s” net worth is down $10 billion in the past year as stock of his publicly traded conglomerates Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa tumbled. The 2 companies are about to start construction on a property project in Shanghai. HW’s retail group plans to open 120 stores in China in 2009. Through the 2 companies, Li is world’s largest operator of container terminals, world’s largest health and beauty retailer by number of outlets, a major supplier of electricity to Hong Kong and a real estate developer. His second-largest holding: Canadian oil firm Husky Energy, which cut spending by almost a third for 2009. Charitable foundation recently raised $510 million by selling 40% of its stake in Bank of China. Avid golfer plays almost every day; reportedly sank his 15th hole-in-one in September. Poor immigrant sold plastic flowers in Hong Kong in the 1950s. Eldest son, Victor, helps him run businesses; son Richard struck out on his own in early 1990s and is a billionaire in his own right.

#32 Kwok family

Net Worth:$10.5 bil

Fortune:inherited

Source:real estate

Age:NA

Country Of Citizenship:Hong Kong

Residence:Hong Kong

Industry:Real Estate

Education:NA,

Marital Status:NA,

Family behind one of Hong Kong’s most storied real estate firms was thrown into tumult even before property prices tumbled. Eldest brother Walter stepped down from 18-year chairmanship of Sun Hung Kai Properties last May after disputing with his 2 younger siblings, Raymond and Thomas. Mother Kwong Siu-hing, 80, took over as chairman. Stock down 50% in past year. Firm still pushing ahead: opened a W hotel in Hong Kong in January and has plans to open another in Shanghai by 2010. In late-February sold 150 luxury apartments in its Kowloon residential development, generating $450 million in revenue. Family also owns interests in telecom SmarTone-Vodafone and city bus operator KMB.

#43 Lee Shau Kee

Net Worth:$9.0 bil

Fortune:self made

Source:real estate

Age:81

Country Of Citizenship:Hong Kong

Residence:Hong Kong

Industry:Real Estate

Education:NA,

Marital Status:divorced, 5 children

“Stock God of Asia” is proving mortal. His biggest holding, Henderson Land Development, lost more than half its value in past year. Lee has been engaged in property development in Hong Kong for more than 5 decades. Chairman of Henderson since 1976, also chairs the Hong Kong and China Gas abd Miramar Hotel and Investment; vice chairman of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited and director of Hong Kong Ferry (Holdings) and The Bank of East Asia. Donated $16 million for a library at Shanghai’s Fudan University.

Others on the list:

#59 Sunil Mittal & family (India)

#62 Ananda Krishnan (Malaysia)

#62 Robert Kuok (Malaysia)

#76 Tadashi Yanai & family (Japan)

#83 Azim Premji (India)

#86 Shashi & Ravi Ruia (India)

#87 Ng Teng Fong & family (Singapore)

#87 Patrick Soon-Shiong (USA)

#93 Kunio Busujima & family (Japan)

#98 Kushal Pal Singh (India)

#110 Hiroshi Yamauchi (Japan) – This guy owns Nintendo

#124 Kumar Birla (India)

#124 Akira Mori & family (Japan)

#132 Cheng Yu-tung (Hong Kong)

#132 Joseph Lau (Hong Kong)

#151 Eitaro Itoyama (Japan)

#151 Masayoshi Son (Japan) – remember his name from the dot-com days

#151 Chaleo Yoovidhya (Thailand) – This guy owns Redbull (yes, the energy drink)

#164 Nobutada Saji & family (Japan) – This family own Suntory (their drinks are everywhere)

#178 Hiroshi Mikitani (Japan)- this guys owns Rakuten (that’s the Amazon of Asia)

#183 Adi Godrej & family (India)

#183 Tsai Wan-Tsai & family (Taiwan)

#205 Lee Kun-Hee (Korea) – this guy owns Samsung

#205 Liu Yongxing (China)

#205 Dilip Shanghvi (India)

#234 Savitri Jindal (India) – one of the few females on the list

#234 Lee Shin Cheng (Malaysia)

#234 Henry Sy & family (Philippines)

#234 Zhang Jindong (China)

#246 Malvinder & Shivinder Singh (India)

#246 Tsai Eng Meng (Taiwan)

#246 Peter Woo & family (Hong Kong)

#246 Zhou Chengjian & family (China)

#261 Liu Yonghao (China)

#261 David Sun (USA) – this guys started Kingston Technology (computer memory)

#261 Takemitsu Takizaki (Japan)

#261 Teh Hong Piow (Malaysia)

#261 John Tu (USA) – the other guy that started Kingston Technology

#296 Yang Huiyan (China) – she’s only 27 and the richest female in China

#305 Masatoshi Ito (Japan) – this guy owns 7-Eleven stores

#305 Michael Ying (Hong Kong) – this guy made his fortune off Esprit clothes and married actress Brigitte Lin

#318 Masahiro Miki (Japan)

#318 G M Rao (India)

#318 Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi (Thailand) – this guy owns Chang Beer

#334 Terry Gou (Taiwan) – this guys company assembles Apple iPods, iPhones; Nokia cell phones, Nintendo Wii systems (that’s a lot of electronics)

#334 Micky Jagtiani (India)

#334 Shen Wenrong (China)

#376 Quek Leng Chan (Malaysia)

#376 Wee Cho Yaw & family (Singapore)

#376 Zong Qinghou (China) – this guy owns beverage maker Wahaha

#397 Gautam Adani (India)

#397 Chen Din Hwa (Hong Kong)

#397 He Xiangjian & family (China)

#397 Indu Jain (India)

#397 Yeoh Tiong Lay & family (Singapore)



2009 Forbes World Billionaires List

2nd annual DIY Music Video Contest winners

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The 2nd Annual DO IT YOURSELF Music Video Contest winners were announced today for the People’s Choice Award and Jury Prize. Drum roll please!!!!!

PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD – CARELESS

MUSICIAN – MUD

DIRECTOR – MATTHEW ABAYA

JURY PRIZE WINNER – HOLDIN’ UP THE WALL

MUSICIAN – DENIZEN KANE

DIRECTOR – JASON MATEO

You can also catch the music videos at the Music Video Asia program at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival 2009 Festival Forum on MARCH 14th, 2009 at 7:20pm! see all the music videos that competed the the honors here.