UCLA HAS A NICE PARTY
Asia Pacific Arts launch party attracts the famous and soon-to-be-famous

By Sara Stokoe, APA Managing Editor

Excitement was in the air April 29th at the UCLA Faculty Center as the staff of the new Asia Pacific Arts Online Magazine and distinguished guests commensurated the successful launch of the new publication.

APA is the only West Coast online magazine devoted entirely to the arts, entertainment, and culture of the Asia-Pacific region. This bi-weekly has been created in attempts to provide media professionals, government public-officials, professors, students, and all those interested in the Asia Pacific arts with a reliable, fresh and provocative source from which to gain insight into the entertainment world of the region.

Beneath the surface of the magazine, however, lies a deeper and more overarching goal: to create a bridge over the Pacific, bringing cultures together in an ever increasingly globalized world. The two regions are only separated by a body of water and yet many American’s know little about what is occurring in the Asian region, or in the Asian American communities of the United States.

The launch party actually served as physical testament to the fact that the publication will bring cultures together, as many public officials from different areas of the world were present. Among them: the Consul General of Australia John Olson, Deputy Consul General of South Korea Byung Ho Kim, Consul General of Sri Lanka and famed entrepreneur and prominent “Committee of 100” leader Gareth Chang. Well representing UCLA were Communication Studies Chair Neil Malamuth, Murphy Hall official Judy Stangler and UCLA Vice Chancellor Michael Eicher, who has offered tremendous encouragement and valuable advice to the student entrepreneurs of APA

The festivities began at 5 pm in the beautiful Sequoia Room of the UCLA Faculty Center, where an elegant array of Asian hors d’oeuvers, cheeses and fine wines were served. From the beginning the room was bustling with nicely dressed guests, students and staff who were eager to enjoy the free food and wine, which made the atmosphere quite jovial.

The presentation began shortly after 6 pm with a brief introduction by Professor Plate. He is the founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network and the creator of APA, as well as an internationally syndicated columnist. He told a few bad jokes, as usual, introduced noteworthy guests, and rightly praised the students who form the staff of APA highly before allowing them to take over the presentation.

Managing Editor Chetna Purohit acted as the co-host of the evening with Professor Plate and carried out a lively Q&A session with two of the top staff members of the magazine: Executive Editor Gloria Franke, and Digital Issues Platform Editor Angela Kang. This served to give everyone an introduction to the magazine, and more insight about the staff does on a weekly basis. It was informative as well as sometimes hilarious --- as when Chetna asked Gloria how a “white-girl” can possibly succeed as editor of an Asian magazine! Gloria fielded this hot one with her trademark good humor and grace.

After the interview, Craig Kirk, APA’s talented web designer and developer, gave everyone a virtual tour of the colorful, eye-catching new website, highlighting the addition of the “Hot Topics” section and most prominent stories in this week’s issue. After that brief presentation, the party returned once again towards a more celebratory and relaxed atmosphere. The crowd sat back and enjoyed as they were entertained by four unique performances.

The first performer was the stunningly beautiful actress Gwendolyn Yeo, who graduated from UCLA, has performed with such notable groups as the prestigious East West Players Theater Company in Los Angeles and has appeared in many network TV shows and commercial ads. That night, she gave an incredibly moving performance on the zither – a traditional Chinese instrument many had never heard played live before; but even those who had were seemingly mesmerized by her original composition and her gracious way of playing it. It was not hard for anyone in the audience to believe they were seeing a major talent at her best.

The next performer was stand-up comedian Paul Kim, host of “Asian Invasian,” a comedy show at the Laugh Factory in Hollywood every Saturday night at midnight. He has also been featured in Kollaboration, the largest Korean-American talent show in the west. Much to the surprise and amusement of the crowd, Mr. Kim waltzed proudly into the room in a Super-man costume, supposedly to increase the perception of sexiness of Asian men. His jokes centered on being an Asian American male looking for a woman, and it was received very positively by the crowd. Kim brought the audience to tears with laughter as his jokes approached the borderline of raciness, without ever going too far.
Another terrific talent.

Following Paul Kim was TeeTee Chou, a vocalist who first began performing at UCLA cultural shows for audiences totaling over 1,500 people. She was recently discovered by a Los Angeles producer and successfully released her first EP in San Francisco. During this performance, she brought along Mark Humphreys, a renowned guitarist whom she is currently collaborating with from the Berkeley School of Music. She sang an original song in her somewhat soulful and funky, but not overly-powerful “indie” type of voice. The crowd fell into her groove and began clapping along to the beat of the song. Professor Plate and the rest of the audience was so impressed he demanded an encore, which she gladly gave, and once again the audience clapped along.

The final performer of the evening was Stage Ninjaz, a group of improvizationalist comedians who have been performing together for more than 8 years. By this time the crowd had died off a little, and the energy was beginning to wind down, but the Ninjaz energy made up for it as they bounced around the room in sheer silliness, pretending to fly, have a glass head, and vogue to the music. Watch this group make it big!

This performance concluded the evening around 7:30 pm. The guests who remained made their way around the room, chatting with the performers and saying good-bye to the staff. After the final exchanges of business cards and social networking, the guests left and APA had been formally and successfully launched!

May 8, 2003