American Hiro

American Hiro PDF Author: Jack McCallum
Publisher: Diversion Books
ISBN: 1635767717
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
An in-depth biography of the famed Japanese American restaurateur, his rags to riches story, his determination in business, and his zest for life. “Traveling the world with my father, watching him interact with people, famous and ordinary, observing up close his balls-out sense of adventure, and having a larger-than-life personality to live up to had a profound effect on me and the formation of my character.” —From the foreword by Steve Aoki, Grammy–nominated producer and Billboard Award–winning DJ Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki was a man who succeeded in everything he pursued—from world-class wrestling, ballooning, underwater exploration, and car and boat racing to founding Benihana. Rocky’s passion for life infected all around him and accelerated the exchange of Japanese culture and cuisine with America. His rags to riches story, from dishwasher and busboy to owner of a multi-million-dollar restaurant empire, is a wild American dream realized unlike any other. Running and expanding the business would be all-consuming for most people—not to mention battling the perception of otherness—but Rocky would not be deterred. His determination for the business rivaled the drive he demonstrated in his other interests, some of which almost killed him. American Hiro by Jack McCallum, who had full access to Rocky Aoki and those in his enterprises, provides the only full inside account of one of the most famous symbols of cultural assimilation and capitalistic zeal in modern US history—a champion in business, sports, and life.

American Hiro

American Hiro PDF Author: Jack McCallum
Publisher: Diversion Books
ISBN: 1635767717
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
An in-depth biography of the famed Japanese American restaurateur, his rags to riches story, his determination in business, and his zest for life. “Traveling the world with my father, watching him interact with people, famous and ordinary, observing up close his balls-out sense of adventure, and having a larger-than-life personality to live up to had a profound effect on me and the formation of my character.” —From the foreword by Steve Aoki, Grammy–nominated producer and Billboard Award–winning DJ Hiroaki “Rocky” Aoki was a man who succeeded in everything he pursued—from world-class wrestling, ballooning, underwater exploration, and car and boat racing to founding Benihana. Rocky’s passion for life infected all around him and accelerated the exchange of Japanese culture and cuisine with America. His rags to riches story, from dishwasher and busboy to owner of a multi-million-dollar restaurant empire, is a wild American dream realized unlike any other. Running and expanding the business would be all-consuming for most people—not to mention battling the perception of otherness—but Rocky would not be deterred. His determination for the business rivaled the drive he demonstrated in his other interests, some of which almost killed him. American Hiro by Jack McCallum, who had full access to Rocky Aoki and those in his enterprises, provides the only full inside account of one of the most famous symbols of cultural assimilation and capitalistic zeal in modern US history—a champion in business, sports, and life.

American Political Plays

American Political Plays PDF Author: Allan Havis
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252070006
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
These scripts touch on the issues of the 1990s, including the Gulf War, racial and sexual relations, crises unique to big cities, immigration and multiculturalism, art and censorship, revisionist history, academic freedom, and the transformation of the American presidency. The American play by Suzan-Lori Parks features an Abraham Lincoln impersonator trapped in an outrageous, Beckett-like world, while Naomi Wallace's In the heart of America centers on a Palestinian American from Atlanta who is caught up in the Persian Gulf conflict. Kokoro by Velina Hasu Houston chillingly depicts the stark predicament of a Japanese mother caught between two impossible worlds; Marisol by José Rivera reveals the dark fairytale life of a young Latin woman in a wartorn, apocalyptic New York. The Gift by Allan Havis confronts overwhelming moral ambiguity in the farcical realm of university politics, while Nixon's Nixon by Russell Lees offers an adroit treatment of the fascinating, tortured Nixon/Kissinger relationship. The collection closes with Mac Wellman's 7 Blowjobs, a wicked send-up of the compromise politics that determined the fate of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Asian American Drama

Asian American Drama PDF Author: Brian Nelson
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 9781557833143
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 452

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Book Description
(Applause Books). Includes: Amy Hill: Tokyo Bound ; David Henry Hwang: Bondage ; Velina Hasu Houston: As Sometimes in a Dead Man's Face ; Lane Nishikawa and Victor Talmadge: The Gate of Heaven ; Dwight Okita: The Rainy Season .

But Still Like Air

But Still Like Air PDF Author: Velina Houston
Publisher: Temple University Press
ISBN: 1439906122
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
In this pathbreaking volume, Velina Hasu Houston gathers together eleven plays that speak in the "hybridized, unique American voices of Asian descent -- and often dissent." These writers resist the bigotry that attempts to target them solely as people of color as well as the homogenizing tendencies of a multiculturalism that fails to recognize the varied make-up of Asian America. Anthologized for the first time, these plays testify to the rich complexity of Asian American experience while they also demonstrate the different styles and thematic concerns of the individual playwrights. What are Asian American plays about? Family conflicts, sexuality, social upheaval, betrayal ... the stuff of all drama. Whether the characters are a middle-aged Taiwanese woman who is married to an Irish American and who dreams of opening a Chinese restaurant, a Chinese American female bond trader trying to survive a corporate takeover, or an ABC (American Born Chinese) gay man whose lover has AIDS, their Asian-ness is only a part of their story. As a playwright, Houston is keenly aware of the rigid formulas that often exclude writers of color and women women writers from mainstream theater. But Still, Like air, I'll Rise brings forth vibrant new work that challenges producers and audiences to broaden their expectations, to attend to the unfamiliar voices that expresses the universal and particular vision of Asian American playwrights.

Kokoro (true Heart)

Kokoro (true Heart) PDF Author: Velina Hasu Houston
Publisher: Dramatists Play Service, Inc.
ISBN: 9780822225041
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 60

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Book Description
THE STORY: Yasako, a young Japanese mother, struggles to adapt to the very foreign culture of the United States. Feeling hopeless after discovering her husband's infidelity, Yasako feels that oyako shinju, or parent-child suicide, is her onl

Green Tea Girl in Orange Pekoe Country

Green Tea Girl in Orange Pekoe Country PDF Author: Velina Hasu Houston
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 131251079X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 464

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Book Description
This volume collects eight plays of acclaimed playwright Velina Hasu Houston -among them TEA, KOKORO, and CALLIGRAPHY. Fanciful, surprising, moving, the plays in this book resonate across boundaries of identity, ethnicity and class. With an introduction by director Peggy Shannon.

The Doolittle Irony

The Doolittle Irony PDF Author: Jim Kelly
Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
ISBN: 1642376132
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 552

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Book Description
Japanese-Americans contributed mightily to the U.S. victory in WWII. One young Nisei may even have saved Doolittle’s Raid from disaster. His story was never told, possibly because it would have exposed how unjust the U.S. Government had been to intern 120,000 Japanese-Americans on the flimsy excuse that they could not be trusted to defend America. This book personalizes that chapter of American history. It tells a story of how that young Nisei's situation MIGHT have unfolded. Book Review: "The Doolittle Irony – based on a true story – brings to life a daring 1942 American military operation in Japan, as seen through the eyes of a young Nisei. Author Jim Kelly seamlessly blends his own vivid imagination with his background in US naval intelligence, his historical knowledge of World War II, and his grasp of today’s troublesome debates about immigration and Americans from other lands. While The Doolittle Irony is an entertaining page-turner, it is also serves as a satisfying reminder that no matter how much the world changes, loyalty and love still remain the same." -- Lela Gilbert, author and journalist

An American Journey of Travels and Friendships

An American Journey of Travels and Friendships PDF Author: George William Perkins II
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1532068069
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
The author met a man when he was aged 12 in Symphony Hall in Boston, MA. He met him again at the age of 23 due to a photographic accident in Alaska. He was the World’s Greatest Traveler, Burton Holmes. Holmes asked the author to join him. They became very close friends until Mr. Holmes died about 15 years later. The author learned about using his mind and why the givers not the takers are the happiest people. An open mind really helps all through life. It makes a game out of life and it makes the winning ever so sweet indeed. Short, happy stories are great to make a day brighter.

Transcultural Screenwriting

Transcultural Screenwriting PDF Author: Carmen Sofia Brenes
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443893900
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 199

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Book Description
The world in which we live and work today has created new working conditions where storytellers, screenwriters and filmmakers collaborate with colleagues from other countries and cultures. This involves new challenges regarding the practice of transcultural screenwriting and the study of writing screenplays in a multi-cultural environment. Globalisation and its imperatives have seen the film co-production emerge as a means of sharing production costs and creating stories that reach transnational audiences. Transcultural Screenwriting: Telling Stories for a Global World provides an interdisciplinary approach to the study of screenwriting as a creative process by integrating the fields of film and TV production studies, screenwriting studies, narrative studies, rhetorics, transnational cinema studies, and intercultural communication studies. The book applies the emerging theoretical lens of ‘transcultural studies’ to open new perspectives in the debate around notions of transnationalism, imperialism and globalisation, particularly in the screenwriting context, and to build stronger links across academic disciplines. This volume combines methods for studying, as well as methods for doing. It draws on case studies and testimonials from writers from all over the globe including South America, Europe and Asia. Transcultural Screenwriting: Telling Stories for a Global World is characterised by its scope, broad relevance, and emphasis on key aspects of screenwriting in an international environment.

Reciting America

Reciting America PDF Author: Christopher Douglas
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
ISBN: 9780252026034
Category : America
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
He explores how these novels and other texts confront national discourse and strive, though with inconclusive results, to open America up to new subject positions by offering alternatives to the dominant ideology." "Douglas finds contemporary intellectual and political life, against the backdrop of a mythology enshrined in proclamations, pledges, and public documents, to be impoverished by the pervasive use of cliches, which he identifies as figures of speech that stimulate emotion or action while shortcircuiting reflection. In its extreme cliched form, the American Dream consists of nothing more than advertising slogans and popular culture images; yet these pronouncements retain a powerful hold on the will and imagination of U.S. citizens."