Jeremy Lin Joins the Houston Rockets
The Rockets claimed guard Jeremy Lin on Dec. 11, adding the former Harvard guard by picking up the second year of his non-guaranteed contract. Lin, 23, who had become a popular reserve with his hometown Golden State Warriors last season, was released recently. Lin, 6-3, averaged 2.6 points on 38.9 percent shooting in 29 games as a rookie last season. He averaged 18 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists with Reno of the NBA Development League.
Vietnamese Actor Don Duong Dies at 55
One of Vietnam’s best-known actors, Don Duong — once labeled a traitor by his country’s armed forces — has died of heart failure and a brain hemorrhage at age 55, relatives said. The BBC profiled Don Duong, who appeared in Hollywood films such as the Vietnam war epic “We Were Soldiers” and the refugee drama “Green Dragon.” “We Were Soldiers” depicted the November 1965 battle of Ia Drang — the first major engagement between US troops and the North Vietnamese Army — and “Green Dragon” told the story of Vietnamese refugees housed in camps in the US in the mid-1970s. This prompted Vietnam’s army newspaper to say he had betrayed his country. In 2003, he left Vietnam under pressure for the United States and became a U.S. citizen. The Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People’s Army) daily newspaper called Duong’s actions “unforgivable,” and the “conscience-seller and traitor must be strictly disciplined.” In 2011, after previously denying him a visa, the Vietnamese authorities finally gave him permission to make a return trip to Vietnam. But the visit was delayed and he died before it could take place. Don Duong’s funeral was held in the United States, his brother-in-law told the BBC, and his ashes will be sent back to Vietnam.
New College Strategy: Don’t Check ‘Asian’
The idea is to get an edge at elite schools, where Asian Americans are perceptibly held to higher admissions standards than applicants from other ethnic groups. If standing out from the crowd means keeping quiet about being Asian, a lot of applicants are apparently leaving that check box blank. For years, many Asian Americans have been convinced that it’s harder for them to gain admission to the nation’s top colleges. Studies show that Asian Americans meet these colleges’ admissions standards far out of proportion to their 6 percent representation in the U.S. population, and that they often need test scores hundreds of points higher than applicants from other ethnic groups to have an equal chance of admission.
According to the Associated Press report, critics say these numbers, along with the fact that some top colleges with race-blind admissions have double the Asian percentage of Ivy League schools, prove the existence of discrimination. The way it works, the critics believe, is that Asian Americans are evaluated not as individuals, but against the thousands of other ultra-achieving Asians who are stereotyped as boring academic robots. Now, an unknown number of students are responding to this concern by declining to identify themselves as Asian on their applications. For those with only one Asian parent, whose names don’t give away their heritage, that decision can be relatively easy. Harder are the questions that it raises: What’s behind the admissions difficulties? What, exactly, is an Asian American — and is being one a choice?
