Harold “John Cho” Escapes From Cinematic Barriers

July 28, 2014 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

by ELLIOT.CHAN on Jul 19, 2014
Formerly published on Ricepapermagazine.ca

Asian actors in Hollywood are often marginalized—appearing on screen as the nerdy sidekick, the straight lace academic, or the unappealing best friend. When they are casted as leads, they are commonly playing goofy-ball characters (Ken Jeong) or action heroes (Jackie Chan) and rarely do we see them in the foreground.

Ask yourself: When was the last time you saw a legitimate Asian male actor appearing on a poster or a billboard, promoting their film? Almost never. Because such a case almost never happens. While the Ryan Goslings and the Joseph Gordon-Levitts out there winning the hearts of North America, Asian actors are left holding the scripts in slight disappointment. It’s clear that even in 2014, there is a glass ceiling for such talented performers.

Well, all that is changing now… at least for the moment, thanks to John Cho.

South Korean actor, Cho—famous for his works in the cult-stoner flick Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle and its subsequent sequels and, of course, the rebooted Star Trek movie—is paving the way for young aspiring Asian actors. As more and more casting directors are leaning toward colour-blind casting, Asian actors may never have to do demeaning accents ever again.

“I would call this revolutionary. It’s certainly a personal revolution for me,” said John Cho. “Asians narratively in shows are insignificant. They’re the cop, or the waitress, or whatever it is. You see them in the background. So to be in this position . . . is a bit of a landmark.”

Cho, who began his career in 1996 as a member of LA’s Asian American Theatre organization East West Players, will be co-staring in a new television series entitled Selfie on ABC. The 42-year-old actor will play the romantic lead, Henry, alongside Karen Gillan from Doctor Who.

What do you think about Cho’s new gig? Will the floodgate of work open up for other Asian actors? Or is Cho a token in a discriminating industry?

Will you watch his new show Selfie this fall?

Fact or Friction: Should writers stay within their cultural know-how when it comes to fiction?

July 20, 2014 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

by ELLIOT.CHAN on Jul 2, 2014
Previously published in Ricepaper Magazine.

Fiction writers face many challenges: plots, settings, and lack of coffee. But one specific writing quandary has been puzzling established and emerging writers alike, and there doesn’t seem to be an easy “brew” button to solve it: what is the range of liberties writers have when they dare to construct characters outside of their cultural understanding?

For example: is it kosher for a Caucasian writer to write about an Asian war veteran? Some would say, “Absolutely! It’s just a story,” while others would say, “Absolutely not! It’s not their story to tell.”

In a recent New York Times article, Roxanne Robinson, author of Sparta—a novel set in war-torn Iraq, a place she fictionalizes for her tale—reminds us that the line between fact and fiction, even in creative writing, is not always clear and should be approached with caution, empathy, and research.

Are you a writer? What are your thoughts on this subject?

Read Robinson’s New York Times articleHERE.

Smartphones and dumb phobia

July 17, 2014 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Sooner or later, you’ll have a smartphone

By Elliot Chan, Opinions Editor
Formerly published in The Other Press. July 3, 2014

One in five people currently owns a smartphone on planet Earth. That is quite remarkable, since five years ago I was convinced that I might never get one. I personally didn’t want to be a slave to my phone. But once I felt the sleek design of the iPhone 4 and engaged with the user-friendly interface, I knew that I wasn’t going back. I’m not sure if I’ve gone to the dark side or not, but my life has gotten significantly easier with a smartphone in my life.

Embrace technology. Believe it or not, we’re already slaves to it. We rely on technology for every little thing in our lives, from making a cup of coffee to saving people from traumatic injuries. Technology is the hammer and nails that built our houses, as well as the app that tells us how to get to our friends’ houses. It’s true that hammers can be used maliciously just as the Internet can be, but as long as the number of good uses is greater than the number of bad, we can’t really argue with it.

As mobile devices and wearables get more advanced in our society, it’s important for us to utilize it and learn as much as we can. The sooner we know how to operate it, the better off we’ll be. Technology does not have to be an addiction. Technology can also be a good habit to help you live a better, healthier life.

Have you ever seen a child operate an iPad more proficiently than their parents or grandparents? It’s cute, but that bar is also being raised every day. Soon we’ll be the inept parents and grandparents, unable to update to the next version of iTunes on our Google Glass. We’ll be asking our kids and grandkids to help. While that might seem like the inevitable passing of the torch, I don’t believe our generation will suffer that fate if we continue to progressively learn and use new technology as it comes along.

Sure, it doesn’t make sense for software and Facebook to change every few months for no real immediate purpose, but we shouldn’t judge technological leaps upon their inception. While many designers, engineers, and manufacturers are still working out the kinks for wearables, such as smartwatches and Google Glass, we should be excited for these new innovations—disruptive as they are.

Everyone will have a smartphone one day, because it will become the standard as innovations continue to make strides. If you’ve been resistant to new technology for so long now, you probably won’t be convinced by me, but I’m just saying that the longer you go without it the more handicapped you’ll be should smartphones be imposed on you one day.

In an Email-Overload Work Culture, Nugg Connects Teams More Effectively

July 15, 2014 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Nugg, a workplace collaboration tool based in Vancouver, understands that every morning, consulting, IT, sales, corporate and communication team members across the globe wake up to the smell of coffee and the often tricky task of emptying their email inbox.

Not surprisingly, the increased volume of digital correspondences has made it difficult to track key decisions, relay messages and identify success and failure throughout the course of a disorganized message thread.

It is the standard, but it is far from perfect. Miscommunication or misplaced messages ends up causing impactful errors that waste time, energy and money.

Nugg breaks workplace communication down into four categories: Focus, decide, track and align. This enables team members to mark each significant message as such, helping the whole team collaborate better and succeed long-term.

“A lot of people live in email,” said Tris Hussey, director of customer success at Nugg Solutions Corp., “and we are not going to fight that trend. It’s a really interesting dichotomy, where we know people are looking for tools that will help keep their team on track above the area of having meetings, emails and task managers.”

It is not good enough for Nugg to simply operate on its own; it must work seamlessly with other platforms, not just forwarding emails, but also completing the round trip. If a worker wants to do everything on Gmail, they can, and that’s the beauty of Nugg.

“Teams don’t often communicate their decisions well or quickly,” said Hussey. “They don’t track or connect decisions with goals. And then they never review their decisions. With this first iteration of [Nugg], you can see the decision records and everything you decided in the past on a particular team. There you can go: ‘Oh yeah, that was a bad decision’ or ‘Yeah! That was a great decision, we took a risk and we made it.’ Before that you don’t really have a record of that.”

According to the work by Professor Alex Pentland of MIT Media Lab, truly effective teams have a high level of energy, engagement and exploration. Energy can be the act of discussing, brainstorming or negotiating, while engagement is the reaction to the energy, should it be a nod of comprehension or feedback to what has been said. Finally, exploration is the act of bringing in new external ideas that has yet to be present within the team. Nugg is currently promoting energy and engagement within workplace, while refining the capability to explore within the platform.

Nugg wants teams to focus on the big picture by allowing the whole team to see what is happening above, below and all around them. The transparency of the application is an important aspect in terms of building a free flowing communication highway with the various company goals as clear destinations.

“We believe teams are more than just projects,” said Hussey. “They are bigger than projects. And there are things that people need to talk about that are bigger than what will happen day-to-day. If I have a project today to update the website, that’s just a facet of the entire mission of the company.”

Hussey added, “It’s the idea of capturing information, ideas and progress in a way that isn’t lost in emails or chats. Someone can say something really brilliant in chat, but if you come back to it five hours later, are you going to see it? No. But in Nugg, you’ll see it.”

Warning signs ignored

July 14, 2014July 14, 2014 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Lacklustre earthquake should alert us, not relieve us

By Elliot Chan, Opinions Editor
Formerly published in The Other Press. July 3, 2014

I didn’t crawl under my table during the 6.7-magnitude earthquake near Vancouver Island on April 24. In fact, I didn’t even notice until my social media erupted with comments concerning the swaying of homes and buildings.

I walked away from the situation slightly relieved that the worst that had happened was the reminder that I was spending too much time on the Internet and that I was so unprepared for natural disasters.

But give me a break, it’s hard to think about the collapse of my city when I’ve got so many other immediate things to worry about—that’s right, I’m saying that I’m not the only one who didn’t go under a table or quickly locate the emergency kit. If you did feel the shake, you were probably too busy enjoying the novelty to notice what it was. Preparing for an earthquake is just not a human instinct.

Still I don’t remember a time in my life where I wasn’t anticipating “the Big One,” the name of the megathrust earthquake that was prophesied to hit the Pacific Coast of Canada and the United States in the (very) near future. Images of Japan, Indonesia, and Chile remind me that earthquakes are nothing to joke about. Should it hit with the force predicted, my life would shift, like if I was diagnosed with a terminal illness. At this current state of preparedness, I just hope to survive if the Big One hits.

The earthquake earlier this year was a reminder that our government, our emergency teams, and we citizens are never going to be ready for an earthquake. There is just no such thing as “ready.” There is no saying when it would hit and where you would be. Sure, there are protocols to follow after the incident and there are measures to be taken to mitigate damage, but aside from that it’s a crapshoot. I believe natural disasters occur with the consistency of lottery tickets—you might be lucky enough to survive or you might be less lucky.

Individually, we cannot do much after an earthquake, but together we can pump money into funding that will help us survive in the aftermath. Emergency Management BC currently supplies $6.2 million of funding to “emergency services.” There is no plan to increase the figure since no one can really assess the damage before it occurs. Money is one thing, but having experienced teams prepared is another.

Civilians need to know what to do after the earthquake. What would people downtown do? What would people on the coast of Vancouver Island do? What would people sleeping at home do? What about the people commuting on a highway? The government should go into some length explaining the proper procedures following the quake and the aftershocks.

We need a plan we can all follow, because cluelessness will surely lead to chaos. I am often clueless without my social media—and lord knows I won’t have that after the Big One knocks out my Wi-Fi.

Hiding under the table is one thing, but we need to know what to do once we emerge.

Dialogue of irrationality

July 10, 2014 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Spiritual conversations should not be taboo

By Elliot Chan, Opinions Editor
Previously published in The Other Press. July 3, 2014

I’m getting older in a secular society—or at least one that acts that way. I’m not sure if I’m simply surrounded by intellectuals who deem themselves unreligious, or if those who do have faith don’t wish to speak critically with me about it. I fear that the polarizing attitudes towards religion are causing a lot of built-up tension between us, and that the don’t-ask-don’t-tell approach to our spirituality is causing more prejudice than we would care to admit. While we have become more open-minded with scientific discovery, cultural differences, and sexuality, we are still placing unfair judgement on those who have religious faith.

“I’ve felt it,” is a common reply I receive when I question someone’s religious belief out of curiosity, “you haven’t.” I feel a bit of shame when I get such a response, as if I’ve done something wrong, or I’m simply undeserving of the specifics. Perhaps both are true. Yet more often than not, the response seems to come from a defensive place, as if I doubt their values by questioning their faith. Which also might be true.

If I continue to probe for more details, the conversation becomes more heated and contentious. It becomes an argument. Why is that? Why can’t we have an honest debate about religion today? Why do we still have our feelings hurt?

When I ask questions about religion or about one’s spirituality, it’s not my goal to disprove them. I understand that it’s not a science experiment. It’s pretty clear now that nobody can disprove God.

What I want to find out is why my dear religious friends and families, who I share so many similarities and interest with, cannot see eye-to-eye in this one particular area of life. I want to know why the concept of heaven can bring comfort to one group of people, while the concept of reincarnation can bring comfort to another. I want to know why some religions demand celibacy, while others nurture freewill. Yet when I ask these questions, I’m often met with contempt.

On some occasions, I am welcomed into churches and temples to partake in rituals I know nothing about. I ask those around me what the process is all about, and the answer is usually “just because…” It’s a tradition. And that seems like a valid reason for religions to continue existing. It binds those with faith to a comfortable constant. The real world might be changing, but there is at least this one—albeit irrational—thing that’ll keep them grounded. It’s comforting.

It makes me smile when I see someone truly believe in something. I surely don’t have the same discipline. I’m easily swayed with logic and evidence, with lust and jealousy. That doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. That just mean I’m not religious… or even spiritual.

Here is an example: I want to ask those who have withheld their virginity until marriage how they do it. How do they defy temptation? How do they even exist in this live-for-the-moment society? I want to ask these questions so that I can understand myself. I want to understand my own belief system. I want to be convinced. Yet, all I am at the moment is intrusive.

Avanti Commerce Allows Big Appetite Customers to Order Meals Through Mobile Devices

July 3, 2014 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Merchants are set to enhance their customer service efficiency and practice, and consumers are prepared for a more convenient and satisfying solution to long line-ups. Avanti Commerce sees this new attitude in mobile users and knows that the Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) industry is ready to take the next leap in mobile integration.

Anytime and anywhere, restaurants using the Avanti platform will be able to receive orders and payment from their guests moments before arrival. And guests are now able to have a saved database of favourite customized orders, access to handy all-in-one payment and chances to earn loyalty rewards over time. It’s not just a web interface like Amazon or Ebay—it’s a complete order, pay and fulfillment kind of mobile platform or Real Mobile Commerce.

“Just because you can do something on your mobile phone doesn’t mean it’s helping you with your mobility,” said Jason Strashek, founder and CEO of Avanti Commerce. “It’s supposed to be all about the convenience. It’s supposed to be about ‘I don’t have to wait at home to take a phone call. So why should I be waiting in line inside a store if I can just order something off my phone when I’m walking?’”

Flashback to the ‘80s: It was a time when bank patrons would wait in line patiently to withdraw money, and an age where if you miss the ridiculous bank hours there is simply nothing you can do. Technology changed all that. Online banking, ATM and other convenient solutions changed the culture of banking forever. And Avanti Commerce knows that it’s only a matter of time before consumers demand the same from QSR favourites: Starbucks, McDonald’s, Tim Hortons and Subway.

“A lot of the restaurant industry are laggards, they don’t buy technology unless they have to,” said Strashek. “We saw them get into that area with near field communication and tap and pay. But tapping my credit card is not so different from tapping my phone, so why should venders go and invest so much money in it?”

Customer value and profit margin are two important aspects that dining companies take into consideration when purchasing new technology. What Avanti Commerce is going to add is the immediacy of fulfillment (measured in minutes) and options in priced and not-priced modifications (shaken, extra hot, etc.).

“Take your loyal customers and offer them a VIP service,” said Strashek, “that is basically like will call. Come in. Come out. You got your product. You’re gone. And [the restaurant] rewards you.”

Long lineups are always a challenge for employees and an annoyance for customers. While some companies demand that workers serve their guest faster, others believe that quality is still paramount. Regardless of the restaurant’s work ethics, Avanti Commerce believes that gradual steps away from the point-of-sales culture needs to be made.

The appetite is there for an alternative that works—fast. In July 2014, selected Subway restaurants will be teaming up with Avanti to bring customers the ultimate mobile service and satisfaction.

It’s as simple as it sounds. Log on. Order. Save. Pick up. And do it all over again when you’re hungry. Technology has changed banking, public parking and communication forever, now it’s time to see what it can do to the way we order lunch.

An Exclusive Interview with Doretta Lau, Nancy Lee, Kevin Chong, and Tom Cho

June 30, 2014June 30, 2014 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Originally published in Ricepaper Magazine

True or False:

1) Doretta Lau used to volunteer with Ricepaper Magazine.

2) Nancy Lee spent four months in France as a writer-in-residence.

3) Kevin Chong has a great attention span.

4) Tom Cho’s favourite movie is Dirty Dancing.

Curious to know the answers? Find out in the latest interview with those four first-class authors.

On May 30, 2014, Doretta Lau, Nancy Lee, Kevin Chong, and Tom Cho gathered in front of a packed room at Pulpfiction Books (2422 Main Street, Vancouver) to read from their latest publication. From tax complications to threats of a nuclear apocalypse, the stories showcased the range of artistry and the calibre of writing from four of Ricepaper’s dearest friends.

Farm At Hand is the Modern, Technological Solution to Traditional, Antiquated Farm Organization

June 26, 2014 / Elliot Chan / 1 Comment

There is a common misconception about farmers that Farm At Hand cofounder Kim Keller wants to wipe out.

“[Farmers] are just people like everyone else,” said Keller, who grew up on a 12,000-acre farm in Saskatchewan and continues to farm to this day. “They use their phones for banking, news, Facebook and Twitter. They are on all of that everyday, because they obviously have lives outside of farming.”

Farm At Hand sprouted from the idea that farmers needed a new solution for managing their inventory, field activities, calendar, deliveries, contracts, equipment and storage. But the problem was that there wasn’t anything out there. So the farmers resulted to the primitive solution: pen and paper.

“On the farm each piece of equipment will have a notebook where the person operating it will have to write everything down,” Keller explains the complications that farmers deal with. “Chances are they didn’t write it down, or if they did write it down it doesn’t make any sense to the person who actually has to read it. Notebooks get lost, get covered in water, coffee, whatever. It’s a matter of not having information for record keeping and it ends up costing a lot of money in mistakes.”

The goal for Farm At Hand is to streamline the management process by creating a single point of data entry for the famers and a single point of access for agriculture businesses. Whether the farmers are tracking the growth of a potato or the pesticide spray in an acre of crop, the optimal results can only be reached when the work is communicated and tracked effectively.

“We have a lot of record keeping and data that comes into the program,” said Himanshu Singh, co-founder of Farm At Hand, “but actually turning it around and supplying summary of the data, providing summarized report of the end of seeding and things like that is what makes the application valuable.”

“When farming operations gets large with so many different people around, farmers need to make sure that task are completed,” added Singh. “[Farm At Hand] is just a better way of visualizing that information.”

Farming jobs change depending on the seasons and so does the way farmers use Farm At Hand features. During the growing season, the field planting and spraying features are used predominantly. Then as farmers approach the harvest season in the fall, they begin to use the storage features. In the winter, the equipment, contracts and sales features are used. Farm At Hand is built with farmer’s various workloads in mind, understanding that at any given time of the year certain jobs will shift and so must the usage of the application.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations by 2050 farmers are required to produce twice as much food to feed a growing population. It might seem like a long time from now, but the day is fast approaching. While more farmlands and farmers may seem like a plausible answer in the next 35 years, Farm At Hand believes that the real solution is in managing and organizing the system we already have for increased efficiency.

“I’m not sure if things are changing quickly,” said Keller, “or if people realize how important their food source is now, but agriculture is earning a lot of interest and farmers know they need something better.”

The Impact of Smartphones and Social Media on Our Ability to Make and Keep Plans

June 18, 2014June 18, 2014 / Elliot Chan / Leave a comment

Initial planning or planning ahead means nothing anymore. Scheduling events and then adjusting them as the date approaches have always been common, but it has become so convenient that all the communication leading up to the big date does not even really matter. With a click of a button—without an excuse or a doctor’s note—we can bail thanks to the flexibility liberated by technology and the flakiness of the new generation.

My expectations, when I make plans, have changed significantly since I started using Facebook. I was a latecomer to the social networking platform; I was going through this phase where I didn’t want to “conform” with those simply interested in a new fad. Who knew at the time that Facebook would become such a significant part of my life?

What finally got me to sign up was the fact that I felt forgotten. People weren’t inviting me to events because I wasn’t on Facebook. I was left feeling rejected because it was such an inconvenience for others to pick up the phone and tell me the time and place of the event. My friends would be out having fun, while I would be alone, doing whatever I did before Facebook. It was high school all over again.

I gave in. I got Facebook and rejoice. I got invites again.

Flash forward seven years later, now I’m bombarded with invites monthly: My musician friends inviting me to their shows, my semi-close friends inviting me to their birthday parties and even Facebook itself is suggesting events for me to attend. The thrill of receiving an invitation is lost—it feels a bit like spam—and technology began to foster the flakiness of the new generation.

We now live in a world where “Yes” means “Maybe,” “Maybe” means “No” and “No” means “The Hell With You! I’m Way Too Important!” So how can we over come this problem? How do we get people out to our events without sounding like a party-Nazi?

Make Plans For Yourself First, Then Invite People

Just because other people are flaky doesn’t mean you can’t have a good time doing what you want.

Example: You really want to see a band. Well, buy your ticket to the concert first and then let your friends know. Odds are, seeing your commitment will convince them that the event is worth going to and therefore they will purchase their own ticket and meet you there. If not, well, this might just be a great opportunity to meet new people that share the same interest or you can sell your ticket for a fair price.

Flexibility Won’t Please Everybody, So Be Firm

No matter how many times you adjust the schedule, there will always be problems. You cannot please everybody and you’ll be doomed if you try. Give a few options that work for you, and if a few people are left stranded—so be it—there will be other events in the future.

The more you reschedule the more you’ll test people’s already limited patience and the less likely anybody will show up at all. Be firm!

Assign Responsibility So Attendees Feel Needed

Whether it’s with friends, families or colleagues, getting together for an event should be teamwork. You can instantly weed out the flakers from those who are reliable by assigning certain tasks to people.

Generally speaking, people like lending a hand, and they’re more likely to show up when they are feeling needed and their presence really matters.

Avoid Breaking Plans You’ve Made Yourself

Events are something people look forward to, so if you need to cancel for whatever reason, do so as soon as possible. The least you can do is allow your friends to salvage their day. But know that every time you cancel or bail on a plan you made yourself, you become less credible in the eyes of your guests.

They will see your flakiness and mirror it, and that might be the root of all the problems.