My mom is a terrible baker. I mean, I love her and she does do a lot of other things well, but baking was just not one of them. This little fact does not stop her from trying though. Oh, the injustices to baking we had to endure as kids. Mostly they were the Chinese buns (barbecued pork, coconut, red bean paste, etc.) that would not rise, and would turn rock hard when baked. And forget about eating them the day after; my dad would jest, “you could throw them to China and they wouldn’t break…” Then there were the egg tarts with the hard and dense pastry. That mattered very little because as a kid I would eat everything. Growing up in Halifax there was small Chinese population and if you wanted good, authentic Chinese fare, you pretty much had to make it yourself.  This is still something I practice today; I am on a quest to be able to make everything for myself and be able to do it well.

In my latest post on sweetsourbitterspicy, I struggle with making a perfectly flaky, buttery pastry crust; something that has alluded my mom to this day. It was also something that I have always regarded as difficult and forbidding. Naturally it was something I had to confront sooner or later. I went on to use this crust to make a quiche Lorraine. This is classified as a flaky/mealy crust. I was happy with the final product but there is always room for improvement. In the past month I have made many batches of pastry with mixed results. I have never spent this much money on butter in a month. Poaching lobster in butter was a close second. Spare no expense – this did not disuade me from trying again. In this post I am attempting a sweeter pastry crust while building on previous techniques and experiences.

It was my mom’s birthday recently and I have these memories of her making batches of egg tarts for us on our birthdays. Whether the pastry was hard or not, it wasn’t something that mattered a whole lot when I was a kid; I ate it all up regardless and I was happy. In this post, I want to return the sentiment to my mom and wish her a happy birthday with lots of love! Hopefully, my pastry (after many trials) will not be hard and dense. It was only after being exposed to good, flaky egg tarts that I realized how far off the mark my mom was.  Is ignorance bliss?  No, I am glad to know how great egg tarts can be and I want to be able to make them just as well!

蛋撻 (egg tarts)

I tried using a similar flaky/mealy crust I had used for my quiche for the egg tarts but was definitely not happy with them; I needed more butter and try something else for the pastry. In my mind, the perfect egg tart crust is delicate, crispy with layers that flake apart. The mealy crust was just not right. Then I remembered – the last time my mom made egg tarts and she made it using two separate doughs. One of them was composed of flour, water, and eggs. The second dough was shortening/lard mixed with flour. These she referred to as 水粉 (water dough) and 油粉 (fat dough) respectively. The fatty dough was folded within the water based dough like a pocket and then rolled out. She repeated the folding and rolling several times to create layers. It sounds a little bit like a puff pastry. Although hers did not turn out very well, it makes sense if you want to achieve the crispy layers that flake apart when you bite into it. Since the flaky/mealy crust was not to my liking, at least for this application, her recipe is worth investigating.

油粉 (butter dough)

• 100g unsalted butter; cold and cut into 1/2″ cubes
• 75g (2/3 cup) all-purpose flour

Chill the cubed butter in the freezer then sift the flour into a mixing bowl and chill that for about 15 minutes. I have learned that in order to succeed in pastry, you need to keep everything cold and keep the fat from melting. So I take every precaution possible to hedge my bets. After all the ingredients have been chilled, use a pastry cutter, or your finger tips to combine together the butter and flour until you have a course crumbly mixture. I like using my hands and fingers and getting them dirty to get firm grasp of the bowl’s contents.  Stop when the butter is as big as a pea. This shouldn’t take very long. Gather and press the pieces together. Place a piece of plastic wrap on a flat work surface and turn the butter and flour mixture onto it. Wrap the butter dough with the plastic wrap.  Continue to press the pieces together to form a round disk that is approximately 1 inch thick.  Chill the butter dough until it is hardened again (approximately 20-30 minutes).

水粉 (water dough)

• 75g  (2/3 cup) all-purpose flour
• 30g (4 tbsp) confectioner’s sugar
• 20g (1) egg yolk
• 30ml (2 tbsp) water; chilled
• pinch of salt

Sift together the flour, confectioner’s sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl. I added sugar to the dough not only to give it some sweetness but also to caramelize it and produce a crispier layers within the pastry. Chill the flour mixture in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Mix the water and the egg yolk lightly and chill. Combine the wet ingredients with the dry ingredients and mix until all the flour is moistened and a sticky dough is formed. Lightly flour a smooth work surface and turn the dough out onto the floured surface. Knead until you have a smooth dough that is moist to the touch but also does not stick to the work surface. Incorporate more flour or water to get the right consistency of the dough. The the egg yolk should have imparted a rich yellow colour to the dough. Roll out the dough into a square large enough to completely wrap around the butter dough. Remove the butter dough from the freezer and place in the center of the square piece of water dough. Bring each of the four corners of the water dough to the center to seal the butter dough inside of the water dough  Press together any open edges. You do not want the butter to ooze out while you are rolling, so seal it well.  Wrap the pastry in plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 10-15 minutes to rest, chill, and harden again.

When the dough has been properly chilled, roll out the dough into a rectangle that is roughly 12″x18″. Start from the center and pushing outward. Flour the rolling pin and your work surface to keep the dough from sticking to each other. You want to work quick so that the butter does not soften or melt too much. If the butter softens too much, cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it onto a baking sheet and let it chill out in the freezer until the butter firms up again. You want the solid butter in the dough. As the small pieces of butter melt once they hit the hot oven, they create pockets within the dough. As the steam from the butter’s water content tries to escape, it lifts the dough and creates the flakiness and puffiness in the crust. Understanding the science behind a flaky crust is easy, execution on the other hand comes from needed experience. Once you have a rectangular piece of dough, fold the dough into thirds as you would a letter. Wrap this in plastic wrap and return it to the freezer to allow the butter to firm up again and rest. Repeat the rolling and folding of the dough two more times. The next two times fold the dough over into quarters and roll out as before. Do not forget to chill the dough and allow the butter to harden back up between each time it is rolled out and folded. I think this is where my mom’s egg tarts failed. She was too diligent with keeping everything cold. The result being that the layers of butter dough melted and amalgamated with the water dough.

This is a long process so allow yourself plenty of time to do it right. I have learned that you cannot take shortcuts with pastry and still hope to achieve good results. Once you have completed the folding and rolling process to build up the layers of puff pastry, roll it out into a rectangle of a uniform thickness of about 3 millimetres. Using a cookie cutter, (or the top of a glass, or any other rounded objects) press circles out of the rolled dough. Lightly oil the tart tins and press the dough into them.

I found the dough on the bottom and the sides to be fairly thin, while the dough around the top rim is thicker. Use your thumb to press the dough into the corners of the tin and create a thicker rim of dough at the top to the tin. Dock the bottoms of the dough by puncturing the dough with the tines of a fork a few times. This will allow excess steam to escape from the pastry dough as it bakes and so you don’t get a large air pocket in your pastry. It was not a big deal to dock the dough with the mealy pastry but I found that with the puff pastry, air pockets can expand and expel the custard mixture from the tart. It makes a bit of a mess. Repeat with the remaining tin molds and pieces of pastry. Keep the prepared shells in the fridge as you continue working the rest of the dough into the tin molds.

Once all of the tart tins are lined with pastry dough and set in the fridge, you can prepare the custard mixture.

egg custard

For the custard, put the sugar and water in a small sauce pan over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved into a simple syrup. Let the simple syrup cool down a bit before using it. Put the eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk until slightly frothy. Add milk and vanilla and continue to whisk until thoroughly combined. Slowly add the simple syrup to the egg mixture in a gentle stream. Whisk while adding the syrup to temper the egg mixture. Be careful not to cook the egg with the simple syrup. Once all of the syrup has been added, strain the egg mixture through a fine sieve to remove any coagulated bits of egg or shells that may have gotten into the custard mixture. Strain into a measuring cup, or something similar with a lip for easy pouring. This will make filling the tart shells easier. My mom liked to use a tea pot for example. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Place the prepared pastry tins onto a solid baking sheet that will not warp when heated, and carefully pour the egg mixture into each of the pastry shells. Do not overfill the shells. Leave at least a centimeter of space at the top. Bake at 425°F for about 20 minutes, or until the custard is mostly set. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn or overcook. I took mine out when the centers were the slightest bit runny then let them cool. The custard should wobble a bit when you shake the tray. Of course the custard will continue to cook for a bit outside of the oven, but it will set perfectly without overcooking the custard.

I have made a lot of egg tarts in the past few weeks, with varying degrees of success, for this entry - ranging from total failures, passable, to victorious. I am very happy with the taste and feel of this recipe. The pastry developed the individual layers I was looking for, which was very buttery and delightfully crispy. Just look at those layers falling apart! The custard recipe also turned out pretty well. It is eggy and not too sweet, which is exactly how I like it. It was also very soft and smooth. Most of the egg tarts I find in Toronto’s Chinatown are overly sweet and a bit dense for my taste. I have a suspicion that they use at least a little bit of custard powder and water in their tarts to save money. How else can they sell them for fifty cents? While at first I was a bit dismissive of my mom’s method of making egg tarts last Christmas, I have come to realize that she deserves some credit here. While she did not make the best egg tart, she got me started on my explorations displayed in this recipe.  She was the missing link in making good egg tart dough. This missing link was that the fat/butter needs to stay cold and not to let it melt. With all that my mom has taught me over the years, I would like to share what I learned with her. She will be very glad to discover the secret after all these years. On my next visit home, I will personally make these for her and point out where she may have erred. I know that she is always eager to learn new things like this and, with the added insight, she can begin her own explorations.

While I started off by saying my mom is a terrible baker, it is not entirely true anymore. It was probably true twenty-some years ago, but now she makes amazing fluffy cakes. Now my dad eats them without hesitation and without jokes of throwing them all the way to China. With the help of her friends and her own persistence of making it over and over again, she has modified her recipe her friend gave her and made it even better.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe, now go have yourself a culinary adventure!

Po Suen: sweetsourbitterspicy
Banana Times: @bananatimes

There is a sequence late in the first quarter of last Thursday’s game, between the New York Knicks and Miami Heat, that Jeremy Lin will probably remember for the rest of this season–if not his career.

He has the ball at the top of the key, guarded by Mario Chalmers. His teammate, Tyson Chandler, scurries over to sets a pick.

This play, the pick and roll, has been the foundation of the Knicks’ success in the Linsanity era. Lin is so skilled with his decision making, and Chandler so deft at cutting immediate after the pick, that it has become the engine of which the team operates.

Usually, after Chandler sets the pick, Lin will begin his drive, and one of three things will occur: Either Lin gets enough room for an uncontested jumper, Lin gets into the paint, or Chandler will receive a pass with a clear path to the basket.

Not tonight.

Lin begins his drive, but Joel Anthony–Chandler’s defender–jumps out and cuts off the lane. The Knicks reset the play. This time Lin goes left–a direction of which he is averse–but Wade pops over from the weak side to block his path. Lin heads the other way, but LeBron James–a 6’8, 260 pounds player who’s built like a tank but moves like a cheetah–stands in his way. Still undeterred, Lin looks for the pass, but James is so quick, and so explosive, he closes the passing lane before Lin could identify the open teammate.

Completely stuck, Lin tosses a skip pass across the court–essentially giving up that play, at least from his end.

Later in the game, in the 4th quarter, Lin receives another pick from Chandler, another attempt at their bread and butter. Again, LeBron and Chalmers blitzed Lin with a hard double team, but before they could reach him, Lin picks up his dribble–a move that, essentially, concedes a stoppage of attack.

“He’s f***ing scared,” screamed a drunk patron seated a few tables from me inside a sports bar. “Stick to your books!”

As annoyed as I was with that racist idiot, I agreed–albeit to a lesser extent. To me, Lin looked, for the lack of a better word, shook. 

It’s a feeling that I, along with probably many Asian American basketball players, have personally experienced on the basketball court at one point or another. It’s not necessarily a feeling of fear, or acknowledgment of defeat, it’s more feeling surprised, taken aback, shocked.

Like a feeling of, “damn”.

It’s something we usually feel when we play basketball against black players.

As I’ve blogged about before, there is no escaping the fact that black athletes are generally faster and more explosive than other athletes. It’s why the best professional basketball league in the world is 85% black and why the fastest sprinters and jumpers at the Olympics are black.

And in a sport like basketball, superior explosiveness–the ability to jump faster and higher is one key trait–and height makes a huge difference. For me, and probably many Asian basketball players, we’ve all had those moments where we complete a basketball move that usually works well against our peers, but have no effect on a black player. For example, a crossover followed by two hard dribbles will usually distance myself from the defender. Against an athletic black player, I may do the exact same move only to notice he’s still attached to my hip.

And if you don’t play against them regularly–say, if you generally play against your own social circle of friends from similar background–that sudden exposure to superior athleticism will leave you…shook.

I think that’s what happened to Lin. The look on his face is one I recognize. I know I’m not alone in recognizing that look. I know other Asian ballers are nodding. We’ve all been shook.

Basketball journalists could see it (they can’t mention the whole “black players are just so much more athletic it’s unfair” bit, but read between the lines, the undertone is there).

“Lin has probably never faced defense this aggressive, from such great athletes, before in his life,” tweeted Ken Berger from CBS Sports.

“As we were watching the game, we almost wanted to yell ‘Leave him alone, he’s just a boy!’,” wrote Will Leitch of New York Magazine.

Lin admits this, too, in the post-game press conference.

“I can’t remember another game where it was so hard to take dribbles,” Lin said in the post game press conference, after being forced into his worst game of his career, and a deflating Knicks loss.

It is this whole scenario that’s had me saying, from day one, that to truly understand the significance of Lin’s emergence, you have to be an Asian male who plays, or has played, a lot of basketball in America.

You have to experience jumping as hard as you can and still not getting high enough for that rebound, or breaking out every dribble move in your arsenal only to go nowhere because the other guy is just too fast, or realizing “wow, us Asians are just physically inferior when it comes to explosive sports”. You have to have that moment when you feel shook.

You have to go through all of that to understand why almost all of us never thought an Asian player could make it to the NBA without being a giant, because the thought of a Chinese guy making it to the NBA as a guard–a position that requires explosiveness–just seemed too improbable.

My friend Marv and I compared Lin making it to the NBA with Obama becoming President, in that, it was something we (Asian ballers) thought it could never happen.

I thought it was a bit too much to make that comparison publicly, but TIME magazine’s Lin cover story from two weeks ago makes the same case.

With all due respect, but if you’re a White guy, or even an Asian woman, you can’t fully grasp the shock and joy that we Chinese males felt watching Lin (that’s why Jay Caspian Kang said him and his friends have nearly teared up watching Lin play). You don’t truly understand how this was something that was previously thought to be impossible, because, as far as I’m concerned, there isn’t a field, or a hobby, where the rest of you simply could not measure up to the best SOLELY because of your physical traits or genetics. For the most part, whatever you guys wanted to do, there wasn’t a daily reminder that “um, you’re Chinese… it’s kinda impossible”.

We Chinese-American kids who grew up playing basketball everyday, we’ve all had that moment when we felt “shook”, leading to the unspoken agreement among us that ain’t none of us will ever play basketball beyond high school.

Lin eventually felt it too, but it took the world’s greatest athlete at the highest level to do it. And that, in itself, is still something to be proud of.

And no, he will never be as good as LeBron. He won’t even be within 2 levels. LeBron will make Lin feel shook again if he has to guard him (LeBron makes everyone else feel shook too, to be fair).

But the thing I admire most about Lin is he won’t stop trying. Shortly after picking up his dribble in that shook moment. Lin attacked again.

He still played a horrible game, and Miami still destroyed the Knicks (don’t let the close score fool you, that game was never in doubt, Miami outclassed the Knicks in every way), but Lin at least showed that, shook or not, he’s gonna keep driving.

Even if dude can only go right.

Ben Sin: @bencsin
Banana Times: @bananatimes

The word “viral”, according to the dictionary, means “of or relating to virus and disease”. It’s not supposed to be a good word, yet it’s become something of a positive term in the internet age, where viral marketing is a major strategy for billion dollar companies and viral videos can turn a nobody into a star.

In Hong Kong over the past few weeks, however, the word is starting to return to its roots – of something venomous, something ugly. Recently, two videos made its way on the web: The first, of a pregnant Mainland woman crossing the borders to Hong Kong during the last stages of pregnancy in order to lock up permanent residency for her newborn (it’s supposedly become something of a trend for many expecting mothers in the Mainland); the other video shows a Hong Kong man loudly scolding a Mainland woman for eating inside the MTR. These two videos, followed by a recent controversy over Tsim Sha Tsui’s Dolce & Gabbana store discriminating against Hong Kong shoppers in favour of Mainland ones, shone an unwanted light on some Hongkonger’s animosity against Mainlanders.

Just when things couldn’t get uglier, the virus struck again. On January 21 – less than ten days after a thousand plus Hongkongers protested outside Dolce & Gabbana’s store – a video of Kong Qingdong, a professor of Chinese studies at Beijing University, describing Hongkongers as “dogs”, hit the web.

Seemingly every Hongkonger had that video, along with angry, unkind comments, on their Facebook page. Viral, indeed.

Many media outlets described the tension between both sides as “growing”, when in reality, it may have always been there – just that the internet’s viral nature transformed the previously unspoken sentiments into the giant elephant in the room.

Fortunately, not all viral videos induce disdain and bigotry; the majority of viral videos still fall under one premise: silly gags.

A popular video that’s been making the rounds in Hong Kong this month is a fan-made “reaction” video to TVB star Raymond Lam Fung winning the top prize at TVB’s annual JSG Big Ten Music Award. That video splices classic Hong Kong film footage with Lam’s acceptance speech, giving off the impression that some of the biggest film icons in Hong Kong cinema – from Stephen Chow to Andy Lau – are disgusted by Lam’s win.

Lam is the quintessential pretty-boy, bubble-gum pop idol – beloved by young females but induces eyerolls from just about everyone else, and a video poking fun at what is perceived to be an unjustified win has proven extremely popular. A series of spin-off videos, featuring different reactions of disgust from a myriad of fictional and real-life figures – from Jim Carey to Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang to Adolf Hitler – followed, with some of the videos approaching or surpassing a million hits within days.

Sometimes, a video can go viral unintentionally, or for reasons differing from the creator’s intent. During Christmas of 2010, Tsang collaborated with local rapper MC Jin for a pro-government holiday rap video. The video was so unpopular with Hongkongers it became something of a sensation – within 24 hours of the video’s release, it got 4,300 “dislikes” on YouTube and spawned a Facebook hate page. Media coverage followed, and MC Jin had to publicly defend the video.

Although there is no official record, it is largely believed that the very first viral video was a 1996 3D animation of a dancing baby. Since then, the viral phenomenon has grown in correlation with the prevalence of the internet.

Last month, TVB finished broadcasting the controversial show When Heaven Burns. The show was an anomaly for TVB – it was unpopular with mainstream audiences, generating some of the lowest prime time rating in years, yet it had a massive cult following online, often one of the most discussed entertainment topics on Hong Kong and Mainland discussion forums.

It was widely believed that When Heaven Burns’ dark plot (about three men who had to resort to cannibalism after a mountaineering trip gone awry), sophisticated script (there are no traditional good guys and bad guys), and anti-establishment attitudes turned off mainstream audiences, while captivating a new breed of alternative, net-savvy crowd. That the show was supposedly inspired by the Tiananmen Massacre only added fuel to the viral fire – videos and screenshots analysing scenes spread among Hong Kong and Mainland netizens. The buzz grew to a point that Beijing eventually stepped in, banning the show on Chinese televisions with six episodes to go.

No official reason was given for the ban, but most assumed Beijing wanted to put an end to the spread of “the virus”. Viral videos have, effectively, become a new mass medium for the Chinese. It’s unfortunate it’s helping spread hate between Hongkongers and Mainlanders.

Seriously…what the f***?

Ben Sin: @bencsin
Banana Times: @bananatimes

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos was screened at the Reel Asian International Film Festival, which was likely the last time we get to see the Elric brothers in action. As a parting gift, we present to you what we thought were the Top 10 Moments of Fullmetal Alchemist.

Granted that there are many great moments throughout the Fullmetal saga, it was hard to pick only ten. More importantly, this list MOST DEFINITELY CONTAINS SPOILERS.

10. Hohenheim and Father’s origins.

After episodes (and chapters) of wondering why Father has the same face as Honhenheim, we get to see the origins of these two mysterious characters. It turns out that these two timeless figures were once friends, only to have an entire civilization wiped out, due to the greed of a “little one in the flask”. Hohenheim was forced to continue living with the souls of Xerxes citizens trapped inside of him, only to await the birth of his two sons to end it once and for all. The creation of Amestris, the Philosopher’s Stone, and countless wars were spearheaded by a little creature with a collosal God complex.

9. Alphonse sacrifices himself to revive Edward’s lost arm.

Close to the end of the Fullmetal Alchemist story, we are finally awarded with something we’ve been waiting for throughout the entire series – Edward getting his arm back! In desperation, after Ed is immobilized by a rebar impaling his left arm, Alphonse utilizes Mai’s long-distance Alkahestry to tramsmute his soul in exchamge for his brother’s long lost right arm. Renouncing loudly his younger brother’s idiotic decision, Ed valiantly fights back against Father with his reacquired right arm to end an epic battle with style.

8. Mustang incinerates Lust.

Just a fiery and intense battle between Colonel Roy Mustang and the Homunculus Lust. At first, Mustang getes stabbed in the gut by Lust, only to burn his wounds together and return the pain hundred-fold to the slutty monster. After a continuous sequence of explosions, Mustang was able to wear out the lives of Lust’s Philosopher’s Stone and claim victory to be the first to successfully kill a Homunculus.

7. Mustang takes revenge on Envy. Envy commits suicide.

Revenge is best served with FIRE! Mustang’s long awaited meeting with Envy was expected to be a fire-filled bloodbath celebrating the revenge taken for the late Maes Hughes, his best friend. Except, a few unexpected elements were added, including Mustang’s painful resistance from killing the conniving Homunculus, and also Envy’s eventual decision to take his own life. Not only did we see the moral side to this battle, where Mustang almost fell into darkness by killing for revenge, but also the sad and cruel truth of surrounding Envy. He has known for so long that humans will turn on each other when push comes to shove. But once the Fullmetal crew showed him the truly beautiful quality about humanity, it is revealed how envious Envy felt towards them.

6. Selim revealed as Pride.

This was possibly the biggest reveal of the series. Unlike the 2003 anime, where they misnamed a few Homunculi, revealing that the innocent-faced Selim Bradley as the First Homunculus was a jaw-dropping moment and a very high point in the series. Surprisingly, it was Lieutenant Hawkeye who first noticed the eerie air surrounding the Fuhrer’s son. This was also the first time we get to see Pride’s power and reach, where an ever-expanding abyssal creature with multiple mouths and eyes can spawn from Selim’s small stature.

5. Father opens the Gates of Truth of Heaven and Earth to obtain “God”

Fullmetal Alchemist at its epic finest in this scene. Utilizing the 5 human sacrifices (Ed, Al, Hohenheim, Izumi, Mustang) and the nationwide trasmutation circle surrounding Amestris, Father was able to open the Gates of Truth belonging to the Earth, which responded with the Gates of the Heavens, causing them to open as well. The planetary and celestial gates resonated with each other and Father was able to pull the “entity beyond the Gate”, whom he called God, into himself, along with thousands of souls of Amestrians. In short, he swallowed God whole.

4. Shou Tucker tramutes his daughter and dog into a chimera.

Early in the series and we’re shown what chilling dark waters Fullmetal Alchemist can take us. The Sewing-Life Alchemist, Shou Tucker, seemed friendly at first, but really is a psychopath whose skewed perception of success ruined his family and his life. Unable to provide convincing work leading up to his annual State Alchemist assessment, he resorts to transmuting his young daughter and his dog into a chimera who can speak. Toying with life at its finest, and most screwed up.

3. Edward finds Alphonse’s decaying body

Edward escapes the depths of Gluttony’s stomach by transmuting himself, ending up in front of the Gates of Truth once again. He then turns around and discovers another set of Gates opposite his own, and sitting in front of them was none other than Al’s malnourished body. Unable to bring it back without Al’s soul, he utters these powerful words, “Someday, I’ll definitely come back and get you. Just wait. Just WAIT!”

2. The ingredients to the Philosopher’s Stone.

Early on, we find out the necessary ingredients of creating the Philosopher’s Stone – living human beings. This legendary alchemic amplifier that was supposed to be the Elric Brothers’ key to getting their bodies back, was now not an option due to its barbaric contents. This was the point in the series where we find out Fullmetal Alchemist is much deeper than you see on the surface, and it only got deeper.

1. Hughes’ untimely demise.

This scene was probably the moment where many fell in love, and dropped their jaws, with Fullmetal Alchemist. It was an sad scene, but a pivotal one, that distinguished FMA from any anime series or manga of its time. Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes was the first to discover the nationwide conspiracy (that came to fruition towards the end of the series, check 5.), which sadly lead to his death. After a bloody fight with the homunculus Lust, he enters a phone booth attempting to notify Mustang of the conspiracy, only to be stopped by Envy, who took the appearance of his wife and shot him in cold blood.

Looking back, Arakawa-sensei’s decision to kill off a major character without any chance of resurrection, was extremely gutsy and unheard of at the time. This paved the way for success on all platforms for the franchise, marking Fullmetal Alchemist as an epic tale that was uniquely entertaining.

Spoilers end.

For more Fullmetal Alchemist goodness, check out our review on the entire franchise back when it came to an end over a year ago – Fullmetal Alchemist: A Closed Gate – A Review.

Philbert: @philbertlui
Banana Times: @bananatimes
Reel Asian: @reelasian

On July 20th, 2010, Jeremy Lin, was signed by the Golden State Warriors. After being undrafted coming out of Harvard University, the 6’3 point guard dazzled in the NBA summer leagues, including going toe to toe with the NBA’s 2010 first pick, John Wall in a summer league game against the Wizards. An American born to Taiwanese parents, his exciting and ferocious play in 5 games has turned Jeremy Lin into a fan favorite even before having an official NBA team. This, for more reasons than the average NBA fan would understand, matters.

Basketball to me has always been my favourite sport for a number of reasons. There’s pace, there’s drama, there’s tension, but most importantly, it is the most vicarious sport. Everyone has their inner athlete, or at least their yearning to become one, even though a majority of us are not athletically gifted. We go to playgrounds and rec leagues, trying an Iverson crossover, a Steve Nash behind the back, or a Lebron crab dribble drive (that’s called less and therefore easier to perform). Those who are lucky can pull off a Hakeem (and now Rondo) Dream -Shake, or God-forbid even dunk once in a while. We try these moves because we all want to be these athletes, and even though we can’t string all these athletic gifts together, we dream. It’s why we watch basketball; so that we can live vicariously through these amazing physical specimens that do what we cannot. They defy gravity. They will themselves to greatness.

This is even more important for the banana community.

There’s no arguing around it; Asians are generally less athletically gifted than most other people, and those that are are usually deemed finesse players (like in baseball), are gifted in sports that do not require pure athletic power (such as racquet sports), or need to be trained non-stop by their Government to produce results (diving, skating and gymnastics). Even back at Boston University, there was a rec league for Asian players 6’0 and under (which is about 90% of us). We need more than most others to live through our television sets, because if we can’t do, we can watch, and feel like we are taking part in something bigger than ourselves.

This is where Jeremy Lin comes in.

Yao Ming was no doubt one of the largest factors in marketing NBA and the sport of basketball to Asia, and specifically China. But even before Yao was drafted, people joked about how he was a creation of the Chinese Government, just a way to manufacture a player into the NBA like they have done in other sports. Even to some of his most die-hard fans, we were proud to finally have a Chinese star in the NBA, but didn’t really believe that a regular Chinese person ever could unless we were 7’6, never mind being put under a state controlled farm system. And this is why Jeremy Lin matters. A division II state champion in high school, Lin has always been about proving that Asians can play, and more importantly, showing that this sport can be had by the new breed of banana’s (whether it be ABC, BBC, CBC or other westernized Asians). Despite never getting a Division I scholarship or being drafted by an NBA team, Lin is trying to overcome stereotypes to realize his dream in the association, entering with a chip on his shoulder like many other Asian athletes may have had. Though he will not create a basketball buzz like Yao did back in 2002, he does have a drive and slash game that relies on his athletic gifts that previous Asian players like Yi Jian Lian, Yuta Tabuse and even Yao himself do not have; the type of game that fans of the game watch basketball for. Though he will not break all Asian stereotypes (there’s a joke I’ve heard a few times about how Asian parents wouldn’t let their children become athletes unless they graduate 4 years from an Ivy League school first), he will be an important stepping stone in proving that Asians have got game too, whether it be in dominating all-star games or contributing 10 minutes off the bench. And we all should be watching.

Just a little less vicariously this time.

-Garron
twitter/thegarz88

At approximately 3am Eastern Time on July 22nd 2010, a major contributor to the wildly, and sometimes silently popular, online subculture of manga scanlation announced its eventual end.

In about 7 days time, the legendary OneManga will come to an end.

If you log on to the OneManga website now, a disclaimer will pop up before you reach the main page. The message that appears is quoted below:

“There is an end to everything, to good things as well.”

It pains me to announce that this is the last week of manga reading on One Manga (!!). Manga publishers have recently changed their stance on manga scanlations and made it clear that they no longer approve of it. We have decided to abide by their wishes, and remove all manga content (regardless of licensing status) from the site. The removal of content will happen gradually (so you can at least finish some of the outstanding reading you have), but we expect all content to be gone by early next week (RIP OM July ’10).

So what next? We’re not really sure at this point, but we have some ideas we would like to try out. Until then, the One Manga forums will remain active and we encourage all of you to continue using them. OMF has developed into a great community and it would be a shame to see that disappear.

You can also show us some love in this moment of sadness by ‘liking’ our brand new Facebook page. It would be nice to see just how many of you came to enjoy our ‘better than peanut butter and jelly’ invention.

Regardless of whether you stay with us or not, on behalf of the One Manga team, I would like to thank you all for your unwavering support over the years. Through the ups and downs you have stuck with us, and that is what kept us going.

As a certain Porky was fond of saying… That’s all folks!

Time for me to go lay down and let this all sink in.

- Zabi

For those who are not involved with the culture of anime and manga, OneManga.com would probably mean nothing more than a website of Orientalized still-image entertainment. But for those of us who are part of this infinitely captivating universe of narrative, creativity and wonder, this is truly a great loss. For years OneManga has provided us with speedy scanlations and translations of manga, both mainstream and cult, both popular and unpopular, for the supportive masses of the Internet. The powers to be may consider the act (in our case, ‘art’) of scanlation as a violation of copyright and infringement laws. In some cases, that may be true, but in many other cases it is most certainly legitimate. With the advent of cyberspace, all traditional methods of advertising, corporation, and capitalism, were undoubtedly challenged. Many large corporate businesses have failed to keep up with activity of the instantaneous Internet that unconsciously distributes to the masses whether or not legality is involved. From my perspective, the art of scanlation is most definitely assisting the companies with their manga products. This recent online subculture may not abide by conventional rules of product distribution and advertising, but it certainly betters the global phenomena of manga and anime. Without the Internet and scanlations, giving manga the identity of ‘global’ would be much less worthy. What OneManga has provided the world in the past few years was a great and vast access to this revowned Japanese cultural art, media, and entertainment, and to have it end is a monumental shame.

Regardless of legal issues constantly hovering over the art of scanlation, the fact that it has grown to its current prominence, and will continue to grow, is a testament to not only the power of the Internet but also the power of readers who undyingly support this culture. The polite disregard scanlators have towards legality shows what they do is filled with passion and energy. Scanlated manga provides a potential and effective counter-culture to large corporations that back smaller entities responsible for manga publication. In short, it provides them with a loud but subtle middle finger to the captains of industry.

Without getting too long winded, I would like to end this tribute post to OneManga.

I hereby formally salute you, OneManga family, and may the waves of cyberspace reincarnate you into something even more grand and spectacular in the hopefully not so distant future.

Farewell.

-Philbert: @philbertlui

As of today, the acclaimed story of the Fullmetal Alchemist has ended with its 108^th chapter. The second anime series adapted from the original manga, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, will also conclude later this month. Fans across the globe could not ask for a more wholesome and honest ending, without any loose ends or leaving us gut-wrenchingly hanging for a year until a movie is released to give us half-hearted answers. That aside, I would like to take the opportunity to voice a claim I’ve been stating for the past year - Fullmetal Alchemist is the greatest anime-manga franchise of the 2000s.

It is indeed a bold claim. Firstly, even though I am a huge fanboy of anime and manga, I don’t watch or read everything. I am very selective with what I watch and read and only choose those that are critically acclaimed, garnered cult status, and those that have the ability to suck you into their unstoppable universe. This means that my claim is not only bold but also very presumptuous, but I’m sure some people would agree with me. Secondly, this claim originates not from critical analysis alone, but also how I have been relating to Fullmetal Alchemist from a personal level since the beginning. This is mainly my experience and my connection with the franchise, and it will definitely contain biases. Quick example: I love YuYu Hakusho because it was part of my childhood, anybody else would beg to differ (check out Yoshihiro Togashi’s latest series though, Hunter X Hunter is the real deal).

I know some people might inquire about other series being “the greatest of 2000s” such as One Piece or Naruto. I wouldn’t consider them because One Piece debuted in 1997, and Naruto in 1999. Fullmetal Alchemist started in 2001, which goes to show FMA’s resilience even going up against giants such as One Piece and Naruto. Also, I have a shounen bias. This 9-year franchise spawned a manga series, two distinguished anime series, a feature film and other little things such as making single-claps extremely cool. To place FMA up against Naruto for example; a series with a manga, BARELY two anime series (Shippuden is not different, they just grew up), and an excess of annoying filler arcs that depreciates the franchise’s overall quality. I still love Naruto, but I’m saying maybe we should just read the manga. Just saying.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS TO BOTH THE 2003 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST SERIES AND THE 2009 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD SERIES.

For your sake, I will be limit details regarding Brotherhood and the ending, just in case you want to read on.

To quote James Lipton, “as always, let’s start from the beginning”. I picked up the first FMA series as it was coming to an end. I blazed through all 51 episodes whilst I was in high school, in 3 days, and those were school days. My first impression: Absolute Wonder. In subsequent years I went on to re-watch the series many times because the series finale left me too vulnerable to function. The repetition also acted as a buffer for Conqueror of Shamballa to be available to North America. I ended up watching it illegally, I just couldn’t wait. A few months later, I wrote an essay about the movie in a university film class 6 months before it would be shown in North American theaters. This was borderline obsession, but it was understandable after being deprived of alchemy goodness for over a year.

For the longest time I held the first anime series over the original manga storyline. But looking back, I realized how hypocritical and stubborn that was. Like many others out there, I wholeheartedly believe that anime should be watched in its original Japanese language with English subtitles, or whatever language you are most comfortable reading. Mainly because that is how it was first made, origin had power. No fabrication of voices, tone, and even storyline (Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus were clearly lesbians, the Americans changed it, go figure). The original will always better in my opinion, so why did I hold onto the 2003 series so stubbornly? Firstly, it was awesome in its own right. Secondly, it provided nostalgia. Much the same as why I like YuYu Hakusho till this day. One other thing I should have noticed was that even after re-watching the first anime series and movie repeatedly, I still was left unsatisfied. I wanted more. More undersized blonde kids with a steel prosthetic arm fighting sinful monsters with medieval science-magic fusion techniques. More! Which is why I ventured into reading the original manga, and boy was it divine.

Three years later in early 2009, they announced a new Fullmetal Alchemist series that was adapted from the original manga storyline. Cue explosion in my pants. After the first few episodes of the 2003 series, Arakawa-sensei needed more time to develop her vision for her manga, so BONES Studios went on with a different plot, which turned out great as well. Now that the manga storyline is finished, I can consciously and confidently say that it is definitely stronger, more captivating, and more complete than the first anime series. I had to wait until the end of the manga storyline to fully understand that. I now wait for how it would look like animated. It will be nothing less than epic.

The completeness and undivided structure of the manga storyline was key in edging out the 2003 anime series. Although it was refreshing to see the 2003 series venture into realism by creating our Earth as a parallel universe, and also being alchemy’s source of energy, it was ultimately an explanation that fell short especially when the Shamballa came around. The 2003 series also fell short in the back-stories and character design of the seven homunculi. I never figured out why they named King Bradley “Pride”, and Izumi’s kid “Wrath”. Nothing wrathful about that kid, instead he was more envious of Edward. He should have been called Envy 2.0. Then there was Elric’s mother who was “Sloth”, which made even less sense. A beautiful mother figure that can transform and manipulate water, somehow characterizes the sin of Sloth? This was a major downfall to the first series in my opinion.

Criticism aside I still adore the first series and the entire franchise. The key aspects of the series that really got me hooked was the premise and the philosophy (see what I did there?). The premise of constructing a fantasy, science, action hybrid universe out of an extinct medieval magic, was already pretty interesting in itself. On top of that, Arakawa-sensei stylized her world in dated European, Middle-Eastern, and Asian characteristics to have it feel more historical and acceptable, rather than forcing an old science to be a norm in modern times.

What caught my eye even more, and immediately drew me into the series, was the theory of “Equivalent Exchange”. Arakawa-sensei created an omniscient law that not only the science of alchemy, but also the natural flow of the universe, abided by. The weight of this theory may be lost on some less venturous viewers, but it surely stuck with me. She took “no pain, no gain” to a very profound and philosophical level. At first it may seem like an obvious and logical explanation to life, but it exemplified the entire world of Fullmetal Alchemist. Without it, the series, the franchise, the characters, would have been much less triumphant.

The Elric Brothers had to discover for themselves that Equivalent Exchange was not only restricted to alchemy, but to the world and universe that surrounded them. Such as how we as the audience also learned that not only in the world of the Fullmetal Alchemist, but also in real life, where you cannot gain anything without sacrificing something of equal or greater value…

But once you overcome that sacrifice and make it your own, you will gain an irreplaceable fullmetal heart.

A lesson thoroughly learned.

Thank you Arakawa-sensei, from the bottom my fullmetal heart. We look forward to your next masterpiece!

Philbert: @philbertlui
Banana Times: @bananatimes

School is out. Now all that stands between me and unemployment are tacky robes that won’t grant me invisibility; a scroll that will make me look like a fool trying to summon a frog out of; and a hat that is not a throwable spinning weapon a la Kung Lau. But I am enjoying the long-awaited freedom, and thus, I’m back to blogging.

Last night I was catching up with my sister in Hong Kong and she told me an interesting story about my somewhat traditional parents. They’re not racist…for the most part, but they do react questionably especially when it comes to homosexuality. The conversation between my sister and I began with school, work, and inevitably relationships. Then it lead to her telling me about this situation she had with our parents (I’ve cleaned up some of the net-speak, apologies Sis):

The parents and the sister are watching TV in the living room. A local Hong Kong variety show was on, with a flashy and arguably flamboyant male host.

Mom:
(in Cantonese) Ugh, look how gay he looks.
(The translation may not do my mother justice, it’s a little closer to “he’s gay to this extent”)

Sister gets annoyed with the remark.

Sister:
Hey mom, what if I told you Phil was gay?

Mother reacts with wide eyes and becomes pale.

Dad:
Hahaha! You really shouldn’t say these things to your paranoid mother!

Sister:
If he was, would you not love him like you do now?

Dad:
Of course we will!

Unlike Dad who responded immediately, Mom hesitated…

As if the story wasn’t funny enough, my sister then went on to say something that knocked me off my chair in laughter – “so if you want to be loved, you can’t be gay my dear : )”

Now in my parent’s defense, they grew up in a different time…that’s all I got to be honest. But what struck me most was the reversal in gender stereotypes. In a typical North American Caucasian family, especially those portrayed in television and movies, shows the father who almost always has the most problems with accepting a gay son. In my parent’s case, it seems my mother would be pale for the rest of her life if I were gay.

Sometimes my siblings and I joke about how one holiday we should all bring home partners of the same sex who have dark skin to meet them. But to prevent any chance of heart attacks and strokes (knock on wood), we’ll refrain from having that elaborate prank materialize.

I have know this about my parents for a while now and it never fails to surprise me. They reside in Hong Kong where, due to influences of other Asian cultures and popular media, many young people you see often dress or appear “gay”. They are surrounded daily by these challenges to traditional gender roles. On top of that, all of my parent’s children are students of the arts, one of whom studied in one of the most notably gay art schools in the US. If nothing else, they should be prepared to brace themselves if one of their children turned out to be gay.

I don’t have a real conclusion here, except to find the humor in the conversation I had with my sister. Also, if you are Asian and you do have trouble with your sexuality, especially with parents, find someone who has been through similar experiences. It doesn’t hurt to talk.

Take the time to watch this inspiring monologue by Craig Ferguson. Try to watch the whole thing, but my main point starts at 4:45 and goes on until the end.

Sir Ferguson talks about alcoholism and his own life story, but his advice can be easily translated into problems with sexuality. Just talk to someone. Someone who has been through something similar. “It doesn’t cost a thing” to talk. I hope this helps in some way.

Mom and Dad, we still love you. Even if you hate us.

Philbert: @philbertlui