Two Chinese tennis players that entered the semis of the Australian Open may be a sign of things to come.

Na Li beat Venus Williams in a 2-6 7-6 7-5 victory on Wednesday, while Zheng Jie proved equally adept in winning against her opponents.

The reason they may become more visible is the fact Zheng Jie has reached the last four at Wimbledon two years ago and back in 2004 Li Ting and Tian Tian won the Olympic gold medal in Athens. –dennis c.

It’s the talk in the tech world.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6986214.ece

The Time Magazine article, “Harvard Hoops Star is Asian. Why is that a problem?” last week covered an interesting piece about how some people can’t still look past one’s ethnicity. The cruel taunts have been directed at Jeremy Lin, who tops Harvard in points (18.1 per game), rebounds (5.3), assists (4.5) and steals (2.7), has led the team to a 9-3 record, its best start in a quarter-century.

An all-round player, the 6 ft. 3 in. slasher, has speed, leaping ability and passing skills and has reportedly saved his best performances for the toughest opponents: over his past four games against teams from the Big East and the Atlantic Coast Conference, two of the country’s most powerful college-basketball leagues,  Lin is averaging 24.3 points and shooting nearly 65% from the field.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see him in the NBA one day,” says Tony Shaver in the Time piece, the head coach of William and Mary, which in November lost a triple-overtime game to Harvard, 87-85, after Lin hit a running three-pointer at the buzzer.

Another Ivy League player has reportedly called him a C word that rhymes with ink during a game last season. On Dec. 23, during Harvard’s 86-70 loss to Georgetown in Washington, McNally says, one spectator yelled “Sweet-and-sour pork!” from the stands.

Lin has handled the taunts gracefully and do not mind them anymore.  His father is Taiwanese.

Read more:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1951044,00.html#ixzz0bkruj6KY

Two recent “Asian” stories that appeared in two top general market dailies are challenging long-cherished Asian traditions—one about the supposedly dominant Chinese dialect, Mandarin; another about the possible approval of Web addresses expressed in characters other than those of the Roman alphabet.

The New York Times piece, “Mandarin Eclipses Cantonese, Changing the Sound of Chinatown,” October 21, reports: “Cantonese, a dialect from southern China that has dominated the Chinatowns of North America for decades, is being rapidly swept aside by Mandarin, the national language of China and the lingua franca of most of the latest Chinese immigrants.

“The change can be heard in the neighborhood’s lively restaurants and solemn church services, in parks, street markets and language schools. It has been accelerated by Chinese-American parents, including many who speak Cantonese at home, as they press their children to learn Mandarin for the advantages it could bring as China’s influence grows in the world.”

Read more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/22/nyregion/22chinese.html

The Wall Street Journal report datelined Seoul, “Web Addresses to Adopt New Alphabets,” October 28, reads: “Leaders of the private body that oversees the basic design of the Internet are expected to decide here Friday to let Web addresses be expressed in characters other than those of the Roman alphabet — an issue for the majority of Internet users who use other alphabets in their native language. Already, portions of a Web address can be written in other languages. But the suffix, such as the “com” after the dot, must be typed in Roman letters.

“The change will allow the suffix — known as a top-level domain — to be expressed in about 16 other alphabets. They include traditional and simplified Chinese characters, Russian Cyrillic, Korean Hangul and Hebrew. Dozens of other alphabets are likely to be added in coming years.

“That means computer users will be able to type or input a full Web address without the need for Roman letters.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125664117322309953.html?mod=dist_smartbrief as referred to us by colleague, Ruth.

Now let’s see which story ends up with a nod of approval or a howl of protest. From our end, it could make Asian American advertising more interesting.—dennis clemente

Last April, I stumbled on data nobody seems to have noticed or even reported as a story.  The data came from Google’s Insights for Search. The amazing data came from my random, perhaps serendipitous, searching for “love,” “in love,” “out of love” and “broken heart” in the Google tool.  No need for any Freudian readings into it, just one word that is as popular as the other four-letter word these days: free.  The results amazed me. It all pointed to one country: The Philippines. Even more serendipitous, I am Filipino.

I monitored the findings for three months before finalizing the story, even if the parameters point to the findings dating back to 2004.  Then I pitched it for one whole month to the presses.  Even to the New York Times Mag’s “Phenomenon” section, confident as I was because a growing trend in Japan was featured in a recent article. No responses. Time passed. I sent it to my former employer-pub.  They kept it on hold over a month before publishing it this month,  less 1/4 of it for space considerations.  The figures changed. For the exact word, “love,” the Philippines went down a notch. Otherwise, the entire searches for love’s other various permutations were still correct.

I listed the time frame of my findings in the piece, but this was edited out.  For space considerations. Still, I consider the story and the idea behind Google’s search tool a happy accident. I have been using Google’s Insights for Search more often now, as a tool even writers can use when thinking of a story to write about.

Here’s the link to the story, “Believe it or not, RP is Love Central.”–dennis clemente

http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view/20090919-226033/Believe-it-or-not-RP-is-Love-Central