Encounters and Exchanges: A Review of East Eats West
By Matthew de Moraes

When asked about the importance of the “gold boom” in California, one would most likely omit the effect it had on ethnic minorities- especially the Vietnamese living in the United States. However, in Andrew Lam’s most recent book- East Eats West (2010) the Bay area of San Francisco and it’s Vietnamese population serves as the setting for a cultural puzzle that was born during the gold rush.

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By TOM LAVENTURE
AAP staff writer

Mingmei Yip has a new novel coming out, Song of the Silk Road (Kensington Publishing, April 1, 2011), a spiritual, physical and emotional adventure of Chinese most remote desert region.

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Jason Statham (as ‘Arthur Bishop’) stars in CBS Films’ THE MECHANIC. opening nationwide this Friday. (Photo © 2011 CBS Films)

The Mechanic

AAP staff writer

“Steve if you read this, it means I didn’t make it back. It also means that you’ve broken a filament controlling a 13 second relay trigger. End of game. Bang you’re dead.”

That is the last line in the original movie of the Mechanic. The new Mechanic movie is a remake of the 1972 genre classic, originally starring Charles Bronson. Almost everybody hates remakes, rarely does the new version live up to the original. The original movie gained status because it was new, refreshing, and in this case the original Mechanic started the Hitman sub-genre.

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Left to Right: Yan Ni as Wang’s wife and Ni Dahong as Wang Photo by Bai Xiaoyan, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

A Film Review by Wu Yi

Saying goodbye to caparison in Curse of the Golden Flower, international famous actors in Hero, a huge number of walkers-on in House of Flying Daggers, eminent Chinese director Zhang Yimou brings the world a surprise by simply painting life with A Woman, A Gun and A Noodle Shop (Sony Pictures Classics, 2009 Rated R, Mandarin W/English Subtitles).

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Petals From The Sky

Author: Mingmei Yip

Kensington Books, March 2010

$15.00 Paperback

A Book Review by TOM LAVENTURE

Petals From The Sky (Kensington Books) is the third novel from Mingmei Yip, who says she puts a lot of her own life into her stories whether as events or composites of people who have shared her life.

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