The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) will honor Parkin Lee of The Rockefeller Group, Yale Law professor Jean Koh Peters, and Fareed Zakaria, CNN host and Time editor-at-large with the 2012 Justice in Action Awards, at its Annual Lunar New Year Gala on Wednesday, February 8, 2011 at PIER SIXTY, Chelsea Piers, in New York City.

The co-emcees for the evening are Juju Chang, Emmy Award-winning correspondent for ABC News Nightline, and Sree Sreenivasan, Dean of Student Affairs and digital media professor at Columbia Journalism School.

The AALDEF Justice in Action Awards recognize exceptional individuals for their outstanding achievements and contributions in advancing justice and equality. Past recipients include the late civil rights icons Fred Korematsu and Gordon Hirabayashi, David Henry Hwang, Harold Koh, Mira Nair, Deval Patrick, Salman Rushdie, BD Wong, Seymour Hersh, Charles Ogletree, Jr., Nicholas Kristof & Sheryl WuDunn, Harry Belafonte, Margaret Cho, and Yoko Ono.

Over 600 leaders of the civil rights, legal, business, and arts communities are expected to attend AALDEF’s 2012 Lunar New Year Gala celebrating the Year of the...

The Asia Society held its 2011 Asia Society Awards Dinner in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on Wednesday, January 11, 2012.

Comedian and actor, Dan Nainan emceed the festivities, which included a special performance by members of the Silk Road Ensemble.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Ray Kelly, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department, were among the 400 who came out to honor and to celebrate the 90th birthday of former Deputy Secretary of State John C. Whitehead, who was presented with an Asia Society Award.

Tony Award-winning and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist playwright and librettist David Henry Hwang (M. Butterfly), whose hilarious and sexy new comedyCHINGLISH is currently on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre (220 West 48th Street) in New York was presented with the 2011 Cultural Achievement Award.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the leading pro-democracy opposition leader in Myanmar, received the 2011 Asia Society Global Vision Award, and a videotape of her acceptance speech was played during the dinner.

Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams, Love Guru) and Seema Rahmani (Loins of Punjab, Missed Call, Sins) star in Sudhish Kamath’s new film Good Night | Good Morning, co-written with Shilpa Rathnam. The story is about an all-night phone call between two strangers on New Year’s night in New York City. Vasanth Santosham and Raja Sen are also featured in the cast.

Sudhish Kamath is a Chennai-based independent filmmaker, a journalist and film critic with The Hindu, one of India’s leading national newspapers. Good Night | Good Morning is his second feature. His first filmThat Four Letter Word, was a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age film.

Kamath also hosts a talk show called Hands Up where he grills celebrities at gun-point. Recently, he signed up to do a movie review show on radio.

http://goodnightgoodmorningthefilm.com 

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Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multimedia journalist.

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The Three Chinese Tenors, Dai Yuqiang, Wei Song and Warren Mok are currently on a a world tour marking their appointment as China’s cultural ambassadors.

Ten years after the original Three Tenors performed live in the Forbidden City, China returns the favor. In anticipation of their by-invitation-only performance, “A Night with Beijing” at Alice Tully Hall, they’ll make a special appearance at the China Institute in New York on January 21, 2012 from 5:30pm – 7:30pm. Financial Times music critic Ken Smith, whose role for many years has been to explain opera in the West to the Chinese, and the opera in China to the West, will discuss with The Three Chinese Tenors, their respective roles in Western Opera’s recent success in China both in public visibility and recent prominence in the nation’s cultural agenda.

The China Institute is located at 125 East 65th Street in New York. The program also includes a pre-talk reception. Advance registration is required due to limited seating; $10 suggested donation toward supporting future Arts & Culture programming. Call 212-744-8181, ext. 111.

Dai Yuqiang, Luciano Pavarotti’s only Chinese student, has been dubbed “the Pavarotti of China” both for his fresh, lyrical voice and his enormous popularity at home. A former member of the People’s Liberation Army opera company, the Hebei native now lives in Beijing with a schedule of nearly 200 live and televised performances a year. The Shanghai-based Wei...

We had our usual binoculars out, but no, no Asian Pacific Americans won for acting at this year's 69th annual Golden Globes last night.

But, we did spot at least one host reporting the red carpet arrivals at the awards event, and we thought her dress and jewels were stunning.

Here is SuChin Pak wearing a diamond bracelet, French hook earrings and a diamond ring designed by Tacori. The Tacori press release says her bracelet was valued at $124,000. Now that's one special bracelet!