Asian-American journalist, CEO speaks at AAA banquet
By JASON McFARLEY
News Writer
It was a celebrtion of heritage Sunday night at the Morris Inn as entrepreneur Jeff Yang gave the keynote address at the Asian-American Association's (AAA) annual faculty-student banquet.
Yang, a 1989 Harvard alumnus, is the CEO of A-Media, a company dedicated to the Asian-American market. He is also the founder and publisher of A-Magazine, a bimonthly publication with a North American circulation of over 200,000.
Priscilla Wong, AAA advisor, said she chose Yang to speak because he is a good role model.
"He is in pursuit of defining who he is, and he helps others get a sense of what it is to be Asian-American," Wong said. "In some ways, he is like a mentor."
Yang, however, did not always take such an active role in his community.
He said that the lack of fellow Asian-Americans in his Staten Island, N.Y., neighborhood left him somewhat estranged from his race.
That was especially true when he entered college.
"I had no sense of heritage or common identity. I wanted to be seen as just another college student," Yang said.
But Yang changed his mind when he got the opportunity to start a campus publication dealing with Asian-American issues. Yang said the work opened his eyes to the breadth of diversity both inside and outside his own community.
Yang also said he wanted to find ways to bridge gaps between these communities. That was the idea behind the founding of A-Magazine.
"I wanted to help people construct a sense of identity in a nation where color lines are often drawn at black and white. I wanted the words `Asian-American' to hold meaning," Yang said.
At the time Yang graduated from college, there was no public forum that spoke to or for Asian-Americans. He wanted to take the lessons of community they had learned in school and apply them to "the real world," he said.
A-Magazine began in late 1989 as a quarterly publication, fully sustained by fundraising events and staffed by dozens of volunteers. It remained that way for over four years. But by 1994, Yang said he had to make an important decision.
"I had to ask myself if I believed in the magazine and its cause enough to devote my life to it. I had to make it a full-time effort," Yang said.
Over the past six years, A has grown to become what Yang called "a means of sharing in a common purpose and eliminating racial discrimination and injustice through understanding."
"We continue to find ways to cover the complexity of issues concerning a North American Asian-American community of 11 million people," Yang said.
Yang will advance even further in that pledge when he begins a daily news and information site on the World Wide Web. The site is scheduled for launching in May.
"This Web site, in combination with the magazine, will ensure that the values of empowerment and community will be fully addressed," Yang said.
Wong said she is glad to see Yang's company evolving to keep up with the needs of young Asian Americans.
"People are able to relate to [Yang's] messages and feel uplifted," Wong said.
Eighty people attended the event, which featured a dinner before Yang's speech and a question-and-answer segment after it.
The AAA also announced its 2000-01 officers at the banquet.
All News Stories for Monday, March 27, 2000
