The KCAL-9/KCBS reporter, anchor, entertainer and Viet community celebrity is co-hosting a 5k/1k run/walk fundraiser for the Donate Life organ and tissue donor registry, to take place at the Memorial Grove on the campus of Cal State Fullerton tomorrow Saturday at 7am, with registration starting at 8:15am.
Map to campus here. Detailed map of campus and directions to event parking and location here.
Leyna Nguyen came to KCAL from a brief stint in Georgia. Originally from Minnesota, before that she worked for four years as a reporter at KCRA in Sacramento.
When Leyna Nguyen arrived in L.A., she did not isolate herself in the mainstream cocoon (is that an oxymoron?) up there, but was very involved with the Viet community in Southern California. She even appeared at a number of variety shows, making her face very recognizable to many Viets.
Notable among her charitable activities is her work with Love Across the Ocean (web site here) which Leyna Nguyen founded and is currently President.
LATO builds and renovates schools in Vietnam, and provides food, clothing, medicine, and other necessities to needy families in rural areas of Vietnam, starting in Quang Tri province. With the help of the occasionally controversial Nam Loc Nguyen, LATO also assists refugee families in Southern California, and has a program where Viet volunteer visits nursing home/battered women’s shelter.
More information about the “Donate Life” Run/Walk including costs and registration information follows the jump.
What: 5K/1K Run/Walk
When: Saturday, April 25th, 2009
Where: Cal State Fullerton
Time:
7:00 a.m. – Registration
8:15 a.m. – Donor Ceremony
9:00 a.m – Run/Walk
10:00 a.m. – Family Health Festival
Cost:
• $30 for runners & walkers.
• $20 for Individual living donor/recipient.
• $20 per person for Family Registration (4 or more only)
• $20 per person for Team Registration (10 or more Team Members required)
** Teams of 25 or more – see Teams section for special benefits package
Make a Donation online !! 
The Course Map is available for download!!
Inspire others with your message in the
Circle of Life Garden
I have a lot of respect for this lady. She came to the US when she was very young but she speaks very good Vietnamese. She involves with charities.
She is also a very good MC. She rat la CO DUYEN.
She’s pretty hot looking chick. Too bad she married a white guy (I know that’s a very politically uncorrect thing to say but just being honest).
It is good that she married to a non-Vietnamese.
These non-Vietnamese spouses will become ambassadors of goodwill for the broader community, they are the bridge of cultural understanding.
It is always more effective to have a Caucasian face on television talking about hight rights problems in Vietnam.
Vietnamese Americans are too parochial and inward looking.
Political math :
1 Vietnamese + 1 Vietnamese = 1 Voice
1 Vietnamese + 1 non-Vietnamese = 2+ Voices
Country First, sometimes many inter-racial marriages can cause additional emtional concerns/burdens for their off springs.
Your political math is flawed…… you might be talking about social/racial influence over general american(white) public but keep it in your mind that our white friends are becoming minority in our state.
I also believe that having first black president has also helped to ease(?) racial barriers/tension in american political arena..
xu – who did you marry?
jung kim, worry about your own racist flaws it’s pretty clear to everybody you hate latinos and xu, work on your racist views as well it’s none of your f-ing business who she’s married too. it’s too bad your a bigot.
Asian Americans are more likely to intermarry with white Americans than with Asian Americans of a different ethnicity. It is the white look, not the Asian look, that is in demand.
In a 2000 California survey of Asian-white intermarriages, 72 percent of couples consist of an Asian American wife and a white husband. By and large white American men looking for the antithesis of a liberated woman and the images of subservient Asian women are so desirable.
The survey also says it is easier for Asian women to incorporate themselves into white society but seldom are the white men bothered about integrating into Asian society.
With Asian Americans, another set of stereotypes enhance the beauty of Asian women and the beastliness of Asian men.
White men with “yellow fever” think Asian women are exotic erotics, available for white men to release from oppressive boredom, eager to be dominated. They borrow the name of the familiar taxi company, Yellow Cab, to connote an easy woman who “can be ridden anywhere, anytime.”.
On the other hand, from movies such as: Rising Sun – Japanese men are sexual predators; The Lover – an innocent schoolgirl being seduced by a virile Chinese, a pedophiliac playboy; Hiroshima, Mon Amour – the trysts between a French woman and a Japanese man; Little Fish – Cate Blanchett’s gives her Vietnamese ex-boyfriend Dustin Nguyen a second chance, but he ends up deceiving her.
In part due to these perceptions, Asian American women have surpassed Asian American men in broadcast journalism. Asian American women are eye candy on the news. Of course, Asian American women are talented and deserve opportunities, but many major markets have woman reporters – Leyna Nguyen, Betty Nguyen, Thanh Thuy, and many non-Vietnamese women – and rarely has an Asian American male counterpart.
In Introductory English class, E(nglish) S(econd) L(anguage) 101, the class was taught to read the title and understand what it is. Next is the body, does it support what the title states.
The title of this subject is “Leyna Nguyen at CSUF for “Donate Life” Run/Walk this Sat.” The body states where the event will be held and the donation prices. Included is a picture of Leyna.
Didn’t find a single word on her marriage status, let alone whether she married a Viet. Now, there is a raging debate over inter-racial relationship and marriage, and sadly enough by a bunch of guys.
Does anybody know if she drive a SUV and the size of the carbon foot print she and her family leave each year? How about the color of her nails? Does it shed any light on her genetic makeup?
The lady most likely paid Mr. Bolsavik to post this advertisement, so gentlemen, are you attending? Yes or No? If yes, say something positive, like only $30 bucks to see Leyna in person? What a frigging deal!
There is medication for A(ttention) D(eficit) D(isorder). Might be worth entertaining that thought.
Yes, honey bunny Leyna, I shall be there on my bicycle to the school to walk for the cause you support. Anything for you…
Leyna Nguyen is a public figure and a role model, had she married to a gang-banger then she would’ve got a lot of comments by the public. On the other hand, she married up to a white millionaire, people have the right to praise or to depreciate on her marriage.
For me, I would prefer a Vietnamese. There are a lot of good hardworking Vietnamese out there.
Leyna had her wedding in Quang Tri. The wedding was a traditional wedding. Her husband had to wear khan dong ao dai and pay respect to the ancestor altar.
I agree with XYZ’s points. There are still a lot of negative stereotypes for Asian American males.
Have you seen Clint Eastwood’s Grand Torino??
Is she sleeping with Andy Quach on the side
Does that biatch even believe in karma ?
Asian men are considered sexually incompatible in this white world: small penises, hairless, short, stingy, sexist, self-righteous etc. I, of course, am against those stereotypes because I know they are not true and it’s unfair to us Asian men.
However, really, who said the beauty standards set up by white men are the absolute rules? I don’t know how many of you here are gay, but it would be even more humiliating being Asian in the gay world. There are countless gay Asians out there who would come right out and say in their ads: “Submissive Asian gays for Whites only. Asians need not reply, please”. At least they are honest, although I just want to scream “You cheap yellow slutty slaves”
The issue of race :
It might be difficult for most to understand the feeling of being in a foxhole with your bodies at the front line, where life is so cheap and death so ominous.
That is when all skin colors disappear and friend loyalty is the only bond.
Most heroic acts in battles are results of friend loyalty, not patriotism.
Iraqis barren deserts have certain faded sandy colors and strong rotten sweat odors.
Thach Thi Ngoc (Ngoc Thach Peterkin) :
She was a member of the South Vietnamese Olympic Team from 1966-68. She held the record for the high jump in South Vietnam from 1966 through 1968
In 1973, she went to the United States and married United States Army LTC John W. Peterkin in New York.
Her son, U.S. Army Captain James Van Thach was the first Vietnamese-American to serve as Military Advisor to the New Iraqi Army to prepare Iraqi troops to take over the job of securing their own country.
“It is my belief that we and our Iraqi brothers will be successful in maintaining a secure Iraq that will be free from the terrorist attacks by the insurgency if we continue to learn from each other with open hearts and minds. The opportunity is there and it will be met at all cost even if the cost is by the sacrifice of my own life for Iraq to support an Iraqi government and military that represents the people of this nation regardless of their race, religion or creed and for the future generations for the people of the Republic of Iraq.”
Such a beautiful story, and Ngoc Thach is a role model for Leyna Nguyen
If you register for the “Donate Life” Run/Walk through Team Leyna, you only pay the team rate. Save money.
jose licka solorio butt, why are you using profanity with garbage mouth again?
Did you accidently swallow something chunky unsanitary blobber while licking?
jose licka solorio, they say you are married to your short stubby third finger. Grow up Jack!
jung kim, you’re telling me to grow up? once again you show your ignorance. and country first, the “insurgency” is people fighting to save their country from invaders they are not terrorists. you actually think we are there to “liberate” them? give me a break.
jose licka solorio, yes! sanitizing foul odoring mouth means grow up before imprisoned in a 24/7 worker’s camp.
What’s going on with Leyna Nguyen? Just look at Janet Nguyen. She married a dumb white guy by the name of Tom. Who plays the man here? No wonder this girl can’t speak Vietnamese. Can anybody understand her when she opens her mouth?
Country First, you talk the talk but did you walk the walk? When did you serve, you Internet patriot?
Mr. Pham,
An affirmative respond would be a real showoff.
So, certain level of deniability is most plausible for me.
PS.
if you are QVP, the author, then thanks for your autograph, your book was quite enjoyable.
A patriot doesn’t have to be a military person.
xu, Leyna’s husband is a TV producer with Italian root. Yes I also think too bad she didn’t marry a Viet guy. However it makes sense since there is NO Viet guy at her caliber. She’s TOO good for Viet guys.
@too bad:
no way is she too good for Viet guys. there’s plenty of good Vietnamese men out there that are ‘her caliber’ (smart rich doctors, etc….. you just have to be willing to look hard enough).
why would anybody think they are too good for Viet guys? thats a bit of a racist statement in of itself (implying that Viet guys are somehow inferior).
if she’s too good for Viet guys then she must be too good for the Vietnamese community because obviously Viet guys make up an essential part of the Vietnamese community.
Drawning in the sea of self-pity, zealousy, and inferiority complex.
How about our own male chauvinist preference for marriage here.
Have you ever seen a Vietnamese guy with a Vietnamese spouse that is TALLER, or have higher DEGREE, or OLDER ?
A Vietnamese lady with a PhD DEGREE in mechanical engineering in Boston would have around 20% chance of finding another compatible Vietnamese male. Statistically, Vietnamese American women have higher education than their counter-part. Boston, as an example, has a very small Vietnamese community.
A Vietnamese man with a PhD degree would most likely look for a younger and more obedient mate.
Why so many Vietnamese ( and other ) men are going to Vietnam for brides ? It about our cultural of paternal domination and maternal subservience.
Why so many Vietnamese men of middle age divorce their wife, then to marry a much younger girl ?
Wake up and break out of your deviant sexual fantasy, you are in America not a Taliban tribe.
The chick with the PhD degree must be hella ugly!!!!!
Sad but true, only white men deserve those great women (of any race, not just Vietnamese women) such as Leyna Nguyen, Betty Nguyen, Connie Chung, Chuong Tu Di, Poncahontas, and the names go on. Great women of all races are cream of the crops, and they deserve the best guys. As a whole package, white guys still the best guys, and only great white guys (not white trash) could bring true happiness to those great women.
Pete Tran is right on most points.
White society has managed to emasculate Asian men and as a result numerous alleged – and untrue – “stereotypes” have been perpetuated in the wider society.
To be fair, at least in Orange County, most gay Viet men with whom I am aquainted do not behave as you describe.
@Country First:
“….Wake up and break out of your deviant sexual fantasy, you are in America not a Taliban tribe.”
What does the Taliban have to do with anything? If a Vietnamese guy chooses to go to Vietnam and marry a hot Vietnamese girl, what business is it of yours?
I commented on Leyna Nguyen’s marriage choice because she’s a celebrity, she’s in the public eye, she puts herself out there so its fair game to make critical comments about her and the life she leads.
But if its a everyday citizen (Vietnamese or not) and they want to keep their business (marriage or otherwise) private, people should respect that.
@too bad:
“Sad but true, only white men deserve those great women….
Great women of all races are cream of the crops, and they deserve the best guys. As a whole package, white guys still the best guys, and only great white guys (not white trash) could bring true happiness to those great women.”
No, the only thing that’s sad is you. Its sad that you look down on your own people like that.
***shakes head in deep disappointment***
@’Too bad’, you realize you have a choice in what believe right? You know that right? You are making a personal choice in believing that…. don’t think that attitude is just out there and you have no choice but to accept it. Its your own choice to believe that.
So if you choose to believe what you wrote, that’s sad and pathetic. Its shameful that you **choose** to look down on your own people like that (especially after all the Vietnamese people have gone through the past few decades).
Unbelievable…..
@Country First:
“Have you ever seen a Vietnamese guy with a Vietnamese spouse that is TALLER, or have higher DEGREE, or OLDER ?”
Why pick on Vietnamese guys? Most guys in general pick a spouse that’s shorter, younger and equally or less educated.
Of course there are many exceptions (I’ve seen a few expectioins myself).
But let me ask you this….. how often have you seen an ***ASIAN*** guy (Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, etc) with a spouse that is TALLER, or have higher DEGREE, or OLDER ?
That doesn’t occur often. OMG…. that must mean there’s something wrong with Asian culture.
Xu,
“Most guys in general pick a spouse that’s shorter, younger and equally or less educated”
Your quote is a perfect statement.
Our tradition of paternal domination also explains why some older Vietnamese men dress in military fatigue in public :
* To compensate for their diminutive stature.
* A manifestation of repressed sexual frustration for loss of the older preferential social structure ( from Vietnam to USA )
* it is within our innate male biological mating practices to exhibit rituals of dancing with colorful feathers (roosters) to attract mating
Xu Xu, nowdays(excluding pioneer immigrants aka new life seekers), those asian girls with white husbands usually have physical or emotional problems and often are “control freak wanting to wear man’s pants”.
I really think it’s amazing that a post about a fundraiser has turned into this kind of a thread. Sure, Leyna’s a celeb and is then fair game to all criticism, but this isnt’ even about Leyna anymore. Did anyone once think maybe she married for love? Maybe there weren’t so many Viets who ran in her circles. But who the hell cares what race of a man she married? The woman has done a lot of good work for the VIETNAMESE community, but also the Americans, chinese etc. too. One thing I will say about almost all Asian cultures–not to mention other cultures as well, is that they are very good about picking apart their own people. I think it’s some kind of inferiority complex that makes it difficult for them to recognize the accomplishments of those in their own race. (this is a blanket statement, I know.)
I think the discussion here is actually neccessary, but why’s everyone so f’n cynical? Every once in a while ,people marry for love. Not because they think they’re too good for any group or people, or they needed money, or they’re trying to bridge any gap. And sometimes–they happen to be well-known people. (by the way, i’ve never heard leyna or anyone else close to her say that she believes she’s too good for Viet men. if anything, i think the woman is pretty humble.)
The world would be a happier place if people looked for the good in others, and acted in love.
Drawning in the sea of self-pity, zealousy, and inferiority complex.
In high culture, Shakespeare’s Othello has long been a portrayal of mixed race marriages. Othello, a dark-skinned general was a hero until he married the fair-skinned Desdemona, then the couple was harassed by the light-skinned lieutenant Iago.
Iago fatal obsession was motivated by plain jealousy or he just carried out the vengeance of society?
President John Quincy Adams – an opponent of slavery – wrote “the moral lesson of Othello is that black and white blood cannot be intermingled without a gross outrage upon the laws of Nature.”
In 2000, two hundred years later, a “photo negative” production by Shakespeare Theatre of Washington, D.C., with a white Othello and an all-black supporting cast, the lead couple fate is inevitably death.
So, not just Asian men, white men are also jealously resistant to exogamy (I’m not talking about those white men who hate O.J.).
Now, consider this ridiculous story:
A blonde homecoming queen fell in love with a short Oriental businessman. He treats her cruelly, then goes back to his country for several years, during which time she prays to his picture and turns down marriage from a young Kennedy. Then, when she learns he has married back home, she kills herself. You consider this girl to be an insane idiot, correct?
But if an Oriental who kills herself for a white guy – ah! – you find it beautiful.
Have you ever read the results of a study and get upset, especially when you are in the percentage of those who are getting the short end of the stick?
And so opposition to a mixed marriage in a white dominant society is understandably comes stronger from the side of Asian men and, of course, white men are much more tolerance for such opporfu*kingtunity.
And for those disinterested sneer “role models”, who, admittedly through no fault of their own, have been elevated to a status in an Asian-women-fetish society, I object to the presumption that these girls wear their stardom is somehow something they had coming to them, when in truth they could have just as easily been born as Asian men, who must do something, as opposed to those who just picked the lucky number in the genetic lottery.
Interracial couples might say that their mutual attraction was the effect of anything other than their love. Hey, this complete bullsh*t will get you applause on Oprah, but it’s not true.
Intermarriages collectively are color conscious (Asian American intermarriage rate is triple the African American rate) and gender-specific (Asian women are intermarrying at twice the rate of Asian men).
All of us can improve ourselves. Doing so would require sensitivity along with a willingness to take controversial stands.
Everyone, too much talking and analysis already. Can any of you just be honest and realistic and name for me one Viet guy decent enough to be Leyna’s husband? Can you? Who is that guy? Ngo Ky? Van Tran? Andy Quach? Ardrew Do? Bosavik? Tony Bui? Ham Tran? Ly Tong? Pham Dang Long Co? Tran Du? Frank Jao? Le Chieu? Nam Loc? Nguyen Ngoc Ngan? Nguyen Khang? Honestly I can’t find Viet guy with the qualities that match hers. If you can, say it. If you can’t, just shut the f. up, sore losers.
My Viet guy candidate is Lac Tan Nuygen…
http://bolsavik.com/2009/02/update-on-brian-doans-exhibit-at-cypress-college/#more-809
How can any woman turn him down?
@Too bad:
Then tell me how does a white TV producer match up with her qualities? Is this white TV producer glamorous? No
Is this white TV producer famous? No.
You need to use your brain a little more and stop being such a damn sheep. Learn to think for yourself.
Lil Saigon,
I am hot for Lac Tan Nguyen. You shouldn’t judge a book by its cover or a man by his small mind. Usually men with a small mind have a big **** LOL
xu, listen to what I said again, if you can name any Viet guy who could match her qualities, say it. If you can’t, just shut the f. up, sore losers. I’m tired of your lengthly talks, questionings, and analysis already. Don’t ask anything, anymore. Just give me names if you can, otherwise shut the f up.
too bad, yes you are pretty dumb. You think there are absolutely no matching viet man to be Leyna’s husband? Is she deformed or built with fragile glass?
too bad, “sore loser” is you and your family members… having a kid with inferiority complex.
too bad, what do you tell our fine viet ladies whom are married to our fellow viet men?