Nigel Ng, who plays a character named Uncle Roger, is the latest comedian to feel the consequences of jokes that could be perceived as reflecting negatively on China under increasingly intense censorship and rising nationalism.

Last week, a Chinese comedian came under police investigation for a joke about stray dogs.

Ng posted a video clip last Thursday from an upcoming comedy special in which he pokes fun at Chinese surveillance and Beijing’s claims of sovereignty over Taiwan.

The video shows Ng interacting with someone in the audience who said he is from Guangzhou, a metropolis in China’s south.

“Good country, good country, we have to say that now, correct?” Ng says. “All the phones listening.”

Ng then jokes with members of the audience who said they’re from Taiwan, a self-governed island claimed by China, saying Taiwan is not a real country. “I hope one day you rejoin the motherland. One China,” he said.

His Weibo account said on Monday that he was banned from posting for “violating relevant laws and regulations.” Ng’s agency did not respond to a request for comment.

A Chinese comedian, meanwhile, could face jail time as police and government departments investigate him for a joke he made at a performance earlier in May.

Beijing police announced last Wednesday that they were investigating comedian Li Haoshi “for severely insulting” the People’s Liberation Army.

The comedian, who goes by the stage name HOUSE, made a joke about stray dogs by riffing on a well-known propaganda slogan used to describe the Chinese military.

Usually, he said, dogs are cute and melt your heart, but when he sees his two dogs, he thinks of the Chinese phrase, “Able to win battles, with first-rate style.”

The phrase was first used 10 years ago by Chinese leader Xi Jinping to describe planned reforms for the Chinese military, according to the China Media Project, which studies Chinese media.

A government department known as Beijing’s Comprehensive Team of Law Enforcement on Cultural Market said in a statement last week it had received tips from the public about Li’s performance on May 13 and in response launched an investigation into the company Li is signed with.

The law enforcement team said it would fine the company, Xiao Guo Wenhua, about $2 million (13.3 million yuan). The company did not respond to a request for comment.

An officer who did not give his name at Beijing’s police headquarters declined to say whether Li was under detention or arrest, saying the investigation was continuing and the results would be publicized accordingly.

___

Associated Press reporter Kanis Leung in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

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  Two sailors chat in the Expo area on Sunday, May 29, 2022, at LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  Visitors pose with Marines on Sunday, May 29, 2022, in the Expo area on the third day of LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer).

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  Ayden Zhang, 9, of Glendora, and his 7-year-old brother, Austin, play atop a Marine reconnaissance vehicle on Sunday, May 29, 2022, at LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  Visitors walk through the Expo on Sunday, May 29, 2022, the third day of LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  San Pedro City Ballet’s Mia Canosa-Carr performs a solo to “I’ve Got Rhythm” on Sunday, May 29, 2022, at LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  Members of the San Pedro City Ballet perform on the expo’s main stage on Sunday, May 29, 2022, the third day of LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  A Los Angeles Fire Department Agusta AW-139 helicopter performs a demonstration on Saturday, May 28, 2022, over the USS Iowa at LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  A chance to interact with military personnel, vehicles and equipment drew big crowds to the expo area on Saturday, May 28, 2022, at LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  AJ Lark of Oceanside sits inside a UH-60 Lime, Blackhawk on Friday, May 27, 2022, the first day of this year’s LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  Visitors tour the USS Iowa on Friday, May 27, 2022, the first day of LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  Representatives of the Naval History and Heritage Command greet visitors in the expo area on Friday, May 27, 2022, the first day of this year’s LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  Marines man an amphibious combat vehicle in the expo area on Friday, May 27, 2022, the first day of this year’s LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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  A Navy diver inside a tank interacts with youngsters in the expo area on Friday, May 27, 2022, the first day of this year’s LA Fleet Week in San Pedro. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

LA Fleet Week will return to San Pedro this Memorial Day weekend, with sailors, aerial flyovers, live entertainment — and the always-popular free public tours of active-duty U.S. Navy and Coast Guard ships.

Featuring what’s billed as a “massive public expo along the LA Waterfront,” the annual four-day celebration is free and honors the nation’s Sea Services, with activities running from Friday to Monday, May 26-29. The main expo venue, which will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, will be set up alongside the Battleship USS Iowa, at 250 S. Harbor Blvd., near First Street in San Pedro, just south of the Vincent Thomas Bridge.

This year, there will also be events planned throughout the Los Angeles region: a Hollywood “neighborhood activation” event will take place on Wednesday, May 24, and service members will visit several communities throughout the region, including downtown L.A. on Thursday, May 25; Brea on Friday, May 26; and Venice on Saturday, May 27. Those events will feature free band concerts, service projects and other activities.

LA Fleet Week, which officials say is the largest Memorial Day weekend event in Southern California, will feature family-friendly festivities, including live music and entertainment, ship tours, aircraft flyovers and exhibits from the Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard and Army.

“There’s no better place than the Los Angeles area to recognize the importance of our nation’s Sea Services,” Jonathan Williams, president and CEO of the Battleship Iowa Museum and the National Museum of the Surface Navy, said in a Fleet Week news release. “We are a maritime nation and Fleet Week gives us the opportunity to salute all of those who ensure the freedom of the seas.”

Military branches will again compete in Dodgeball (10:30 a.m. Saturday) and Galley Wars (noon Sunday).

An outdoor “Welcome Home” concert for members of the military, featuring Ambrosia, will take place from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Saturday at the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club, 211 W. 22nd St.

The concert space is limited, though, and those attending need to have official passes or active duty military identification for entry. Additional public viewing areas, however, will be available along the waterfront promenade and 22nd Street as space allows.

Ambrosia, a five-time Grammy Award nominee with roots in the South Bay — and, specifically, San Pedro — will perform some of its classic hits, including “Biggest Part of Me,” “Baby Come Back” and “How Much I Feel.”

This is the second year LA Fleet Week is being held over Memorial Day weekend.

The event first launched in 2016 as a Labor Day weekend festivity. It moved to Memorial Day weekend last year to take advantage of the cooler weather. And those cooler temperatures appear to be on tap this year, with forecasts predicting temperatures in the 60s.

Memorial Day also coincides with what was already one of the largest annual holiday events held on the Iowa since the historic World War II battleship’s June 2012 arrival in San Pedro as a floating museum.

Visiting ships are expected to be announced early this week. The tours on board those ships are free and on a first-come, first-serve basis. Once again, the ships will be anchored in San Pedro’s Outer Harbor; trolly service will be the only way visitors can access the site.

This year’s event kicks off a day early, with a preview welcome party in downtown San Pedro from 5 to 9 p.m. Thursday, featuring music, food and drinks to welcome visiting sailors and other service members. That event will take place on Sixth Street, between Mesa and Centre streets.

Included in the festivities will be a beer and wine garden, dessert food trucks, live music, swing dancers and a free photo booth. The U.S. Navy Band, will perform, as will Midlife Crisis, a nostalgia band that will finish the evening with favorites from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.

A Wilmington welcome party is also planned from 5 to 10 p.m . Friday at the Banning Residence Museum in Banning Park, 401 E. M St.

When the event officially opens on Friday, visitors will find military displays, multiple veteran and military information booths, and other family activities at the expo site, along with many local restaurants offering specials throughout the nearby historic downtown San Pedro district.

Visitors are urged to arrive early in the day; parking will be available in and around downtown San Pedro within walking distance of the expo.

Sunset cruises will also be available on the Los Angeles Maritime Institute’s Tall Ships, docked at the Downtown Harbor — off of Harbor Boulevard at Sixth Street. And the Los Angeles Maritime Museum next door to that will also be open so folks can learn more about the harbor’s history.

The U.S. Navy holds Fleet Week events at ports throughout the United States, with Los Angeles’s event coinciding with New York’s on Memorial Day weekend. The events offer residents a chance to tour active-duty ships, talk with sailors and learn more about the Navy.

Due to security and traffic constraints, vehicles will not be permitted to travel past 22nd Street and pedestrians will not be admitted into the ship tour area. They must be brought by shuttle from the expo area.

More information, including daily highlights and more detailed schedules, can be viewed at lafleetweek.com.

The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday and ordered it to stop transferring users personal information across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears.

The penalty of 1.2 billion euros is the biggest since the EU’s strict data privacy regime took effect five years ago, surpassing Amazon’s 746 million euro fine in 2021 for data protection violations.

Meta, which had previously warned that services for its users in Europe could be cut off, vowed to appeal and ask courts to immediately put the decision on hold.

The company said “there is no immediate disruption to Facebook in Europe.” The decision applies to user data like names, email and IP addresses, messages, viewing history, geolocation data and other information that Meta — and other tech giants like Google — use for targeted online ads.

“This decision is flawed, unjustified and sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and U.S.,” Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, and chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead said in a statement.

It’s yet another twist in a legal battle that began in 2013 when Austrian lawyer and privacy activist Max Schrems filed a complaint about Facebook’s handling of his data following former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations of electronic surveillance by U.S. security agencies. That included the disclosure that Facebook gave the agencies access to the personal data of Europeans.

The saga has highlighted the clash between Washington and Brussels over the differences between Europe’s strict view on data privacy and the comparatively lax regime in the U.S., which lacks a federal privacy law. The EU has been a global leader in reining in the power of Big Tech with a series of regulations forcing them police their platforms more strictly and protect users’ personal information.

An agreement covering EU-U.S. data transfers known as the Privacy Shield was struck down in 2020 by the EU’s top court, which said it didn’t do enough to protect residents from the U.S. government’s electronic prying. Monday’s decision confirmed that another tool to govern data transfers — stock legal contracts — was also invalid.

Brussels and Washington signed a deal last year on a reworked Privacy Shield that Meta could use, but the pact is awaiting a decision from European officials on whether it adequately protects data privacy.

EU institutions have been reviewing the agreement, and the bloc’s lawmakers this month called for improvements, saying the safeguards aren’t strong enough.

The Ireland’s Data Protection Commission handed down the fine as Meta’s lead privacy regulator in the 27-nation bloc because the Silicon Valley tech giant’s European headquarters is based in Dublin.

The Irish watchdog said it gave Meta five months to stop sending European user data to the U.S. and six months to bring its data operations into compliance “by ceasing the unlawful processing, including storage, in the U.S.” of European users’ personal data transferred in violation of the bloc’s privacy rules.

If the new transatlantic privacy agreement takes effect before these deadlines, “our services can continue as they do today without any disruption or impact on users,” Meta said.

“Meta plans to rely on the new deal for transfers going forward, but this is likely not a permanent fix,” Schrems said in a statement. “Unless U.S. surveillance laws gets fixed, Meta will likely have to keep EU data in the EU.”

Meta warned in its latest earnings report that without a legal basis for data transfers, it will be forced to stop offering its products and services in Europe, “which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.”

The social media company might have to carry out a costly and complex revamp of its operations if it’s forced to stop shipping user data across the Atlantic. Meta has a fleet of 21 data centers, according to its website, but 17 of them are in the United States. Three others are in the European nations of Denmark, Ireland and Sweden. Another is in Singapore.

Other social media giants are facing pressure over their data practices. TikTok has tried to soothe Western fears about the Chinese-owned short video sharing app’s potential cybersecurity risks with a $1.5 billion project to store U.S. user data on Oracle servers.

KFF Health News

Medicare coverage for at-home COVID-19 tests ended earlier this month, but the scams spawned by the temporary pandemic benefit could have lingering consequences for seniors.

Medicare advocates around the country who track fraud noticed an eleventh-hour rise in complaints from beneficiaries who received tests — sometimes by the dozen — that they never requested. It’s a signal that someone may have been using, and could continue to use, seniors’ Medicare information to improperly bill the federal government.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General has received complaints from around the country about unsolicited tests being billed to Medicare, said a top investigator. Earlier this year, the office posted a fraud warning on its website, urging consumers to report this and other coronavirus-related scams.

“Unfortunately, most of these schemes are the result of bad actors receiving stolen Medicare beneficiary information,” Scott Lampert, assistant inspector general for investigations, told KFF Health News.

Being targeted once can mean a person is vulnerable to future scams.

A stolen Medicare number can be used repeatedly to get payment for all kinds of things or sold to other fraudsters, said María Alvarez, who oversees New York state’s Senior Medicare Patrol. The organization helps identify and educate beneficiaries about Medicare fraud throughout the country.

“If you have someone’s Medicare number, you can bill Medicare for procedures, tests, drugs, services, and durable medical equipment,” Alvarez said. “On the dark web, Medicare numbers are more valuable than credit card or Social Security numbers.”

One beneficiary in Indiana suspected something was amiss after receiving 32 unrequested tests over a 10-day period, said Nancy Moore, the Senior Medicare Patrol program director for Indiana. None of the people who submitted a complaint recalled giving out their Medicare number, she said.

In another variation of the problem, Medicare paid for tests for some Ohio beneficiaries who never received them, said Lisa Dalga, project manager for Ohio’s Senior Medicare Patrol.

“Information is the commodity of the 21st century,” said Moore, adding that she urges beneficiaries to guard their Medicare numbers.

It is possible that some unwanted packages were a mistake, after pharmacies or other suppliers turned a one-time request into a continuing monthly order, a switch allowed under the program’s rules that beneficiaries were responsible for correcting.

Along with those from New York, Indiana and Ohio, Senior Medicare Patrol directors in Tennessee, Texas and Utah told KFF Health News they noted a rise in complaints about the unwanted tests as the benefit’s cutoff date approached.

Lately, test suppliers had “gotten more aggressive,” Alvarez said, calling and emailing seniors — something legitimate Medicare representatives do not do — as well as running misleading internet ads.

When the COVID-19 public health emergency ended on May 11, Medicare stopped paying for over-the-counter tests, though it continues to cover those provided in a clinic, doctor’s office or other health care setting and processed by a laboratory. Some private Medicare Advantage plans may continue paying for the at-home tests.

Medicare spent $900.8 billion providing health coverage to 64 million beneficiaries in 2021. But the program loses as much as $90 billion a year to fraudulent claims. Some of the more well-known scams have involved medical equipment, such as power wheelchairs.

Sara Lonardo, a spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, confirmed Medicare received complaints about unwanted tests but said they came from only “a small portion” of Medicare beneficiaries who received tests.

Last year, President Joe Biden’s administration offered all households a limited number of at-home tests for free, increasing access to testing as part of its effort to combat COVID-19.

A few months later, in April 2022, CMS decided to pay for eight tests per month for those with Medicare Part B outpatient coverage, including tens of millions of seniors, one of the groups most susceptible to severe illness and death from the virus. It was the first time the agency agreed to cover non-prescription, over-the-counter products at no cost to beneficiaries.

In a statement last month, federal law enforcement officials said “wrongdoers allegedly sought to exploit the program by repeatedly supplying patients or, in some instances, deceased patients, with dozens of COVID-19 tests that they did not want or need.”

So far, prosecutors at the Department of Justice have confirmed only one case involving the testing scam. A doctor in Florida and a test supplier in Georgia face charges after they were accused of illegally paying an unnamed Virginia marketing company approximately $85,000 to obtain beneficiary numbers “for thousands of Medicare beneficiaries throughout the United States,” according to an indictment filed by the Department of Justice last month and obtained by KFF Health News.

The indictment said the pair submitted more than $8.4 million in fraudulent claims for COVID tests “regardless of whether the Medicare beneficiaries had requested or needed the tests.”

Lampert declined to say how many complaints the OIG had received

“There may or may not be some other ongoing investigations that we just cannot discuss yet,” Lampert said.

The details of several Medicare Summary Notices obtained by KFF Health News show Medicare paid suppliers $94.08 for at-home COVID-19 testing using a billing code for “a single test.” Summary notices are quarterly statements of services beneficiaries received.

Most retail pharmacies sell a two-pack of tests for about $24.

Medicare paid up to $12 for one test, Lonardo said, adding that the number of covered tests was limited to reduce “the risk of abusive billing.” She declined to explain why the Medicare Summary Notices indicated a payment of $94.08.

Beneficiaries may be the best fraud detectives for preventing medical identity theft. Senior Medicare Patrol programs encourage them to look for any items on their benefits statements — like back braces and lab tests — that Medicare paid for but that they never received.

If Medicare has paid for an item once, beneficiaries may not be able to get it when they really need it — regardless of whether they actually received it.

Diane Borton, a 72-year-old from New Smyrna Beach, Florida, has thrown out some of the expired tests she received but never asked for, yet she still has 25 tests. She said she called the 1-800-MEDICARE helpline twice about the unwanted packages but was told nothing could be done to stop them.

Borton didn’t pay for her supply, but that’s not why she’s concerned.

“I don’t want my government paying for something that I’m not going to use and I didn’t ask for,” she said. “I feel like it is such a waste of money.”

People with Medicare or private Medicare Advantage plans who receive medical supplies they didn’t order can contact the Senior Medicare Patrol Resource Center at 1-877-808-2468.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

Chen knew nothing of Uyematsu or his legacy, which the monument iterated. So he began looking into it.

And what he discovered was tragic. It was also cinematic.

Uyematsu, Chen learned, was a Japanese immigrant. He was a farmer who grew cherry trees, camellias and other plants in the San Gabriel Valley, successfully selling them wholesale during the first half of the 20th century. His agricultural and business acumen made him a millionaire — during the Great Depression. Then, in 1940, Uyematsu, looking to expand, bought 120 acres of land in Manhattan Beach.

But then the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. America joined World War II. And the United States launched the policy of internment, which incarcerated more than 120,000 Japanese Americans nationwide.

Uyematsu and his family were among them. They were interned at the Manzanar War Relocation Center — and lost virtually everything.

Mira Costa High now sits on 40 acres that was once part of Uyematsu’s 120-acre Star Nurseries.

“I think it’s really important to have an understanding of what’s been sacrificed,” Chen said in an interview, of “what’s been lost.”

And so, when Chen, a nascent filmmaker, needed a project for a summer documentary course at USC last year, he knew what his subject would be:

Uyematsu — and what he lost because of internment.

The result was the short documentary “Grandpa Cherry Blossom,” which has been on the film festival circuit of late —- winning several awards — and was screened at the Hermosa Beach Museum last week in recognition of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Once it’s off the festival circuit, Chen said, the seven-minute film will likely be posted to YouTube for free, so folks can learn about Uyematsu — and the cost of internment.

‘Camellia King’

Francis Miyosaku Uyematsu came to the United States from Japan in 1904. He was 22 years old.

He initially worked at a farm in Salinas, but moved to the Los Angeles area a few years later. Uyematsu began importing and breeding Japanese camellias and cherry trees, according to Chuck Currier, a former Manhattan Beach teacher and local historian, who described the farmer’s life in a speech during the 2021 dedication for the Mira Costa monument. Currier is one of two people Chen interviewed for his documentary. The other was Uyematsu’s granddaughter, Mary Uyematsu Kao.

In 1910, Uyematsu bought five acres in Montebello. The next decade, he bought land in Sierra Madre. But his business, Star Nurseries, kept growing. And so, in 1940, Uyematsu bought 120 acres in Manhattan Beach for $60,000 — the equivalent of $1.3 million today.

Uyematsu, who also married and started a family during this time, was a pioneer in new methods of breeding and cultivating flowers, Currier said. He was so successful that he gained the moniker, “Camellia King.”

But then the bombing of Pearl Harbor occurred in December 1941. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 shortly after, establishing the policy of internment, which called for the removal of Japanese Americans from their homes and into camps.

The policy particularly decimated Japanese American communities in Southern California.

About 800 inhabitants of a Japanese fishing settlement on Terminal Island, for example, were rounded up, with their community razed.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula, meanwhile, had more than 200 Japanese American families farming there before the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. Many of those families ended up in internment camps. Some returned after the war, refusing to be deterred from the lushness of the Peninsula — but the community never reached its former heights.

As for the Uyematsu family, which by then numbered six, it was sent first to the Pomona Assembly Center, a temporary facility at what is now the Fairplex. The clan was later moved to Manzanar, more than 200 miles away.

But before the family was shuttled there, Currier said, Uyematsu sold a significant number of his beloved camellias. After alll, he wouldn’t be able to operate his business while in the camp — and he’d need cash.

Manchester Boddy, then the publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News, and Richfield Oil Company President Charles S. Jones bought 300,000 camellias from Uyematsu. Those blooms, which were planted on Boddy’s property in La Canada Flintridge, later became the first signature collection for Descanso Gardens.

The Uyematsu family spent three years in the internment camp. During that time, to make ends meet, the patriarch was forced to sell most of his 120 acres in Manhattan Beach.

By the time WWII ended, in 1945, the farmer only had 40 acres left.

“My grandfather held on to some (land),” Kao said in an interview this week, “because he was planning on and he did try to continue the nursery business after he was sent to the concentration camp.”

But Uyematsu couldn’t recapture his former success.

Eventually, he had to sell what remained of his Manhattan Beach land.

Then, in 1947, according to Currier, Uyematsu also had to sell the final 40.

He did so in 1947, selling the land to the local school district — Manhattan Beach Unified didn’t yet exist — for the same price he aquired the original 120 acres.

Mira Costa High School opened three years after that, on Sept. 30, 1950.

His family continued operating the nursering for another four decades, though the business never regained its former glory, Currier said. The final nursery, which closed in 1988, was in Ontario.

Uyematsu died in 1978.

And now, not much remains of Uyematsu’s legacy — except, Kao said, at Descanso Gardens.

Kao said her grandfather’s legacy is still at Descanso Gardens.

“Quite a few of those (camellias) continue to exist at Descanso Gardens today,” Kao said. “We’re working with Descanso Gardens in terms of trying to give him proper recognition.”

There is, of course, also the monument at Mira Costa.

Uyematsu monument at Mira Costa

Currier, a 1972 graduated of Mira Costa, spent 24 years teaching economics and social studies, and coaching football there. He retired in 2018.

But 14 years before he retired, Currier began researching how Mira Costa was built and financed. He found the research interesting and would be worth writing and publishing, Currier said. But that idea wouldn’t pick up speed for another decade.

In 2014, Currier began researching the property and the Uyematsu family in earnest. He became hooked on the history. Even after he retired.

Currier, in fact, helped spearhead the installation of Uyematsu’s monument at Mira Costa in 2021, with the encouragement of another grad, Dennis Keene.

“(Keene) got me going on the Uyematsu plaque back in 2020, when I mentioned it to him,’ Currier wrote in an email, “and he said, ‘What are you waiting for?’”

Currier designed the monument and worked with Assistant Superintendent Dawnalynn Murakawa Leopard on the final wording. Murakawa’s grandparents were also sent to camps during WWII, Currier said.

MBUSD’s Board of Trustees approved the monument on March 31, 2021, and and appropriated $5,000 to construct it, though the final cost was higher, Currier said.

The moment was dedicated in October 2021.

And the next year, Chen, the student filmmaker, would look at that monument — and, soon after, decide to tell Uyematsu’s story in film.

Cinematic journey

Chen’s family has lived the immigrant experience as well.

His grandparents on both sides of his family came to the U.S. from Taiwan.

His father’s side is mainly Chinese, while his mother’s side is Taiwanese, said Chen, who has a younger brother, Hudson Chen, who is a freshman at Mira Costa.

Chen’s family moved to Hermosa Beach in 2018 from New York, when he was in the eighth-grade.

But it was at Mira Costa where Chen developed his interest in film. He took cinematic art classes there all four years.

“Before going into high school, I didn’t really know if I wanted to do film at all,” said Chen, who is also co-president of the school’s Cinema Club. “So it was a great introduction for me to film.”

The USC filmmaking course in non-fiction filmmaking, which Chen took last summer, is where he started working on his short documentary. He kept at it after the class ended.

Chen finished the most recent cut in October. He then started submitting the short to various film festivals to get his name out there, to have something to put on his resume — and, he said, to “spread the word” about the documentary.

“Grandpa Cherry Blossom” had its world premiere at the DisOrient Asian American Film Festival in Eugene, Oregon, in March. Recently, it was screened at the LA Asian Pacific Film Festival in downtown L.A. and the NewFilmmakers Los Angeles festival earlier this month.

Chen, who will graduate Mira Costa in June, will attend New York University in the fall. he plans to study film and television production.

Yet, making “Grandpa Cherry Blossom” showed him “just how significant documentary filmmaking is,” Chen said.

“It’s definitely something that people don’t have much of an emphasis on usually,” Chen said about studying film. “But I just love film in general; I want to try out everything.”

His talent certainly impressed at least one of his interview subjects.

“I’m a teacher, but on this journey, I was the one receiving the lesson,” Currier said about Chen’s documentary. “Maddox has used his incredible creative talents as a young film maker to bring something so overwhelmingly large, the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans 81 years ago, and reduce it to the life story of one individual, Francis Miyosaku Uyematsu.

“In doing so, he has given us a ground-level view of the depth and breadth of not only the forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans,” he added, “but Uyematsu’s entire experience after arriving in San Francisco in 1904. It’s a compelling story.”

And it all began when Chen walked past the monument to Uyematsu.

“When I do walk past the plaque, it usually does feel kind of strange,” Chen said. “It serves as a link between Francis Uyematsu and the school, a connection that is always going to be a little peculiar to me. I still have a difficult time grasping the idea that the ground that I walk on and go to class in every day was land that was unfairly seized and is filled with such a rich history.”

For two-plus decades, his eponymous Orange County-based company has become a critical cog in homebuilding thinking because its research looks far beyond real estate basics to encompass broader economic and demographic changes – not to mention the fleeting desire of house hunters.

So the company has now shed “real estate” from its corporate monicker, morphing into John Burns Research and Consulting from John Burns Real Estate Consulting.

Let me give you a noteworthy example from the novel Burns thinking: The company’s analysis suggests the nation is only 1.7 million homes short of what’s needed – a fraction of other housing shortage estimates.

Why so small, especially considering how high prices have become?

“Truthfully, it’s because they haven’t done their research,” Burns says. “They use back-of-the-envelope calculations: We normally build X number of homes per decade and last decade we only built Y. So we must be short 5 million homes. But that’s misses that we overbuilt the prior decade and we’ve got much less population growth. Most of those calculations have very little analysis behind them.”

And the pandemic’s buying binge, he adds, “was driven by dropping interest rates.”

The thought process behind the firm’s new name, its research, and housing dynamics can be summed up in this interview with Burns that’s been edited for length and clarity.

Q. How is your analysis different?

A: It’s really kind of at the heart of the people I’m hiring – doing great research and consulting as opposed to, you know, real estate people. And we just decided this new name says better who we are. And also we’ve grown. We have a lot of building products clients now. We have a lot of hedge funds. Those clients are literally using us to have a stronger view of what’s really going on in housing and the economy. So I’m using this as a platform to expand into different industries. That’s our future.

Q: Is the builder-consulting business still any good?

A: We grew 82% in the last two years. But this was really a diversification and growth opportunity. This wasn’t real estate going away at all.

Q. So what’s different about today’s new home shopper vs. 10-15-20 years ago?

A: Affordability and ‘What am I willing to sacrifice?’ They’re willing to give up the living room, the dining room. They’re really willing to give up the kitchen table and eat at a nice counter. They don’t need a big office. It’s about smaller square footage. But getting light into the house is absolutely positively critical. So there’s a lot of really cool things going on with window placement. That may not sound interesting but the homes being built are so dense it’s hard to get light inside unless you do things right.

Q. Work from home is key?

A: That’s been the game-changer. Even if it’s just 10% or 20% of people can work from home two days a week, that means that they will now live in places where they would not if I had to do that five days a week.

Q. Why can’t we get many starter homes built?

A: It’s kind of a price thing. I guess you could call it builder greed. But it’s really if builders put a smaller home on some of these lots, they would need to pay less for the land. And land sellers are not going to sell it. So literally, it’s not financially feasible for builders to pay market value for land and put a starter home on it. So there’s no business model without subsidies – or you go to the really outlying areas where the land is much less expensive.

Q. It’s stunning how few homes, new or existing, are being bought today.

A: I actually thought it was going to go below this. I do a lot of public speaking in front of a lot of audiences, now that they’re having audiences again. To hammer the point home, I ask: ‘Who owns a home with a 3.5% or less mortgage rate?’ Two-thirds raise their hand. ‘Okay, keep your hand up. If you’re looking to move.’ Everybody puts their hand down. It’s just there’s nothing on the market.

Q. Who could afford to buy even their own home today?

A: I am speaking in front of a lot of executives and a lot of them could. But why would you? We survey a lot of resale agents. The last survey found 10% of clients were moving, buying another home, and keeping their old home to rent out because the spread between the rent and a mortgage payment was so huge.

Q. If you magically became a housing czar with all sorts of powers, what would you suggest to fix some of this?

A: I’m not a policy guy. But I would focus on one thing that is not discussed enough, which is getting people’s incomes up. And California should have more of a growth orientation, where they accept growth. Like in the middle of California along I-5 or Highway 99. You could attract employers there and build cities there and focus on focus on areas where you don’t have to fight the NIMBYs.

I did some work in Korea in the mid-1990s. They were building cities outside of Seoul. Cities went from zero to 500,000 people in less than a decade because they built the infrastructure to get out there and they built the homes. People had a job or they were able to commute back into Seoul.

On the affordable housing side, building something new and affordable makes no sense to me. Taking that money and helping people rent or buy an older home that needs to be fixed up makes far more sense.

Q. So what do you think will happen next?

A: Mortgage-payment-to-income ratios need to come back in line through a combination of falling home prices, falling mortgage rates, and rising incomes. And all three of those things are happening right now. They’re just happening pretty slowly. We think that could happen by the end of next year.

The bond market is signaling that mortgage rates should be in the low 5%. Wage growth continues to be north of 4%. So we’re thinking that’s going to continue. And then we think home prices are going to keep falling.

The homebuilders have already dropped prices, the equivalent of 12%. The resale market hasn’t done that. So the homebuilders are actually selling pretty well because there is much better value. They’re buying down the buyer’s mortgage rate close to 5% and found a sweet spot there.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com

Videos posted on social media showed heavy shooting at the rally in an area of Ensenada and at least three bodies lying on the ground.

The shooting, which took place early Saturday afternoon, provoked an intense mobilization of units of the army, navy, and state and local police.

Baja California officials say gunmen in one vehicle opened fire on people and vehicles at the rally. State prosecutor Ricardo Iván Carpio said that vehicle was found to have “perforations from gunshots and traces of blood inside.”

The state prosecutor’s office said there was evidence of crossfire suggesting it was a confrontation between members of organized crime groups.

Baja California, across the border from California, is experiencing intense cartel activity.

“I’m inviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to join me for @Angels Pride Night at Anaheim Stadium on June 7,” Mayor Ashleigh Aitken tweeted Saturday. “Pride should be inclusive and like many, I was disappointed in the Dodgers decision.”

Neither the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence nor the Angels immediately responded to a request for comment Sunday. It was not clear whether the group would accept the invitation, or whether they would have any official participation in the team’s June 7 event.

“I think it was a missed opportunity to really err on the side of being inclusive and err on the side of standing up for our marginalized communities, especially on the eve of Harvey Milk Day, especially on the eve of Pride Month,” Aitken told ABC7 of the Dodgers’ decision to revoke their invitation.

The Dodgers’ decision, announced Wednesday, came after complaints raised by several Catholic organizations and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who said the group — billed as an “order of queer and trans nuns” — regularly disparaged Christians.

“This year, as part of a full night of programming, we invited a number of groups to join us,” according to a statement issued by the team. “We are now aware that our inclusion of one group in particular — The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence — in this year’s Pride Night has been the source of some controversy.

“Given the strong feelings of people who have been offended by the sisters’ inclusion in our evening, and in an effort not to distract from the great benefits that we have seen over the years of Pride Night, we are deciding to remove them from this year’s group of honorees.”

The group had been scheduled to receive a Community Hero Award at the team’s June 16 Pride Night, honoring its efforts to promote human rights, diversity and “spiritual enlightenment.”

The Sisters issued a statement Thursday expressing “deep offense” at being uninvited to the event, calling the decision a capitulation to “hateful and misleading information from people outside their community.” The group insisted it is a nonprofit organization that “annually raises thousands of dollars to distribute to organizations supporting marginalized communities.”

“Our ministry is real. We promulgate universal joy, expiate stigmatic guilt and our use of religious trappings is a response to those faiths whose members would condemn us and seek to strip away the rights of marginalized communities,” Sister Rosie Partridge, described as the “abbess” of the group, said in a statement.

The Sisters’ website describes the organization as “a leading-edge order of queer and trans nuns.”

Other high-profile Southland supporters of LGBTQ rights also chimed in, expressing disappointment in the Dodgers’ decision.

The Dodgers’ original decision to honor the group drew criticism from various Catholic organizations. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, accused the team of “rewarding anti-Catholicism” by honoring the group.

“The Catholic League has been the leading critic of this bigoted organization for many decades,” Donohue wrote on the organization’s website. “… These homosexual bigots are known for simulating sodomy while dressed as nuns.”

He added, “Just last month, they held an event mocking our Blessed Mother and Jesus on Easter Sunday.”

Donohue said he wrote to Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred to protest the Dodgers’ decision to honor the group.

Rubio also sent a complaint to Manfred, saying the group “mocks Christians through diabolical parodies of our faith.”

“Do you believe that the Los Angeles Dodgers are being ‘inclusive and welcoming to everyone’ by giving an award to a group of gay and transgender drag performers that intentionally mocks and degrades Christians — and not only Christians, but nuns, who devote their lives to serving others?” Rubio wrote in his letter.

The organization Catholic Vote also condemned the group’s inclusion in the Dodgers’ event. Its president, Brian Burch, issued a statement Wednesday hailing the team’s decision to exclude the group, which he called “an anti-Catholic hate group known for their gross mockery of Catholic nuns.”

“While we continue to wonder how such a group was selected in the first place, this incident should serve as a wake-up call for all religious believers: unchecked woke corporations have no qualms about exploiting people of faith,” Burch said.

On Wednesday night, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath blasted the team for disinviting the Sisters.

“If they’re not invited, I’m not going,” she wrote on her Twitter page. “Celebrating Pride is about inclusion. Do better.”

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  A special community dance was held at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Brandon Tsay, speaks during an event outside of Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where in January, he disarmed a mass shooter who already killed 11 people, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  A special community dance was held at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  A special community dance was held at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  A special community dance was held at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Lloyd Gock, 67, of Alhambra, right, who survived the mass shooting at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, dances with Karen Hahn, 62, of Pasadena during a special community dance at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed the same shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  A special community dance was held at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  A special community dance was held at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Paul, left, and Millie Cao perform during a special community dance at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Lloyd Gock, 67, of Alhambra, right, who survived the mass shooting at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, dances with Karen Hahn, 62, of Pasadena during a special community dance at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed the same shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Charmeen Wing, left, and Pavel Balykin perform during a special community dance at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Lloyd Gock, 67, of Alhambra, left, who survived the mass shooting at Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park, dances with Karen Hahn, 62, of Pasadena during a special community dance at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed the same shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Millie, left, and Paul Ca0 perform during a special community dance at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Kristi Semochko, left, and Vlad Ogurtsov perform during a special community dance at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  A special community dance was held at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Vlad Ogurtsov, left, and Kristi Semochko perform during a special community dance at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  A special community dance was held at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  A special community dance was held at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  A special community dance was held at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Brandon Tsay, poses for photos during a community dance event outside of Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where in January, he disarmed a mass shooter who already killed 11 people, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Performers wait to hit the dance floor during a special community dance at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

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  Millie, left, and Paul Ca0 perform during a special community dance at the Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio in Alhambra, where Brandon Tsay disarmed a mass shooter in January inside of his family’s dance studio, on Saturday, May 20, 2023. The event was coordinated between Tsay and the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. (Photo by Trevor Stamp, Contributing Photographer)

Old friends reconnected. Strangers laughed alongside each other. And on Saturday, May 20, they danced into the night on an Alhambra dance floor.

It was here, at Lai Lai Ballroom & Studio, on the eve of Lunar New Year, where just four months ago a young man wrestled a gun away from a man who just minutes before, in neighboring Monterey Park, had caused what is the deadliest American mass shooting of 2023. It was here where Brandon Tsay foiled a second attack.

On Saturday, hundreds of people gathered at the site to celebrate the Asian American heritage, to laugh, eat and enjoy an evening of dance – where each step is step toward telling a different story, one about a peaceful, tight-knit community that finds smiles, friendship in their beloved ballroom dance halls.

The free community dance — co-hosted by the Tsay family, which owns the studio, and Asian Americans Advancing Justice — was an evening of remembrance during a month devoted to celebrating Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage. But it was also an opportunity for people to lean on each other for support in the aftermath of a tragedy that rocked many to their core, according to some of the event’s attendees.

Among those in the crowd were families of victims, as well as people who were physically injured and emotionally scarred by the tragedy.

For some, getting back to the dance floor was not easy thing. For some it was imperative to get back soon.

Charmeen Wing was still reeling from the loss of her mom when Mymy Nhan, a close friend of hers, became the first of 11 people to die at the hands of the gunman at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio on Jan. 21.

“I was so sad. I didn’t really know why I was dancing anymore,” she said.

But upon the invitation of the event organizers, Wing decided to pick up dancing again, something she hasn’t done since 2019.

“This has brought me back to life,” Wing said. “It brought me back to old friends that I haven’t seen in years because of the pandemic, and then obviously new friends.”

Wing, who had trained and danced at both Lai Lai and Star Ballroom for more than 10 years, described the ballroom community as tight-knit and filled with “loving, giving people”.

“What’s so interesting is many people we don’t know, maybe their names, or maybe only know their first names, but we recognize each other from seeing each other in the ballroom for years, and we support each other and we cheer each other,” she said.

Organizers were keenly aware of that solidarity as difficult memories of Jan. 21 linger.

“This event is a celebration of Alhambra and Monterey Park and our communities and our victims and our allies,” said Connie Chung Joe, CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Southern California (AJSOCAL). “It’s also a love letter to ballroom dancing, and to all of the community members here. We want to celebrate the strength and resiliency of our community.”

Two months after the tragedy, President Joe Biden visited Monterey Park to talk with families of the victims and survivors. During that trip, Biden also announced an executive order that seeks to increase background checks to buy guns, encourage safe storage of firearms and address the loss and theft of guns during shipping, among other things.

While national gun reform legislation remains elusive, even after several subsequent American mass shootings, people on Saturday said unity is vital in the road toward recovery.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, said Saturday’s event was an important moment on that road.

“It’s been four months since the shooting happened, and it was devastating and numbing to this community, but we have been starting to process this,” she said. “Of course, we will never forget what happened, but what we can do is unite and be strong before it.”

Lloyd Gock, in attendance on Saturday, echoed that strength.

He was roughly 10 feet away from Huu Can Tran, 72, when Tran opened fire at Star Ballroom Dance Studio. Gock fell to the ground just as bullets flew over his head, he said. Although he survived the incident, it took him a long time to heal mentally because many of those killed were his close friends.

But Gock was determined not to let the gunman deter him from doing what he loves most – dancing. He hit the dance floor barely a week after the shooting because he doesn’t want the gunman “to win”, Gock said.

“I am very happy to see many people are back here dancing again, and hopefully with time, lives will go back to normal again,” Gock said.

The 20 to 30 survivors formed a WeChat group and hold monthly meetings to check on each other, Gock said.

Recently, he noticed that more members of the group have begun to recover from the incident.

Meanwhile, Brandon Tsay, who was also in attendance Saturday, has become an American hero, but also has gone about using his newfound notoriety to call for communities to work together for greater compassion and building bridges to each other as the community heals.

Saturday’s event itself, and the support of Lai Lai in the area, seemed evidence of that compassion.

Brenda Tsay, who runs the Lai Lai dance studio with her brother and father, said many people and organizations have reached out to the family in the aftermath of the shooting. The free event was made possible with the support of neighbors, restaurants and elected officials, she said.

“We think that this community needs it,” she said. “They need a day where they can celebrate being Asian-American. They need a day where they can celebrate their culture. Also, also, they need a day to just enjoy themselves after what happened in January.”

Gock was determined to have many days to enjoy, and to heal.

“If we stop dancing, the gunman will get what he wants, but if we continue to dance, he will no longer be able to terrorize us,” Gock said.

He was identified as Elias Perez Santiago of Pico Rivera, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

The crash was reported at 8:47 p.m. on East Fork Road, east of the Shoemaker Canyon Road junction, according to the California Highway Patrol.

Santiago was pronounced dead at the scene, CHP Officer Stephan Brandt said.

Witnesses reported moderate rain in the area at the time of the crash, Brandt said.

No additional information was immediately available.