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    Actress in controversial ad for Pete Hoekstra’s Senate campaign is ‘deeply sorry’

    An Asian-American actress who starred in the controversial ad produced by Michigan Republican Pete Hoekstra's U.S. Senate campaign has apologized for her participation.

    "I am deeply sorry for any pain that the character I portrayed brought to my communities," Lisa Chan, the actress, wrote in a statement on her Facebook page. "As a recent college grad who has spent time working to improve communities and empower those without a voice, this role is not in any way representative of who I am. It was absolutely a mistake on my part and one that, over time, I hope can be forgiven. I feel horrible about my participation and I am determined to resolve my actions."

    In the ad, which ran in Michigan during the Super Bowl, Chan portrays a young Asian woman riding a bike through a field of rice paddies and speaking broken English while thanking Hoekstra's opponent, Democratic incumbent Debbie Stabenow, for her "reckless spending."

    "Thank you, Michigan Senator Debbie Spenditnow," the woman says. "Debbie spends so much American money. You borrow more and more from us. Your economy get very weak. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie Spenditnow."

    The spot sparked outrage in the Asian American community. "It is very disturbing that Mr. Hoekstra's campaign chose to use harmful negative stereotypes that intrinsically encourage anti-Asian sentiment," the Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote group said in a statement.

    In 2010, Chan, who studied sociology at the University of California Berkeley, launched The Strive, a 501 c(3) charity organization "geared towards empowering at-risk youth through inspiration and improved public education."

    According to the San Francisco Chronicle, which profiled her in 2007, Chan won Miss San Francisco's Outstanding Teen pageant that year with a platform of "empowering the youth toward an educational revolution" while maintaining a 4.2 grade-point average.

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    • Young Yang ext-1825  •  Neihu District, Taiwan  •  10 days ago
      test
    • R E D O X  •  3 mths ago
      but she cashed their check...right !
      • zoltar 3 mths ago
        yes retards always need to be fuqed twice
      • bubba abdul 3 mths ago
        she did the job. u should get one.
      • Rachel 3 mths ago
        it seems like most people would rather than do it for free- would it be better if she didnt cash the check #$%$
    • V  •  3 mths ago
      Wait wait wait. She went to Berkley and appeared in a conservative political ad?
      • marcod 3 mths ago
        Irony at it's finest...
      • A Yahoo! User 3 mths ago
        So let's see if I can follow the stereotype like good little news-digester: Only liberals go to Berkley, right?
      • ishtar127a 3 mths ago
        I know! I'm laughing my head off, for that and her charity work.
    • B.S.  •  Capitol Heights, Maryland  •  3 mths ago
      At least the actress wasn't outsourced.
      • chieftain 3 mths ago
        AHA! I knew she was an AMERICAN actress (although I incorrectly guessed Thai-American).
      • JOND 3 mths ago
        Best comment on here.
      • Margy 3 mths ago
        ha, ha! Good one #$%$! Casting director could have gone the Sean Connery/Shirley MacLaine route; hired a non-Asian and have the make up artist work some magic!
    • David  •  3 mths ago
      I couldn't help but to laugh...this could have been a Saturday Night Live skit.
      • blazin'Grunt11B 3 mths ago
        Right??? LOL!!!!
      • costumeharpy 3 mths ago
        I have to admit, I thought it was when I first saw it. LOL
      • MJ 3 mths ago
        Yeah, a skit, like your I.Q..... Sadly not anything to laugh about
    • BallsofKungfucious  •  3 mths ago
      right smack in the middle of the linsanity week!
      • Anon 3 mths ago
        haha... this is funny.
      • J 3 mths ago
        Hahahahaha good one!!
      • Allen 3 mths ago
        ABC/ESP-NSanity, you mean. ABC radio stations talking about Lin in the morning. ESPN talking about him all day. ABC TV talking about him at night. ABC websites posting new stories about him every couple hours.

        ABC just happens to own ESPN, btw. I'm about ready to puke hearing about him. I'm sure one or two people paid by ABC have already experienced nausea as a reult of having to talk about him ad nauseum.
    • burned_once  •  3 mths ago
      Did her shame stop her from cashing her check?
    • S  •  Beaverton, Oregon  •  3 mths ago
      We are losing jobs to China because US companies are taking them there.
    • Yeah  •  Milwaukee, Wisconsin  •  3 mths ago
      It's not racist to not be happy that the majority of our high paying manufacturing jobs are now in Asia. The complaint is not with the Asian people. They are doing what anyone, anywhere would do, which is work hard to make the best use of an opportunity. The complant is with ourselves. Our consumer spending habits, and the horrible job our government is doing mangling our economy. If a foreign country places tarriffs on our products, then so should we. If foreign factories want to sell their products here, then they should have to meet the same standards we require for our factories in safety and environmental responsibility. If American companies want to make their products elsewhere and sell them here, they should be charged a ponetary penalty that should be used to reward those who make their products here. Without our manufacturing base, we arenothing but a house of cards. Without it, we'd never have survived WW2. Without it, we wont survive the next major war either. We can barely manage Afganistan and Iraq. What happens when China or Russia have had enough of our meddling in what they want to do? Right or wrong doesn't matter when you're broken and bleeding in a ditch somewhere.
    • James  •  Cambridge, Massachusetts  •  3 mths ago
      Let us be clear, the workers in the Chinese factories are not getting rich, it is the people who own the factories and the companies who ship the goods from China to Americathat are getting rich. All because people want cheaper jeans at Walmart.
    • grilledcheeze  •  3 mths ago
      Regardless of Debbie Spenditnow.... it is true. You CANNOT ship the majority of manufacturing jobs overseas and expect our economy not to suffer.
    • FedUp  •  3 mths ago
      Why does she have to be referred to as an "asian American" instead of an "American". From now on I want to be referred to as a "European American" since my heritage going back to the 13th century is eruopean. As long as we keep this crap up, racism will only get worse. We are ALL Americans for Chr!$t Sake...............
    • GrayMatter  •  3 mths ago
      Corporations are taking American jobs and moving them to China, for nothing more than a bigger profit.....or so they believe. What they end up with is short term gains, and a weaker American economy, which means they have to try and sell what they had made over in China for even less, because they have left a middle class devoid of money, and the days of buying on credit are over. It is time that American Corporations realize that they are damaging this country for a profit.....and it has to stop. The most ironic thing is....they would actually make more profit by bringing jobs back here and paying good wages...instead of trying as hard as they can to repeal the minimum wage.
    • MikeF  •  Anchorage, Alaska  •  3 mths ago
      Hey, when you're trying to work as an actor a gigs a gig.
    • Mickey  •  3 mths ago
      This is not a slight on Asians. This is to disgrace China and to perpetrate the misconception that China is taking away American jobs, which is nothing but a bunch of crap. China is not taking away American jobs. The American companies are giving away American jobs.
    • James  •  Cambridge, Massachusetts  •  3 mths ago
      If you have a problem with China, then do not buy Chinese goods buy goods "Made in America".
    • Bruce  •  3 mths ago
      Whose sending jobs to China? You are, duh. The American consumer continues to want to buy something just a little cheaper. They run to Walmart, search the internet, and wonder why companies go to China to satisfy the consumers need for cheap. If something is made in the States, I don't mind paying a little more. So for all of you posters who don't understand business, you are sending the jobs to China.
    • Pewah  •  Mesa, Arizona  •  3 mths ago
      Nobody cried for MY people when Sesame Street introduced the Swedish Chef, DID THEY?!! Scandanavian-Americans have long suffered from being that one racial segment in the U.S. that everybody else feels free to mock. You just wait until we've had our fill and go viking on all your butts! No, wait...maybe we'll just break store windows and steal TV's instead. Yeah...our people really like our TV's.
    • BrianS  •  3 mths ago
      Why is the media pretending the actress is to blame for this offensive ad paid for and written by Hoekstra's campaign? She was just the messenger. The campaign wrote and paid for the message.
    • prochina  •  3 mths ago
      I am an American who has lived in both American and China. For those of you who have never lived there, you do not understand how hard they are working to make a better country, just as we did following WWII. Unfortunately, our way of life no longer revolves around how do we improve ourselves. It is now all about, "Give me everything because I deserve it!" I teach in NYC and I see these values being imprinted onto our youth every day. China will be #1 unless we abandon our entitlement thinking.
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