AsAmNews today announced the inaugural winners of its Bad Ass Asian awards to be presented following its Common Ground Conference on October 26 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Dave A. Liu, an award-winning movie producer, author and veteran of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and Hollywood, is the winner of the Bad Ass Asian Entrepreneurial Spirit Award.
Christopher Chow, the first TV news reporter to be hired in Northern California, will accept the Bad Ass Asian Pioneer Journalist Award that night.
The honors will be presented at an awards banquet October 26 in Emeryville, CA at Hong Kong East Ocean Seafood Restaurant overlooking San Francisco Bay. The night culminates a day-long conference at UC Berkeley earlier that day to begin to break down barriers dividing the Asian American community. Common Ground will bring together opposing sides of controversial issues in the spirit of respect, openness and cooperation.
Liu is executive producer of DÌDI (弟弟), a feature-length film released nationwide in theaters this year and winner of the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic film at the Sundance Film Festival.
He is also the author of the best-selling book The Way of the Wall Street Warrior which Bloomberg selected as one of the best books of 2021.
During his career on Wall Street, Liu raised more than $15 billion for hundreds of companies and start-ups. In addition, he has started multiple companies employing hundreds of people.
Liu is an active philanthropist and serves on the board of Asian American Media Inc, the non-profit organization that publishes AsAmNews.
“AsAmNews would not exist today as a non-profit without the support of Dave,” said Randall Yip, founder & editor of AsAmNews and President of Asian American Media Inc. “His guidance and financial support made it all possible. It’s with that same entrepreneurial spirit that he has created startups and executive produced films such as Sundance winner Didi (弟弟), Oscar qualified Every Day After, and Slamdance winner Inheritance.“
“Thank you to AsAmNews for honoring me with this inaugural award,” said Dave Liu. “I am deeply grateful for this recognition and remain a steadfast supporter of AsAmNews’ vital mission to provide unbiased reporting on the issues that matter most to the Asian American community. Your work not only informs but empowers, and I am proud to stand alongside you in this important endeavor.”
Liu also serves as Chairman of the Philanthropic Advisory Council of Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft-focused organization dedicated to bettering the cleft affected people, and the executive board of the Management & Technology program at the University of Pennsylvania.
In 1970, the CBS station in San Francisco hired Chow, making him the first Asian American TV news reporter in Northern California.
He began his television career at KPIX-TV in San Francisco from 1970 – 1973 covering such stories as the killing of George Jackson trying to escape from San Quentin Prison, the second trial of Black Panther co-founder Huey Newton, bussing to desegregate San Francisco public schools, the outbreak of Chinatown youth gangs, and the abuses of agribusiness in California, the last two of which earned him Associated Press and Emmy awards.
He went on to work at PBS station KCET in Los Angeles where he served as a reporter and producer for the Dupont-Columbia Award-winning magazine show, 28 Tonight from 1976 – 1978.
His pioneering work paved the way for generations of Asian American journalists to follow him.
For that, Chow is the winner of AsAmNews Pioneer Journalist Award.
“His spirit and tenacity laid the foundation for others who looked like him to walk in his footsteps” said Yip. “TV executives weren’t sure how the public would respond to an Asian American face on TV news. Chow proved not only would the public put their trust in an Asian American reporter, but they also appreciated diverse faces and perspectives.”
Besides his work in television, Chow has been a documentary film producer and director, working on the award-winning films Fall of the I-Hotel, Wendy…uh What’s Her Name?, Dupont Guy: The Schiz of Grant Avenue, and Lest We Forget: Highlights of Korean American Oral History. More recently Chow consulted on the making of the films Chinatown Rising, Like a Rolling Stone: The Life and Times of Ben Fong-Torres, and Free Chol Soo Lee.
Chow was also an activist. As chairperson of the Angel Island Immigration Station Historical Advisory Committee to the California Assembly (1974-79), Chow led the successful campaign to save the detention barracks and its wall inscriptions from demolition and to convince California State Parks to commit to preserving, restoring and opening it to the public.
After retiring this year as a spokesperson for the California Public Utilities Commission Chow is now working on a history of Asian Americans in U.S. journalism.
“I’m astounded and humbled to be recognized and appreciated by my peers, many of whom have far surpassed my dreams and accomplishments as a journalist. It is especially sweet to receive this honor from a news organization of the Internet age, based in the community, dedicated and determined to voice news and views about, by, for and to Asian Americans and other Americans as well, in all their colors, backgrounds and sensibilities. Like AsAm News, being a voice for truth and justice was my goal all along.”
Tickets for both Common Ground and the Awards Dinner that follows are available here. Common Ground is sponsored by EastWest Bank and Liucrative Media. All proceeds benefit Asian American Media Inc, the non-profit that publishes AsAmNews.
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