DISGRASIAN™

AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Diane Keng

Name: Diane Keng

Age: 18

Hails from: Silicon Valley

Occupation: High school senior, CEO

Known for: Doing business. WSJ just profiled Keng, a high school senior that presented her company, MyWeboo.com (a social networking management site that launched in March), to venture capitalists at last week’s Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco. Keng shares MyWeboo with her 25-year-old brother, but it’s her third start-up company.  Yeah, that’s right muthafuckaz! THIRD START-UP.

Did we forget to mention that Keng started her first company at age 16, but bailed because it wasn’t making enough money? And that despite her busy business schedule, she still does well in school and plays badminton? By golly, Keng is my a Hardass Asian Parent’s WET DREAM. Perhaps that’s why her dad gave her $100k in tuition money and my dad still regrets paying for my English degree. *sigh*

[MyWeboo.com]
[via 8 Asians]
[WSJ: Report Card? How About That Annual Report]

**This post has been changed to fix some factual errors. Thanks, Diane!

Filed under: Amazians, Amazing Teens, Businesswomen, CEOs, Cupertino, Diana is Quite a Name, Diana Keng, English Degrees Are Useless, Hardass Asian Parents' Wet Dreams, High School, My Weboo, San Francisco, Seed Money, Silicon Valley, Social Network Integrasian, Social Networking, Startups, Teen Wonders, Websites, WSJ

AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Cho Seung-jin, Piano Prodigy

Everybody Loves A Youngest-Ever Winner

Jen and I not particularly well-versed in the goings-on of the International piano competition community (Sorry, Moms), so we hadn’t heard of the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition–a prestigious classical piano showdown that occurs every three years in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan–until we read about its newly-anounted champion today.

South Korea’s Cho Seung-jin took first prize in the 7th Annual competition, a two-week affair that culminated today, making him the first-ever Asian person to nab the top honor (All winners since the contest’s 1991 inception have been European) of the Asia-based tournament.

OH. He’s also 15.

So he’s the youngest-ever winner of the competition. And our Hardass Asian Parents’ wet dream.

Cho typically practices piano for three to four hours a day (six during heavy competition), and what we love about him is that he seems to be both a consummate professional and fun, dreamy, adorably innocent kid.

The Korea Times pulled this excerpt from the judges’ interpretation of his second-round performance, depicting the nuance and wisdom of a veteran:

Continue reading AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Cho Seung-jin, Piano Prodigy

Filed under: Cho Seung-Jin, Everybody Loves a Winner, Exceptional Young People, First Asian, Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, Hardass Asian Parents, Japan, Music, Musical Geniuses, Piano, Piano Lessons Are Required, Prodigies, Teen Wonders, Youngest-Ever

AMAZIAN OF THE WEEK! Eri Yoshida

Name: Eri Yoshida

Age: 16

Occupation: Japan’s first female professional baseball player

Known for: Getting drafted last week by Kobe 9 Cruise, a minor league team, thereby making the high schooler the first woman (okay, girl, who is anybody kidding?) to play professional baseball in Japan since the country’s women’s league folded after two years in the 1950′s; her knuckleball, baseball’s most confounding pitch to hit, which she learned to throw by watching videos of Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield; having what appears to be the opposite of a pitcher’s stone-face–with those cute-as-a-button dimples–an asset that may prove just as distracting in the long run to batters as her trademark pitch.

Source
Thanks to all who sent us this story! You know who you are!

Filed under: Dimples, Eri Yoshida, First Woman in Japanese Baseball, firsts, Japanese Baseball, Knuckleballers, Knuckleballs, Kobe 9 Cruise, Playing with the Big Boys, Teen Wonders, Tim Wakefield, Yoshida Eri