Vietnamese officer caught in Capitol riots + ‘Bling Empire’ TV show: Your AAPI newsletter

It is Thursday, Jan. 21, and this is The Sacramento Bee’s AAPI weekly newsletter.

Here’s a recap of the stories I’m following:

One of the rioters charged for his role in storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was a Vietnamese American police officer from Houston.

Tam Dinh Pham, who resigned from the force on Jan. 14, was charged Tuesday with knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful authority and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds in the attack as Congress was certifying President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

In an interview with the FBI at his home in Richmond, southwest of Houston, Pham initially said he was on Washington, D.C. from Jan. 5-7 for “business reasons,” according to court documents. Pham agreed to let agents look through photos on his phone and they noticed no pictures from the dates of his trip, the documents say.

However, when an agent looked through his deleted photos, she discovered video and pictures of Pham inside the Capitol, the documents say. The FBI retrieved metadata for the photos and determined they were created shortly before 3 p.m. Jan. 6, as rioters had breached Capitol and Congress was evacuated.

Advised that it was illegal to lie to the FBI, Pham changed his story and told agents he originally traveled to Washington, D.C., for his wife’s cooking business, a trip that coincidentally coincided with Trump’s rally, according to court documents.

Pham stated that he learned about the rally from Facebook and the only reason he went to the rally was to “see history,” the documents say. Pham told agents he was in the Capitol rotunda, viewed historical art on the walls and took photographs and videos for about 10 to 15 minutes before leaving, the documents say.

In other news

• #MyVPLooksLikeMe celebrated as women, girls rejoice at Kamala Harris’ historic moment (The Sacramento Bee)
• Virtual town hall addresses COVID-19 vaccine concerns in O.C.’s Asian American community (Los Angeles Times)
• Yang announces banking proposal, defends spotty voting record during campaign blitz (POLITICO)
• How Stacey Abrams has been mobilizing Asian Americans for years (NBC News)
• ‘It’s Starting Again’: Why Filipino Nurses Dread the Second Wave (The New York Times)
• ‘Psychological trauma and stress’: The lasting impact of the ‘Muslim ban’ (NBC News)
• How ancestral village of Kamala Harris is celebrating inauguration (NBC News)
• Many Filipino Americans eye posts in Biden administration (CNN)

This week in AAPI pop culture

I hate to say it, but once again, I bring you news of yet another ‘Crazy Rich Asians’-style reality TV show: This week, Netflix released ‘Bling Empire,’ the latest offering in a string of reality shows following the lives of obscenely wealthy East Asians.

‘Bling Empire’ chronicles the (pre-pandemic) dramatics of several rich Los Angeles Asian Americans. The glittery cast includes socialite Anna Shay, plastic surgeon Dr. Gabriel Chiu, entrepreneur Christine Chiu, real estate heir Kane Lim, denim heiress Cherie Chan, DJ Kim Lee, Hollywood producer Kelly Mi Li and small-time model/big time frat boy Kevin Kreider.

As with any decent reality show, social media has selected its villain, and it’s Andrew Gray, Kelly Mi Li’s boyfriend. Andrew combines gaslighting with a boiling-hot temper, at one point screaming at Kelly over the phone during a trip to Las Vegas because she didn’t wake him up to go shopping. (Yes, really.)

But Anna, who was present for Andrew’s meltdown and urged Kelly to break things off with him, was crowned the hero. You’ll have to watch to find out why.

I understand why so many entertainment companies are leaning into these particular Asian American stories — they’re fun, glamorous and frothy. But honestly, it’s starting to get old, erasing and exchanging the everyday problems and issues most Asian Americans face for the rarefied, curated gloss of the ultra-rich.

As Deanna Pai writes for Glamour: “If you’re hoping for more, manage your expectations accordingly—because like many reality TV shows before it, I found it doesn’t actually show much reality.”

Got a story suggestion? Please reach out to me at awong@sacbee.com.

That’s it for this week’s newsletter. Thanks for reading, and see you next week!

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