Kat Chow

Images, GIFs and emojis — particularly the latter — have morphed into ways we express our feelings. They've quickly replaced words and sentences in our texts, tweets and emails.

So, what is this emoji? (As I'm writing this, it's consistently been the 25th most-tweeted emoji, according to the

When Kwok-Ming Cheng went to a Whole Foods in New York City to pick up some pre-ordered sandwiches over the Fourth of July weekend, he wasn't expecting to get tapped with a new nickname.

"Are you Ching Chong?"

That's the question Cheng said he heard from a customer service representative ...

Good morning, here are our early stories:

-- Israel Shoots Down Drone As Clash With Hamas Continues.

-- Citigroup Agrees To Pay $7 Billion To Resolve Mortgage Investigation.

-- Costa Concordia Cruise Ship Floats Again, After Two Years.

And here are more early headlines:

HHS Secretary Meets ...

The giant remittances economy — which consists of folks, mainly immigrants, sending money across borders — has been expanding for years. In 2014, the World Bank expects that people will send $436 billion in remittances to developing countries (despite more deportations of migrant workers). And by 2016, the World ...

The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.

• The intrigue continues in the publishing dispute between Amazon and Hachette Book Group. On Tuesday, the retailer wrote directly to a handful of Hachette authors, asking for thoughts on a proposal that would give 100 percent of ...

This Wednesday, we're commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act with an app that lets you explore the legislation in detail. We encourage you to peruse the text of the landmark bill alongside comments from journalists, lawyers, authors and others on how it evolved, and what it means ...

You can find all the Mexican-ish food that your stomach desires at Chipotle. What you won't be able to find — on its cups, at least — is the work of Mexican-American writers.

Let me explain: Chipotle — the fast-casual chain that goes by "Chipotle Mexican Grill" — plans to ...

Back in the '90s, comedian Margaret Cho starred in a little-loved, short-lived sitcom called All-American Girl. It was the first and only network sitcom to feature an Asian-American family (a fictional Korean-American family, in fact). It was pretty bland, and to the chagrin of many critics, the characters were painted ...

News of Tuesday's botched execution in Oklahoma got us thinking more generally about who is in prison and who is facing the death penalty.

Here are some figures that may surprise you:

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"Black men were more than six times as likely as white men in 2010 to be ...

For decades, Cheng Chui Ping smuggled thousands of people from China to the United States. She created a lucrative business and a robust network that brought immigrants through treacherous routes. Cheng died of cancer last Thursday in a Texas prison.

The 65-year-old, whom some affectionately called "Sister Ping," leaves behind ...

Fred Ho — composer, baritone saxophonist and activist — died at his Brooklyn home on Saturday at age 56. Throughout his career, Ho combined Asian melodies with big band jazz, though he never used the phrase "jazz." (He said the word originally denigrated the work of black musicians.)

He was ...

According to a recent report published by the Motion Picture Association of America, Latinos went to the movies in 2013 way more often than other ethnic groups in the U.S. relative to their population.

Last year, Latinos made up 17 percent of the population but accounted for 32 ...

Say you know someone, maybe a friend of a friend, who's perfectly pleasant but just sort of lacks any sort of oomph. You don't want to be mean (because, you, unkind? Never), but if you had to describe that person in a really, really honest way, how would you do ...

No matter how you feel about ethnicity and casting — and how ethnicity or race should relate to casting — there's probably something in the news lately that's going to make you upset. Folks have strong opinions about how the race of actors should or shouldn't relate to the characters ...

I'm not sure what type of situation would lead you to compare your earwax with anybody else's earwax. (Because, gross.) But researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center have found that the smell of ear gold varies by race. The volatile organic compounds in earwax — call it cerumen, ...

When I first walked through the door of Fred Ho's apartment in the Greenpoint area of Brooklyn, I asked, "How are you?" And he said, "Not good. I'm dying."

Ho has always been matter-of-fact and in-your-face. He painted himself green and posed naked for the cover his album, Celestial Green ...

Ever wear your parents' or grandparents' old clothes or have them wear yours? A photographer asked individuals to swap garb with their relatives who are from a different generation.

The artist, who goes by the name Qozop, is based in Asia. With his project "Spring-Autumn," Qozop wanted to explore the ...

Someone in Southern California seems to have a real issue with Asian-American women. Their main sticking point? Relationships between Asian-American women and white men.

Last week, Asian American student groups at the University of California — Los Angeles and the University of Southern California were mailed fliers blasting Asian ...

A few years ago, a woman named Elaine Dove tried an experiment on Craigslist. She created three ads, each with a different treatment of her racial and cultural background:

"The first described me accurately: gothic, Asian-American, alternative, artistic, inquisitive, intelligent, adventurous. The second made no mention of my ...

Shortening words, swapping them out, giving them different meanings — that's not new. Remember in Mean Girls when the queen bee character, Regina George, berated one of her underlings for trying to make the word "fetch" catch on?

These days, a lot of word clipping — like "awks" for "awkward" ...