Wonderful Wednesday!! If you're a fan of Asian American actors in tv shows or movies, and TOTALLY support their equal treatment (as in, don't just put us all in the 'kung fu master' role), check out this site:
racebending.com
It started after The Last Airbender movie, you know, all that business with the 3 main characters being played by white actors (sorry, Sokka Cullen. You see what I did there ;D?). This is something I totally support, being a huge fan of the original tv show and also being a super rabid, er, I mean /avid/ movie person. Teehee.
AANG CAN STAY ASIAN AND STILL SAVE THE WORLD|Fight on, Racebending.com!!
Hey Wednesday CIRCLE, this is an article my LING115 Prof. Philip Carter sent to us about whether or not Americans will really learn Mandarin Chinese. Is it just a fad? Or do you think Mandarin Chinese will actually stay in USA education?
I personally think that Mandarin Chinese will stay. At least, I hope it does O_O. Maybe, with enough luck, they'll start teaching the other major Chinese dialects, too!! I thought this quote from the article was particularly funny//fascinating:
"Imagine that your monthly mortgage bill arrives, unremarkable except that it’s suddenly written in Mandarin. Then, your bank sends over a Chinese translator to explain that you are falling deeper into debt. Mind-boggling? Well, this is America’s contemporary predicament as the Chinese finance a growing share of our national debt. Beijing holds $1.8 trillion in U.S. bonds and other instruments of borrowing. We are fused at the hip with the Chinese, economically speaking." - Bruce Fuller, Prof. of Education and Public Policy at UCBerkeley.
So first I'll start off by responding to Eli's post on the racebending movement. This has gained a lot of momentum thanks to the movie Last Airbender, but it's been going on before that. I'm sure all of you guys have heard of the Dragonball Z live action movie, and another one that I've heard was in the making is a live action Cowboy Bepop (featuring Keanu Reeves as Spike). One of the interesting things about the Last Airbender movement, is that it's a cartoon series that was originally created in America. (Am I right on this Eli? I don't really watch the series, so that tidbit of info was gathered from my readings) Anyways, a term that some of you might have heard before is "yellowface." Which is one of the older terms for the racebending movement. I found an article a while back that I found really interesting because it highlights the 25 most yellowface movies made, and some of the results are pretty surprising. Some are still pretty good movies, but it makes you think about what you're watching.
In terms of Eli's most recent blog (haha, good job Eli), I think that schools will continue to teach Mandarin Chinese, simply because there is a growing trend of globalization.
And I really hate to make this a long post, so I'll kinda stop there, but there is actually an article that I think you guys should check out in terms of identity week:
@Jason, yeah, you're totally right--Avatar: The Last Airbender was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko in America and technically ≠ anime, even though all the characters are Asian. SO GOOD!!
Oh my goodness I completely forgot about the Dragon Ball Z live-action movie...I think that's 'cause I blocked it from my mind...xD.
Some really important movies that have yellow face that I've seen are: The Bitter Tea of General Yen The Good Earth The Mountain Road
I have a question for pondering: Nancy Kwan, in all of her well-known movies like The World of Suzie Wong, Flower Drum Song, etc., plays a Chinese woman. Are we as the audience supposed to think of her as FULL Chinese, or as half Chinese, and coming off of that, does that make her portrayals "yellow face"? (Nancy Kwan is half Chinese, half white, and many attribute her wide appeal to Caucasians to her apparently not-Chinese face). This thought just occurred to me. Personally I don't consider her a yellow-face actor, but some people might if they think hard enough about it like I did....haha.
^Even though I'm not really sure who Nancy Kwan is, I would consider her as well as any part-asian actors a "yellow-face actor" because similar to how African Americans are inclusive of everyone even remotely black (c'mon colin powell has like 5 times more caucasian blood than african blood), we need to rally ourselves and stop singling out our differences because let's face it, we need any and all support for the cause. PLUS, THAT CHICK SORT OF LOOKS ASIAN TO ME..
Ok on another note, JASON YANG THE YOUTUBE CELEBRITY AUTOGRAPHED MY FACE. He's such a talented violinist and definitely an inspiration for Asian American entertainers. Because the mainstream media has pretty much ignored Asian American entertainers (karate grandmasters do not count), we were forced to use youtube and other free internet media channels as mediums and outlets to express ourselves creatively. Which poses the question: What do you guys think about youtube as one of the west coast Asian-American primary media stations?
ps. LIKE A G6 BY FAR EAST MOVEMENT IS NOW #2 ON THE BILLBOARDS TOP 100 CHARTS. FM BABBYYY.. COP THE ALBUM
^I am kind of bad with comments but the discussion on yellow face movies reminded me of a documentary I heard concerning the role of Chinese in Hollywood, here is the link:
Interesting bits of The World of Suzie Wong is that Nancy Kwan actually replaced France Nuyen, a French actress and the original choice for the movie(from wikipedia). So it is an interesting thought Eli, maybe Nancy got the role because her not-Chinese face contrary to Anna May Wong who was frustrated with the industry? =(
Nancy actually went back to Hong Kong this summer and I remembered there was an exhibit or interview done on her, hope I'll find something in google with enough digging around
OHMYGOODNESS I OWN HOLLYWOOD CHINESE!! :) I got it as a gift when I became a student member of the Chinese American Museum. It's pretty good. There's a whole range of Chinese American/not Chinese-American big names in Hollywood in it like B.D. Wong, Ang Lee, Tsai Chin, and even Christopher Lee (Fu Manchu, Sarumon from LOTR, Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus). Man, that guy has such a massive filmography that he gets his own wiki page for it. He recently lost an inch of height and now is ONLY 6'4"!!! (sarcasm).
Ohmygoosh I didn't know Nancy Kwan replaced France Nuyen. Wooah that's kind of sad...but at the same time, I can't imagine anyone else playing Suzie Wong.
So GOOD LUCK USC AGAINST CAL TODAY. My dad is so torn--he went to Cal for undergrad and usc for grad, so he doesn't know who to root for, but he thinks he's probably gonna cheer for USC cuz his twin daughters go there ;D.
Haha, did anyone go to the game? We finally won (by a large margin)!......
Anyway, there's an article by Adriel Luis (the same guy who performed "Slip of the Tongue" which we watched after the first session) that I thought was really relevant to the identity discussion and bounces off Jason's article about whether we still call ourselves "Asian American."
I like his point: "Either way, it's important for Americans of Asian descent to find a term we can coalesce under without offending or excluding folk, or getting tangled in semantics." I just wonder if that's even possible...any politically-charged term is bound to have an element of controversy.
But I agree with Kevin--we need solidarity! In my mind, "[ethnicity] American" like "Japanese American" is mainly a cultural identity while "Asian American" (or whatever term you prefer) is my political one. They don't necessarily have to compete with each other; their use just depends on the context of the discussion. I guess they compete because the cultural and political often overlap.
BTWs--Adriel Luis a great writer, so definitely check out some of his other posts: http://race.change.org/blog?author_id=581
See you guys soon! I wonder if the sun plans to come out this week.
According to the weather, it's supposed to be either on the verge of raining or drizzly or rainy all week and into some of next week...but weather reports aren't exactly the most reliable...
Does anyone here use ethnic Asian remedies? I was just wondering that...I live in an apartment with 3 other Chinese girls but I'm the only one who uses Asian herbal remedies when I'm injured, or in pain, or sick. I take pei pa koa when I have a sore throat or a cough, and I use white flower oil as a pain reliever. I also drink jasmine tea (FAVORITE!!) and ginseng tea, which I think is kind of gross but apparently really good for you. Does anyone else do something similar? Or do we all just turn to Tylenol, Advil, and Alleve? xD.
Yes I just used pei pa kao like cough syrup to cure my annoying coughs!
and then... (poking around the drawers) watermelon frost for cold sore, Salonpas for muscle fatigue, chrysanthemum tea for cold, and white flower oil as nose decongestant.
Then of course there is the Tylenol when it was an acute headache that I just want to stop~ =D
@Gary hahahahah that's exactly what I do! I only use tylenol and advil for really bad pains that I just want to stop immediately because i'm writing an essay or studying or something. but if it's like something that I can deal with because i'm just watching tv or a movie or futzing around doing nothing, then I use white flower oil and other stuff.
It is this black powder spray that my mom give me whenever I have canker sores (just looked it up cause The Office just taught me the difference between canker and cold sore xD). You just spray it on the sore and let the medicine works its magic.
p.s. the sun came out for a bit today! ^_^
response to blogging idea #2 from Kat's email:
What do you guys think about Ken Jeong? I am a fan of community and love his acting, but then he is taking the perpetual stereotypes on Asian Americans to a blatant level. So just wondering if what's your opinion of him. =D
There is an interesting link about him, too bad the vid is taken down =(
asian men are sexy now. shout out to all the asian men out there. thanks jabbawokeez and america's best dance crew, because we've always been here, but you guys put us on the map baby
what do you guys think about the new reality show setting in K-Town? I feel like it's going to give us Asians much needed and mad exposure and shock a couple Americans who don't really know Asians beyond the kungfu bruceleejackiechan or the stereotypical geekface (love geeks btw <3)
omg haha i wish i started blogging earlier..you guys post some pretty interesting stuff! sadly, what caught my eye the most was eli's comment on asian remedies. cuz that shiz is the bommmmbbb. i eat pei pa kao like its candy, i also use the watermelon frost and salonpas puahah and something i think really works that my grandma used to do for me when i have headaches is put this minty oil thing on my neck and use a bowl/spoon to rub really hard on my neck until it turned red. it's incredibly painful but it WORKS. i love asian medicine. i feel like it's so much more healthy and natural and just better for you in the long run.
to gary's comment about ken jeong, i think he does take the blatant asian stereotype to another level, but i can't help but laugh. i know it's bad to be supporting this stereotyping but honestly i think it's going to hard for the world to stop doing this, especially in the media. hopefully one day we'll be able to break out of this mold. this man is so freakin funny and his speech at the mtv movie awards was really endearing.
LOLOL gary i just read your comment about the office teaching you the difference between canker sore and cold sore. i just watched that episode yesterday. oh michael.
aaanndd i don't know if you guys will like my music taste, but i just discovered this awesome band called the morning benders. three out of the four band members are ASIAN AMERICAN wooot. or have some asian blood in them at least. :) here's a video of them singing their new song called virgins:
i just took some pei pa koa this morning because i woke up with some weirdness going on in my throat area haha. pei pa koa ftw!!
ken jeong definitely does do asian stereotypes, and i think it's really smart of him to cash in on making his asian-ness funny, but at the same time that i'm laughing, i get a little uncomfortable because he can get a little offensive. (also one of my friends from the cinematic school who used to see him all the time said that after the Hangover became sort of successful, he became a jerky jerk. how sad!)
can't wait to see you guys later today!! also, don't forget to comment with your name. i kinda want to know who said the comment about "sexy asian men."
@kevin: haha yeah, my last name is Nakagawa... The screen name is just what my friend in my japanese class would call me, and I had to make this blogger account for that class. so yea.
...You didn't just make a wild guess did you?? If you did, wow.
@Catherine: I like your music taste! Where are these guys from?
thanks renee! i'm glad you enjoyed it. they're from the bay area..the lead singer went to berkeley i believe
and yes, eli i went to the obama rally :) i didn't actually get to see him but i got to hear him..which was kind of weird and awesome at the same time..he's a really good speaker and knows how to draw a crowd..i just still don't know how i feel about him
wowww how early did you go? i was walking to work at 6:50am and there was already this huge line that weaved from trousdale to the edge of leavey i think of people just waiting to get in....x_x
kal penn was there, right? at least i think he was....do you think he goes to all of Obama's rallies on college campuses...? As an APA he could appeal to APAs, and as one of the stars of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, he could appeal to....everyone who liked that movie?
HEY GUYS!! Here's a link to the music video I was talking about early in CIRCLE today. I made it for my EALC204 class. Catherine Chang helped me, along with my roommate and a few of her friends. I hope you like!! I included bloopers! ;)
Yay goo Kevin!! These are totally legit blogs! @Jade >=9
Below is a little food blog entry (from personal experience) and also supplements for Jason's tour:
In Japanese Village Plaza Mitsuru grill - offers dongo (hot mochi), taiyaki (red bean paste fish cookies), takoyaki (octopus pancakes?) and other light snacks for you to munch when on the go~ Wakasaya - famous for their $20/30 mega seafood bowl that is free if you can finish it within a time limit =D Yamazaki bakery - nice bakery that offers interesting things like green tea mochi bread Shabu-shabu house - famous shabu-shabu place, but really crowded like Daikokuya
In Weller Court Curry house - part of the curry house chains you see across LA~ Orochon ramen - always a decent wait time for this place, good ramen and you mainly order the base of the ramen and the spiciness of it. People who finished and didn't die from the hottest bowl get their picture hung on the wall ^^ Senka cafe - more like a little cafe that sells chocolate and pretty cups, but their shakes (genmai/brown rice) are really nice (and healthy) refreshments for summertime
In Little Tokyo Market Place Cherry on top - yogurtland style but they offer board games and a tiny tv with mario game Beard Papa's - yummy cream puffs introduced from japan Shojin - the best tasting vegan restaurant in my opinion, though comes with a price and hungry stomach =/ Sakura noodle house - cheap and economic ramen, udon, and curry. Must eat place when you feel poor or frugal D; Bakery within the supermarket - honorable mention because my aunt loves the tapioca bread so much that she drove back and bought 7 of them at once
More TBA~~
I was actually an intern that participated for collecting the data Jason mentioned today and luckily the presentation that Little Tokyo Service Center had put together are still accessible: here is the link for people who are interested (it was compiled at May, and the project is still continuing so the data might have changed)
Maaan, i'm super bummed i had to miss yesterday :( sorry!! i was so sick and asleep that apparently i didn't even hear kat calling me...i'll spare you guys the yucky medical details though.
so for those of us who weren't able to go, what happened??? IT SOUNDS SO EXCITING!! and what is this about jade saying what what?
also i'm writing my paper about Asian-American representation and depiction in films//entertainment ABOUT Asian-Americans. i'm trying to limit my evaluations to 4-5 films, but i actually don't have enough right now! so far I have Flower Drum Song, Joy Luck Club, and the 2002 revival of the Flower Drum Song on Broadway. i'm trying to keep my examples at 1960 or beyond. do you guys have any suggestions? i was thinking about Enter the Dragon, but I've never seen it before so i don't know how relevant that would be.
Well a quick recap of events, the guys at VC (Abe?) gave us a history of the place as well as APA film in general. VC used to be a place that actually produced films by APAs but currently acts as a resource and a repository of said films. Afterwards we went to eat and took a little tour of little tokyo.
About Gary's survey, I was surprised by the number of recently established businesses (ie less than a decade old). Does anyone happen to know what the average lifespan of these businesses might be?
Ohh that's where VC comes in (applying knowledge we learned from the field trip >=D)
@Eli So just as Ben had mentioned, the place we visited has a long history in fostering films and visual projects that provide education in the Asian American identity and I am 100% positive that Abe can help you if you asked.
Also, I found an interesting article about yellow face! http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/arts_culture_media/archives/winfrey_yellowface_asians_hollywood.asp
Thought I'd share it with you guys. Sure got me riled up a little.
Abraham Ferrer Director of Exhibitions & Festival Co-Director 213-680-4462, extension 25 abe@vconline.org
He said he would welcome us anytime, so you can shoot an email to him, tell him you are from CIRCLE and also saying you would like more information on Asian American films =D
sweeeet. THANKS GARY!! :) i'll definitely do that.
also, Lakers won today! Woooo! I <3 LA! Toronto Raptors executed a brilliant offensive though, kudos to them.
Speaking of the Lakers, it feels like every time the opposing team has an APA player on their team, things get touchy. First it was the, "GO BACK TO CHINA!" directed at Yao Ming, then there was the game against the Warriors. The Golden State Warriors team has Jeremy Lin, a Chinese-American guy from Palo Alto who recently graduated from Harvard. The person next to my twin sister was also APA, and when he heard her cheering when Jeremy Lin got called for a foul, he leaned over and said, "You know, you should support your brother. Don't cheer against him, that's how we get picked on." "Excuse me?" O_O hmm??? What do you guys think of this? Should I, as an APA, support Jeremy Lin over my hometown team because he's a super minority in the NBA and is of the same ethnicity as I am?
I'm out of town and won't be able to make it to the meeting tomorrow on gender and sexuality, but here's an interesting blog I found explaining the basics of feminism.
Hi you guys! I really really liked tonight's Circle session on gender and sexuality- so much that I had to blog right after I got back to my room. Not to say that the past sessions haven't been great, but tonight's was definitely my favorite so far. I love how we can be so honest with each other and truly talk about the real issues that have affected us and other Apa's.
What really got me thinking tonight was the discrepancy between being an ally or feminist or being a supporter and whether or not there is a difference. I stood up for being both an ally and a feminist, not really thinking of it being so much as a label, but as a belief. In my opinion, being an ally and a feminist means that I support the issues at hand and I then basically just carry on with my life with those issues in mind. But then when listening to other people's connotations of what it meant to be an ally or feminist, it made me question if I could truly call myself either. It made me start to think about whether or not I had taken any action in support of these causes and if I had ever made a point to get up and fight for them. It really made me want to reach out and do something but to ease my guilt, I think that my support for both women's rights and the LGBTQ community is so strong that by following my morals and ethics in the decisions I make, it would all be for the issues in my life that I believe in. In that way, I feel it's my right and obligation to say that I am an ally and a feminist and then help spread the word.
And I really wonder how much different my life would be if I was a guy. haha If only we could be like those people in movies or tv shows where they get to see their alternative life if they weren't born or was a different gender and then wake up and find out it was all a dream. That would be pretty trippy hahaa
How do you guys think your lives would be different if you were another gender?
Wow Jenny, thanks for telling me what happened tonight. I'm so sorry I missed it, guys!
Hmmm I feel like my life would be REALLY different if I were a guy. I would be a different kind of twin, and I probably would have been more active sports-wise during high school, and I probably would passed my driving test after 1 fail, not 4! (probably shouldn't let me drive you guys anywhere). I know there's this stereotype-sometimes-truth that Asian parents only want sons not daughters (DID. THEY SEND. ME DAAAUGHTERS. WHEN I ASKED. FOR SONSS.), but I know my parents were super happy with getting two daughters first. Yeah, they did go on to have two sons, and they do treat my brothers differently than they treated me and my sister when we were their age, but in the end, I'm happy to be female, mentally and biologically, especially since we live in an age that's so much better about almost-equality between the males and females. Sure, I may get stereotyped every once in a while because I'm a girl, but it's nbd, I just break that stereotype into tiny bits and throw it back into the stereotyper's face. I'm glad I can wear jeans without being ostracized and that one day it's possible that I'll be the CEO of a major company. Hopefully.
in other newsm DOES ANYONE WATCH FAMILY GUY?! today the episode reveals something reeeally interesting about Quagmire. I highly recommend you guys watch it because it's super relevant to CIRCLE, I think. It's on hulu, the most recent Family Guy episode, the Halloween one. I don't want to be the first to spoil anything, so go and watch it you guys!
Earlier today I had a rather interesting chat with a british guy that I worked with a while back. It didn't actually fit anywhere in today's session but I figured it was relevant so I guess bloggy-bloggy time it is.
To be honest, I don't really know this guy at all despite the fact that he was more or less my direct supervisor. We were discussing travel and the US in general (california in particular [LA in super-super particular]) when he mentioned how he was particularly interested in "fit asian bitches". I mean as a guy thing, you get used to hearing this all the time but for some reason I had a knee-jerk reaction to this one. Despite what it might seem, this guy (let's call him Ted) really meant well, I eventually figured out it was just his coarse sense of humor. It got me thinking though, we're constantly talking about promoting awareness and recognition of APA culture but we only recognize it when other APA are doing it. When say, a white individual like Ted calls it out, it can be really easy to get offended even if he means in a nice way (compared to some of the less kind words he had for white american society). We want APAs to be recognized but when we are, we suddenly don't want to be lumped together and want to either be individual subgroups or just a homogeneous part of the whole population. I shouldn't say "we" really, since this is mostly my reaction, but I guess there's a kind of bipolarity where there's that sudden shift between "why asian peopled get ignored so much? asian people so nice" to "do I look [insert nationality here] to you?"
The conversation ended up going the route of how the rest of the world sees the US in regards to its treatment of foreigners and how even in Britain, Ted could see the americanizing effect on asian-american immigrants to the UK. He was talking about how there were indians in the UK who were 4th or 5th generation that were essentially 'freshies' (as he calls them) and yet indians who came from america were oozing the aura of jersey shore. We ended up concluding that those americans who are bright enough not to get involved in politics and culture have to suffer the dumbers ones that do. Overall, it was really interesting to see that a person who was neither asian nor american would have so much to say about APAs.
-Ben
PS about the wanting to live as another gender/orientation, I feel like most people would be curious enough to want to do it in a tourist-like fashion to see what it's like. But maybe not in a more serious long term fashion.
PPS wow, I made way too many generalizations
PPPS this is a real blog post, not a response. hence: it counts
In my Intro to Asian American Studies class right now, and guess what film we're watching right now?!?!
We were originally going to watch Who Killed Vincent Chin? but since there's a more recent one out, Vincent Who?, we're watching that instead. HI SUMI!! :D
So.....after watching Vincent Who? I decided to do this thing, where every day I try to tell at least one person Vincent Chin's story. Today right after my class I met with my twin sister and I told her about him. Tomorrow I'm planning on telling someone else, and the next day someone else.
I feel like this is something that everyone as an Asian Pacific American, or an American, should know. It was a major milestone in US history, yet so many people don't know who he is or what happened to him.
I'll be keeping a tally on how many people I tell on my blog!
Hello lovely Wednesdays! This is our new blog! WHOOOHOOOO!
ReplyDeleteSee you later!
-Kat
Wonderful Wednesday!!
ReplyDeleteIf you're a fan of Asian American actors in tv shows or movies, and TOTALLY support their equal treatment (as in, don't just put us all in the 'kung fu master' role), check out this site:
racebending.com
It started after The Last Airbender movie, you know, all that business with the 3 main characters being played by white actors (sorry, Sokka Cullen. You see what I did there ;D?). This is something I totally support, being a huge fan of the original tv show and also being a super rabid, er, I mean /avid/ movie person. Teehee.
AANG CAN STAY ASIAN AND STILL SAVE THE WORLD|Fight on, Racebending.com!!
~ Eli C
Hey Wednesday CIRCLE, this is an article my LING115 Prof. Philip Carter sent to us about whether or not Americans will really learn Mandarin Chinese. Is it just a fad? Or do you think Mandarin Chinese will actually stay in USA education?
ReplyDeletehttp://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/will-americans-really-learn-chinese/
What do you guys think?
I personally think that Mandarin Chinese will stay. At least, I hope it does O_O. Maybe, with enough luck, they'll start teaching the other major Chinese dialects, too!! I thought this quote from the article was particularly funny//fascinating:
"Imagine that your monthly mortgage bill arrives, unremarkable except that it’s suddenly written in Mandarin. Then, your bank sends over a Chinese translator to explain that you are falling deeper into debt. Mind-boggling? Well, this is America’s contemporary predicament as the Chinese finance a growing share of our national debt. Beijing holds $1.8 trillion in U.S. bonds and other instruments of borrowing. We are fused at the hip with the Chinese, economically speaking." - Bruce Fuller, Prof. of Education and Public Policy at UCBerkeley.
Have a good one!
~ Eli
Hey guys!
ReplyDeleteSo first I'll start off by responding to Eli's post on the racebending movement. This has gained a lot of momentum thanks to the movie Last Airbender, but it's been going on before that. I'm sure all of you guys have heard of the Dragonball Z live action movie, and another one that I've heard was in the making is a live action Cowboy Bepop (featuring Keanu Reeves as Spike). One of the interesting things about the Last Airbender movement, is that it's a cartoon series that was originally created in America. (Am I right on this Eli? I don't really watch the series, so that tidbit of info was gathered from my readings) Anyways, a term that some of you might have heard before is "yellowface." Which is one of the older terms for the racebending movement. I found an article a while back that I found really interesting because it highlights the 25 most yellowface movies made, and some of the results are pretty surprising. Some are still pretty good movies, but it makes you think about what you're watching.
http://www.asianweek.com/top-25-yellow-face-performance-25to21/
In terms of Eli's most recent blog (haha, good job Eli), I think that schools will continue to teach Mandarin Chinese, simply because there is a growing trend of globalization.
And I really hate to make this a long post, so I'll kinda stop there, but there is actually an article that I think you guys should check out in terms of identity week:
http://www.nikkeiview.com/blog/2010/05/28/do-we-call-ourselves-asian-american/#more-2549
So check it out, lemme know what you guys think, I'd love to hear your opinions.
-Jason
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@Jason, yeah, you're totally right--Avatar: The Last Airbender was created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko in America and technically ≠ anime, even though all the characters are Asian. SO GOOD!!
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness I completely forgot about the Dragon Ball Z live-action movie...I think that's 'cause I blocked it from my mind...xD.
Some really important movies that have yellow face that I've seen are:
The Bitter Tea of General Yen
The Good Earth
The Mountain Road
I have a question for pondering: Nancy Kwan, in all of her well-known movies like The World of Suzie Wong, Flower Drum Song, etc., plays a Chinese woman. Are we as the audience supposed to think of her as FULL Chinese, or as half Chinese, and coming off of that, does that make her portrayals "yellow face"? (Nancy Kwan is half Chinese, half white, and many attribute her wide appeal to Caucasians to her apparently not-Chinese face). This thought just occurred to me. Personally I don't consider her a yellow-face actor, but some people might if they think hard enough about it like I did....haha.
^Even though I'm not really sure who Nancy Kwan is, I would consider her as well as any part-asian actors a "yellow-face actor" because similar to how African Americans are inclusive of everyone even remotely black (c'mon colin powell has like 5 times more caucasian blood than african blood), we need to rally ourselves and stop singling out our differences because let's face it, we need any and all support for the cause. PLUS, THAT CHICK SORT OF LOOKS ASIAN TO ME..
ReplyDeleteOk on another note, JASON YANG THE YOUTUBE CELEBRITY AUTOGRAPHED MY FACE. He's such a talented violinist and definitely an inspiration for Asian American entertainers.
Because the mainstream media has pretty much ignored Asian American entertainers (karate grandmasters do not count), we were forced to use youtube and other free internet media channels as mediums and outlets to express ourselves creatively. Which poses the question:
What do you guys think about youtube as one of the west coast Asian-American primary media stations?
ps. LIKE A G6 BY FAR EAST MOVEMENT IS NOW #2 ON THE BILLBOARDS TOP 100 CHARTS. FM BABBYYY.. COP THE ALBUM
-Kevin Liu
Wednesday Section
^I am kind of bad with comments but the discussion on yellow face movies reminded me of a documentary I heard concerning the role of Chinese in Hollywood, here is the link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.deepfocusproductions.com/HollywoodChinese/index.html
Interesting bits of The World of Suzie Wong is that Nancy Kwan actually replaced France Nuyen, a French actress and the original choice for the movie(from wikipedia). So it is an interesting thought Eli, maybe Nancy got the role because her not-Chinese face contrary to Anna May Wong who was frustrated with the industry? =(
Nancy actually went back to Hong Kong this summer and I remembered there was an exhibit or interview done on her, hope I'll find something in google with enough digging around
-Gary
OHMYGOODNESS I OWN HOLLYWOOD CHINESE!! :) I got it as a gift when I became a student member of the Chinese American Museum. It's pretty good. There's a whole range of Chinese American/not Chinese-American big names in Hollywood in it like B.D. Wong, Ang Lee, Tsai Chin, and even Christopher Lee (Fu Manchu, Sarumon from LOTR, Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus). Man, that guy has such a massive filmography that he gets his own wiki page for it. He recently lost an inch of height and now is ONLY 6'4"!!! (sarcasm).
ReplyDeleteOhmygoosh I didn't know Nancy Kwan replaced France Nuyen. Wooah that's kind of sad...but at the same time, I can't imagine anyone else playing Suzie Wong.
So GOOD LUCK USC AGAINST CAL TODAY. My dad is so torn--he went to Cal for undergrad and usc for grad, so he doesn't know who to root for, but he thinks he's probably gonna cheer for USC cuz his twin daughters go there ;D.
- Eli C
Haha, did anyone go to the game? We finally won (by a large margin)!......
ReplyDeleteAnyway, there's an article by Adriel Luis (the same guy who performed "Slip of the Tongue" which we watched after the first session) that I thought was really relevant to the identity discussion and bounces off Jason's article about whether we still call ourselves "Asian American."
http://race.change.org/blog/view/does_the_term_oriental_offend_you_think_again
I like his point: "Either way, it's important for Americans of Asian descent to find a term we can coalesce under without offending or excluding folk, or getting tangled in semantics." I just wonder if that's even possible...any politically-charged term is bound to have an element of controversy.
But I agree with Kevin--we need solidarity! In my mind, "[ethnicity] American" like "Japanese American" is mainly a cultural identity while "Asian American" (or whatever term you prefer) is my political one. They don't necessarily have to compete with each other; their use just depends on the context of the discussion. I guess they compete because the cultural and political often overlap.
BTWs--Adriel Luis a great writer, so definitely check out some of his other posts: http://race.change.org/blog?author_id=581
See you guys soon! I wonder if the sun plans to come out this week.
-Renee
According to the weather, it's supposed to be either on the verge of raining or drizzly or rainy all week and into some of next week...but weather reports aren't exactly the most reliable...
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone here use ethnic Asian remedies? I was just wondering that...I live in an apartment with 3 other Chinese girls but I'm the only one who uses Asian herbal remedies when I'm injured, or in pain, or sick. I take pei pa koa when I have a sore throat or a cough, and I use white flower oil as a pain reliever. I also drink jasmine tea (FAVORITE!!) and ginseng tea, which I think is kind of gross but apparently really good for you. Does anyone else do something similar? Or do we all just turn to Tylenol, Advil, and Alleve? xD.
Eli C
Yes I just used pei pa kao like cough syrup to cure my annoying coughs!
ReplyDeleteand then... (poking around the drawers) watermelon frost for cold sore, Salonpas for muscle fatigue, chrysanthemum tea for cold, and white flower oil as nose decongestant.
Then of course there is the Tylenol when it was an acute headache that I just want to stop~ =D
-Gary
@Gary hahahahah that's exactly what I do! I only use tylenol and advil for really bad pains that I just want to stop immediately because i'm writing an essay or studying or something. but if it's like something that I can deal with because i'm just watching tv or a movie or futzing around doing nothing, then I use white flower oil and other stuff.
ReplyDeleteWhat's watermelon frost?
-Eli C
It is this black powder spray that my mom give me whenever I have canker sores (just looked it up cause The Office just taught me the difference between canker and cold sore xD). You just spray it on the sore and let the medicine works its magic.
ReplyDeletep.s. the sun came out for a bit today! ^_^
response to blogging idea #2 from Kat's email:
What do you guys think about Ken Jeong? I am a fan of community and love his acting, but then he is taking the perpetual stereotypes on Asian Americans to a blatant level. So just wondering if what's your opinion of him. =D
There is an interesting link about him, too bad the vid is taken down =(
http://aatheory.com/2009/10/ken-jeong-comic-relief-or-comic-genius/
-Gary
Yay asians. i love asians.
ReplyDeleteasian men are sexy now. shout out to all the asian men out there. thanks jabbawokeez and america's best dance crew, because we've always been here, but you guys put us on the map baby
wait renee is your last name nakagawa or something like that?
ReplyDelete-kevin
what do you guys think about the new reality show setting in K-Town? I feel like it's going to give us Asians much needed and mad exposure and shock a couple Americans who don't really know Asians beyond the kungfu bruceleejackiechan or the stereotypical geekface (love geeks btw <3)
ReplyDeleteomg haha i wish i started blogging earlier..you guys post some pretty interesting stuff! sadly, what caught my eye the most was eli's comment on asian remedies. cuz that shiz is the bommmmbbb. i eat pei pa kao like its candy, i also use the watermelon frost and salonpas puahah and something i think really works that my grandma used to do for me when i have headaches is put this minty oil thing on my neck and use a bowl/spoon to rub really hard on my neck until it turned red. it's incredibly painful but it WORKS. i love asian medicine. i feel like it's so much more healthy and natural and just better for you in the long run.
ReplyDeleteto gary's comment about ken jeong, i think he does take the blatant asian stereotype to another level, but i can't help but laugh. i know it's bad to be supporting this stereotyping but honestly i think it's going to hard for the world to stop doing this, especially in the media. hopefully one day we'll be able to break out of this mold. this man is so freakin funny and his speech at the mtv movie awards was really endearing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYvQlOFUEYE
- catherine c
LOLOL gary i just read your comment about the office teaching you the difference between canker sore and cold sore. i just watched that episode yesterday. oh michael.
ReplyDeleteaaanndd i don't know if you guys will like my music taste, but i just discovered this awesome band called the morning benders. three out of the four band members are ASIAN AMERICAN wooot. or have some asian blood in them at least. :) here's a video of them singing their new song called virgins:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyATv_wHKKM
enjoy! it's pretty..
- catherine c
i just took some pei pa koa this morning because i woke up with some weirdness going on in my throat area haha. pei pa koa ftw!!
ReplyDeleteken jeong definitely does do asian stereotypes, and i think it's really smart of him to cash in on making his asian-ness funny, but at the same time that i'm laughing, i get a little uncomfortable because he can get a little offensive. (also one of my friends from the cinematic school who used to see him all the time said that after the Hangover became sort of successful, he became a jerky jerk. how sad!)
can't wait to see you guys later today!! also, don't forget to comment with your name. i kinda want to know who said the comment about "sexy asian men."
- Eli C
that was me btw
ReplyDelete-kevin
i basically quoted pk, the comedian, check him out on youtube. he's doing his thing and holding it down for the asian community.
ReplyDelete-kevin
@kevin: haha yeah, my last name is Nakagawa... The screen name is just what my friend in my japanese class would call me, and I had to make this blogger account for that class. so yea.
ReplyDelete...You didn't just make a wild guess did you?? If you did, wow.
@Catherine: I like your music taste! Where are these guys from?
Hey guys!!
ReplyDeleteJust bored and geeking out because I just watched How to Train Your Dragon on bluray! <3 TOOTHLESS!!!
Did anyone go to the Obama rally today? How was it? I was so beat from work that I didn't go, but I heard the band playing from far away.
- Eli C
thanks renee! i'm glad you enjoyed it. they're from the bay area..the lead singer went to berkeley i believe
ReplyDeleteand yes, eli i went to the obama rally :) i didn't actually get to see him but i got to hear him..which was kind of weird and awesome at the same time..he's a really good speaker and knows how to draw a crowd..i just still don't know how i feel about him
-catherine
wowww how early did you go? i was walking to work at 6:50am and there was already this huge line that weaved from trousdale to the edge of leavey i think of people just waiting to get in....x_x
ReplyDeletekal penn was there, right? at least i think he was....do you think he goes to all of Obama's rallies on college campuses...? As an APA he could appeal to APAs, and as one of the stars of Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, he could appeal to....everyone who liked that movie?
- Eli C
HEY GUYS!!
ReplyDeleteHere's a link to the music video I was talking about early in CIRCLE today. I made it for my EALC204 class. Catherine Chang helped me, along with my roommate and a few of her friends. I hope you like!! I included bloopers! ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up0T9qM39xY
Eli C
wow so who else feels extremely drained and tired from tonight? good night overall though, 9/10
ReplyDelete-kevin
(ps. this IS BLOGGING, not a "response")
Yay goo Kevin!! These are totally legit blogs! @Jade >=9
ReplyDeleteBelow is a little food blog entry (from personal experience) and also supplements for Jason's tour:
In Japanese Village Plaza
Mitsuru grill - offers dongo (hot mochi), taiyaki (red bean paste fish cookies), takoyaki (octopus pancakes?) and other light snacks for you to munch when on the go~
Wakasaya - famous for their $20/30 mega seafood bowl that is free if you can finish it within a time limit =D
Yamazaki bakery - nice bakery that offers interesting things like green tea mochi bread
Shabu-shabu house - famous shabu-shabu place, but really crowded like Daikokuya
In Weller Court
Curry house - part of the curry house chains you see across LA~
Orochon ramen - always a decent wait time for this place, good ramen and you mainly order the base of the ramen and the spiciness of it. People who finished and didn't die from the hottest bowl get their picture hung on the wall ^^
Senka cafe - more like a little cafe that sells chocolate and pretty cups, but their shakes (genmai/brown rice) are really nice (and healthy) refreshments for summertime
In Little Tokyo Market Place
Cherry on top - yogurtland style but they offer board games and a tiny tv with mario game
Beard Papa's - yummy cream puffs introduced from japan
Shojin - the best tasting vegan restaurant in my opinion, though comes with a price and hungry stomach =/
Sakura noodle house - cheap and economic ramen, udon, and curry. Must eat place when you feel poor or frugal D;
Bakery within the supermarket - honorable mention because my aunt loves the tapioca bread so much that she drove back and bought 7 of them at once
More TBA~~
I was actually an intern that participated for collecting the data Jason mentioned today and luckily the presentation that Little Tokyo Service Center had put together are still accessible: here is the link for people who are interested (it was compiled at May, and the project is still continuing so the data might have changed)
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FFYQZS61
- Gary
Maaan, i'm super bummed i had to miss yesterday :( sorry!! i was so sick and asleep that apparently i didn't even hear kat calling me...i'll spare you guys the yucky medical details though.
ReplyDeleteso for those of us who weren't able to go, what happened??? IT SOUNDS SO EXCITING!! and what is this about jade saying what what?
also i'm writing my paper about Asian-American representation and depiction in films//entertainment ABOUT Asian-Americans. i'm trying to limit my evaluations to 4-5 films, but i actually don't have enough right now! so far I have Flower Drum Song, Joy Luck Club, and the 2002 revival of the Flower Drum Song on Broadway. i'm trying to keep my examples at 1960 or beyond. do you guys have any suggestions? i was thinking about Enter the Dragon, but I've never seen it before so i don't know how relevant that would be.
- Eli C
Well a quick recap of events, the guys at VC (Abe?) gave us a history of the place as well as APA film in general. VC used to be a place that actually produced films by APAs but currently acts as a resource and a repository of said films. Afterwards we went to eat and took a little tour of little tokyo.
ReplyDeleteAbout Gary's survey, I was surprised by the number of recently established businesses (ie less than a decade old). Does anyone happen to know what the average lifespan of these businesses might be?
-Ben Z
Ohh that's where VC comes in (applying knowledge we learned from the field trip >=D)
ReplyDelete@Eli
So just as Ben had mentioned, the place we visited has a long history in fostering films and visual projects that provide education in the Asian American identity and I am 100% positive that Abe can help you if you asked.
How do I contact this "Abe"?
ReplyDelete- Eli C
Also, I found an interesting article about yellow face!
http://www.imdiversity.com/villages/asian/arts_culture_media/archives/winfrey_yellowface_asians_hollywood.asp
Thought I'd share it with you guys. Sure got me riled up a little.
Abraham Ferrer
ReplyDeleteDirector of Exhibitions & Festival Co-Director
213-680-4462, extension 25
abe@vconline.org
He said he would welcome us anytime, so you can shoot an email to him, tell him you are from CIRCLE and also saying you would like more information on Asian American films =D
-Gary
sweeeet. THANKS GARY!! :) i'll definitely do that.
ReplyDeletealso, Lakers won today! Woooo! I <3 LA!
Toronto Raptors executed a brilliant offensive though, kudos to them.
Speaking of the Lakers, it feels like every time the opposing team has an APA player on their team, things get touchy. First it was the, "GO BACK TO CHINA!" directed at Yao Ming, then there was the game against the Warriors. The Golden State Warriors team has Jeremy Lin, a Chinese-American guy from Palo Alto who recently graduated from Harvard. The person next to my twin sister was also APA, and when he heard her cheering when Jeremy Lin got called for a foul, he leaned over and said, "You know, you should support your brother. Don't cheer against him, that's how we get picked on." "Excuse me?" O_O hmm??? What do you guys think of this? Should I, as an APA, support Jeremy Lin over my hometown team because he's a super minority in the NBA and is of the same ethnicity as I am?
-Eli C
Hey everyone,
ReplyDeleteI'm out of town and won't be able to make it to the meeting tomorrow on gender and sexuality, but here's an interesting blog I found explaining the basics of feminism.
http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/
Best,
-Jon
Hi you guys!
ReplyDeleteI really really liked tonight's Circle session on gender and sexuality- so much that I had to blog right after I got back to my room. Not to say that the past sessions haven't been great, but tonight's was definitely my favorite so far. I love how we can be so honest with each other and truly talk about the real issues that have affected us and other Apa's.
What really got me thinking tonight was the discrepancy between being an ally or feminist or being a supporter and whether or not there is a difference. I stood up for being both an ally and a feminist, not really thinking of it being so much as a label, but as a belief. In my opinion, being an ally and a feminist means that I support the issues at hand and I then basically just carry on with my life with those issues in mind. But then when listening to other people's connotations of what it meant to be an ally or feminist, it made me question if I could truly call myself either. It made me start to think about whether or not I had taken any action in support of these causes and if I had ever made a point to get up and fight for them. It really made me want to reach out and do something but to ease my guilt, I think that my support for both women's rights and the LGBTQ community is so strong that by following my morals and ethics in the decisions I make, it would all be for the issues in my life that I believe in. In that way, I feel it's my right and obligation to say that I am an ally and a feminist and then help spread the word.
And I really wonder how much different my life would be if I was a guy. haha If only we could be like those people in movies or tv shows where they get to see their alternative life if they weren't born or was a different gender and then wake up and find out it was all a dream. That would be pretty trippy hahaa
How do you guys think your lives would be different if you were another gender?
Alright well see you guys next week!
Thanks,
Jenny
Wow Jenny, thanks for telling me what happened tonight. I'm so sorry I missed it, guys!
ReplyDeleteHmmm I feel like my life would be REALLY different if I were a guy. I would be a different kind of twin, and I probably would have been more active sports-wise during high school, and I probably would passed my driving test after 1 fail, not 4! (probably shouldn't let me drive you guys anywhere). I know there's this stereotype-sometimes-truth that Asian parents only want sons not daughters (DID. THEY SEND. ME DAAAUGHTERS. WHEN I ASKED. FOR SONSS.), but I know my parents were super happy with getting two daughters first. Yeah, they did go on to have two sons, and they do treat my brothers differently than they treated me and my sister when we were their age, but in the end, I'm happy to be female, mentally and biologically, especially since we live in an age that's so much better about almost-equality between the males and females. Sure, I may get stereotyped every once in a while because I'm a girl, but it's nbd, I just break that stereotype into tiny bits and throw it back into the stereotyper's face. I'm glad I can wear jeans without being ostracized and that one day it's possible that I'll be the CEO of a major company. Hopefully.
in other newsm DOES ANYONE WATCH FAMILY GUY?!
today the episode reveals something reeeally interesting about Quagmire. I highly recommend you guys watch it because it's super relevant to CIRCLE, I think. It's on hulu, the most recent Family Guy episode, the Halloween one. I don't want to be the first to spoil anything, so go and watch it you guys!
See you guys next week!
-Eli
Earlier today I had a rather interesting chat with a british guy that I worked with a while back. It didn't actually fit anywhere in today's session but I figured it was relevant so I guess bloggy-bloggy time it is.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I don't really know this guy at all despite the fact that he was more or less my direct supervisor. We were discussing travel and the US in general (california in particular [LA in super-super particular]) when he mentioned how he was particularly interested in "fit asian bitches". I mean as a guy thing, you get used to hearing this all the time but for some reason I had a knee-jerk reaction to this one. Despite what it might seem, this guy (let's call him Ted) really meant well, I eventually figured out it was just his coarse sense of humor. It got me thinking though, we're constantly talking about promoting awareness and recognition of APA culture but we only recognize it when other APA are doing it. When say, a white individual like Ted calls it out, it can be really easy to get offended even if he means in a nice way (compared to some of the less kind words he had for white american society). We want APAs to be recognized but when we are, we suddenly don't want to be lumped together and want to either be individual subgroups or just a homogeneous part of the whole population. I shouldn't say "we" really, since this is mostly my reaction, but I guess there's a kind of bipolarity where there's that sudden shift between "why asian peopled get ignored so much? asian people so nice" to "do I look [insert nationality here] to you?"
The conversation ended up going the route of how the rest of the world sees the US in regards to its treatment of foreigners and how even in Britain, Ted could see the americanizing effect on asian-american immigrants to the UK. He was talking about how there were indians in the UK who were 4th or 5th generation that were essentially 'freshies' (as he calls them) and yet indians who came from america were oozing the aura of jersey shore. We ended up concluding that those americans who are bright enough not to get involved in politics and culture have to suffer the dumbers ones that do. Overall, it was really interesting to see that a person who was neither asian nor american would have so much to say about APAs.
-Ben
PS about the wanting to live as another gender/orientation, I feel like most people would be curious enough to want to do it in a tourist-like fashion to see what it's like. But maybe not in a more serious long term fashion.
PPS wow, I made way too many generalizations
PPPS this is a real blog post, not a response. hence: it counts
Hey guys!
ReplyDeleteIn my Intro to Asian American Studies class right now, and guess what film we're watching right now?!?!
We were originally going to watch Who Killed Vincent Chin? but since there's a more recent one out, Vincent Who?, we're watching that instead. HI SUMI!! :D
- Eli C
So.....after watching Vincent Who? I decided to do this thing, where every day I try to tell at least one person Vincent Chin's story. Today right after my class I met with my twin sister and I told her about him. Tomorrow I'm planning on telling someone else, and the next day someone else.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this is something that everyone as an Asian Pacific American, or an American, should know. It was a major milestone in US history, yet so many people don't know who he is or what happened to him.
I'll be keeping a tally on how many people I tell on my blog!
-Eli C
Hey everyone,
ReplyDeleteNot API related but found this tumblr meme on privilege.
As per the conversation about gender I missed last week: http://privilegedenyingdude.tumblr.com/post/1589482001
-Jon T