Asian Americans and Popular Culture

Terminal USA

2008-05-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

I did not react well to Terminal USA. I thought it managed the impressive feat of being preposterous yet somehow still pretentious. And I wonder if my initial reaction to the film is due to the fact that this campy-John-Waterseqsue movie has an Asian cast. What does it mean to take this genre and give it an Asian/Asian American twist?

As a viewer (an Asian American in an Asian American media class), I felt forced into asking the question, "What is Jon Moritsugu saying about Asian-America?" I wasn't enjoying the movie because I felt like I had to read into every moment. I think that is the pitfall of any highly stylized (down to the lighting) highly exaggerated film--every decision is called into question. Without realism to fall back on, the filmmaker seems more responsible for the choices he/she makes.

I wonder if this is horribly unfair of me--I believe it is. Should I view this as I had viewed "Better Luck Tomorrow" or "The Wedding Banquet?" Just as a story that happens to involve Asian/Asian-Americans? Or am I justified in feeling like this movie puts too much emphasis on being "Asian?"

Another view of the Asian American

2008-04-30T16:39:00.000-07:00

The two pieces we watched for this week were "weird" to say the least. First, we have a transgendered pop star's pornographic music video in addition to an independent film focused on a Japanese American family scattered with aliens, burning crosses, and cheerleaders.

Further reading informed me that JJ Chinois is actually Lynne Chan, a transgendered woman who uses this persona to convey messages about Asian America. Chan uses the analogy of his transition as a queer individual from the suburbs to New York City with his parents migration to the United states from Hong Kong.

Throughout the video, the parallel clips between JJ Chinois and Bruce Lee often confused and disoriented me. What was Chan trying to convey with these images? Scenes of the female jumping rope seemed almost pornagraphic to me, and the first question the leaped to my mind was, who is the audience of this piece? Does Chan want us to assume the male gaze? However, a better understanding for Chan's alter ego comes from the readings. To know that there is a representation for the spectrum of Asian American male bodies, not just the two extremes, comforts me. However, the fact that it takes a transgendered pop star to make this point, seems a little uneasy to me.

I agree with the idea that Terminal USA was more of a performative piece than a commentary on Asian American families, however, many issues about Asian Americans do arise throughout the movie. For instance, the father gets upset by the fact he is called a chink, when rather he is Japanese. The racial slur does not bother him, rather it seems the confusion of Asian Americans is upsetting to him. There is also the sexualization of the Asian American females. The daughter is a hypersexual cheerleader, submissive to her "lawyer" by performing fellatio. Although the film seemed to engage us visually, it nonetheless provided a satire on the Asian American family, a family who tries to assimilate into the normal American family stereotype. However, it quickly becomes evident that this "perfect American family" mold is nonrealistic and, in actually, dysfunctional.

These pieces are important because they show the diversity of Asian American media. Unfortunately, because of the nature and audiences of these pieces, its message reaches few. How can the images of Asian Americans be changed when the very few are getting the message? Instead, the same Asian American stereotypes are conveyed, restricting us to the "dragon lady" and "Bruce Lee" characters. When is it that we will finally get another view of the Asian American?

Terminal USA & JJ Chinois

2008-04-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

First off, does anyone know where I can get the music from JJ Chinois's music video? Many of the posters already hit on many of the points I had in mind; one thing that just kept sticking out to me was this idea of how a certain method of performance can greatly affect how we as the viewers interpret a concept. Alien Encounters addressed the issue of remodeling an old icon into something completely new; Mimi Nguyen mentioned how JJ Chinois was able to take a relatively subdued aspect of Bruce Lee's persona- his sexual identity- and craft it into something that not only could be recognized as " hey that's Bruce Lee!" but also something incredibly new. Given that we were assigned Terminal USA along with the music video, I wonder if this idea of performance found in JJ Chinois's work can be applied to Terminal USA. Is the film saying anything by adding an over-the-top element to the Asian stereotypes? Does it remodel the old or rather just mock the stereotypes given? I agree with Alexa that these two films share a similar theme with the other assigned films in that they too try to go against the tropes that around socially bound to "Asian American." However, I suppose the main point of contrast lies in the focus of the films. The past films we saw dealt with how individuals who interact in a functional society deal with the dichotic concepts of heritage and assimilation. In these two films, it is as though this social interaction is filtered through and all that is left are the concepts to be molded. It is an interesting strategy and I hope to be able to see more Asian American underground films in the future.

Response to Underground Films

2008-04-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

Today in class, I was really surprised to see such adverse reactions to this week's films. An argument that came up numerous times today was that both films were performative rather than provide commentary on the Asian American experience. While I would agree the films may have been a little difficult to watch due to their lack of a conventional narrative structure, I liked the fact that the films were so over-the-top. I don't see why performativity and commentary have to be mutually exclusive. I felt like these films were no different from Better Luck Tomorrow, Mississippi Masala, Wedding Banquet, etc in that complicated my notions of what it means to be Asian American by complicating (and perhaps destroying) the model minority figure. I really enjoyed Terminal U.S.A. in particular, in that it presented us with such extreme forms of Asian stereotypes (the studious brother, the cheerleader sister, the Japanese punk, etc) they could only be interpreted as artifice. Last semester I took a class on the films of Andy Warhol and within the class we read an article where Warhol says something the the effect that he enjoys using drag queens within his films because they are "more real". By looking at them you know exactly what they are: they are not pretending to be a woman, but simply a man who dresses like a woman. This is the same type of strange logic which lead Warhol to embrace camp, especially with his use of bad actors because simply they are "more real" in that you know that they are acting. I think this could be applied to Terminal U.S.A. the performances within the film are so terrible that they come off as fictional constructions, which in turn can be read that these stereotypes of Asian Americans are also merely social constructions. This is why I feel like the film is no different from all of the other films we have seen in this class which challenge notions of Asian American identity. Similar to the other films these underground films can also be read as a refusal of the model minority identity, they just do so in a different matter.

Under Construction

2008-04-29T05:51:00.001-07:00

"JJ Chinois" explores the notion of identity as something we construct—both consciously and unconsciously. Both films derive their shock value, I think, by confronting the audience with characters’ whose identities violate or challenge the categories with which we are most comfortable or have been lead to believe are most “normal.” We not only construct our own sense of self but we project identities upon others. For example, we might fit people into categories based on notions of race, gender, or class; or we might project our fantasies onto others we barely know by imagining what their lives and personalities must be like.

In the film, Lynne Chan explores the process of constructing an identity for herself that frees her from gender norms but at the same time is based on appropriation of an iconic identity, the screen performances of Bruce Lee. JJ Chinois is, perhaps, the ultimate identity in that he is completely a fabrication. We try to “know” him by piecing together the visual clues Chan gives us and the factoids that she supplies both in the film and one the Web site, but in the end, anything we learn is less about JJ Chinois and more about who we are and what sort of preconceptions we hold about Asians, gender, stardom, queer identities, etc. I think both film makers want to underscore the fact that individuals, such as gays and Asians in the US, who don’t fit into the rigid categories imposed by the dominant society have the challenge of trying an identity that feels authentic while knowing that their very existence will be perceived by others as a challenge or violation of “norms.”

This brings me back to my thoughts about “Better Luck Tomorrow” in which each character is struggling to create a sense of self that feels authentic.

That was really weird...

2008-04-29T05:20:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure what to make of the two films we watched this week. JJ Chinois and Terminal USA were probably two of the weirder films I have seen in a very long time. Something that struck me the most while watching Terminal USA was the portrayal of Marvin, the nerdy brother who secretly enjoyed erotic Skinhead male pornography. When Marvin is caught masturbating to male porn by his father, his father does not receive the news very well. He makes some comment that Marvin has become the “pervert in the back room” and that Marvin is now even stranger than Kazumi. The mother and father can accept Kazumi’s bizarre behavior and his unusual girlfriend Eight Ball much more readily than they can accept Marvin’s homosexuality. The parents’ reactions to Marvin’s sexual orientation is not surprising based on what we have previously learned about how Asians view homosexuality. Interestingly, in the film, Marvin’s sexual desire is a Skinhead, which is the epitome of anti-minority, white supremacy.

The parents’ reactions to Marvin’s sexuality remind me a lot of the film The Wedding Banquet that we watched earlier in the semester. Again when the Asian male character finally reveals that he is gay, the parents are quick to judge him and automatically want to know if this inclination could be reversed quickly.

P.S.- I didn’t realize it at the time, but looking on IMDB, it says that the same person played both Kazumi and Marvin. Maybe I’m an idiot, but I totally did not make this connection during the film.

Two "Bad Asian" filmmakers

2008-04-29T05:15:00.000-07:00

After watching the JJ Chinois video a few times and reading Nguyen’s analysis, I think that Lynne Chan was aiming to reappropriate the construction of Bruce Lee’s masculinity and forefront his “ambi-sexuality.” In spite of all the fun facts we are given about the JJ Chinois (e.g. he’s a Taurus and puts ketchup on everything), there is actually very little we know about Chan’s celebrity creation. By the superimposed shot of a hand playing a keyboard and overall use of a rock star image and associated objects (the floating circle containing glove, sunglasses, underwear, cock ring, etc.), I assumed that he was some sort of musician. The way that Chan cuts between the Bruce Lee I Love You video and JJ Chinois’ makes apparent that she is trying to draw a parallel between the two personas; she often cuts to JJ Chinois in the same posture as the actor playing Bruce Lee in the previous video. However, there is also a marked difference between the highly sexual nature of the Bruce Lee I Love You video and JJ Chinois’ persona in Chan’s video. In fact, because Bruce Lee was always portrayed in his movies as “puritan,” ascetic, and asexual, the BLILY video demonstrates that his sexuality, masculinity, and desirability was created by his fans and viewers rather than by any inherent portrayal of these attributes. In addition, the ambiguity of many of the animated texts such as “I sure feel unconformable being in this situation with you.” And “Please make me clean.” questions the presence (or absence) of sexual undertones that might be interpreted from the images presented by Chan’s video.

As for the Terminal USA, I just had this revelation about the title which probably refers to the grandfather's terminal illness, which is being protracted by what seemed like a life-support device. I agree with everyone else that this is one of the most bizarre (and genious) films I have ever watched. I agree with Kenji that this film reminded me of American Beauty, with regard to its dysfunctional characters placed into a stereotypical suburban family situation, but of course Terminal USA took this to the extreme, portraying every kind of dysfunctional and magnifying it to the nth degree. In an interview with Moritsugu, the interviewer mentioned that he had been labeled as a "transgressive" filmmaker, making me wonder what exactly makes Terminal USA transgressive? I think that beyond the breakdown perfect American family facade, the casting of Asian Americans (who are, importantly, the "model minority") into these roles forces the audience the racialized terms in which we understand what is or is not transgressive.

Terminal, USA & JJ Chinois

2008-04-28T21:52:00.000-07:00

After watching JJ Chinois and Terminal, USA, I was as weirded out as everyone else who posted before me was. I actually had absolutely no idea what went on in JJ Chinois until I did more research on his (her) character. Completely ignoring the fact that the video was incoherent to me, watching it did get me thinking "who would watch something like this?" The same question I think also applied to Terminal, USA. Who is the audience for these types of media, and perhaps more importantly, what is the filmmaker trying to say through the films?

After reading various articles and websites on the character Lynne Chan portrays, I can see some how her character is a commentary on many things, including Asian American identity, transgender identity, as well as suburban vs. urban environments and attitudes towards the former. Many people on the blog commented on Chan's use of Bruce Lee clips and images of herself to sexualize the Asian American male body, as well as to mainstream the image of a transgender person, specifically an Asian transgender individual. However, what end is she attempting to achieve through this short clip? In all of the articles and research that I read about JJ Chinois, it never came across clearly what her intentions are. Specifically regarding Asian American identity, I felt like she used her ethnic connection to Bruce Lee to push her portrayal of transgenders in the media.

I found Terminal, USA extremely interesting and coherent, as opposed to JJ Chinois. While I was completely weirded out while watching the movie, in retrospect I see that it was able to critique the concept of a perfect nuclear family and the concept of the Asian model minority through its absurdness. While the movie took the breakdown of these ideas to the extreme, it also showed viewers that there is no such thing as a perfect nuclear family or a true model minority. Ignoring the absurdity of the sons and daughters of the family being either crazy druggies, sluts, or closeted fetish homosexuals, the very process of growing up as a teenager is riddled with change and experimentation, very much in contrast to the static image of perfection that both the nuclear family and model minority ideal tend to portray.

My new favorite Brown alum: Jon Moritsugu

2008-04-28T20:09:00.001-07:00

Wow...what the fuck did I just watch? JJ Chinois is gonna have to wait, because “Terminal USA” was one of the most bizarre movies I have ever seen in my life. It seemed like a mix between a twisted Asian American Sitcom and a cheesy zombie movie with all of the fake blood. I would love to meet Jon Moritsugu’s family when he was younger or to read his family’s reaction to this film. Moritsugu is certainly one of Brunonia’s gems.

The characters of the film made it so interesting and twisted. Moritsugu did an excellent job of developing such strange and unique characters that viewer attempts to follow throughout the film. As I took notes during the film, I found myself creating profiles for all of the different characters in an attempt to follow everything that was happening. Underneath the characters, there was some very interesting social commentary. Using the classic nuclear family American sitcom for the film, it offered a scathing satire of model family structures and interactions. In that sense the film reminded me a lot of the popular film “American Beauty” (1999), which also critiqued the model nuclear family.

There were some interesting race relations in the film. In one of the first scenes the father comes home from work complaining about death threats towards him because of his race (“I am not a chink, I’m a Jap”), which can be read as response to the killing of Vincent Chin and animosity towards Asian Americans in the workplace. The two skin heads in the film are also racist towards Kazumi. This film came out following the Rodney King riots when Asian/Asian American race relations were tense. It wasn’t a coincidence that an Asian male in the film shot one the white skin heads out of self-defense.

It was comical to watch the father in “Terminal USA” struggle to “spend time with his kids” only to be increasingly shocked that none of his kids were meeting his expectations. Kazumi is a drugged out teenager (“a real blooming freak”), who lets himself bleed to death in film. Marvin is a sexually-suppressed homosexual (“the pervert in the backroom”), who spends all his time in front of his computer. And Holly, a sex crazed cheerleader, who runs off with a pedophilic lawyer/producer of childhood pornography. The characters were hard to wrap my head around. After consulting IMDb, apparently both Marvin and Kazumi were played by Moritsugu (perhaps, the characters he most identified with at Brown).

P.S. Did anyone notice that the character “Fag-Toast” was wearing a Catholic priest’s outfit? The father made lots of references to the Apocalypse and Judgment Day throughout as well...

P.P.S. Check out: http://jonmoritsugu.com/bio/

Weird is right: JJ Chinois and Terminal USA

2008-04-28T19:09:00.000-07:00

So, I also agree with everyone that both JJ Chinois and Terminal USA are weird and difficult to discuss simply because there was just so much going on and nothing seemed very coherent…. I mentioned JJ Chinois in class last time because I seriously thought that that film was a real music video and didn’t know how to fit it into the Asian-American music category. After watching the video for a second time, reading his/her wikipedia profile more closely, going onto his/her website, and reading the article Bruce Lee I Love You, I’m just starting to have an inkling of understanding about what the heck is going on. Only after reading Nguyen’s article did I see that JJ Chinois (rather ambiguously) sexualizes the Asian masculine body, which historically had been “soft” (think Broken Blossoms) or “hard” (Bruce Lee) but sexually impotent and chaste in either case. This, in turn, reconstructs the Asian male body as a more subversive but comprehensive/complete masculine body. I guess what is “subversive” about the sexualized Asian male body is that, according to Nguyen, the “Bad Asians” reclaimed parts of pop culture (again, the soft or hard but still irregular Asian body) by forging a “perverse identification and relationship with pop culture that uncover … and play with the racialized fantasies, fears, and representations that make culture popular.” Umm, I *think* that means that Chan and others who work underground to recreate Asian-America do so by working within the confines of popular culture because pop culture is shaped largely by mainstream American audience’s subconscious fears and fantasies, and so pop culture offers many opportunities with which artists can twist and pervert it and thereby change Asian-American representation.

If this were the case, then I guess it sort of makes sense why the director of Terminal USA chose to use the family sitcom genre to explore issues of stereotypes and sexuality, etc. Working within pop culture domains allowed him to present seemingly familiar yet horribly different and perverse characters who seem even more dangerous or crazy or kooky because the white American audience’s subconscious fear of the Asian-American – of “the other” – being exactly like that. Maybe the super studious Asian nerd at your school actually is a closeted homosexual and has violent sexual fantasies about leather-clad men – how would you know? Maybe the “problem kid” in that nice Asian-American family down the street is actually dating an alien – how would you know? The film may be disturbing for more than just its bad acting and terrible special effects because, as JennAhn said in her blog, like American Beauty it forces the audience to rethink how it has previously perceived Asian Americans by using cues and settings that people are already very familiar with from pop culture.

modern political heroes: jj and kazumi (?)

2008-04-28T18:53:00.000-07:00

i have to agree with everyone that these films were, well.. interesting to watch. i didnt know that jj chinois was bruce lee imagery either until i did the reading and terminal usa felt like such a postmodernist parody of ..well, suburbia? asian stereotypes? modern parodies?

jj chinois really required a lot of background information (which is still hard to find) to understand even slightly. it was interesting what the text said about the re-masculination or using bruce lee's body for the other extreme. by this i mean instead of viewing bruce lee's as having a zero sex rating and representing a "puritan" moral cleanliness, using his body to present the other extreme of desire, physical manliness, etc. it is also interesting how this 'manliness' is represented through a transgender individual and what statement jj chinois is making by ultimately 'performing' this piece. is jj chinois saying that all manliness is performance or 'fan labor' as nguyen suggests?

i felt nguyen's final statment was most provocative when she stated:

"this is an important part of the utopian impulse...the desire to transform popular culture into a counterpublic for a radically different imaginary. because popular culture is imagined as a shared cultural resource with access to an audience of millions, we might wonder whether desire for the star's body--especiallyone like jj chiois;s--can deliver a ground on which to do politics" (297). [emphasis mine]

we've been talking about the importance of popular culture all semester long and i feel these lines pretty much summed up the reason, especially when counterculture becomes that pop phenomenon.

as for terminal usa, it was just so many different themes packed into that hour-long film and i really dont know where to start. what resonated most within me after watching the (sorry) creepiness in that film was that most all roles in life was a performance. i especially felt this way when i realized that the only "normal" depiction or close-to-life depiction of anyone was the drag queen who picked up the like when marvin call a phone sex service. it seemed to make that contrast that not only is drag queen-ism a performance, but everything else in life is, so why the hate?
it's also interesting that the movie is called terminal usa, which seems to mean that the 'terminal' to the united states for the alien girlfriend 8-ball was this suburban japanese american family. i just cant really make much more out of that right now ^^;; to be discussed in class......

weeeeird: JJ Chinois and Terminal USA

2008-04-28T16:59:00.001-07:00

Both of these films were really interesting and thought-provoking. However, I feel like whatever message each one was trying to convey was so out there and so complex that I'm afraid it's reserved for a very small group of people (MCM concentrators?). With JJ Chinois, for example, I didn't even know that the imagery used was supposed to be Bruce Lee, or any impersonation of him, until I read the reading by Nguyen. After reading her analysis, I think JJ Chinois made a little more sense as to its purpose, but I still have a hard time grasping it.

Terminal USA was similarly confusing. Given the cheesy "Brady Bunch"-like music in many of the family scenes, it seems to be some sort of satire of the American sitcom family. I found it kind of annoying that not one character could get through one line of dialogue without sounding really weird. But I think what that manages to do is make it very clear that these stereotypes (both the Asian one of the nerd and the traditionally non-Asian one of the drug addict and pregnant teenager) are being performed. So I guess it exposes stereotypes as a performance and disassociates them from their racial associations...or something like that.

What is Asian American Music?

2008-04-28T16:05:00.001-07:00

I found a very interesting article on JSTOR that grapples with the question of what is Asian American music.

It's called "Between Notes: Finding Asian America in Popular Culture" by Oliver Wang, published in American Music, Vol 19. No. 4, (2001), pp 439-465.

You can find the article on JSTOR (I've tried to copy and paste the link but failed)

The author talks about a musicologist named Joseph Lam, who says, "Asian American music is not dependent on the text (e.g., lyrics, images, even melody, timbre, rhythm) or even a tradition of musical practice. Instead, Asian American music is so designated based on the context of production (who makes the music and why? as well as reception (how is the music used, how is it understood)."

So according to him, it is the combination of production and consumption that makes music Asian.

The author comments that Lam's definition aims to "establish a point of common reference that future discussions can work from--even if it is to deconstruct Lam's own theories," as supposed to serving as the canonical definition of what Asian American music is.

This definition and the article pretty much refute the argument I made in my previous blog because I placed the emphasis on the musical text rather than the people who perform and listen to the music. So, is Yo-Yo Ma's music Asian American? I still want to say no. He is Asian American but his music does not really have any race categories because it doesn't really belong to any race.

I still have the desire to stand by what I've said, but it is interesting to read a counter argument.

Terminal USA and JJ Chinois: "over-assimilation"?

2008-04-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

I too, am a bit confused about the direction JJ Chinois was trying to take with the music video, but I do see that it goes hand in hand with Terminal USA in the shock value that it generates. It was confusing (and still kind of is) until I did some research on JJ Chinois, which unfortunately there isn’t much of, and realized the music video was about transgender roles in the media. Nevertheless, I think that it does spark the necessary curiosity for one to go out there and do the research to ultimately create more awareness about the taboo topic.

Taboo does seem to be the theme of this week’s videos as Terminal USA pretty much brought every ludicrous social “stigma” to the table, Asian American or not. I think it was interesting to shed light on such issues that are expressed as stigmas today. As they are generally discussed, one would say that homosexuality, drug abuse, and sex are not “wrong” per se, but rather quite natural and recurring themes of growing up, and in the case of homosexuality, merely one’s sexual preference. They do however create shame and disgrace in a more closed-minded model community, and I think that the sheer chaos and exaggeration in Terminal USA create a good contrast to the absurd expectations that people have of model citizens, or model minorities in this case. I found it interesting that the father alone, rather than both parents, played the role of the “perfect TV dad” as a NY times review puts it, and it added to the degeneracy of the family as a whole. Even as far as appearances and wardrobes go, the grandfather on his deathbed was the only character who did not have an exaggerated costume. That is to say he looked the most “normal” in everyday conventions.

On one hand, I see in Terminal USA the American Beauty appeal, of a seemingly normal family suburban family riddled with problems underneath it all. On the other hand, I think this film takes on the lens of a first generation Asian American parent, the grandfather in this case, mourning the corruption that the subsequent generations’ “American-ness” has created. Even the title of the film, Terminal USA and Kazumi’s girlfriend, who turns out to be an alien, imply that this family is a true representation of a suburban American family gone wrong. Yet there are many references to the family being Japanese, and it is even apparent in the names of some of the characters like Kazumi. There are a lot of issues to fork through in both the film and the music video, and it’s not as simple as an Asian American family struggling to assimilate anymore. Perhaps now we are dealing with Asian Americans who are “over-assimilated” that must reconcile their ethnic differences with the classically “American” problems they are dealing with.

thoughts on Terminal USA

2008-04-28T12:02:00.000-07:00

I found Terminal USA to be one of the most disturbing (yet fascinating and thought-provoking) films I have ever seen. I didn’t find any of it funny and I thought it was visually (and auditorily) frightening. Like Keiko, I also found it slightly offensive that these bizarre portrayals were projected onto an Asian American family. I thought that the film was making a number of critiques on racism, suburbia, Asian American stereotypes, nuclear family, etc. but throughout watching, I felt like I was undergoing a similar feeling of the typical horror movie experience.

The two characters I thought were found particularly interesting were the parents. Over the course of the film, the father went more-and-more insane over protecting the “purity” of his family, especially the sexual purity of his daughter, Holly, and son, Marvin, and found himself disappointed/shamed by their "impurity" (Holly having sex with the lawyer and Marvin masturbating to gay pornography). At the end of the movie, the father had completely lost it. His attempt to kill his already dying father-in-law and the klan members and rhetoric about an apocalypse showed his progression of "losing it". Was this supposed to be a critique of the unspoken, insanity of patriarchal, nuclear suburbia?
The mother, on the other hand, was a drug addict yet, still trying to take care of her father, husband and children and sex and sexuality came a lot with her (the scene with the pizza man and her comment to her father with not being satisfied with her husband sexually).
I liked that this film was one of the only ones that we have watched (besides Flower Drum Song) that centered around the parents as well as the children.

There were a number of motifs I noticed in the film like the cowboy theme(Holy in cowgirl costume, the father and the scene with the gun), eyeballs, and telephones. I also thought the camera angles and strategic use of music were two techniques that particularly stood out to me.

The Model Family - Terminal USA

2008-04-28T10:59:00.000-07:00

At first I thought that the film was too strange and stretched time in areas that did not fit. But Terminal USA interestingly looks at stereotypes through exaggeration. The film attempts to ridicule preconceived notions of Asian-American identity, but this can be taken the wrong way by the audience. The focus of the film could be misunderstood as illustrating the deceitfulness of Asians. Holy, the over-sexualized Asian female outside of school and the model student at school, represents the polarity of Asian identity. The film does not isolate her from either of her identities, but demonstrates how both are equally important to her. She tries to protect both identities through lying and she even says, “I am good at lying.” Instead of feeling that the film debunked the stereotypes surrounding the Asian female identity, I felt disappointed that the film did not give Holy a bit more development. I don’t know much about Holy except that she has a high GPA, on the Pep Squad, and sleeps around. In addition, Marvin and Kazumi are played by one actor. Kazumi is addicted to drugs. Marvin is a computer nerd that secretly fantasizes about men in uniforms. Marvin is deemed “The pervert in the back bedroom”.
The boys are very different even though they are twins. I am not sure if this is supposed to illustrate the polar identity of the Asian male. In the end, Marvin succumbs to his brother’s drugs. This could be understood by the audience to mean the submission of a good identity to one that is bad.

Should there be two extremes to the identity for both males and females? At times, I am not sure if the film is making fun of this question or emphasizing the question. But when I see Fagtoast, I am reminded that the film is making fun of everything, including religion.

I am confused about Kazumi’s girlfriend – Eightball. Did Eightball’s alien identity represent issues surrounding Japanese-American citizenship? The drug hustlers’ decision to “have their own Pearl Harbor” was quite inappropriate. The filmmakers were unsuccessful in delivering their negative opinions about war and violence in general.

All in all, I liked this film, but I wished that this film was a bit more thought provoking and did not rely so heavily on visual effects.

In Media Res

2008-04-28T09:31:00.000-07:00

This week, In Media Res is having an Asian American media-themed week. Check it out if you get a chance:

http://mediacommons.futureofthebook.org/

About In Media Res:
Daily, a different media scholar will present a 30-second to 3-minute clip accompanied by a 100-150-word impressionistic response. The goal is to promote an online dialogue amongst media scholars and the public about contemporary media scholarship through clips chosen for either their typicality or atypicality in demonstrating narrative strategies, genre formulations, aesthetic choices, representational practices, institutional approaches, fan engagements, etc.

Terminal USA & JJ Chinois

2008-04-27T21:56:00.000-07:00

As everyone else has said, Terminal USA and JJ Chinois's music video were some of the strangest videos I've ever seen. I'm not quite sure what to make of JJ Chinois portrayal of Asian transgender sexuality so I'll talk a little about Terminal USA.

I have to admit that Terminal USA was so bizarre and out there that I couldn't help but laugh at everything. It made it very hard for me to take seriously, which I think was the point. One thing I was curious about was whether we were supposed to assume that these extreme characters are only inherent in Asian American families or if this could be applied to any average American family. I don't watch a whole lot of TV sitcoms, but as far as I can tell there has yet to be a child with an alien for a girlfriend/boyfriend. Reflecting on the movie, I am actually a little offended that these crazy portrayals were projected onto an Asian American family. In some ways, if this movie were to become more popular and viewed, it may work to further alienate Asian Americans from the rest of society. These characters are not ones that the typical viewer can identify with at all. The family is seen as one in its own world and does not help others to understand some of the common struggles Asian Americans face.

One interesting thing I noticed was how Kazumi, the only family member with a Japanese name, was portrayed as the outcast of the family from the beginning. Holly and Marvin, perhaps because of their American names and more conventional lifestyles, are the golden children of the family. Throughout the film though, the viewers realize that the rest of the family has their own set of issues as well and that maybe Kazumi is not that different afterall.

Response: Terminal USA and JJ Chinois

2008-04-27T18:12:00.001-07:00

I have to agree with what many of the other students have already said: I'm just not sure what we're meant to take from Terminal USA. While I appreciate the way it both attacks the model minority myth and other stereotypes about Asian Americans, as well as the way it lampooons suburban American life and the nuclear American family as a whole, it was so strange and over-the-top that I found it hard to take seriously as a social commentary and easy to cast aside as just some weird indie movie.

As for JJ Chinois, I found the whole concept very interesting. The video (along with the accompanying website) gave a queer perspective on Asian American masculinity (and also femininity) that you don't often see. The idea of embodying Bruce Lee, and very literally reforming his image and what it meant struck me as quite clever. Yet, I would have liked to have seen more. Is the character of JJ Chinois a one-hit wonder. Has he been in any other videos or media? How was this video distributed, anyway? Was it an online phenomenon or did it go to film festivals or something? Are there future plans for JJ Chinois? All of this remained unclear to me, even after having read the accompanying article and website. I'd be curious to learn more in class and to see what others thought.

The Issue of Race in Terminal USA

2008-04-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

I found Terminal USA very bizarre yet fascinating, although I didn't necessarily understand many things. I wanted to point out the fact that the family does not talk about race unless there is an external force--for example, the father bringing home from work a note with racial slurs on them--that initiates the conversation about the ethnicity of the family. Although there are stereotypical Asian images throughout the movie, like the Asian female in porn and the computer nerd, the issue of race gets buried underneath other non-race specific problems such as drugs and sex , two issues that appear on typical nuclear family sitcoms. Terminal USA, however, takes the issue of drugs and sex to an extreme, releasing all the repressed feelings out of many characters. For example, the repressed homosexuality of Marvin, sex-addiction of Holly, frustration of the father over his ailing father-in-law all come to full manifestation by the end of the movie. The other two members of the family, Kazumi and Ma do not express their frustrations as much because they are constantly in and out of drugs. The issues of typical nuclear families are vastly exaggerated for the effect of emphasis in the movie, and I wonder if this falls under the category of the "exploitation film."

The strangest part of the film is when Fagtoast, who is wearing priest-like garment, comes into kill Kazumi and Eightball and then starts praying (?). He says, "the pleasure must stop! the pleasure must stop!" Is he repressing his desire to kill? I didn't really understand that part at all (as well as the black liquid that Kazumi drinks then spits out).

Terminal USA response

2008-04-27T15:30:00.000-07:00

I found both JJ Chinois and Terminal USA really creepy. I’ve never been able to appreciate or understand art so I was very confused by both videos. Watching both videos put me in a very weird, surreal mood that made me just want to go home and hug my parents. I cant believe that Terminal USA was made for PBS because I have always associated PBS with Sesame Street and stimulating intellectual documentaries. The amount of blood and sex in the movie made me cringe and I found myself unable to watch some of the gory parts. I did not laugh or crack a smile once, even though I guess this movie was supposed to be funny. Overall, it was very hard for me to watch the videos and I have no idea what the messages were in the movies. The one thing that I did take away from the videos was that Asian-American filmmakers can be creative and “artsy” like anyone else and that they are able to leave the conservative, boring stereotype. I do appreciate that these filmmakers were not afraid to address stereotypes and willing to shock audiences.

I found some symbolism in Terminal USA pretty interesting. The grandfather lying on a pillow of the Japanese flag seemed to symbolize him as the family’s Japanese background and their neglect and mistreatment of him seemed to reflect their dismissal of their heritage. Maybe the father wanted to kill the grandfather because he resents his Asian background and the trouble it gets him at work. I also found it interesting that the drug addict son was able to get himself a hot, Caucasian girlfriend who, of course, had to end up being an alien because a normal Caucasian girl probably wouldn’t go for him. There were also many cowboy outfits and actions in the movie that seemed to reflect the families’ desire to be westernized. I think Jon Moritsugu created a film that portrayed exactly what he wanted to show the audiences. He covered almost all the Asian stereotypes (Asian-male impotency, Asian-women fetishes, studious sons, promiscuous daughters, and so on) in a crass but memorable manner that probably warranted the exact response that he wanted.

Asian American Musicians, American Music, and JJ Chinois

2008-04-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

I didn't post a blog last week because, well...I simply didn't know what to say. But after watching/listening to JJ Chinois, I've realized why I couldn't say much last week. Aside from Norah Jones, none of the artists mentioned last week were familiar to me, and when I did attempted to seek out Asian American musicians I found myself browsing through countless youtube videos that contained music that were, in my personal opinion, simply bad. The vast majority of these artists and their music belonged to niche markets, and perhaps that's why I didn't know any of them. And at the same time, I didn't really want to listen to them, not because they were not mainstream but because there was a good reason why they couldn't achieve "crossover" success.

The word "crossover" denotes a process in which music belonging to a niche market becomes part of mainstream culture. Music critics first used this term to describe what was happening with African American music--Rhythm and Blues, which had been dismissed as "race music" for a very long time, became popular with the national audience regardless of color in the late 50s. In fact, the Billboards integrated "R&B" into the "Pop" category in 1963, when a 13 year old Motown product named Stevie Wonder reached #1 in both charts. It was an astonishing milestone for African American artists, and at the same time it was an important moment for African American music. The music dissolved the barrier between white and black audiences across the nation, and for the first time, black musicians could stand on a national TV stage performing their songs. Before then, black music only could become popular when it was covered or reinterpreted by white artists like Elvis Presley. But it is important to realize that black music like R&B became part of the mainstream in the late 50s and 60s, not because the performers were black but because their music was simply good.

I bring up this topic of "crossover" success because I think it is relevant to the Asian American musicians that we have discussed for this class. The musicians belonging to niche markets have not reached the mainstream simply because their music isn't very good and therefore not appealing to many people. I do admit I'm being very harsh, but the niche market music, separate from its performers, simply does not have the strength to compete with some of the best music that's out there in the market. Of course there are many songs that are popular within niche markets (the so called "indie" music scene) that demonstrate great musical values, but I am a firm believer in the idea that if the music is truly great, eventually it will be picked up by a much wider audience, just as R&B music became mainstream in the 60s. I don't mean to offend those who are fans of K-Pop and J-Pop, but they don't exactly have the same musical power that R&B does. Norah Jones is probably the most successful musician among the Asian American artist discussed in this blog, and for a very good reason. Her music is simply better than the others'.

But at the same time, I wonder how much emphasis should be placed on the fact that she is half Asian. She is Asian American, however, her music (in my personal opinion) has nothing to do with the fact that she is half Asian. She is a very good jazz pianist and is a wonderful blues/pop/jazz singer. Listening to her music, I can't really find elements that make her songs distinctively Asian American. What I want to say is that, music has a life of its own, separate from its performer, although it might take its origin from the artist's ethnic background. And the foremost reason why the national audience listens is that the music appeals to them, not necessarily how the performer appeals to them. Although we are at the age of youtube and visual emphasis at music concerts, I believe that music's foremost appeal is auditory. Music, by definition, is a combination of vocal and instrumental sounds that produce harmony, melody, and expressive content. If the music isn't good, I really don't care how great/interesting the performer is. (Think about how many times the so-called great musicians disappoint us with horrible new albums)

Now let's take a look at JJ Chinois. After reading Mimi Ngyen's essay, I do realize that he is a transgendered persona of a New York filmmaker and artist named Lynn Chan. But since we watched his music video I want to point out why his music doesn't appeal to me very much (and it seems like it doesn't really appeal to others either). First of all, I think JJ Chinois does a lot of things for the sake of becoming a star, not necessarily because he is so "talented," as he claims himself to be. Ngyen talks about how JJ Chinois, like Bruce Lee, attempts to create a new image of an Asian male body, but I think there is a huge difference between the two people. Bruce Lee's masculine image is a byproduct of his spectacular martial arts skills, as supposed to JJ Chinois's image that seeks to draw attention to itself so he can become a star. In other words, I don't think Bruce Lee created his image because he wanted to become a famous star, as much as he felt very passionate about martial arts, and during this pursuit of his passion he acquired the masculine image. It's the same case with true musicians: most of them simply pursue what they feel passionate about--making music--and then become nationally famous musicians. JJ Chinois, on the other hand, makes music and films because he simply wants to be famous. (If you take a look at his website, you can see how much attention he wants) In fact, his being Asian or transgender doesn't really make his music special at all. The song is only creepy and repetitive. I just don't think his music has enough appeal.

This is a very lengthy post, but I thought it was necessary to share what I think about Asian American music and address these questions:

How much emphasis should we place on the artist when we gauge the value of his/her music?

Does the fact that an Asian American performed the music render it Asian? Doesn't the reason why many Asian American musicians fail to achieve mainstream success point at the fact their music is simply not as good as what's out there in the mainstream? Should music be categorized with race? Doesn't that contradict with what Motown and R&B accomplished during the civil rights era?

As a serious musician, I can't really appreciate the Asian American music that's popular in the niche market. I'm sure there are some really good ones that I haven't been able to find yet, and maybe I should look harder to find something that appeals to me in that small market. But at the same time, do I really need to seek out specifically for Asian American musicians, when I just want to listen to some good music? I do realize that we are paying attention to race for the purpose of this class and we should do so. But at the same time paying our primary attention to the Asian American musicians, rather than the music itself, prevents us from appreciating the auditory art.

JJ Chinois and Terminal USA

2008-04-27T11:45:00.000-07:00

The short JJ Chinois segment and the underground film Terminal USA were probably the two weirdest films I have ever seen. It is really hard for me to comment on either because I do not understand what point the producers were trying to make. The reading helped clarify the 5 min JJ Chinois clip. I had no idea what most of the random subtitles and text referred to. In the end, though, I am unsure of what this is supposed to say about being Asian and transsexual. Meanwhile, Terminal USA has been well received, as it has been chosen to appear in multiple film festivals and was selected to air on PBS in 150+ markets. However, the film was too ridiculous to me to take seriously, and I found myself getting annoyed more than anything. A lot of reviews and advertisements I found online call it hilarious and a great comedy, but I guess it just did not strike me in the same way. I found some of the absurdity refreshing and thought the whole bit on Kazumi getting accepted to his ‘dream community college’ was comical. The use of music stood out to me in the film, as well. Every time a scene transitioned to Marvin, a nerdy type of sci-fi music came on. I thought that was clever and enhanced the portrayal of Marvin.

As I am sure everyone realizes, the film is an extreme portrayal of Asian American stereotypes. I think the director made that clear in the first 5 minutes of the film by showing Kazumi looking stoned out of his mind, the oblivious mother and dying grandfather, Holly’s cheerleader attire, and having Marvin first introduced with his big glasses and a protractor. I would answer yes to Allison’s question about the producer’s creative notion to then weave in other taboo characteristics into the lives of the different characters. By giving the characters multiple identities, it makes everything seem even more extreme than it already is. The different attributes/storylines associated with each character makes the film become more than just a 1D look at different types of Asian American personalities and how they are received in the community/family. Ultimately, though, there were simply too many radical ideas going on at once.

It seems like I, along with everyone else who has posted so far, am interested to hear what these films are supposed to say about being Asian American.

JJ Chinois and Terminal USA Response

2008-04-27T10:14:00.000-07:00

I actually haven’t seen any underground films until now, and was very surprised by both JJ Chinois and Terminal USA. I watched JJ Chinois before reading the essay in Alien Encounters with a few friends, and I’m pretty sure none of us caught the fact that JJ Chinois is played by a woman. It wasn’t until I read the essay and then watched it again that I was able to see the significance of the scenes from the Bruce Lee movie to JJ Chinois’s masculinity. This brought up quite a few questions – how much does Lynne Chan expect the average viewer to know about Bruce Lee? I personally didn’t know that the scenes with the random subtitles were clips from a movie about Bruce Lee until I read Alien Encounters. Perhaps the fact that I would have never guessed that the male character was supposed to be Bruce Lee goes to show how I (and maybe the general public) would not associate this sexualized image of an Asian American male with the stoic image of Bruce Lee portrayed in his movies. Would the only people who would understand the significance of these scenes be then people who have seen Bruce Lee I Love You before (who may be Bruce Lee fans)?

Terminal USA was a lot easier to follow in terms of plot, but I am still confused about the meaning of everything. In the beginning of Terminal USA, the scene opens with Kazumi doing pseudo-martial arts moves around his room, yelling like one might see in a typical martial arts movie. He tries to yell like this in the following scene when the two druggies confront him, but is quickly pushed down to the ground while one of them yells in a deeper voice. Is this meant to emphasize the ridiculousness of trying to emulate martial arts masters in the “real world”? I got the feeling that the filmmaker introduces the viewer to an over exaggerated stereotype of martial arts to show how overly exaggerated Kazumi (and the rest of the characters) are in this film. Also, one aspect of the film that stood out to me was the clothes the characters were wearing. They were obviously meant to emphasize the stereotypical role each had in the family (Marvin being the studious geek, Kazumi being the rebel, and Holly being the perfect cheerleader). Was it to serve as a contrast to the secrets each child was trying to hide from the parents?

JJ Chinois and Terminal USA

2008-04-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

JJ Chinois and Terminal USA were probably the two strangest films I've watched for this class -- I felt like I was in HA89 (Contemporary Art) all over again. These are definitely "underground" films -- interesting cinematic and subject choices, and the exploration of Asian sexuality was pretty fascinating. At a few points I found myself asking, "What is going on?!?", because seriously, many of the events in Terminal USA were bizarre and disturbing (Kazumi's leg injury, the dying grandfather, etc).

After reading more about JJ Chinois, I feel that I understand at least that film a little more. But Terminal USA -- huh? The characters are obviously meant to be very extreme, almost caricatures, and I see that there's clearly a spoof of American soap operas/pop culture/B-movies. The dialogue and delivery is all rather strange; I'm interested in finding out what Terminal USA is meant to be saying about Asian America.

How comfortable are you watching JJ Chinois?

2008-04-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

I haven’t had very much exposure to “underground” productions, and I definitely wasn’t prepared for the content or presentation of Terminal USA or JJ Chinois.

It’s actually very funny that I was so surprised, because I thought I knew exactly what JJ Chinois would be about after Prof. Lee’s references to its transsexual themes. I’ve attended a couple of fashion shows/beauty pageants featuring transgendered individuals in San Francisco, and a disproportionate number of the contestants were Asian, so I thought “JJ Chinois” might be a look into this potentially “underground” culture.

I suppose I was wrong to think that there is just one narrative that includes being Asian and being transsexual, but I am really interested in the links nonetheless. As I watched JJ Chinois, I wondered about the male Asian body and sexuality. How does the average viewer feel about the homosexual Asian male, considering that the Asian male is generally emasculated in media portrayals? Is there a different charge associated with the Asian homosexual male vs. that surrounding the white homosexual male?

And how does this relate to the large percentage of trangendered individuals who were Asian in the shows? Is it just because I was in San Francisco, home to a fairly large number of Asians/Asian Americans, that the proportion was so great? Or is there something about Asian culture that lends to making the surgical switch with less difficulty?

So I left more questions than answers here. About Terminal USA—I found an interview with the filmmaker, who was funded by PBS to make this segment as part of an “American Families” series. I’m not sure how it made it into the mainstream (any portion of the movie, really) or if the satire was clear enough to be educational. I look forward to hearing other peoples’ thoughts on this as well.

Here's the interview with Jon Moritsugu:
http://crowndozen.com/main/archives/001402.shtml

Arizona Proposal Would Prohibit Race-Based Student Groups

2008-04-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

Coming down the modelminority grapevine:

http://chronicle.com/news/article/4338/arizona-proposal-would-prohibit-race-based-student-groups

Arizona Proposal Would Prohibit Race-Based Student Groups

An Arizona legislative committee has passed an amendment to a routine homeland-security bill that would prohibit students at the state’s public universities and community colleges from organizing groups based on race. The amendment was approved by the Arizona House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. It still awaits a vote by the state’s full House and Senate.

The amendment, introduced by State Rep. Russell K. Pearce, a Republican, would also allow state officials to withhold funds from public schools sponsoring activities that “denigrate American values and the teachings of Western civilization.” The proposal was added to Senate Bill 1108, a measure that has nothing to do with education but was intended to allow designees of mayors and police chiefs to serve on homeland-security advisory councils.

“This bill basically says, ‘You’re here. Adopt American values,’” State Rep. John Kavanagh, a Republican, told The Arizona Republic. “‘If you want a different culture, then fine, go back to that culture,’” he said. —JJ Hermes

Bok Choy Boys

2008-04-23T18:32:00.000-07:00

The Bok Choy Boys was formed by members of Lapu the Coyote that Cares (LCC)Theatre at UCLA. The students performing in the video are part of a larger theatre company that was established in 1995 on the university campus. LCC aspires to promote a voice for Asian American creative expression. By increasing the visibility of Asian Americans through improv, music, videos, and various forms of media, the larger LCC group ridicules stereotypes that could harm the community.
In the Bok Choy Boys videos, the characters exaggerates the stereotypes behind Asian and Asian cuisine. "Fry, Fry, Fry" and "I Want My Chow Mein" borrows music from popular American boy bands and adds a bit more flavor. In doing so, the performers challenges you to think about the connection between food and identity. These videos definitely made me question the culture behind food. Although certain dishes are more closely associated with Asian identity than others, they are not necessarily the Asian family favorites. Thus, the cuisine that is connected to the Asian identity is one that is universally palatable, such as sweet and sour dishes. This reduces all Asian cuisine to Kung Pao Chicken, Sweet and Sour Chicken, Chow Mein, and Boba. The Bok Choy Boys do a great job at criticizing stereotypes surrounding Asian food and identity through their humor.

Bok Choy Boy website: http://www.studentgroups.ucla.edu/lcc/BCB/index.html

Bok Choy Boys - I Want My Chow Mein

Bok Choy Boys - Fry, Fry, Fry

LCC Theatre website: http://www.lcctheatre.com/

Mixed Race Asian America....

2008-04-22T19:56:00.000-07:00

something that I've definitely noticed in a number of blogs and what I belive someone pointed out in class today was that many of the artists that were brought up are bi/or-multiracial. From artist like Norah Jones to r&b star Amerie to Linkin Park's front man, Mike Shinoda, where do mixed race individuals fit in within Asian America? (within the categories of race more broadly?)

As a mixed-race identified filipina/black American, I often wonder this myself. I strongly identified with Amerie's interview and issues she raised being korean/black. I think race in America, especially within Asian American communities, are looking much more mixed than ever. This isn't to say race in America will one day be non-existant or that colorblindness is ok (not true and it's not), it's just that I've often heard from individuals that mixed race folks will one day be the "solution" to racial problems in the U.S. I find this extremely troubling that people who think that the day everyone is mixed, racial hierarchies will disappear.

Wang Lee Hom

2008-04-22T09:28:00.000-07:00

Over winter break, I picked my brother up from the train station after a Wang Lee-Hom concert and asked him about it, with no previous knowledge of the artist. He said it was “Amazing!” (as could be expected), but also “Kind of embarrassing at some parts.” Hmm…

Apparently, Wang Lee-Hom came out in a red robe (with a dragon embroidered on the back, if I recall correctly) and busted it open to reveal his outfit underneath. He shouted into the microphone: “Wo shuo ‘Merry’, ni shuo ‘Christmas’!” (“When I say ‘Merry’, you say ‘Christmas’!”) to which the crowd responded as expected.

George (my brother) was really uncomfortable. He’s learning Mandarin at Berkeley, so it wasn’t a lack of language comprehension. It was just the cheesiness of it all, maybe the even “Fob-iness”? I asked more about Wang Lee-Hom and was surprised to find that he wasn’t born in the China or Taiwan like Jay Chou (this comparison of their music could be an ignorant one). On the contrary, Wang Lee-Hom was born in Rochester, NY and received his undergraduate degree in Music and Asian Studies at the liberal arts school Williams College in New England. After that, he spent a semester at Berklee School of Music, concentrating on his vocal abilities. Wang Lee-Hom only began learning Mandarin Chinese at age 18 – now he writes songs in the language that are popular internationally.

Wang Lee-Hom's mySpace bio emphasizes "rebel" aspects of his personality, displayed in his choice to pursue music over medicine (the path most of his family members took). Here's a direct passage:
"Lee-Hom's family, besides his mother, were against him making music his lifetime career. Being academically capable, Lee-Hom's father hoped that Lee-Hom, like his brother, would go into medicine in college, due to LeeHom's academic achievements good enough for major universities such as Princeton and Yale, but Lee-hom opted for music instead when it came to choosing his career. His father, naturally, was very unhappy, but accepted his son's choice. In college, Lee-Hom chose Music Composition as his major." (http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=46182578)

Another interesting bit I ran across was Lee-Hom's new, personally-coined musical style called "chinked-out". He claims to have repossessed the derogatory slur to describe a kind of music that is international, and at the same time, Chinese. (Wangleehom.com) I've noticed a theme of rebelling against political correctness in a lot of these other Asian/Asian-American artists, but I suppose Lee-Hom here is trying to do something entirely different. This song comes from his "Shangri-La" album, created in the "chinked-out" style:

Anyway, the Wang Lee-Hom followers I know are all Asian American, born in the U.S. and educated here, often born to Chinese-speaking parents. They listen to American hip-hop, pop and even a bit of indie rock, but all have an earnest appreciation of artists like Wang Lee-Hom and Jay Chou. I wonder what their interest in Chinese music stems from—I know that for me, it is the excitement of utilizing the Chinese skills I was not raised with (but learned in class painstakingly since middle school). For many of my multilingual peers, this isn’t the case. Perhaps it is the stereotypical Chinese American upbringing (and expectations) Wang Lee-Hom experienced that draws so many Asian American youths to his music now. Any other ideas?

Death Angel

2008-04-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many of you are fans of metal, but back in the day (in the glorious 80s), there emerged a Filipino-American thrash metal band in the Bay Area scene. They were well known for being a family operation of sorts--the original members Rob Cavestany (lead guitar), Dennis Pepa (Bass guitar, vox) and Gus Pepa (Rhythm Guitar), and Andy Galeon are all cousins. Mark Osegueda, who became their vocalist in 1984, was also a cousin. They were also known being something of a prodigy band. These guys not yet out of their teens when they released their first studio album, The Ultra-Violence in 1987. This was quickly followed by Frolic Through the Park (1988) and Act III (1990), the latter being considered by many to be the most representative of their sound, which was a base of classic thrash infused with elements of funk. I've always liked them, though my favorite band from the Bay Area has to be Testament.

Sadly, their promising career hit a roadblock in 1990 following an accident in which Andy Galeon was critically injured, and the resulting fallout caused the breakup of the band. Some remaining members reorganized as "The Organization," though it was clear that they were no longer as successful as they once ad been. In 2001, however, for a cancer benefit show for Testament frontman Chuck Billy, they reunited. Since then, they've had 2 studio albums, and The Art of Dying (2004) and The Killing Season (2008). They've also recently completed their first tour in the Philippines, in the spring of 2007.

"Seemingly Endless Time" from Act III

"A Room with a View" from Act III

"Thicker than Blood" from The Art of Dying

Rob Cavestany talks about the band's first tour in the Philippines

Tai Mai Shu

2008-04-22T00:02:00.001-07:00

I'm sure many of you have heard of Tai Mai Shu. Unfortunately I couldn't find any information on who created this character and the songs and what the motivation was behind it all, but it is seems these songs were made really just for the sake of comedy. In the end, it still embodies many of the stereotypes and racist remarks made about Asian Americans. Take a look at some of these videos:

One other interesting and related show I saw the other day was MTV's True Life: I'm the Black Sheep. Shawn, one of the kids filmed for the show, is Indian and wants to pursue a music career in the hip-hop industry. Initially, his parents, who are very academically oriented, are strictly opposed to his dreams and would rather he focus on his SATs and college applications. After he is let down by a disappointing gig the night before his SATs, he starts to think that maybe his parents are right. However, his heart is still set on getting a record deal and when his parents see all the hard work he put into it, they come to respect his ambitions. In the end, Shawn and his parents come to understand each other and respect each others wishes. It's a very interesting show and unconventionally Asian. Check it out if you get a chance.

Notorious MSG

2008-04-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

... I think that photo pretty much sums up what Notorious MSG is. If it doesn't, try Wikipedia's description: "Notorious MSG is a performing trio of Chinese gangsta rappers founded in Chinatown, New York City who sing about their rise to fame and fortune, survival on the streets. Their songs feature boasting innuendos regarding women and Chinese food."

They have such hits as Straight out of Canton and, my personal favorite, Dim Sum Girl (there's no video of this, but you can hear it on their official website).

Okay, I hate to kill a good parody with analysis, but here are some thoughts on my mind: They really purposely kick up the Asian stereotypes to the max, so it really makes you wonder WHAT people are finding so amusing about them. They've made up these elaborate FOB Asian chef identities, when they're probably REALLY well-educated, middle-class Asian-Americans... so what exactly are they trying to do here? And is it anything like me trying to fake a good "FOB accent"?

Wing

2008-04-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

I had a hard time coming up with Asian American musicians. While, I am sure there are a ton out there the only ones that kept coming to mind were William Hung and Wing, and since someone previously mentioned Hung on American Idol, I would like to post on Wing.

Wing is a Chinese musician from New Zealand. Similar to Hung, she has become somewhat of a parody of herself and of Asian Americans. I stumbled across her many years ago when I was doing an internet search of cover songs for a project concerning appropriation. If you are not familiar with Wing, you should definitely check out her website: http://www.wingmusic.co.nz/

It is here you can find 30 second clips from any of her 14 albums, which range from ABBA covers to covers of AC/DC. You may know her from a South Park, where she played herself in an episode where she was brought to America by the Chinese mafia.

What I find interesting both about Wing and Hung is despite the fact they are consistently mocked and humiliated, they continue to perform because of their "pure joy of singing". I have ambivalent feelings towards Wing: she promotes a terrible stereotype, but she really seems incredibly sincere in what she is doing, and she is okay with it. She had no qualms when the creators of South Park asked if they could use her in their episode. Her only request was that she had to approve her depiction. As Trey Parker and Matt Stone discussed their use of Wing within their episode, they discussed how Wing would either be "a super sweet joke" or "a super sweet not joke". Similar to the our discussion of Tila Tequila's music videos, could one argue that since ridiculed Asian Americans performers (like Wing and William Hung), acknowledge that they are objectified jokes, as a result are the ones with power? Perhaps these performers are not the ones being ridiculed and maybe the joke is on us.

Check out the videos of her live performances:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4911635752091295786&q=wing&ei=79kPSLqiFYyYrAKi5OW_AQ&hl=en

Searching for my Asian American pop star

2008-04-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

First things first, I need to get this off my chest and admit my own up to my pop culture transgression: I’m not a big music person. I love to rock out to the radio when driving my car or dance it out at a frat party, but don’t ask me for a song recommendation or to be an iPod DJ at your party. I don’t really have a group of favorite artists or favorite songs; I belong to the minority of Brown students who don’t even own an iPod. This is the reason why I love Pandora; it does all of the music selection for me.

Pandora is where my search began. I started looking for a genre of Asian American artists. I found plenty of Latin; I found Jazz and R&B; I found Rock and Country, but nothing mildly relating to Asian music artists. I scoured the classical section for some Yo-Yo Ma. I tried looking for some sort of Asian folk music with a Mandolin, but I could find nothing. Stumped, my mind fell back onto the stereotypes of Asian Americans and music and the first thing that popped into my head was a Japanese businessman singing karaoke in Tokyo. I looked a little closer at the stereotype and realized that he was singing American music in chopped English. Where has all of the Asian music gone?

My next stop was a Google search for Asian American music artists and several sites, like AArisings.com, which had a comprehensive list of every Asian American music artist. It seemed like the site was created for people just like me, people who had recently lost faith in Asian American music. I thought I would peruse this list to find out of maybe I had been listening to Asian American music all along and just hadn’t realized it. After looking through a list of 200-300 artists, the artists I had hear of were CoCo Lee, Jin, Linkin’ Park, N.E.R.D., and Yo-Yo Ma.

With strengthening Asian economies, the market for Asian American music is available, but where are the artists to meet the demand? Do all Asian American pop stars have to be like William Hung, who was as much of a joke as an American idol? I guess my laid back attitude towards music never made me realize the dearth of Asian music. Maybe I should pay more attention to what music I’m listening to. Maybe Asian Americans need to create a genre of their own to distinguish their music, a genre that hasn’t already been dominated by another ethnic group. I’m crossing my fingers that the new Playstation/Xbox hit “Rock Band” (the newest manifestation of Dance Dance Revolution) will start the ball rolling for a new breed of Asian American music artists.

What is an Asian American Musician, Really?

2008-04-21T20:00:00.000-07:00

In trying to complete this assignment, I came to the realization that though there are some famous Asian American figures in American music, they have, for the most part, not made their name as "Asian" music genre singers. There are musicians and singers such as Sanjaya Malakar, William Hung, Yo Yo Ma, Tila Tequila and Mike Shinoda, who we might say are the more visible faces of Asian American musicians, but they are for the most part, not famous for their "Asian" music, but rather for being musicians and singers that happen to also be Asian American. That is not to say that the music that they create is not "Asian American." Rather, it is just that it is in contrast to Hispanic and African American rhythms, which have been incorporated into the genres of rap, R&B, reggae, and other popular genres. However, the same cannot be said for Asian American musicians and Asian rhythms/melodies. It is true that Hispanic and African musical undertones have persisted in American music for far longer, partially explaining their strong influence on American music, but the surprising lack of an "Asian American" brand of music with influences of Asian rhythms/melodies begs the question, why is this so?

I think that the lack of Asian music in the mainstream follows the trend of American perceptions of Asians still as somewhat alien in American culture. Take movies for example. Many a movie can start with a rap or R&B song, and that conveys a type of American feeling to the film, but if a movie begins with an Asian melody, one is compelled to think that the film is exotic and perhaps foreign in some way. Even as an Asian American myself, I feel that way when I hear Asian melodies and rhythms, as opposed to the feeling of contemporary American which arises when I hear rhythms and sounds in rap or R&B which originated in African music. Perhaps part of the lack of use of Asian musical themes by Asian American musicians represents their aversion to seeming foreign to a mainstream audience.

To this end, I found myself looking for Asian American musicians who are not just musicians that happen to be Asian American. On the recommendation of a friend, I encountered upon Vietnamese American singer Kristine Sa (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristine_Sa). She is currently "living out of her suitcase," touring around North America performing, and she has recorded an anime remix CD in Japanese. I found her to represent the type of Asian American musician that I would like to see more of. She is distinctly American through her use of the thoroughly American journey/roadtrip, but she also incorporates Asian undertones into her music. She also writes her own songs and plays the piano as well. I feel that in her expression of herself, she creates music that is distinctly Asian and American at the same time, a type of music that I hope one day in the mainstream as the African and Hispanic undertones of rap, reggae, and the like.

See: http://kristinesa.bestofartists.net/

Tila Tequila

2008-04-21T19:04:00.000-07:00

2007: "I Love U"

2007: "Stripper Friends"

2008: "Paralyze"

This above song was released just a few weeks ago on April 8.

Tila Tequila is a fascinating pop culture figure to me not particularly because of the image she has cultivated for herself, but because of how she has taken advantage the most fruitful tools of youth cultural commodification, i.e. MTV, myspace, itunes, reality TV. The story of her ascendance to fame is a kind of perverted rags-to-riches tale: her family emigrated from Vietnam, moved to Houston, she joined gangs in high school, ran off to Queens at the age of 16, returned to Texas and was picked up by a Playboy scout, jumpstarting her career in modeling. However, most of her fame is due to her prolific and astute use of MySpace, garnering 2 million MySpace friends. She was the star of the MTV reality show, A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila and most of her song releases have been through iTunes.

Leaving her willingness to fetishize her body and image aside (all of which I find problematic and controversial), I wonder if the skillful way in which she used Web 2.0 will set a precedent for other Asian-Americans to enter the cultural industry. With sites such as YouTube and MySpace, the possibility of becoming an overnight star (with some self-promotion, of course) is not an unrealistic dream. Record companies are constantly scouting MySpace for the "next new hit" but does ethnicity become less or more of an issue on online settings?

I was also interested by the progression of the content of her songs/music videos from explicitly sexual to more "innocent" and "pop-like." This is the opposite of the traditional tendancy for female pop artist like Christina Aguilera or Pink to start off with more mainstream pop records and create more edgy second albums.

se7en in the U.S.

2008-04-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

Widely successful throughout Asia, Korean pop/R&B singer Se7en is one of a few South Korean artists who have made plans to release a debut album in the United States. Our assignment was to find an Asian American pop artist, and though Se7en may not technically qualify, I think his potential influence on the popular view of Asians and Asian Americans in pop music is worth thinking about.

Se7en is praised for his image and his exceptional singing and dancing. Is it enough to impress mainstream America? It's hard to say. American producers are still hesitant to cultivate Asian talent so if there are any out there with enough talent, they hardly get any exposure. Japanese singer Hiraku Utada was not widely received with her 2004 debut U.S. album, and Korean singer Bi(Rain) was similarly received when he performed at Madison Square Garden in February.

But given that Se7en is working with supposedly big name American producers, I am interested to see how he will be accepted. I was unable to find any information about his new album or a debut schedule, but it might be interesting to look at some of his Korean songs and think about what kinds of things Americans would or would not find appealing:

Se7en-Passion

se7en and justin timberlake

OTHER SOURCES:

http://asiancemagazine.com/nov_2006/200611/korean_pop_sensation_se7en_makes_his_us_debut_in_the_big_apple
http://soompi.com/se7en.take.on.US.stage

Thought Asian chicks couldn't rock out?

2008-04-21T15:01:00.000-07:00

Experimental pop musician Jihae (a 1.5 generation Korean-American currently living and working in Manhattan) released her debut album My Heart is an Elephant in December 2007. Though she may be relatively new to the scene, Jihae's work has garnered so much attention among the New York art crowd that the album features cameos by both filmmaker (and drummer) Michel Gondry and Lenny Kravitz. It was also produced by Patrick McCarthy, best known for his production work with REM.

Jihae's vocals are delicate and breathy but never overly sentimental (think a depressed version of Feist), and usually set up against a backdrop of low-res electronic washes, creating a sort of disillusioned, urban beauty. Every moment of the album seems devoted to artistry and experimentalism, and her website displays a fascination with the relationship between audio and video. Though her lyrics contain very few references to her ethnicity, the music creates a feeling of being lost within a dreary, industrial reality, and this effect, I think, speaks for itself.

Below is an excerpt from the documentary "Chorus," featuring Jihae. After so little mention of her heritage on the album, it's interesting to hear her talking about her mother and grandmother.

And here's another clip of Jihae performing a cover of Nina Simone's "Do I Move You."

Another one of my favorite independent Asian-American musicians is Vietnamese guitarist Carol Bui, who I first found out about after she performed in the AIR (Asians in Rock) Tour a few years ago. The girl can definitely rock out, and songs like "Hyphen-American" and "Bangkok" directly address her Vietnamese-American heritage.

Unfortunately, she still only plays small venues, and there are only a few grainy videos on YouTube. I have to admit, her music's not always as melodic as I usually like, but I think the overall effect is fantastic. Here's the title track from her 2004 album "This is How I Recover."

Doing a Flip Reverse on what is Asian American music

2008-04-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

The first musical selection questions (or rather brings back into discussion) the definition of Asian American. The artist, Thao Nguyen, is Asian American, but does her music qualify as Asian American? As a contrast let us use another artist. Using the recent musical artist at Spring Weekend, Vampire Weekend, would their music be considered African just because they use (Steal? Expoit?) African styles and rhythms (ex. “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”). Furthermore, her popularity and musical style falls under the indie (indie-pop? indie-rock?) genre. What is the relationship of her being Asian American and the indie genre, a genre that is dominated by white males (ex. Vampire Weekend).

The second (and third) musical selection takes us for a moment outside of the US to the UK and Korea. The group Blazin’ Squad several years ago released the track “Flip Reverse” which was covered by the Korean artist Jang Woo Hyuk. The song brings up ideas of “credibility” (itself, tied to ideas of “authenticity” already discussed in class). Does a group of white (except one), British males have the right to perform (faux?) hip hop? Should a Korean artist cover a track from this group? Admittedly, the song is unintentionally funny (try to guess what the song is about; the video after the two music videos will give you a bit of a laugh). But it does raise questions of credibility and authenticity.

Lastly, I wanted to bring to the table an article from the New York Times several years ago about Asian American artists. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/fashion/04asians.html?pagewanted=1&sq=asian%20american%20music&st=nyt&scp=4

. It puts an interesting take on the popularity of Thao Nguyen being an indie (rather than mainstream) artist.

-Christopher Huynh

Tai Mai Shu - Chinese Freestyle Rap

2008-04-21T00:30:00.000-07:00

If You're Not White, You're Colored

2008-04-20T22:42:00.000-07:00

One of the scenes in Mississippi Masala that I found particularly intriguing was the one in which one of the Indian men in the motel approaches Demetrius and Tyrone trying to prevent Demetrius from suing for whiplash. It is one of the few (if not the only) instance in which he speaks in favor of solidarity among different minority groups. “As long as you’re not white, you’re colored,” he says. It’s interesting that these sentiments are only brought out when it’s strategically useful, in the context of a financial dilemma. This early scene, in which the idea of cooperation among minorities is exploited for a financial end, criticizes the possibility of genuine third-world solidarity.

I guess the story of the relationship between Mina and Demetrius demonstrates a reach across racial borders in a more genuine way than this manipulation-- and, of course, as the main storyline, this relationship is more important to the overall theme of the film. However, even this model of inter-minority cooperation is full of problems. In order to be together, both Mina and Demetrius have to leave their families, which suggests that their relationship is not possible within the spheres of their communities, and that it can only exist in some isolated limbo land (which is never shown in the film). Their ending isn’t exactly a happy one, or at least not one that holds much suggestion of future success.

As Mississipi Masala suggests, the relationship between the African-American and Asian-American communities is a problematic one. Why is it that two groups with similar histories of mistreatment by the white majority have such trouble getting along? I think a few important differences between these groups contribute to this. First, as we’ve discussed, the African-American community is larger, visible enough to create a black-white racial dichotomy that other races-- including Asians-- have trouble fitting into. Second, a key aspect of the Asian-American experience is the immigrant experience. The stories in Sa-I-Gu are part of a standard trope of the Asian-American narrative: couples who left everything in their home countries to struggle in the Land of Opportunity for their children’s sake.

I was struck by one interview in Sa-I-Gu, in which the woman tells of how she’d expected America to be, essentially, whiter. She’s surprised by the number of Hispanics in her new neighborhood and says she could have believed it was Mexico, but not America. It made me begin to wonder whether the Asian immigrant’s American dream was a _white American dream. This brings up an interesting idea. We’ve talked about the Asian-American as the perpetual foreigner; but this interview suggests that, at least to this Korean-American woman, all other ethnic minorities are just as foreign. If you’re not white, you’re colored-- and, perhaps, not quite American enough.

An early sequence of Sa-I-Gu shows a Korean church singing “Amazing Grace,” a traditional African-American spiritual. This clip perhaps suggests that Asian-Americans and African-Americans have more in common than either community will admit. Watching _Sa-I-Gu reminded me of Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing, which deals with race in Brooklyn in the late ‘80s. While it mostly deals with black-white relations (no surprise there), the film also addresses tensions between other ethnic groups, and it features a corner grocery owned by a newly immigrated Korean couple. Below are a few clips from Do the Right Thing which focus on the Korean couple (it also includes the looting/burning scene, which I think is pertinent in light of the L.A. riots).

Especially interesting is the moment in which the mob turns away from the burning, white-owned pizzeria, toward the Korean grocery, and decides to leave it alone after the owner yells, "I'm black! I'm black! You-- me-- same!" Is this what it takes for people to even consider minority solidarity? Angry mobs and threats of lawsuits? Well, if these extreme situations are what it takes, then so be it.

Nora Jones and Mulan

2008-04-20T19:52:00.000-07:00

I’m always interested to find out about which celebrities are actually partly Asian that no one would expect (like Mark-Paul Gosselaar who played Zack Morris on “Save by the Bell”) and when I was Googling “Asian American musicians” for this week’s blog entry, I found out to my astonishment that Norah Jones is half-Bengali. She was born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar and is the daughter of famous Bengali musician Ravi Shankar. She is known for her debut album titled Come Away with Me in 2002 and has won five Grammy Awards, including the prestigious award for “Best New Artist.” She also released her second and third album, Feels like Home and Not Too Late in 2004 and 2007 respectively, which were both very successful as well. The video I attached was her hit “Come Away With Me,” which is considered to be one of her most well known songs.

While Nora Jones might not be known as an Asian American artist, a soundtrack that I consider to be “Asian American” would definitely be the soundtrack for the Disney film Mulan. At first, I sort of thought about this jokingly, but the more I thought about it, the more I realize that there is some truth to it. Songs like “Honor To Us All” and “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” describe the gender hierarchy of Asian culture and reflect upon the concept of the Asian body. Simply because of her gender, Mulan is considered to be a weak character whose purpose in life is to tend to her husband and family. When Mulan is thought to be a man, she is treated as one who can control her future, serve her country, and be respected by others for her success. However once it is revealed that she is a woman (*gasp*), she loses all credibility and is instantaneously considered to be inferior to her male peers although she physically performs equally as well. In this film, Disney hits on the notion that the Asian female body is often considered to be docile, weak, and fragile. Mulan fights these stereotypes when she goes off to war. I consider Mulan to be a important animated product of Asian American culture because it depicts Asian women in a positive, more aggressive position, unlike the place they are often given in American media.

Nora Jones ("Come Away With Me"):

Mulan ("Honor To Us All"):

American Idol: ASIANS

2008-04-20T19:14:00.000-07:00

Jasmine Trias (Season 3)

William Hung (Season 3)

Paul Kim (Season 6)

A few notes about Paul Kim: 1) I think it's interesting that Paul Kim uses William Hung as a source of motivation. He finds it necessary to combat the negative stereotypes that Hung created in his infamous She-Bangs auditions (see video above). 2) What's the deal with the barefoot performance? Perhaps it is telling that Kim was then immediately eliminated. Did the lack of shoes deter viewers from voting for him because it made him (and I'm being serious here) too eccentric, too different, and in other words too Asian?

Sanjaya Malakar (Season 6)

Notes: Sanjaya somehow coasted his way through a good deal of the competition despite Simon Cowell's constant berating. The reasons: fangirls who cry and VotefortheWorst.com

Danny Noriega (Season 7)

Ramiele Malubay (Season 7)

Asian American Songs: Commercial Innuendo?

2008-04-20T16:55:00.000-07:00

The two songs that I found were not written and sung by Asians, but rather used themes that the artists try to associate with all things Asian. The songs are "Turning Japanese" by the Vapors and "China Girl" by David Bowie and Iggy Pop. The former was a hit in the UK and performed modestly on the US charts. Though David Fenton, writer, vocalist and guitarist for the Vapors, denied any implicit sexual innuendo associated with the song (claiming it was just another love single), many listeners interpreted the phrase "Turning Japanese" as a euphemism for ejaculation; the song subsequently became something of an odd to masturbation. David Bowie, in "China Girl," refers to her multiple times as "my little China girl." He goes on to say he'll give her things like television, implying that the China girl has never been exposed to modern culture; this makes her seem more foreign as she and Bowie seem to be from different worlds. The song performed well in both the US and UK, peaking at number 10 and 2 on the charts respectively. Seeing as how both songs were hits, I was wondering what to make of the public's reception towards these songs, and in turn, whether it parallels the general public's perceptions towards Asians in general.

Some other songs/music videos I came across that mentioned/portrayed Asians were "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" and "Girls Girls Girls" both written by Jay-Z for his album "The Blueprint." In the latter he uses the line,"Had this Chinese chick// had to leave her quick// cuz she kept bootleggin' my shit" and in the "Izzo" video we see an Asian American teen rocking out in a convenient store. Again, these songs were also hits, causing us to wonder what is the impact of seeing these popular portraits of Asian Americans in the media

Dan the Automator--Superproducer

2008-04-20T16:15:00.000-07:00

Dan the Automator, born Daniel Nakamura in San Francisco, CA, is known internationally as one of the most creative and groundbreaking producers of Hip-Hop music. He first achieved critical and commercial success in 1996 with the esoteric Dr. Octagon album, and followed suit with a slew of landmark recordings and remixes that established him as not only a producer to be reckoned with, but as a remixer and songwriter as well. His collaborations with hip-hop legends Prince Paul (Handsome Boy Modeling School) and Del tha Funkee Homosapien (Deltron 3030) resulted in success on a larger scale, and he went platinum as the producer of the debut Gorillaz album in 2001.

Trained in classical violin as a child, he became more interested in Electronica and Hip-Hop. He started to DJ and produce, taking on small gigs and projects until he made his break teaming up with Kool Keith producing the Dr. Octagon album. Nakamura's work tends to integrate significant amounts of overlooked 1970s and 80s cult classics and B-grade 90s television material. His work also tends to make heavy use of classical music and science fiction overtones and references.
Hip-hop is a genre that has proved itself far more flexible and groundbreaking than anyone might have predicted at its genesis: from its massive worldwide popularity to its seemingly endless "next levels", as it were, hip-hop music continues to be full of surprises, thanks largely in part to record producers like Dan The Automator. While paying homage to his heroes and influences, Dan has crafted a career as unique as his records, always walking the line between music that makes a serious statement and music that delivers undeniable hooks and knows when not to take itself too seriously. [myspace.com/dantheautomator}
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNDcEaC1xkg

The Jimi Hendrix of the Ukulele

2008-04-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

Jake Shimabukuro is a renowned fifth-generation Japanese American musician who has reshaped the public perception of the ukulele. Originating from Hawaii, Jake's music never remains confined to one specific musical category. He successfully plays jazz, funk, blues, classical, bluegrass, folk, flamenco and rock, all on a ukulele. As a musician, Jake serves as an iconoclast to the stereotypical Asian American image publicized in American pop culture.

Aside from several Hawaiian music awards, Jake has been an active promoter of US-Japan relations having served as an official promoter for Hawaii Tourism Japan (HTJ). He has also received an official commendation from the Japanese Foreign Minister for his grassroots work aimed at fostering ties between the American and Japanese people.

Jake has appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and has toured with famous musicians such as Diana Kroll, Fiona Apple, Bobby McFerrin, Jamie Cullum and Blues Traveler. The energetic ukulele star was also featured on Ziggy Marley's album Love is My Religion.

Here are some music clips of Jake:

"Let's Dance" (Flamenco influenced track)

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (Homage to George Harrison)

"Dragon"

You can find more of his music and clips on his personal website and YouTube.

http://www.jakeshimabukuro.com

YouTube Search

P.S. Since Jake Shimabukuro payed respect to The Beatles with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", here is another YouTube treat featuring perhaps a future music star.

"Hey Jude"

Enjoy!

Blue Scholars

2008-04-20T01:53:00.001-07:00

Hailing from my hometown of Seattle, Washington, Blue Scholars is a politically charged and relevant hip-hop duo.

The hip-hop duo formed in college at the University of Washington in 2002 through a student-based hip-hop organization, SHOW (Student Hip Hop Organization of Washington). DJ Sabzi and rapper Geologic have taken off as one of the most powerful underground duos in hip-hop to date. They have blown up especially in the Northwest and on the underground rap scene.

"The name "Blue Scholars" is a play on the term "blue collar," which is an idiom for workers who often earn meager hourly wages for manual labor. Their music and lyrics often focus on struggles between socioeconomic classes, challenging authority and youth empowerment," [Wikipedia]

I have a lot of respect for Blue Scholars. Not only are they putting my home city on the map and producing most(if not all) of their music out of Sabzi's home studio, more importantly, they are bringing up a lot of important issues within their music. With their catchy beats and hooks, Blue Scholars delve into topics ranging from class issues, social justice movements, U.S. foreign policy/imperialism the revival of hip-hop and so much more.

Both members of Blue Scholars create a unique duo, rapper, Geologic, is Filipino American and Sabzi is Iranian American. Blue Scholars are carving an important space in hip-hop as Asian American. I think the reading by Oliver Wang is an interesting read on Asian Americans in hip-hop, but I'm not quite sure where to place Blue Scholars. From what I see they are not trying to attain mainstream recognition or success, but rather spread their message underground and to a larger audience not on the mainstream tip. Commercial viability and a mass target audience does not appear to be on the forefront of their agenda.

I think Blue Scholars evoke less of an Asian American consciousness in their hip-hop music but make central identity politics, inequalities, and make call to action for social injustices. What I think they're doing is just as important as racializing their music but, I do think they're music is lacking the racialized element of being Asian American, children of immigrants, etc.

At the same time, they are presence with young Asian Americans in the Northwest, often performing on the college scene, interviewing with Asian magazines/newspapers, and drawing a largely Asian following. The emphasis is on the music just as much as the message. In an interview with Northwest Asian Weekly Geo said, “it’s just beats, rhymes and life. Keep the formula simple.” The artist have a deep passion and commitment to social justice not only in their music but in their work outside of the studio. This includes, running free workshops visiting schools, youth programs, speaking engagements, working with WAPIFASA (the Washington Asian Pacific Islander Families Against Substance Abuse). Geo is also involved with a student group within Bayan USA, a progressive umbrella organization that brings together Filipino groups from all different backgrounds working for social change.

I think Blue Scholars are the future of hip-hop. They are putting activism to music.

btw, my younger sister met Sabzi and has been to his home studio... so cool.

MTV Chi: A Failed Attempt at Reaching Asian American Audiences

2008-04-19T21:23:00.001-07:00

While researching different Asian American musical artists, I came across an article about a spinoff network created by MTV. For the first time in my life, I came across a network featuring only Asian and Asian American music on American television. It was called "MTV Chi", and it targeted Chinese Americans featuring Mandopop, Cantopop, and Chinese American hip-hop. It launched on December 6, 2005, but was so to be short-lived.

It featured music from Taiwan, China, and Hong Kong, but also had original programming featuring up-and-coming artists in the United States as well as around the world. Asian Americans could finally connect to the Asian pop culture and experience the music phenomenon across the ocean. The launch used famous actress Zhang ZiYi and featured Jin's "Learn Chinese" as the first video played.

I found very little information on the channel, but from what I read and saw, the VJs were Asian American speaking in English, while videos were in English, Mandarin, Cantonese, or a combination of any of these. Some of the artists that this channel highlighted included, Jin, Putnam Hall, and the Far East Movement.

Unfortunately, on February 15, 2007 MTV Networks announced that MTV Chi would be shut down, and it ceased broadcasting on April 30, 2007.

So what does this say about Asian American popular culture? It seems the demand was not present, otherwise, MTV Chi would still be present today. Perhaps the targeted Asian American community is still too small to create a large enough demand, or maybe America is just not ready for such a concentrated Asian American channel. But today, we see an explosion of Asian Americans on MTV including Kaba Modern. Yet, we still have a lack of Asian American music: for instance, we don't see Jin on a regular basis on MTV.

Perhaps in a few years, this may be a different story. But for now, it seems America is not yet ready for MTV Chi.

Lyrics Born (formerly known as "Asia Born"

2008-04-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

Lyrics Born, or Tom Shimura, is a half-Japanese American, half-Italian American rapper/songwriter who was born in Tokyo. He was formerly known as “Asian Born” and is one-half of the group “Latryx” with Lateef the Truthspeaker.

Lyrics Born was raised mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area and his music career has largely been based in the area. His style is often compared to that of groups like Sugar Hill Gang, in the genre of hip hop funk. His large vocabulary and complex rhyming technique are showcased through his often controversial and globally conscious lyrics.

The piece I chose, called “The Last Trumpet” is a very politically charged song by both Lyrics Born and Lateef, pointing to the corruption in politics that often keeps the public in the dark and uses their ignorance as a means to control them. My decision to post this song is based on the commentaries of the women in Sa I Gu, who seemed disgruntled with the government’s negligence for their plight. Among the other themes include brainwashing through media, the education system, and global poverty. Although not uniquely Asian American, I felt that this song deals with the issues that many minority artists feel the need to address, and have their voices heard for.

Sample: lamentations, lamentations, lamentations worldwide

Watch out (repeated)

LB: In the beginning men and women had an obligation to their children
Lateef: Then there was a real and true necessity in need for building
LB: There was still the discipline and will proliferate the lineage
Lat: Matters of the spirit, mind, and body taken serious
LB: But the way that we became what we became
Somebody please explain
Lat: Well we could tell you if you're curious
Those that reign got the masses in chains
And their minds enslaved
Both: And that's the part that makes me furious

Watch out (repeated)

Both: Cos they're definitely ain’t no info readily available to the general A (?) people so let me know x2

Lat: It's easily this multimedia crews that feed you to the neediest
It's the greediest trying to cheat us out of our God given right
LB: To a quality education minimal opportunities available
Limited occupations we are not given a choice
Lat: Or given a voice within a political system pimped and gangsta'd out
Wherein the people are the victim sheep being lead about
LB: While the followers and the patrons of any faith outside the mainstream
Are being raided, falsely painted as endangering the way things work
Lat: And the way things are remain
LB: I can't believe that things ain’t worse
Lat: When all the wicked seeds we've sown have grown
LB: And poisoned all the Earth
Lat: It serves us right
LB: Can't really act surprised when the harvest has no worth
Lat: The curse that's lurking round the corner
Both: Is the product of our work

Watch out (repeated)

Right now
LB: The holy war's growing opposing forces polling of the origins
Of which have been historically been ignored
Right now
Lat: Our foreign policy is mallets of democracy
Upholding an aristocracy of secret terrorist cells
Right now
LB: The global poverty that we accept so commonly
Turns people into property one step away from hell
Right now
Lat: Healthcare battles bioengineering for the worldwide scare
Of the plague the we're fearing
Right now
LB: They got the right to put our lives under surveillance
Right now
Lat: They got the right to lock us up we don't obey them
Right now
LB: Modern education don't prepare the youth
Right now
Right now
Both: Do what you gotta do
Right now
LB: There's people shooting at people that's throwing stones
Right now
Lat: There's a movement of people across the globe
Right now
Both: Right now is where we're at
What goes around comes around
Time for action before the last trumpet sounds

Watch out (repeated)

2008-04-19T19:06:00.000-07:00

I just recently found out that one of the original members of the Black Eyed Peas, apl.de.ap, is half-Filipino through the song s The Apl Song and Bebot. Both these songs are about his life and he sings them in Taglog Born as Allan Pineda Lindo to a U.S. airman who abandoned his family right after birth and to a Filipino woman, Allan is the eldest of 7 and lived in a small barrio in the Phillipines. He would ride jeepneys to school an hour away and farmed crops to make money for the family. He was sponsored by the Pearl S. buck Foundation which is an organization that finds healthier living environments for young abandoned and orphaned Amerasian kids He was sponsored through a dollar-a-day program and brought to the U.S. at 11 to be treated for nystagmus, an involuntary movement of the eyes. He was officially adopted by his sponsor a few years later. He met will-i-am through his sponsor and formed the group Black Eye Peas.

I find Apl’s life story really interesting. I wonder about his unique case of being one of the few mainstream popular Asian artists in the U.S. It seems that not many people know him or that he is Asian and this along with the fact that he is in a group with a hot white woman singer and famous rapper will.i.am may be how he got to the top.

The Apl Song( in the album Elephunk)

[Chorus in Tagalog]
Lapit mga kaibigan at makinig kayo
Ako'y may dala-dalang, balita galing sa bayan ko
Nais kong ipamahagi ang mga kwento
Ang mga pangyayaring nagaganap
Sa lupang pinangako

[English Translation:]
(Come closer my friends and everyone listen
I brought news from my homeland
I'll tell you how we live and what goes on
From my beloved homeland.)

[Verse one, Apl.De.Ap]
Every place got a ghetto this is my version
Check it out...
Listen closely yo, I got a story to tell
A version of my ghetto where life felt for real
Some would call it hell but to me it was heaven
God gave me the grace, amazin' ways of living
How would you feel if you had to catch your meal?
Build a hut to live and to eat and chill in.
Having to pump the water outta the ground
The way we put it down utilizing what is around
Like land for farming, river for fishing
Everyone helpin' each other whenever they can
We makin' it happen, from nothin' to somethin'
That's how we be survivin' back in my homeland

[Chorus]

[Verse two, Apl.De.Ap]
Yo, its been a while but...
I been back home to my homeland, (check it out) to see what's going on
Man it feels good to be back at home
And it's been a decade, on the journey all alone
I was fourteen when I first left Philippines
I've been away half my life, but it felt like a day
To be next to my mom with her home cooked meal
Meant I felt complete, my emotions I feel!
Now life has changed for me in the U.S
But back at home man, life was a mess...
I guess sometimes life's stresses gets you down
On your knees, oh brother I wish I could have helped you out...

Asian American music artists

2008-04-19T16:11:00.000-07:00

Susie Suh '02 is a Brown alum who has burst onto the music scene and recently signed a deal with Epic Records. No, I do not listen to her Sarah McLahclan type music. However, I remember seeing an article about her in the Brown Alumni Magazine a couple years ago, and recently, KASA attempted to get her to come back to campus for a performance. She has a very unique voice in that I feel it is lower than the average voice for an Asian American. Some of her music revolves around the struggles of being an Asian American and the stereotypical parental pressures encountered growing up. A lot of her songs are pretty mellow with the take a walk in my shoes kind of feel. She went so far as to simply make the title of her first album "Susie Suh".

After doing a little bit of research, I found an interview with her on ImaginAsian radio, which can be heard at this site: http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/1377712/. At first, I thought the interviewer messed up her name at the very beginning at the interview. However, she then pronounced it the same way the interviewer did at the conclusion of the interview. I find it interesting that she pronounces her last name as "Sue". I do not know if it is an attempt to further Americanize herself or what, but I have never heard of "Suh" pronounced that way. During the same interview, she discusses her favorite song "Your Battlefield". This song focuses on the trials and tribulations of being a first generation Asian American. The song is about how it was difficult to choose her own career path in the face of her parents believing it was only a hobby and thinking she would eventually become a doctor or lawyer. I read elsewhere that she was glad her parents discouraged her because, like many stars, she turned that negativity into fuel and motivation to succeed and prove herself.

Here is an excerpt from the story about her and "Your Battlefield" in the Brown Alumni Magazine:
'Although Suh concentrated in English at Brown, she continued to write music and she has now signed a major-label deal with Epic Records. "You say that life is a battlefield and you have given me the arms," she sings, addressing her parents. "You say I have to fight, but this is your battlefield." As the song climaxes, Suh passionately proclaims, "I can't fight your war."'

Finally, here is a sample of her music and what I assume (it was the first hit on youtube.com and ) to be her most popular song "All I want".

Mike Shinoda

2008-04-19T13:56:00.000-07:00

Mike Shinoda is a rapper who is involved in both rock group Linkin Park and hip hop group Fort Minor (of which he is the founder). He is half Japanese American and half Russian. I think he’s a great example of an Asian American musician who is doing a decent thing with his music – unlike other mainstream rappers, who often rap about being "all up in the club," Mike Shinoda manages to still be well-known while rapping about things with substance. One song that I think is especially relevant to his being a musician and an Asian American is the song “Kenji,” which was from his group Fort Minor. “Kenji” is about his father’s side of the family being put in Japanese American internment camps during World War II. This song mixes clips of interviews with Mike Shinoda’s father and aunt about their family’s experience in an internment camp. According to an interview (http://www.antimusic.com/morley/05/FortMinor.shtml), Mike Shinoda explains the background of the song:

“I'm half Japanese, and the song "Kenji" is based on my family's story during WWII in an internment camp. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. government began a period of racial profiling. They put all the Japanese-Americans (and some other Asian-Americans) in secluded camps for the duration of the war. My dad was three years old, and had twelve brothers and sisters. My oldest aunt was in her twenties, and had four kids. Her youngest was born in Camp. Her husband died in Camp. They stayed there for the duration of the war, captive. Once they were released, they returned to vandalized homes and racial tension.”

If you take a look at some of the lyrics, his word choice clearly shows his anger over the biases his father’s family had to face during the time:

So now they're in a town with soldiers surroundin' them,
Every day, every night look down at them,
From watch towers up on the wall,
Ken couldn't really hate them at all;
They were just doin' their job and,
He wasn't gonna make any problems,
He had a little garden with vegetables and fruits that,
He gave to the troops in a basket his wife made,
But in the back of his mind, he wanted his families life saved,
Prisoners of war in their own damn country,
What for?

I think including this song on Fort Minor’s album shows this event meant a lot to him, and it was a conscious decision to inform listeners that may not be as knowledgeable about the internment camps, since he defines words such as “Issei” and explains what happens in the internment camps throughout the song. I think it’s interesting that he “exposes” his Japanese American side of his heritage through his music, and I think it’s a great song.

There isn't a music video available for this song, but if you'd like to listen to it, I found one on youtube that's basically a video of the lyrics as the music plays:

Say Bok Gawi - Part 2

2008-04-18T14:16:00.000-07:00

Ok, I figured it out. Here's a Say Bok Gwai sample.

Amerie

2008-04-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

Amerie is a Grammy award-nominated R&B singer, songwriter, and producer whose mother is Korean and father is an African-American officer for the US military. Even though she was born in Massachusetts and speaks English perfectly now, being part of a military family meant moving a lot in her childhood, and so in her earliest years she lived in Korea and acquired Korean as her first language. Then when the family moved away, her mother limited Amerie and her sister’s use of Korean, fearing that that may impede their proficiency in English. So now, Amerie says she speaks Korean at a conversational level and at home with her mother, and what seems noteworthy to me about her as an Asian-American artist is her overt publicization of her Korean heritage. She talks in interviews about growing up biracial and wanting to be recognized by other Korean-American peers as being Korean; she sports a tattoo that roughly translates to her name in Korean (에므리) that can be seen apparently in one of her music videos “1 Thing” (although I couldn’t really see it); and she signs autographs in both English and Korean.

Nothing about her music is Asian or Asian-American – whatever that means; in fact, if you didn’t know that she was hapa and only listened to her music, you would have no idea that she was Asian-American. Her lyrics are very standard mainstream American R&B and pop, as are her music videos. So when you hear that she is half Korean, at least for me it came as sort of a surprise. Does her being half-Korean qualify her as an Asian-American artist, as opposed to those Asian-American artists who a) have full Asian family history, and/or b) sing about being Asian-American? Is Asian-American music anything that an Asian-American sings? I have a feeling that the answer is no, but I don’t really know what other criteria should be added. I do feel, however, that her discussions about acceptance, prejudices, and having a language loss (partially) from parent to child are all pertinent issues for the Asian-American community.

Check out her interview in Korea with her mother sitting to her right. It’s too bad we can’t see what her mother says (I hope this works. If not, the url is http://youtube.com/watch?v=6Vcb3MbhnY0):

(http://www.s2smagazine.com/content/content.asp?issueid=200306&listid=03)

In this interview, interestingly enough Amerie expresses some sentiments that were discussed in Sa-I-Gu, so I thought I would tie that in since I didn’t get a chance to post about that earlier. One of the big themes from Sa-I-Gu was the idea of community: one of the three producers in the prologue of the film said that Korean-American men were portrayed in the media with guns on rooftops, trying to defend their territories without any regard for the community or human lives. However, there must be clarification on this issue because it is obvious that they do care about the community, but only their community of Korean-Americans. It is their insistence that they are different from African-Americans (perhaps, as we’d discussed in class before, in the same light as the “at least we’re not black” sentiment) that separates them from the larger Los Angeles community in more than simply cultural ways. In the Latasha Harlins case, Professor Lee said that the judge ruled that the Korean store owner was not a threat to the community – certainly not to the Korean-American community, and most likely not to the white American community (that probably does not shop there anyways), but how can a woman who was so quick to pass judgment on an African-American girl’s actions and was so quick to aggressively confront her NOT be a threat to the African-American community?

Interestingly, Amerie brings up this point of being watched closely by Asian/Korean-American shopkeepers because she is ostensibly black only for the owners to be really nice to her when they find out that she can speak Korean. She also talks about people asking her to choose only one identity – black or Korean – and she says that she cannot because choosing one would mean forgoing her own identity as both. So, I thought that Amerie presented an interesting case of the blurring and fusing of the black vs. Korean community boundaries.

Asian American Music: Asobi Seksu

2008-04-17T20:23:00.000-07:00

I first heard Asobi Seksu's album a year or two ago, and really liked the sound. Their music sounds sort of like a collage, with transparent layers and textures and sunny colors. However, I didn't really know much about the artist until recently, when a Wikipedia search turned up some interesting information.

"Asobi Seksu", which I've learned means "playful sex" in Japanese, is a NYC-based rock band. They've got a really innovative sound, and as an occasional fan of foreign language music, I think Asobi Seksu has a great fusion style. The band consists of Yuki Chikudate (vocals, keyboards), James Hanna (guitar, vocals)... thank you WIkipedia.

Their album Citrus is the one I listen to when it's sunny outside, and I'm cheerful. Which, in Providence, happens only occasionally (the sunny part, not the cheerful). This is one of my favorite songs of the album -- cute video, too:

Here's another, set in NYC:

Enjoy!

Say Bok Gwai

2008-04-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

I grew up listening to The Clash—who, I'm proud to say, I saw in concert four times over the course of their career including the legendary Bond's NY gigs. They are still, for me, “the only band that matters,” although I enjoy a range of more contemporary groups as well. Still, The Clash, Gang of Four, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Pogues, and Pixies get frequent play on my i-pod.

So, when I said to Professor Lee that I knew nothing about contemporary music by Asian Americans other than those that I have learned about through this course, he suggested, perhaps tongue in cheek, that I look for “the Asian American Clash.” In searching for Asian American punk rock with a political edge to the lyrics, I found Say Bok Gwai. (The Web site for the band and that of its record label don’t offer a translation of the Cantonese but some bloggers said it essentially means Damn White Devils. Perhaps someone in class can confirm if that is an accurate translation.)

The record label describes the band as:

“Canto-core from San Francisco!!! Say Bok Gwai combines hardcore, metal, punk, thrash music with Cantonese vocals. A unique blend of two cultures, Say Bok Gwai covers a variety of the harder musical genres and has songs about food, differing cultural perspectives, Chinese American pride, white America, mating, metal, politics, and more. This duo is comprised of Alex Yeung (composer, guitarist, vocals) and Andre Custodio (drummer).”

Here’s one example of their lyrics as translated into English (again, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the translation):

Straight Outta HK

Born in Hong Kong came to America.
San Francisco is my home!
You see me, you don't understand me.
"You are not Chinese, You are not American."
A good Chinese would not have long hair, he has a good job and starts a family.
A good American would not live with his family, he is tall and rich and white.

Straight Outta Hong Kong [4x]

I don't care what your opinion is.
I have a culture that I call my own.
Respect my parents yet I am my own person.
Create a new culture!
Straight outta of Hong Kong!
San Francisco is my home!

Also, there are several clips on You Tube (which Iwasn't sure how to embedd into the blog, sorry.)

I think this band raises interesting questions not only in its lyricsbut also about the relationships between the political message, language, and different audiences.

Asian American Music: David Choi

2008-04-17T10:33:00.001-07:00

I've been researching Asian American YouTube celebrities for my wiki, and so when Professor Lee asked us to post about an Asian American musician I couldn't resist posting about David Choi. Actually initially I was going to include him in my paper because my fiance is a huge fan, but I ended up deciding to just focus on the three most popular YouTube celebrities.

Anyway, David Choi is a Korean American musician currently living in California. In "real life" he is a staff producer/songwriter for Warner Chappell Music Publishing, but he regularly posts music videos on YouTube featuring him playing guitar and singing. Often they are covers of other people's songs, but there are several of his own original songs as well (they mostly fall into the pop genre).

David Choi gained notoreity in the YouTube community when he posted "YouTube (A Love Song)," a parody about how much he loves YouTube. Afterward Choi's videos became quite popular and he gained a sizeable fan base in the YouTube community (one that, just as an amusing aside, is constantly clamoring for him to smile in a video--something he has vowed never to do). He is currently YouTube's 13th most subscribed musician of all time, and what is perhaps his most popular original song "That Girl" (see video below) inspired a whole slew of covers posted in response (if you YouTube search "that girl choi cover" you'll see what I mean--there are almost 75 videos).

I'm not sure if there is anything particularly "Asian American" about David Choi's music, other than that he himself is Asian American; as I noted earlier, and as you can see for yourself, his music sounds a lot like mainstream pop. Yet, he does seem to have something of a following in the Asian American community (although I can't give any figures to support this, a large number of the people who posted covers of "That Girl" were Asian American, and most of the people I know who have heard of him are also Asian American). Moreover, he was featured in the 2007 Imprint media conference which took as its focus Asian American and urban culture (http://www.intertrend.com/imprint/imprint2007/). Personally, I'm not really sure what it means for music to be specifically "Asian American," but since David Choi is Asian American and so are many of his fans, I think he's worth discussing. Enjoy listening to "That Girl" (posted below) and let me know what you think.

For more information, or to hear more from David Choi, check out:
http://youtube.com/davidchoimusic
OR
http://www.myspace.com/davidchoimusic

Sa-I-Gu: A Piece Of A Larger Picture

2008-04-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

Sa-I-Gu successfully voices the frustration of Korean women who were directly affected by the LA riots. However, amidst the anger and emotion expressed via film, I became increasingly frustrated with the director's zealous focus on the personal grief of the Korean women as objective and contextual information was never provided as supplementary material. Despite the valid argument that the sole purpose of the film was to highlight the perspective of Korean women in LA at the time, their perspectives are representative of only one affected segment of the LA population.

From the perspective of the Korean women interviewed for Sa-I-Gu, the United States was no longer a perfect country. The general sentiment of victimization as scapegoats for African American anger towards Caucasians, abandonment by the LAPD and indifference from city government overall echoed by all the women quickly shattered any preexisting notion of the United States as a great and prosperous nation. Words infused with anger and pain evoked racist feelings towards the African American community as well as the Caucasian community revealed the high level of tension regarding race relations in Los Angeles and the United States as a whole. However, Christine Choy did not attempt to expand on this topic and only added a minor addendum after the film ends to very briefly discuss the statements of the Korean women. There was no additional research material revealed or interviews with academics and others who may have added to a greater understanding of how events spiraled out of control.

The statements in Sa-I-Gu raise questions about how different ethnicities perceive each other and what role the media has to play in the discussion. Viewpoints tend to vary by generation, upbringing, connection to provocative events such as the LA riots, what individuals filter from media sources and a variety of other factors perhaps too extensive to comprehensively mention in this post. Nevertheless, films such as Sa-I-Gu must cannot solely rely on the opinions of one particular group without providing sufficient attention to others involved in the situation. African Americans were rarely interviewed in Sa-I-Gu. Another issue that arises is a need for self-awareness on the part of the filmmakers. Choy's film tends to favor the reactionary and emotional at times as opposed to objective and insightful analysis. Sa-I-Gu had the opportunity to focus on the Korean women while simultaneously offering a holistic view of the riots. Criticism aside, this film is not without merit.

Sa-I-Gu allowed viewers to delve into the mindset of Koreans, particularly women, in the aftermath of the LA riots and follow their narratives. The very existence of the film is another channel for hearing, seeing and understanding Asian and Asian American perspectives in a country whose media generally glosses over this demographic. Despite the short length of the film, Sa-I-Gu adds to the discourse of race and socioeconomic class relations in the United States and American cities such as Los Angeles. City politics, economics, the context of the early 1990s, African American and Latino viewpoints in LA, the Caucasian perspective, and an analysis of the culture of the LAPD and city police agencies are the additional pieces to the "puzzle" that are connected to Sa-I-Gu. All the pieces need to be reflected upon in order to even attempt to answer the never ending question of "why?"

Sai-I-Gu

2008-04-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

I found Sai-I-Gu to be quite provocative. Although I have lived in Los Angeles most of my life, this documentary exposed a dimension to social structures in Los Angeles that I was unaware of.

Thinking of home, I clearly remember the racial tensions driving through different parts of Los Angeles. The areas in which different groups built their community paralleled the social issues. The primarily African-American and Latino communities are situated farther east and south of the Chinese and Korean areas. To the west is Beverly Hills, which is predominantly white. Thus, the physical space that Asians occupy within Los Angeles is similar to the social positions of Asians – as buffers between Whites and Blacks and Latinos. However, I feel that the settlement patterns were not intended to do so. The Asian communities were initially set up in a location that is less costly and less populated. The communities served as outlets for resources and networking for new immigrants into the states. In the years following the riots, the Asian population became less centered in downtown and more in Orange County.

The role of men in the film is interesting. I don’t often see Asian women as the focus of films. It makes me curious whether the men were reluctant to speak to a female filmmaker or these women had larger roles in the family business than their husbands? This effect leads me to feel a great sense of comrade amongst the Korean females. This strong relationship between the women could be a result of the settlement pattern, Koreans develop a strong community to allow the navigation of Los Angeles. It is remarkable to establish such strong connections between community members, but inter-community relationships are also important. However, it is difficult to build inter-community connections because social structures confine people to their own class and ethnicity.

All in all, I enjoyed the film and learned a lot about Asian-American history in Los Angeles. It is amazing to see the drastic relocations of Asians in Los Angeles. I am still uncertain whether Asians began to move out of downtown because space was limited or race/ethnic tension? Before this film, I was embarrassed to know so little about Asians at home. I think I appreciate the city more now because of this film.

Sa-I-Gu: Asians Stuck in the middle

2008-04-16T17:27:00.000-07:00

This documentary clarified for me reasons why many Asian Americans act the way they do. It highlighted how Asian Americans are the monkey in the middle in American society. They are practically forced to choose sides, which has created a great divide even within the Asian American community.

Within the Asian American community, typically we think of two sides - those who are assimilated and those who stay on the Asian side of the fence. For those who do not branch out past the Asian community, it is understandable and logical in many ways. Afterall, if one is forced to play monkey in the middle, it is much easier to relate to those who are in the same position. However, many times these Asians are often looked down upon, by other Asians and much of the rest of America, for isolating themselves. This gives incentive for the other Asians to assimilate and value traditional white-American ideals. Unfortunately, these assimilating Asians never really quite fit in with white society and are often ridiculed by the un-assimilated Asians. And thus, a horrible cycle of hatred and disdain emerges, continually repeating until everybody learns how to stop hating each other and trust one another. No one person is better than the next and until everyone learns to accept this, it will never change. One example from the film that shows how this actually works was when the "smiling" store owner confessed that she thought of her black employees as family. She and her employees focused on their similarities rather than their differences and in turn, created a relationship in which none of them revolted against each other. Instead, they worked to protect each other.

In response to some people's comments, I don't think Asians discriminate or look down upon other ethnic groups because they're brainwashed. It seems more like this mentality has risen due to the cornering of Asians into choosing sides, causing them to try to justify an impossible situation. I also felt that it would have been more enlightening for the viewers to have this documentary made into a series. However, I believe this was a purely reactionary film, and was used more as a venting instrument. This is probably why they didn't give much background information on the riots and didn't have any follow up interviews. Sa-I-Gu seemed solely focused on documenting Korean women's thoughts and experiences and was not made to satisfy anybody else. This film was all about the Korean experience, and to try to take it out of focus would probably have defeated its powerful effect.

Sai-i-gu and Hip Hop Response

2008-04-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

"Ynot.. let me tell ya a story//Okay it was a black man a white man and a Chinese man//The black man of course he was po' (yeah)The white man... he was rich (uh-huh)//And the Chinese man, he owned a sto' (aight c'mon)//Okay the black man lived on Beat Street//The white man lived on Wall Street and at the Chinese man's store is where they all meet//Not really on the good foot "- Common, Chapter 13 (Rich man vs. Poor man)

On this 1994 track, Common, a self-labeled "conscious rapper," assigns the role of shopkeeper to the Chinese man. He goes on to rap about a fight that is ignited by the rich white man's disgust for the poor black man and how this causes the Chinese man, fearing for his safety, to abandon and subsequently lose his store. When I first heard this verse, it surprised me how narrow Common's portrayal of the Chinese man was. The main focus of this verse (as well as the theme of this song) dealt with the conflict between white and black; the Chinese man acts as a sort of buffer, providing the arena for this fight. In the end, the white man is still rich, the black man now owns the store, and the Chinese man is left with nothing. Watching Sai-i-gu flashed my memory back to the layout of this verse, especially when one of the interviewees denounced the riots as an aftermath to the tension between black and whites. The movie implied that the Asian businesses were drawn into the turmoil just like the fictional Chinese man, though both seemed to try and resist any part in the conflict.

In many other hip hop songs, Asians are usually also associated with stores and property. In MC Eiht's 1993 hit "Streight Up Menace ," the Compton rapper spits, "Gyeah, I'm kickin it with the homies and they got the straps//Off to the corner store, owned by the fuckin Japs (subsequently bleeped out in later versions)//See a bitch in the right lane so I comes with the mack//Astro Bam pulls a motherfuckin jack from the back//Now he's got the strap to my homie's head" It seems like this Asian-owned store is a common structure in the hiphop and ghetto backdrop; the store ,however, is not looked upon favorably, but rather with disdain. Maybe this is parallel with the hip hop generation's overall dissatisfaction with establishment (which is expressed by these stores). However, in the songs much of the intangible aspects of establishment are associated with whites, while the concrete elements (like property) are associated with asians. Perhaps this is what that one interviewee meant when she said that the conflict was a black and white affair and the Koreans were caught in the middle. Whereas the first wave was lashing out at establishment in general and because the Korean stores were tanglible symbols of establishment, they were targetted during the riots. On a related note, before this movie, I was not aware of Asians' roles in the LA riots. I heard about Rodney King and I remember a history textbook showing one white truck driver being rescued by two African Americans after he was attacked by rioters. The interviewee claimed that the media tried to make it a Black and Asian affair; more than 10 years later however, it seems that the general public is unaware of how Asians played into it.

Many posters have criticized the movie for not providing more depth into how the LA riots were provoked; though I find many of these points to be true, I also found the movie informative, perhaps not so much by its spoken narrative, but more by its images. It still surprises me how the government failed to acknowledge the loss of many businesses in Korea Town, even after the huge demonstrations shown in the movie. I cannot help, but feel as though the government overlooked the Korean community because it would not make for good PR.

Sacrificial Lambs

2008-04-15T18:25:00.000-07:00

Sai-i-gu is a very important documentary bringing light to one perspective on the L.A. riots, that was pretty much glossed over. Although, the L.A. riots in general were almost completely forgotten part of US history despite it being the deadliest urban riot with the most property damage in US history.

In the documentary the Korean women describe themselves as being the sacrificial lambs in the riot as the police shifted the rage from themselves to the Koreans. Much like a "pogrom" the Russian term for rage focused on another group defined as outsiders, such as Jews in Russia. This is a very valid statement, since the LAPD did nothing to thwart the rioters away from the Korean owned businesses, essentially quartering off this neighborhood letting it burn leaving the Korean community to defend its own property. Koreatown was the perfect buffer between South Central LA and the rest of LA. It was just convenient that there were already some racial tensions between the different groups of people.

The police and military were essential in pushing this clash of racial groups together making it into a conflict seemingly between Koreans and Mexican/Blacks. Because who in their right mind would destroy their own neighborhood? In the film there was a remark from a Korean woman saying that after the riots, black people from the community came to her wanting her to reopen her store. Because although they were racial tensions, these businesses mainly catered to the groups that destroyed them.

Sai-i-gu: The Voice of Women

2008-04-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

I thought Sai-i-gu was an excellent documentary, able to capture the emotion and heartache that occurred on April 29, 1992 and its after-effects. What was most impressive, in my opinion, is the use of the female voice in this documentary. In Asian American popular culture, I feel women are used in a number of ways from exploiting their eroticized bodies to controlling the demure and passive female servant. However, in this documentary, we give females a new voice of their own. They are able to express their emotions and how their lives have been affected by these riots. We also see articulate women being able to extract meaning from this event.

Although not all of us may be able to relate to their stories about these riots and loss, I think it is safe to say each of us, or at least someone in our families, had the same feelings about the United States that they described in the beginning of the documentary. They had dreams about this nation and all idealized it.

The film was a commentary on race. We speak a lot about the Korean Americans and African Americans, and how we try to place blame on either community. However, is blame really meant to be assigned? And how do these racial polarizations begin to take place?

To be honest, I was never very familiar with these riots, and had never even heard of them until this documentary. However, to me, while watching the documentary, it was reminiscent of the Virginia Tech incident which created much animosity towards the Korean American community. After this instance, there was much discrimination and hatred unjustly fueled towards this community, which seemed similar to this instance. It seems unfair how racial prejudices arise.

Sai-I-Gu

2008-04-15T15:39:00.001-07:00

The part of the documentary Sai-I-Gu that struck me the most was when the mother of the Korean boy who was shot described seeing the photograph of the dead body in the newspaper. She stated that she did not believe that it was her soon at first because he was wearing a black shirt in the photograph and that her son was wearing a white shirt that day. It turned out to be her son though, and the black shirt was really a white shirt soaked in blood. It was difficult to see this distinction because the photograph was published in black and white. Of all of the horrific aspects described in the documentary, I found this one narrative the most gripping. I wish that the documentary could have spent a few more minutes on this account because I think it illustrates the confusion and utter bewilderment experienced by the Asian community during the riots.

I think that the documentary failed to give enough background on the riots and the factors that led to them. I would have liked a little bit more history given on the situation of Los Angeles in the early 1990s and the race relations and tensions between blacks, whites, Latinos, and Asians at the time. I thought it was really interesting when we talked about this in class because when I learned about the LA Riots in my Violence and the Media class (ANTH12511 with Kay Warren if anyone is interested), we never spoke about it from an Asian perspective.

The female voices of the documentary described how there were two video clips/images depicting Asians during the riots that kept on being shown over and over again by the media. To the best of my knowledge, they never showed these two clips to the audience, and I really wish that they had so I would have been able to better understand how outsiders interpreted the situation.

I think it would be really interesting to make a follow up documentary with what the situation of Los Angeles now is like and if, 16 years later, progress has been made in rebuilding the Asian shops. Some of the Asian shopkeepers in the documentary said it took them 10-15 years to build their stores originally, so I am be curious to see whether they have been rebuilt or abandoned. I wonder what the relationship between Asians and the LAPD is today. I have a feeling that this is not something the Asian population could just have simply forgotten and moved on in their lives…

Attached to this post is the link to the actual footage of the Rodney King beating in case anyone is interested. It’s something that everyone should see.

Beating video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROn_9302UHg

Sai-I-Gu Response

2008-04-15T05:27:00.000-07:00

I wish Sai-I-Gu had been a multi-phase project in which the filmmakers continued to follow these women and at regular intervals released short updates. This could have served two purposes, First, a regular release of additional short films—say at 6 months, 1, 5, and 10 years—would have been a way to call attention to the ongoing impact of the LA riots on these women and a way of helping to assert this history against the tides of American social amnesia. All the segments could then have been packaged together. Second, by following these women over a longer period of time, the filmmakers could have given us a sense of how the meaning-making processes continued for these women as they sought to grapple with the event and its aftermath. Of course, funding and other constraints would make it difficult to pursue a project of this sort. And, certainly, many of the women appeared to be struggling with some degree of PTSD and such a sustained engagement may or may not have been in their best interests as individuals.

OK, on to the film that exists vs. this wished-for one that doesn’t!

At several points in the film I thought about Michel-Rolph Trouillot’s Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston, Mass: Beacon Press, 1995). One of the pitfalls of history-telling that Trouillot ponders is the selective valorization of a single date or event. This serves, he argues, to silence the longer-lived, complex processes in which the supposed originating or culminating moment is embedded. In this regard, Sai-i-gu successfully punctures the notion that April 29 is contained within a 24-hour boundary. But it is much better at showing the “event” as an unfinished process than it is at giving us a sense of specific conditions leading up to the destruction of Korean businesses amidst the rioting.

One of the women expressed disbelief that some were referring to the riots simply as “unrest.” Trouillot also touches on how “names set up a field of power.” One of his examples deals with Columbus and what it means to describe the explorer’s relationship with the Americas as the discovery vs. the conquest vs. an encounter. The issue of the media’s role in “naming” this as a struggle between blacks and Koreans and the ways in which that obscures the complicity of others, be they whites in power or Hispanics, is one I wish had been covered in greater detail.

Structural Racism

2008-04-14T23:17:00.000-07:00

Like in Mississippi Masala, Sa-I-Gu’s main conflict is between Asians and blacks, and both movies reveal a pattern in race relations within the United States, one that is restrictive and detrimental to the concept of American identity, whether that is Asian American, African American, Caucasian, or any other American identity. This pattern which I am referring to is the persisting race dichotomy between black and white in the United States. The reasons why enmity still exists between the two groups are various; of course, there is preexisting tension from American history, but one reason mentioned in the movie is socioeconomic difference. Blacks, who are often poorer, are looked down upon by wealthier whites when they commit crimes, and blacks show disdain towards whites for their culture of oppression and their idea of superiority. The relationship between the white community and the black community has an extremely large influence on Asian American identity because often, Asian Americans are forced to “choose” a side.

In Sa-I-Gu for example, I felt that the actions of the African American rioters was them venting out their anger at Asians in proxy for the injustices that felt white society had inflicted on them in the Rodney King case, because they perceived the actions of Asians as similar to those of whites. In many ways, this is true; many Asians tend to look down on blacks as undisciplined and dangerous, but I personally feel that this is more a result of the ethnocentricity of Asian cultures sometimes. After all, China is called “Middle Country” in Chinese for a reason. Regardless of whatever reason, the actions on April the 29th only served to push Asian Americans closer to the “white” side of the racial divide. Many of the woman shopkeepers commented on the fact that they no longer trusted African Americans and that the government should have taken more action to keep African Americans under control.

I feel that this documentary framed Asian Americans justly in portraying them as victims of an entrenched system of racial stereotyping and discrimination, because the existing status of race in the United States is a great barrier to the ability of all groups to move forward. However, I also think that the documentary raised the issue of racial prejudices which Asians might have, but did not discuss it much in any way. While it can be generally accepted that the shopkeepers did not deserve what the rioters did to their properties and livelihoods, it can also be said that the air of disdain (not handing change directly into the hands or not smiling) with which the Korean shopkeepers used in dealing with black customers was also unwarranted. Ultimately, I think things have changed for the better today, as I would not expect a race riot to break out anywhere in the United States right now (though I could be totally mistaken). However, I do believe that prejudices still exist, for reasons that are often archaic and unwarranted, especially when speaking about the prejudices that some Asians have. For that reason, there is still a ways to go.

Sa-I-Gu

2008-04-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

I have seen Sa-I-Gu twice and both viewings left me feeling a bit manipulated. The overbearing mood music, the footage of Ed Lee's funeral procession (which seemed highly exploitative of both the viewer and the Lee family) -- it all seemed like a heavy handed attempt at making the audience sympathize with these characters. And unfortunately, what this did for me was force me to look at the characters more critically.

And unfortunately, at least in my case, this attempt yielded the opposite reaction. I started to look at each of the women more critically, less inclined to take their emotions at face value. For example, I wonder about the Korean woman nicknamed "Smiles" for her amicable disposition to her African-American customers. Her words were full of drama, frustration, and sadness--yet her demeanor, at least in my perspective, was, for lack of a better word, "smiley." She wasn't just calm or reserved, but in fact, nearly chipper.

I don't believe my assessment of her is particularly fair, but I do believe that my perspective is fueled directly by the film, an unintended side effect that tarnishes the more emotionally true moments, notably the interviews with Mrs. Lee. Although I still believe there is something very disquieting about "Smiles" and her interviews, I chalk it up to a cultural/generational differences in articulation and communication.

The film's side effect (perhaps only felt by myself?) may be a result of how soon after the riots it was made (the interviews took place only 3 months after). The film seems more like an emotional response and less a thought-out objective response.

Sa-I-Gu and Twilight

2008-04-14T20:04:00.000-07:00

I remember being very young and watching footage of Rodney King being beaten on TV, as well as news stories about the riots. I'm not sure why, as a four-year-old, I would remember these things, but I know that after that, I was left with a very clear feeling that my Asian family sided not with the African Americans, but the Asians, regardless of which side was "right" or "wrong".

So it's really interesting for me to watch Sa-I-Gu now, remembering that racial tensions are still strong in the United States, and how my family felt about the riots. The incident definitely became a part of pop culture, in films, in rap music from the West Coast to the East Coast, and in many articles/books written about this period in LA's history. There's still, I feel, residual anger about the riots. While I was watching the TV show LOST a while ago, a black character on the show told a Korean (not Korean American) character that "black people and Korean people just don't get along, don't like each other, in the United States).

I've also watched Anna Deveare Smith's documentary film about the riots, Twilight, and for me, it was even more striking than Sa-I-Gu, because Deveare-Smith manages to portray all her characters so realistically and so honestly; what they say is made more obvious, more bare, because Deveare-Smith is the one who repeats all their words, their actions, their mannerisms. Many of the Korean characters in Twilight express the sentiments and attitudes that the subjects of Sa-I-Gu feel. In both films, as well, I sense that there is a major disconnect between the black and Korean-American communities of LA at the time of the riots -- what explains this barrier of understanding? Cultural differences, racism, or just indifference? I suppose that's the question of all of America's race history.

“Tell the lady in the liquorstore that she's forgiven”

2008-04-14T18:57:00.000-07:00

Wow...the “Sai-I-Gu” documentary hit me pretty hard. I hadn’t seen the footage from the riots in a while and it hit home particularly hard when hearing from the perspective of the Korean shopkeepers who had been looted. At the end of the documentary, one of the producers described the LA riots as a “crisis of the American dream,” which I thought was particularly fitting. Looting and rioting is such a powerful image of anarchy and social disillusionment. It’s shocking to think that the LA riots took place in the United States less than twenty years ago.

I was surprised that the documentary failed to cover the murder of Latasha Harlins, which was an important catalyst for the LA Riots and the resentment of the Black community towards Korean shopkeepers. On March 16, 1991 (a little over a year before the LA Riots), Harlins, a 15-year-old black girl, was shot in the head by a female Korean storeowner, Soon Ja Du. The storeowner mistook Harlins for shoplifting, a scuffle broke out between them, and Harlins was shot fleeing the store, which was all captured on the store’s security camera. Even more shocking was Du sentence for Harlins’ murder on November 15, 1991 (a couple of months before the riots): 5 years' probation, 400 hours of community service, and a $500 fine. Yes, this was Du’s sentence for murdering Latasha Harlins. While, several of the shopkeepers interviewed referred to the deep-seeded tension and resentment between Koreans and blacks that had always existed in LA, the Harlins murder cannot be overlooked.

The Latasha Harlins murder is also mentioned in 2Pac’s “Thugz Mansion,” a reference that until now went completely over my head:

Dear momma don't cry, your baby boy's doin good
Tell the homies I'm in heaven and they ain't got hoods

Little LaTasha sho' grown
Tell the lady in the liquorstore that she's forgiven, so come home

I found myself wondering during the documentary about who was to blame for the LA riots and my thoughts kept returning to the media. Would the Rodney King beating have been so sensational if the footage had not been featured day and night on every mass media? The media also played a role in villanization of the Korean shopkeepers during the riots featuring images of shopkeepers guarding their stores from looters on the roof. In the opening scene, the producers of the film discuss the 3 images of Koreans circulating on the media during the riots: 1) the Harlins’ murder, 2) crying shopkeepers after being looted, and 3) armed Koreans on the roof. I struggle to see how such representation of Koreans during the riots did not further exacerbate the racial tensions leading to the riots in the first place.

More thoughts on Asian and Black relations: there were a lot of connections between the “Sai-I-Gu” documentary and Oliver Wang’s piece on Asian American rappers in Alien Encounters. In his essay Wang laments that “Asian Americans are expected to cast their allegiance with one of the two dominant American racial poles” and as a result Asian American rappers fail to succeed in a dominantly black medium facing the issues of authenticity and racialization of their hip hop. This racial tension can be seen playing out directly in the rap battles between Black artist Sterling and the Asian artist Jin.

Throughout the documentary, the Korean shopkeepers discussed the resentment they felt from their Black customers as being “whitewashed” and not fitting into the Black-White dichotomy that Wang mentions in his essay. The same sense of betrayal that Koreans felt towards the blacks in the documentary is felt by Asian American rappers, such as Jin, who struggle to be recognized in hip hop. I guess the bigger question is: where do these tensions come from and what purpose have they ever served?

More information about Latasha Harlins: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latasha_Harlins

A response to 4-2-9

2008-04-14T17:11:00.000-07:00

It was really interesting to see the perspectives of the three main women interviewed in this film. Their frustrations and feelings are all very understandable. However, I do agree with many of my classmates that the film's view might have been too narrow. I am really interested to see what the men might have had to say. I also think a perspective from a non-Korean might have been informative as well, so that we might get a sense of how these people were viewed in the eyes of others. But, I'm actually not familiar with what kind of media coverage Koreatown had gotten during these riots, so perhaps these "voices" were enough for the time being.

I'm also curious to see what the Korean-minority relationships are like in the stores these days. Have they improved much over the past decade, or have they completely gone down the tubes, particularly in the LA area in light of these riots? Maybe it's too corny to ask for complete harmony of all people, but I do believe there needs to be a shift towards a more unified minority position. I was a little disappointed that some of the people in the film believed that the problem was solely between Blacks and Whites, and that Koreans are caught in the middle. Maybe it's too much to expect Koreans to pick a side to sympathize with, but it certainly wouldn't hurt to strive to be a positive force. I think a great place to start doing that is in these small interactions in the convenience stores.

Sa-I-Gu

2008-04-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

There were several strands of thought occured in my mind during the film

1. The fact that these events were labeled Sa-I-Gu made me think of 9/11, especially after watching the billows of smoke rise from destroyed Korean-owned stores. I then began thinking about the disillusionment and shock experienced by those affected by both of these crises. The fixity of referring to a tragic event by a certain date is interesting because it immobilizes a collective memory in time, but it can also obscure the social conditions and events that may have led up to that tragedy. It almost seems like by referring to an event by a date, one can maintain a certain degree of distance from emotional suffering it caused.

2. The idea of the Korean community serving as a "sacrificial lamb" struck me as a important one. I think that beyond its religious connotations and indication of the Korean community's innocence, the choice of calling one's community a sacrifice rather than a victim underlines two points which may or may not be contested. The first being that there is a greater purpose to the tragedy and second being that the perpetrator accountability is downplayed in comparison to the greater purpose. However, in this case, the "greater purpose" was to divert black retaliation away from whites

3. I think there is a tendency to attribute the Sa-I-Gu incident to cross-cultural misunderstanding. After one woman spoke in the documentary about her husband telling her to always place the change in the customer's hand, I remembered reading in my AP US History class about tensions that existed before the riots because blacks perceived Korean storeowners as being rude, such as by not looking the customer in the eye. As Mrs. Han quotes hearing black customers say, "Many Koreans don't try to understand black customers...you were brainwashed by white people...you were educated by white people." I wouldn't deny that these types of misinterpretation played a role in the tensions, but sometimes emphasizing the culture over the power politics conceals the structural racism lies behind such incidents.

4. Thinking back to the Prashad chapter entitled the "Merchant is Always a Stranger," I think that historical parallels can be made between Sa-I-Gu and the racial tensions between blacks and Jewish merchants in Harlem. That is, beyond a simple generalization that Asians are the new Jews. I wonder whether if, as Baldwin says, "the Negro is really condemning the Jew for having become an American white man," this same sentiment would have applied to Korean grocers in LA, even if Asians physically appear and act less "white." I wonder if there was a collective remembrance of this type of resentment amongst blacks hat was manipulated by the media and diverted towards the "sacrifical lamb" after the Rodney King incident.

4.29: the women.

2008-04-14T12:37:00.000-07:00

I think this documentary serves as a wonderful follow-up to Mississippi Masala in its portrayal of minority interactions. I was not surprised to hear that many of the women resented the police or the "White government" for having allowed the riots to ensue. Even if it does seem a bit counterintuitive for them to defend African Americans not long after the incident, it was comforting to see that they recognized the problem as greater than just Black-Korean tension, and rather a fundamental issue that the government needed to address.

I wish they had interviewed more people, including the men that were victimized by the incident. It was interesting that they chose to interview Korean women as the main source of narrative, and I wonder why they did so. Having been only three months since the riots, I do see how it would have been difficult to get a lot of responses for fear of throwing salt on a raw wound. Perhaps if they had interviewed men it would have been a very different documentary all together. From what I saw, the men seemed to be the ones that were out on the streets, defending their businesses and butting heads with the rioters. I feel that if the men had been interviewed, the general sense I would have picked up would have been more anger, as opposed to the women who seemed to express a lot of sadness and lament.

I remember having heard of the news when I was young. At the time I was living in Palos Verdes, a suburb immediately outside of LA and had a lot of relatives living in LA at the time. Because of what was happening in the city, a great majority of my cousins had to come stay with us for a week. My great Aunt owned two big restaurants in LA, one being in Koreatown, which required her to stay and hopefully minimize the damage that would have been done. Luckily her restaurant was untouched (from what I remember), but I recall being extremely confused and scared for her when I overheard the adults talk about "shot guns" and "protecting the restaurant." I would love to see another documentary being made now and see how the race relations have changed, if they have improved, and how many families have managed to pick themselves up after such a tragic period.

Mississipi Masala

2008-04-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

I like this movie because it portrays Asian American characters that have never been seen before. Meena and her family are part of a story that is lost in the wide array of Asian American history. It combines the immigrant experience, as well as racial, and generational differences.

A large theme throughout the movie is the idea of home. Their family has been forced to relocate their home serveral times and have struggled to fit in where ever they are. Pushed out of Uganda, into England, then Mississippi. His father really struggles to let go of the place he was born, trying to gain compensation for his losses by suing the country. Meena is trying to find a place for herself Mississippi. She shows some rejection of her culture as she looks bored and out of place at the Indian weddings and events. She really identifies with the African American community in Mississippi.

Demetrius is her in into the African American community and she finally shows a feeling of belonging and acceptance. But as this is happening she seems to be drifting from her own family and its values. This begs the question, is it always necessary to reject some part of your culture and family to feel comfortable in American and feel like you belong?

Why Jin Quit

2008-04-13T22:57:00.000-07:00

Listen to Jin's "I Quit"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NV7BHNGvpYE&feature=related

wow. this is amazing. he bashes BET, lays out why he quit, all in 7and1/2 minutes.

watch it!

Sa-I-Gu

2008-04-13T21:59:00.000-07:00

I find it interesting that this film limits its perspective to that of Korean women, isolating its story from the bigger story of the L.A. riot. I do understand that the film essays to "give voice to the voiceless," but at the same time I feel like it is isolating Koreans from the rest of the conflict and portraying them as innocent bystanders who got caught in the maelstrom of black-white racial conflict. I'm sure many of them are innocent victims, but I find it hard to believe that all of them are.

An interesting way to look at the L.A. riot is to say that this was the first time that Korean Americans as a whole community got in touch with the bigger society. As one woman says in the movie, at first the Rodney King incident seemed like it did not matter to Koreans, and only when protesters began attacking Korean-owned shops they realized that it was their problem too. It is not too harsh to say that most Koreans (unlike the man in the movie playing Santa Claus with local black children) were uninvolved with the larger American society for the most part. Most lived in enclaves speaking Korean, reading Koran newspapers and interacting with mostly with other Koreans. The majority of interactions between Koreans and blacks took place at the stores, where animosity began growing. I feel like the stores in predominantly black neighborhoods were especially heavily targeted because their residents resented the fact that Koreans made money in black neighborhoods and lived in a Korean neighborhood.

I have mixed feelings about the movie: while I do sympathize with those women who lost their business and family (for they worked so hard to realize the American dream), the fact that most Koreans in the movie do not try to understand why the rioters attacked their stores bothers me a bit.

2008-04-13T19:51:00.000-07:00

okay, so i tried really hard to write an unbiased account/review of watching sa-i-gu, but my family lived the LA riots right in the middle of koreatown when this happened, and i just can't watch this film without ...i dont know, without getting angry... hehe ^^;; sorry i'll calm down.

but, no, seriously. i was 5 years old at the time and this was a huge deal, clearly. the documentary, i believe, was too easy on the whole ordeal. i've heard so many stories from so many adults who lived in koreatown at the time.

a couple things i wished the film would focus more on was explicating the racial relationships at the time, and looking at the overall social problems that caused the riots. i'm really appreciative of the individual interviews and i think they did a good job at showing the effects that the riots had on the korean community, but i think the film did not make the big impact it could've because the point of view was so narrow.

the part about the "sacrificial lamb" interested me the most, like many other posters, because this is exactly what all koreans say and believe post-riots.

geographically, los angeles is very spread out, with thick populations of racial/ethnic groups juxtaposed right next to each other, except that when you look closely, there is never a white neighborhood right next to a black one. koreatown happens to be closer the south central/inglewood where most of the rodney king protestors came from, and therefore served as a buffer region to the rich white residential areas of hancock park, beverly hills, westwood, and beyond.

the riots lasted 6 days. in the history of american riots especially involving race, even during the 60s (civil rights movement etc) when a riot like this was happening, there were times when the president would send in the national guard to prevent the attacks from continuing further on. now i'm not saying that mr. bush sr. is to blame for everything for not sending in the us marines to stop all the looting and burning, but the film, in my opinion, did not emphasize enough the lack of action on part of the police and higher enforcement authorities when it came to stopping the riots and protecting businesses in koreatown, etc.

koreans believe that the police did nothing because they were the sacrificial lambs, just like the lady in the film said. when i asked korean adults about the black-korean conflict, they said no-- this was a black-white conflict where koreans were caught in between and incurred most of the damage. the police/authorities could have stopped a lot of the violence from happening, but using 'my-safety-first' as an excuse, they let the protestors/los angelenos who have been suffering from the economic/racial crisis in the past decade let out all their frustration on the nearby korean business community.

okay, so i'm getting really worked up again, and me posting this stuff doesnt mean it's the exact truth, but people are not stupid, and the korean community knew that there was something wrong with the duration of the riots, and how they received practically no help in protecting themselves, to the point where the local gunshop owner was giving out guns for free and pest control exterminators were voluntarily spraying toxins in shops to keep looters out.

most korean american community who suffered most of the attacks were permanently traumatized by this experience, albeit on different levels. some people lost their entire life savings and means of survival, and some people just came to the cold hard realization that america did not care for this immigrant group with so noncitizens and illegal immigrants.

on the 10th anniversary of the LA riots, Bush Jr. visited the African American community to apologize, to reminisce, to acknowledge the woes of the time in that community and to celebrate the improving relations/economy in those areas. he did not even make a phonecall to the koreans.

i want to stop talking here because its difficult not to just keep rambling but about the film again, i really wish it would have taken the interviews to the next level to see the point of view of the black and mexican american communities and also do more research on why it had to be the koreans that were targetted. i know some women in the film said that koreans were targetted because of the koreans' curt and rude attitudes towards their african american customers, but honestly this hasnt changed that much today. this was not the root of the riots--it was just because the media portrayed it as a black-korean conflict.

i am not saying that there was no black korean conflict, there was, there is, as long as our cultures are so different and there is a language barrier there always be a little amount of conflict no matter was ethnicities cross. this is where 'popular culture' comes in a theme because so much of popular culture did present the riots as a gun-toting-korean versus tv-stealing-black-looter problem. it would be interesting if we can examine the aftereffects in popular media regarding the interracial conflict of the la riots, ie. ice cube's black korea and the korean community's boycott of his products afterwards.

thank you and sorry if you read through all of that. ^^;;; just saying, because somebody's gotta remember.

Response: Sa-i-gu

2008-04-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

First of all, I was very interested to view Sa-i-gu, as I had not heard a lot about the influence of the Watts riots on Korean Americans. However, while I found the personal interviews the three producers conducted interesting and engaging, I didn't feel that I had gained a broader understanding of how the riots affected Korean Americans as a whole. These narratives, while poignant, were highly personal and left me wondering to what extent I could generalize these women's impressions. In light of this, I worried that the effect of the film would merely be to elicit sympathy and not to inspire a deeper understanding.

That being said, I was impressed with the analysis of the situation offered by the women interviewed. I think it would be easy for the victims to misguidedly take this as an excuse to hate all black people, but none of the women interviewed seemed to do so. On the contrary, their reactions seemed to indicate a more complicated understanding, and hence a more interesting one.

Even so, in the end I'm still not sure what to make of this film, and I seemed to sense similar reactions from others. I look forward to discussing/reading what other people thought.

Sa-i-gu: taking sides

2008-04-13T15:52:00.000-07:00

It was difficult to understand whose side I should take when watching Sa-i-gu. I found myself being really sad about the Korean boy who had died in the riots, but then I realized it was a Korean shop owner who had killed him. Because the movie was filmed in the perspective of Korean women, I felt compassion for them because they reminded me of my relatives in L.A. who also owned shops and who had also gone through hardships because of many African-American shoplifters. But then I realized how many Korean shop owners are racist and take advantage of cheap labor. The whole movie just gave me a confusion of feelings because I wanted to side with the Korean-Americans who reminded me so much of my family, but I couldn’t, knowing that many Koreans did mistreat their African-American and Latino customer and employees. It made me wonder what the African-Americans could have done during the time to let people know about the injustices being done to them. Even after the riots, the Korean-Americans failed to see that they were partly to blame for the riots. They seemed to only blame the Rodney King incident and the one shooting incident with the Korean shop owner.

In high school, I had done some research on Korean immigrants and the racial tensions between Korean business owner and minority residents. In relation to the reading in Screaming Monkey, I put a part of my essay up for further information.

Although the concentration of Korean immigrants in small businesses in inner cities helped Koreans to build flourishing lives, racial tensions between Korean business owners and minority residents began to arise. At the time, inner-city neighborhoods were the most affordable places for Korean immigrants to run their businesses. Black and Latino residents viewed them as another wave of absentee owner who drain resources out of the community without contributing to the local economy. African-Americans regarded Korean business owners as stealing business opportunities from other minority groups. Prejudice, language barriers, cultural differences, and alleged incidents of shoplifting and mistreatment of customers have added to the conflict between Korean immigrants and African-Americans. Korean business owners were attacked for not hiring blacks, not living in the neighborhood, and not contributing to local causes. Some of these owners look down on blacks because they overgeneralized and were ignorant of the black community and blacks in general. These disputes that arose because of a belief that Korean immigrants were exploiting blacks led to collective actions such as boycotts by black-nationalist organizations and the breaking out of riots in Los Angeles that destroyed many Korean businesses and lives in 1992. Although Korean-Latino relations are less violent and hostile because of the Latinos’ more accepting positions, there are still some problems in this relationship. Members of these two groups interact not only as merchants and customer as do Koreans and blacks, but also as employers and employees. Some observers argue that Korean businesses survive and prosper at the expense of Latinos and blacks, the latter of whom are often perceived as cheap and docile labor. Although racial tensions had peaked during the ‘60s and ‘70s, Koreans are beginning to understand that social responsibility is connected with business and are making efforts to build a healthier relationship with other ethnic groups.

Sa-i-gu Response

2008-04-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

I thought this was a great addition to the list of films and documentaries we have watched, as it addressed the LA. riots through a viewpoint that was excluded from the media coverage during the riots. As the filmmakers note before the documentary, the main portrayals of Korean Americans during the riots were of storekeepers holding guns to keep their property safe and of a Korean American storekeeper shooting an African American in the back of the head. This documentary is a response to those media images, hoping to bring to light the emotional experiences of Korean Americans in proof that they did care about human life, and did not discard human life for the sake of their property. The viewpoints of the women interviewed were varied, which provided for an interesting backdrop to their experience of the riots.

One viewpoint that I found interesting was when one woman compared the Korean Americans to “sacrificial lambs” in an expression of her frustration over how the LAPD did not take any action during the looting of the Korean American stores. I found this statement summarized the racial tensions expressed among the Korean Americans, African Americans, and white people that were a huge part of the riots. I can only imagine how Korean Americans felt when watching media coverage, as looters raided stores with police officers standing and watching nearby. With police officers usually acting as symbols of peace and protection, their inactivity during the riots led to a crisis in the Korean women’s hopes of coming to America to give their children a better life. There were varied responses from the women when talking about African Americans, as some seemed aware that there were negative views of Koreans from African Americans while others were more upset over the police inactivity and blamed other races. One woman almost seemed to blame other Koreans for treating African American customers poorly, as she emphasized that storekeepers need to be a part of the community, which includes placing money in customers’ hands and bagging all of their goods. After the credits, the filmmakers address the fact that some of the comments in the documentary are racist, as they believe that by leaving these views in as opposed to editing it out will provoke discussion and reexamination of personal views. I agree with their point of view, for nothing about race relations could have been discussed if the filmmakers had sugarcoated and edited out these views. Since these women were interviewed only three months after the riots happened, their emotions still run strong, as seen by some of the things they say in their interviews. They are still in shock that their life earnings that went towards a store are completely gone, which could lead to an unearthing of their frustrations and taking it out on others as a result.

Although this documentary focused solely on Korean American women, it did bring up aspects that I thought would be interesting to explore more thoroughly. For example, one woman talks about how her African American employees called and told her to stay at home, and that they would try to protect the store as best as they could. I wanted to learn more about these people, as it seems they sat right at the axis between Korean and African American tensions. What were their views of the riots?

sa-i-gu

2008-04-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

Before watching this documentary, I was pretty ignorant of how the much the LA riots impacted the Korean community. I thought it was a remarkable stat of how the 200,000 Koreans living in the LA county incurred almost have of the total losses. Through the stories of three Korean American women who lived through the riots, a very complete picture was painted from many angles. As pointed out in the previous post, a common theme was the idea of America as a utopia for these immigrants. They believed that as long as they worked hard, they could capture the American Dream and live a happy life. However, they soon realized that financial success and opportunity was not just going to be handed out. America has a myriad of problems and issues, most notably of which deals with the color of people's skin. This issue of race has held back the overall growth of America on countless occasions.

I found the quotes on how Koreans were "white-washed" and how the media was responsible for catalyzing the event very interesting. I think this highlights one of the major differences between the attitudes of these racial minorities. The black community does not place an emphasis on education and upward mobility in the social hierarchy in the same way Koreans or other Asians do. If someone is black and successful, the surrounding black community has a tendency to shun that individual and think of them as an "Oreo" who does not stay true to their roots. Meanwhile, acting white and following the blueprint for success laid out by white society in America is praised in the Asian community. Being called a "Twinkie" in the Asian American community does not evoke the same feeling (an can sometimes stir just the opposite feelings) as being called an "Oreo" in the black community. Therefore, Asians can be viewed as aligned with the white community and just as responsible for the oppression against blacks. I think Asian Americans can get sucked into this mindset of capturing the American Dream and becoming like the white community can influence race relations from the Asian American perspective as well. It goes back to the discussion in class about how "at least we are not black" and the idea of being a white American means oppressing African Americans. This mindset illustrates the reasoning behind the commentary in the documentary on how some Koreans "did not treat black people as human beings".

I think Ice Cube's racially charged song "Black Korea" is an interesting commentary on the Korean versus black conflict. His song highlights the fact Koreans, like white America, became too wrapped up in the ideals of capitalism and their own financial success that they fail to ever put society before their own individual efforts. Unfortunately, while this may be the case, his explicit lyrics do more harm and merely publicize the problem than educate young African Americans about history in search for a solution. There is no balance, or even a mentioning of a counter argument from the Korean American standpoint in his lyrics. This song further strains the already fragile relationship between the black and Korean communities by creating even more fear and distrust.

Lessons from Sai-I-Gu

2008-04-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

The impact of the 1992 Rodney King Riots on Korean shopkeepers was absolutely devastating. While “Sai-I-Gu” conveyed the severity of this physical and emotional aftermath extremely well, I feel that the three filmmakers’ most impressive feat was successfully addressing the tension-filled social context of the April 29 disaster. They provided a very rich and real depiction of the interracial discord that plagued Los Angeles, using only the words of Korean women. And through this, they offered an opening for productive, therapeutic ways to conceptualize the tragedy.

The interviewees covered a fairly wide range in terms of perspectives, experiences, and willingness to express personal opinions before the camera. They all seemed to share the narrative of coming to the U.S. with visions of clean streets, social harmony and abundance of financial opportunity for their future families. But as residents of Koreatown, Los Angeles, many young couples came to find limited options for employment and incredible financial difficulty. Using their savings to open shops was a way for Korean immigrants to empower themselves economically and socially, and it seemed as though banks were willing to provide the loans.

Meanwhile, a large black population had existed in Los Angeles for years but did not have the same kind of success in business or social mobility. Many interviewees in the documentary felt that anger of black rioters towards white people had been displaced and unleashed on innocent Korean shop owners. One woman’s response was that she wasn’t mad at black people, but at whites. Yet her rationale wasn’t that white oppression of the African American population caused the riots: “the Government should have watched over the Blacks better.” I understood this to mean that the white government should have contained the black population better, a rather racist view of the situation.

Another woman addressed the Korean/Black divide directly. She wished that Korean people would “treat blacks like their own children,” instead of assuming that black customers were coming in to rob them (she’d heard of storekeepers putting their cash and possessions on the counter as soon as an African American person would come in). Neighborhood children told her that they felt Koreans were “brainwashed by white people”, that Koreans were not treating them like human beings. So all parties bear responsibility here—Koreans are simply an extension of an entrenched black/white conflict.

I was reminded of previous cases in history that we recently discussed in class: the South Asian population in Uganda, the Chinese in Indonesia, and other situations where an outside group comes in and succeeds in a society dominated by whites (built on the oppression of a population of color). Maybe the major conflict is between two groups, Koreans (or Chinese or Indians) excluded, but the role Koreans play in the newer multicultural society in no way aids the plight of the oppressed. The controlling group favors the Asian immigrants, and/or the Asians assume prejudicial attitudes that further the racial divide. With evidence of this very real trend, perhaps the first thing to do is to share these lessons with minority communities. Working from the bottom up may be more effective than waiting for change at the top.

Mississippi Masala

2008-04-09T21:49:00.000-07:00

This will include comments on a combination of Better Luck Tomorrow and Mississippi Masala. Ideas about community is important in both, but the organization of these communities differed between films.
Better Luck Tomorrow confines the Asian-American teenage male community to a high school. This physical space is not the only thing that connects the young gentlemen, but it is their ability to command respect and fear in their classmates that binds their friendship. The camaraderie that is felt between these young men is interestingly not shared with their parents. This raises the question about which community is the one driving the young men to succeed in school – is it their family or is it self-imposed pressure? This is interesting because it makes me curious: do people form their communities or are they just put in one? For these gentlemen, it could be a combination because they seem to enjoy some aspects of their community, such as freedom as a reward when they meet academic expectations, and dislike certain other aspects, which include high academic expectations.
Mississippi Masala depicts several communities. The largest community is the “minority” community. Demetrius and his family and Mina and her family all seem to share an unvoiced sentiment of servitude. They all display frustration from “ethnic” displacement. Within this larger community, there are two smaller communities: Indian-American and African-American community. The Indian-American community seems to be more connected to a place, the Monte Cristo Motel. On the other hand, the African-American community seems to not necessarily be fixed to a physical space, but a realm of struggles. Demetrius talks about this common livelihood in his conversation with Mina’s father. These ideas of communities were initially thought to be exclusive to their ethnic groups. However, at the end, the two communities reconciled and understood the collective experiences, which is illustrated in Mina and Demetrius’s union. Filmmakers tried to display the mutual difficult experiences of these two communities in the scene with Mina and Demetrius wearing African garments while engaged.
What I found to be most interesting is that both films work to redefine "community," but what the films neglect to elaborate is that these communities are important. These communities were illustrated as restrictive, but the films did not show the networking abilities of these communities. It is through these connections that people are able to navigate through the American system after immigrating to the U.S. or having financial difficulties. The Indian-American motel network should not be reduced to "unprogressive".

Mississippi Masala

2008-04-09T19:28:00.000-07:00

Mira Nair's film grapples with the idea of "home" in Diaspora culture. Twice displaced (as Mehta mentions on p. 218)--Indians by culture and tradition and Ugandan by birth--Mina's family constantly attempts to negotiate the conflicting notions of "home." Jay thinks he's Ugandan, for he was born and raised there among Africans, his wife thinks her family is Indian (and therefore Mina should marry an Indian), and Mina believes that she is American. The three members of this family seems to struggle with where they belong, and by the end of the movie, the differences are reconciled but only because they come to understand that being "home" doesn't mean being at a certain place as much as being with certain people. Jay writes to his wife from Uganda a somewhat cliché phrase "Home is where the heart is, and my heart is with you," implying that he belongs in the United States because of his wife. Jay seems to reach an epiphany that Uganda is not his "home" when finds out that Okelo, his best friend, no longer inhabits there. Okelo is Jay's link to "home," and without Okelo Uganda is nothing but a place foreign. In other words, a place becomes "home" only with someone familiar. This idea becomes more evident when Mina and Dexter share their ideas about places of their cultural origin; neither Mina nor Dexter have visited India or Africa and they do not believe they should identify themselves with those places. There, they do not have anyone who they belong with, and the place origin simply becomes nothing more than where it started, distant from where it is now. Mina thinks she's American because she belongs with Demitrius. In this sense, the definition of "home" constantly evolves in the Diaspora culture as the immigrants discover the family of kinship with whom they belong.

Better Luck Tomorrow (playing a little catch up, sorry)

2008-04-09T18:23:00.000-07:00

Better Luck Tomorrow seems to both challenge and reaffirm the stereotype of the model minority. Ben, Virgil, Daric, and Han are bright students exhausting all of their energies in ensuring that they’ll get into good colleges. Ben’s methods are particularly formulaic (his repetitions of SAT vocabulary definitions, for example), while Daric fills the role of the ubiquitous extra-curricular overachiever. The four friends are also members of the academic decathlon team, a clear symbol of nerd status in any high school story. Of course, the foursome deviates from this stereotype in rather extreme ways. The film ostensibly reveals what Asian-Americans are really like; yet the fact that it preserves these nerdy and somewhat mechanical characteristics seems to me like an affirmation this part of the stereotype holds true. It’s as if the film says, “We may be awkward, sexually inexperienced, and geeky, but we can be just as reckless as the next teenager”-- not an terribly comforting tagline.

That said, Ben is certainly a far cry from Sixteen Candles’ Long Duk Dong. He’s a well-rounded and believable character. The simple fact that he is the protagonist rather than a source of comic relief or some other kind of typified background character is a significant step away from other stock Asian characters.

However, as was the case in Flower Drum Song, there are few non-Asian characters in Better Luck Tomorrow. It’s interesting to consider how the film would have been different if Stephanie or her boyfriend had been white. I think the image of a group of Asians brutally murdering a white man would probably have been too offensive for MTV-- it would perpetuate the image of the savage, dangerous yellowman. And if Stephanie had been white? In Sixteen Candles, the Long Duk Dong’s crush on Molly Ringwald’s character is a source of comic relief-- as if scoring a white girl is some kind of absurd dream, some prize elevated above the rest.

Really, it’s unfortunate that the different races that Stephanie could have been would signify pretty different implications. If she were white, Ben’s pining may have suggested that whiteness is valued above other races. If she were black or hispanic, the film would have been about multi-cultural relations within the minority community, about third-world solidarity. An Asian Stephanie perhaps suggests that Asian is the only spectrum that Ben can conquer. I can imagine that, if I were the filmmaker, these radically different significances would become frustrating to me. After all, I think Stephanie is supposed to fill the standard role of the female love object in a typical (read: white-led) high school movie-- she is a cheerleader, after all. But in order to create an Asian equivalent of a white high school movie, it seems as if the director has had to create a new Asian universe within which the narrative can operate. As an Asian-American that didn’t grow up in New York or California, I’d like to see more Asian-American films that showcase more provocative interactions between Asians and whites-- something more true to my own experiences.

Mississippi Masala: Race/Relationships

2008-04-09T10:31:00.001-07:00

At its heart, Mira Nair's Mississippi Masala is a romance, an ethnically tinged take of Romeo and Juliet... with a happy ending. However, as many of my classmates have already mentioned, the relationship between Meena and Demetrius rings false, too brief and unbelievable to make the audience feel any real love between the two characters. Indeed, the relationship begins as a ploy for Demetrius to make his ex-girlfriend Alicia jealous.

Meena, too, seems to have an ulterior motive for dating Demetrius, one that is, in fact, arguably racially motivated. After sleeping with Demetrius, Meena asks him to "wish me a happy birthday." A flashback to Uganda reveals that a young Meena is sad that their family friend Okelo didn't sing happy birthday to her.

In this way, Meena's desire for Demetrius is figured as a desire for Okelo, which can be interpreted as the desire for black men. For Meena, Demetrius simply fits the role -- he reminds her of her life back in Uganda and of Okelo. And he does this by (I know I am oversimplifying here) being a black man.

In this instance, how is race/homeland linked to desire? What does it mean to love someone for the color of their skin? Is it OK for Meena to desire black men because she grew up in Uganda? Interestingly, many of these questions sounds a lot like the questions asked during the Interracial Dating Forum here at Brown.

Response to films (Whoa, sorry guys I was supposed to post this draft a long time ago!)

2008-04-08T11:34:00.000-07:00

I am kind of torn when comparing Better Luck Tomorrow and Monkey Dance with Mississippi Masala. Similar to Paul, the first and foremost connection I made between the films is that Mississippi Masala and Monkey Dance have this on-going conflict of trying to find a balance between tradition and the modern world. Within both films the characters always feel some sort of obligation to the family, (and this value of tradition and family is somewhat regarded as a typical Asian value), and with this debate of familial obligations comes the question of what is "home". This is an interesting concept when one considers the model minority mythology and as Professor Lee mentioned today in class, how it's secret to success revolves around the stereotypes that Asian Americans have a great home-life with a strong relationship amongst family members.

With talks of the pressure of getting good grades and getting into good colleges, this theme of familial pressure was something I was expecting to see in Better Luck Tomorrow. In fact, i was surprised to see that not only are all parents were absent from the film, but the film lacked the presence of any family. Interestingly, the only family somewhat present within the film was Stephanie's white family. Perhaps you could read it as a more modern day critique of working parents or an attempt to disillusion the model minority mythology or even that their gang substituted their "real" family. Either way unlike Mississippi Masala, Monkey Dance, (and even the Wedding Banquet), for whatever reason I felt like Better Luck Tomorrow wasn't necessarily a film about the Asian American identity, but the identity of minorities in modern day white suburbia.

This brings me to the dilemma of representations of marginalized groups. Did Better Luck Tomorrow not read as an Asian film because of the diversity of the Asian American characters depicted? Would it have been "more Asian" if the parents were shown and other tropes of Asianness and the model minority figure were utilized? Is the only way to signify a race is through identifiable stereotypes? (I.e. the Indian family owning a motel, etc). If this is the case, is it worth depicting Asians (and other marginalized minority groups) within the mass media at all?

Mississippi Masala

2008-04-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

In her essay Binita Mehta argues that Mississippi Masala challenges the black/white binary paradigm of race in America and, in her view, the film “urges that connections be made between different non-white minorities.” For me, this quote underscores a central dilemma faced by the film’s characters and by all who wish to expose racial categories such as whiteness as culturally constructed. When identities are either defined “against” whiteness (e.g., “non-white” or “people of color”) or in alignment with it (e.g., the Indian characters who perceive lighter skin tones as more desirable) this re-inscribes race/skin color as a meaningful category and reasserts whiteness as normative. That’s the insidiousness of the racial hierarchy. It assert itself into attempts to resist it and it overwrites other types of commonalities, such as class, political interests, economic interests, etc., as being less significant when it is these shared experiences and concerns that could align people from different groups in truly resistant ways.

The dilemma for many of the film's characters is how to define themselves in societies where race-based power structures exist. Like the characters in Better Luck Tomorrow, Mina and Demetrious struggle to find a sense of self that is not based on the expectations that others have of them--expactations based on their gender, race, culture, etc. The movie illustrates how in Uganda and the US, the Indians occupy a shifting middle zone between “white” and “black.” Jay defined himself as Ugandan, a category he imagined as nonracial, yet he enjoyed the privileges that a European colonial infrastructure based on race bestowed.

Where Mehta sees the film as a hopeful representation of alliances that can be forged between marginalized groups, I felt that the “love will conquer all” ending, while heartwarming, hardly has the political edge that Mehta wants it to possess. How, for example, does she imagine that the main characters’ lives will have changed as a result of their awakenings?

Masala: “Creating something new out of old ingredients?”

2008-04-08T04:33:00.000-07:00

Lots of interesting things going on in Mira Nair’s “Mississippi Masala.” First of all, I had forgotten how long ago the 90’s really were: the haircuts, the fashion, the music, like whoa... The race relations between blacks and Indians in the film were complex. In both Uganda and Mississippi, Meena’s family faces tense relations with blacks. At the beginning of the film her family is forced to flee Uganda because of the rise of nationalism in the country being told that “Africa is Africans, black Africans.” The deep seeded animosities between blacks and Indians accompany Meena’s family to Mississippi where Meena and Demetrius’ interracial relationship explodes into a feud between their families. Despite the potential for solidarity and unity between the two groups as non-white people of color, the Indians in the film are still seen as foreigners and out-of-place by both the black and white communities in Mississippi.

Throughout the film I found myself thinking about the relationship between South Asians and Asian Americans. One of the things that struck me on our first day of Asian Am Pop Culture class is the absence of South Asians in our class, which got me thinking about whether South Asians embrace Asian American as part of their identity or if Asian American is a distinctly East and Southeast Asian identity. This question extends into our readings and movies as well, in which South Asians have been mostly absent. This invisibility of SA in curriculum is concerning, but it is also a reflection of their representation of South Asians in mainstream culture. The only popular SA actor that comes to mind is Kal Penn from “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.” The invisibility of South Asian identity in the United States was also present in the film. Even after he learns that Meena is Indian, Tyrone continues to believe that she is Demetrius’ “Mexican girlfriend.” One of the white character in the film complains to his friend that the “Indians” should be sent “back to the reservation,” confusing Meena’s family for American Indians. With the huge growth in the Indian/South Asian film industry (Bollywood), the invisibility of South Asians in our popular culture should change as Bollywood fosters a larger ethnic Indian cinema.

The one part of the movie that seemed ingenuine to me was the relationship between Meena and Demetrius. I just didn’t find their relationship believable. Maybe I have a narrow view/high expectations of romance in film, but I felt that there was a huge disconnect between the “love at first site” and the “we are going to leave Mississippi together” elope. I recognize that Nair was trying to do a lot with this relationship using it as the focal point for the tensions between the black and Indian communities, but considering how the brevity of their relationship AND the fact that Demetrius was just using Meena to get back at his ex-girlfriend Alicia. I guess I would have to side with her parents on this one: What was Meena thinking!?!?

2008-04-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

watching mississippi masala was an interesting turn of discourse for me in context of this class for a couple of reasons. foremostly, this would be the first time we are focusing on an example of south asian 'pop culture' in the class. the prevailing stereotypes of south asian communities are usually very different from those of east asian nations like those we've studied so far. if anyone has read vijay prashad's the karma of brown folk, we know that historically south asians, especially indian immigrants in america have distinct histories of travelling and staying for good in the US, whether it is because of the "brain drain" or jsut because of economic troubles in the motherland and the bring-your-family-over policy offered to asian technicians by the american government. what i felt was really interesting in watching this film in particular is that the indian family was not from india, but from africa. the most meaningful line in the film seemed to be unassociated with the major love story but with the theme of belonging when the Ugandan African man says to mena's father, "uganda is for black africans." this raises an a couple important issues: 1. second-class citizenship due to racism in a country other than america and 2. skin color.

i raise the first issue because even though this situation is unique to the family in this story, it is important because it forces us to venture more into the historically complex diaspora of Indian populations throughout other continents and different forms and accounts of discrimination against Asians in the past. I have to admit, I did not know about the Asian deportation in Uganda and this movie made me do some research. I had American images of the taxi-driving-New-Yorker-Indian stereotype and the wealthy-traditional-indian-technician-from-north-carolina in my head but studying diaspora is important because like the family in the movie, many asians have travelled as fugitives from one country to another to wind up finally here.

the second issue is a little more interesting because it ties in the love story and the issue of miscegenation and mixed-race marriages. though the image of the strict traditional asian parents who wont allow mixed race marriages is something i've been exposed to a lot in the past, the line that really stuck out for me was when demetrius spoke to mena's father about the indians' skin tone being just a couple shades lighter than his own. the issue of "darkies" that the indian women gossip about in the film is also something i'd like to discuss in class because it really is pertinent more in the south asian context. how does skin color affect racism in the asian american community?

Mississippi Masala- The Self

2008-04-07T21:31:00.000-07:00

Watching both Monkey Dance and Mississippi Masala, I couldn't help but feel tense. It was as though the primary conflicts in each resulted from the protagonists' ties to their heritage, rather than purely from outside tragedies and instances (though these do still play a major role). More specifically, most of the conflict, from my perspective, came from this clash between self and duty. Granted, on the surface, this emphasis on self might be equally attributed to youth. But in these films, the parents also displayed an interest on satisfying themselves; this interest in turn contributes to their childrens' sense of obligation.

Two instances that stuck out involved Jay and the gymnast's mom in Mississippi Masala and Monkey Dance respectively. Jay's main argument against Mina's relationship with Demetrius was that it was his duty to spare her and the family of the pain that (he believes) results from interracial relationships. By trying to preserve the family's dignity, he is not only following his obligations, but also satisfying his interests by removing any possible guilt. It is almost like a cycle, constantly switching back between self-interest and duty. In Mina's case, her self-interest to escape with a man she loves may be the direct result of her obligations; her dissapointment with her total lack of self-discovery, as a result of these obligations, triggered this immediate need to distance herself from the family in order to focus more on herself. Therefore, the extremes of self-interest and duty may clash, but they are also feeding off of one another.

In parts of Monkey Dance, there was a segment where the gymnast's mother was being interviewed. In it, she claimed that her biggest dream would be if her son would buy her a house, yet she also said that she would not tell him to see if he would do it on his own. Yes, this sounds selfless; but, not trying to be overly cynical, she must have known that her son would watch the film someday and hear her words. It was not so much her getting a new house, but more whether or not she felt she raised her son properly. This particular focus on self and one's accomplishment is also played out in the segment with the girl who is explaining the situation with her sister in jail. Instead of talking about her sister's anguish, she instead complains about how this predicament makes her look bad, going on about how families look down on her. Digesting this scene was not easy; what did this say about Asian American culture? It seemed that each student in the film judged others' actions and consequences only on how it affected the student specifically. A part of me wondered if this was so much connected with Asian American ( a rather general umbrella term) as it was with survival. Many of these families escaped from harsh conditions, in which self in regards to success took precedent over self in regards to emotional exploration. It's like the families have to stay united with each individual fulfilling their duties, rather than every member separating to discover themselves (even if this channel is more favored in American culture).

Masalas and Romeo & Juliet

2008-04-07T21:30:00.000-07:00

Binita Mehta writes in her article, “Mina describes herself as a masala or mixture, a ‘bunch of hot spices.’ For Mina, masala is a social construction, a means of explaining her Indian/Ugandan/American identities, an amalgamation of her ethnic roots, as well as her immigrant past” (Mehta 230). I think that the director Mira Nair is trying to convey the message that we are all masalas, blends of different ethnicities and identities. This film was under the heading for the week entitled “Where Are You From?” which I think is very descriptive of the movie’s argument. Nair wants us to ask ourselves this very question. Although Mina is born in Uganda, her family is Indian, although she has never been to India and lives in the United States. I believe that the message of this movie is that we as individuals cannot be defined simply by our place of birth—we are a fusion of our ethnicities, but also our experiences and environmental influences. I think we see this also in Monkey Dance as although 17-year-old Linda is proud of her Cambodian roots, she describes the need to be a normal American teenager who hangs out with her friends and talks to boys online. Linda is her own form of a masala—raised in Massachusetts, but ethnically Cambodia.

Another unrelated thing that struck me about Mississippi Masala is its similarity to a modern day version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. However instead of the Capulets versus the Montegues, it is the Indians versus the African Americans. Differences in cultures and races prohibit both Mina’s and Demetrius’s families and friends from accepting a biracial romantic relationship. Nair begins to explore the stereotypes held by African Americans and by Indians about other races. Nair describes how Indians are prejudiced against African Americans. This reminds me of the film My America or Honk, If You Love Buddha, which included female Filipino sisters from Louisiana who seemed to hold some prejudices against African Americans as well. I wonder why Asians and African Americans sometimes seem to have a tense relationship.

Mississippi Masala Response

2008-04-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

I must give director Mira Nair credit for trying to tackle some complex issues in her film Mississippi Masala, however, it seems she tried to take on too many issues at once. Each issue she explores really only scratches the surface and does not cut it for many of these issues.

Nonetheless, as I was watching this movie and comparing it to BLT and Monkey Dance, one theme seemed to prevail in my mind: Asians are always struggling for acceptance (from society, from their parents) but should ultimately stick with their own kind. We see this in Mississippi Masala, when Mina's family is expelled from Uganda, when Mina does not receive her family's blessing when they find out she's dating Demetrius, and when Mina's father ultimately gives up his dreams of returning to Uganda. In Better Luck Tomorrow, we see a gang of Asians who never really fit in with any other group at school, even though they are capable of competing in same realm as everyone else. In Monkey Dance, we see a group of Asian American teenagers who more or less stick with their own kind but still struggle to live up to their parents' expectations. What's ironic is that in these movies, even when the Asian characters end up sticking with their own kind, they are still not really satisfied.

One other aspect of Masala that I found especially interesting was the exploration of a relationship between two minorities, contrasting interracial couples we typically see with one white partner and one minority partner. I thought it was particularly interesting how Nair still identified levels of power between South Asian Indians and African Americans in Mississippi. When we saw Mina's family in Uganda, an area of the world that is predominantly Black, they were seen as the lowest rank on the social hierarchy, despite their lighter skin color. However, when Mina's family moved to Mississippi, a predominantly Black area within a predominantly white country, we see the roles reverse. Indians in Mississippi apparently take on a culturally white role in that area. Ultimately, in Mina and Demetrius' relationship, they are much more on the same level than is typical in many other interracial couples. The only people who put them at different levels are their parents.

Overall in the three films, there are some overarching themes, such as the importance of achieving higher education and the importance of upholding an image of the family to the public, that are characteristic of Asian American culture. Each film portrays these themes just to slightly different extents based on each family's economic status.

Narrative Masala

2008-04-07T21:20:00.000-07:00

Mississippi Masala was an interesting movie in the context of our class because we often discuss Asian Americans and their relationships with white America, whereas this movie concentrated on the interaction between Asian Americans and African Americans. The relationship between these two groups is very complex, as can be seen in the movie. For example, the figure who closest adheres to the image of the model minority in his work ethic, composure, and drive to succeed is actually Demetrius, who is black and not Asian, providing evidence contrary to the common stereotype. Despite his success, not many people in the movie acknowledge Demetrius' hard work. Admittedly, being a carpet cleaner is not too glamorous a job, but it is still admirable that Demetrius is running his own business. In spite of his success, Demetrius doesn't seem to receive the proper amount of respect in the movie, whether it be from Meena's Indian family, the white loan officer in the bank, or even his own fellow African Americans. I think this irony (and inequity) is best commented on when Demetrius confronts Jay, saying that Jay shouldn't think (in a white manner) that he is better than Demetrius because of race when Jay and his family are not so different from Demetrius, save for a few shades of skin color difference.

I found this extremely interesting because Jay is not American, but Ugandan, yet the issues of racial division and perhaps superiority still make their ways into his actions. I thought that it would have made more sense that Jay feel more affinity to African Americans, seeing as how African people are who he grew up around. Additionally, I think minorities in the United States at least on a loose level, form solidarity due to a sense of common oppression from whites. On the other hand, Asians like Jay were kicked out of Uganda precisely because they were perceived as closed off and well off elitists by the black African majority, and in the United States, Asians are placed on a different tier of minority than blacks as well.

Ultimately, from a media point of view, the portrayal of Indians in this movie includes many Indian and Asian American stereotypes, including the ownership of motels, the closed traditions and community, the concern with money, and the sense of superiority and sacredness that the family seemed to show with regards to their traditions. At the same time, Meena's family's journey is also unique because they are not simply Indian Americans or Asian Americans, and as such, their narratives cannot be easily placed into those categories. Throughout the movie, there was no one way to term Meena's nationality/origin, masala being the best characterization of her identity. In this sense, I think this movie shows the complexities of identity well, showing viewers that there could be more to an individual than can be gleaned from a limiting categorical term like Asian American or Indian American.

Mississippi Masala - Response

2008-04-07T21:12:00.001-07:00

This movie was unique in that it explored an interracial relationship between an African American man and Indian American woman (by way of Uganda). I thought it was an interesting layer of character to have Meena and her parents originate from Uganda, while most of the African Americans portrayed in the movie are “Americanized” and even admit that they have never been to Africa. With Meena and her parents being of affluent status in Uganda, I thought that their immigrant story was interesting in that they did not leave due to poor economy or to seek a better life for Meena, like many other immigrant stories we have watched. Instead, they are forcibly driven out due to their ethnicity, even with the father emphasizing how strongly he feels for Uganda. However, I thought that the tension between Meena and her parents has been seen many times before in movies about generational gaps, and thought that everyone’s reactions when they discovered that Meena was with a man of another race to be expected. It would have been interesting to have an Indian American character that sympathized with Meena. Much like other people mentioned, I also found Demetrius’s family’s negative reaction to his relationship to Meena a little incongruent, as they were originally welcoming when he first

In thinking about this movie in comparison to Better Luck Tomorrow and Dancing Monkeys, I felt that Meena shared some of the characteristics of the kids in Dancing Monkeys, particularly the fact that she decides to hold off on going to college until her father has more money, as seen in the conversation she has with her father in the Chinese restaurant. This reminded me a little bit about one of the subjects in Dancing Monkeys, who decides to go to a cheaper college because he does not want to burden his mother. On the other hand, the characters in Better Luck Tomorrow really do not have the same concept of money, as they make money off of selling drugs and cheatsheets but don’t really need it. Thus, these three movies go to show that class is a huge factor in shaping the lives of Asian American youth, especially in how having less money intertwines Asian American youth more with their family. In Better Luck Tomorrow, there was indeed an unspoken pressure coming from parents, but the characters were able to escape under the pretense of going to extracurricular activities for their college applications. However, in both Dancing Monkeys and Mississippi Masala, I got a greater sense that the Asian American youth are more tied to their families, as jobs were more of a necessity in terms of helping out the family.

Mississippi Masala

2008-04-07T20:57:00.000-07:00

I was rather disappointed by Mississippi Masala because although I agree with Mehta that the film portrays race relations and identity in an nontraditional fashion, I felt that the characters were merely superficial signifiers of Nair's agenda, namely that tradition is about "knowing what to eat and what to leave on your plate." This message was only achievable by flattening out the two main characters by emphasizing their rather inexplicable attraction towards each other and downplaying the ties and responsibilities they have to their respective families.

I thought that the most nuanced and developed character in the film was Mina's father, Jay. Through his flashbacks, his dogged struggle to regain his property, and his reactions to Mina's relationship with Demetrius, we observe how his prior history and circumstances mutually reinforce a specific set of attitudes, fears, and yearnings. For example, Jay's perceived betrayal by Okelo leads to his belief that in the end what matters is the color of one's skin and that people "stick to their kind," which in turn incites him to disapprove of Mina's relationship with Demetrius. However, Okelo's betrayal interestingly does not lead Jay to believe that his homeland has betrayed him, perhaps because he never associated being Ugandan with being a black African.

It is interesting to think about how Mina identifies herself as Indian although she has never been to India. Although Dexter states that Mina is like blacks because like her, they have never been to Africa, I would not suggest that this is a close parallel. Blacks are conscious of Africa as a place from which they were forcibly removed and with which they guard few direct cultural ties. Mina is Indian because the people she identifies with are Indian, not because she nostalgically considers it her homeland. In addition, her identification of being Indian with a specific culture rather than an idea about place and belonging contrast with her fathers association of being Ugandan because that is where he grew up--“I’ve always been Ugandan first and Indian second.”

Also, the film does nicely complement the other two films we have watch, Better Luck Tomorrow and Monkey Dance because the question of education is important in how these individuals approach the choices in their lives. For the characters in BLT, the predesignated path to higher education constitutes a stifling psychic oppression, while for the Cambodian students in Lowell, education is a means of escaping economic oppression. However, in Mississippi Masala, Mina is unable to attend college because her family is unable to afford it, she does not seem particularly bothered with her lack of higher education, although she does state at one point that she was unhappy. Instead, she looks outside of herself in order to overcome her circumstances. Mehta seems to suggest that transcending racial boundaries either trumps financial security or will lead to prosperity, perhaps by joining forces and sticking it to the white man.

Response to Mississippi Masala

2008-04-07T18:34:00.000-07:00

Mississippi Masala shows a different angle on race relations in the US beyond black and white. This is made pretty clear by the scarce presence of White characters. The only time Whites seem to appear is to cause trouble for both the Indian and Black characters: e.g. the banker who threatens to repossess Demetrius' van, the guy who yells at Demetrius at the beginning of the movie, the party kids in the motel, and the guy who tries to hustle Meena's father for money. The film's focus, rather, is on the Indians and Blacks in Mississippi.

However, I don't feel that the film accomplished this all that well either. As someone mentioned earlier, the communal frustration over Meena's and Demetrius' relationship seems to come out of nowhere. Meena seems to fit in pretty well when she is dancing at the club. She is also welcomed by Demetrius' family when they eat dinner together. The film doesn't quite explain why people are suddenly so torn over their relationship. However, I think the film does a pretty good job of raising the question of who belongs where. Meena and her family had to leave because they did not "belong" in Uganda, and they are not really welcomed by the Whites in the movie either. And yet, they are not accepted by the Black community, even if she was born in Africa. So where does one belong if not even in the place where he/she grows up?

This sense of belonging, I think, is the common thread between this film, BLT, and Monkey Dance. Upper middle class or working class, intelligent or not intelligent, the kids are all struggling to make their own way in a new world.

Not quite a love story, no real political agenda

2008-04-07T16:46:00.000-07:00

I was a bit disappointed with both the (lacking) political message and the supposed love story between Demetrius and Mina in Mississippi Masala. The chemistry between Mina and Demetrius was not very convincing, and it would have been nice if there were more development in that arena. I assume that Nair was going for the "love conquers all theme", especially when it comes to forbidden love, however I felt that the "forbidden love" part was as well not as convincing. The only part that I found interesting was the contrast between the love scene of Mina and Demetrius and that of the newly wed couple (Mina's relatives).

As for the political issues between Indian and African-Americans of the south, I felt they weren't portrayed strongly enough to warrant the opposition that ensued with the interracial relationship. Perhaps it was because I am not as familiar with South Asian-American stereotypes in the U.S. that it made me harder to pick up the more subtle details that could have been more apparent to someone who is. The reading in Feng's Screening Asian Americans did clarify a lot of the issues that I had overlooked when watching the movie. Using a motel as the setting for which the nuclear Indian family found a means for survival was peculiar yet seemed more appropriate to me after the reading. I was also not surprised to see the importance that immigrants place on family, which was the case for Mina and her parents.

I found Mina, Kinnu and Jay's struggles in the U.S. very interesting because unlike their relatives in Mississippi, they were born and raised in Uganda, and had no real reason to relate to Indian tradition and culture. Yet they seemed to uphold these views more after they moved to the U.S. During the chaos that ensued after Mina and Demetrius's relationship became public, it was apparent how much family matters both in the Indian and African-American communities.

making sense of masala

2008-04-07T12:59:00.000-07:00

Although I think the film just touches the surface on many issues of race, color casting, class and ethnicity (etc.) I do have to agree with Rye-Jim's post below. This film presents a much more complex interracial dynamic then I think is typically seen in mainstream popular culture around race and even interracial dating.

The binary of black-white or asian-white (which we have seen throughout a number of the films in this course) is disrupted (finally). To disrupt the binary and break-out of our cultures "fixation" on black-versus white, which Mehta notes is "outdated" and "misleading," opens a space where we can talk about relations between different people/communities of color. These relations are often divided (divided we fall) and individuals/communities may not feel a sense of solidarity with other people of color despite historical and modern day racism, class oppression and exploitation.

Demetris's brother, Dexter, really stood out to me. I saw Dexter as this character representing the new wave of young black americans in the '90s. His love for hip-hop, wanting to go back to his roots through African nationalism (African Americans are Africans who've never been to Africa) and questioning why he should work in a racist system are some examples of this. I think Dexter in some ways was the character that most challenges this racial oppressive system we live in.

Mina's a really interesting character that I hope we can talk more in-depth about on the blog and in-class. I think she is both exotified and objectified by her male counterparts. Besides her looks, I wonder what attracts Demetris to Mina. He NEVER asks her any questions about herself besides where she's from and even that he never asks her questions about why she moved around.
Even from the beginning he "uses" her to get back at Alicia.

Does Mina (or any women in the film for that matter) have agency?

All Kinds of Asian

2008-04-07T12:51:00.001-07:00

We were asked to watch Mississippi Masala with the previous two films in mind, so here I consider some similarities and differences between the three depictions of Asian Americans coming into adulthood.

In any of the films, one could see that being Asian American placed the main characters in unique social niches, affected to various degrees by economic status and social expectations. The teens in BLT and Monkey Dance, and Meena in Mississippi Masala, knew the culturally-based hopes their parents held for them even when they were silent. In BLT, these parental pressures were something the audience might infer, as there were never adult authority figures on screen. Yet the common result of cultural norms (expectations from inside) and American stereotypes (expectations from outside) was not an outright rejection by the young adults, but rather narratives of adolescents struggling to find their own identities while acutely aware of what everyone else expected. Trends have been discussed, but ultimately I feel as though the characters just wanted happiness for themselves and for their parents (except for maybe BLT’s Steve). It was the internal negotiation of opposing needs that we saw playing itself out.

How much did their specific ethnic backgrounds matter? I think that each Asian group depicted—East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian—arrived and continues to exist within its own American context. In Monkey Dance, the parents were refugees of the Khmer Rouge genocide; in Mississippi Masala, Meena’s parents were exiles of Idi Amin’s anti-Asian regime, originally affluent in their homeland of Uganda; in BLT, the high school seniors were raised by upper middle class parents, who I assume came to America and worked very hard within the system to provide comfortable lives for their children. The disempowerment associated with being a refugee was visible to various degrees between Meena’s parents and those of the Cambodian students. Choosing to flee to America out of some sort of necessity meant that the children would not be able to freely pursue personal desires, whether those were educational or social. The BLT characters, on the other hand, seemed to be getting exactly what they wanted. Socioeconomic conditions mattered here.

Regarding how outside communities perceived the main characters, I believe it really depends on the level of “threat” each immigrant group poses to previous settlers. It came out in Mississippi Masala that Indian families were seen as “foreigners,” and “nothing but trouble” because of their economic accomplishments upon entering the U.S. Demitrius receives the criticism: “[He] think he got a white chick.” He angrily asserts to Meena’s father that Indians have come in, and instead of siding with African Americans, chose to employ the same oppressive attitudes as white society. The stereotypically competitive Asian American students push white students out of positions that would otherwise be theirs in colleges. Though this specific theme was not addressed in BLT, I saw it as a factor in the tension between “white jocks” and the Asian American characters. But perhaps this is drawing too much from outside information. Lastly, the Cambodian American students did not address any feelings of racial conflict within their social and economic spheres, but you could see it in their parents’ generation—Cambodian immigrants who were trained as professionals in their home countries were regarded as uneducated once in the U.S., then relegated to cheap labor positions. Establishing Cambodian refugees as a low-threat population economically has allowed for existence of a harmoniously unfair social structure. But of course, this is changing.