Asian Pacific Islander News:

“UCLA, USC student groups call for improved racial climate at town hall” – Article title (Article posted February 20, 2014)

“Leaders of Asian Pacific Islander student groups from UCLA and USC demanded that UCLA administrators improve campus racial climate by increasing funding for cultural groups and ethnic studies departments at a town hall meeting on Wednesday.

The UCLA Asian Pacific Coalition and two USC student groups, the Asian Pacific American Student Assembly and the Student Coalition for Asian Pacific Empowerment, hosted the meeting in response to racist and sexist fliers sent to Asian American departments on both campuses earlier this month. More than 150 people attended the event.

The student leaders also demanded that the UCLA administration introduce a diversity-related General Education requirement and give students a more direct input in hiring new UCLA administrators, including a vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion.” – By Hee Jae Choi

(See full story here at: http://dailybruin.com/2014/02/20/ucla-usc-student-groups-call-for-improved-racial-climate-at-town-hall/)

Kato p. 113-169:

“That which instigates such a process of cognition is a cultural matrix of management (based on the imperialist cultural practices), which evokes the arrogance of the capitalists imprinted in the minds of the workers with the memory of unresolved agony and anger” p. 115

“Due to the thin screen that separates the language of the command in the factory and that of the colonial power, the agents of transnational power could effortlessly take the position of power. By so doing, they in effect reduce worries to the level of working animals, or “coolies,” for the colonial master” p. 116

“It is kung fu, and more precisely the “kung fu dialectic” that would offer the idiom of collective resistance” p. 117

“Accordingly, the expression of the extras in this scene unmasks the emotive actions rooted in the real antagonism in the production process” p. 123

“Although the kinetic narrative enunciated by the flow of Lee’s combative action holds thematic continuity with the path to freedom in his works, there’s a marked dissimilarity from Lee’s previous choreographic pieces” p. 127

“When Ohara descends into the spiral of destructive aggression, his rigid kinetic movement and expressions exhibit disharmony with Nature” p. 129

“Both Lee and Hendrix’s artistic expressions open a direct channel with the crude reality of colonial and imperial contradiction in its historical and ever-present form, while creating a sphere of transcendental reflection” p. 132

“A careful dissection of the scheme of the antagonist and the mission if the protagonist will inform us of the “trans nationality” or “globality” of the official narrative of Enter the Dragon that evolved out of the imperialist mode in which those two conventional genres are anchored” p. 136

“Whereas Doctor No in the novel symbolizes the anomaly produced in the context of colonization at the end of classic imperialism, Dr. No in the film allegorizes the deviant path of the semi-autarkic neo-colonial regime at the dawn of globalization” p. 138

“Sontag explains: To photograph people is to violate them, by seeing them as they never see themselves, by having knowledge of them they can never have; it turns people into objects that can be symbolically possessed. Just as the camera is a sublimation of the gun, to photograph someone is sublimated murder— a soft murder, appropriate to a sad, frightened time” p. 148

“Thereafter, the body of the Caucasian actor/actress had become a “landscape” upon which the “essence” of the exotic was constructed, like an “Oriental palace” built in the studio back lot” p. 148

“Moreover, by turning the Caucasian into the “Oriental,” Hollywood could retain the horror effect of becoming “Oriental” (of Caucasian women, in particular) cultivated in British literary “Orientalism” p. 148

“At this juncture, therefore, Hollywood “Orientalism” enters a symbiotic relationship with two of the main industries of late capitalism: the war/military industry and the tourist industry, both of which are buttressed by the development of the communication and transportation industries” p. 148- 149

“If war if the ultimate form of consumption of the Other by the imperialist subject, tourism can be viewed as a “sustainable” consumption of the Other that nurtures the health of the imperialist power” p. 150

“Accordingly, what tourists look for is no longer the experience of a chance encounter, but preprocessed sight objects organized and packaged for their convenience” p. 150

“Although caged birds are found in the street of Hong Kong, their concentration was a pure invention of the director: “I couldn’t remember seeing anything like it and was certainly exotic enough for Han’s perverted tastes” p. 152

“In this sense, the infinite reflections in the room, as seen from the gaze of a camera (representing transnational power) symbolically demarcate the realm of transnational Orientalist aesthetics, which is contested by the insistence on the real over imagery” p. 155

“Due to what the name represents, “Brusli” pertains to both singular and collective identity. The collective desire and aspiration for decolonization and freedom, represented by a name among the oppressed, therefore overflows the boundaries demarcated by time, space, and identity” p. 169

“It is only when the kung fi cultural revolution and hip hop came to interface that the meaning of the film began to unfurl” p. 169 -About Enter the Dragon film

Kato p. 171-207:

“Although Lee’s legacy had a direct relevance to the hip hop aesthetics, the L.A. ghetto youth were hooked onto narcissistic materialism and self-destructive nihilism articulated through the media of hip hop aesthetics called “gangsta rap” p. 173

“…Bruce Lee utilized all ways but was bound by none” p. 177

“In both Jeet Kune Do and hip hop culture, creativity arises from the autonomy of self-expression” p. 177

“The first commercial recording of rap was produced by Sugar Hill Records, a New Jersey- based all Black independent label…” p. 178

“His writing has lent street aesthetic from to “their otherwise contained identities” (…) on the space that duly belonged to them” p. 186

“The shift of a paradigm in the ghetto brought by the gang truce inspired Bambaata and others to reorient gang activities “from a negative thing into a positive thing” p. 187

“The emergence of Jamaica’s sound system culture, which goes back to the 1950s, came as a result of Jamaica’s encounter with R &B through Black radio stations from the U.S. continent which could be caught in Jamaica” p. 188

“Since the 1930s, there emerged a spiritual, social and political movement in the ghetto sufferer’s communities, which came to embrace Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia as Jah Rastafari, the Almighty God prophesized by their national hero Marcus Garvey” p. 188

“As Sally Banes sums it up: “Breaking is a way using your body to inscribe your identity on streets and trains, in parks and high school gyms” p. 191

“With high-speed kinetic action without any adherence to styles and rituals, the battle between Hai-tien and Kareem turns into a fest of kinetic expressions in competitive spirit, much like freestyle battle in hip hop culture” p. 198

“The concept of a groove is the convergence and harmonization of rhythmic, kinetic, and social elements of human expressions” p. 198

“The groove, as Malcolm X insinuated, can be conceived as a force of social transformation” p. 198

 Ozeki p. 1-108:

“I swear, sometimes I think the main reason she’s still alive is because of all the stuff I give to her to pray about” p. 18

“One of her vows was to save all beings, which basically means that she agreed not to become enlightened until all other beings in this worlds are enlightened first” p. 18

“I never asked her where that elevator is going. I’m going to text her now and ask” p. 19

“I don’t know anything important, but something worthwhile. I want to leave something real behind” p. 22

“Jiko said that Haruki got bullied a lot in the army because he loved French poetry, so that’s something else that runs in the family: an interest in French culture and getting pick on” p. 68

“You can life by completely taking it away” p. 88- Harry

p. 88 Why high suicide rate in Japan? answer by Harry

“No matter what I choose to do, for this one moment I owned Daisuke and I owned his future. It was a strange feeling, creepy and a little too intimate, because if I killed him now we would be joined for life, forever, and so I released him” p. 98

Class Notes:

“Take what is useful and develop from there” -Bruce Lee

John Donne- “Negative Love” sonnet

Frances Scott Key wrote “The Star Spangled Banner”

Hindu- Muslim riots- 1983

November 27, is both Bruce Lee and Jimi Hendrix’s birthday

Asian Pacific Islander News: Hawaii

Article Title: “Waikiki shop removes dead bottled baby sharks for sale after protests”

On February 6, 2014, a Waikiki gift shop called Nani Aloha Street, across from the Kuhio Beach, removed bottles of dead baby sharks it was selling after an environmental group protested.

“Accordingly, what tourists look for is no longer the experience of a chance encounter, but preprocessed sight objects organized and packaged for their convenience” (Kato, p. 150).

(Photo taken from: http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/24668601/waikiki-shop-removes-dead-bottled-baby-sharks-for-sale-after-protests)

“The store had posted a sign below the sharks that said in Hawaiian mythology, sharks are believed to be aumakua or spiritual guardians. 

“It was thought that keeping these aumakua in their homes will keep (them) safe from harm,” the sign said. 

“I was horrified and I was infuriated at the fact that they had used our cultural traditions, they had used our aumakua as a way to make more money,” Kalama said. 

(See full story at: http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/24668601/waikiki-shop-removes-dead-bottled-baby-sharks-for-sale-after-protests)

Kato p. 1- 112:

“The one armed swordsman reflects the life, history, and social relationships of the common people” p 16

“Mandarin cinema’s adaptation of kung fu in the 1970s seemed an opportunistic denial of the importance of Cantonese contribution to Hong Kong pictures because the kung fu genra was identified as primarily Cantonese, not because of its long-running Wong Fe-hung series but also because many of its real-life practitioners were Cantonese. Even the term “kung fu” is derived from Cantonese” p. 17

Lee attempted to bring as much realism to the film screen as possible.

“On December 7, 1941, Japan invaded the Philippines, Burma, Malaya, Indonesia, and Hong Kong simultaneously with their bombing of the American base in Hawaii known as Pearl Harbor. On “Black Christmas Day,” as it is remembered by the peoples of Hong Kong, the British colonial forces finally ceded Hong Kong to Japan. Following a period of widespread, indiscriminate killing and looting, Japan installed a totalitarian military regime in Hong Kong,  where the military and civilian police (known as Kenpeitai) maintained the reign of terror.” p. 18

p. 19- Description of Japanese terror.

“Wing Chun kung fu, allegedly invented by a Shaolin nun specifically for a woman’s self-defense, bestowed Lee with a solid foundation in Chinese ancient philosophy (Confucianism, I Ching, and Taoism)” p. 19

“Thereafter, the controversy over the ignominious pages of Japan’s history was stirred up and intensified periodically by the Japanese governments attempts to revise the standard school textbooks and by remarks by high-ranking government officials aimed at whitewashing their imperialist history” p. 33

“The triangular image complex-bu, judo, and Katanta deployed in Fist of Fury thus captures the fundamental aspects of the culture of Japanese imperialism with sobering accuracy from the viewpoint o Chinese and Asian people in general” p. 38

“Fortified by this shaved image, his conscious portrayal of himself as a “common folk” hero in his films not merely affirmed the existence of the Asian masses, but also opened up an allegorical link with the mass movement toward decolonization in Asia” p. 41

“The pursuit of freedom in action-expressed through the mind and body in their totality- thus became the paramount agenda of Lee’s artistic expression” p. 49

“In other words, transcendence of the dualistic mind is a necessity for overcoming an unequal relationship” p. 56

“It marks the pinnacle of the Jeet Kune Do philosophy, in that with a creative flexible, and rhythmic approach to movement, one can overcome the opponent by leading him/her to the path of self-destruction” p. 58

“…Lee’s philosophical system, which views combative art as a means to realize selfhood. The ultimate combat, therefore, is with one’s ego or institutionalized selfhood” p. 58

“… Watch, but don’t stop and interpret, “I am free” then you’re living in a memory of something that has gone. To understand and live now, everything of yesterday must die” p. 60

“As alluded to earlier, what separated him from other figures of the countercultural scene was his realism based on the shamanic articulation of his historical and cultural existence” p. 88 – About Jimi Hendrix. Similar to Bruce Lee.

“Through their engagement in the primordial sound, both Hendrix and Coltrane were able to demonstrate the possibility of reconstructing our perception of reality by removing the boundary that separates the spirit world and material world” p. 92

“The artistic expressions of Coltrane and Hendrix could indeed be seen as the return of the spirit Palongawhoya at the dawn of global capitalism, as they too are caretakers of the new mode of consciousness sprouting on earth where Nature is under incessant attack by capitalist development” p. 92- similar to Shaolin monks

“In the scene where Han “offers” great martial artists what he calls “gifts,” Golden Harvest had no choice but to hire real prostitutes, as it was explained to the director: “If a Chinese woman was not considered a whore, she couldn’t be cast as one. It would be a terrible disgrace…In Hong Kong, if you’re going to write a prostitute, then you had to cast a prostitute for the part” p. 105

Class Notes:

Shaolin Gong Fu: The Original Five Animal Styles

Tiger- extensive footwork, acrobatic kicks, low, wide stances, and unique fist position.

Leopard- Speed and angular attack. Does not rely on strength, as does the tiger, relies on speed and outsmarting its opponent.

White Crane- Deep rooted stances, intricate hand techniques and fighting, mostly at close range, imitating a pecking bird.

Snake- Strikes the opponent from angles in which they wouldn’t be expecting.

Dragon- attacks with low yang; quick movements that originate from the feet, guided by the waist, flows through the body and exits through the fist.

(More information found from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Kung_Fu)