Author Archives: Terri

Takaki 10-13

Chapter 10 - Watershed is also a term used to mean a major change or turning point. So for the title of Watershed of World War II means the changes occurring during the war era.

One of the things that was happening was that each of the races took to wearing buttons indicating their race. Another major issue that the United States was undergoing was the conflict of racial discrimination. On page 369, “It [the US] could not oppose the racist ideology of Nazism and also ‘practice’ racial discrimination. America had to put its ‘principle of equality’ into its laws and policies.” I thought that this was a great quote because it really showed the parallels between the continents where there were groups of people wearing identifying markers of a certain society and being discriminated against. Even if changes only came about to avoid being hypocritical, it possibly opened eyes to the utter bad-ness of the situations.

Chapter 11 - What made the second wave immigrants “strangers?” It’s so upsetting that highly educated individuals that immigrated were unable to get jobs that they trained for. They had to work in stations far below their abilities in both their home country and America. However, by moving to America, it would give their future generations a chance to prosper in ways that they would have had no chance to do in the home country.

Chapter 12 - I think that it’s really great that so many people took a stand to break the “model.”

Chapter 13 - I’ve never really heard much about the Los Angeles riots of ’92. I knew they happened. I knew they were bad, but to what extent and the specifics, I had no idea. I really enjoyed the quotation “There are no Asians in Asia, only people with national identities, such as Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian, Vietnamese, and Filipino. But on this side of the Pacific there are Asian Americans.”

East Main Street – 10, 11, 14

Chapter 10 – “they wanted to ‘act like feminists’ but not be feminists – because ugly feminists were white.”

Chapter 11 – What does the title mean by Rehabilitate?

Chapter 14 – Racial ambiguity and “hidden race” in Hollywood are quite common. While it opens more opportunities for actors, should it be encouraged or discouraged?

Feb. 4 EDIT - So, we didn’t really use our talking points as talking points in seminar. I was in the group that focused on Chapter 14 involving Keanu Reaves and Smallville. Some of the main points of the chapter were on the aspect of racial ambiguity and white passing, others were linking sexuality and race. The article author derives a “guilty pleasure” in “outing” celebrities as Asian. She also goes in depth describing the sexual and racial symbolism in Smallville, which is a Superman origin story. I thought it was rather interesting how she says that Kryptonite is Clark Kent’s outer, as it threatens to reveal his nature as an alien.

The Debut

When the movie started, it was clear that Ben seemed to be ashamed of his family and his home. His friends poke a bit of lighthearted and harmless fun, but are very accepting and even eager to enjoy the festivities and cultural events. They chow down on full plates of food and sit entranced as the dancers dance.

Sheldon’s party ended up being a major turning point for Ben. When faced with the blatant racism from the girl at the party, he has this realization that I interpreted as him finally figuring out that as white as he feels on the inside, he will never be white. He’ll always be Filipino. He goes back to his sister’s debut and rejoining the family. However, he ends up taking out all the hurt and rage out Gusto. Since Gusto is trying to tell Ben that he’s the opposite. He taunts Ben by calling him a white boy and saying that he’s not brown. I felt that Ben’s turmoil over not being white and not feeling brown, is resolved with his painting of himself, his father, and his grandfather laid over the flag.

I think that the best part of the film was when one of the characters, Ed I think, was trying to open the minds of those around him. When he slams the two crazed car enthusiasts with a quick lesson in Philippine history, he really makes and impact on those who hear him.

The parallels between Ben and his father and Ben’s father and grandfather were interesting. I think that for Ben’s father the anger and disappointment from the beginning of the movie that was targeted towards Ben was melted away by his own fight with his father. He is an artist who wanted to go his own way, but his father disapproved and ultimately the band failed. Since he would want better for his son, he tried to push him towards a better chance and away from his dream.

Hanboks

A hanbok, a traditional Korean dress. It is composed of a long skirt called a chima, and a short jacket called a jeogori. The sleeves are curved, and traditionally used to hide a coin purse or other small items.

The dress was designed to highlight a woman’s hips, as larger hipped women were more desired for childbearing. The skirts are designed to be very full. In the Chosun dynasty when there were shortages of fabrics, due to wars and tributes, the jackets would become shorter and shorter. Today, longer jackets are still used, but the shorter jackets are more prominently distributed.

Traditionally made from silks, modern hanboks utilize fabrics like chiffon.

Womens-Hanbok

New News For Youse

How I Met Your Mother

The January 13th episode of CBS’ How I Met Your Mother has been under constant criticism due to it’s offensive material and yellowface. Twitter has been going crazy with responses to the episode. The episode’s fantasy sequence showed the character played by Jason Segel receiving advice from three other main cast members dressed as “slap masters” styled from old Kung Fu movies.

Each of the characters is seen to be eating ramen, speaking in stereotyped accents, and backdropped by Asian designs as they teach him the Slap of  Million Exploding Suns. The creators have given official apologies, as have some of the performers.

article-2540872-1AB7847100000578-360_634x417Cobie Smulders is seen in a traditional styled Cheongsam, utilizing a fan, and wearing heavily yellowed make up.

article-2540872-1AB7847F00000578-888_634x422Alyson Hannigan wears a stylized silk jacket and her character is 106 years old. Her face is highlighted by her white make up and shirt giving off the impression of a geisha style.

article-2540872-1AB7848300000578-571_634x403Josh Radnor wears a Manchu mustache and robes. He speaks like a Confucian scholar.

 

 

Challenger

The ChalleChallenger_flight_51-l_crewnger Disaster is currently in the news for two very different reasons. One of which is because of Beyonce sampling audio from the event in her song XO. The second of the reasons that Challenger is in the news is because of the new photos recently discovered of the explosion. The January 28th anniversary is quickly approaching.

The biggest connection to Asian-America is crew member Ellison Onizuka. Born in Hawaii, he served in both the US Air Force and NASA.

Paull Shinpaull-shin

Washington state Senator Paull Shin is currently retiring from duty due to his recently diagnosed Alzheimers. In 1992 Paull Shin became the first Korean American to serve in Washington state legislature. As a child he was adopted from Korea during the Korean war. He attended the University of Washington where he studied East Asian Studies.

 

World War II Stragglers

bildeJapan’s Hiroo Onoda, an imperial soldier, from World War II has died at the age of 91.  He emerged from the Philippine jungles 29 years after the end of the war. It was because of his commander’s return to the jungle to overturn an order given in 1945 that he finally left the jungle. The 1945 order was to stay and spy on American troops. Not even his family could get him to leave the jungle, his loyalty to the Imperial Army was so strong.

Sewing the World Together

I think that my “rock” category will be on sewing. I am interested in various fabrics and techniques used in working on traditional sewed pieces like bedding or drapery. I am also really interested in the designs of cultural costumes.

My first major sewing project that I ever did correctly was in high school my senior year. I had to do a senior project to graduate. My paper was on the globalization of Korean media, and my project was about a return to roots so I made a Hanbok.

A Hanbok is a traditional Korean dress. The Hanbok I made wasn’t a completely accurate piece, but it was nice to be able to do and create myself. One of the things that I really looked into while researching my project was fusion clothing. I had really like the Anerican-Korean fusion Hanboks. I think that that might be another thing that I look into for this project.

This project really sparked my interest in sewing, my mentor even gave me a sewing machine as a gift. Since then I’ve been sewing dresses and skirts, still can’t get the hang of doing zippers though. I’ve also gotten into quilting, I find it relaxing and I have a few projects in progress at the moment.

The Beautiful Country

All I could think afterwards was “was it worth it?”

I think that this film has an excellent story, but at every turn just kept getting sadder and sadder. Nothing in life ever goes well for Binh as a Bui Doi. He suffers tragedy after tragedy. He finds his mother and so quickly is separated from her. We never find out if she gets to safety or what happens to her after they are separated. I know that Binh sends a letter with money back to her, but what if she’s not there? What if she’s in prison, or dead, or in America, or in another country? Could they ever be reunited?

Tam. TAM TAMIE! This is the major breaking point for. His little brother, left in his charge, has died on the ship of ill conditions. I really thought that Binh taking charge and asserting himself would be a thing that lasted the entire movie. Though he does show more strength later on, it’s not quite with the same voracity as in the moment where he shuts down the gambling game.

I think that the later poker game where he has his break down is such a heartbreaking moment because you can almost see the thought running through his head. If he had known the Vietnamese with GI fathers could fly free, he could have bought Tam a ticket and they would never have landed in Malaysia and met his heartbreaker Ling. They never would have been on the other ship where so many people, including little Tam died. Binh wouldn’t have had to work off debt in barracks like conditions.

I did enjoy the fact that Binh took this turn as his chance to leave. His journey to Texas to find Steve was great. His hitchhiking with the Hispanic family and the Veterans was sweet. I chose to interpret the ending dinner scene as Steve realizing that Binh was his son, and the ending haircutting scene as them assuring each other they would be together until the end.

47 Ronin

I wasn’t particularly sure what I was expecting to see in this film. Since I had not seen any previews or heard much about the film, I didn’t have any possible ideas.

I thought it was absolutely great to see a recent Hollywood film with almost all of the major roles filled by people of Japanese descent with such huge names. It was quite stunning cinematography, and the costuming was beautiful. I really enjoyed how it tried to blend fact and myth by adding in the mysticism and magic.