Tag Archives: Dave

Davé

The main things I took from these readings was a sense of validation. I have never known other academically minded Asians who focus on anti-oppressive …

Raves TW drugs

When I was under 21, for about six or so months of my life, I got really into ecstasy. I had always primarily done these drugs just with my friends but one of the last times I ever took it was when I went to my first rave down in Eugene, OR in a forrest. I don’t know if I was more sensitive to my surroundings because of the amount of drugs I had taken but I looked around myself and felt very uncomfortable.

“…for electronic dance music is a largely white, middle-class youth subculture.” (15)

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. I remember the people I was close to around that time period were my middle class friends. I remember going to their houses and marveling at how large it was or how nice it looked. If I didn’t have enough money for drugs, then they always seemed to have plenty on hand.

So I went to this rave and the rave even had a name it was called “Where Life Begins”. I thought it was so strange that here I was, partying with a bunch of rich kids and all of them always talked about the meaning of life on an incredibly spiritual level yet when they all gave themselves “rave names”, they all sounded so generic and I felt like there was no depth to it. They dubbed me “Cherry Bomb” and I’m still not sure why.

“Tribal techno and trance offer white American youth a way to reimagine themselves through racialized, and even globalized, nothings of otherness.” (19)

Right, right. That makes sense. Most of these kids wanted to escape the monotony of their ordinary lives, they wanted to escape their suburban houses. Then this other trend started happening within our circle of friends I began to notice:  spiritual tattoos. I have one friend in particular who went as far as getting a quarter sleeve of a Buddha (she never claimed Buddhist either) and then the golden ratio tattoo and then the flower of life. She began collecting these tattoos on her body that was both very spiritual yet on the other side was very mathematics.

I felt so strange at this rave in Oregon because while the music was great, everyone was losing themselves in it. They were reaching this higher dimension of spirituality but they were all either incredibly high on meth, cocaine or ecstasy. I just couldn’t understand attaining a higher spirituality while someone is so high on mostly synthetic drugs.

Needless to say, I didn’t continue long on this road of rave culture.

East Main Street, Cibo Matto, + The Wedding Banquet

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During this mornings seminar, I came away thinking about the word “resistance”. Typically when I think about resistance in music, I think about folk songs and protest songs over the years, but I guess I never really thought of lyrical resistance against stereotyping and cultural identities. Exploring Cibo Matto will obviously bring this notion to the forefront as they are a group who are constantly defying stereotypes. They are a group who exist on the fringe, not really fitting into any category. You have two women who are venturing into hip-hop and utilizing technology as their instrument – already you’re breaking boundaries. They defy the notions of stereotypes typically associated with the words female, Asian, Japanese, hip-hop and others, creating a sound and voice unique to themselves. Because of this resistance,  Cibo Matto give us a reason to celebrate how things in society have changed in the past 40 years or so, and I think help us embrace new points of view as well.

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In the Wedding Banquet, Wei-Wei is a woman who is a product of her time – independent, artistic, and open minded. There is a scene between Wei Wei and Mrs. Gao later on in the film in which Mrs. Gao comments on how older women sometimes grow envious of younger generations because of that independence and spirit, which speaks volumes about the differences between generations and the times we live in. Wei Wei is definitely a form of resistance against the traditional gender roles and routes women have taken in the past. It is Wei Wei who makes the choice to keep her baby, and I love how she embraces Wai-Tung and Simon’s relationship (another form of resistance) and asks them to the be the fathers of her children.The shot of the three of them together as they watch the Gaos leave is touching and almost marks the new family as the new nuclear family – one that embraces new ideals and individualism.

Talking Points

Chapter 10

“Japanese American women in the pageant were working with white standards of beauty pageants in mind and re-creating them with a Japanese American twist” (206)

  • Who exactly defined white beauty standards? If you say blue eyes and blonde hair then isn’t that the same as what Hitler thought as the ideal beauty? Didn’t the U.S. NOT want to be like him?

“…the pageant was a way to “mimic” mainstream America and to show how “American” Japanese Americans were.” (208)

  • What were American women exactly like?

“…changed it’s racial eligibility rules from 100 percent Japanese ancestry to 50 percent.” (217)

  • At one point is someone gonna be considered not Japanese enough though?

side note: I was very happy to read from Keith Kamisugi about whether or not girls with a white last name should be allowed to enter. My full name is Lisa Elizabeth Foster and I have been told by far too many people in my life that I am not truly Japanese if I have such an American sounding name.

Chapter 11

  • Cablinasian- is that cool? Or do you really think it does make people color-blind?
  • In some ways, isn’t it good that there is more diversity in a sport that is dominated by primarily people who are white?

“When children of every race can proclaim, “I am Tiger Woods,” race becomes insignificant” (229)

  • Is the statement above true to you? And why?

Chapter 14

“…multicultural exoticization of difference” (281)

  • Discuss recent things in pop culture that has done this with other cultures i.e. anime, food, language

“Is he Asian because he “looks Asian”? Or Asian because he self-identifies as Asian? Or simply Asian because he has Asian blood?” (284)

  • This connects back to chapter 10, at one point is someone’s “Asian-ness” insignificant? Have you heard the term white-passing P.O.C.? What do you think of this term?