-New York Times: Asians Too Smart For Their Own Good-Next Thursday: Chapters 1, 2, 15 (read all)
-Anna May Wong first Chinese lead actor
-Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon
+Fu Manchu, the evil scientist and symbol of “Yellow Peril”
-Leading Asian roles played by white actors (yellowface)
-After Japan invades China, Chinese images in media transforms to a sad and helpless image
+Japanese men and soldiers were now being depicted as cruel and lustful
+Chinese image shifted again during Chinese Communism rise in 1949
+Japanese became positive in portrayal while Chinese negative
-Interracial relationships restricted in movies until 1954
+White man and Asian woman was endorsed, but not the reverse
-Asian women in reality did not adhere to images portrayed in media, often finding it weird that men approached them because of this
-In 1960s, Asians were depicted in a more positive image
-Vietnamese became the new villains, prostitutes, and poor people in movies during the Vietnam War
-The female Asian reporter and newscaster stereotype known as “Suzie Wong”
-Asian men depicted in media as demeaning or “wimps”

Regarding the small group discussion, we discussed about the term “dragon lady” and explained to one of out group members the meaning of it. We also thought about movies where Asian men played lead roles that were not of the action genre, only to realize that only a few came up like the Harold and Kumar movies. One of us also made a connection with the characters in Broken Blossoms compared to the characters in Gran Torino and mentioned how some of the roles were simliar, such as Spider being like Batlling Burrows and Thao resembling Cheng in that he wants to avenge a woman after she has been  abused. A topic we also discussed is how the media fluctuates on Asian portrayal depending on current events, like how now Middle Easterns are depicted as the antagonists in movies these days. In fact, we even discussed how at an anime convention that my friend was asked by an old man to have her picture taken, even though she was not in costume. She was half Japanese and half Filipino, but I guess she stood out from the rest of us because she was the only girl.

In chapter two “The Coolie and the Making of the White Working Class”, the one thing that kept popping out at me was the term “John Chinaman”. The term represented a Chinese immigrant or sojourner working in America during the 1800s. They were typically looked down upon because of their docile nature and the numbers they came in, taking almost all the open job positions that paid less than minimum wage. This generated an envy and despise for the Chinese. When they tried to become Americans, they were unaccepted because of their skin color. They were also compared to the Irish immigrants, via John Chinaman versus “Paddy” the Irish worker. Americans back then found the Irish just as untamed as the Chinese, but accepted them over the Chinese because of their “whiteness”. Regarding marriage, any white woman who pursued a Chinese man was immediately on the same level as him and could not recover after such choice, even if she tried hard to be accepted by white American society again.

“The Third Sex” was an unusual chapter for me. I never really thought of Asians being something of “immoral desires”. I’ve heard Asians being referred to as exotic, but not as something as such as this. The whole chapter reminded me of a psychology lecture that I kept getting lost in. They reinforce Asians as a dark lust with the mentioning of the Chinese and Japanese women being coerced to work as prostitutes overseas and away from their homelands. In fictionalized writing, the Chinese woman was a counterpart to “John Cinaman” with the identity of “China Mary”, who was docile but also mostly passive. Two writings, “The Haunted Valley” and “Poor Ah Toy”, talk about the different roles Chinese played as a love interest regarding their genders. Although I’m not entirely sure, in “The Haunted Valley” the character, Ah Wee, is first thought of to be a male, but is later to be revealed to be a female. She is the interest between Gopher and Dunpher, which results in Dunpher being poisoned by Gopher after Dunpher accidentally killed her, and Gopher going insane after the whole predicament. Ah Wee’s role represented how a foreign love interest would destabilize a white American’s life. In “Poor Ah Toy”, the protagonists, Ah Toy, is hired to work for Fanny and her sister-in-law’s husband and children. He is able to work well, but becomes disheartend after the death of his mom. Feeling sympathy, Fanny cares for him and this develops into a mother-and-son kind of relationship. Ah Toy begins developing feelings for her, but is unable to for another man has walked into Fanny’s life. In an attempt to win her, Ah Toy tries kisses her hand, only to be met with shock and shame since he was not only a servant, but not white. He kills himself, but asks to be buried on Fanny’s property so that he will always be with her. The thing this chapter seems to tell me is that interracial relationships back then were suspected to always end in misery for one party or both. The stories did not really degrade the Chinese in them, but made it clear that any attempts to be with them will result in a not-so-happy ending.

Chapter 4′s “Inner Dikes and Barred Zones” refers to plenty of information I heard from last quarter. The one thing that immediately struck me as familiar was the actor Sessue Hayakawa, a Japanese actor who we learned about in Japanese American History in the Pacific Northwest. The role he plays in the movie The Cheat is one that tries to alter the white woman’s life, but is stopped by the white male lead. Aside from that, I finally found the origin of the term “Fu Manchu” in this reading. For a great while I’ve heard the term in some places I can’t remember, but I remembered the name because of how simple it sounded. Now that I know it represents the “oppressive and evil” Asian, it kind of reminds me of something else too.

Yeah, this happened.

I found it interesting how they depicted the Chinese in Broken Blossoms. Cheng Huan was seen as this caring and humble Chinese man who took it upon himself to take care of Lucy Barrows after she is abused by her father, Battling Barrows. The two form a bond, but it’s short lived when Battling takes back Lucy and proceeds to beat her death. Hoping to save her, Cheng tries to rescue her, but she is already dead. Cheng confronts Battling and overcomes him through the use of a handgun. Unable to live with the dead Lucy, Cheng kills himself afterwards in front of his altar. It’s probably one of the few films this book has told about that try to show a different message that not all Chinese are of the “Yellow Peril” that was soon to come forth.

Finally the last chapter “The Cold War Origins of the Model Myth Minority” tells about plenty of cases that were explored in last quarter’s reading, such as the case of Gordon Hirabayashi and his stand against the military curfews on Japanese Americans. There was also the mention on how to tell the difference between the Chinese and Japanese. While it did not include the visuals, the physical descriptions remind me of the the pictures we saw last quarter. The Cold War “scare” of the Red Menace was mentioned, along with the apparent rise of Communism. The fact that America could have rounded up all the Chinese Americans just because they originated from nation that’s now Communist kind of says that it takes awhile to learn from history, but then again they didn’t officially redress the interned Japanese Americans until much later. The reference to the “model minority” always seems to amaze me. Science and math were never my forte’, but English and reading I found pretty good. Anything above Pre-Calculus to me is a real nightmare.  I’d rather be good at drawing doodles than forming equations. That stuff just could never sit in my head for too long.

-Week 9 is “Anime Week Wong”-No presentations planned for this class
-Tom Ikeda will be visiting Evergreen campus on February 27, 2014
-Racialicious blogs
-ANA commercial, HIMYM, Katy Perry’s geisha outfit, and racial slurs in response to Richard Sherman
+Coded language used against Sherman
-Category “What’s the big deal?” on race issues
-Culture: “the integrated pattern of human behavior that includes thought, speech, action, and artifacts and depends upon man’s capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations; the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group” (Webster)
+Nerd, stoner, counter, car, Evergreen, athlete, historians, gendered, 60s, 90s, artifacts
+Culture does not have to be defined by people, but also by place, time, and objects
+Transmission of continuity, differed by “dead cultures”
-Definitions of culture
+Definitions are, by John Storey,”culture which is widely favoured or well liked by many people”, “culture which is left over after we decided what is high culture”, “mass culture”, “culture which originates from ‘the people’”, “culture rooted in exchange and negotiation between [dominant and subordinate groups]“, “[in a postmodern terrain], culture which no longer recognizes distinctions”
+For “the people” has to be defined, possibly the majority, or working class
+Culture is a battleground
+Postmodernism is a set of ideas usually found in the arts that define things are relevant (?)
-Post-Structuralism: “If you can’t make it, fake it and over explain it”
+”I wish it was like the good ol’ days,” PS “Which good ol’ days? The days people lived under the threat of nuclear annihilation?”
-Popular Culture: (Storey’s story)
-Antonio Gramsci (hegemony, Greek for “power of leadership)
+Hegemony are people in power who use manipulate the mechanisms to stay in power
-Stereotype: (Stereos = hard, fixed; typos = blow, impression)
-The term “Oriental” in Latin means “in the East”
-Eurocentrism: “Far East”; “wilderness” (American context)
-Eric Lott, most provocative minstrel writer
+Proposed white Americans hated black culture, but liked black culture; complex phenomenon

I never heard of Orientals referred to as rugs until after reading this passage. In the book Orientals, the first 50 pages go over through plenty of information concerning 1800s America. While the beginning half just went over stuff that didn’t quite catch my attention, the latter half turned out to be interesting. The one thing that kept getting mentioned plenty of times was minstrels, small bands that played tunes and songs about the world around them. The minstrels would sing songs of “John Chinaman” and how he is not to be trusted, such as how they sang about John Chinaman came here to steal all the gold or refuse to trade. These minstrels often incorporated stereotypical Chinese Engrish into their songs to describe how “inferior” the Chinese were.

Another thing that was interesting was the Siamese twins Chang and Eng. Normally the Americans would act negatively to Chinese immigrants, but when these people saw Chang and Eng, they were astonished. Chang and Eng became a traveling attraction and married the Yates sisters, ending up with 22 children altogether. Apparently a bizarre Chinese worker is more acceptable in society than a normal Chinese worker. I don’t think American men back then would not allow the Chinese men to interact with their women, but for Chang and Eng they made an exception.

Finally there was the white mens’ “revenge” on the Chinese laborers.  Aside from cutting their quenes, or payment, for labor, the whites pursued the activity of cutting off a Chinese man’s pigtail. To the Americans, it reminded them of the times they did scalping on Native American heads. Loss of a Chinese man’s pigtail indicated a loss of status of age and class. Americans did this to vent out frustrations and to display that the Chinese were no better than “savage Indians”.

-Music by MONKEY MAJIK “Aishiteru”
+Band members all from Canada (?), but only play in Japan
-$17 dollars for carryout food ($2 for tips)
+Do not order Chinese food in Olympia
-Posts don’t have to be summaries, but could focus on one thing in the topic
-Improve posts from now on
-Popular culture is always a battleground, where certain forces always meet for conflict
-Strangers From A Different Shore is a controversial book
+Author, Ronald Takaki, accused of plagiarism
-Asian immigrants pushed or pulled to America
-American empire presence in the Philippines
-Read up to page 50 on Orientals

When Imperial Japan formally surrendered to the United States, many accepted the news and returned home. For some though, the news sounded like a ploy to demoralize Japanese forces. Hiroo Onoda did not leave his position after U.S. forces landed near his position in Lubang on February 1945. For almost 30 years, Onoda remained in his position maintaining his role as an intelligence officer. Onoda had an “indomitable spirit” that pleas from his family and leaflets dropped to him urging him to surrender did not move him. It was not until a young traveler named Norio Suzuki, who was seeking Onoda, spoke to him that Onoda decided that it was finally enough. On March 1974, Onoda came out of hiding and formally surrendered after his superior returned to reverse his orders. When he returned to Japan, he was praised as a hero. He died at the age of 91 on January 17, 2014.

A soldier of such unbreakable will likely live down in history.