The connections I noticed from the Dave’ reading of chapters 1,2,5,15 is the notion that music is transnational. It can be used as a way to express oneself in a unique fashion and throw away pre-conceived notions of a culture and the stereotypes with which goes along with being associated with a cultural group. It can also be used as a tool to market stereotypes and create pre-conceived notions of cultural groups. Furthermore I noticed how it is a form of expression for artist who want to set themselves apart, or to do the opposite to link themselves to a place or culture which they are linked too.

For example we see in the rave culture the popularity of “Goa Trance” which is associated with India and South Asia while its origins really have nothing to do with South Asian culture. Furthermore these “Party goers” often dress up in costumes that are “Oriental” in representation, or are also subjected to advertisements for these parties that contain Hindu or Buhdist depictions. The marketing display and marketing of the exotic and the use of labeling is depicted in the essay regarding Cibo Matto a Japanese hip hop/ alternative girl band who can be seen as debunking the notion of Japanese female pop bands as exotic novelty. What is great about Cibo Matto is how they are shaking up these “racist and sexist lables” attatched to Asian American woman. From both of these chapters we see the images and labels created in regards to Asian Americans in the world of music, and also how artist like Cibo Matto can express themselves in a different light to shed the images that coincide with their race and their sex.

Music can also be a tool of connecting people to others or to a certain place. We see this in rave culture as this young group of individuals are using rave culture as a way to connect with others and has formed an international group who identify with this newly formed culture. Also this can be seen in the chapter on transnational Vietnamese music, which can provide feelings of nostalgia for those who fled Vietnam following the end of the Vietnam War. It connects them back to the homes they left behind and reminds them of elements of their country that they miss.

Overall I noticed how music can be seen as a way of creating stereotypes but also as a tool to undue those same stereotypes, as well as being an outlet for expression and connectedness with others.

From watching the documentary entitled “Slaying the Dragon” and the assigned readings of Lee I noticed some connection between the information conveyed in the film and the book. One of these connections can be seen in the way in which these racial stereotypes and images of Asian Americans are spread throughout the population. In Lee’s book we see that these images and stereotypes of the Chinese immigrants in the 19th century were spread through songs, and minstrel shows. However in a more high tech fashion shown in the film Slaying the Dragon we see the spread of Asian American’s and Asian American Women stereotypes being distributed through films and media.

Some of the stereotypes that are displayed in Lee’s book and in the film is this idea of Asian American woman’s exotic nature making them out to be these sexual beings. This can be seen in the movie characters Linda Low in the film “Flower Drum Song” and Hana Ogi in the film “Sayonara.” As Lee states in reference to these characters, “… Hana Ogi, Linda Low are the personification of sexual fantasy…”(176) This idea of Asian females being exotic sexual beings, are displayed throughout films as well as in Lee’s book, and without a doubt has left an impression of Asian American females on American society.

We also see this idea in films of Asian women becoming these, “model wifes” who wait hand and foot on their husbands every need. This idea of the Asian female being the perfect figure to assimilate into American culture and to be domesticated and, ” transformed from exotics into American girls suitable for marriage and motherhood.”(Lee 179) is displayed in the films depicted in the documentary ”Slaying the Dragon” where the Asain women with her exotic sexuality falls for the white male Hero figure. In one interview in the documentary a white man stated as a child, after watching the film “Sayonara” he wanted an Asian wife because of her ability to comply with her husbands every need. Further proving the fact that the film industry has through its history created this image of the Asian female as a docile wife who in some sick way lives to serve her husband.

What is appalling to me about all of this is the way in which the Asian female is being used in the films as an exotic sex symbol with which the new modern American white male should mate with and transform into this new American housewife. It is almost as if they are just a toy or a puppet in a bigger game in which the film industry is the tool to which this message is conveyed to the people. For me I wish love was depicted as love regardless of race. People are people, with their own thoughts feeling beliefs, and sexuality. However by depicting the Asian female in this light, which was done in great extent in the 1950′s and 60′s it is yet again creating another stereotype which creates an image of Asian American women which may be untrue and de-grading, for future generations in America.

While reading the chapters from “East Main Street” for Fridays seminar I was putting my best efforts forward in order to find connections between the chapters in which I chose to read. The chapters I chose looked at the Iconography of Tiger Woods, The Japanese Beauty pageants, and finally the subject of Keanu Reeves, the show Smallville, and Racial Outing. From these chapters I noticed several themes in which linked one chapter to another.

One of the connections I noticed was the use of both Tiger Woods, and the Japanese Beauty Queens as a link between those who are of color and “White America.” Furthermore I couldn’t help but notice the way both were used as a form of bringing in revenue for business. The Japanese beauty Queens were used to show that the Japanese had assimilated into American culture and were “All American girls,” while Tiger Woods was depicted as “America’s son.” However I noticed that their were alternate motives towards creating this image. In the beauty pageant’s case Japanese businesses were attempting to create business by proving their daughters and their race have assimilated into American society and from this image would create more business from White Americans. Nike too, used Tiger Woods, as a poster child to show off his success in golf which has predominantly been a sport for the upper class members of white society. I found it interesting how business and money have aided in creating an image for both Tiger Woods and the Japanese community. I also wish to know if any of my fellow classmates noticed this connection and would like to hear their thoughts on the matter?

There was another connection that I noticed but am not sure if it is even plausible. However for the sake of getting my readers brains churning I feel it is important to mention this observation I have made between the chapter pertaining to Tiger Woods and the chapter discussing Keanu Reeves. It is this idea that we only see what is easily visible to us through appearance. Tiger Woods stated that he is “Cablinasian” which pertains to his being part Caucasian, Black, Indian, and Asian. However from “East Main Street” we see that though his mother is Thai the commercialization of Tiger Woods leans towards the relationship he has with his African American Father(234). If it wasn’t for the knowledge we have read on Tiger Woods that clarifies he is of Asian and African American descent would we see him as anything other then an African American male? Along with this Keanu Reeves is a mixed race celebrity, however his appearance is that of a white male. He is able to therefore cross between being a person with a mixed racial background, and of the prototypical white leading man in Hollywood. What I am getting at from all this rambling is that color or appearance always seems to play a role in some way. No matter how much we accept other peoples race and culture in our society, race itself will never stop being an issue in our society until these physical appearances become unnoticed. Until when we as a nation look at Tiger Woods or Keanu Reeves and only see a person, and not the color of their skin. When only the character of a person is noticed and marketed to the public and not their racial affiliation.

From both the films we watched today including ¨Saving Face” and ¨The Slanted Screen: Asian Men in Film and Television” along with the readings from Robert Lee’s book ¨The Orientals” there are several connections between the three that can be made. Furthermore all of them can be considered to meet in this fictiscous street known as Crisis street we discussed in Lecture.

One connection I saw between the film ¨Saving Face” and the book ¨Orientals¨ is the connection with this idea of Asian American being the Model Minority. In the film the main character Wil is a lesbian Chinese American who has gone through life hiding her sexuality. She appitimizes this theory of the model minority by being a young surgeon with a bright future, as well as being a top student while in school. Her mother who was widowed also has played the role of the model minority as described in Lee’s book by displaying, “Obedience, self control, individualism, and loyalty to the needs of the nuclear family…” However during the film the mother becomes pregnant out of wedlock and eventually agrees to marry a man named Cho to appease her fathers wishes and to ¨save face” as he has shunned her for causeing shame to his name. While this is occurring Wl is also falling in love with a fellow Chinese American girl named Vivian. At the point of Crisis where Vivian is leaving for Paris to take a job as a ballet dancer and her mother is preparing to get married these deep inner secrets come out. For Wil she has to make the decision to keep her sexuality a secret and lose the one she loves, which is also true with her mother who has to make the decision to appease her father and marry without love, or to expose the fact that she loves another. Faced with this crisis they disrupt this concept of retaining the stutus quoand decide to express their true feelings, and reveal their true identity. This for me shows that though their are characteristics of both the mother and Wil that adhere to this idea of model minority, they are individuals and are able to move forward and show their true identities that reliquishes some of these aspects that ties them to the model minority concept described in Lee’s book. The main one which is described by Lee is the idea of not going against the Nuclear family.

Along with this model minority idea, we see in ¨The Slanted Screen” the Asian Americans in Hollywood are wanting to relinquish and earn equality in the roles they depict on the television screen. Throughout history they are forced to play these roles where they are either seen as a ¨wimpy businessman” or a “villain” which can be seen in the evil character of Fu Manchu. Furthermore throughout the history of Hollywood they have notoriously been thwarted the chance of playing the role of the romantic Hero with a person of a different race. A good example of this is in the film Romeo must die where Jet Li is the Hero and Aaliyah is an African American Juliet. After a special viewing of a scene where the two kiss at the end of the movie to an urban audience the audience found this romantic connection as unfavorable and therefore the scene was changed to include only a hug. This idea of not ruffling this almost taboo subject of an Asian Hero with a female which is of a different race can also be linked to the characters in Saving Face. Both the main characters described previously in saving face have this choice to relinquish this idea of being the perfect image of the model minority. However unlike many Hollywood movies in the past, in Saving Face we finally see Asian Americans going against what is thought to be acceptable and showing them in a light that is not just stereotypical of their race but as actual people where their feelings of love and passion do not give way to the image of how they should act in a time of crisis.

1. Impact of Tiger Woods recent scandal on the idea of being Cablinasian.

• Does it cause people to revert back to prior stereotypes of African American males?

2. The business connection seen between the Japanese beauty pageants and Tiger Wood American Icon status.

3. Opinions on whether or not the Japanese beauty pageants, “erode progress for womens equality” (212)

4. Is “race a myth” (276)

Throughout the first 105 pages of Robert Lee’s book entitled “Orientals” I have made several connections, the first pertaining to the film Gran Torino we watched last Tuesday in class. The main character Walt who was a tough and gruff Korean war veteran with a hard exterior, was constantly displaying his racial prejudices through his use of derogatory words. Such words directed towards his Hmong neighbors as “Gook” and “Zipperhead” were commonly used in his vocabulary when discussing the Asian community. It can be assumed through his actions that he bought into the stereotypes associated to the Asian-American community, and thus resented their community. However the biggest connection was his dislike for them due to their presence in his once white community. When the immigrants from Hmong replaced his white neighbors and caused “Pollution” to occur in his prototypical “All American” neighborhood the connection can be made between Lee’s comments on the “Oriental,” being a “Pollutant to American society. As Lee states in his introduction under the section “The Six Faces of the Oriental,” “…the pollutant, the coolie, the deviant, the yellow peril, the model minority, and the gook- portray the Oriental as an alien body and a threat to the American national family (Lee,8).” This idea as the Asian community being a pollutant to American society is just like Walt’s situation early on in the film “Gran Torino” as he blames the Hmong community for polluting his neighborhood.

I have also noticed that through American history people dislike those that are different in appearance, but also those who bring competition. As expressed throughout the reading of Lee, you see that white workers, in particular the Irish, have this extreme hostility towards the Chinese because they are willing in many circumstances to work for cheaper wages. This competition is a constant cause for discrimination and hate between different races. It was even apparent in last quarters reading in regards to the call for Japanese Americans to be interned following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The Japanese community was becoming prosperous, and therefore financially impacting the white community therefore causing resentment. However it is odd that people direct their hostilities and hate against the race or ethnic group of which they are economically competing against, and not towards those in positions of power who are using their powers too divide the laborers and pitting them against each other for their own benefits. This thought crept to mind especially after hearing the hate the Irish workers felt towards the Chinese community and the use of the Chinese as strike breakers which can be seen in the case Calvin Sampson’s soling factory when Irish and French Canadians went on strike(Lee, 66). Furthermore both groups have been noted throughout the reading in Lee to have gone on strike in many instances. But instead of resenting each other why did they never band together? Would that have made a difference and enabled both groups to earn better wages and treatment?We will never know for sure, but it is interesting to think about, and I ask any of my reader’s to comment on this idea and give me their own thoughts and impressions on these questions.

The film “Gran Torino” starring Clint Eastwood takes place in a Detroit neighborhood where Clint Eastwood plays a retired Ford factory worker named Walt. The Walt has continued to remain in this neighborhood as his white neighbors have moved away and have been replaced by an Asian American population, more specifically tje Hmong people who originate from the Hills of Thailand, China, and Laos.

Moving on from the setting of the film I am attracted to the change seen in Walt’s character as the movie progresses. Throughout the film he uses a plethora of dirogatory terms directed towards the Asian population surrounding him such as “zipperhead,” “gook,” and “swamp rats.” It is undeniable that Walt who is a veteran of the Korean War was a man with extreme racial prejudices. Walt lived in a time when anti-Asian sentiment was highly present. Such events as World War II and the hate expressed by the American population towards the Japanese, his own experiences in the Korean War, the war in Vietnam, and his once beautiful neighborhood beginning to be populated by the Hmong people all seem to add up to his racial feelings towards the Asian American population.

However what strikes me is these pre-formulated thoughts produced by a lifetime of experiencing Anti-Asian sentiment doesn’t change the fact that Walt is a helper and a fixer. He fixes things as a says in the film when a girl asks him what he does. So when his Hmong neighbors finnaly break down Walt’s rough exterior, you start to see him in a different light. He begins to get along with these “strangers from a different shore,” and finds, “He has more in common” with these people then his own children. So when his young Hmong neighbors Thao and his sister Sue who Walt has become fond of in his own gruff way, are threatened and tormented both physically and psychologically you see Walt stand up for them and take the role as the fixer. He fights for them throughout the movie and eventually gives his life to ensure their torment will not continue in the future.

This is important because it shows that people can change, their pre-concieved notions can be changed, and if these ideas are broken their true character can be shown. Such is the case in Walt. By shedding his ignorance towards other racial groups Walt’s personality as the fixer is displayed to the viewer.