Jimi Hendrix!!! One of my all time favorite musicians ever! On friday when we did the “Who, What, When, Where, Why” activity, it really help me to organize my thought process more and be able to actually talk about a specific thing a read about and make connections.

On page 84 of Kato, he discusses how Jimi recorded his own version of the “The Star Spangled Banner”. It was in reference to the Vietnam War but also “the daily war which was being fought on the streets of the USA.”  This was all connected to Woodstock and out of that was creation of  a countercultural utopia within Woodstock.

Here is the performance in Woodstock of 1969!!

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And for your viewing pleasure..here is some more AWSHUM music from the one and only..

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For my “pop”position, I chose to talk more about how Martial arts was a very integral part to Asiatic culture. It starts in China and spreads to Japan. The martial arts spreads in a way that is “iconic” to the second group.

Globalization was a huge part of this activity.

Globalization:“Globalization’ is a contemporary term used in academic and non-academic contexts to describe a late-twentieth-century condition of economic, social, and political interdependence across cultures, societies, nations, and regions precipitated by an unprecedented expansion of capitalism on a global scale.” (Lisa Lowe, in Keywords for American Cultural Studies, ed. Bruce Burgett and Glen Handler, New York: New York University Press, 207, p. 120) 

Kato discussed that Kung Fu originated in China and was the root for all other forms of martial arts, specifically in Japan’s Karate, martial arts originates in China, goes to Japan and becomes its own art form. Later Karate becomes very popular in America. The globalization component of martial arts, living in America Bruce Lee creates his own Jeet Kune Do “the way of the intersecting fist”. 

For the first film Shaolin Ulysses:Kung Fu Monks in America, it focused on Chinese monks that came from a real Shaolin Temple in China and them came to the states to spread the teachings of martial arts. The word shaolin translates to “little forrest” and that the style of Kung Fu is based off of 5 animals and their characteristics. Animals and earths elements, by the Chinese, are believed to be what embodies kung fu.

Tiger- becomes strong, quick, and direct: it strengthens bone marrow and build muscle.

Leopard-speed, energy, and has an angular attack.

Crane-becomes stable and trains with concentration, accuracy, and is evasive.

Snake-becomes very fast, sensitive and aware; it prolongs life and builds the chi body.

Dragon-becomes powerful, light, quick; and trains the spirit of the mind.

When you learn Kung Fu, you need to learn Buddhism, and for that you need to seek a master. Kung Fu is a fusion of the body and mind, they need to be clear, peaceful, and centered.

During the cultural revolution of china, a lot of Chinese people were feeling oppressed because their leader Mao was trying to go back to the “traditional ways”. Shortly after the cultural revolution a Jet Li film had come out and that’s when martial arts gradually became popular.

Martial arts is a very male dominated activity/study. Women can participate however they are not allowed to wear the Monks robes. To even join in the Shaolin Temple, you have to be endorsed by 3 masters if you want to do kung fu.

For the second film “The Black Kung Fu Experience” as the title described, it was about  african americans during the Kung Fu movement.  Back in the 1960′s, civil rights for african americans pride became a huge movement in the south. However, there was still an influx of racism from whites towards the blacks.

In this documentary, their stories illustrate how kung fu began and remain as a unique part of the black experience.  In particular, kung fu’s themes of the underdog triumphing against the odds resonated in black communities across the United States.

My absolute favorite chapter was…Chapter 15 Cibo Matto’s Stereotype A….

There have been a few times where I felt I really connected with the reading and that was when we have some kind of visual or audio to go off of that helps the discussion. I have to admit that, during the whole time we watched the Cibo Matto music video’s, I have never felt more confused in my life. I tried to read the lyrics to get more out of what they were singing about, but still…confused. So, reading through the chapter definitely shed some light on Cibo Matto. When we heard “know your chicken” I seriously thought it was a reference to a vagina, like a woman’s reference to her vagina. Quote “i know my chicken, you got to know your chicken”. But really, like Dave say’s Cibo Matto means “food crazy” in italian. That was my first impression. I suppose I should keep my mind out of the gutter…just saying haha.

Anyways…on page 295 under the section Cutesy J Pop, with an Edge, I personally would classify them as Kawaii [cute]…at first! However, when we say the music video…I forget the name, but they were singing with a live band and it turned into a rap..That was obviously no more Kawaii [cute]. Let me rephrase that; they were not cute anymore.

In connection with todays film, The Wedding Banquet, I decided to  talk about chapter 16 of Dave.

In the film, Wai Tung’s character is a gay Chinese male who has been in a long time relationship with his partner Simon, who is Caucasian. They have been with each other for five years. Keeping his sexual identity a secret from his mother and father, Wai’s parents are under the impression that he lives a straight male lifestyle. Wai’s mother sends him match-maker forms to find him “the impossible” Chinese girl. In the mean time, Wai is happy with Simon, but obviously feels a lot of pressure from his mother and father to get married and have children and to fulfill his cultural tradition.  Simon is a very busy business man and is also a land lord. Wei Wei…who is one of his tenants, is a Chinese girl who is desperate to get her green card [citizenship]. Simon comes up with an idea to have Wai and Wei Wei get married so that they both benefit from the marriage. Wei Wei gets her green card and Wai gets married to relieve they pressure from his parents. Of course pretending to be married doesn’t last long and Simon and Wai’s relationship is at a stand still. Wai’s father and mother eventually figures out what happened and accepted the fact that their son is gay and has a baby on the way with his fake marriage with Wei Wei.

In relation with this, in Dave in chapter 16 talks about Apu is wanting to obtain an illegal I.D. card because Springfield wanted to deport illegal immigrants. Dave discusses how all immigrants feel like Apu, or have been through what he is currently going through; Apu feels “culturally pressured to assimilate, to act and speak and buy or sell “American” without being able to express their own native origins in order to not stand out.”(pg.313) Wai Tung is feeling culturally pressured to marry a Chinese woman and have children. But on the other hand he feels immense pressure from his partner and himself to embrace his sexuality and his assimilated lifestyle in America. Of course Wai is going through a cultural self identity crisis and an assimilated American who is gay and Chinese.

pg. 206 Dave talks about Japanese American Women having to compete with white standards…UGH I just don’t even like that whole topic of “white or caucasian” beauty. Who even said what was what and did people go with that?  Dave also talks about assimilation and beauty [207]…They are either too Japanese or not enough. So they create pageants to build confidence and self esteem, however it’s seen as the Japanese distancing themselves further from “American or white culture” so they are not assimilating..and if they were, white society still saw them as an other.On pg. 211 There was an “outcry” from the Japanese community even though the pageants were considered “outdated and sexist”..I ask myself what are the 2 arguments? I’m sure that the pageant queens had a lot of guts putting themselves out there like that because, it could go or bad. On one hand they are representing their ethnicity and culture, but on the other hand they could be looked at as not being American enough. Just like Dave says it “Ironically, community concerns have come full circle from the 1930′s. At that time the pageants were a strategy for assimilation, whereas in the 1990′s Japanese Americans were asking whether assimilation had gone too far and how they could ensure cultural preservation.” (216)