The major lack of Asian American winners. As in like, none.

Now, I would argue that film is a pretty big part of American pop culture. I’d also argue that celebrities and their lifestyles play a role too (pun intended). So, when “no acting Oscar has gone to a Latin@, Asian American, or Native Nation person in a decade” I’d call that a pretty MAJOR erasure from pop culture representation. It also plants the seed that there are no award-worthy actors/actresses who are Latin@, Asian American, and/or Native Nation.

And while this post does not name an Asian Americans I think it definitely contributes to a part of our modern day culture that needs to be addressed. But, as to not leave it on a completely terrible note:

Here is an article on “The Changing Color of the Oscars: ’12 Years A Slave’ Makes History“.
And here is an article on director Alfonso Cuaron as First Latino to win Best Director.

sym·pa·thy
noun \ˈsim-pə-thē\
: the feeling that you care about and are sorry about someone else’s trouble, grief, misfortune, etc. : a sympathetic feeling
-Merriam-Webster

There is  website called doesthedogdie.com which has compiled a list of movies with an animal in it and next to each title is an icon symbolizing the outcome of the dog; it lives, it’s injured but lives, or it dies. And isn’t it funny how if I search “does the dog die” on Google, the first five results are about accessing whether or not fictional dogs die in films or literature? But, if I search “does the person die” or “does the character die” I come up with sites on dealing with death or specific television spoilers that seemingly relate to current media events.

I immediately identified the theme of sympathy for the last 100 pages when it’s revealed that Benoit’s dog has been killed by wolves.  Despite feeling sympathetic for the human (and animal) characters before that, I hadn’t seen it as a theme until the little dog died.One my even argue that Ruth begins reading Nao’s diary out of curiosity but continues as she begins to feel sympathy and care for the voice behind the purple ink. But why is it that it’s not until the end that Ruth’s overwhelming care and sympathy for Nao, her father, Jiko, and Haruki # 1  begins to spiral into fantasy and maddening dreams while we as readers are swept into it with the mirroring of animals lost and dying?

In my previous posts, I note the theme of loss and the theme of nature which are both maintained through the entire plot. But as those themes combine and the reader watches as characters lose their connection to nature we also grow with discomfort. It isn’t until Jiko’s death that the sympathy manifests itself into progression and understanding. Jiko herself stands as an ultimate sympathetic character. She states that she hates only one person (because he is a war criminal) but prays for everyone. I imagine it would take a lot of sympathy to understand the pain of many people, especially those you did not agree with. But Jiko understands the reality of nature is not always pleasant and loss is inevitable, and therefore she can accept her sympathy and channel it as she pleases.

On page 393 Ruth touches the diary but it has gone cold, parallel to Nao touching Jiko after her life had fully faded. Nao’s narrative is over and Ruth has discovered the reasons why there is not trace of her diary-friend anywhere on the internet; the search is over. As Ruth can accept not knowing but just being she gives away her grief and so we can let go as well.

Nature is a complex Time Being. Animals, plants, soil, and water all hold their own memories and histories. All around our bodies are other breathing and living beings. At times they seem to exclude us from their world, such as the whales leaving Whaletown or the wolves taking a temporary leave. Sometimes they seem to communicate with us, such as Chibi, the temple cat, who comforts Nao with her company or the Jungle Crow who warns with caws while perched above. And sometimes, they coexist complexly, like the constant rhythm of a wave or the inevitable PNW rain storms. But like the rock with inscribed “Do not build beyond this point”, we have come to learn from nature’s memories and find symbolism through them.

“How had she become a woman who worried about wolves and cougars eating her husband?”  The influence of environment is blatant in this book. his phrase specifically reminded me how fearful people are of “the wild” but how complacent they have become within man-made structures. Compared to life in New York city, are the worries of cougars and wolves truly gone? Think of what you often hear an attractive older woman called: a cougar. And the phrase “wolf in sheep’s clothing” portrays something that appears to be innocent but is really filled with malicious intent. Is the path she created any different than it would be, surrounded by constant stream of people who all mirrored the ferocity of nature?

Similarly, the constant cycles of life and death are like the cycles of moon and tide. The sea and its magic is a constant theme throughout the book. The water is what brings Nao’s story to Ruth, ultimately giving it life. The sea is the divider between California and Japan as well as Canada and Japan; a boundary of communication and culture. The sea’s tide is in direct connection to the cycles of the moon; on page 291 Nao cries for the first time (in response to the fighting insects) and it is her own inner ocean and her own influenced cycles that move her.

The synchronicity and coincidences created by nature’s magic (the Jungle crow arriving the time of the diary and then leaving once it is finished) is also an apparent theme. The tension between Oliver and Ruth during Pesto’s absence is uncomfortable and heavy but once Ruth finds answers Oliver finds Pesto. The crow warns us for what is ahead and the wolves stand for the worst possible outcome.

When I first learned what foreshadowing was I looked for it everywhere. Anytime something peaked my interest in a story I immediately deemed it as foreshadowing and claimed I knew what was going to happen. Most of the time, I was wrong. (But to be fair, it was an eleven-year-old me up against an old, dead white guy hailed as Great. Funny… when considering my lifestyle interest of feminism, that sort of seems like foreshadowing in itself.)

The first time I was assigned to read Oedipus at Colonus, my teacher introduced it with a grin and said, “Keep your eyes open and really look for the themes.” I missed it. Later, when he assigned us The Crying of Lot 49 I frantically underlined any mention of sight or visibility with hopes to understand Oedipa’s connection to Oedipus. I think I concluded that she was looking for herself; searching for identity through possible global conspiracy.

When I began A Tale for the Time Being I fell into usual habits; looking for themes and trying to make connections. As Ruth looked for hints about what would happen I looked with her. I distrusted Nao’s writing and in doing so, connected it to post modern methods. (My final senior year paper in high school was on post modern themes: merry tricksters, intertextuality, nontraditional forms, distortion in time, fiction about fiction [meta-fiction], untrustworthy narrators, contains many POVs, kaleidoscopic narratives. I appropriately titled the paper M.I.N.D.F.U.C.K..) I understood Jiko’s lack of physical sight but clarity and wisdom though spirituality to be similar to Oedipus’ shift of lens. Nao’s writing as super power led me to believe that she was rewriting parts of her history so we would only know her as she hoped we would, hence the distrust. I connected so quickly to the post modern-themes that when I found something similar I connected the two. But in doing this, I began to miss things. My distrust of narrative seeped into my distrust of fantasy and I almost lost my own sight of the book.

Jiko shares spiritual vision similarities to post-gouge-Oedipus and Ruth may be like Oedipa, searching for answers through conspiracy, but they are no more than similarities. They are themselves their own contribution to the reader’s vision. Just as Nao finds importance during her summer with Jiko, her sight and might changing, I too find importance in allowing my sight to be changed.

BG: In Masala there is an issue that I’ve never seen dealt with before, the issue of black and brown – the conflicts and situation. That is very fresh, and goes with you saying you wanted to make cinema that puts black and brown people at the centre.

MN: Well, Mississippi Masala grew out of being an Indian student at Harvard. When I arrived I was accessible to both white and black communities – a third-world sister to the black community and Kosher to the others – yet there were always these invisible lines. I felt that there was an interesting hierarchy where brown was between black and white. Even before Salaam Bombay!, I had wanted to tell this tale. That, along with the irony of Indian racism and the separatist nature of the Indian community in America … I began to read about the weird phenomenon of every southern motel being owned by an Indian, and many of them were exiles from East Africa after Amin had thrown them out.

There is this very cerebral concept: what was it like to be an African, but of Indian skin who believed India to be a spiritual home without ever having been there and to be living in Mississippi? An what if this world collided with that of black American who believed Africa to be their spiritual home, but had also never been there? It must collide through love, because we must sell tickets!

But where are the other interviews? How does a movie that deals with identity, racial and shade issues, and an interracial relationship with both people being people of color not have more press? I can find YouTube appreciation posts of the music, interviews by both Choudhury and Washington for other movies, and even the full movie but no review videos. I want to be surprised, but I’m not. Even though this film pushes the boundary of how racial identities are perceived by oneself and others while redefining the the portrayal of interracial/ cross-cultural couples it remains hidden under a multitude of other results. After this realization my spectrum did grow; the lack of exposure for alternative representation of this film makes the film itself even more important and necessary.

If your whole body cannot survive the sea, maybe a piece of you can.

The reality of losing others by way you can’t control and realizing you have also lost yourself. Trying to gain clarity by writing everything down, hopefully so those thoughts will lose themselves from your brain and instead stick to pages, staining them with hurt of your father and the friendships you were told to expect. Turning what is real and intangible onto something that can be closed and put away and learning how to manipulate the letters which represent you. Finding a way to turn a situation which you did not ask for and which is out of your control into one that you can handle. Feeling angry towards those around who have abandoned you and left you alone and so deciding that you will abandon them, too.
“So right now, I’m a ronin” (page 41).

Loss of reality. Is reality what has physically happened or how it is remembered? Do you trust Ruth? Do you trust Nao? Do you trust their realities? A young girl feeling alone and writing stories the way she dreams of them happening (empowerment through knife to flesh and being the hero of her own story, because she has abandoned her once-self to recreate the way we visualize her) versus an older woman trying to make sense of her life as she experienced. Ruth as the present, Nao as the future, Jinko as the past. Or perhaps, Ruth as young girl, Ruth as herself, and Ruth as she hopes to be at some point in time. Or perhaps, Ruth as the past, I as the future, and the present: keep reading and see.

Is Nao now or are we tricking ourselves by repeating a word so many times we lose what is true?

The loss of time. Mid-life crisis. Trying to do it over or finding your “true” (alternative) purpose. Feeling neglected and so turning your attention to another being, another anxious voice outside your own bored mind, and putting new energy into their struggles. Spending hours on the internet, looking for some clues as to whether you believe her or not. A watch with a serial number as evidence. The name of a town where all the whales ran away as evidence. In sending her journal off, Nao runs away from the reality she has made permanent. Like the tagging of subway trains, we believe in Nao because she gave us evidence of her existence. But is that evidence Ruth’s outlet to run or Nao’s?

Something was here. Do not run away. This is a story of survival. Pay attention and turn the page.

This chapter concluded the relationship between hip hop and kung fu, but it also spoke of survival and existence. It tied the medium of hip hop (and all it included such as tagging) with mediums kung fu and Jeet Kune Do together by showing us how they are representations of a people forgotten. Later on page 181, Kato writes of how the use of Subway trains was meant to remind those who rode them (“corporate clones”) of the ghetto’s youth and existence.

The survival is also seen through the use of sampling, for both hip hop artists and Bruce Lee’s creation of Jeet Kune Do. By sampling all the best parts of their respective practice, they are recreating a part of their past to fit their present and deelop their future. I described this as an “immigrant’s art form”, because it mirrors the necessity for immigrants to accept parts of their new world without forgetting parts of their old world. For example, Bruce Lee is trained in kung fu and can never fully rid himself of this. For many, he is the face of kung fu. However, his use of sampling what works and creating a new art form allows him to the ability to neither deny nor be overwhelmed by kung fu. And for him, and others, it becomes the most fluid and workable representation of what they can do (which is later explained in more detail on page 192 in reference to the fight scene between Lee and Abdul-Jabbar).

And while both of these art forms have been comodified and put into the capatilist machine to be pumped out for mass consumption without any ingredient labels, they opportunities that have arose and the expression of “I exist!” have become even larger.

It is the relationship between being a person of color and a person with Asperger’s that also makes this film both heartbreaking and beautiful. The amount of negative attention so often given to men of color (and especially when this movie is set, post 9/11 for Muslim men of color)  and the bombardment of dangerous stereotypes was put in the spotlight with this film. Last academic year I spent three quarters taking American Sign Language. Part of the class was not only to learn the language, but to learn about the very distinct culture. Because of the discrimination that deaf/ hard-of-hearing people have faced their groups have become protective and mostly exclusive from hearing people.  While watching this movie I thought of the cases where deaf individuals have been stereotyped by those who perceive their signing as gang signs. Google prompted many results when trying to find examples, but I’ve only chosen one to share. Lashonn White, a women of color from Tacoma, called police to report an assault and upon greeting (which she used sign) was then tased and held in jail without an interpreter.

Like we saw in the movie, the insensitive, ignorant, and clearly indecent treatment of people of color with disabilities is not just unjust, but it is incredibly dangerous for them and can be fatal. For an Indian American Muslim man to be viewed immediately as a dangerous criminal (“terrorist”) is to then completely ignore any other part of his existence. To see him  as only an individual capable of harm is to then perceive all of his actions or words as one that will bring harm. Like the instance of White in Tacoma, it did not matter that she called to report an assault, but instead that she is a Black women and therefore her signs were perceived as “aggressive”.

***It’s important to note that in ASL, your own space is important. When signing with another person I would never touch them or grab them. Even when indicating that something is really, really big, I would use my tension in my face or repetitive motions to indicate that and I would not extend my arms fully.

Book-inspired scenes to watch for prior to film: page 123– yellow/white uniforms- Lee vs. Ohara (with special attention to the “spectator clapping” which shows us the reality of the cast dynamics) page 152- lack of acceptance for of yellow gi by Lee.
Why I’m watching for it: The context for “Lee’s” refusal with the uniform and to see the reactions during the fight. Also, to better understand Ohara as symbol (“personifies”) of imperialism (page 133).
Post film thoughts on the scene (The review): In this scene, there is a guard of Han’s that comes into “Lee’s” room and uses definitive words when referring to the (yellow) uniform: “you must attend the morning ritual in uniform.” With must, there is an “or else” attached to the end of it, even if it’s not spoken. With the yellow gi, “Lee” is refusing to be identified in a way that he has not chosen for himself. The book also mentions this theme among Lee’s real life actions in his resistance while making films and how he did not accept the traditional “Orientalist” themes. Likewise, the book explains how the reactions of those who were watching and clapping during the “Lee”/Ohara fight were real. Because of the tensions and discrimination that they [reactors] faced, the ways Lee had stood up for them, and especially the original scene with the glass bottle where Robert Wall actually cut Lee’s hand the fight scene between the two men symbolized more than just a dramatic fight scene in the movie.

Book-inspired scenes to watch for prior to film: page 126– Sin-Lu (Angela Mao Ying) and her “battle against patriarchy”
Why I’m watching for it: From what we’ve read, kung fu movies were not made with female roles as the main protagonist, so to have a woman in the film (which was made in the 1970s) fighting for herself and standing for so much– of course I was excited to see this scene.
Post film thoughts on the scene (The review): My initial reaction after seeing this was “seppuku? But the character is  Chinese…?”. I thought this was important because of the constant use of “Asian” as an all-inclusive culture and to have a Chinese character imitate an exclusive Japanese ritual did not seem to combat that idea. However, this is not a traditional seppuku and the important details on how it is done are missing. But the choice to have her stab herself in the belly instead of hypothetically slash her neck seems to be symbolic of dying honorably by her own hands. Sin-Lu’s screen time was completely spent on her fighting off the advances of the men and also running from them. While she was defending herself completely and competently, she came to a point where she was surrounded and immensely vulnerable. The only option for her that was still her own was to kill herself. So while I have mixed feelings about the details in the way she killed herself, I do think that the scene made a powerful statement.

Other notes!!
Page 146 mentions some writers who used “Oriental” themes in their stories, one of which being Arthur Conan Doyle of the Sherlock Holmes series. While I do not watch the show myself, I immediately thought of the modern television show Elementary where Lucy Liu plays Joan Watson.

My last note is very brief; merely pointing out the use of opium in Enter the Dragon and the way that stereotype continued into the 1970s.

In other news, there was a webpost on “7 Real AAPI Men to Watch”, done by asianfortunenews.com. From the beginning of the post,

Asian American men have traditionally been emasculated and stereotyped in mainstream media. As Justin Chan writes in his PolicyMic article: ‘Despite iconic masculine Asian role models likeBruce Lee, Asian men are often portrayed as scrawny males who spend more time studying than lifting weights in the gym, appearing in popular culture as soft-spoken, reserved types who rarely take part in activities that people qualify as “masculine” like professional football or construction work, as characters playedfor laughs.’

The name-dropping of Lee seemed like it was meant to be and because the list was posted on valentine’s day it includes relationship advice! That can be found here.

And then, bringing it finally back to tumblr, I found notyourmodelminority.tumblr.com. It’s a collection of blog posts that introduce you to Asian Americans who are politicians, activists, and artists but unfortunately seems to have been abandoned three years ago. Despite this, the blog posts still work and most of them are new to me! And then to finish off this post I want to link y’all to a post I found about a month ago that I have wanted to share but keeps slipping my mind. It seems as though I am unable to link to the original poster, but was able to find it reblogged on someone else’s here. This post also links to a vimeo video entitiled yellow apparel: when the coolie becomes cool [sic].