In class we talked about loss, but when I got to thinking about it something else came to mind. While reading there was a mention of Ruth numbering Nao’s pages in the natural break, trying to reclaim her lost time, trying to closer emulate the time that she spent writing. So with this I began to think: What is lost reading the book in a linear fashion? What would be lost or gained if you read number to number? Read Ruth’s 1, read Nao’s 1, and so on.

What would be lost jumping back and forth between the past and the present. It feels like there’s a reason for the numbers, even though they’re for breaks, there feels like they could correspond to each other, and it would be nice to see if they do actually line up in any way, or if they’re just to create ‘natural’ breaks that show up in the story.

Writing on the wall, a creative way of resisting. A man writes Chinese on public walls as a way to hold on to his culture. Spray paint adorns walls.

Jeet Kun Do and Hip Hop were both inspired and eventually inspired different cultures and arts. They were also inspired by life experiences, be it resisting colonialism or voicing issues with the police. Both were used to to push back against mainstream culture, to get their voices heard. Through film and songs, the world listened and watched.

Both continue to inspire film and music, as well as the individual cultures.

Earlier chapters of Kato talked about kung fu as a ‘resistance art,’ or an art that was used to resist colonialism and reclaim their culture. One of the antidotes mentioned in this chapter is of a very open resistance during the filming of Enter the Dragon on page 117. “I yelled, “Goddamn Chinese!” I Didn’t know what happened next, but I was told later.” The Chinese script writer, who understood Chinese, was right there, and had to be stopped from angrily pushing the man off the roof of the building that they were filming from. This shows some of the frustration the Chinese crew faced in the face of having white members of the crew, many of which were extremely racist even while filming a movie with a lot of Chinese cultural context.

As for the movie, I think that the largest form of resistance that comes to mind is when there’s a white man who is harassing the Chinese boat on the way to Han’s tournament. He asks for a fight with Lee, and Lee tells him to get into a boat so that they can fight on a more open terrain – a neighboring island. Instead of following, he lets the man out and hands the rope that’s towing him behind the boat to the Chinese people he was tormenting before in a more literal form of resistance.

It’s also stated in the book that when Lee kicks Ohara, the force of it is real, and the spectators in white and yellow shirts break their role, rejoicing in the retribution that Lee gave to Wall after he failed to drop the glass bottles, hurting Bruce Lee in the process. This break in character for the entire crowd shows the inspiration that the art of resistance can cause, even if it means breaking character on a film set.

I found it interesting that this movie incorporated racial and religious differences, as well as mental illness. While I don’t know for sure if it was portrayed correctly, it added a certain touch to the movie that was unexpected. While the idea of overcoming obstacles was a theme throughout, the obstacles felt larger and more difficult from the point of view from a character with autism. But then the fact that he had autism is also what made the movie work the way it did.

Khan was a character that could easily have been seen as trivial because of the way that he interacted with other people. Yet it was his setbacks that made him such a loveable character. He was socially awkward, but he also loved people no matter their race or religion. He saw people for who they really were, instead of the caricature that society might place on them.

All in all I enjoyed the movie.

I found the context of taking one medium and making it your own in Thursday’s lessons fascinating. In the chapter it’s mentioned that Hollywood was oppressive during World War II, the “Jimi Hendriz Experience, and their use of the antiestabilishment. Film went from a format that was used to try and push corporate agenda to a “thematic pattern of endorsement of the rebelliousness of the youth culture within a contained framework.” So while it was contained, it was also allowed to show counterculture. Bruce Lee also found his way into the film industry, even though it was mostly because consumers were so enthralled by martial arts. He wasn’t given a lot of options because he didn’t want to portray a stereotype, but his act gave pieces of his culture to consumers, and even if they saw it as mere entertainment, it was a way to share what he had to offer with America.

Something else that was interesting to me was the Black Kungfu Experience, and how these men used a culture that wasn’t theirs in order to bring peace to their life, and to excel in something where they previously weren’t allowed to. They adopted a lifestyle and an art in order to feel at peace in a place where they were discriminated against and even abused because of their color. They were able to excel in this art from a different shore to the point where they forced others to respect them, even winning competitions and becoming teachers.

Sochi Olympics, of course! There are more than I was aware of, and I think it’s really interesting. I knew about J.R. Celski since he’s from Washington, but there are others that definitely deserve mention!

Julie Chu – Women’s ice hockey

Madison Chock – Ice skating

Maia and Alex Shibutani – Ice skating

Felicia Zhang – Ice Skating

Jen Yung Lee – Sled Hockey (Paralympics)

Here’s an article that talks about each of them. I think it’s interesting how many figure skaters there are, though I don’t remember seeing if it mentioned why there were so many, if there’s even a reason.

http://www.asianfortunenews.com/2014/02/asian-american-athletes-at-winter-olympics-2014-in-sochi/

Gongfu emerged from colonized China as an art of reclamation, an art used to preserve their culture in the face of an invading culture. The art was used in order to keep their culture thriving even as an outside force tied to pry it away from the people. “…it was consistent with Japan’s national policy of De-Asianization and Europeanization.”

The book brings into account the fact that Bruce Lee refused to play Asian stereotypes in movies, even if it restricted his Hollywood career. By refusing to de-Asianize and Europeanize himself, he became a star back in China, where his movies upheld the culture that he wanted to represent.

I think this also leads into The Motel, a movie with Asian characters that doesn’t necessarily focus on their ‘Asian-ness.” While it is known that they are Asian, and they even talk about their specific heritage, there isn’t as much of a focus on it as their is in movies that focus on stereotypes. While being Asian is part of the story, the story more focuses on the a boy whose life is built on ‘acceptances.’ He accepts that the girl he likes may not like him back, he accepts that all the tenants of his family’s motel are temporary, and he accepts that his family may not understand his writing. The movie pays more attention to him tearing down this barrier of acceptances, even if it doesn’t necessarily mean a happy ending.

The racism against China in Bioshock Infinite is more subtle than that against other racial minority groups, but even within the first 20 minutes it shows up in what is called a kinetiscope. Kinetiscopes are short slides that are used to immerse the player into the world of Columbia through small historical tidbits and product commercials.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The three relevant kinetiscopes that I’ve run into so far start at 1:28 and end at 2:25, the three referring to the history of their succession from the Union.

In the first section of the game there are also hints towards an Underground Railroad sort of operation for the African American ‘workers’ who were forcibly taken to Columbia in order to work as janitors and other lowly labor jobs. While there aren’t any Asian Americans who are seen in these roles, this is one of the reasons that the rebel group Vox Populi exists in the game. Vox Populi is, again, a rebellion group of minorities, both race (those referred to are: Native Americans and those of Asian and Asian descent and the Irish) and class. But at this point in the game the Vox Populi are only rumored to exist, and their presence isn’t apparent until later.

What really got me about the first 30-60 minutes was the statue outside the Fraternal Order of the Raven, a John Wilkes Booth worshiping cult. The only words that adorn the plaque beneath the statue is “Comstock Fights The Serpent of Nations.” The statue depicts Comstock fighting a three headed monster, one of the heads depicting a stereotypical Chinese caricature.

The statue reminds me of the propaganda mentioned in Orientals against Chinese in California and beyond. This statue is a representation of the idea that it’s alright to discriminate against Chinese, as the great ‘Profit’ slays the ‘beast’ that is the Chinese and other races. This demonization of China continues later in the game.

“…not much work has been done to carefully examine what it means for white American youth to consume these symbols of ‘otherness.’”

What are the consequences of thinking about, or representing, a culture in one set way? Goa trance is a teenage culture that uses Hindu gods and symbols in their dance clubs, a representation that Hindu and Buddhist people didn’t want to be associated with. Even some of the ‘kids’ at the rave were trying to pull away from their association as ravers and more towards the title ‘dance kids’, in an attempt to pull away from the negative connotations of raves and drug usage.

But while the culture of trance alienates those that it finds as inspiration, music itself has a way of bringing cultures together. “…I’ve always lived in the West, …but for me, the music is a worldwide thing and that’s why it’s so important to me because I feel that it’s a force that can connect us all, regardless of our origins, our gender, our physical characteristics” (pg. 22), “Music at this time had more meaning than just entertainment; it also served the important role of connecting refugees and exiles to the homeland they thought they had lost.” (pg. 35)

not done yet