Author Archives: Gina

East Main Street Chapters 4, 11 & 14

Chapter 4

“Lakshmi’s image on the show is deliberately sexualized. Typically, she wears revealing outfits — leather pants, short T-shirts exposing her midriff, tight sleeveless dresses, low-cut blouses — not typically associated with the “sensible clothing” style of most Food Network stars.”

“Been read as signs that Asian Americans have “made” it.” (89)

The quote is talking about Padma Lakshmi, how she is seen as a sex icon for the Food Network. Has she really made it on the Food network for being great at what she does or filling the stereotypes for being the exotic type and sex symbol?

I think that it is sad that Padma Lakshmi has to be seen as this exotic sex symbol type. I am sure that she is great at what she does, but i that we should fight to show people that we aren’t what the stereotypes say we are. You don’t see Martha Stewart wearing low cut shirts, but maybe her image for Food Network is the typical housewife (but then again I think that crashed and burned when she went to jail). I think Padma Lakshmi did make it on the Food Network for being good at what she does but I don’t think the sex symbol and exotic look is what they wanted more.

Chapter 14

“Seeing race is a matter of understanding which visual cues matter and which ones we can ignore.” pg. 277

Many people say it is neccessary to see color. Do you think its necessary to see race/color? Will someones physical race effect how they are approach by others?

I think we do need to see race. We need to understand and learn about each race. I think that we can’t let race affect us from learning about each other. Its true that we need to see “which visual cues matter and which ones we can ignore” we can’t let one loud comment out of an African American man lead us to thinking he is a thug. So many times people let physical race get in our way of knowing who others are. People are turned away when they see a Middle Eastern person because they think it might be a terrorist. Or back in 1941 when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor every Japanese American was looked upon as a suspect. I think that race gets in our way to many times, and why? Whats the point?

Orientals

Money. As Americans we know that you have to have money in your pocket to survive. We grow up learning the money is everything. “Its the root of all evil.” In this book we see how money has always been an issue. California, home of the Gold had been a problem because whites wanted more gold and wanted to keep everyone non-white away. Although we have learned that Native Americans had the land first it was the whites that came over to control. In the mid 1800′s white government came up with laws to make sure that people understood who was in power and who had the lower hand. They made laws so that non-whites wouldn’t be able to testify so that whites would be able to get away with whatever they choose. Money is the root of all evil because without money would we have had slaves? Would we have had laws to prevent non-whites from being citizens because whites were afraid to lose job opportunities? Money today strives to be everyones best friend and worse enemy.

“Chinese girls could be bought from their often destitute parents for as little as $40 dollars and resold to brothels in San Francisco for as much as $2500″(90).

Its so crazy to me that mothers and fathers would sell their daughters. How could you ever send your daughter off? Its also crazy to see what kind of profit people where making in San Francisco.Before taking a Japanese history class fall quarter I never thought that Japanese and Chinese American women had a huge stereotype of being prostitutes. This quote also demonstrates another example of how money relates to others unfortunate events to please the happiness of the one who is receiving the benefits.

Erik Spoelstra

Erik Spoelstra is not only the Miami Heats head coach (my favorite team) but he is the first Asian American basketball coach. He is Filipino-American. Erik grew up in Portland Oregon where he played basketball in high school and college. At University of Portland he was named west coast freshmen of the year. After college he went to Germany to become a player/assistant coach. When he came back to the states he took an assistant coaching position with the Miami Heat, coaching under Pat Riley. When Pat retired in 2008 Erik took over the head coaching position and became the first Asian American to be a NBA coach and to win championships both in 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons.

The Debut

The Debut it about a young man that has a hard time coming to terms with his culture.

This movie stresses male roles. The grandfather doesn’t like how his son (Ben’s father) raised Ben because Ben doesn’t know how to speak Tagalog and how to properly great his elders. Ben’s grandpa has a hard time coming to terms with the choices that Ben’s father made with his singing career. Not only does Ben’s grandfather have a hard time with his sons choices but you see Ben’s father having a hard time with Ben’s choices about going to art school instead of becoming a doctor by taking a scholarship to UCLA. Ben starts to understand that his father only wants the best for him because he had to give up his dreams to become a singer to raise his children and move to the United States.

Culture. What does it mean to be Filipino in America? What does it mean when you start hanging around different cultures when you should be hanging around your own kind? Does it really mean becoming a coconut when you start hanging out with different people? People think that because you are a certain race you should hangout with that race. I have been able to relate to Ben because I am mixed it was hard in high school to know and understand what group I really belonged to. I had a hard time understanding what race I would like to identify with white, or black? Ben was having a hard time knowing that he was brown but wanting to be accepted into the world with his white friends. Ben was able to see that his family was always going to be apart of him and that he had to find the friends (which he had) that meant enough to him to be apart of his family and not judge him for being something different other then white.

Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood plays an unhappy man. After Walt’s (Clint Eastwood’s) wives death he is lift with his one and only friend Daisy his dog. You can see how lonely he is by only having Daisy to talk to. Throughout the movie you see the bad blood between his oldest son but see him getting closer and closer to the family next door which he wants to hate but can’t because they are always making effort to thank him for the little things that he does.

Sue that lives next door befriends her mean neighbor inviting him over to eat great food. We see Sue as a strong girl that isn’t afraid to stand up for herself and her brother. Sue was the heart of the movie. She was the girl that brought her family and Walt together. She wasn’t afraid to bring the next door neighbor over that everyone hated. She was never afraid to tell people how she was feeling. In a lot of movies you see women as figures that wouldn’t stand up to men or even gang members but in this movie she never backs down until she gets raped by her cousins friends.

Walt wasn’t at peace with himself throughout the movie until the very end. He understood that he wasn’t at peace when the priest pointed it out to him from the start. We start to see the foreshadowing of Walt’s death and how death brings him peace. The first sign of Walt wanting forgiveness and peace was when he called his son wanting to just talk. He wanted to talk about how his day was, how he was doing but his son still wanted nothing to do with him. He then shows a sign of peace when he asked for a hair cut that he never got before. He showed how he was grateful to the barber for giving him all those hair cuts by giving the barber a twenty dollar bill instead of giving him a ten and complaining about it. We see how he buys his first fitted suit and doesn’t care that it would cost an arm and a leg. We finally see Walt enter the church ready to confuse and come clean about all the things that kept him from being peaceful for all those years. By the end of the movie Walt came to peace with himself and all the things that had happened in his life.

My Obsessions!

My first obsession for this quarter is basketball. Basketball is my everyday life. I have been involved in basketball since I was a little girl. Basketball has always been my source of separation from the real world. Its my stress reliever. Its a way that I am creative. I wasn’t blessed with being able to draw, or create cool artsy things but I was gifted with the way to shoot a basket and to understand how the game works. I continue to involve basketball into my everyday life. I am playing or watching (mostly watching) basketball Monday-Saturday and wouldn’t have it any other way. Basketball has always been my obsession and always will be rather thats playing or coaching basketball. My high is when I shoot a 3 (in someones face), when I get to steal the ball out of the other players hand or am able to see the that one play that people will talk about for the next two weeks. Basketball is my obsession.

In The News

Paull Shin

Paull Shin was an orphan and homeless in south Korea. He was adopted by an American solider. Paull Shin earned his PhD at University of Washington. After Shin graduated from University of Washington he became a teacher at Shoreline Community College. He was elected into the legislature in 1992. He than ran for congress in 1994. Shin is retiring from government because of the awful disease, Alzheimer’s. He has been a huge part of Washington states education system mainly apart of developmentally disabled children. Paull Shin seems like a remarkable man. As I read articles about his retirement I can’t help to read about all the great praises that people have given him. He has helped people coming to America find a home. I’m glad that I got to read about Paull for not having an assignment on him would have been a missed learning experience to see who we once had in office in Washington State. Its nice to hear about people that have had hard times but being able to have a voice and speak on issues that they believe is important.

1986 Challenger Explosion

OnJanuary 28th, 1986 a space ship the Challenger took flight but exploded 73 seconds after liftoff. The space shuttle left seven deaths including the first Asian American to reach space, his name was Ellison Onizuka. He was born in 1946 and had two children. Apart of Pop culture I believe that our assignment is not only to realize what happened to this spaceship but to know what is happening in the news of Pop culture right now. Beyonce, one of the most popular dancers, and singers of this generation has made news with the title of one of her song XO which is featured on her newest album. This song has made the news by the unfortunate event of the 1986 Challenger Explosion. In this song she puts a clip of the disaster in her video. In the first seconds of the song you can hear a clip of someone saying “Obviously a major malfunction.” Nasa employees are asking Beyonce to take down the clip and make apologies to those families. She told ABC that she didn’t mean to hurt anyone but to help heal those families that lost someone. I don’t really know about this situation but my first thoughts of her healing the families is why would she release a music video 20+ years thinking that it would heal when families at this point probably just want to put that day behind them. I don’ think Beyonce wanted to hurt anyone when she did released this video/song but I also don’t think that a healing process for the families was a huge thought either.

WWII Stragglers

The last of Japanese soldier died on Thursday. He was 91. Hiroo Onoda was hiding in a jungle in the Philippines. Some would say that Hiroo wasted 30 years of his life fighting a war that was already over but he didn’t. He was taught that he was to remain absolutely loyal to his country and to fight against America.

How I Met Your Mother

Well I guess its about time that they end there run on Television after eight short seasons. How I Met Your Mother was a funny t.v series that I guess just became serious. Although I never really got into this show I was always rooting for Barney and Robbin but as I read I can’t help to notice that the attention isn’t focused on Barney or Robbin but the fact the viewers saw some racist acts portraying Asians. I can’t understand why the show didn’t hire Asian actors to play parts that were needed to fill the “funny” acts. Hollywood once again made it seem as if Asians only eat noodles, and do kung-fu. I agree that Hollywood has failed to hire many minority actors to play parts on television. Its sad to see that though all the highs of overcoming race we still haven’t overcome racism. Oliva Pope played by Kerry Washington on Scandal is only the second African American to be played in a major television series on basic cable. We continue to see very little actors that are minorities have larger parts in television. I believe that people are now making a point that stereotypical jokes on television starts to get played out. We have seen the same story line over and over again but now people are ready to voice their opinion. Sorry but not sorry for How I Met Your Mother writers and producers but it happened to be the night that your show aired. I am happy that people are starting to voice their opinions and that Twitter can actually be useful by showing Hollywood that the viewers aren’t happy.

Better Luck Tomorrow

“You know how you make decisions that lead to other decisions but you don’t remember why you made those decisions in the first place.”

Wow! At the end of this movie you will be speechless. There are so many scenes in this movie that you want to talk about but can’t find the words to fill what you are feeling. It was surprising to see that his friend that wanted all the trouble couldn’t handle the pressure of killing someone so he would try to end his life. This movie was not a bad movie it was different. Different then a Hollywood ending or something that was predictable. This movie was definitely different, in a good way.

At the start of the movie you couldn’t help to notice the title ¨Better Luck Tomorrow.” It was a fitting title for the movie. These boys that have everything going for them couldn’t help but want to cause trouble. The movie opens up with two young boys talking about how college is going to be a different experience leaving the audience blind of what they will see at the end. You see Ben as a straight edge kid but gets himself in bad situations. You watch as he starts experimenting with drugs because he tries to keep up his job as being a student, stealing and selling drugs. Better Luck tomorrow comes from how these boys really have no luck rather thats killing a man when you are supposed to be the look out, over dosing on the drugs that was snorted, or not being able to lose your virginity when your craziness comes out when you pull a gun on the prostitute that was hired. The bad luck continues as Ben kills his crushes boyfriend. When he finally realizes that she likes him back he has a big secret that would definitely end the relationship and even put him in prison.

“Yeah, the library is closed.” You couldn’t help but notice the model minority myth. As the movie progresses you can’t help to notice the nice cars, the smart Asians, and how they weren’t really great in sports. In the movie you see Ben shooting free throws but see how terrible he is at shooting them. We watch as he is a bench-warmer that never gets in the games but was put on the team because the coach needed minority on the team. Ben and his friends are supposed to be high school students but are driving Mustangs and convertibles even though they are seniors. Making the impression that their parents had money. In the movie Ben and his friends are always getting over on people because they are so smart that they can manage to out play everyone.

The Beautiful Country

I really enjoyed this movie although this movie had few happy moments it was enjoyable to see it was somewhat of a happy ending. From the start of the film where Binh was the outcast that no one wanted to be around. He was always called ugly even though as a viewer I didn’t see his ugliness. When Binh found his mom he soon had to let her go. He had shut downs every time that he turned around. When he was trying to go America he wound up in Malaysia. He was stuck in a refugee camp where he met the love of his life. When he was able to leave the refugee camp he found out that the business man on the boat that was taking them to America was charging more money that he had. After all the sickness on the boat he lost his younger brother, which he promised his mother that he would look over and protect. When he finally gets to New York he has a place to stay and a place to work, but doesn’t have a girl to love him back. When he is told by a group of guys that he could have avoided all the drama from the boat by flying to America free because his father was a solider he freaks out and leaves to find his father. When he finally finds his father he finds that he is blind and can’t see his face. This movie ends happy because although its not said it hints that the father knows who Binh really is, his son. Binh doesn’t tell his father who he is because he realizes that it doesn’t need to be said. For one of the first films that we have seen in fall and winter quarter we don’t see the “white hero.” We actually see Binh being the hero for his father. A man that can’t see but learns how to paint. A man that would have been fired if another helper came along but isn’t because Binh wanted to get to know his father even in a one bed trailer. This movie was really enjoyable to watch even if a couple of tears wanted to run down my cheek.

Pre-Impressions of 47 Ronin

Click here to view the embedded video.

Today as a class we went to see 47 Ronin. I have to say going to the movie I thought it was going to be really lame (the movie itself) because I don’t really like Keanu Reeves as an actor. When I actually sat down to watch the movie I felt myself getting really into it (I jumped at some scenes). I didn’t have a lot of background information about the history of the Samurai but it wasn’t confusing figuring out what they were fighting for. Last quarter we had big discussions about how the white man is portrayed to be the saver, the hero. In this movie I can see where people would think that Keanu Reeves is that character but in his defense he is 1/4th Chinese. All in all I enjoyed the movie. I thought it was educational and entertaining.

A-POP, Don't Stop

Winter 2014