This section of the reading had a few unique stories that made learning more about the minority groups history in the United States all the more interesting. There were a lot of cool topics to discuss in the book but one that stood out was how Lee delved into sexuality within the Chinese community. One example being the long hair of the Chinese being “…perceived as sexually and racially ambiguous,, and therefore dangerous.”( Lee p.38) Their hair was a stark contrast to the image in typical white America where men had short hair and women had long hair. One could view the long hair as a failure to integrate American culture which would cause conflict and dissonance between whites and the Chinese.

Another point in regards to sexuality was the Chinese’ lack of women in America. Lee goes over how the Chinese men would marry native Hawaiian women, but mostly white Irish women which is oddly humorous given the animosity between the two groups at the time. The fear of permanent residence of the Chinese in American society, especially in California made the whites even more disdainful of Chinese integration. This then sparked the “amalgamation” and “miscegenation” movement by the Irish which showed the “unacceptable nature of sexual relations between races.” (Lee p.76) There was a more comedic side to this as well which involved the story of Patsy O’Wang who was a half Irish half Chinese who would change his personality based on his consumption of Whiskey or strong tea. Though in the end Patsy accepts his Irish half to set forth a better life in American. While both groups were “lesser” in the eyes of the Protestant-Anglo Saxon the Irish still had a step up on the Chinese simply due to being white.

The importance of sexuality was even ingrained into the land itself with the idea of it being “virgin” ready for settlers to take and conquest. So with the Victorian idea of sexual chastity of white women in contrast to the overwhelming majority of Chinese prostitutes there was a definite threat to all of the white America’s ideals. Though there was a large number of white prostitutes existing at the time, funny enough.

The threat of sexual turmoil was evident still with stories such as “the Haunted Valley” and “Poor Ah Toy” both of which involved racially mixed relationships. The core idea being that the Chinese men in the stories were powerless both to white men and women which made their sexuality a deprived state. The only thing the Chinese represented were an object without a voice.

Finally there was the Chinese’ general work choice which further pushed them away from masculinity. The main job being a launderer, the Chinese men were seen as doing women’s work. This was further established with the court case of Montana in 1910 where the lawyer for Quong Wing argued that a $10 license to operate a laundry was unfair, not on the grounds that it was racially unfair but rather the law was discriminating against sex.

The white guys in this film had a few cringe moments but one of Ben’s cousins with the long car speech gave a feeling of “Really…?” Beyond that it was evident that racial pride was a powerful emotion for the minority groups depicted. There was somehow a problem with Ben not hanging around any other brown skinned friends but instead white friends.

This movie gave a similar vibe to Gran Torino in the sense of a “good family” vs “bad family” category. Yet in this sense the good side had extremely high hopes for Ben to be a doctor vs Gran Torino which his family just wanted Touh to be content. Both bad sides of the family related to guns, violence and gang activity. In the end though the entirety of both families in each movie seemed to show a deep care for their family’s well being (disregarding the rape and house shootout in Gran Torino). To expand Ben’s cousins still had a priority in the cultural dance and supporting Rose’s birthday. While in Gran Torino Touh was getting picked on by the Mexican thugs and had his cousins come rescue him.

There was a lot of lines throughout the movie the reminded me of the nonchalant racism that occurs when any ethnic group has some communication. From the long car speech to the “nigga” that gave Gusto the handgun but there were no blacks depicted in the film the derogatory word usage throughout the film was there. Though it seemed every group had some stereotype on the other groups, the worst being the dumb drunk girl at the party calling Ben a “chink” when he is Filipino and accusing him of eating dogs and cats.

Food really stuck out to me in this film, as well as a recurring iconic cultural representation of the minority groups in America. In Gran Torino the Hmung gave Walt an abundance of delicious distinctive food as a thank you gift for protecting them. Then in The Debut there was a excessive amount of food, with eating being a common “go-to” such as when the grandpa pointing out that Ben’s father gained weight or his mother insisting that Ben’s friends need to eat more since they’re so skinny.

There was an appreciation of the Filipino traditional culture but of course as second generation Americans they are quick to adopt new culture such as basketball, car culture and the clothing. The grandpa seemed very traditional and cared deeply for his family’s pride and legacy though he was understanding when Ben didn’t participate with the small prayer on the grandpa’s arrival.

Throughout multiple minority groups it always seems the core foundation of cultural identity that retains in the food, celebrations and family values. Other things such as transportation, everyday clothing or hobbies are molded into each generation that is relevant only in that time. Not so much as fad but a less permanent popular culture.

I enjoyed the film and had a slight relation to Ben and his “hobby” with my own dedications when I was in high school. Though I have never dealt with any of the cultural minority pressures that were put on Ben to be a doctor. The model minority identity felt very real in this film as it has in other films such as Better Luck Tomorrow.

Stereotypes stereotypes stereotypes.

The characters were dull, and one dimensional except Walt who was closer to 1.5 dimensional. One thing that was hard to comprehend was that the “bad cousins” were originally looking out for their family Touh, there was a legitimate care for his outcome and Touh did not thank them or do anything. It seemed that Touh brought on his own misery. Though there was no background established with the Hmung family so I can’t make an accurate judgement.

However later on when the cousins have a bad meet up with Walt they go and shoot up their relatives home, potentially killing them and then raping/beating up Sue. That made no sense to me especially when the Hmung put a big emphasis on family importance. Rather than deal with Walt they just hurt their own blood. This could just be “typical bad guys” just not caring about traditions but that didn’t seem the cases with the beginning of the movie with helping bail out Touh.

Walt had a bad experience with war and worked at an American car company and had a disdain for anyone that wasn’t white. Though he was mostly just a rude dude to everyone. Beyond Walt having a generic racist old person vibe, and the generic outwardly cousins into gang activity trying to coax a sheltered boy into wrongdoings, from the generic “ultimate sacrifice” by Walt in the end made for a very predictable movie but I was still entertained the whole time surprisingly.

He goes into confession and confesses his 3 sins, yet in his mind his views on all kinds of minority groups is completely justified and free of sin. Which seems to me that racism was just forged into Walt’s identity. He gives away his Gran Torino to Touh but his views of all the minorities never really changed, he was the same character throughout the movie without any growth. He makes a new friend and that’s it, he’s still a racist grumpy old man.

As a whole I enjoyed the film. I haven’t seen anything like this before which made it a unique experience, disregarding shoddy character development. I have the privilege of not dealing with any of the problems shown in the movie so I can own watch from an outside lens. Hearing all the racist comments didn’t phase me personally but it was pretty excessive and in poor taste but that was probably the directors goal since people like Walt really do exist (minus the super bad ass racist super hero Jesus martyr qualities).

This reading as a whole had a broader perspective on the minority groups coming into American and how their problems and triumphs occurred. While a lot of the book was somewhat dull factoids it was interesting learning of how the minority communities saw each other. Particularly the disdain of the Koreans towards Japan, even encouraging America to go to war with Japan even before Pearl Harbor. See the justified hatred from the first generation die out mostly onto the next generations made me realize how much environment has to play on peoples identity. The ultra-nationalist Koreans wanted their American born children to never forget Korea and eventually return there to help insure its prosperity. Though that did not happen and people have the tendency to care more about their birthplace rather than their ancestors origins.

Beyond new interactions I didn’t know of I found the recurring theme of “minorities are not treated the same as whites” extremely drawn out, but that is due to my own bias of reading all about Japanese American bias in fall quarter. As a fresh reader to this content it would of had a greater effect on me but after thousands of pages detailing the injustices of white America to Japanese Americans it just wasn’t surprising. However sad that may be it did increase the knowledge I had that the American Dream for most minority groups was a nightmare.

This film detailed the exploits of Ben and his group of friends while they participated in some questionable activity while in high school. His gang involved all Orientals that put on the ruse of a model minority. They all had good grades, played sports, or participated heavily in the school activities. However outside of this “perfect student” display held notorious activities involving drugs, violence, stealing, cheating and murder.

The movie played on multiple minority tropes openly such as the token Asian on the basketball team, or that all the Asian students are extremely intelligent and are generally good students. While all of these stereotypes were true throughout the movie the extremely unscholarly activity that occurred beyond the school hours made it readily apparent what the students wanted was to break the mold of model minority and just do what they really desired, of course those desires changed throughout the movie as well.

The movie had powerful usage of camera angle, music, and silence. In addition the vocabulary SAT words Ben memorized each night related the the movie each time a new word was mentioned.  ”Punctilious-Marked by or concerned about precise exact accordance with the details of codes or conventions.” Is just one example where it mixes perfectly with the idea of model minority. However it was more than just that, words that described being trapped or extremely complicated situations were mentioned and all had a powerful message in accordance to the film.

Ben had a crush on a fellow classmate named Stephanie, however she was already dating a graduated Asian named Steve.  It was readily apparent Ben didn’t wholeheartedly enjoy his company since Steve’s involvement prevents any further advances onto Steph. In the end Ben and his friends want to teach Steve a lesson and end up killing him somewhat unintentionally.

Ben on his 17th birthday received a handgun from all of his friends which was timed right when Ben wanted to stop all the madness and return to at least some form of normalcy. Things eventually did return to normal until Steve wanted to involve Ben’s gang in one last activity which eventually lead to Steve’s death. The film ends with uncertainty as Stephanie kisses Ben as they drive away, Steph being angry at Steve for not showing up for the New Year’s party. Unfortunately Steve had a date 6 feet under in a local backyard.

The film was overall extremely enjoyable and there was a constant interest in what would happen next. The director knew what they were doing with their message and I am curious in seeing more of their work. Definitely a better movie than 47 Ronin.

This film tells the story of a mixed race Vietnamese/White son who upon reaching adulthood seeks to find his real parents. The movie overall was quite enjoyable. The main character’s name was Binh and he dealt with innumerable obstacles trying to find his true family. He has a Vietnamese mother and an American GI father who left Vietnam when Binh was a baby for unknown reasons.

Binh has visible scars scattered throughout his body, no doubt attained throughout his hard life of being a mixed race war baby. When in Vietnam his kinsmen don’t associate with him and don’t categorize him as Vietnamese but instead as a Bui Doi. Then in America he suffers the same fate of lack of a true acceptance from his origin points.

Binh’s story shows the struggle that any “foreigner” must deal with when trying to make it to America as a minority. From a horrible long boat ride from Vietnam to America, to the raw hatred one must deal with when being of mixed heritage.

While I have read countless examples of the pain and suffering caused by being a foreigner in your own country it was a completely different experience to see it all visibly.

In the end after all his pain and hardships, Binh did finally find some happiness when he finds out about the status of his father and gets to meet him. The movie ended openly but gave a strong feeling of reassurance that Binh is living a much better life and a better place.