I really wish that I had managed to bring the cultural costumes of other Asian countries into my blog, but I ended up only focusing on the Korean wear. I had originally planned to upload some of my designs and maybe construct one, but time managed to slip away from me and I didn’t finish any of them.
Here’s a great pic of South Asian dresses and I would have really loved to maybe get into some of them. Also, this Tumblr, Asian National Costumes is great to look at various dress types.
We viewed Slaying the Dragon, a documentary about Asian American women in film. It explored prominent roles played by actresses like Nancy Kwan, Nobu McCarthy, Kim Miyori, and Anna May Wong. We also viewed The Joy Luck Club. It followed four women, and their daughters’ lives through the experiences and hardships that shaped them.
Each of the Tuesday films covered the portrayal of women in media, the Lee reading also tied into this. I thought that The Joy Luck Club was amazing. I really felt connected to some of the daughters’ due to shared experiences, and they showed such depth that made them feel so much realer. The mothers’ stories were absolutely heartbreaking as well. The cast was amazing, nearly all of my favorite Asian American actresses were in it.
In Lee’s Orientals, the chapter deals with Orientalizing women in media and the stereotypes in film. I thought that this really gave insight into why The Joy Luck Club is so great. Thought it’s about Chinese and Chinese American women, they portray such a wide array of character types that it is so far from where the industry started.
Crisis, singular. Crises, plural.
I chose to present the Chinese for “crisis” since one of the films dealt with a Chinese family, and the documentary dealt with a “Chinaman” image.
Saving Face involved many sort of crises. Honor, romantic, personal, occupational. Ma’s crises begin with her pregnancy, being kicked out of her home, dating, and fear of motherhood. Since she was unwed and pregnant, Ma’s father kicked her out of his home. For him, having an unwed pregnant daughter caused him to lose face (a sort of social honor). Wil tries to get her on dates so that she will get married and move out, but she feels insecure about her age. She also kept repeating her fears about not being able to take care of the child well. She’s afraid she can’t manage it.
Wil faces crises over her relationship with Vivian. She is afraid to tell others about their relationship, mainly her mother and the Chinese community because she would seem like a disrespectful daughter. She also struggles to balance her job, her mother, and Vivian. When she lets Vivian go, whether because of her fear or for Vivian’s future, she fully admits she loved Vivian.
The Slanted Screen highlighted the roles that Asian American men have had in film and television. The real crisis about this is the lack of proper roles being presented.
So, when I was little my favorite movie was The Power Ranger Movie. My favorite TV show was Power Rangers. My favorite character was Adam Park.
Johnny Yong Bosch studied various martial arts, mainly Shaolin Kung Fu, and got the Power Rangers role in 1994 and appeared in over 200 episodes and both films. His character was written as a Korean American, which Bosch is. There were occasions where a character encounters a personal cultural obstacle. I remember an episode where he had to protect(?) an heirloom lantern (I don’t know why he had it with him though.) In one of the season finales, the characters were de-aged and thrown into their families timelines. While not acted out by Bosch, his child character was sent to ancient Korea, where everyone happened to speak English. Johnny Yong Bosch was totally my first celebrity crush/idol/obsession as a kid.
After his role in Power Rangers ended by 1997, Johnny Yong Bosch got into anime voice acting. His first role was voicing Vash The Stampede in the English version of Trigun. Now he is most known for voicing Ichigo and Hollow Ichigo from Bleach. He’s also voiced lead characters in titles like Wolf’s Rain, Eureka Seven, and Code Geass. A complete list of characters he’s voiced can be found here, and a full list with photos can be found here.
Currently, Johnny and his band Eyeshine tour the convention circuit and perform at anime fansignings.
The current lineup of Eyeshine happens to consist of 4 Asian and Asian American artists, though it isn’t a part of their image, nor the original group. I happen to love Eyeshine and their sound.
Johnny is the bands lead vocalist, he also play the guitar. 
Co-founding member Maurice Salmin is a Philipino American and also the groups drummer, pianist, and occasionally a vocalist. Their lead guitarist is from Japan, he uses Polo as his stage name and was born Mastaka Yazaki. Their newest member is Ginny Eck. She takes up the role of bassist, violinist, and vocalist. I believe she is half Chinese, though I could be mistaken.
I’ve included a video of one of their slower songs, it’s more of a homevideo sort or thing than their music videos.
I really liked the film, I thought that it was a great story that transcends boundaries that so many other films don’t even consider crossing. I think that the ending with Mina choosing to runaway from her family to be with her love is one of the things that is so American about her. A proper Indian daughter would have never run away with a man. Since her mother seemed to be so alright with it shows that she also has a more Western mind than a traditional Indian mother.
As for Mina being a “darkie” daughter, since she doesn’t fit the Indian ideal of beauty, she wouldn’t have been able to find a good match of an Indian or Indian American husband anyways. Mina and Demetrius, whether they worked out in the long run or fizzed out as a youthful romance, I don’t know. I really enjoyed the very ending clips with them in cultural costumes. I thought that was sweet.
Click here to view the embedded video.
In my first year at Evergreen, when I was frequently involved in the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition’s student group activities, one of the documentaries we viewed was Yellow Apparel: When the Coolie Becomes Cool.
It’s been a favorite view of mine for a while. I think that it’s just a great documentary. It was produced in 2000, so it covers the major commodification of Asian styles/items/symbols in American fashion that was highly present in the 90′s. It deals with the question, is it appropriation? The documentary shows multiple perspectives of the issues at hand, and rather than resolving the issue, the film mainly highlights the situation.
Unlike my previous posts have been, this documentary takes a look at Eastern fashions utilized in the West, as opposed to Eastern fashions being Westernized.
I think that everyone in the Asian field of cultural studies should view this film at least once.
Environment was such a major part of the novel. Ruth and Oliver were staying on a island, and they were surrounded by the ocean. The Pacific ocean plays such a huge role. The tsunami and flooding that occurs in Japan is the vessel that brings the lunchbox to the beach where Ruth and Oliver find it. The ocean also brings with it the storms that knocks out Ruth’s power, keeping her from her search for the truth. Nao spends time in the Japanese countryside with Jiko, where she is told to fight the waves.
The novel also touches on the real life events of the nuclear radiation, and global warming.
The animals present in the novel are the cat, the crow, whales, and barnacles, bugs are also mentioned. Pesto is the family cat. The crow is a native Japanese species that follows the current and debris across the ocean. The whales are mentioned to have been killed for their blubber, and also bombed. The barnacles clung to the plastic bag the Hello Kitty lunchbox was in, they died. Bugs were a hobby of Nao’s father.
I think that family and familial relationships are huge. In Nao’s family, the mother is rarely seen, she’s very absent. Nao’s father, though still physically present, is mentally absent. He no longer lives within the family mindset and seeks various methods of suicide. Though we are shown, through Oliver, that he tried to be a good father to Nao and purchase her panties to prevent anyone else from deriving a sick pleasure from them. I think that Nao realized her father isn’t alright, but does nothing to help him, though she does push him to try not to fail suicide again. Nao, tries to appease her mother and be a good daughter, but whether this is sarcasm or genuine, the result seems mixed. Jiko’s mere presence is enough to elicit real and deep emotions from Nao’s father. Jiko becomes an important part of Nao’s life, inspiring her to find her supapowa. Jiko becomes a nun because of her son’s death. His love of life for all, and her love for him, kept her from giving in a committing suicide.
Ruth’s mother, is no longer with her. Ruth’s father isn’t mentioned. Ruth’s husband Oliver is what brings her to the island, which she hates. Oliver becomes pushed aside and even a bit bullied by Ruth as she journeys through the diary.
I think that Nao’s diary is huge for Ruth to find herself, more-so than for Nao. Ruth, the struggling writer, is sent on this journey of the teen mindset. She learns about herself on the way, finding that there are some situations entirely out of her control. No matter how much she wants to save Nao, and help fix her family, when she realizes that the diary may have been written long before it was in her possession, she is flooded with hopelessness and looses the desire to read on.
Nao’s journal is a way for Nao to show others who she is. She’s a teenage girl thrown into a tumultuous situation, it’s a time of high emotions and stresses. Since none of her schoolmates like her, she can’t be real with them. None of her other acquaintances want to genuinely know her, only use her for their purposes. Her family is so uninterested in who she really is. There is a moment where she takes charge of her life and shaves her head and finds a bit of peace within herself.
People need to see this all from our eyes, from the right perspective. Too many of us let someone else have control of what we should have control of. Expression of self. – Vulcan
The first quote in the chapter of Kato started with Vulcan. He is a spray artist, disliking the term graffiti. He helped found Harlem’s Graffiti Hall of Fame. This article is all about him and his work.
Lee’s Jeet Kune Do, as seen in Game of Death, is an amalgamated art designed to be fast, fluid, and effective with as little movement as necessary.
Graffiti arts are similar in nature. Often leaving out some of the traditional conventions of other highly regarded arts. Rather than a physical reaction, they garner a textual political or emotional response.