Author Archives: Jude

Paull Shin

10 days ago Washington State senator Paull Shin resigned from office after revealing that he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Shin was the first Korean American ever elected to the Washington State Legislature where he served for almost 15 years. Originally born in Korea, Shin was orphaned and taken in as the houseboy of several U.S. Army officers. One of them adopted Shin, and brought him back to the United States where he went on to get his GED and go to university (despite not learning to read until he was a teenager). Shin inspired other immigrants in his community to enter the political arena. In 2002 Shin successfully sponsored a bill that removed and prohibited the use of the word “Oriental” in state and local legislation.

An insightful interview with Shin can be found here.

Paull Shin

Paull Shin

The Challenger Explosion

The Challenger Explosion

Jan 28th marks 28  year since the space shuttle Challenger exploded in a tragic accident only 73 seconds after lift off. Ellison Onizuka was on board the Challenger and perished with the other astronauts. He was the first Asian American astronaut and the first Asian American to go into outer space.

Onizuka’s legacy lives on after his death, and he has been memorilized in several ways by the Asian American community. In his birth place of Hawaii there is the Onizuka Village Family Housing, The Astronaut Ellison S. Onizuka Space Center, and The Onizuka Center for International Astronomy. Little Tokyo in Los Angeles has a street dedicated in his name, as well as a scale replica of the Challenger as a memorial. Onizuka paved the way for future Asian American Astronauts and was clearly a much loved member of his community.

Astronaut Onizuka eats with chopsticks white on the mid deck

Astronaut Onizuka eats with chopsticks white on the mid deck

Ellison Onizuka poses with a space suit helmet

Ellison Onizuka

Better Luck Tomorrow

emas·cu·late \i-ˈmas-kyə-ˌlāt\

: to make (a man) feel less masculine : to deprive (a man) of his male strength, role, etc.
: to make (something) weaker or less effective

Justin Lin challenges the emasculated stereotypes of Asian men. He presents a picture of 4 bored suburban youth. All Asian/American, they are high achievers and perfectionists — unusual suspects for murder and crime. Adolescent male posturing ends in violence when under the immense pressure of racism.

“It’s just a game. People like you and me don’t have to play by the rules” — Daric

The main characters tease and one-up each other. Both internalizing, and playing with anti-Asian remarks. They teeter on the edge, taking out their aggression on each other. Things shift when Daric pulls a gun on a white class mate while being ridiculed at a party. Suddenly they have have the respect of their high school. The power is addictive, and culminates in the murder of a private school student.
What was most interesting to me about this movie was seeing how deeply the characters internalized racism. The student they killed was not a white student, he was a wealthy Asian student. Their anger at the “model minority stereotype” and experiences of oppression were turned against each other.

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Agency/Radical Parasites

Two Models For Talking About Agency

Agency – I’m thinking about the role of agency in migration and diaspora. How much choice is there in the face of dire poverty and hunger? As the effects of global capitalism settle into billions of bodies, is there really a choice to leave?
Other things to consider: How capitalism displaces, drives currents [circuits] of bodies, the role of agency in transnational and transracial adoption.  

Radical parasites – When women use (parasite) men to leave poverty. For example, Ling in The Beautiful Country. She is forced to do sex work, and ends up marrying a white man with money to escape her situation. One way to think about it is loss of agency (again, how much choice is involved when one is living in extreme poverty?), or it could be viewed as radical parasitism. As in, parasiting off of a white American man’s institutionalized privilege and capital to remove oneself from poverty.

Asian American Science Fiction Authors

Doing some research into Asian American authors of my favorite genre. This is post is intended to be a place for me to keep track of author’s whose work I’d like to look into.

Ken Liu – “The Paper Menagerie”.
Chinese American. Notable author, winner of Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award for short stories.

Jacqueline Koyanagi – Ascension: A Tangled Axon Novel
Been meaning to read her for awhile! Japanese-Southern-American. Writes about QPOC women, in diverse relationship styles, and neuroatypical characters.

Larissa Lai – Salt Fish Girl
Description for this book sounds great:
“Salt Fish Girl” is the mesmerizing tale of an ageless female character who shifts shape and form through time and place. Told in the beguiling voice of a narrator who is fish, snake, girl, and woman – all of whom must struggle against adversity for survival – the novel is set alternately in nineteenth-century China and in a futuristic Pacific Northwest.

Hiromi Goto — Half World, The Kappa Child, Hopeful Monsters
Japanese Canadian author. Queer? James Tiptree Jr. Award winner (among many others). Inspired by her grandmother’s and father’s stories about Japan. Lots of ghosts, folk magic, the kappa.

Malinda Lo– Assorted young adult novels
Chinese American author. Queer, writes QPOC characters. Fantasy and sci fi young adult novels.

E. Lily Yu — “The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees”

Ted Chiang — So many!
Has won 4 Nebula, 3 Hugo, 3 Locus, etc. etc. Many well known short stories. Lives in Bellevue Washington.

Marie Lu-?

The Beautiful Country

My initial thoughts about this film are a little disjointed. Despite Chico’s claim that it will “Get better”, this was certainly a heartbreaking movie.

“He’s not one of us. I don’t know why he doesn’t go where he belongs” – Pham

“You will always be out of place wherever you go…And poor” – Ship Captain

The treatment of bui doi was totally new to me. Because of globalization, histories of colonialism, and racist beauty standards, mixed race folks with white ancestry and lighter skin are sometimes afforded privileges in countries that are predominantly POC. It makes sense that the experience of the children of GI’s would be very different, especially given the resentment towards American military intervention in Vietnam, and the prevalence of bui doi who were the children of sex workers.

Significance of title
The Beautiful Country. Does the title refer to Vietnam or the United States? Binh refers to the United States as a “beautiful country”, and his father says the same thing about Vietnam. Beauty holds deeper meaning than landscapes, it represents potential, love, escape from poverty.

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47 Ronin – Impressions

47 Ronin was a mixed bag for me. Admittedly, my expectations were low, and I ended up enjoying it more than I thought I would. I had never heard the original Japanese story, so I can’t speak to the historical accuracy of the events portrayed in the film. Kai’s inclusion was of particular note to me. This is the first time I’ve seen Keanu Reeves play a mixed race character, and I wonder if he was intended to act as a point of entry for white audiences. There were white savior elements in the portrayal of Kai, and on the other hand, there’s something to be said for kick-ass characters who occupy spaces of liminality and hybridity.