Words for later

Words for later

On the reading of Cibo Matto I appreciated the uniqueness of their band and the fact that they didn’t identify as a “female band” but instead as just a band. However in their regards to complaining about fans and riding on the feminist train I failed to see why they were bothered with fans asking them about food, favorite food, etc. When in reality the fans were most likely asking about their favorite food because they were singing about food, not because they were women. Beyond that their music was really peculiar and I personally did not enjoy listening to it though their music videos were really cool. To me the songs lacked some depth, then again most popular songs never have any.

Regardless their angry yelling and  such made it highly unappealing and the only redeemable quality I have about them is that it’s a unique style of song topics. I want to say 90% of all songs in general are about love or heartbreak so a new kind of cultural expression is one that is welcomed. I just feel like their style could be more refined to be more pleasurable to listen to or have another layer of depth to the lyrics. Or maybe I’m just not thinking hard enough about the songs that we listened to. Music is such a potent force for humanity to express their thoughts and ideals so it is one we can be very critical of at the same time.

My absolute favorite chapter was…Chapter 15 Cibo Matto’s Stereotype A….

There have been a few times where I felt I really connected with the reading and that was when we have some kind of visual or audio to go off of that helps the discussion. I have to admit that, during the whole time we watched the Cibo Matto music video’s, I have never felt more confused in my life. I tried to read the lyrics to get more out of what they were singing about, but still…confused. So, reading through the chapter definitely shed some light on Cibo Matto. When we heard “know your chicken” I seriously thought it was a reference to a vagina, like a woman’s reference to her vagina. Quote “i know my chicken, you got to know your chicken”. But really, like Dave say’s Cibo Matto means “food crazy” in italian. That was my first impression. I suppose I should keep my mind out of the gutter…just saying haha.

Anyways…on page 295 under the section Cutesy J Pop, with an Edge, I personally would classify them as Kawaii [cute]…at first! However, when we say the music video…I forget the name, but they were singing with a live band and it turned into a rap..That was obviously no more Kawaii [cute]. Let me rephrase that; they were not cute anymore.

“Where Is The Love” by The Black Eyed Peas is very powerful and moving song. This song also carries the word controversy by the question mark on the Bible. Before coming to Evergreen I would have only thought of one reason why the Bible could be controversial and that is by not everyone believing in God and people believing in God. After taking many programs dealing with race at Evergreen I understand now that the Bible can have more then one reason why it would have a question mark on it. Many used the Bible as a scapegoat of all the wrong that they have caused. People often use the Bible to feel good for the bad. The bible has empowered people  to believing that owning slaves is fine because in the Bible slaves are mention and are apart of the books. The Bible has always been a controversial subject. The Black Eye Peas made it known by putting a question mark on the bible that it one sticky subject that we can’t ever get passed.

Different cultures are able to come together through music. I know when my family is happy and having a good time the Motown music is playing. The entire family is not only singing but dancing. Without even hesitating or thinking twice I can feel the love and the togetherness as my entire family is together. I can’t imagine a life without music. Its a main source of entertainment. In chapter two when the author mentions how Viet Nam’s government has a lot of power in controlling the music world. I think people in America would go crazy! Our source to getting music is through downloading rather thats getting it on iTunes or stealing it off the internet.

In the movie the Wedding Banquet it was pretty awesome to witness that the father of Wai-Tung spoke English. Not only did his son not know that he spoke English but his own wife didn’t know that he spoke English. When Wai-Tung, his partner, Simon, and Wai-Tungs roommate/pretend wife/babies mother got into a fight the father was telling the mother “mind your own business, don’t bother.”  Even though he was actually listening and understanding what they were talking about. He finally went to the Simon and told him that he was happy that he made his son happy. The movie made it seem as if the father would be the one that would be disappointed and upset but in reality he only wanted a grandchild. Not caring who his sons life partner was. The question that went unanswered was why would the father pretend not to speak English? Why would he not talk to his family English? Did he not want his son to know just so he can find out his secrets? Or was it because he didn’t pronounce English words the way Americans thought it should be pronounced?

In chapter 16 in East Main Street the writer talks about Apu from The Simpsons and how he talks in broken English. Apu is shown to be an Indian but voiced by a white man. It explained in the book how the produces thought this would cause a lot of problems but it didn’t because it was such a laughing matter that people didn’t care. I like how the author expressed how this is a problem. Which I believe it is. We are always quick to say its wrong for whites to act as black/brown face and to represent the stereotype of these people but we don’t think its wrong when someone does a voice over to gain a laugh? I honestly wouldn’t stop watching this show because of the voice but I do see how people that know the history and have thought it was wrong can be  hypocrites in saying that it was wrong for whites to play black/brown face but when this history continues to relive to find humor they began to think its okay. Would it be that hard for The Simpsons casting crew to hire a South Asian to voice the character of Apu?

I think that even though that the book and the movie deal with language differently it still deals with the same matter of how we look at Asian’s in America. People believe that an Asian man visiting from Taiwan can’t speak english and when you become a citizen or live in America for awhile (Like Apu) you won’t be able to speak English like people that have been living here.

The chapter that I enjoyed the most out of the reading we did for today was Chapter 15: “Cibo Matto’s Stereotype A“. I am glad that this is the one chapter that we talked about in class, and that we got to watch the music videos. Watching the music video’s helped me to connect back to the reading, although while I was reading, I didn’t expect the videos to be anything like what they are! They were so different then what I had imagined. In the first music video we watched : Sugar Water, I have to say I was extremely confused through out the whole thing. When it was over I felt like I had no clue what just happened!

I think it is interesting that all of their songs are based on food. I also think it is interesting that they decided to name their band an Italian name, although they are in Japan and they are an American band..sort of.

No matter the diversity of the material being written about in the reading for Tuesday (cuisine, internet, comic strips), there was a different way Asian Americans are represented in the media in each chapter.

The first representation presented was that of the way Food Network used Asian Americans for fusion cuisine shows. Both Ming Tsai and Padma Lakshmi were used as symbols of the “ethnic exotic” and “assimilated model minority.” The author of the article tells us that the idea of fusion food for these shows is to create an American or European dish using Asian ingredients, sometimes even just pouring a sauce over a dish that is considered ‘Western’. This, according to the author, problematizes the balance between the mix of Eastern and Western in the dishes, favoring the American palate rather than introducing authentic Asian food. By using these foods to fly under the radar with, it’s easier to ‘digest’ and to accept in the target audience – young and high income. Both of the shows that these two Asian Americans cooked in also portrayed them as attractive, Ming’s Quest being created after his popularity amongst his fans as being masculine and attractive. For Lakshmi it is mentioned that she uses changes in her accent and clothing to differentiate the target audiences, using revealing clothing and a ‘husky’ tone for when the subject is more sexual, like aphrodisiacs, or in a sari with a more Indian accented voice for shows about authentic Indian cooking.

Alllooksame poses the question of nationality. Is it possible to tell what nationality an Asian American is by looking at their pictures? This chapter and Secret Asian Man both use popular media, be it the internet or comic strips, to present stereotypes and, in a way, break them down. Through alllooksame, the website has you take a test to see if you can tell someone’s nationality just by looking at their picture. Even people who claimed that they could tell the three nationalities you’re tested on apart (Chinese, Korean, and Japanese), most people don’t score above 9 (half of the 18 possible points). The author also makes this point, “…this figuration of cyberculture as default white tends to demonize people of color as unsophisticated, uneducated, and stuck in a pretechnological past.” This and Tok Toyoshima poses the question of how much can non-Asian Americans claim to know about those who are Asian American. Most of what we see in popular media is full of stereotypes and tropes. Toyoshima even brings up that Asian Americans aren’t represented in talk-show panels, one of the white characters in the comic even stating, “Besides, Asians never voice their opinions so it’s OK to exclude them and mock them openly on TV!” feeding into the idea that Asians are model minorities because they quietly assimilated into American culture. When Asian Americans aren’t allowed proper representation in popular culture, how can we say what we know and see of them isn’t just a list of tropes and stereotypes?