~p50

“In its ruling, the court recognized the fact that some Asians, including Ozawa, were of a paler hue than many European immigrants already accepted into the nation as ‘White.’ Race, … . being of Japanese ‘blood,’ could not claim to be white, no matter how white his skin”(Lee,p2)

I quote this because I have never thought that Asians have yellow color faces….. But according to this quotation, Yellow means blood and race… Yellow is sometimes used for caution or warning by dangerous.

 “Much as the ‘anomalous’ condition of ‘free’ persons of color in New England at the beginning of the nineteenth century constituted for whites the negative meaning of their blackness, … , and the Chinese were constructed as pollutants.” (Lee,p31)

In my understanding, before Chinese came to the US for gold rush, they were seen as foreigner and their culture were seen as new things for Americans, but after gold rush, they were seen as strangers with different faces and races. So criticism was mounting over Chinese labor immigrants. In the quotation, “pollutants” is used as if Chinese were poison against Americans.

p51~105 

“Furthermore, … ., menial and heavy tasks became identified with racially subordinated peoples. Such heavy work at subsistence wage was deemed suitable for freed Balcks and Chinese or morally degraded ‘white trash’.”(Lee, p57)

 This quotation says that sweated or heavy works fitted on Blacks, Chinese, and ‘White trash’ who did not have skills. Of course, the wages for those works were lower than other jobs needed knowledge or technique. Thus, the employers  made a good use of  unskilled people with cheaper wages. According to the same page, surprisingly, the wages for Irish and Chinese immigrant day labors were cheaper than enslaved Africans having skills. The wages were  set by skills and races at that time.

“……the Chinese represented a third sex – an alternative or imagined sexuality that was potentially subversive and disruptive to the emergent heterosexual orthodoxy.”(Lee, p88)

“The Oriental in America could be imaged as an erotic threat to domestic tranquillity for two related reason.”(Lee, p88)

 These reasons are interesting for me. Because more than 10,000 Chinese women were brought to the United States as prostitutes, Americans saw the Chinese as odd. In addition, Americans viewed Chinese men as evils toward White women because Americans thought thousands of Chinese immigrant men who worked as household servants threatened White women. I feel like ‘third sex’ is very strange and weird word. Chinese were no longer seen either as female or male.

The Debut

Is it considered cultural erasure if a child can’t speak a language that his parents speak fluently? This is something that I’ve wondered for a long time. In an attempt to “Americanize” my mother, my grandparents  refused to teach her German. Later in life they would often have full conversations in German with my mother in the room, whenever they were discussing something they didn’t want her to know about. As a child she only knew what she referred to as “mom phrases”, things like “sit still”, “behave”, “don’t be naughty/bad”, and, a more random one, “washrag”. Watching this movie reminded me a great deal of that. Later in life, my mother was unable to recognize the pride people felt for their heritage, because she was always taught to be ashamed of her own. I felt like the situation was somewhat similar for Ben, even if his apparent shame at his heritage was something he was taught culturally as opposed to from his family.

There was a pretty interesting  example of racism in the film between Filipino and Japanese people. They were discussing cars, and one of the characters questioned why they were bothering to buy parts from Japanese car makers, when the Japanese had killed so many Filipino during WWII.

One of the reasons liked this movie is because of the general length of time to it. A lot of movies that we’ve seen as a class so far have been about this slow coming to terms with who you are and what you feel. This is realistic in a sense, but I enjoyed that the movie also explored different aspects of this. Though rare, occasionally people have days where the pieces fall into place, and though it’s not immediate, they gain a better understanding of just who they are and how the world connects to them. I loved that Ben put this new-found understanding into his art and used it as a way to make his father better realize the things he wanted in life.

As an aside, I was looking at Dante Basco’s wikipedia page to see if he had been in another movie I’d seen not long ago, But I’m a Cheerleader, and it said that in The Debut he played alongside his three brothers, as well as his sister. I’ve never been very good at paying attention to credits after films, but I thought that was pretty cool.

This book Orientals. Okay this book was something else when I read it, but one part gave me the chills. This sentence on page 2 of the introduction. “Race is a mode of placing cultural meaning on the body.” I was replaying that sentence back and forth in mind before  going on and was wondering to myself is this true? I thought yes it is, but want to know do people think of it in this context. I do, but I never thought it would be in a published book about Asian Americans and related to this subject of race. This really showed me that race is a sacred and should be appreciated not to go against it. Everyone should love everyone no matter what the color of their skin is. This book throughout reading gave me a perspective of that Asian Americans that were here have just as much right to be here as we do and it would be a disgrace to repeat any past actions of discrimination, racism or any other dislike to a race, but even today racism and discrimination of race is still practiced and just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean its not happening. Reading the rest of these books I know that I will find out about all the other races that may have or still are being in the same predicament as the Asian Americans were and maybe still to this day. I mean I can’t say myself because myself is not Asian American, but from a African American stand point there is still racism going on today. I’ve seen it and its horrible to watch. You would think that after all that’s happened that we just be at peace, but no. I believe in this world all the blood that’s been shed, all the empires been invaded and all the races been at each others throats, there will never be peace in this world to me.

“Wake up Ben! you’re just as brown as the rest of us.”

This quote struck out to me because I think so many minorities deal with this while living in America. Moreover, as we have seen during fall quarter and so far in this quarter, Asian American’s, more specifically Japanese American’s struggled with embracing both of their identities of being both Japanese and American. This is clear throughout the film with Ben as well, he is Filipino and also American, however, he tries to hide his Filipino culture as much as possible. It’s important to never forget your roots and where you came from which is what his older sister was trying to help him see.

The importance of family is another key aspect throughout the film that Ben finally begins to realize towards the end of the film. We see this at his sister’s party and how his white friends were so interested in his culture. I think he is surprised about how interested they are and realizes that family is very important. This also reminds me of last quarter with Japanese Americans always being able to count on their family and look to family in crucial times of need. So far we have seen that family is extremely important in the Asian culture. In addition, I think for all minorities, we see how truly important it is that we hold our family sacred to our hearts because of everything minorities have been through. That is one thing we have in common. We can always look to our families for support and as a remembrance of our roots. Because during the times that some experience the challenges in dealing with identity issues, when white America pulls those away from their roots, it is important to always look back to our family as a reminder of where we are from.

There is also a connection in Gran Torino with family. We see how Walt learns the importance of family through another family that is not even his and that is also an Asian family. Although Walt has pre judgments because of his experience in the Korean war, as he starts to learn more about Thao’s family, he begins to appreciate his own family much more. For instance, he tries to call his son and reconnect with him. Moreover, at the end of the movie he sacrifices his life for Thao and his family.

One thing that caught my attention right from the beginning of the film The Debut was that I noticed that three of the films we have watched so far have all had the main character’s name the same of  Ben. I wondered why the name Ben is so popularly used for Asian American actors.

From the beginning of the film, it is clear that Ben is ashamed of his Filipino family and attempts to fit in with white/western American culture as much as possible. For instance, he hangs out with his two white friends as much as possible and at the beginning he is embarrassed and does not want to let them in his home. Throughout the film, we see that he continues to struggle with this because he is constantly trying to avoid spending time with his family and is always fighting with his father and/or having issues with his sister. Moreover, Ben struggles because he is resisting what his family expects from him because his dream is to go to school for art yet his father pushes him along with other members to go to medical school and to be a doctor. It’s obvious that Ben does not understand why his father calls him spoiled throughout the movie because he does not realize that his father made a sacrifice of his dreams to be the father that he needed to be and take care of more important responsibilities such as raising his family.

The generation gap between Ben and his parents, mainly his father, demonstrates that he has a difficult time accepting his family and his identity because he does not know his native language very well unlike all his other family members. As he meets other Filipino’s he starts to realize he needs to become more in touch with his roots. I do believe his white friends helped him to be able to see this as well as his mother and his sister and in the end, he understands where his father is coming from. Furthermore, when he deals with Gusto in the fight and how he is treated by him because they believe he is a sell out and they call him a “coconut” basically implying that he’s brown on the outside but white in the inside. This generation gap reminded me of last quarter’s program when we discussed the issues that Japanese American Issei and Nisei experienced. I saw some similarities with the two races of Japanese and Filipino’s experiencing similar issues.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie and was able to draw many different connections and relate them to issues discussed in previous programs as well as being able to make personal connections. I also found it interesting to be able to see the Asian American experience through the lens of a Filipino American.

Initially, the title Gran Torino struck out to me and I wondered why that was the name of the film, and even throughout the film, i kept questioning and looking for more clues to lead me into knowing the reason for the title as well. At the end of the movie, we see that in Clint Eastwood’s will he gives Thao his Gran Torino. His dog Daisy, I believe took the place of Walt after his death and was just as important to Thao as Walt was.

His plan to go to the gangs house because he knew they would kill him. I think the film did a great job with showing Walt’s growth as a person throughout the film. From the beginning he was bitter about his wife’s death and being in the war and having the weight on his shoulders of how many people he had killed in the war.

I thought it was really sad when he called his son to try and gain a closer relationship yet his son told him he was too busy and then soon after this scene I made the complete connection realizing that he wanted a closer relationship with both of his sons. Moreover, it was also important to note that while he had all these pre-judgements of his neighbors, he became closer to them than he was with his own family. One reason seemed to be because his family was very greedy and “spoiled” as he stated in the movie, it was clear they were only concerned about his possessions and the Gran Torino he owned. Yet, although he was rude to his neighbors, they still found the good in his heart and took him in as part of their family.

The quote from Thao’s sister Sue “You’re old fashioned too, but you’re American” when she was talking to Walt grabbed my attention because it made me think of issues discussed in last quarters program and how Japanese American’s had to try and fit in to western culture in order to be able to feel like they were part of the American culture. It also seemed to reveal the struggle to embrace both double identities that make up her own identity.

Furthermore, there seemed to be quite a bit of foreshadow of Walt’s death throughout the film. For instance, when he went in to the doctor, there was never an actual diagnosis to what his illness was. However, it was clear that he was ill because he continuously was coughing up blood. This seemed to be insinuating that at some point he was going to die. Then at the end of the film he was killed.

The film demonstrated Walt’s growth as an individual through the relationships he had made with the Thao and Sue and their family. Meanwhile, Thao’s character showed a lot of growth as well. Walt helped him become more of a man and he was able to fend for himself while Thao helped Walt become more sensitive and caring

The film “Gran Torino” starring Clint Eastwood takes place in a Detroit neighborhood where Clint Eastwood plays a retired Ford factory worker named Walt. The Walt has continued to remain in this neighborhood as his white neighbors have moved away and have been replaced by an Asian American population, more specifically tje Hmong people who originate from the Hills of Thailand, China, and Laos.

Moving on from the setting of the film I am attracted to the change seen in Walt’s character as the movie progresses. Throughout the film he uses a plethora of dirogatory terms directed towards the Asian population surrounding him such as “zipperhead,” “gook,” and “swamp rats.” It is undeniable that Walt who is a veteran of the Korean War was a man with extreme racial prejudices. Walt lived in a time when anti-Asian sentiment was highly present. Such events as World War II and the hate expressed by the American population towards the Japanese, his own experiences in the Korean War, the war in Vietnam, and his once beautiful neighborhood beginning to be populated by the Hmong people all seem to add up to his racial feelings towards the Asian American population.

However what strikes me is these pre-formulated thoughts produced by a lifetime of experiencing Anti-Asian sentiment doesn’t change the fact that Walt is a helper and a fixer. He fixes things as a says in the film when a girl asks him what he does. So when his Hmong neighbors finnaly break down Walt’s rough exterior, you start to see him in a different light. He begins to get along with these “strangers from a different shore,” and finds, “He has more in common” with these people then his own children. So when his young Hmong neighbors Thao and his sister Sue who Walt has become fond of in his own gruff way, are threatened and tormented both physically and psychologically you see Walt stand up for them and take the role as the fixer. He fights for them throughout the movie and eventually gives his life to ensure their torment will not continue in the future.

This is important because it shows that people can change, their pre-concieved notions can be changed, and if these ideas are broken their true character can be shown. Such is the case in Walt. By shedding his ignorance towards other racial groups Walt’s personality as the fixer is displayed to the viewer.

On page 52 of Lee, there is a picture of a five white people inside of an attic. One of them is a woman, laying down on a bed, smiling, with the upper half of her body propped up looking straight ahead. Next to her is another women, sitting down on a stool with her face buried in her hands. In front of them is a man laying on his back, who seems to be relaxed, with a bottle in his hand. Then inside of the attic’s doorway is a police officer holding a baton, trying to catch a seemingly younger boy. Interestingly enough, outside of the attic’s window is a view of a four story building, which contains a laundry business, a sewing machine store, a cigar manufactory, and another unidentifiable store. Inside of the unidentifiable store is a man standing with the window open, looking down as a man falls directly beneath him. As this is happening two men are walking out out of the building. And then right next to these two is a dead body on the sidewalk. So my question is; what is the meaning of this picture? Is the younger boy in the attic guilty of the person’s death? Is the woman crying the younger boys mother or sister? Or perhaps she knew the person who died? Who really committed the crime? Did the man looking at the person falling push him out of the window? Are the two men walking out of the building trying to catch the falling man? Or maybe he isn’t falling but instead is looking at the dead body? And why are two out of five people so calm in the attic?

Besides the picture, connections between the reading and the film 47 Ronin can be made. For example, on page 82 “Despite his intelligence and beauty, his half-breed racial status makes him a permanent outcast and dooms him to a life of criminality. Of the terrible product of “miscegenation,” Beck concludes, “In all fairness, such a man is better dead.” First of all I want to break this quote down. Let’s start with the first sentence. Actor Keanu Reeves, aka Kai in the film, is a “half-breed,” is intelligent, many of Reeve’s fans find him “beautiful,” and so does his love interest, and because he is a half-breed/raised by demons, he is doomed to forever be an outcast and criminal. Like when Kai was smart enough to know how to kill the creature at the beginning of the film, he got no credit for it because the man who witnessed his accomplishment did not want to admit his own incompetence. Or when there is no samurai to fight in the arena, Kai with persuasion from Chikara, fills in the empty spot. Unfortunately when his samurai head gear falls off the audience then knows it was Kai fighting all along. Despite Kai’s bravery and loyalty, he is severely punished like a criminal, simply because he is an outcast. Now looking at the second sentence, there were many times throughout the first half of the film where someone told Kai he should have never been saved, or allowed to live.