So these are wooden dolls, and they are painted wearing the traditional clothing you would wear during a Korean Wedding. I don’t know the name of them, and I can’t find much information about them. They do have importance to me though, so I would like to learn more about them. My neighbors have lived next to me for 18 years now, and their daughter is my best friend. Anyways, her mom gave us these little dolls, and I always remember seeing them sitting above our door. Now that I am researching Asian arts, I am curious to what these little dolls mean, the history behind them and if there is a tradition with them. It is hard to find information on them though, probably because I don’t know what they are called. I asked my friend but she also can’t remember. Does anyone know about these ?

So I was trying to think about what my next rock post was going to think about, and couldn’t really think of an idea. So I went to google and typed in “Asian Art” and I scrolled through the pictures to see if I can get an idea. What I noticed right away was how many of those images had Cherry blossoms in them. So I decided to look up the importance of them.

So there are a few different meanings behind the cherry blossom. One is that it is a symbol of friendship, and one will often give the tree to a friend to plant. Another is morality because the blossoms have “extreme beauty and quick death”. This is why they are often in Japanese art, manga, movies, and anime.

Hanami is a tradition in Japan that goes on during March-May every year.  Hanami means flower viewing. During this time, people all over Japan will picnic under the flower trees, and they are most often Sakura trees. (Cherry Blossom)  The blossoms only last a couple weeks, so families make sure to have their party under one of the trees during these weeks.

I wanted to briefly thank everyone for following my blog the past quarter. Sadly all good things come to the end but my obsession with the islands of Hawai′i lives on, and I hope that I have sparked some interest in you all to the great history and culture of the islands. I do wish, that I would be able to continue my blog in order to provide more information on the islands, and their role in pop culture, and furthermore their connection with Asian American pop culture. However for me its Pau Hana time, so to all my readers shoots, bumbye, catch ya later.

To put it in simple terms, it is the Olympics of Cosplay.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A team of two cosplayers from each of the 25 participating nations/regions are chosen to represent their country in the event hosted in Japan. WCS is an event that brings many different backgrounds together in celebration of their love for anime and manga. The cosplayers go through preliminary competitions and have to have certain criteria in order to be chosen for WCS. Once the team is chosen, they must not only fabricate all new costumes but create a three to five minute stage routine. The interesting part is, none of the participants are costuming professionals. It’s actually in the rules, no professionals are allowed to participate in this event. Crazy right?! Cosplayers of this caliber; able to interweave lights into armor, fabricate dresses that transform, and build wings that move are not professionals. Going to WCS does a lot for your cosplay career whether you win or not. From a business standpoint, it’s a lot of exposure (especially considering that it’s on an international level). Another rule is that can only cosplay characters that are of Japanese origin. Interesting right?

“Pageants are reflections of larger social forces.” - Dave’ pg. 204

In a way, CWS is a new form of beauty pageant (A really nerdy beauty pageant).  Ironically enough, it’s forces competitors to do their research and appropriate enough to follow the rules they have created. Not only do they have to look the part, but act and used Japanese audio during their performance. The teams represented their country while still becoming a part of the Japanese culture through cosplay. Taking a close look at the rules, (no costumes that are skimpy, no dangerous weapons, et all.) I can see the various parallels. Part of me actually wonders if the contestants are as catty as some of the Japanese American beauty pageant girls were in the 1980′s.

Sources

“East Main Street: Asian American Popular Culture” Dave’, Nishime, Oren

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Cosplay_Summit

This is the last rock post for this blog. What I’ve covered are related to video games and Asian Americans, although I’ll admit I was disappointed to find little to no information on Asian American video game developers. Most Asian game developers are based in Japan or Korea and the ones that I found are just a small community that started awhile back, but has not been active recently. Aside from that, here is the overview of what I covered this quarter.

First thing I went over, that was not me trying to figure out what to base my Rock posts on, was on the focus of video games. Besides giving a definition, I also covered some famous mascots that are related to video games and their influence. Sure there are American and Asian game mascots such as Mario of the Nintendo franchise or Master Chief from the Halo series, but is there any Asian American-created mascots? None at the moment that are really memorable and largely known by the public, but maybe someday there might be if they can pull it off.

Next thing I covered was if there was any Asian Americans high up in the video game industry, only to come across the living “meme” known as Reggie Fils-Aime. He is of Haitian descent and the only one I know that is not in a lower position. I don’t think the other companies had a head of their company that wasn’t Caucasian, but I could be wrong if they recently rotated a new person in. Anyways, Reggie is the only one I know because of how “popular” he became regarding his quote, “my body is ready,” and that I’ve probably been playing Nintendo made games longer than any other brands.

The last thing I covered was the depictions of Asian characters in American-made video games. From Mortal Kombat to Def Jam: Fight for NY, the portrayals of Asians has not changed much. Sure they don’t have those particular “accents and dialects” or the stereotypical bucktooth appearance, but some things don’t go away so easily. As I pointed out, Shang Tsung from the Mortal Kombat series possesses the qualities that resemble Fu Manchu, including the facial hair in some of his incarnations throughout the series. Aside from that, he possesses the ability to manipulate others through his skill of pretending to be other people and the fact that he can use telekinetic magic as well. That does not mean this applies to all portrayals of Asian characters in American video games. Some were hardly there like Faith from Mirror’s Edge, who you can only tell is Asian if you looked at the reflection on some windows. Another one a fellow classmate brought up was the protagonist of Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, which was Huang Lee, song of a Triad boss.

Despite all this, I’m content with the information I learned from the readings, lectures, movies, and the information I sought out for myself to create these Rock posts. I’ve learned more about Asian American culture ever since my first class here in Evergreen, which focused on Japanese Americans during World War II. I also got to learn some stuff about my own culture, the Filipinos and Filipinas and how the stuff they portrayed has actually happened in my lifetime. Unfortunately, my study on Asian studies is about to come to a grinding halt due to the lack of classes focusing on the general topic next quarter, causing me to take classes that have little to no interest to me. It’s just to get the max credits needed for me to be out of here as soon as possible. Maybe next year there will be more classes that will study Asian or Asian American culture, but until then I must bide my time bite the bullet.

THE END

http://video.pba.org/video/2365060703/

(watch this video before reading this, or after. Honestly, it’s up to you. Just watch it ok?)

“The term cosplay corresponds to an abbreviation of the English words costume play, though the term was coined in Japan the practice is not solely Japanese. The use of the term cosplay applies to any costumed role play out side of theaters. Characters are often taken from popular Japanese fiction. Popular sources that fans draw from include anime, manga, video games, comic books, and graphic novels. American cos-players practice this form of fandom at anime conventions. However there are a growing number of web pages and photo sites dedicated to the art of cos-playing, such as DeviantArt and Cosplay.com.”

I have honestly yet to find out just when cosplay started, nor do I know when exactly it traveled over to America. From a Japanese subculture, to an American subculture; Cosplay was an underground hobby for comic and manga enthusiast alike. It really wasn’t until (to my understanding) around 2010 that cosplay began to really grow. Cosplayers got way creative, more intricate costumes were made, the number of people going to conventions really bumped up. It was amazing to bear witness to. Lights, hoop skirts, armor, swords, halberds, holsters, helmets with built in mics.

Oops, got a bit off topic. *Ahem*

It grew, and grew, until finally what was once viewed as just a hobby became something more. People actually started making a career from cosplay. Modeling, selling prints, taking commissions, competing. Cosplay became a growing enterprise of sorts. Then of course it began to catch the eye of the media, and shows (more like shit shows) like Heroes of Cosplay were created. There were documentaries as well, good ones and not so good ones. But all of them allowed people to see the various sides of cosplay; as a visual art, a performance art, a hobby, a lifestyle, and a business. Music Videos, books, movies, shows, you name it! Cosplay spread through the media in a multitude of ways, attracting an ever-growing audience.

Source

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pop_culture_in_the_United_States

Asian Americans hold a strong spot in influencing the online video game industry, both in game design and community involvement. Popular online games are  full of references to Asian trivia and culture. A few big-time examples being World of Warcraft and League of Legends. WoW had an entire expansion of the game dedicated to a traditional Chinese/Japanese style aesthetic from the building design to the outfits, and of course they had to add pandas.

Beyond simple references to certain cultures there are several key founding members of the League of Legends pro-scene that were pivotal to the growth of the online community. One such example being the brothers Andy and Dan Dinh, who of Vietnamese-American origins launched one of the first community based websites dedicated to learning and teaching League of Legends. The website called solomid.net is not only a gathering hub for any individual able to make their mark via posting guides and forum involvement but also stands as a representation of the pro-team Team Solo Mid who is one of the most successful professional organizations in the United States.

On the inside design of the game,  League of Legends from the beginning had prevalent influences from Asian American sources and even more clearly with the hiring of the designer Kuo-Yen “Xypherous” Lo. He became a common favorite for the forum community to praise for making extremely fun to play champions in the game. In addition he is known for communicating directly with the community and lets them know of his thoughts, actions and wants from the game. The biggest of these interactions being with the design of the champion “Riven” which he hyped up by mentioning references from several anime and Street Fighter influences. This in turn caused a huge surge of popularity for people choosing to play the champion and warranted a community involved project of designing purely optional aesthetic “skins” to change her appearance in game.  Her most recent “skin” is called Dragon Blade Riven and was made in celebration of the Chinese New Year.

Wataru Misaka is a Japanese American retired basketball player who was the first player of Asian descent to play in the National Basketball Association (NBA) beginning his career in 1947. During his college career he played for the University of Utah and led his school to the 1944 NCAA and 1947 NIT championships. Interestingly, he took two years off between the two championships to serve in the United States Army in the American occupation of Japan and during 1947-1948 Misaka played three games for the New York Knicks. One of his admirable accomplishments was that he was inducted into the Utah Sports Hall of Fame in 1999. A year later, he was featured in an exhibit at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, titled More Than a Game: Sport in the Japanese American Community. In addition, in 2008, there was a documentary film released that was titled, Transcending: The Wat Misaka Story portraying his playing career and accomplishment with being America’s first non white player in the NBA.

After noting that the first non white player in the NBA was an Asian male was striking because now, the sport of basketball is mostly dominated by blacks. This was a huge accomplishment and I think illustrates how America has changed over time, considering now, there are few Asian American males in the NBA and more blacks in the league. In addition, with Misaka being the first Asian and non white person in the league was pivotal because I feel that he gave Asians hope towards a new and positive future. Moreover, this happened soon after the devastation of WWII and the alienation of Japanese ancestry being sent to internment camps.