One of the less talked about Asian groups, the Asian Indians;  just like any other group have their own beauty standards and beauty issues.  As I research some of their beauty standards, one of the major issues that keeps popping up is skin lightening.  There are many skin lightening product lines in Asia and South East Asia that advertise that lighter skin is more beautiful.  The first thing I noticed was a Loreal Paris picture featuring a famous Bollywood actress named Aishwarya Rai.  She is fresh-faced, and is next to a product line that says, “White Perfect: for smooth, fair skin.”  That’s just the beginning.  There is a product line called “Fair & Lovely”.  And one of their skin lightening products is called “winter fairness”.  AND on top of that, the slogan for that product is: “Does your cold cream leave you looking dark in winter? Why should you have to compromise with your fairness?”  And in the commercials for Fair & Lovely products, it literally shows the progression of getting whiter skin.  Another disturbing fact is that many popular brands here in America, such as: Neutrogena, Garnier, and Loreal are all making skin lightening products for Indian markets.  I don’t really know how I feel about this.

It is now at the point where women are getting skin lightening treatments before going to a job interview.  Or women are told that they are lucky to have gotten a marriage proposal because they are ‘too dark’ to be considered pretty.  And even in marriage ads people are asking for the bride to be fair skinned.

Something that keeps coming up in my research is the 2014 Miss America winner.  Her name is Nina Davuluri and she is Indian-American.  There is controversy right now because people in India are saying that because of the racism in their country about skin color, she would likely never win a pageant in India.  Because she is too dark.  This to me is outrageous.  I can’t wrap my head around it.  It’s one thing to wear makeup, or get hair extensions, or whatever, but to try and change what you are by changing the color of your skin…I just can’t.  This topic has upset me much more than I imagined it would.  I didn’t even know what I was getting myself into when I started researching this.  And I think partially it’s upsetting me because it hits too close to home.  Is this seriously the reason my grandma tries to be as ‘white’ as possible?  Or why my aunts would always talk about how much lighter they were than the rest of the family?  I literally had no idea this was even a thing.  I just don’t know what to think.  I’m almost disappointed in my culture.

I’ve been trying to find information on the history of this internalized racism, but so far I haven’t found as much as I would like. However, from what I have read, the reason behind it is deeply rooted in India’s history.  It starts from the Caste system, and with dark people being in the lower caste levels.  It is also a product of colonization and Western culture.  The mannequins in some of the malls are blonde, blue-eyed, ‘fair’ skinned women.  How are women in India supposed to feel pretty if that is what they are being told is beautiful?

On a hopeful note, there is now a campaign going on in India called “Dark is beautiful.”  It is dark-skinned people beginning to stand up for themselves.  They are fighting for they’re self-worth and believing that they are beautiful, and I’m really glad that this is happening.  It means that things are changing, and that hopefully in the future they won’t feel the need to lighten their skin.

A link to Loreal Paris: India’s skin whitening products…

http://www.lorealparis.co.in/skincare/whitening.aspx

A link to Fair & Lovely…

http://www.fairandlovely.in/products/women_products.html?id=gotoslide5

A link to an article on Fair & Lovely…

http://feminspire.com/skin-lightening-racial-identity-and-societal-beauty-standards-stop-the-madness/

Where I got some of the history:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/contributors/contributions/aditi-jain/Racism-in-the-21st-century-India-The-obsession-with-fair-skin/articleshow/28508975.cms

A TIME article on the problem:

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/09/19/miss-america-is-too-dark-to-be-miss-india/

more sources:

http://www.dressful.com/4413/vogue-india-racism-only-light-skin-is-beautiful

dark is beautiful facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/darkisbeautiful

Click here to view the embedded video.

Motorcycles have been a prominent influence on music and pop-culture for many years. Some have gone so far to assert that guitars and motorcycles are synonymous. When asked his idea of perfect happiness, renowned moto-journalist Peter Egan said;

“Two things, I’d say. The first is the view over the Veglia instruments and fairing on my 900SS and the sound from the Conti mufflers when I’ve just shifted into top gear, and the second is taking off my helmet and walking into a motorcycle shop, a book store or a music store full of guitars. All the synapses are firing, for once.”

The list of songs with motorcycle references, sounds, influence is long. Some of my favorites are:

“Bat Outta Hell“ Meatloaf
“Ride“ Joe Satriani
“The Motorcycle Song“ Arlo Guthrie
“Motorcycle“ Love and Rockets
“1952 Vincent Black Lightning” Richard Thompson
“Bad Motor Scooter“ Montrose
“Ghost Rider“ Rush
“Little Honda ’64“ Beach Boys

And a lot of great tunes in a multitude of genres are found on Soundcloud.

A few Asian/American crosscurrents between guitars, music and motorcycles:

A fun motorcycle/Anime/music video remake of the Queen classic “Bicycle Race”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Japanese motorcycle company, Yamaha is not only one of the largest manufactures of motorcycles, but also the makers of excellent musical instruments– especially guitars and basses.

My favorite Japanese motorcycle company is Honda. It entered into legendary status in the 1980s through racing icon Joey Dunlop at the Isle of Man TT– the worlds premier motorcycle roads race. Dunlop’s special Honda “works” racer was damaged and could not compete. Never one to give up, Dunlop chose to ride a stock Honda VFR aboard which he finished first. He also filmed one of the first on-board laps of the mountain course in which the video was not sped up to enhance the feel of speed. The camera was positioned on the gas tank so the tachometer would remain visible; evidence the film was “real-time.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Japanese also make some of the best motorcycle helmets in the world:

 And my favorite of all video games:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And finally…

My first bike; 1986 Suzuki GS450L

If you’re a kid of the 90′s, you know exactly who ‘Football Head’ is and were probably totally jealous of his bedroom with the remote controlled flip out couch. And if you were me you tried listening to jazz to be as cool as him.

Hey Arnold! was a Nickelodeon cartoon series that ran from 1996 to 2004. It centered around Arnold (we never learn of his last name) who lived in a boarding house with his grandparents. The characters around him were often eccentric with exaggerated personalities but he remained very mellow, rarely being caught off guard by anything.

Arnold

Arnold’s best friend and right hand man is Gerald Johanssen. He is of African American descent and knows all the town urban legends. Not only is he the class President, he is also known as one of the coolest kids in school. In a particular episode, he got listed as a geek by another character’s “Geek List” and it really seemed to upset him. Unlike Arnold who made the “Cool List” and didn’t really care at all.

Gerald Johanssen

Another one of the kids at Arnold’s school (and the love interest of Gerald) was Phoebe Heyerdahl. Phoebe was Helga Pataki’s sidekick and one of the smartest girls in school. Phoebe is from Kentucky and it is assumed her mother is from there too judging by her strong southern accent. Her father however is Japanese which makes Phoebe mix raced.

Gerald’s character never seemed to portray any bad stereotypes. Yes, he had obvious and typical ones like him being good at sports and was ridiculously smooth (I expected him to say jive turkey sometimes). But he also had qualities that wouldn’t be seen as stereotypical, like him being the class president and one of the coolest kids at school. Not to mention his family represented the All-American Dream’ better than any other family on the show. His parents were still together and he was the middle child between an older brother and a younger sister. The only thing that was missing was the white pickett fence.

Phoebe Heyerdahl

Phoebe on the other hand fulfilled the Asian stereotype too well. She was the smartest girl in class (in one episode she had the chance to jump two grade levels ahead to the 6th grade). She was short and had a mousy little voice. She was shy and only really spoke up in class when she knew she had the right answer. And to top it off she was basically Helga’s secretary. She was too afraid to stand up to her and often went along with her plans even thought she knew it was a bad idea.

So yeah, the show was awesome because the main character was a white male that didn’t come from a traditional family. He lived in a boarding house with his grandparents and a rainbow of different cultures within the boarding house. And let’s be honest, Arnold was just a good kid. But when you look closely, especially at Phoebe’s character, you can see where they took the easy way out and wrote a stereotypical character. And while it’s cool that Phoebe and Gerald were love interest to each other, its also says that kids of color can only be with other kids of color.

While there is a natural link between America and the Asian eSports scene from the origin and spread of the competitive game scene. In terms of actual Asian American culture there is quite a few relevant points that can connect the culture with Asian American-ness. The first big point is virtually every top end pro team in League of Legends has multiple Asian Americans on the team. In fact, the best team in North America right now Team Solo Mid had 5 Asian Americans of varying origins until one played was subbed out for a European transfer. The competitive LoL scene is treated like any other professional sport where you can bench players, trade players, or poach players from other teams.

The biggest representatives of top end performance in the North American region are almost always in the hands of the model minority. There exists the common stereotype that Asians, particularly the Koreans are superior in everyday to the rest of the world in terms of skill, speed and the winning drive.

The cyber-culture of eSports is not only a global culture but also a tool in itself for spreading and changing the culture rapidly. While each region will have their own favorite players and small scale victories everyone has a chance at world recognition at the Season Finals each year.

The current president of Nintendo of America is Reggie Fils-Aime, probably known better as the guy who made this famous.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Aside from that, Fils-Aime is continuing to serve Nintendo through public announcements of games and features related to Nintendo through broadcasts via Nintedo Direct. Reggie Fils-Aime was born from Haitian parents who moved into the mainland, where he was born in the Bronx. He did not immediately start as the head of Nintendo though, for he first worked under Nintendo of America as their  Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing in 2003, but finally moved up in 2006 to replace Tatsumi Kimishima’s position, who was moved up to Chairman of the Board and CEO. Fils-Aime was the first American at the time to receive this entitlement.

What makes this stand out is that Nintendo decided to give Reggie Fils-Aime a chance to bolster the image of Nintendo on American shores, and so far they think he’s doing well enough to still have him serving that position even today. It might not be the easiest job, and the marketing may be rough on Nintendo right now, but Fils-Aime has been doing all he can to make sure Nintendo does not go under. While this may not be totally related to video games, next post will talk about Asians in video games made in America.

Sexual liberation is and has been a part of Indonesia’s ancient cultures for some time, with a long history of transvestite entertainers, hostesses and prostitutes in Bali, known as ‘banci’, ‘waria’ or ‘bencong’. Banci is a nationwide (and some what derogatory) term for male to female transvestites, to well known bahasa gay/banci variants of the term are binan and bencong.

Although homosexual behavior is not illegal, there is little more tolerance towards homosexuals or transvestites within the Hindu Balinese culture compared to other parts of Indonesia.

Here is an example… Just like in my earlier post about Rupauls Drag Race, Raja is a queen from Indonesia  and won a season of RuPauls Drag Race.

I’ve been working on a few fusion dress designs. I’ll post the others after I post some other national costumes. In looking at what are dubbed “Fusion Hanboks” the designs often look completely Western. Though the dress skirt isn’t actually closed, but rather a wrap around, the only other main difference is the top line. The most common modifications to a hanbok are a shortening of the hemline and alteration or removal of the jacket piece.

To some traditionalists, the East-West fusion wear is interpreted as a modernizing (because in much of Asia “Westernizing” and “modernizing” are synonymous) therefore resulting in a loss of culture. For some designers, using a hanbok form is a way to reconcile the modern fashion styles with tradition, thereby returning to roots.

Sandra Oh modeled a fusion hanbok on the red carpet once. The piece left off the jacket and the traditional style tie became nearly comically oversized. Her outfit also utilized colors not common in traditional wear, which is another common element of fusion wear. The dress did retain it’s length and fullness.

The photos of Kpop group T-ara show a variety of styles among fusion/modern wear. Their outfits add flairs such as ruffles and layering, a bow rather than the tie, moving the line from the bust to the waist, and fur trims on short sleeves or bolero tops.