Paper lanterns are pretty and we often see them for decoration here, but they have a lot of symbolism in China. Every year China has their lantern festival during the 15th day of the first lunar month… which happened to land on Valentines day this year…just a few days ago!

The lamps were first made during the Han dynasty, and were first just used for lighting. They would make them out of bamboo and red silk or paper because red resembles good fortune and joy in China. Later, the monks would light the lanterns to worship Buddha. The Emperor had everyone light the lanterns to worship Buddha. This later became a custom, and everyone would light the lanterns to celebrate and represent their strong and prosperous country. Now the lamps are mainly used for decoration during the year, and for the Lantern Festival. Traditions during the Lantern Festival are watching the lanterns, guessing lantern riddles, eating Yuanxio (rice ball with fillings) and doing different folk dances like the lion dance.

There are 5 different lanterns and they each are used for something different. The smallest one is “The Baby’s Bottom” they are used with Christmas lights on a tree. (In modern times of course) The second is the “Rolling Paper” they are the cylinder shaped ones and they are most commonly at restaurants. The third one is the “Big Red” which is the classic one we are all used to seeing. The fourth one is “Crystal Magic” and they are the geometrically shaped lanterns. Finally the fifth lantern is “Buddha’s Gastronomy” they are the largest and are seen in temples and at festivals.

Do you remember Yao Ming? The Chinese basketball player who played on the Huston Rockets? The reason I ask is because he retired in 2011. Although he really isn’t in the news much today he was back then. Yao Ming was the tallest Chinese American to play in the NBA. An article from the Washington Times “with Ya Ming in retirement, China has lost a big asset” it explains how Yao Ming was the face for Chinese. For boys and girls to look up to as a basketball player, an athlete in America. “He was a tremendously effective diplomat, and he really put a human face on the whole idea of the story of the Chinese athlete – because he could speak English, [and] because he was funny,” said M. Nicole Nazzaro. I think its really good that people looked up to Yao Ming. For him to be as famous as he was, in a sport that you usually don’t see to many Asian Americans you have to give him props for being a man that made a country look good and to be able to take a lot of criticism.

Do you remember when Shaquille O’neal and Yao would always go at it. The media would always compare the two.. Who would dominate the game? Who would score more?   It would be like Lebron and Kobe of today. Shaquille was quoted saying, “Tell Yao Ming, ‘Ching-chong- yang-wah-ah-soh’,” Shaq had said – in jest – to an Asian reporter. I loved Shaq although his free-throws weren’t that great he was a good basketball player unfortunately he did talked a lot of crap. To be on the floor talking poorly is one thing to insult ones culture is another. It may look poorly on Shaq but it made Yao Ming look even better. Being able to take these unnecessary comments made him look like the better person. I never thought about how a Asian American would be looked at until I started looking closer at Yao Ming and Jeremy Lin.

Charles Ng,Born in Hong Kong December 24th,1960 to wealthy family,obtained a student visa to attend a California university in 1980 and would leave after only a semester. He would later join the US Army after some very creative lying in order to get in. Convicted of weapons charges after stealing assault rifles while still in the Army,he would later meet Leonard Lake who become his literal partner in crime. Between the years of 1983-1985 along with Lake he committed between 11-25 murders in this two year span,however,the actual number of victims is unknown.  Convicted, he currently on Death Row in San Quentin Prison. His partner,Leonard Lake, committed suicide at the time of arrest.

Andrew P. Cunanan born August 31st,1969 in a working class neighbourhood of US Naval families stationed in and around the San Diego area,he was the youngest of 4 children in the family. He was of Filipino/Italian background and his father would later abandon the family to avoid arrest related to embezzlement. Andrew was just 19 at the time. Later in the same year, he came out to his mother which resulted in a violent argument which cause him to drift until his death. He would later settle in the Casto area of San Francisco and turn tricks in high-end bars to wealthy patrons as a means to support himself. Between April 25,1997-July 24th,1997 he would go on a killing spree that resulted in the deaths of 5 people including the fashion designer,Gianni Versace,in his Miami home. Cunanan would later die of a self-inflicted gunshot on July 24th,1997. His motives for this spree are unknown.

Seung-Hui Cho born on Jan. 18th,1984 in South Korea,he would later emigrate to the US along with his family at the age of 8. While never naturalized as a US citizen he and his family received residency status while he was still a child and for all intents his was considered the average American teenager. He was diagnosed while still in middle school with what is known as selective mutism. While this claim is dubious it persists to this day if it is a valid claim due the fact that his mental health records are sealed. According to his parents this diagnoses was not correct and there is no known autism however it is interesting to note that he did in fact receive therapy for several years before entering college. After graduating high school he was admitted to Virginia Tech and according to those that knew him things were fine for awhile until writings began to surface detailing a deeply disturbed mind. The contents of these writings have never been released. On April 16th,2007  at approx 7.15 am until 9.51 am local time Cho opened fire on the Virginia Tech campus killing 32 and injured another 17 before he later took his own life.  His family was horrified. However, the warning signs were there and the family wondered how he was able to obtain weapons despite his mental health. This remains one of the single worse school shootings ever recorded in the United States. He was 23.

These three are the only known Asian American serial killers in the history of the United States at the time of this writing. Because of this a film maker decided to shoot a film in relation to the rare killer in the US that is of Asian descent. Named Chink,it is not a documentary about the above mentioned freaks of the week,but, a horror/slasher film that has been making waves since it was released. Its director,Stanley Yung, decided that he was rather tired of the usual fare of Asian/Asian-American movies that feature the classic coming-of-age fare,martial arts,Gozilla etal instead he went for the first known film about an fictional Asian-American serial killer.

The plot is pretty simple and in fact it is disappointing simple with the usual racial hatred of self in the fact that he is of Asian descent along with the stereotypes that go along with it. Where the title comes from is that fact of our main lead being called said name throughout his life and with it the hate of self. He has a self-loathing of anything related to his racial identity until the day he meets the new girl in the office who happens to be from Hong Kong. Problem is he has already offed the office receptionist and the parents he hates ala his favourite serial killer who is surprisingly Ted Bundy instead of the three mentioned above. The movie is short and sweet clocking in barely at 85 minutes. It has ,also,been compared to Better Luck Tomorrow as the adult view of what could have happened to the leads in that movie if allowed to conclude the path that they were on.

The resulting film,like the freaks of the week, becomes the ultimate form of a cautionary tale of what self-loathing of identity,racial bias and trying to escape from anything and everything can result in. Despite the fact that it is a fictional tale the overtones of the actual,living,breathing and now deceased serial killers is there. The reason? Stanley Yung,director, self-admits his long standing fascination of serial killers himself and more to the point that even Asian-Americans can be serials. While it is extremely controversial film it does not seek to glamorize or even excuse the man that hates himself so much that he must kill to rid himself of his racial identity. Or rid of himself of the last of his humanity which is the point the Yung was hoping to convey. Even the title of the movie is a reference to the racial slurs our character heard growing up. It is no accident then that Yung named the movie as such.

Like Ng,Curnana and Cho that racial disconnect is apparent in the film as it is the real world. Ng could not overcome nor hope to achieve what society plus family wanted from him and as result met the one person that would send him into hell. Curnana struggled with the double of identity issues of not only being gay,but, Filipino as well with a tragic outcome. Cho devolved rapidly into madness while at university and there were signs that could have stopped it before more than 30 people would lose their lives. This is the ultimate point of the Asian pop-culture disconnect that is found in the freaks of the week as well as the movie,Chink, in that racial identity whether we want it or not plays a bigger role than first thought.

In the light of day we look at Hello Kitty,Sailor Moon,Godzilla,Japanese Lolita’s,manga and whole plenthora of other Asian related materials that we eat up in droves,however, what about those that would kill just to escape all that? What about those who hate anything and everything to do with their Asian culture that they must erase it?

The train wreck then rambles on to the next station. It rambles on past the dark movie theater playing Chink on a Friday night to scare the masses just once more. It rambles on past the freaks of the week. It has disconnected. 

But. We still must stare.

Til next time..

Further readings:

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

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seung-Hui_Cho

Chink further readings:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2346170/

http://www.examiner.com/article/chink-explores-the-mind-of-an-asian-american-serial-killer

http://laapff.festpro.com/films/detail/chink_2013

http://asianfilmfestla.org/2013/stanley-yung-director-chink/

My best friend while attending Western Oregon University was born and raised on the Hawiian island of Kuai. We met while both of us were on the Universities baseball team. It was easy to build a comradery with a person who you spent so much time with at practices, and soon I had latched on to his group of friends who also were from the islands and attended the University. We came to realize that our cultures were not so different. Me as a kid who grew up in a rural setting always enjoyed the outdoors, and was taught to respect others as well as the land you lived on. These ideas also held true for my friends from the islands, as well as the connection of us all growing up in a rural setting. As they would say, “We country cuz, we no like city.” I was thinking about my buddy Travis the other day, or Bruddah Trav as we call him, and about his mentioning his ancestry on his mothers side being descendants from Hawaiian royalty on the island of Kauai.

Connecting this to popular culture it made me think of a film I saw awhile back called “The Descendants” starring George Clooney who plays a descendant of a rich haole banker and a Hawaiian Princess. Clooney’s character is named Matt King and along with the rest of the King family they own a large chunk of land on Kauai. From this I wondered what the films reception was on the islands and its impact. I found out from one source that the film was well received due to it actually being filmed on Kauai, and it having done a splendid job of ”acknowledging” and displaying local culture. Also the film was praised for utilizing an all Hawaiian soundtrack which the article states as being, “the first mainstream American film featuring all Hawaiian music.”

I think its great that through the use of media in the form of this film a little piece of Hawaiian culture is being displayed to the masses.

Here is a link to the article.

http://thegardenisland.com/news/local/the-descendants-globes-win-expected-to-boost-tourism/article_cc52efea-40dd-11e1-a7b1-001871e3ce6c.html

Another band I really like is Blonde Redhead, a 3-piece from New York which features singer/guitarist Kazu Makino along with brothers Amedeo and Simone Pace. Blonde Redhead specialize in alternative rock, wielding influences in noise rock, shoegaze, dream pop and others into their own sound. They’ve been around over 20 years now and have become an indie staple of sorts. Kazu Makino was born in Kyoto, Japan before immigrating to the United States at a young age. She attended art school in New York where she met the two brothers (in an Italian restaurant no less), and the three would form the backbone for Blonde Redhead for years to come. While the band released a bunch of records in the 90s that earned them a strong following, it wasn’t until 2004′s Misery is a Butterfly (the first album they released on indie titan 4AD records, a label best known for it’s artist repertoire like Pixies, Cocteau Twins and Throwing Muses) that the band was able to reach a larger audience. The song I’m posting here is a favorite from the following album 23, released in 2007 on 4AD records.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This week I will be examining the American T.V. show The Walking Dead (I’ve watched seasons 1-3) for stereotypes of Asian Americans. I am choosing to focus on The Walking Dead because it is the most popular current American zombie themed T.V. show. The fact that the show is so popular means that it could easily provide a major influence on it’s massive audience. And we all know how stereotypes caused by the media/entertainment industry spread like a virus (and no, not like a zombie virus. Well hopefully not).

Ok. So as a quick reminder the typical stereotypes of Asian/Asian American men are that they are non-sexual, villainous, are excellent in math and science (“model minority myth”), pose a threat to white women, are sexual deviants, lack morals, and are physically weak… must I go on?

So this may come as a surprise when I say that the Korean American male character named Glenn in The Walking Dead is actually not, or at least almost not stereotyped. In a list here below is how Glenn is not stereotyped:

1. Glenn was a pizza boy before the apocalypse; not anything fancy like a scientist or doctor. Just a “regular” kid delivering pizzas.

2. Yes, Glenn is portrayed as a fighter. But not as being skilled in martial arts.

 (Glenn using a gun to fight off the “Walkers”)

3. Glenn is a highly moral character that serves as the other characters constant anchor of humanity. While most of the other characters have some sort of moral crisis throughout the show, he does not. He always knows right from wrong no matter what.

4. He can be seen as a hero and not the villain. And more importantly a hero to a white woman; his lover Maggie. It would be a preposterous idea to even think about Glenn posing a threat to Maggie or any other woman.

 (Maggie and Glenn kissing)

5. Glenn is an individual; not an “extra” to the show. He makes decisions for himself and is a leader.

Yep. So there you have it. Now you know of a T.V. show that does a pretty darn good job at not stereotyping Asian Americans; specifically Asian American men. And on top of it, the show is about zombies! So now you’ll definitely have to tune in to watch it….that is if you love anything to do with zombies as much as I do.

 (Horde of “Walkers”)

(1st picture taken from: http://www.melty.fr/the-walking-dead-saison-4-glenn-et-sa-vendetta-contre-le-gourverneur-galerie-604804-1837195.html)

(2nd picture taken from: http://static2.hypable.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Walking-Dead-Glenn-Maggie-Kiss.jpg)

(3rd picture taken from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/rf/image_606w/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/10/13/Style/Images/wd10132.jpg)

1940s Electric guitar

The electric guitar and bass were born in America, however imports from Asia forced them to grow up.

1940s Bass guitar

Prior to 1950, electric guitars were simply acoustics with a simple pickup installed just below the fingerboard and amplifiers were small and week with little output. Electric basses didn’t exist until Leo Fender introduced what would become the Precision Bass. Leo Fender is the guy who brought electric guitars and basses to the masses, which at the time– early 1950s– were regarded as nothing more than novelties. Fender’s quickly became popular with working musicians who had very little money, because they could afford the Fender and by virtue of their construction made repairs much easier than other companions. Fender Guitars and amps pushed other manufactures such as Gibson to reevaluate their old-world traditional designs.

1950s Fender Telecaster

Electric guitars and basses dominated the music scene in the 1960s, with Fender leading the pack. As the country entered the 1970s accountants became the primary decision makers in the musical instrument business; consistent with other manufacturing such as automobiles and motorcycles. With bean-counters at the helm quality and attention to detail nose dived, leaving musicians looking to the used market for instruments. This lull in US manufacturing paved the way for Asian imports to fill the quality gap.

Rik Emmett & Yamaha

The Japanese musical company, Yamaha first arrived in the US in the late 1960s with their interpretation of Gibson designs. By the mid 1970s popular artists began choosing Yamaha over Gibson guitars due to their superior quality, and affordable prices. Carlos Santana began playing a Yamaha SG200 1976, by which time the company became very popular. Later, players like Rik Emmett of the power-trio Triumph worked with Yamaha to improve the designs of their guitars to better suit his needs. These advances in design flowed over to other manufactures such as the Japanese guitar company Ibanez, who would become known for their Fender-styled guitars.

With rock-guitar becoming increasingly more technical in the 1980s guitarists needed instruments that could handle their musical expression. The Ibanez company  worked closely with these players, such as Joe Satriani and Steve Vai (and more recently Herman Li) to continually push guitar designs and innovations. Some of the many innovations included bridges that would stay in-tune no matter how aggressive the player, and multi-piece necks that enhanced the structural stability of the the instrument. Necks supported with graphite rods, pickups with coil-splitting, on-board powered equalization, and locking tuning pegs are all innovations brought to players though collaboration with the Asian imports.

Steve Vai & Ibanez

Yamaha and Ibanez quality and forward thinking paved the way for other Asian manufactures such as Aria, Cort and Hondo. Their attention to detail also forced the US guitar companies to improve their products, and by the late 1980s and early 1990s most of the US companies added their own imported models from Asia to their catalogs.

Herman Li & Ibanez

Today most of the Asian imports are very well made and unlike the majority of US made guitars, are priced within reach of the beginning guitarist. Players who chose US made guitars over the Asian imports usually do so because the components are considered slightly better, woods more exotic, or for sentimental/ nostalgic reasons. Others note their desire to support domestic labor/ manufacturing, or can simply afford to buy the most expensive guitar that catches their eye.

These are truly the golden days for guitarists & bassists. Thanks to the Asian imports of the 1970s US companies Fender and Gibson are still alive, and thriving. The choices today are seemingly endless, the quality is far better than it has ever been and the variety of learning options are vast. If you have ever wanted to learn to play guitar or bass, now is the time.

The past meets the future~
Top: 1950s Fender Telecaster
Bottom: 2014 Herman Li signature Ibanez

Gowe “Aurora” Music Video

This Korean American making his own music video and having like a video game style with it is so awesome to me. Check this out. His flows omg I want to meet this guy and ask him, on his journey what made him do this. Out of the norm to some, but doing something different like this makes him unique. Good shit Gowe. Enjoy!!!

Click here to view the embedded video.