Category Archives: rock

Linsanity

232711-jeremy-linJeremy Lin has made headlines starting in 2011-2012. He had became a real over night sensation. In the 2011-2012 season Lin was deep on the bench, he was the 15th man.(If watch  basketball for even a split second you see that 5 play at a time and might go 8 to 10 deep unless your losing or winning by a lot.) Lin got his break when the coaching strike happened in 2011. This gave the coaches time to really look at Lins work effort. “He was the first to arrive and the last to leave.” Lin has made a big difference for the Asian American basketball community by showing everyone that Asians can play basketball. He has shown people that there shouldn’t be stereotypes regarding basketball because as long as you have skill, color doesn’t matter. Lin has made a difference not only with having millions knowing his name but taking time to run basketball camps in China for children.

“When I was growing up, I was playing in the AAU [amateur] tournaments. We’d be playing games, and a couple times people would be like, ‘Yo, take your ass back to China,’ or like ‘You’re a Chinese import,’ or whatever. When I got to college, it just, like, got crazy. ‘You Chink, can you even open your eyes? Can you see the scoreboard?’ You know, just like crazy stuff.”

I think its sad that when we see an Asian man in the NBA we think its surprising yet when we see a black man or white man we think its completely natural. We think thats where they belong. I think its really inspiring that Jermey is a new(ish) face for basketball players because we see a lot of the Kobe’s, the Lebrons that didn’t go to college but are the face for African Americans trying to become the next superstar. As a basketball player its nice to see someone get a lot of hype for working hard despite all the nasty [(not that Kobe and Lebron didn’t work hard to get where they are).

 

Week 5, Thursday readings on Davé (focus on article 5)

I’m focusing on “‘Pappy’s House’: ‘Pop’ Culture and the Revaluation of a Filipino American ‘Sixty-Cents’ in Guam¨ by  Vincent M. Diaz for this section because of the use of vernacular and because we didn’t discuss it in class. This article also strongly demonstrated the way that context really influences translation and how language has been used both as an oppressive tactic and cultural resistance.

First, the oppressive tactic. The roots and usage of pappy/pappi and then leading to Mammy in this article put the words into a new light. While Diaz illustrates how pappy/pappi has been used to signify race relations (page 104), the use of “papa”, “daddy”, and “padre” in a mixing of languages still produces pappy to signify the patriarchal father figure (page 110). However, Diaz also points out that the use of mammy brings one general archetype to the mind; the women who lived the real life hardships of the Southern Mother without ever being given credit to what she did and how she worked. We do not picture a white southern women when Mammy is mentioned because even if the white women was the female head of the house and the mother of the white children, it was the black women who became the Mammy. And while these are two exact examples that are given in the article it demonstrates how vernacular has been used to impress stereotypes in such a subliminal way that it can be hard to recognize the intent withou knowing the history.

Despite this (and secondly) this vernacular can be the cultural resistance which powerfully remains after physical resistance is pushed down. As discussed in the lecture, resistance vernaculars (Tony Mitchell) usually associated with native/local/indigenous languages. (Those which have been historically ridiculed and used as a way to discriminate.) By using one’s own native/cultural language, and thus vernacular, it is a form of cultural resistance.) It is not only in the actual usage and speaking of the language, but also the reappropriation of terms. Throughout the article Diaz uses vernacular to pull the reader in and to also use words that may not have always been acceptable in an American academic writing. His style goes against the created and accepted “norm” and in doing so he establishes the racist history from where some words came from (107-109) as well as using humor to show how normal the “not normal” truly is. (Seng it out, page 103!!) Contemporary artists do this in mainstream music, such as lecture-introduced artists Blue Scholars and Black Eyed Peas. Both use pop culture and personal history vernacular to challenge their images and their stereotyped identity.

However, another point this article led me to was the response to this year’s Superbowl commercial from Coca Cola:

Click here to view the embedded video.

**Here is where I add that I have no affiliation with Coke and rarely drink it nor do I watch the Superbowl but Go Seahawks and hey, yeah, here’s the commercial**

I wanted to mention this not because I think Coke is doing some amazing thing because I’m sure the speculation on their intentions can go one way or another, but because of the unbelievable response to this commercial! The outrageously racist comments this commercial received demonstrated how native languages other than English are still being majorly rejected. NPR did an interview about the responses to the commercial which can be found here (includes both a written dialogue and audio). I will allow you to make your own judgments on the interview, but I did have a few things I wanted to point out.

1. I don’t speak any of the languages used other than English, but it’s stated the one of the languages is Keres Pueblo. Meaning that every other language used is, at the root of it, an immigrant language.

2. When two people are trying to communicate and both are doing so in different languages, that is frustrating (for both parties). But not being able to speak a language does not inherently mean that one person isn’t trying or that there is a personal attack happening, etc. When I lived in Arizona and came across people who struggled with English because it wasn’t their first language, my frustration did not give me an excuse to be an indecent, rude person. The song “America the Beautiful” is a known song so it being sung in a different language- whether parts of it or the entire thing- is not language barrier. You still know the song.

after all, the truth always sounds the most fake

Bravely Default

One thing that I really adore is turn-based RPGs. As such, this post will be about a game that recently came out in America, Bravely Default.

The game was only very recently released, having come out last Friday. It’s about a fictional world where the balance is kept by four crystals, and the bad guys are trying to change the order of the world by corrupting the crystals so that people will no longer have faith in them. However, things in the game are not quite as clean cut as in many other games. One of the main character, Edea, is the daughter of the man responsible for trying to corrupt the crystals. She joins your party early on in the game, and has to come to terms over the course of the game with the fact that much of her life has been a lie. Her people have vilified the crystals to such an extent that they believe the people who watch over them to be evil witches. She’d been taught that they were the most wicked beings, when in fact the girls guarding the crystals were priestesses (miko, 巫女, translated as “vestal” for some reason), and are not only seemingly vegetarian but generally pacifistic, and spend the majority of their lives praying to the crystals. Though not necessarily the specific main character, Edea needs to learn throughout the game how the war raging is completely evil not on the part of the crystal worshipers, but on the part of her own family.

I haven’t finished the game yet, but Edea’s route in it so far reminded me a lot of our class, and how we’ve learned a great deal about the way that history is written to not necessarily be accurate. Everyone wants to paint themselves in a good light, even when they have done a great deal of wrong.

Magical Girl Anime: Powerpuff Girls!

On November 18th, 1998 The Powerpuff Girls officially debuted on Cartoon Network in America. I remember being wickedly excited for this because FINALLY there was a show that had three girls as the protagonists and they were super heroes! Doesn’t this sound familiar?

PPG

Sailor Moon!

So not only was Powerpuff Girls a huge hit in the states, by no surprise, it also became very popular in Japan as well.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Unfortunately the day came where the Powerpuff Girls was cancelled over here. However, I don’t think Japan was ready to let go of them yet so what did animators in Japan do?

Powerpuff Girls Z!

That’s right. They went ahead and made their OWN version of Powerpuff Girls. Renamed it to “Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z” (which roughly translated means “They Appeared! The Powerpuff Girls Z!’) and they totally added the missing ingredient that the American version did not use. In the American version, the Powerpuff Girls are just always strong, they were born that way. In the Japanese version however, it’s very hard to make an anime about super strong girls and NOT give them the most famous ingredient in the formula that is magical girl animes: THE TRANSFORMATION SCENE.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You hear a lot about anime within our culture that Japan has imported over to us but the cultural exchange happens with some successful cartoon shows being brought back over there and in this case, taking and making it their own thing. I really love this exchange.

Hawaiian Sovereignty

The other day I was listening to a song by an artist who goes by Mr. 83 called “Money Man.” The song is a Roots reggae song and discusses how the islands were taken over by the White ” Money Man.” It made me think of the times I spent with my Hawaiian friends at school, when they would discuss the movement for the sovereignty of the Hawaiian Islands. Before these conversation I hadn’t a clue that such a movement existed. However the movement for Hawaiian sovereignty does exist and much of the movements main argument is based on the notion that the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893 and the 1898 annexation of the Hawaiian Kingdom was illegal. The sovereignty movement varies in wants and wishes. Some are asking for the complete independence and secession from the union for the Hawaiian Islands, while some are asking for Native and partial Native Hawaiians to gain a position which is comparable to the Native Americans within the United States mainland, which is considered a “Nation within a Nation.” Furthermore an Apology Resolution was passed in 1993 by the United States Congress and was signed by President Clinton formally apologizing for the takeover of the Islands and that the Kingdom of Hawaii and its people never gave up their claims to sovereignty. The passing of this act has been a key point of argument for the movement and their call to “free Hawaii.” Their is much more to the movement then just these basic facts regarding the movement, and if you are interested in learning more I have provided links below so you can further your knowledge on the Hawaiian sovereignty movement (Wikipedia is a great place to start if you want a general overview).

http://www.hawaiianindependence.com/

http://www.hawaii-nation.org/

http://www.hawaiihistory.org/index.cfm%3Ffuseaction%3Dig.page%26PageID%3D353%26returntoname%3DShort

Here also is a link to Mr. 83′s “Money Man” song- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAlE7z4_4v4

http://www.hawaii-nation.org/publawall.html

 

As Told by Ginger (Cartoon Obseesions)

In the world of Rugrats and Spongebob, As Told by Ginger was a cartoon for the average preteen girl that was battling the challenges of everyday middle school life. The show focused on Ginger Foutley, a 13 year old girl being raised by a single mother, dealing with a really weird younger brother and trying to avoid the mean girls at school. I remember loving the show because it was the first cartoon I saw where the main character had divorced parents. Not like one parent died or one parent just isn’t talked about. No, she had two parents but they were divorced, just like me. Also, she was basically the only cartoon character that hanged her clothes and I thought that was pretty dope.as-told-by-ginger-2

Ginger had three best friends. Dodie, who was that one friend with the over protective mom and she kind of acted like she knew everything? Also, she was that friend that would somehow back up your bad ideas then panic when the plan fell apart and you were moments away from being grounded for life. Then there was Darren who was her next door neighbor who started out as just her friend until he got his braces off and was suddenly hot and muscular and could play football? Because braces hold you back from all of that. AND THEN there was Macie Lightfoot.hqdefault

Macie Lightfoot was the definition of awkward. She had really bad asthma so she was constantly wheezing, her nose was stuffed up a lot too? I think? I just remember her always having tissues. She was short and shy and wore glasses and was really smart too. Upon more research I found that she was also half Asian. They never specify what race of Asian but her mom is apparently Asian. The Internet defines Macie as such:

“Ginger’s other best friend is Macie, 14 years old (Jackie Harris). Macie is in a constant state of panic, as she is allergic to everything and fears change. She is portrayed as the “geekiest” one of the group, and is very knowledgeable.”

Now, because this is middle after school there was also a group of mean girls that ran the school. They were basically the original Mean Girls with the exception of Heather’s and the Pink Ladies. So they were basically just before Mean Girls. There was the leader, Courtney Gripling who was blonde, fashionable, pretty, rich and popular. Even though she was the ring leader she was also the nicest of the group because she liked Ginger. Her best friend however was Miranda Killgallen.tumblr_m2w31tVP9f1ru81evo1_500

Miranda was one of the popular girls and also the girl you never wanted to mess with. She kind of just gets everything she wanted and if she didn’t she found a way. She’s constantly trying to ruin Ginger’s reputation or finding way to get her in trouble. Her father is a police officer and she is African-American. The internet had this to say about her:

“Miranda Killgallen (voiced by Cree Summer) is Courtney’s right-hand woman and possibly the wickedest girl in school, serving as Ginger’s main antagonist on the show. Apart from having totally different personalities, Miranda’s dislike for Ginger mainly stems from her fear that “Foutley” may replace her as Courtney’s best friend. On top of that, both Miranda and Ginger have a romantic interest in Ian Richton.”

In my opinion, the show did several things right. They had a main character being raised by a single mother and portrayed it well! I mean, the mom was a nurse and reminded me a lot of my own mom, she often came home tiered and she could be kind of embarrassing but she was always there when they needed her. Ginger had legitimate problems that 13 year old girls have, like liking a boy that barely knows your name. And how spot on they were with how cruel girls can be! They had episodes about depression, peer pressure, crushes, sexual harassment. They dealt with her mom dating a guy who has kids and how annoying that can be if you’re the kid.

But going back and watching the show its easy to see where they took the easy way out and used race against the character. Macie totally fuels the Asian stereotype the same way Miranda does with the black women stereotype. Macie is the classic nerd, wearing glasses, allergic to everything, ridiculously smart and shy. Not to mention I can’t remember her ever having a love interest in the series. And Miranda is loud, she’s sassy, she’s evil, she’s inconsiderate and she does what it takes to get what she wants.

Typical I guess. The Asian kid is the nerd while the black kid is the villain.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bioshock: Infinite

 

On the surface Bioshock Infinite is a shooter that starts when the main character, Booker Dewitt, goes to the floating city of Columbia for a job, the description of which simply being “Bring us the girl, and wipe away the debt.” Believing he either has the option to die or to go to this sky-city and bring back ‘the girl’, he opts for Columbia.

The reason that I decided to take a look at this game in particular is the ideals that Columbia was founded upon and the reason for its secession from the United States (which is referred to as ‘The Sodom Bellow’). The city was built as a representation of American ingenuity and was sent out to fly around the world to show off America’s achievements in building it. Everything went horribly wrong when Columbia flew over China and revealed itself to be a heavily armed military flying ship disguised as a city. Columbia, on command of Comstock: the one who funded and ultimately ends up running the city, opened fire on Chinese civilians accused of holding American hostages. After these events the American government laid blame on Comstock, who decided for Columbia to secede instead of accepting blame.

While the racism Columbia is built on isn’t the main point of the game, there are certainly major plot points that revolve around it including a rebellion group called the Vox Populi constructed of both race and class minorities. In each turn of the game there are subtle racist propaganda that becomes so common place and hidden that it can be completely walked past. The game centers around a city so entangled in itself that racism is openly accepted to the point where its common place and easily overlooked even by those outside of the population of the city.

South Asian and Bollywood Science Fiction

I found a great interview with South Asian/American science fiction author Anil Menon, linked right here. He talks about the history and current state of science fiction in India. Really interesting stuff, and a well written article. There is a long history of Bengali sci fi, with J.C. Bose considered the founding father. The earliest Bengali science fiction was written in the 1800s (pre War of the Worlds). It’s important to note in Menon’s interview that there is a connection between science fiction and a history of British colonial rule. I’m constantly questioning the utility of the categorization of science fiction and fantasy. It’s easy to see how genres are gendered and raced. I.e. fantasy is written by women, fantastical writing by people of color is often grouped into magical realism. There are South Asian authors (including Salmon Rushdie), and South Asian/American authors who draw on Hindu mythology, and often portray elements of magic or the fantastic in their stories. It is usually only when these texts are “scientific” in nature or clearly inspired from the works of Western science fiction that they are classified as “sci fi”, so many authors are overlooked. It seems that many of the Bengali writers were inspired by the British, and Menon notes that science fiction has not been embraced by most of the population, but is gaining popularity.

This brings me to my next question, where is the science fiction in Bollywood? Bollywood is bigger than Hollywood, yet the first Bollywood science fiction movie only came out in 2003. Koi…Mil Gaya is a film that offers up a Bollywood version of the E.T. story, a nerdy student makes contact with an alien. The film has many references to Hindu mythology and gods, and plays with Western genre conventions. Koi Mil Gaya enjoyed immense popularity and seems to have sparked an emergence in science fiction troupes in Bollywood movies. Enjoy a scene from the film below!

Click here to view the embedded video.

 

The Fast and The Furious

 

I figured that I would write a bit about this since I just watched it and it ties in pretty well with not only my last post but my rock category as well. I have gone ahead and read the article concerning the series that Chico posted on the Moodle for March. However, I will not be addressing the topics of that article until later in the quarter. I will instead go over the things that I picked up on as I just watched the movie again this weekend.

This picture of the Nos, the energy drink not the fuel additive, girls shows how The Fast and The Furious pretty much thinks of women. Let’s just grab some pretty girls and portray them as prizes for the male racers. This tactic can be seen in other movies such as The Transformers which has scenes of Megan Fox wearing short shorts and a tiny top while wrenching on a car. I can’t recall how many times I heard people in my high school talking about how they would want to marry a girl like that -_- Although there are women who race in each series, they never address or show any discomfort with the way these women are usually treated. For example, in the 2001 The Fast and The Furious, the first race that takes place involves this portrayal of women. A girl walks up to the window of one of the racers, tries to tease him, and says that if he wins he can “have” her and her friend after the race. Some of the later movies show girls being provocative towards the racers and acting as their “prize” for winning. Objectifying is the name of the game in Hollywood and I am sure that there are roots of that portrayal within the history of racing and car culture as well. Being a male dominated sport, culture, etc. it is not surprising that this can be found throughout the series. What is surprising is that they are on the 6th or 7th film and things have still not changed, possibly due to the lack of people challenging the series.

Something else that I noticed about the movie was the way they portrayed each of the racer gangs. As for the Asian American gang, almost every time they appeared in the movie they were at an Asian food market that happened to be their business front. Whenever the Latino/a group was on the screen they played hip-hop that was all in the Spanish language. When the white guys were at the car meet, they played Limp Bizkit, a white hip-hop/rock group. God forbid they show the Asian American gang somewhere other than the Asian market riddled with Asian-style decor and statues. It doesn’t help either that the Asian American gang members are portrayed as the villains, following the history of Asian American’s in American film. At one point in the movie an FBI agent, played by Thom Barry, talks about taking down those “Asian punks” once and for all. The main villain, played by Rick Yune, doesn’t play much of a role in the movie, only appearing in a few scenes to be a cold, emotionless jerk with one too many sub-machine guns and an itchy trigger finger.

All-in-all, the movie has some major issues. Brian, the main character played by the late Paul Walker, is the white outsider siding with the law who eventually turns on the FBI to help his racing friends who are all of different a ethnicity. It is an outreach to showing a color-less world while yet capitalizing on the diversity of the cast and desperately trying to paint images of those different groups by using stereotypes. The movie isn’t all bad, the racing scenes are fun and there are even some explosions and fight scenes. Being a person involved in the real world of car culture, this movie has some sort of weird draw that pulls me in despite all of it’s faults. Aside from that, it definitely has the potential for doing more harm than good.

R.I.P. Paul Walker

Week 5, Friday Scissor Clips.

The reunions between North and South Korea that were meant to take place later this month have been threatened to be canceled by North Korea. This is not the first time reunions have been canceled and you can click here to read more about the current reasoning from CNN.

In other news, here are some Asian Americans to look for in this winter’s Sochi Olympics!!

1&2. Maia and Alex Shibutani, a brother-sister ice dancing team from Michigan who will be competeing in this winter’s Olympics. From their website they are the first “ice dance team of Asian heritage to win a medal at a major ISU Championship – 2011 Four Continents Championships.

3. Madison Chock (part of ice dance team with Evan Bates) is Hawai’ian-Chinese decent on her father’s side. Below is a video of her and Bate’s AMAZING performance which helped determine their naming in these Olympics and here is an interview with both Bates and Chock on going to the Olympics which is conducted by Michelle Kwan, two-time Olympic medalist and Chinese American woman.

Click here to view the embedded video.

4. Felicia Zhang, a 20-year-old Chinese-American skater. This will be her first Olympics and she is skating with Nathan Bartholomay in ice dance team. Below is a video of their Senior Pairs skate.

Click here to view the embedded video.

5. Julie Chu! Chu is a 31-year-old hockey player for the United States women’s team. She is the first Asian American woman to play for the U.S. Olympic ice hockey team, as well as a veteran of the Olympic. She will be making her fourth appearance in the winter Olympics this year. Here is a brief article which includes a video of personal interview with Chu and her mother.

6. J.R. Celski, a Filipino American short track speed skater. In 2010 during short track trials Celski fell and cut his leg with his blade however since then he has worked through his injury and is now completing in Sochi! Below is a video interview with him and his mother which goes more into detail on his injury, how he started, and where he is now.

Click here to view the embedded video.

7. Jen Lee is member of the U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team. Lee is of Taiwanese heritage and had his left leg amputated above the knee in 2009. For those interested in hockey, they website The Color of Hockey is about “Players of Color” and here are the entries with Jen Lee tag.

There is also the notable figure skater Mirai Nagasu, who sparked some controversy about racism when she was not named to go to the Olympics despite her bronze medal in the U.S. National Championships. The rest of that article can be found here.