Oliver: Has quirky trains of thought that can often lead to annoyance. Fortunately for Oliver, by the time his tangents end, an important connection has usually been made. Some may say that he connects with Pesto, his cat, the best out of anyone on the island. A voice of reason, or maybe just a voice of nature…

Hey it’s Pesto! ;]

Ruth: Communicates not only through spoken word but through the medium of novels as well. Her latest work has been brought to a halt by writer’s block, but have no fear! She will get it done…..some day. Her communication with Nao is definitely an abstract idea of conversation, but that is the best type right?

Okay, maybe I took the type thing a little too far for this one.

Nao: A journal is Nao’s weapon of choice. She writes about the past, present, and future. She also writes to the past, present, and future. In some odd way, she achieves time travel through communication and writing. She doesn’t always know how to communicate with other people, except when it comes to old Jiko, but her journal shows a confidence through her voice.

Nao must have had one of these.

Jiko: Jiko’s words were always worth listening to. She could break down the most complex ideas into short phrases that were packed with meaning. Her last message was the Kanji for sei, or ikiru, and that puzzled many people. Some thought it was unfinished, others thought that it was perfect and simple. Only Nao and her father really knew the true meaning behind it. Jiko had a way of communicating not only with people, but with the world around her as well. She had Buddhist prayers for many activities and she did not take anything for granted. Her slow yet graceful nature was like a smooth dialogue with the planet.

Jiko’s final word.

Haruki #1: He communicated through a secret journal, just like Nao, except his was written in French so no officers could intercept his mail and read his true thoughts on the war and being a kamikaze pilot. Jiko had the official letter that arrived but she knew that they were not his last words. Haruki #1 also possess the power to communicate through ghost form, although his messages can come off as “cryptic” (no pun intended).

Haruki #2: Nao’s father was never very great at expressing himself or talking with the family. When he became a hikikomori, it got even more awkward. He was able to communicate with some of the greatest minds of western philosophy but that didn’t always help his cause. Origami bugs where another hobby of his, which helped him hide his attempts to keep Nao’s auction from going to some hentai in Akihabara.

Origami C. Imperator

“A romantic comedy about right, wrong and everything in between.” [tagline]

Personally, I really enjoyed watching Saving Face. The content in this film was refreshing to see, since typically in America we don’t ever see a ROM-COM that has to do with two Asian American women, who are lesbian, who are dealing with traditional values, they are both main characters, and the mother is pregnant without a husband. It sounds like a great soup with everything in it but the kitchen sink, done in a very tasteful way!

During this week [week 4], we have been discussing movies that avoid the queer element of relationships with an emphasis of Asian Americans specifically [duh Amy]. Saving Face used the Slanted Screen approach to address these issues of Asian American queer relationships. Just like Emily Dickinson’s poem “Tell it Slant” she says, “Tell the truth, but tell it slant, success in circuit lies”. Essentially it’s not being satisfied with somebody else’s view [white people], they do it themselves in their own way.

“Beginning in the first years of the century, short film strips and one-reelers shown in nickelodeons catered to working-class and immigrant audiences.  By the second decade of the century, as movies shifted towards the more complex and novelistic feature-length narrative and as movie theaters were designed to imitate legitimate theaters, the movies began to take a more reputable image and attract a middle class audience.” (Lee 119)

This section was interesting to me for a few reasons. The first was that in the beginning, they were catered toward the working class and immigrant audience. I think this is interesting because it seems like almost nothing was for these two groups during the early part of the decade. It seemed like most things in the world were directed to the more wealthy population.
It is also interesting that during the next decade, the movies were directed toward middle-class people, and the theaters were even designed differently. Were these people to good to go to the theaters before hand? I also want to know what exactly changed to cause the shift in audience? Why all of a sudden did they decide that movies were now for middle class citizens versus working class and immigrants. Maybe they made more money off of them? I don’t know, but it is  something to think about.

The wonderful thing about this movie is that although it focuses on 2 people who come from different races, neither of them are Caucasian which allows for many interesting relationships and conflicts to be brought up. Meena’s father and Demetrius showcase one of these conflicts when they have a conversation about whether Demetrius can see Meena anymore. Jay does not want Demetrius around, making assumptions about him and his family even though in reality, his family had treated her extremely well. Demetrius retorts back saying that Jay does not see the connection between himself and Demetrius, but he has no clue that Jay was kicked out of Uganda for his race and he was well aware. Two very different circumstances brought those two families together in America, yet America seemed to pit them against each other.

The fact that this movie was directed by Mira Nair, an Indian film maker, makes it that much more powerful and relevant. She is obviously aware of these complex relationships and this awareness adds more depth to the movie. While so many movies are directed by White men, the perspective of Mira becomes a fresh breath to an already unique movie and plot. If you mix all that together with a wonderful soundtrack that shows the contrasts between the different worlds and cultures, you get a Rom-Com with lots of room for reading and understanding.

Mira Nair layin’ down the law on set :]

Chapter 9 : Filipinos

-They were “American Nationals” not foreigners, because the Philippines were acquired from Spain during the war.

-Filipinos on the mainland faced violence from white men, but Filipinos in Hawaii did not.

- Manongs = 1st generation Filipinos

-They went to Stockton California for work as either domestic servicemen, in fisheries, or doing agriculture jobs. (It seems like at least a few times in this quarter, Stockton California was brought up. There is a lot of history here, which is interesting because this is where my mom was born.)

-Exclusion of Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Asian Indians caused the need of so many filipinos in agriculture.

-Agricultural camps

-Independent people and fought for rights and wages in the field.

-FLU: Filipino Labor Union

-They were often mistaken as Chinese or Japanese. Sometimes black. There were “No Filipinos Allowed” signs.

-They Couldn’t buy a home and it was hard to find someone who would rent to them.

-They were treated as if they were violent people.

-White farmers were threatened if they had Filipino workers. The threats were to ruin their crops, and them.

-Caused many problems if they were with white girls.

-Apparently this caused problems because they could attract girls more because they were good dancers, they wore more stylish clothes, and they spent their money more lavishly then white men did.

-Filipino men would seek out white women more often then Japanese, Korean, or Chinese Americans would.

-Apparently they are also good in bed! The white men were threatened because the Filipinos were taking ‘their’ ladies.

-The California government was worried another type of mallato was going to be created. It was against the law for Filipinos and Whites to be together.

-The government decided to grant the Philippines independence so that they would no longer be ‘American Nationals’. This means that they could now be excluded from citizenship along with other Asians. Tydings-McDuffee Act

-Filipinos in the United States were now known as Aliens because of the Tydings-McDuffee Act and were cut from many benefits.

-In LA, thousands of filipinos were deported back to the Philippines because it was cheaper than keeping them on welfare.

-In 1935, the Repatriation Act was passed. The government would send Filipinos who had assistance from Public or Private Orginizations back to the Philippines…but they had to give up their right to re-enter the United States. They worded this in a good way, so many went for it.

-Filipinos were initially wanted for cheap labor, but they now had Mexicans, so now they didn’t need the Filipinos and wanted them deported.

-They would be humiliated if they were deported back at the governments expense.

-They didn’t have ethnic communities like the Chinese and Japanese did.

-White prostitutes were brought to the Filipino camps.

-At dance halls, they paid a dime to the women to dance with them for one song.

-They married other races because there were very few FIlipinos in the United States.

-Filipino men knew how to get girls better than other Asians because they were more familiar with western culture. They were more romantic, they didn’t believe in arranged marriages and they dressed sharp.

Chinese Americans:

-Impossible to become a citizen unless you were white.

-worked in gold mines and on railroads mainly.

-They had strikes because they were paid less.

-Very similar to Japanese American Stories

- Chinese were forced out of their homes because of the unemployed white worker riots.

-1870: movement where whites would pin minorities against each other.

-1854: A court case where a white man was guilty and there were three  Chinese witness’s, but they let the white man go because the witness’s were Chinese.

-Anti-Chinese poetry became popular.

-1400:1 ratio of males to females

-Most female Chinese that came were forced into prostitution.

-Chinatowns: Community Building

-Chinese Exclusion Act: They were forced out of their homes in 1882 and sent on a train. This ruined their China town.

Japanese Americans:

-Children of plantation workers were in schools in Hawaii learning about equal rights and stuff as their parents weren’t being treated equally.

-Pidgin English helped all different cultures communicate and create this new identity for them in Hawaii.

(I didn’t write too much about Japanese Americans since we learned so much about them last quarter.)

The Watershed of World War II:

-Since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, it would change how all Asians were treated…not just the Japanese. Also, it would cause the divide between Asians and Americans.

-In the Philippines, Americans and Filipinos fought together against the Japanese. Even though they were from 2 different backgrounds. they helped each other.

-Filipinos in the U.S. automatically had more respect. They wanted to fight in the war and help out but since they were ‘nationals’ they couldn’t.  That law was changed in 1942 and a new Filipino infantry was created.

-Filipinos were finally allowed to become citizens.

-1941: Excecutive Order 8802″ Prohibiting Racial discrimination in employment.