Hello Kitty!!

Hello Kitty has been something I have loved since I was a little girl. When I was born the first thing I had was a stuffed animal hello kitty and a stuff pikachu. She gives me so many past childhood memories and she’s just so adorable, with how popular she is and seeing her everywhere in stores I sometimes wonder if people ever want to know how she started out and where it all began, the hello kitty sensation. Hello Kitty or Haro Kiti or Kitty white was made by the company of Sanrio, the designers name was Yuko Shimizu who is a designer for the sanrio company. Yuko’s design of Hello Kitty was introduce in 1974 and than made its way to the states in 76 just two years later. As we’ve talked about kawaii in class hello kitty is sort of one of the stables of that and is a huge piece of Japanese pop culture. “At age 36 as of 2010, Sanrio has groomed Hello Kitty into a global marketing phenomenon worth $5 billion a year.”

“Hello kittys ‘story’ “According to official character profile, she was born in the suburbs of London, England on November 1. Her height is described as five apples and her weight as three apples. She is portrayed as a bring and kin-hearted girl, very close to her win sister Mimmy. She is good at baking cookies and loves Mama’s homemade apple pie. She likes to collect cute things and her favorite sub jets in school are English, music and art. Hello Kitty is portrayed surrounded by a large family who all possess the surname White. Her twin sister Mimmy is described as “shy and very girly,” interested in sewing and dreaming of marriage. While Hello Kitty wears a bow on her left ear, Mimmy wears hers on the right. Also Hello Kittys dresses are normally red, whereas Mimmys are normally yellow. Their papa George is described as dependable, humorous but also absent-minded. Mama, Mary, is portrayed as a good cook who loved doing housework. Grandpa Anthony likes o tell stories and Grandma Margaret likes sewing. Dear Daniel is Hello Kittys childhood friend. His character profile describes him as born in london May 3 with the real name Daniel Starr. He travelled with his parents and was away from from Hello Kitty for a long time. He is portrayed as fashionable and sensitive, good at dancing and playing the piano, with an interest in photography and dreams of being a celebrity. Charmmy Kitty is Hello Kittys pet a white persian. She is described as docile, obedient and fond of shiny things. Her necklace whole the key to Hello Kittys jewelry box. Hello Kitty also have a pet hamster name Sugar, who was a gift from Dear Daniel.

In my own opinion as a Asian-American I so much relate Hello kitty to my past and childhood, I see it as a reminder of my family in Japan and a relation to the culture that i’ve all my life loved and been so curious about. I

This is a little background story on Hello Kitty, theres way more to the story than just a picture drawn up of a cute kitty that got popular all over the world

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

Kick The Can Crew and Babymetal

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAHEPky7uOI

I just have to at least share this video because I love kick the can crew and just Japanese music in general. The crew was established in 1996. Babymetal was another new band that was formed in 2010 and consists of 3 girls all around the ages of 14, 15. The music is a mix of metal and some electronic. It is hard for me to grasp exactly what the girls are saying but it was kind of explained as give me chocolate and than its sort of using Japanese expressions. I guess from my point of view since I don’t understand as much as I’d like it’s more of the show their putting on in their videos as well as the metal music aspect of it. It allows me to feel like I’m connecting to the modern pieces of the Japanese culture and some of the things that people my age are into over in Japan. Both bands or groups are something I found catchy or something that had some form of relatable sound to the American Music I listened too and I sort of just became obsessed and would get sucked into the rabbit hole for hours with related searches on YouTube

Cowboy Bebop

Cowboy bebop!!! OMG!! I’ve become a little bit obsessed with this show, the movie everything since we watched it. I’ve download all the episodes and probably watched the movie 4 times now. I’m loving it the story line is great, spikes cute (in a weird anime way) , i love the techy girly and the dog is cute. Up until this point I was never really fascinated or into the idea of anime, I used to love love love MANGA drawing when I was younger, I thought they were adorable , but I never got into anime shows. I feel that these shows have a wrong reputation and if people took the time and gave it a chance they might see that there are many versions. Cowboy bebop is a version that I would consider something for the older generation that has a deeper story line, something more serious and something that grabs your mind and draws you in. I absolutely love it and can easily find myself getting more and more into it as well as finding more shows I might be interest in, in the long run. I loved the amount of diversity in this movie with people of all colors, which from statements in class aren’t something that always happened, also I love the idea of it being based in the future and like their living on Mars. Shows like this sort of give you a reason to dream of things you may think impossible. OH and the music was awesome!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PneJzBpki-U&list=PL7CC54D0900E70FBA&index=3

I was also able to find the soundtrack on youtube^

Mississippi Masala

This movie really took me back to some of the films watched last quarter and reminded me of the many different scenarios and situations mixed racial relationships have gone through to get where their are today with at least some for of acceptance. A quick summary of this movie is about a family sent way or banned from Uganda when Idi Amin take power who was the 3rd president of Uganda. After kicked out the family than movies to Mississippi where the daughter of Indian decent falls in love with a black man and over the course of them movie the families have to learn to cope with come to acceptance of their situation and love for one another. What i’ve taken out of the past two quarters was their was so many scenarios and probably many many more stories unheard with situations regarding people who fall in love with somebody their culture doesn’t usually ‘respect’ them begin with, weather it be are, color identity, sexuality etc. and i’ve found that it was a hard time for many. I couldn’t imagine someone in my family, especially my mother or father saying you need to leave your boyfriend because he is mexican, you guys are completely different people with different cultures etc. I would be unhappy and in the same exact situation as these individuals in the movie.

Cosplay World Summit

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

An Understanding of Communication For The Time Being

Communication

com·mu·ni·ca·tion

[kuh-myoo-ni-key-shuhn] Show IPA

noun

1. the act or process of communicating; fact of being communicated.

2. the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs.

3. something imparted, interchanged, or transmitted.

4. a document or message imparting news, views, information, etc.

5. passage, or an opportunity or means of passage, between places.

Each time you communicate with someone (or something), you’re learning from them. Even if you’re learning something small. Communication is an opportunity to gain and impart knowledge onto someone. You can communicate in various ways, talking, yelling, social networking. Sometimes you’re communicating without even thinking about it. Through facial expression, body language, your tone, the way you write, the music you listen to, the clothes you wear, all of these are different forms of communication! Your behavior, emotions, how you look at people!

These forms are overlooked when the topic of communication is brought up. Most people are limited to talking, or signing, or writing. Even if you don’t do anything you are communicating something! Silence speaks on so many levels. No words. Even music communicates with us, on various levels as well. Even if I ended this with an image instead words, it would speak to you in one way or another. Don’t believe me?

(Also, this GIF is my reaction to the novel. Too many feels!!! Feels = emotions)

Each of the characters communicate in their own way as well, though their methods vary based on their personality and experiences.

Ruth:

She communicates when it’s necessary to her, when she either wants to know or understand something. She communicates from more of an emotional place usually and filters what he say very often.

Nao:

She only really communicates the thoughts in the journal. She really doesn’t talk to others that much, not even her own parents. She though when she does decide to communicate, it can be very brash and not always well thought out. She says what she thinks.

Reader:

Communitcates by comparing Nao and Ruth’s experiences to our own. Questioning the author’s purpose for writing this text, wondering why they wrote this and why in this method. Why center the book around time? Why did she end the book where she did? Is the character Ruth actually the author or is the name similarity jut mere coincidence? (I doubt that)

Rantings of a Stressed College Student

I read

I did

I did the reading, I swear!!!

Please just, I did the readings…. I did. Sadly, I don’t remember them.

If you were to try to quiz me, I’d fail.

But… But I did them. And in the time I was supposed to.

I even spoke up during seminar, and tried to make connections.

I asked questions.

But nothing stuck. I couldn’t write about it because nothing stuck. None of it. No matter how hard I tried, nothing stuck.

The cover is bent, the spine is wrinkled, some of the pages are dogeared.

I read I swear.

“Rumors about us came and went fast and furious.”

The title is a quote from the movie, Better Luck Tomorrow.

Which is directed by Justin Lin, who also directs The Fast and The Furious Tokyo Drift. Which also stars Sung Kang, who plays a character named Han. There is a character named Han in both movies. In Better Luck Tomorrow, Han is a high school kid that smokes, steals, and takes good care of his car. In the Fast and Furious Series, Han is seen very often eating snacks because he has stopped smoking, he still steals but on a much grander scale, and definitely still has a thing for cars.

“Although not “officially” part of the Fast and the Furious franchise, as repeatedly confirmed by director Justin Lin and actor Sung Kang, an integral part of the story. The film tells the story of Han Seoul-Oh in high school, before meeting Dominic Toretto in Mexico, as confirmed in the short film Los Bandoleros.

During the Fast and the Furious series, is possible to find many easter egg that refer to this film, like the one in Fast Five, in which Gisele Yashar reminds Han of being a former smoker, referring to his habits in Better Luck Tomorrow. Justin Lin explained that, due to the restrictions of the Universal show scenes in which one of the protagonists smoke, have had to make and replace the habit of smoking of Han with always something to eat to keep hands full, because the character has lost the habit of smoking before the events of Los Bandoleros.

One scene in Better Luck Tomorrow also features the line “Rumors about us came and went fast and furious.”.”

^ Directly quoted from the wiki page for Fast and Furious

http://fastandfurious.wikia.com/wiki/Better_Luck_Tomorrow

Ozeki pp. 204-304

Family Relationships/Superpowahs

I’ve always found the bond between family interesting. I had never really thought about the impact our immediate family has on us. My senior year of high school I lived with my friend Catherine. We always joked that we’re basically the same person but opposite races (she’s white and I’m black). Catherine and I grew up on completely different ends of the spectrum. My family has always been lower class, my parents were divorced, I’d lost a sibling, the only time I’ve traveled out of the country was to Vancouver, Canada and I’d only moved towns once in my life. Catherine was born in London, she’d moved around Europe until she was twelve, her parents are still together, her family was constantly taking family trips around the country during the summer and she lived in a huge three story house. Despite these differences our personalities are very similar. Home and family life clearly has a large impact on our life outside of the house.

Nao is having trouble at home with her dad’s repeated suicide attempts. Her mom is so concerned with keeping a roof over their heads and keeping an eye on her husband that she doesn’t have time for Nao. Having all of this on her mind, Nao’s last concern is herself. I think that people feel that sense of vulnerability. Despite everything that happened in my life, none of them had long term affects on me. I had my mom and she has basically been the only stable thing in my life. Maybe that’s my superpowah? Having one person in my life that I can trust. Maybe that’s everyone’s superpowah.

Nao didn’t really start coming into herself until she spent the summer holiday with her grandmother. You could argue that her sense of self was from getting away from her home and just being away from the negativity. I think it was more than that though. She felt safe.

Its that simple, to me at least. It comes down to feeling safe. And not the kind of safe that involves you staying inside your comfort zone. The kind of safe you feel when you have someone in your life that you can rely on. That kind of safety makes it feel like one wrong move won’t cause your whole life to fall apart.

The Beautiful Country

One of the key points in the film is the fact that Binh is the child of of Vietnamese mother and an American serviceman father during the time of the Vietnam War who is thus a child of both worlds. However, fitting in none which was true of many of the children that were left behind either during or post war. More often than not, these children were left behind never speaking to the American parent again thus becoming outcasts in Vietnam. While the term of ”bui doi” is a derogatory term it is by defination of the word correct as to what Binh is as part of his heritage. A similar term is applied to these same children in the United States which is “Ameri-asian” and that term is no less derogatory then being called a bui doi in the country of his birth. Therein lies the problem. We,as humans, have a need to label everyone and everything no matter if the term causes pain or not. Often, we do not realise the consequences of the action of that label. Words hurt. They carry power. They can condemn a child to a life of pain and servitude because of it as well. Instead of embracing the uniqueness of Binh the world chooses to judge him by ancestry. This is the most important point that I felt in the movie that needed to be conveyed to the public. Words hurt as does the actions that they cause so therefore we must be mindful of the pain those words can cause.

A-POP, Don't Stop

Winter 2014