From Kung Fu to Hip Hop Reading Ch.5

I was never a fan of rap or hip hop. Sure there are some songs of those genres here and there that I think are pretty entertaining, but not all of it. That’s just my opinion. Anyways, it seems hip hop and rap had their get-go started by a policy called Proposition 13. Its effects “adversely affected the inner city neighborhood…an assault on the at risk youth, by depriving them of opportunities for education, vocational trainings, and jobs…offered ghetto youth little alternative except to join a gang and engage in the illegitimate economy that oftentimes involves narcotics trade,” (Kato 172). Basically, if I have to make a connection, it was like how Bruce Lee, in his youth, was oppressed by Imperial Japan’s control of Hong Kong and could do little to nothing to remove it. Just like Lee, these ghetto youth had no way of turning over Proposition 13, so they had to find a way to get over this predicament. Rather than take up martial arts, though I’m sure some did, they turned to gang life in order to “live”. Eventually the violence got out of hand and some gangs decided to call a trice to resolve the violence and begin expressing their selves via rap and hip hop music. To further their expressions, gangs also took up graffiti, or street art to display to the public their identities.

As for Kung Fu and Hip Hop, Bruce Lee’s use of Jeet Kune Do is what inspired the Beastie Boys to follow suit and make their own type of music, one that was a mix of almost everything. Sure there was the mention of Game of Death and how his opponents each represented a different obstacle, but I thought the most important part was between Lee and the Beastie Boys. If it wasn’t for his “inspiration”, who knows what might have become of the band.

Enter The Dragon

“According to the kung fu film semiotics the karate/judo gi is reserved to signify the Japanese, hence, foreign power/imperialism.” page 152

I really enjoyed the visual aspect of this part. Seeing the entire courtyard of students in white gis and the competitors in yellow, but Lee is in his Chinese costume. I think that his refusal to wear the uniform that all the other fighters wear is a major point where everyone takes notice of him.   Also at the ending, when all of the prisoners were released, they were wearing the Chinese garb in black. It created a clear visual opposition of the”good guys” and the “villains”.

As Kato goes on to say that by using the gis the crew was trying to “embody the multinational ‘Orientalist’ aesthetic” and Lee’s refusal to participate in that aspect of the film was really great to show how individual cultures should be recognized as different.

My Name is Khan

My Name is Khan is such a beautifully powerful film. Khan loves his family so fully and purely that he goes on an epic quest to fulfill his loves wishes. As he goes about his journey he is detained by the TSA, arrested by the FBI, and stabbed while rebuilding a hurricane torn small town.

Khan faces various struggles through race, religion, and disability. Multiple times in the film, his Aspergers is mistaken as unsavory behavior, leading to many of the issues he faces in the film. Paired with his religion and the color of his skin, he is under suspicion by those in authority positions.

Khan and his brother had a tense relationship since the start of the film. Even after their mother passed away and he was diagnosed, their relationship was additionally fractured by Khan’s decision to marry a Hindu woman. The most important lesson Khan ever learned from his mother is back-dropped by the Muslim-Hindu Riots.

Good people who do good deeds. And bad people who do bad. That’s the only difference in human beings. There’s no other difference.

It’s this lesson that Khan spreads through America on his journey to tell the President that he is not a terrorist. Khan’s mission was completed through love. Mandira fought for justice, she was fueled by anger.

Hip Hop

I have grown up around R&B, Soul, and Hip-Hop. Today we hear Rap and hear all the negativity like the harsh cuss words or talking trash about women. We have all heard the bad things that the media has said about Kanye West, Lil Wayne and many more rappers but what we don’t hear in the media is how Hip Hop became an escape. From Kung Fu to Hip Hop the book explains how Hip Hop was able to turn the tables from being a place of violence to a place of social consciousness.

I think that rappers today play into the media and how they are stereotyped. I also think that the media also loves to keep this stereotype going. Look at all the stores buying these records, and radio stations playing these songs.  There has been talk about how Macklemore isn’t really a rapper because he talks about real life struggles and how the hip hop nation shouldn’t support him because of his skin color, white. Hip Hop has been stereotyped into this music category for people living and coming from the ghetto. I think that when rappers get big they start to conform themselves into what the media whats them to be. I think that the book is right by saying that a hip hop has become a reform.

Thursday’s Kato Reading

I thought it was interesting learning  about Jeet Kune Do. I like how it is simple, or at least looks simple, but it still does what it needs to do! Bruce Lee is able to beat anyone without hardly trying or thinking about it at all!

Bruce Lee was able to create this style, and he was very dedicated to it. This makes him very inspirational. I think I want to look more into Jeet Kune Do. I think it would be fun to learn!

 

My Name is Khan, from the epiglottis.

This film is an epic journey of man. It is a love story. It is the story of overcoming life struggle. It is a story of adventure.

My Name is Khan.

Khan’s struggles throughout the film range from minuscule to tremendous in scale. Helping a boy with a cut leg to being tortured from being a potential terrorist, he comes into contact with a lot of different experiences. I think his most difficult experience in the film would have been with his own identity. First of all, Khan had Aspergers Syndrome, causing a lot of social anxiety for the people around him, and surely for himself as well. Though this was something introduced immediately, its purpose within the film is overarching. The whole reason Khan goes on his journey to meet the president is because he didn’t understand Mandira’s misdirected frustration at the death of her son.

On the other hand, he is also Muslim. This, combined with the dark period in american history that was post-9/11 racism, made for some very hate-filled comments and lots of internal debate within Khan’s own life. During his ventures to try and meet the president, he is accused and cleared of being a terrorist, though his actions did seem a bit suspect without the full story. Khan’s brother, Zakir, tells Khan he can’t marry Mandira because she was Hindu. His problems seem to never cease, though he continues to push on, all the way toward the bitter-sweet ending.

Enter The Dragon

“Don’t think, feel”

I have never seen any of Bruce Lee’s movies. I have heard the name, and knew that he was amazing at Kung Fu but never cared to watch any of his movies. I enjoyed watching and reading about Bruce Lee. Reading the book really makes you understand the deeper meaning of the movie.

Lee is told that his sister was killed by Han’s men you could tell that he was motivated to enter the Kung Fu tournament even more.  He told a young boy in the beginning of the movie not to show emotion like anger but to feel. When Lee and Han are fighting you couldn’t tell if he was fighting for his sister or fighting because he is a bad man overall. You couldn’t tell any expression on his face but you just knew that Han couldn’t handle Lee’s moves. In the book From Hung Fu To Hip Hop its says “The flashback of the scene of Su-Lin’s suicide overlays with ‘Lee’s’ unusually calm facial expression” (120). Even though it is just a movie I would get to emotional. I guess its because Kung Fu teaches you how to react in situations and not get emotional when you have a job to do.

 

Ozeki…

A theme that I noticed the most in “A Tale for the Time Being” was place. There was a lot of detail about every place that was mentioned in the reading.
For example, Nao talks about what it looks like inside of the French Maid Cafe. She talks about the silk curtains and the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, she talks about the table she is sitting at and exactly what the maids are wearing. We are easily able to picture Nao sitting in the cafe.
In the Ruth section, it talks about what her house looks like, with all of her and Oliver’s books stacked up everywhere and the cat wandering around. We also see how close she is to the beach , and what it looks like as she is walking along the beach with all the debris washed up on the shore.
I think it is important that it describes the place that Nao is in and the place that Ruth is in because we see how they are in complete opposite parts of the world, but through Nao’s journal they are able to connect.
Through a few simple words inside of an old book, Ruth gets to know this little girl and become close to her and care about her.

Revolutionary Affect

Affect is the Other of rational modernity. All of the readings and texts from this week explored the transformative and revolutionary potential of affective communication. A narrative of resistance can be read in Enter The Dragon by picking up on the affect of Bruce Lee and the extras. In From Kung Fu To Hip Hop, Kato describes graffiti as relying on alternative modes of interpretation. The message is communicated through affect instead of the decipherability of the text. The feeling is articulated through movement, color, shape etc. This raw form constructs a relationship outside of  dominant institutions. This is apparent in My Name Is Khan when Khan gives his speech about Sam in the Wilhemina church. He uses a combination of English, Arabic, and Hindi, so the actual content of the speech is not decipherable to the assembly, yet affect transcends even the boundaries of language and the church is clearly moved by his speech.