Loss of hope came up a lot as well throughout the reading. For instance, “I believe it doesn’t matter what it is, as long as you can find something concrete to keep you busy while you are living your meaningless life.”

“It made me sad when I caught myself pretending that everybody out there in cyberspace cared about what I thought, when really nobody gives a shit. And when I multiplied that sad feeling by all the millions of people in their lonely little rooms, furiously writing and posting to their lonely little pages that nobody has time to read because they’re all so busy writing and posting, it kind of broke my heart.” I thought this was a good quote because it showed how negative she was and lingered on letting this effect her by her thinking that she is not cared about. Her loss of hope is obvious because she let all of this take such a huge toll on her and she lacked so much confidence and drive for more of a positive life.

The loss of hope can be related back to last quarter’s program after Japanese American’s were forced to leave and were forced into the interment camps, just remembering back to the readings we read and how many of them had loss a tremendous amount of hope because they were now considered the enemy. Not just the loss of hope, but even the loss of everything that they were accustomed to, their culture, traditions, and their homes.

There are so many different forms of communication throughout the book. For instance, the way that Nao communicates her struggles in life in her diary is used as a coping method to deal with them. Yet, the struggles that she writes about speaks to Ruth and reveals the connection she shares with Ruth throughout the book.

Communication through her dreams is one example: “Am I crazy?” she asked. “I feel like I am sometimes.”"Maybe,” he said, rubbing her forehead. “But don’t worry about it. You need to be a little bit crazy. Crazy is the price you pay for having an imagination. It’s your superpower. Tapping into the dream. It’s a good thing not a bad thing.”

Nao recollected so many memories such as “Sometimes when she told stories about the past her eyes would get teary from all the memories she had, but they weren’t tears. She wasn’t crying. They were just the memories, leaking out.” This was another form of communication her feelings through her past experiences. The way she communicates with recollecting her memories reminded me of last quarter’s program one of the issues we discussed was important.  The notion of memory is essential especially within the Japanese culture because a lot of their memories had been lost considering the trauma they had dealt with.

After reading this section of the book, I’ve noticed a few valid points that grabbed my attention. One important concept that I have discovered was the importance of language between the Asian culture and the American culture and how it was used during filming of Enter the Dragon. A quote from the reading states, “Language plays a critical role in this process of identifying  the system of oppression with which they are confronted in the factory, the nation, and ultimately in the zone of the neocolony as a whole.” This is an important concept that I have grasped because it reveals language is a source of a person’s identity and culture that allows them to express themselves. The use of language was disrupted in the filming of Enter the Dragon when the Americans were oppressive towards the Chinese workers. A quote from the book stated,“The Americans often forgot that although they did not speak or understand any Chinese, a great amount of Chinese understood English…The American actor Robert Mitchum displayed a more explicit attitude of colonial arrogance to the Chinese Crew…Mitchum would call them [the Chinese crew] assholes and smile, thinking they didn’t understand. But half the crew understood and the rest found out pretty quickly” (p. 116). This tension between the Americans and Chinese occurred, but the lack of respect for the Chinese and their native language was a huge issue.

During the reading, a key term that stood out to me was the word, “Orientalism.” A quote from the reading states, “In Enter the Dragon, the narrative convention of James Bond as a transnational protagonist is aligned with the genealogy of the “Oriental” protagonist…The invention of Charlie Chan as the protagonist image of American literary ‘Orientalism’ was also formed in reaction to the British literary convention of the diabolic ‘Oriental,’ which, we will see, is based on the British imperial encounter with the Other in the framework of classic colonialism” (p. 138-139). This quote didn’t settle with me very well. The American literary idea of, “Orientalism” and the traits considered to identify the characteristics of the peoples and cultures of Asia. I feel that calling the Asian actors and grouping them to be, “Oriental” seems to be oppressive itself. Again, it reveals how much power the Americans are able to degrade the Asian culture by not understanding their identity, and accepting of diversity as a whole during this time period.

It was interesting to see to watch ”Slaying The Dragon” and then “The Joy Luck Club” after the reading form Robert Lee’s Orientals.

Something that really stood out to me through these three works were the portrayals in relationships. While Lee talks about interracial marriage, while it was focused on Chinese men marring white/non-Chinese women it still shows that interracial relationships have been a thing since the 1800s. Which is ironic since it’s still such a taboo today. while Lee talks about Asian men with other women, the films showed the opposite of those relationships. In  “Slaying the Dragon” it mentioned how Asian women were only allowed to be with white men if they were n need of saving and portrayed as a China Doll, but even then they were willing to give up their lives to save the man. It also talks about the portrayals of the women that white men were looking for. That they needed to passive, and obedient to the men, more like a servant than a partner. Rose, in “The Joy Luck Club”, follows this image. Rose gives her all in her marriage while her husband takes it for granted and even gets upset with Rose because she’s “too passive”. Rose is confused because she thinks that it’s her job to please him. What was awesome in the end of this segment of the film was that she broke the stereotype by demanding the house in the divorce instead of letting her husband take it.

After reading this section of the book, I have noticed a couple valid points that stand out to me. One important concept that I have discovered was Hendrix’s, “alternative mode of communication.” The book stated, “Hendrix’s concept of an alternative mode of communication and cognition projected on the futurity of human communication, allows us to approach the effective mode of communication that forms the basis of decolonization from the power of global modernity” (p. 4). This quote grabbed my attention because he revealed information of how music can be an alternative form of communication that allows many people to connect no matter how much power one attains. An example would be that one person in a lower social class can still communicate and relate authentically together with another person in a middle class of society. Music brings people of different cultures, social classes or personal experiences together in an alternative mode of communication, which creates diversity.

Another valid key point I noticed in the reading was how Bruce Lee made such a massive trans cultural impact not only for the Chinese culture, but also with the whole Asian culture in general. A quote from the reading states, “Part of Lee’s phenomenal popularity in Asia beyond the Chinese cultural sphere may be accounted for by the fact that Lee’s performance not only touched the hearts but also the unconscious of the Asian people. Against the forces of image colonization of the unconscious by Hollywood and samurai movies, Lee’s expressionism and realism, communicated through in his trans cultural orientation, imparted a vernacular image common to the people of Asia” (p. 40). I found this quote fascinating because Lee’s popularity on his performance really gained a huge amount of publicity that gave the Asian culture a lot of representation and recognition that created a trans cultural impact that created a sense of acceptance among the Asian people.

Death is one of the themes throughout the reading. There were several examples that portray death through a different lens. First off, from the start of the book, Nao brings up dying by stating “I’m telling you this because I’m actually not going to be around for long and you might as well know this up front so you don’t make assumptions. Then goes on to saying “Maybe instead of graduate, I should say I’m going to drop out of time. Drop out. Time out. Exit my existence. I’m counting the moments. After reading this, I automatically thought, why is she so quick to give up on life? Then after reading further, I noticed that her father is also suicidal which explains the reason as to why she is as well; she lacks a positive role model in her life.

Another example of death in the book was when Nao had the opportunity to kill the kid that she was bullying. Since she was constantly bullied and lacked feeling in control of her life, she clearly wanted to feel a sense of control and thought by killing the kid, she would gain that. Also, she was bullied in school and treated as if she was not there because the students gave her a funeral.