konoha’s state of the world

Music videos
& East Main Street 1, 2, 5, & 15

One of the best things about the music that we listened to on Thursday was the rawness of some of it, but likewise, the diversity. Many of the songs were touching in a number of ways, but there were also a few songs that weren’t about anything too specific, even if that was because of a language barrier. It was really wonderful to see the way that some of the artists changed with their music overtime as they better perfected their sound. I think the biggest example of this was Cibo Matto, who went from singing songs about chicken (because they didn’t know very much English) to  instead singing about racism in the industry. Watching their evolution and the way their music could have an impact was really wonderful.

Similarly, if I’m understanding the sentence correctly there’s a line in Dave in which it says;

“Blood may run thicket than water, but the flow that counts is neither genetic nor racial, but narratological in constitution.” (Dave, pg96)

It seemed that this quote was a rather fitting match. If I’m interpreting the meaning correctly, it implies that you should not necessarily base family just by race or by blood, but rather by the culture that you have lived in and grown with after looking back on it. This is something that a great deal of people neglect to do, myself included, and which I think many of the artists that we were able to listen to on Thursday were able to accomplish with their music.

Thursday’s Reading…

The chapter that I enjoyed the most out of the reading we did for today was Chapter 15: “Cibo Matto’s Stereotype A“. I am glad that this is the one chapter that we talked about in class, and that we got to watch the music videos. Watching the music video’s helped me to connect back to the reading, although while I was reading, I didn’t expect the videos to be anything like what they are! They were so different then what I had imagined. In the first music video we watched : Sugar Water, I have to say I was extremely confused through out the whole thing. When it was over I felt like I had no clue what just happened!

I think it is interesting that all of their songs are based on food. I also think it is interesting that they decided to name their band an Italian name, although they are in Japan and they are an American band..sort of.

Maneki Neko! (Lucky Cat)

MANEKI NEKO!

images-7

Otherwise known as a lucky cat. Which paw should be in the air, or both? What color should i get?

“What does it mean when a beckoning cat has its right paw or its left paw raised? What do the different cat colors mean? What about the coin the Lucky Cat holds, or the bib?  The meanings can vary from region to region within Japan, and some meanings have changed over time, but here is a general summary:

Tri-color Cat: (modeled after the Japanese bob-tail breed, this is a popular & traditional color for lucky cats, beckoning general good luck, wealth, prosperity)
White Cat: purity, happiness
Black Cat: safety, wards off evil and stalkers
Golden Cat: wealth and prosperity
Red Cat: protection from evil & illness (especially illness in children)
Pink Cat (a more modern color): love, relationships and romance
Green Cat (also a modern color): educations/studies

Right Paw raised: invites money and good fortune (usually to businesses)
Left Paw raised: invites customers or people
(Some suggest the right & left paws both invite business-related prosperity, but that the left paw is for businesses of the night, such as bars, geisha houses & restaurants. Use of lucky cats in homes is more recent)
Both Paws raised: invites protection of home or business
Coin: wealth and material abundance
Bib and Bell: may relate to protection, as well as wealth and material abundance”

Lucky Cats don’t have much of a specific story as to how they began, but they did start showing up in the ‘Edo period” in Japan

On wikipedia I was able to find this information about the Edo Period

“The Edo period (江戸時代 Edo jidai?), or Tokugawa period (徳川時代 Tokugawa jidai?), is the period between 1603 and 1867 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country’s 300 regional Daimyo. The period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, isolationistforeign policies, environmental protection policies,[1][2][3][4] and popular enjoyment of arts and culture. The shogunate was officially established in Edo on March 24, 1603, by Tokugawa Ieyasu. The period came to an end with the Meiji Restoration on May 3, 1868, after the fall of Edo.http://luckymanekineko.wordpress.com/”

lens16610041_1292604370maneki_neko

 

Representation: Tuesday Reading

 

 

No matter the diversity of the material being written about in the reading for Tuesday (cuisine, internet, comic strips), there was a different way Asian Americans are represented in the media in each chapter.

The first representation presented was that of the way Food Network used Asian Americans for fusion cuisine shows. Both Ming Tsai and Padma Lakshmi were used as symbols of the “ethnic exotic” and “assimilated model minority.” The author of the article tells us that the idea of fusion food for these shows is to create an American or European dish using Asian ingredients, sometimes even just pouring a sauce over a dish that is considered ‘Western’. This, according to the author, problematizes the balance between the mix of Eastern and Western in the dishes, favoring the American palate rather than introducing authentic Asian food. By using these foods to fly under the radar with, it’s easier to ‘digest’ and to accept in the target audience – young and high income. Both of the shows that these two Asian Americans cooked in also portrayed them as attractive, Ming’s Quest being created after his popularity amongst his fans as being masculine and attractive. For Lakshmi it is mentioned that she uses changes in her accent and clothing to differentiate the target audiences, using revealing clothing and a ‘husky’ tone for when the subject is more sexual, like aphrodisiacs, or in a sari with a more Indian accented voice for shows about authentic Indian cooking.

Alllooksame poses the question of nationality. Is it possible to tell what nationality an Asian American is by looking at their pictures? This chapter and Secret Asian Man both use popular media, be it the internet or comic strips, to present stereotypes and, in a way, break them down. Through alllooksame, the website has you take a test to see if you can tell someone’s nationality just by looking at their picture. Even people who claimed that they could tell the three nationalities you’re tested on apart (Chinese, Korean, and Japanese), most people don’t score above 9 (half of the 18 possible points). The author also makes this point, “…this figuration of cyberculture as default white tends to demonize people of color as unsophisticated, uneducated, and stuck in a pretechnological past.” This and Tok Toyoshima poses the question of how much can non-Asian Americans claim to know about those who are Asian American. Most of what we see in popular media is full of stereotypes and tropes. Toyoshima even brings up that Asian Americans aren’t represented in talk-show panels, one of the white characters in the comic even stating, “Besides, Asians never voice their opinions so it’s OK to exclude them and mock them openly on TV!” feeding into the idea that Asians are model minorities because they quietly assimilated into American culture. When Asian Americans aren’t allowed proper representation in popular culture, how can we say what we know and see of them isn’t just a list of tropes and stereotypes?

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.

Raves TW drugs

When I was under 21, for about six or so months of my life, I got really into ecstasy. I had always primarily done these drugs just with my friends but one of the last times I ever took it was when I went to my first rave down in Eugene, OR in a forrest. I don’t know if I was more sensitive to my surroundings because of the amount of drugs I had taken but I looked around myself and felt very uncomfortable.

“…for electronic dance music is a largely white, middle-class youth subculture.” (15)

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. I remember the people I was close to around that time period were my middle class friends. I remember going to their houses and marveling at how large it was or how nice it looked. If I didn’t have enough money for drugs, then they always seemed to have plenty on hand.

So I went to this rave and the rave even had a name it was called “Where Life Begins”. I thought it was so strange that here I was, partying with a bunch of rich kids and all of them always talked about the meaning of life on an incredibly spiritual level yet when they all gave themselves “rave names”, they all sounded so generic and I felt like there was no depth to it. They dubbed me “Cherry Bomb” and I’m still not sure why.

“Tribal techno and trance offer white American youth a way to reimagine themselves through racialized, and even globalized, nothings of otherness.” (19)

Right, right. That makes sense. Most of these kids wanted to escape the monotony of their ordinary lives, they wanted to escape their suburban houses. Then this other trend started happening within our circle of friends I began to notice:  spiritual tattoos. I have one friend in particular who went as far as getting a quarter sleeve of a Buddha (she never claimed Buddhist either) and then the golden ratio tattoo and then the flower of life. She began collecting these tattoos on her body that was both very spiritual yet on the other side was very mathematics.

I felt so strange at this rave in Oregon because while the music was great, everyone was losing themselves in it. They were reaching this higher dimension of spirituality but they were all either incredibly high on meth, cocaine or ecstasy. I just couldn’t understand attaining a higher spirituality while someone is so high on mostly synthetic drugs.

Needless to say, I didn’t continue long on this road of rave culture.

Week 5, Tuesday: Davé readings (13, 16, 17)

“‘Alllooksame’? Mediating Asian American Visual Cultures of Race on the Web”, Lisa Nakamura (13)
vs.
“Secret Asian Man: Angry Asians and the Politics of Cultural Visibility”, Yasha G. Oren (17)

I was immediately drawn to article on alllooksame.com, as it opened with internet usage and I’m a true nerdy tech. Because I’ve been a constant computer and internet user for about ten years now I’ve spent a lot of time surfing through the weird, entertaining, and educational nooks and crannies of the internet. And yet, while reading this article, I was realizing how visually influenced my browsing was by white culture unless I was specifically going against that (and unfortunately for the majority of my years on the internet, I  had yet to find those resources and have them be apart of my usual browsing). However, as soon as I began reading this article I thought of one predominant internet uses; the claimed “take off”of the internet (that also happens to be another HUGE can of worms that I am not going to open right now): porn. Because I’m writing this at work I can’t really search for the online articles on the portrayals of women of color in pornography nor those written on the entire sub-genres which fetishize Asian American women (even though the articles themselves are safe, I worry about other NSFW results. Yikes.) To sum up my train of thought without linking the articles: If a large part of the internet is accessible porn and if, with the lack of sex ed in schools (another can to be opened later), porn is a big “teacher of sexuality”, then these genres which portray Asian American women in a very aggressively fetishized way are making up a large part of the visual Asian American “culture” despite the actual, authentic representations by Asian Americans.

And then there are the websites which debate this depiction instead of affirming (a concept constructed on page 265). One of which being alllooksame.com, which challenges its audience to question their “imagining of Asianness”. A quote I found particularly important when considering the necessity for those who are racially oppressed to have accurate representation they determine authentic is on page 268: “The site exposes the participation of the user in this construction; it shows how individual acts of viewing and ‘typing’ or clicking create race just as surely as do large institutions such as schools, medial establishments, and the law.” The article also mentions the difference between Life magazine’s WWII publication of how to identify Japanese people through racist text of visuals )page 269). Because both the article and the magazine contain images that prompt the audience to try and identify what visually constitutes as Japanese or Chinese (and with the website- or Korean), the difference is in the intent. And from the intent comes the consequential results. With Life magazine, the intent was to truly make people believe they had the answer to identify (and that the necessity of identification was appropriate). The results of this belief were and are harmful, racist, and in some case even deadly. The website’s intentions oppose what the magazine taught: you cannot pin-point exact features to create another person’s identity. The results of the website lead us to realizing that we are wrong.

Another website which debates instead of affirm these depictions is discussed in chapter 17′s article on webcomic Secret Asian Man.  The webcomic not only challenges stereotypes applied to Asian men and the fetich of Asian pop culture but it was also written in a way that cut it up into bite sized pieces for the all-consuming white audience. For instance, the article mentions films Come See the Paradise and Snow Falling on Cedars are “not so much experienced as witnessed by the narratives’ white male protagonists, mirroring what a cautious film industry imagines to be its ‘general’ audience” (page 342). When I saw these films I felt the same way; disenchanted that the “safe” thing to do is create for a white audience which implies that the anger of a white audience is more relevant than the anger of people of color. Secret Asian Man (or SAM) uses comedy as the vehicle for responses to racist stereotypes of Asian Americans. (Just the title itself negates the stereotype of submissive, docile Asians and with anger so often equated to masculinity it also challenges the idea of the emasculated Asian American man.) The article also talks a little bit about the “bad form” of anger and how it is seen as a loss of self-control. In this sense, anger is seen as a double-standard depending on who is angry (page 344). In these ways this website, along with alllooksame.com challenge the visibility we see when it comes to Asian Americans online.

16. “Apu’s Brown Voice: Cultural Inflection and South Asian Accents”, Shilpa Davé .

This article made me questions a lot of things when it comes to acting and fictional characters. For instance, Bart Simpson character is voiced by female Nancy Cartwright. I thought of Bart/Nancy specifically because in our seminar’s small group discussion part of what was talked about what money and casting being a part of who gets picked. One can assume that with Azaria playing so many chracters on the Simpsons that he is a very talented voice actor, and some in our small group asked “why hire someone else for one role when another person can play them all?”. However, I think the difference comes with the history and the misrepresentation.

The article talks about the use of blackvoice or brownvoice and its history with radio shows. The use of these sound affectations is in the way we begin to accept them as the accent which erases the many different parts of a place (such as India or the use of an “all-inclusive” Asian accent) but it also attributes the having of an accent to the being of the Other. While European accents are seen as sexy or hot, the historical use of blackvoice, brownvoice, yellowvoice, etc. has been to make fun of the people its portraying. So while the character of Apu does have his examples of being a political vehicle in the fictional Springfield (pages 322-323) and may break some stereotypes he still held the position of the only representation of Indian Americans for quite some time. And that representation was inappropriate and comedic. “In other words, the way you speak determines the way you are treated and the community to which you belong even before you are visually recognized” (page 328).

Language by those who have been deemed as the Other has been a part of culture that was forcefully stomped out. This article not only reminded me of immigrants who felt the pressured necessity to learn English and did not feel comfortable speaking their native language out of their home or community, but also of the Deaf community. Similarly to the way Native Nation children were forced into Indian schools that punished them for using their native language, there was a time when Deaf schools did not allow sign language and instead forced the children to practice oralism (reading lips and learning to speak without “Deaf accent” which has been proven to be not work Arden Neisser and Oliver Sacks both have books on this cruel practice). In both instances, English was forced upon those who did want to use and who did not benefit from it. So to have a character on television representing these groups who have, for so long, been ridiculed and oppressed for their accent who, at the end of the day, gets to hang up that accent on a shelf and walk out of the studio without it? Not okay!!

Indian American television writer and comedian Hari Kondabolu did a segment on Apu and the representation of Indian Americans on television. After this segment, an article by Huffington Post (September 2013) was post out stating that the voice-actor of Apu (done by white Hank Azaria) saw this and commented. That article can be found by clicking here. And then Kondabolu responded on his Tumblr, and to see this you can click here. His Tumblr post DOES include the original video segment where Kondabolu calls Azaria out.

 

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.

Winter Olympics 2014

Since much of the world will be tuning into the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia for the next two weeks I thought I would look into some of the different nations who sent athletes to the games. It was interesting to see that some  Asian Pacific Island Nations were represented in this years winter Olympics, especially since cold weather and snow are usually not associated with this region of the world.

I found that the South Pacific Island Kingdom of Tonga has an athlete competing in this years Olympics. Fuahea Semi who changed his name to Bruno Banani after moving to Germany is competing in the luge. images olym

Also male figure skater Michael Christian Martinez will be competing for the Philippines. He is the first athlete to represent the Philippines in 22 years.

untitled filipino

Asia as a whole will be widely represented in this years games with more then a dozen nations being represented by athletes who have made it through Olympic trials and earned the opportunity of representing their nation. Also I found that South Korea has experienced the greatest amount of success in the winter games having won 45 medals in its history at the Winter Olympics This wide range of countries being represented in the Olympics is what makes the games so interesting and enjoyable to watch.

  http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2014/02/06/sochi-olympians-violinists-bricklayers-and-underwear-makers/