Apu; The Simpsons

The essay, Apu’s Brown Voice: Cultural Inflection and South Asian Accents, is the reading that I really enjoyed. Its focus was on the voice of The Simpsons Indian character, Apu– voiced by the non-Indian Hank Azaria. It connected well with the preceding one, Secret Asian Man, which focused more on the visual through a comic strip of the same name. Both concerned with the importance of representation– one being the aural, the other being the visual.

Our movie of the day was the Wedding Banquet. I watched this as a cinematic representation of both essays. The dialogue between the Asian actors on the screen was in Chinese, while the dialogue between the Caucasians and Asians was presented in English. Visual representations were more complex than the typical stereotypes. For instance, the rule of thumb in film is the Caucasian male romancing the Asian woman. The Wedding Banquet employed a unique twist by adding a homosexual element to the two main characters; the traditional male hero role was represented by a gay Asian male, and the usual female object of his affection was a gay Caucasian male.

The father in the movie makes a comment to his son’s gay lover when he reveals he knows about the relationship; “I watch. I listen. I learn.” So it is with the audience of concern in the essays. Readers of Secret Agent Man are made aware of stereotypes and generalizations of, and anger/ frustration within the Asian communities. These concepts are all embodied in the comics lead character, Sam. Apu as presented in The Simpsons is a contradiction between being from Inda, or Pakastan. The speech inaccurate patterns of the brown-voice are oblivious to those from each country.

Hank Azaria– voice of Apu & many, many others

While it is unlikely Hollywood will establish a policy that voices in animation must be voiced by those of the portrayed nationality, it is important to recognize their misrepresentation as such, and view the shows, movies, etc. with a grain of salt.

This chapter made me complicated, because I could not say I knew about Asians really well, after I checked “alllooksome” and watch this movie.

Click here to view the embedded video.

How do you think about this movie? Do you already know where they are from? I could say correct answers for all of them. So, after I watched it, this movie made me angry. This is because people mixed about Asians completely. In my opinion, these people were famous all over the world because I heard their name in news, on TV, and so on in Japan. I noticed there were some people who knew well only by Asian areas. However after that, I took the test which I had to answer where people were for the pictures, and I was surprised how difficult to know their roots even I’m an Asian. I just figured 8 people out of 18 people. So, until now, I’ve got angry when somebody talked to me in some Asian languages except Japanese, but I won’t be able to do because I also can’t distinguish Asians exactly. In addition, before I watched this film; “The Wedding Banquet,” I had never known how wonderful the Chinese wedding was. Every time when I got new knowledge about Asian culture, I was glad to know it. But, at the same time, I was embarrassed because I also noticed that I just know about very few Asian culture. This chapter and today’s movie reminded me that I needed to know more about Asian culture.

In The Wedding Banquet, a homosexual Thai man and his partner pull out a fake marriage in order to convince his parents that he is becoming everything they wanted. Of course it works out, but it takes a toll psychologically on all the participants in it. Unable to hold up, Wai-Tung confesses to his mom about his real relationship with Simon, which is somewhat of a shock to his mother. Wai-Tung’s father on the other hand knew all along and accepted it by giving Simon the wedding money. Wei Wei decided to keep Wai-Tung’s child, with Simon as the other father, and Wai-Tung’s parents leave deriving some happiness from their experiences before being scanned by airport security.

Themes in this movie that were covered over the reading in Dave’ and books before were present in this film. One such theme was the Dragon Lady trope, which was played for a bit. Needing a green card, Wei Wei agrees to Simon’s plan on convincing Wai-Tung’s parents that he is getting married and going to live up to the deal of providing a grandchild. Wei Wei takes this opportunity to feel like she is with her family again. She goes too far when after the wedding, she participates in some adult games with Wai-Tung and “overpowers” him through her “liberation”. The Dragon Lady bit ends after that since she basically realizes this afterwards, leading to uncertainty thereafter.

Another theme implemented in the movie was the “Hulk” imagery mentioned in the last chapter of Dave’. Wai-Tung is trying to keep everyone calm and happy so he can keep his secret safe without letting anyone else but Simon and Wei Wei knowing. Unfortunately an unintentional action leads to a breakdown between the trio, resulting in accusations and curses being thrown back and forth. After Wai-Tung’s father suffers a minor stroke and his mother believes he is going to raise a boy, Wai-Tung loses his cool and reveals his secret to his mother. All the pressure of having a fake life and the damage it was going to his and Simon’s relationship finally caused him to “hulk” out basically, to let everything loose in a frustrated conversation. He doesn’t return to his calm self until he spilled every secret he had kept from his mother.

Final theme I noticed is actually a connection I’ve been seeing lately in the movies we watched so far. That theme, although not a major one, was that the parents of these Asian protagonists wanted a grandchild from their sons and daughters. I’m not surprised by that theme though because it relates to me in that my parents, particularly my mother, asks if I’ll ever give her a grandchild. I always throw that “expectation” to my brother since he’s currently dating, but I feel that pressure is something the protagonists don’t really want to think about at the moment. Just the thought can be frightening, just imagine the costs and resources. Thankfully my mother understands…for now.

In both The Wedding Banquet and East Main Street: Chapter 4, the typical Asian stereotype is being broken.

In the book for this weeks reading, I focused mostly on Chapter 4: Model Minorities Can Cook, because I found it the most interesting. After reading about Ming Tsai and Padma Lakshmi, I would really like to watch both of their shows. They both have their own show on the Food Network, and they are famous for their fusion cuisine.

Ming Tsai focuses on combining the Eastern and Western world. ¨fusion cuisine, defines it as a harmonious combination of foods of various origins. Offering more precise term that circulates in the restaurant industry, Andrew Dorenburg and Karen Page define fusion as a ‘melding together of the cuisines of more than one country in a single dish.¨ (p.75) Ming Tai is also known for being very hot… which is interesting because at least in films, according to The Slanted Screen, Asian men are usually desexualized. ¨ Ming Tsai is not the bumbling idiot who prepares egg foo yung and chop suey and cannot speak English…He is presented as the future of America”(p.78)

Padma Lakshii is also not the typical Asian American cook that you would think of. She is from South India and is very popular for her sex appeal and sensuality, along with her exotic cooking.

In the Wedding Banquet, the stereotype of Asians are broken during the scene of the big wedding ceremony. The two white men in the room look at each other in shock and say”Geeze, I thought Asians were just quiet math wizzes.” This is while the whole room is partying, and drinking a ton! Also, they have a huge party in the newlyweds hotel room.

Overall, these few examples show that the stereotypes for Asians are not always the case.

When it comes to America, things are just…. well… different. Being an immigrant from another country, or the child of immigrant parents, brings up many obstacles. From tensions at home and clashes with traditional culture to dealing with racist Americans and trying to adjust to a life in America; there are many reasons to push people towards secrecy and deceit. I loved how this movie showed these different aspects throughout the film, even if it had some sort of happy ending. The whole movie was based around secrecy and conflict. It showed the differences between the generations that lived in America and their parents who remained in Taiwan. As the movie progressed, I began to think about the article from East Main Street on Keanu Reeves and Smallville. Although these characters were not trying to pass as white, they were trying to pass as heterosexual. This made me wonder if an average viewer of this film would look at the sexuality of the characters before their race, and how that would impact somebody viewing this movie. We know that it is not easy living in America and being from a different country or having parents from a different country. If you add on top of that the struggles of being different from the sexual norm in America, you get a plot full of tension with many moments that almost expose the secret for Wai-Tung and Simon.

While Smallville had many hidden messages that can be read in to, The Wedding Banquet dealt with those same issues but on a much more up front level. While in Smallville, the relationship between Clark and Lex is kept very secret and protected, this movie used the relationship between Wai-Tung and Simon to drive the plot. Similar questions can be drawn from both sources but The Wedding Banquet was definitely not trying to leave those for the viewer who can dig deeper. It presented the issues and questions throughout the movie and left them there for the viewer to tackle. Smallville, on the other hand, could be viewed through different lenses, depending on one’s initial knowledge and ability to read into the show, that could change one’s outlook on the show. I like that The Wedding Banquet was able to bring those things to the forefront of the film and was not afraid to raise awareness to the issues regrading race and sexuality and how those may come into play for somebody in a position similar to Wai-Tung.