Saving Face: I had to think about what kind of crisis the charters have in this movie and really it wasn’t that had to find one. Will is struggling to tell her mother that she is a lesbian. She can’t come out to her own mother because she is afraid of how she is going to react. Even though her mother got disowned by her father because she got pregnant and wasn’t married. It was kind of funny to see how the mother would disown her own daughter when she knows how sad and hard it is to be disowned by her father. How can the mother disown her daughter when she is trying to be happy, the same reason why the mother got disowned by her father?  Lucky, by the end of the movie the mother was able to see that the Will wanted the same thing that she did, to be happy and to be able to love.

The Joy Luck Club: Well in this movie you  didn’t even have to pay attention to find the crisis. There were so many bad things that happened in this movie. I almost cried about four to five times while watching. From each character the stories just got more and more powerful. When you thought that something bad happened another bad thing happened that topped the last. I really enjoyed this movie because we didn’t see the typical love story. We see mothers and daughters coming together, finding that their lives aren’t as great as one expected.

Julie Chen is an Chinese American television host on The Talk. She recently talked about how she got plastic surgery to make her eyes larger to look “more American.” Her bosses would tell her that she looked as if she were bored because her eyes were slanted. It was interesting to compare the difference in what Slaying The Dragon said about how producers wanted Asian actresses to look more exotic and how the lady that got the CNN job had to have her makeup a curtain way to make her look more Asian. With this being said I think its really sad that we can lose ourselves by what the media wants us to be.

The O.C T.V show has always been one of my favorites. When Slanted Screen talked about the O.C they told the viewers that The O.C didn’t have any minorities and when they tried to incorporate more minorities the writers rewrote it.  I have watched the O.C over and over again and never saw any person of color unless they were showing  people in Chino where it was supposed to be a poor poverty area which, would then show Latinos. After watching a show but not really seeing the problems it becomes more real to me how main stream television portrays people of color. We still have very few main stream actors in television that are people of color.

We hardly see movies that have interracial couples that aren’t Asian and White, or Black and White, or Latino and White if they are even showed at all.  In Slanted Screen the film reminded us about Romeo Must Die and how main stream media doesn’t want to see an African American women with an Asian man. Although many people root for romantic endings many wouldn’t want to see Aaliyah and Jet Lee together. Although Romeo Must Die was supposed to me the new version of Romeo and Juliet.

Also with Asian men with their love interest in movies its crazy to see how many movies have Asian men get with a American women. I saw how in Rush Hour, Lee played by Jackie Chan never had a love interest even if Chris Tucker had many love interest in all three movies.

From watching the documentary entitled “Slaying the Dragon” and the assigned readings of Lee I noticed some connection between the information conveyed in the film and the book. One of these connections can be seen in the way in which these racial stereotypes and images of Asian Americans are spread throughout the population. In Lee’s book we see that these images and stereotypes of the Chinese immigrants in the 19th century were spread through songs, and minstrel shows. However in a more high tech fashion shown in the film Slaying the Dragon we see the spread of Asian American’s and Asian American Women stereotypes being distributed through films and media.

Some of the stereotypes that are displayed in Lee’s book and in the film is this idea of Asian American woman’s exotic nature making them out to be these sexual beings. This can be seen in the movie characters Linda Low in the film “Flower Drum Song” and Hana Ogi in the film “Sayonara.” As Lee states in reference to these characters, “… Hana Ogi, Linda Low are the personification of sexual fantasy…”(176) This idea of Asian females being exotic sexual beings, are displayed throughout films as well as in Lee’s book, and without a doubt has left an impression of Asian American females on American society.

We also see this idea in films of Asian women becoming these, “model wifes” who wait hand and foot on their husbands every need. This idea of the Asian female being the perfect figure to assimilate into American culture and to be domesticated and, ” transformed from exotics into American girls suitable for marriage and motherhood.”(Lee 179) is displayed in the films depicted in the documentary ”Slaying the Dragon” where the Asain women with her exotic sexuality falls for the white male Hero figure. In one interview in the documentary a white man stated as a child, after watching the film “Sayonara” he wanted an Asian wife because of her ability to comply with her husbands every need. Further proving the fact that the film industry has through its history created this image of the Asian female as a docile wife who in some sick way lives to serve her husband.

What is appalling to me about all of this is the way in which the Asian female is being used in the films as an exotic sex symbol with which the new modern American white male should mate with and transform into this new American housewife. It is almost as if they are just a toy or a puppet in a bigger game in which the film industry is the tool to which this message is conveyed to the people. For me I wish love was depicted as love regardless of race. People are people, with their own thoughts feeling beliefs, and sexuality. However by depicting the Asian female in this light, which was done in great extent in the 1950′s and 60′s it is yet again creating another stereotype which creates an image of Asian American women which may be untrue and de-grading, for future generations in America.

While reading the chapters from “East Main Street” for Fridays seminar I was putting my best efforts forward in order to find connections between the chapters in which I chose to read. The chapters I chose looked at the Iconography of Tiger Woods, The Japanese Beauty pageants, and finally the subject of Keanu Reeves, the show Smallville, and Racial Outing. From these chapters I noticed several themes in which linked one chapter to another.

One of the connections I noticed was the use of both Tiger Woods, and the Japanese Beauty Queens as a link between those who are of color and “White America.” Furthermore I couldn’t help but notice the way both were used as a form of bringing in revenue for business. The Japanese beauty Queens were used to show that the Japanese had assimilated into American culture and were “All American girls,” while Tiger Woods was depicted as “America’s son.” However I noticed that their were alternate motives towards creating this image. In the beauty pageant’s case Japanese businesses were attempting to create business by proving their daughters and their race have assimilated into American society and from this image would create more business from White Americans. Nike too, used Tiger Woods, as a poster child to show off his success in golf which has predominantly been a sport for the upper class members of white society. I found it interesting how business and money have aided in creating an image for both Tiger Woods and the Japanese community. I also wish to know if any of my fellow classmates noticed this connection and would like to hear their thoughts on the matter?

There was another connection that I noticed but am not sure if it is even plausible. However for the sake of getting my readers brains churning I feel it is important to mention this observation I have made between the chapter pertaining to Tiger Woods and the chapter discussing Keanu Reeves. It is this idea that we only see what is easily visible to us through appearance. Tiger Woods stated that he is “Cablinasian” which pertains to his being part Caucasian, Black, Indian, and Asian. However from “East Main Street” we see that though his mother is Thai the commercialization of Tiger Woods leans towards the relationship he has with his African American Father(234). If it wasn’t for the knowledge we have read on Tiger Woods that clarifies he is of Asian and African American descent would we see him as anything other then an African American male? Along with this Keanu Reeves is a mixed race celebrity, however his appearance is that of a white male. He is able to therefore cross between being a person with a mixed racial background, and of the prototypical white leading man in Hollywood. What I am getting at from all this rambling is that color or appearance always seems to play a role in some way. No matter how much we accept other peoples race and culture in our society, race itself will never stop being an issue in our society until these physical appearances become unnoticed. Until when we as a nation look at Tiger Woods or Keanu Reeves and only see a person, and not the color of their skin. When only the character of a person is noticed and marketed to the public and not their racial affiliation.

Waverly takes her mother, Lindo, back to her fancy apartment and shows off the expensive fur coat that her fiance, Rich, bought for her. Lindo is unimpressed and remains stoic even as her daughter throws underwear and condoms at her in an attempt to force her to acknowledge the relationship.

In Orientals Lee brings up the example of The Cheat. In this movie wardrobe are used to set apart Tori and Edith, who dress in a flashy metaphor to consumerism, and Edith’s husband Richard who dresses in the dark clothes of a ‘rational’ businessman. “The West has historically viewed the Orient with desire as the source of luxury…”.

Waverly attempts to get her mother’s approval by showing off the luxury that she can afford because of Rich. Lindo, on the other hand, is unimpressed. Later, at the hair salon where Waverly is trying to make her mother presentable for the wedding, the two of them finally have a conversation in which Waverly admits that she wanted her mother’s approval and that she loves Rich. Lindo, who was unimpressed with his wealth, is moved instead by her daughter’s admission, telling her that she likes Rich.

In this movie there is a moment of consumerism where Waverly tries to impress her mother with the gifts she’d received from her boyfriend. Lindo, however, can’t be bothered with these things, even as they’re being literally thrown in her face.

In Slaying The Dragon there’s a moment where they ask people on the street why Asian women are attractive to them. One of the reasons, based on a Hollywood movie, was that Asian women lived to serve their men and treated them well. In the Joy Luck Club this was represented with Rose. When she married her husband she did everything that she could in order to keep him happy, including getting pregnant and having a child in an attempt to hold their marriage together. At one point in the movie she talks to her husband, Ted, and asks him what he wants for dinner. He pointedly says that he wants to hear her opinion, and instead she says “I want what will make you happy.” It’s at this point in the movie that it becomes obvious that he has lost interest in the subservient woman who takes care of him all the time, and he ends up having an affair. When Rose realizes that she is following in her grandmother’s footsteps, who didn’t see her own worth until it was too late, she takes charge, telling her husband to leave her house and to leave her daughter with her. By breaking the stereotype of being a subservient Asian wife, she and her husband remain together.