Trigger Tuesday

“Your birthday today, Daisy. This year you have to make a choice between two life paths. Second chances comes your way. Extraordinary events culminate in what might seem to be an anticlimax. Your lucky numbers are 84, 23, 11, 78, and 99. What a load of shit.”

The “American Dream” is something many people strive for. White picket fence, wife and loving children, even a puppy dog might exist within this dream.  This was the dream of the son of Walt Kowalski. You might wonder why I bring him up at all. He’s neither a central character to the plot of the story, nor does he show up often. It isn’t him that I even really want to discuss, but more the idea of him. A man, raised by a racist war vet, trying hard to live the “American Dream”. But these people end up being quite important, as they set up the show. They bring the audience to a place of understanding, ask them to look at it critically, and then starkly contrast it with the Hmong culture next door. Its a film which wishes to base itself within the idea of cultural understanding and acceptance.

It is important to note that the film begs the audience to accept American culture just as much as Hmong culture, even though it isn’t specifically mentioned. We are brought into the story of a crotchety old man who has just lost his wife. Death always has been a great way to provoke sympathy from an audience and thus begs an understanding of Walt’s incredibly racist behavior.  It shows Walt’s family expressing very familiar life expectancies, like the attempt to put Walt himself into a retirement home and even the reading of the will at the end of the film. And though American culture through the lens of this film is intended to look less than pleasant, if you take a step back, it really is so. While I don’t intend to delve to deeply into the subject of the horrors of our culture, I did want to talk a bit about how the film takes on Hmong culture.

To a lost and clueless audience, buried deep under the constructs we’ve built for ourselves, we need a guide to this unfamiliar culture. So they throw in the most American man you’ve ever seen (see stereotypically racist war vet; Sarcasm). He stand in the place of the film to be the audience, to make their journey into this unknown new world. And in between Walt(audience) and the Hmong culture(cultural understanding and acceptance) is a girl named Sue. She had the lovely ability to be born into a family as a second generation child, being both a part of American and Hmong cultures. She stood as a marker with this “dual-consciousness”, a phrase I borrowed from Takaki’s book, Strangers from a Different Shore. She takes Walt through the culture, slowly but surely over the course of the film, and asks Walt to understand that people from a different culture are still people. Something this film did really well, as awful as this may sound, is it did not ask the audience to set aside its (mostly unconscious) racism.  All this film asked was that you understand that, while people may be different, they are still people and deserve to be treated as such, even if they don’t operate the same way as you do.

*Spoilers* A little off topic, but there was one thing this film did that really got on my nerves. They painted Walt to be this incredibly racist stubborn man, but faced with his imminent death, his entire character shifted just a little, just enough to be able to make him a  martyr in the end. This sort of white martyrdom/heroism always feels really misplaced in the face of a movie that begs for cultural acceptance.

 

(Trigger Tuesdays, courtesy of Gabby.)

Hello America

This might sound jingoistic, but I think that my obsession for the quarter is going to be America. Love it or leave it.

hello-kitty-political-campaigns

A British-American commentator once wrote that “… the most vital of arguments goes on… Are races be equal?” Why? “Americans believe that these debates can never become tired, and that their resolution still matters, because what happens in America still matters in the broader world.” And it does still matter, because we have not only made a promise to the world that “All are created equal,” but by and large we still believe that today.

This is not to gloss over that we’ve been perfect in that aspiration. We have a lot of original sin in our founding myths. It is important to acknowledge and examine the bad parts of our history, to inform the debate of today. And a lot of what I want to examine is going to keep referencing this.

But I refuse to stop at that. To conclude that we’re a hypocritical, racist country is to take the easy way out. It does a disservice to those who’ve risen through the ranks. And it closes off the conversation about where we go from here.

So these are the questions I want to examine through the pop culture lens. Do we still believe in the melting pot? Is the Pan-Asian idea more of an American phenomenon, or can it be applied to Asia as well? And are these things uniquely American?

Let’s talk.

January 21, 2014 Notes

-Music by MONKEY MAJIK “Aishiteru”
+Band members all from Canada (?), but only play in Japan
-$17 dollars for carryout food ($2 for tips)
+Do not order Chinese food in Olympia
-Posts don’t have to be summaries, but could focus on one thing in the topic
-Improve posts from now on
-Popular culture is always a battleground, where certain forces always meet for conflict
-Strangers From A Different Shore is a controversial book
+Author, Ronald Takaki, accused of plagiarism
-Asian immigrants pushed or pulled to America
-American empire presence in the Philippines
-Read up to page 50 on Orientals

Chapters 10-13 Takaki

I found these chapters to be a combination of interesting, educational, and disturbing.  Some of it was a review for me, for example the parts about the Japanese Internment Camps, however some of it was new to me and made me think.  Unfortunately, a lot of what was in these chapters wasn’t pleasant to read.  In chapter 10, it was crazy to read about all the different Asian groups and how they reacted to WWII.  Most of them went out of their way to make sure that America knew that they were loyal and most importantly, that they weren’t Japanese.  It was amazing how it took WWII to get America to see how unfair they were being to the Asian Community.  ”‘To be fighting for freedom and democracy in the Far East, at the cost of seven million lives in five years of hard, long, bitter warfare, and to be denied equal opportunity in the greatest of democracies, seems the height of irony.’ The contradiction was too evident to be ignored and too embarrassing for the United States to be allowed to continue.” (pg. 375-376)  The lives and conditions of the Asian communities now had a chance for things to improve.

Breaking Silences was a difficult, but educational chapter to read.  The new stereotype that emerged during this time was interesting.  The new wave of immigrants that came to America during this period were much different from the immigrants years before.  They were much more educated and wanted a better life for themselves.  However, now the stereotype became, “Asian Success” (pg. 478).  A perfect example of the problem with this is, “Failing to realize that there are poor Asian families, college administrators have sometimes excluded Asian-American students from Educational Opportunity Programs (EOP), which are intended for all students from low-income families.” (478)

The story of Vincent Chin was horrible.  ”In their protests, Asian Americans recount a long, unhappy history: ‘The killing of Vincent Chin happened in 1982, not 1882–the year of the Chinese Exclusion Act!” (pg. 483)  Vincent was brutally murdered by two white guys that went to the same college that he did.  They felt threatened by him because he was Chinese and because of the stereotype that all Asians were too smart and were taking jobs away from the white Americans.  That sounds way too familiar to what was happening when Asians first began immigrating to America.  They worked hard and prospered, so naturally they were a threat and must be taken care of.

Takaki Chapters 10-13

(I’m honestly not feeling well, I have been having health problems as of late. So for now I will post my analysis of the titles)

Chapter 10

Watershed- the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place.

“The Watershed of World War II” could be another name for the relocation centers (a.k.a. internment camps).

Chapter 11

“Strangers” at the Gates Again

History does tend to come full circle; but will the end connect with the beginning or start another circle entirely?

After World War II, there were still difficult times ahead for Asian/Americans. The war making the racism in America more apparent, and Asian Americans who were born in the states were seen as “Strangers” once again.

 

Chapter 12

Breaking Silences

A closed mouth does not get fed.

One must speak in order to be heard. Though, there are times when actions speak louder than words. If I speak, will you listen? Or will you just see my race as words flow from my mouth.

To match up, to “fit in”, you’ll have to work harder than them. You’ll have to push your self further, reach higher, break the cycle! However, the closer to you get to the goal, the more people there will be behind you trying to pull you down. The myth of “model minority”, a foolish belief spawned from gossipers who just wanted someone to pick on.

Chapter 13

One-Tenth of the Nation

A fraction, a small one.

Are they really a part of it now? Or just a fraction, a piece that does not belong but is there. Riots in the streets, minorities fighting each other. But they helped shape the country, they helped in the wars! Why can’t they belong?! Why don’t you understand? Please try to understand.

History is usually told by the victors, not the victims. Why don’t you listen to their story for once? Who knows, maybe you’ll learn something about your own story you didn’t know before.

Obsessions?

I wish I would’ve written down what I listed as my obsessions from that first day of class. I think I said John Green, Tumblr and bad reality TV? I don’t know how any of those really relate to Asian/Americans. I was watching The Mindy Project the other day and I absolutely love that show and her. I find Mindy Kaling ridiculously hilarious and often, painfully easy to relate to. So then I was like, ‘yeah! I’ll have my obession be on her!’ but that seemed too easy considering she’s Asian/Indian/American and the link is RIGHT THERE. Like31682 a literal line from point A to B. So then I was like, “what about Pharrell Williams?” Because he’s probably my biggest obsession to be honest. I kind of love him. And then that got me on the topic of music and I started thinking about Blue Scholars and other not-so-known artist in the area. And I also started thinking fashion and Asian influence there. And I started thinking about doing some kind of project on Asian influence and black culture? I mean, I wouldn’t exactly call being black an obsession. I’m kind of stuck with it, but it interest me. I like drawing the connections I guess. But when it comes right down to it, I have but a vague idea of what my project will be on.

-STRANGERS FROM A DIFFERENT SHORE

CHAPTER 10-13

From these chapters, I learned not only Japanese Americans but also most Asian Americans had hard time when they moved and they lived in America. Before reading this book, I thought I knew well about Japanese American because I had studied about Japanese American last quarter. However, what I knew about Japanese American was an only one wave, and I didn’t know they had a second wave. As well as fashions are changing every day, people who immigrate to America were also changing every generation.

-First wave

Most of Asian Americans who moved to America before World War ii sough jobs to get money, because of poor in Asian countries. So, they couldn’t speak English well and also couldn’t get good educations in America. They only had hard works to get money and to send them for their family in Asian countries. These times were hard for their physically and mentally. Then, being successful or not made their later life. People who were successful making money could take college educations and get steady wealthy lives. Their children could also go to colleges not to have hard time when their parents experienced. On the other hand, people who didn’t success became having opposite lives. They got low incomes and unfortunately some of them just had to become gangs.

-Second wave

Between first wave and second wave, there was the crucial difference the reason why they moved to America. Most of people who came here after the war already had technical knowledge in their countries. To study more and gain experience were their aims. The reason was different, but the discriminations caused by their different backgrounds were still there. And also, they also faced the problem which made by different cultures between Asian countries and American. In this book, there was one culture different which I could agree deeply.

“Now that I think about it I sometimes would like to move back to India. Why? Because there is too much individualism here in America. I am getting old and I am afraid my children will grow up and will not be near me. In India, children take care of their parents. This doesn’t happen in this country. So there is a price to be paid for coming here. The family isn’t as close here.”(Takaki, p.448)

Although depending on the family thoughts, in Japan, most of people also think about that it is natural children take care their parents after they get old. Some people live with their parents even they married and have their children. They are thinking that to take care their parents is good to their parents. Also their parents also think it is normally they help when their parents are old. However, I heard most of people don’t count on their children’s helps in America. Their thought is that their children also have their lives, so they go to nursing homes not to trouble their children. I also might not accept this culture different, if I’m in the same situation.

 

Reading this book, I was surprised that Martin Luther King, Jr was in this book, because this assignment due to his day. I felt it had meaning that I read and thought about the discriminations today, and I was glad thinking about the racism today. Nobody knows when racisms are gone in this world. However, I think one of the good resolutions is to know about their own roots. To do so, they can find the connection like Takaki. We can’t expect where we have connections around us, I think all people are connecting all over the world. We can’t live by ourselves, and we are not just in one country. Thinking about like that don’t made the reason where we are from.

Weekend Takaki Read

I spent all of last quarter in Chico and Frances class learning about the Japanese and Japanese/Americans. We started with a brief history of Japan before they started immigrating and ended with post WWII and the last effects. Not to say we victimized the issei or nissei in any shape or form, I think one of the most important things we learned all quarter was how strong and resilient they were. However, when you spend so long learning about he challenges and hardships of a specific group of people, you tend to sympathize with them whether you know it or not. I only bring this all up because in class on Friday, the group that spoke about Korean American spoke of how Japan had invaded them. It was strange I guess, seeing the Japanese in a completely different light.

This book has given me plenty of new perspective. In all honesty, I never thought of the impact that WWII had on other Asian minorities in the United States. It never really crossed my mind that this war would basically force people to pick an ethnicity and be bold and very specific about what and who they are.

The model minority part of the reading really interested me. I had never heard of the term before last quarter and I wish we couldn’t spent more time focusing on that alone. I guess it’s interesting to me because I’m constantly wondering how much of a ‘model minority’ I’m being. It’s an odd sensation, not wanting to conform to stereotypes but knowing you’ll be held to some sort of model minority status regardless of what you do.