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When we see white people in America from Generation X or Y, we stereotype them by cliques. Their dress gives us the clues we need to tuck them into a specific social category, like prep, goth, nerd, punk, hippie, and so on. When we see non-white people in America from Generation X or Y, no matter what they’re wearing, we stereotype them by race and leave it at that. Unless, of course, that non-white person is Asian, in which case we judge that person by race and clique, because “Asian kids are gaining ground in white culture” and “Asians are the closest to white people.” That is why Asians “are more easily able to transcend their race and find themselves in another social category.”
At least this is the contention of an op-ed article I ran into this morning at the Vanguard, see here.
Putting aside my opinion that this is a load of crap, I’m curious about why: 1) the author of this article, who I presume is white based on context, thinks Asians are more like white people than, say, Latinos or Eastern Europeans, and 2) by Asians, he must mean the yellow ones and not the brown ones and why did he completely and unabashedly omit brown Asians?
Second, the borderline defined by the author is wrong. People who see race more prominently than social cliques will see race first, even if that individual is Asian. Whites who see race more prominently may not call out the race of other white folks, but non-whites certainly do. “See that white hipster boy over there?” we say. People who see cliques more prominently than race may likely exclude race entirely. I’ve seen that happen before, too.
All in all, though, I’m glad Asians “are more easily able to transcend their race.” I mean, that’s why we have sites like APIA Blog Network, Angry Asian Man, the Model Minority forum, APAs for Progress, Hyphen, and heck, 8Asians, and why every established university in this country has to have an Asian American studies program. What kind of Asians have this author been mingling with? The white-washed ones?
7 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Lifestyles
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I kind of laughed when I read in today’s San Jose Mercury News about “Chinese-American women create a line-dancing craze.” Not because line-dancing is funny, but because my mother has done some line-dancing at the local senior centers in Palo Alto and Mountain View in the past and am surprised I didn’t come across an article on this trend earlier:
“…Sue Hsu, 47, and Kathy Chang, 48, are becoming a must-stop on Silicon Valley’s line-dancing circuit. They also are the first teachers to tailor their upbeat dance classes to a predominantly Chinese crowd. What started as a
class of six women in Chang’s Cupertino living room 14 months ago has cha-cha-cha-ed into eight weekly classes plus a “Saturday Night Social” at two strip-mall studios that attract nearly 400 students. Not to mention the 106 videos of their dance classes on YouTube, which they say have netted 200,000 hits from as far away as Australia and Singapore. Their secret to success? Tapping into a niche market, they say. Their students are mostly people like themselves: first-generation Chinese women, many with advanced degrees, who need a hobby to blow off some steam. Plus, they grin, line dancing has an added benefit. “You don’t need partners,” Chang said. “So that’s why all the Chinese women take this. They don’t need their husbands to come with them… Teachers Hsu and Chang also have worked to “raise the bar” of the line-dancing community because of their Web site, www.suenkathy.com, said Dorothy Bender of Palo Alto, the only non-Asian student on this particular day. She’s an admitted line-dance junkie, taking classes wherever they’re offered. Though she thought she’d be intimidated by taking class with mostly Chinese students, Bender is glad line-dancing steps are universal. And she’s proud to have made a few new friends while learning a phrase or two in Mandarin.“”
I can totally picture this, especially the husbands not wanting to dance. I have to imagine, with most of the women participating are immigrants, that as one has a family, it’s harder to meet others with a similar background in a social setting and make new friends.
1 Comment | Posted in: Lifestyles, Observations
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It’s interesting when you read about things that are made in China. I mean, who really doesn’t know that things are manufactured there anyways? Anything you pick up practically has the little sticker on it. But something that I didn’t realize was this little fact:
“Ever wondered why Coach has so many stores in China? Easy – they make virtually all their bags here. Prada, LV, Furla – all now largely made in China.”
Are you serious? Those bags aren’t made in Italy?
And they make a minimum of 15% margin? Note that it was a minimum. This just goes to show that the while there has been a lot of talk about even American firms trying to defeat the global manufacturing juggernaut, there really isn’t anything that can stop the greed. And if anything proves it, the fact that designer bags are being made there should be the last sign that you’ll ever need. Globalization of corporate America has in the last twenty or so years given China the means to hold all the strings. And who suffers if you try to cut these strings? We the consumers do.
Unfortunately, that’s just how the cookie crumbles. We Americans want to super-size everything for cheap. Nicer things for lower prices. Ahh.. the smell of capitalism.
And for that, the Chinese just snicker softly whenever we complain about jobs being lost and American manufacturing industry taking a nosedive. Need any more proof? See if you can’t get away from that little white sticker that says “Made in China.”
16 Comments | Posted in: Lifestyles, Observations
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1. For some of the heavily commented blog entries on 8Asians, some people have requested a way to find out if someone has followed-up to a person’s comment. In addition to the existing comments feed, there’s now a way to subscribe to comments - just check the checkbox marked “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail” to, uhm, be notified of followup comments via e-mail.
2. To better understand the demographics of the people reading this blog, we’ve created a quick two-page survey for people to complete. While it’s completely optional, filling out the survey helps us make a better 8Asians.com for you guys, and there’ll also be a drawing for some free 8Asians.com shwag to a lucky survey reader. (Whether it’s a tote bag, a t-shirt or a bumper sticker depends on how much out-of-pocket money I feel like personally sending.)
3. We’re still looking for writers, but we’re now ready to present our first batch of Associate writers. “Associate writers?” you ask. “What the hell is that?” In a nutshell, they’re simply writers whose photos aren’t at the top of the page yet. They’ll be able to post to the blog like everyone else for a couple of weeks, and if they don’t feel like it’s going the way they had thought or life gets in the way and they can’t commit to writing for a long period of time, no worries. If things DO go well, then I’ll rotate out some of the more inactive writers of 8A with Associate writers. Hopefully this will maintain a constant stream of diverse voices. Who ARE these new people, you ask? You’ll be able to read their bios (and look at their photos!) after the jump. And be on the lookout for another announcement of Associate writers, very soon.
2 Comments | Posted in: Meta
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Quick, name the newest film directed by Taiwanese filmmaker Ang Lee. If you answered a certain movie about gay cowboys, you would be wrong - Lee recently directed a Taiwanese art-house movie called 色戒, or Lust, Caution.
Unfortunately, if you’re expecting to see it in theaters the same way you saw Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, you might have to wait a while, via IMDB:
Focus CEO James Schamus told the Associated Press in an email that the U.S. movie market is “insanely overcrowded.” He added, “Every art-house film that tries to go wide is having trouble, so while we are going out in every major market and getting great numbers, we are being very cautious until we see how the market shakes out.” He called Caution “a very Asian film … whose politics and sexuality are challenging.” So, it would seem, is the film’s NC-17 rating. Shamus said that newspapers in Salt Lake City are refusing to carry ads for the movie.
Aaah, NC-17 - the film-rating’s mark of death. They are showing the film in theaters that play more experimental films, including three in the Bay Area, so as long as you’re not in Utah, you can help yourself to some Asian porn a riveting story besieged with political and sexual intrigue.
[Link credit: George]
6 Comments | Posted in: Entertainment
Last week I watched Frontline’s episode on Cheney’s Law. It was an investigative report about how Vice President Cheney and his minions sought to change the Executive powers of the President. You can watch the full episode on Frontline’s website under Cheney’s Law. For the past couple years, Congress and the media have been questioning the privileges gained by the new powers of the Executive office. It’s a point of contention from both conservatives and liberals alike. And I’m sure it’s something we will be hearing about more often with the upcoming election.
One of the key people involved in writing and enabling the new powers of the Executive office is a Korean born American lawyer by the name of John Yoo. John Yoo could be characterized as a hardworking almost stereotypical first generation Asian American. He emigrated from South Korea at a young age, grew up in Philadelphia, graduated from Harvard, and then law school at Yale. He was an Asian American poised for greatness, serving as clerk to both Laurence H. Silberman at the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. There is a great profile of the man written in the Washington Post But his infamy did not come about till he wrote several helpful memos, that brought Cheney’s ideas of expanding executive powers to the forefront. (Continued)
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Sunday afternoon, I attended the first ever San Mateo County Democratic Presidential Straw Poll. The guest of honor was presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (my videoclip here on YouTube). There were over 750 who voted.
I think I saw about 20-to-30 Asian-Americans at the straw poll, which was pretty disappointing to see, considering that San Mateo & Santa Clara County is approximately 20% Asian, and San Francisco County is about 35% Asian. Where are the Asian-American citizens ? I did bump into a Huijun Ring, a Chinese-American who is running for Foster City’s City Council seat - she’s one of seven candidates running for three open seats this November. So if you live in Foster City - please consider Ring for office. In a county that is 20% Asian, it would be nice to see some representation in public office!
5 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Observations
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In “An unlikely treasure-trove of donors for [Hillary] Clinton,” The Los Angeles Times reports on New York’s Chinatown and its support for Hillary:
“All three locations, along with scores of others scattered throughout some of the poorest Chinese neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx, have
been swept by an extraordinary impulse to shower money on one particular presidential candidate — Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton… And Clinton’s success in gathering money from Chinatown’s least-affluent residents stems from a two-pronged strategy: mutually beneficial alliances with powerful groups, and appeals to the hopes and dreams of people now consigned to the margins. Clinton has enlisted the aid of Chinese neighborhood associations, especially those representing recent immigrants from Fujian province… Many, on the other hand, said they gave for reasons having more to do with the Chinese community than with Clinton. He Duan Zheng, who gave $1,000, said of the Fujianese community: “They informed us to go, so I went. “Everybody was making a donation, so I did too,” he said. “Otherwise I would lose face.”
There are some references to the legality of some of these contributions, considering many in Chinatown are recent immigrants, poor, not legal residents, not registered to vote or do not speak English. Surprisingly though, there was no reference to the illegal bundling contributions by Norman Hsu to Hillary. Apparently, a key community leader has been Chung Seto, who came to the U.S. when she was young from Canton province and has been a long-time supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton since the 1990s.
1 Comment | Posted in: Current Events, Observations, Politics
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