That’s right, children of the 80′s, your favorite iconic movie starring Ralph Macchio is getting a remake with the son of Will Smith (because it’s 2009, and Black kids can learn martial arts in movies) and Jackie Chan (because honestly, there are no other famous old Asian guys that do kung fu.) Naturally, they’re calling it the Kung Fu Kid, because calling it Karate Kid 4 would be inappropriate and wrong.
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Back in June, I had blogged about California State Assembly Member Paul Fong’s effort in writing a landmark bill to apologize to the state’s Chinese-American community for racist laws enacted back in the mid–19th century during the Gold Rush. Last Friday, the bill passed.
The past exclusionary laws prevented Chinese from owning land or property, marrying whites, working in the public sector and testifying against whites in court. Fong’s bill also recognizes the contributions Chinese immigrants have made to the California, particularly their work on the Transcontinental Railroad.
Fong now plans to take the issue to Congress, where he will request an apology for the Chinese Exclusion Act – the only federal law ever enacted to deny immigration based exclusively on race or nationality. The Act was repealed in 1943 during World War II as China became an ally against the Japanese. Ironically, the repeal of the Act followed the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. But you have to wonder; why would any Asians want to immigrate to the United States, after such blatant discriminatory practices?
True immigration reform did not really happen for Chinese Americans and Asian Americans until the 1960′s — one of the reasons why my father was able to attend graduate school and settle in the United States. Most Asian Americans in the United States are first or second generation Americans, with a good percentage having been born outside the U.S. That is why when I first met 5th generation Asian American Evan Low, Council Member of Campbell, I was just shocked — that is something I could never had imagined while living on the East Coast.
(Image credit: Time Magazine)
Shopping With GASP!
Back in 1997, when I first met my most recent ex, one of the biggest trends among queer Asian men in SF was bleaching one’s hair blond. Lest it be seen as a knee-jerk reaction to queer people of color wanting to be white to be more accepted by queer white people like I discussed previously, it was actually very popular among Asian men who identified as preferring other Asian men. Despite the burning scalp, the eventual turning of the hair orange if you used cheap-ass materials, it was simply a fashion trend to shock an already shocked Asian mainstream that we queer men existed. I got rid of it a few months later, sick of having to use conditioner on my fried hair, and also because it soon became popular among straight Asian men, which is an immediate sign that it’s passe.
Marie Claire, one of the more famous and respected beauty magazines out there, recently did a report called Erasing Ethnicity. The group of articles presented which while primarily focusing on people of color who wanted to become “beautiful” by appearing more “American”, does a great job for a mainstream magazine by asking more complex questions about people of color and the concept of beauty. From the extreme plastic surgeries that people will do to become more beautiful (not just blepharoplasty, but calf shortening and leg lengthening), people of mixed ethnicity becoming more prominent and considered more beautiful, to straightening and bleaching one’s hair, to Japan’s Miss Universe being criticized for not being Japanese enough, the group of articles poses an interesting question: what determines standards of beauty–whiteness/American-ness or wealth?
On the one hand, again, the knee-jerk reaction appears to be that “beauty” is having features that are considered more white. Personally, I’d like to argue that it’s “difference” in its various forms that’s considered more beautiful, which some argue is a product of sociology, and others biology. Being different is seen as changing the gene pool, meaning that if one looks different and is successful he or she is more likely to survive in changing environments. When I read the articles, I got the impression that it’s being able to have the disposable income to get the surgeries, to have the tanned skin, to become a few inches taller that makes the people who get these procedures beautiful, and not necessarily the end result.
That being said, I still think that many people of color haven’t really thought about this to any critical degree. I remember getting into many arguments with my mom about why she didn’t want me to swim in the summer for fear of me being too dark. Whenever I challenged her, asking, “So you think I’ll be black?” or “Do you really want me to be white?”, my mom didn’t have the language to explain this, and she often waved me off, because she didn’t want to think about it.
A giant solar eclipse was seen across Asia, where crowds in India, China and Nepal peered to take a look and astrologers predicted demons, floods, violence and nothing short of Armageddon. Not so with American astrologers, where we’re just told the eclipse will signal the birth of creative impulses. Goddamn hippies.
I thought geeks were in.
You’ve got The Big Bang Theory. Chuck. Doctor Who. All featuring skinny nerds who get the girl (or in the case of Doctor Who, the “companion”). So why are more and more Asian guys in the UK* bulking up on steroids? Beats me.
According to the BBC, one needle exchange center saw the number of Asian customers jump from 5% to between 25 and 30%. Most of them use the centers to take steroids. One of them, a guy named Abu, has been using them for eight years. He says he wants “the six-pack, the biceps and the big calves.” What happened to good old-fashioned weight-lifting and running? And what about the whole impotence thing? What good is a great body if it means you end up shooting blanks?
To the skinny Asian guys out there, I assure you, chemical-free is a very attractive attribute. Even if you wear glasses and quote Star Trek.
* Keep in mind, in the UK, “Asian” refers to those of South Asian origin, like Indians and Pakistanis.
From the Philippine Daily Enquirer comes news that Filipinos are among the biggest spenders in the US, second only to Indians, and spending an average of $88.6 billion in goods and services annually. I knew those magic mikes and giant forks and spoons on the walls were worth something. (Oh, joke lang.)
Danny Cho is a comedian based in LA — you’ve seen him before on this blog, where he was Kim Jong Il in a parody video of eHarmony — and he’s pissed about the reception of Asian American actors, entertainers and comedians; not by mainstream media, but by other Asian Americans.
Agree or not about his different points about a lack of support from other Asian Americans or what offended him or didn’t; he also brings up outright hate from other Asian Americans, accusing him of not setting a good example. It’s something that I’ve received myself — hell, a commenter on another blog publicly called me a shame to Asians for not being completely militant. (I was also called “abjected,” never mind that the word is technically a verb and not an adjective. Whatever.)
I call it the Yul Kwon syndrome — that Asian Americans are so bitter about proper representation in the mainstream media that any type of role or image that doesn’t exemplify perfection gets torn apart by the Asian American community as being a bad example. But here’s the thing; we can’t all have chiseled jaws, six-pack abs, become a master strategist on Survivor and win a million dollars like Yul Kwon did. There’s an issue of not seeing any of us on television, and I don’t hate on him for being so involved with the Asian community post-Survivor win, but if all we saw was 10,000 versions of Yul Kwon, I would be starving myself the same way thirteen year old girls starve themselves looking at issues of Cosmopolitan. And that ain’t right, either. So what’s the fine line?
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word – Neutral Man’s Burden | ||||
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At his best, Stephen Colbert is brilliant, and this past week, The Colbert Report had a brilliant “The Word” segment- “Neutral Man’s Burden” – a play on the phrase “White Man’s Burden.”
Unless you’ve been sleeping under a rock, this past week was the Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, potentially the first Hispanic American Supreme Court justice. Republican senators were questioning Sotomayor and taking a lot of her “controversial” comments of “Wise Latina” out of context, despite the fact that Republican appointed nominees such as Justice Alito have made similar comments in the past about how one’s background and upbringing shapes one’s views in life (no duh. Humans are not robots.)
This got me to thinking about what kind of confirmation hearing we would see if an Asian American was nominated to the Supreme Court and what “biases” would be projected on that nominee, which is why I thought Colbert’s segment was brilliant. Cobert asked:
“In America, white is neutral … The personal backgrounds [of Supreme Court justices] had nothing to do with the all neutral [white] court’s decision that it was legal to send Japanese Americans to internment camps in 1942. Imagine how the life experiences of an Asian judge would have sullied that neutrality.”
Yes, imagine indeed if there was a Japanese American Supreme Court justice in 1944 when Korematsu v. United States was decided, which validated the United States government of interning Japanese Americans. Cobert’s comments also reminded me of an earlier posting of mine where all Americans, including Asian Americans, subconsciously expect business leaders to be white. Let’s hope that if an Asian American is nominated to the Supreme Court, that nominee will be given more respect during the nomination process.
Most of us have read articles from The Onion, the organization that publishes fake news stories with a satirical spin. But did you know there is a Chinese version of The Onion?
A quick peek at today’s homepage reveals headlines like “Nothing At All Happens To 28 Tibetan Protesters, Their Families” and “Potato-Faced Youngster Lauded for Memorizing Primitive 26-Character Alphabet.” I don’t know why Caucasians are called “potato-faced” — I’ve never heard that term before — but the article pokes fun at how differently Chinese and Americans view education. I’ve always considered English to be a difficult language to learn, but I guess compared to Chinese, it’s laughably easy.
It’s not the Olympics but Kaohsiung, Taiwan is currently hosting the 2009 World Games (世界運動會), an international multi-sport event meant for sports that are not contested in the Olympic Games. Running from July 16 through the 26th, the games features events such as Aikido, Parachuting, Bodybuilding, Bowling, Casting, Flying disc (Frisbee), Sport Ju-Jitsu, Karate, Netball, Orienteering, Sumo, Surfing, and Tug of war. (I know, I haven’t heard of a bunch of these sports, either).
Although the U.S. is not represented in the medal rankings, Taiwan (competing as Chinese Taipei) is currently ranked #2 behind Russia with four gold medals. (See current medal standings)
One of the most interesting parts of these games is the main venue itself: World Games Stadium, which was designed by famed Japanese architect Toyo Ito.
This recently constructed structure is a beautiful solar-powered stadium that will generate 100% of its electricity from photovoltaic technology. The dragon-shaped 50,000 seat arena sports 8,844 solar panels which could potentially generate 1.14 gigawatt hours of electricity every year; that is, enough electricity to power up to 80% of the surrounding neighborhood when the stadium is unused. (Construction information)
Aside from being solar-powered, this stadium is green because of bio-diversity, forestation, water conservation and energy saving of buildings. Other interesting facts:
1.The photoelectric cells allow 30% of total sunlight through, therefore delivering a real-time weather change to audience
2. Reduction of CO2 Production Sunlight electricity generation reduces 0.53kg CO2 per 1kwh, as compared with traditional method. In this project, the generation capacity is 1000kw and annual generation is 1.1 million kwh. Base on these figures, the total reduction of CO2 discharge is 583,000 kg (equivalent to CO2 reduction capacity of the green lands).
3. Avoid Daytime Peak Hour Consumption of Power As one kwh costs 3 Taiwan dollars, and power generation are available 3 hours everyday, 3000 kwh can be generated in a single day, and 10,000 Taiwan dollars can be saved.
4. Photoelectric Conversion for Outdoor Facilities Photoelectric conversion can be applied to road lamps, scenic spot illumination and information indication.
Not only is this stadium being lauded for being “green,” but the architectural sensibilities are being admired for its “humanity.” I believe it will be looked upon as a model for future sporting arenas to be functional, beautiful and environmentally-friendly, as well. And, it’s totally going on my “must-visit” list for a future trip to Taiwan.
A friend of mine from business school just co-founded her new business and launched the website My Panda Paws, a great idea that others might be interested in. Started by two Chinese American moms who were born overseas married to “Chinese school dropout husbands” and have five young boys between the two them, they wanted to find products to help teach Chinese and connect their children with their heritage:
“My Panda Paws is determined to bring some Chinese into your family! We carry a large selection of high quality childrens books, DVDs, arts and crafts, and other related products to help you educate your children about the language and culture. We pick the BEST of the best products to make it easier for you and your children, and many of our products feature characters and subjects that you are already familiar with. Whether you are looking for something for yourself, or a gift for a birthday party or a baby shower, we are sure you will be more than satisfied.”
I’m not a parent nor do I have any children, but I do have quite a few Taiwanese and Chinese American friends who are parents and instantly saw the potential market need for such a site. Even in the Bay Area, I’m not sure where one might find a large selection of Chinese language learning materials, let alone outside of California.
As a kid, I had to go to Chinese school – usually Saturday mornings and then later, Sunday mornings when we went to a different school. I used to hate going to Chinese school because I would miss Saturday morning cartoons, have to wake up early and drive 30 to 45 minutes to the Chinese school. And to be honest, the classes were boring and having to memorize Chinese characters was quite arduous and challenging. I’d often rely on “bo-po-mo-fo” to be able to properly pronounce and “read” the Chinese characters associated with the phonetics. Any additional resources for kids are definitely helpful.
You can use the coupon code “paws” for a 15% discount, which is good until 8/15.
Officials from the California Department of Fish and Game having been going to fishing piers and Chinese and Vietnamese markets in Southern California looking for people catching or buying white croaker (pictured). This article from the San Jose Mercury News mentions that
chemical companies in Southern California dumped large amounts of DDT and PCBs into sewers that go out to the Pacific Ocean in the 1970s. The white croaker, which became popular in local Asian markets and restaurants, doesn’t metabolize these chemicals like other fish and thus is a hazard to humans who consume them. White croakers caught off the Palos Verdes peninsula and a number of other Southern California locations should not be eaten. You can’t tell a contaminated white croaker from a clean one without testing. While there are projects underway to seal the contaminated sites, that process will take many years to complete. It will also be many years after that for the white croakers to become less contaminated.
Officials are encouraging Asian Americans to use only filets of fish and when cooking, to steam them, which makes toxin laden fat drip out. They are also discouraging Asian Americans from using fish heads in their soup, as a way of reducing chemical exposure. While I think it is laudable that the Fish and Game Department is considering Asian cultural processes and Asian America subsistence fishing as part of their work, that last part seems somehow wrong to me. I like fish heads in soup! They add a lot of flavor and are not wasted [quick aside - did anyone else's parents get free fish heads from grocery stores? My mother laments that there is so much demand from Asians that they charge for fish heads these days]. I suppose officials could also encourage some of the vegetarian traditions that are present in a number of Asian cultures, but I’d venture that would be unpopular with certain industries and government departments.
You can check out the official California warnings and recommendations for eating California fish. I find the specificity of the warnings to be amazing (and somewhat suspicious). For example, you should eat only one white croaker caught off of the ocean side of the Long Beach/Los Angeles breaker water per month, but don’t any white croakers caught in the Long Beach/Los Angeles harbor.
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