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I need help.
I have zero experience in martial arts. Any kind of martial arts. I’m sure there’s ninja blood in me somewhere (cause what other perks of being Japanese are there?) but really, I’m like the least balanced, least swift, least flexible and least athletic person out there. Martial arts and I are not friends.
That being said, I do know how to differentiate between the different types of martial arts. It’s like being Asian–we can all categorize ourselves under one race, but you have to understand that we’re not all the same: China does not equal Japan, and you’re an idiot to think that people from Vietnam speak the same language as those from Korea. Right?
Hapkido and Aikido both originate from Japan, but they are not the same thing as Kung Fu. I know nothing about what goes on in between, but I can tell you that.
So why can’t people in America do the same thing with martial arts?
I first noticed this with the Foot Fist Way trailer, which Will Ferrell and the comedic world have been touting around as the funniest movie ever. I’m saving my judgement for when I see the movie (something whenever wherever), which follows a guy named Fred (Danny McBride), who is a world-class Tae Kwon Do instructor.
Here’s my question–is he or is he not wearing a Karate uniform throughout this movie?!
Karate isn’t the same as Tae Kwon Do, right? I mean, one comes from Japan (Okinawa, to be specific), and the other is the national sport of South Korea. Karate (apparently, according to Google) is a “striking art” and their uniform consists a kimono-like top with colored belts.
TKD, on the other hand, is uh…(let me check this)..something different, but includes a dobok uniform, modeled about the han bohk.
Right?
So why can’t other people tell the difference?
I thought that was the only incident, until I caught the ending of MTV’s show, MADE (best show ever!!!) where a fat lazy boy turned into a winning “Karate Kid.” Yay for fat white boys learning to exercise and fight! Except, if he’s a “karate kid,” then why is the emblem of the South Korean flag tied around his forehead? Why must he fight ninjas? He’s wearing a proper Karate uniform, but why is Chan Lee, his instructor, wearing a dobok? Can you really mix and match these two martial arts? Does he really learn how to fight karate, or is it really tae kwon do all along?
I’m so confused.
So please, tell me what’s going on, especially if you know more about this topic than me, because here’s my issue: THEY’RE DIFFERENT. WE’RE DIFFERENT AND YOU CAN’T JUST LUMP US ALL TOGETHER.
(I mean, I could totally ask my ex-boyfriend, who was a TKD fiend, but that would be kind of awkward, since we haven’t talked in forever and then that would launch this whole OTHER conversation about why we haven’t talked in forever…yeah. Please spare me that ordeal.)
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Alright, let’s be honest. When you see the character on the right, your first reaction should not be, “Hey, let’s eat some Japanese food in Mexico” but “WTF IS THAT AND WHY HASN’T ANYONE BROUGHT THIS UP BEFORE?” like me.
Actually, my first reaction when I saw a sign for La Cochinita restaurant while on a weekend cruise to Ensenada, Mexico was a huge burst of laughter, which I shared with my friends…while on a bus full of white people, which only made it funnier.
Has anyone else come across this restaurant (or “Japanese Food Factory”) before? More importantly, has anyone crammed in more stereotypes about Japanese people into a single mascot?
Let’s see…squinty eyes, glasses, buck teeth, huge red rising sun (for a head), martial arts costume, geta shoes and a peace sign. What’s missing? Very little, except I think this little man could probably solicit more customers with a gong, a samurai sword, and an SAT prep handbook.
A picture of the restaurant we saw is after the jump. Enjoy!
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I was debating earlier today between posting an entry or studying for my Math Structures Test tomorrow. My studying can wait. LOL.
I’m excited that I was given the opportunity to blog on this site. I’ve been looking for an outlet for my growing interest in talking about and discussing Asian-related issues here in the United States and around the world. With that I want to talk about how I became so interested in these things in the first place. I know that most of the other bloggers here are already into talking about the issues but it’s always interesting to take a step back in the past and think about that initial “spark” that completely changed how you thought about the world.
I believe that the term Asian American still has many political aspects attached to it. It’s slowly becoming a cultural lifestyle but the idea at this point mostly resides in political circles and discussion boards.
It’s been a while but I still remember when I had that “spark” that I mentioned earlier. 2004, I was a junior year in high school, my parents agreed to send me to an International Cultural Conference in Thailand even if it meant missing a few days of school. I admit that the main reasons I wanted to go was to get out of going to class for a week, to meet people and to probably pick up some girls. Not exactly the most “honorable” reasons, but hey, I was only 17. And I have to say that I got a lot more from going to that conference that eventually and radically altered my whole perception of what it meant to be Asian. People talk about the “clash of cultures” all the time but you usually never really get to see such things happen before your eyes. That conference was intended to bring people from diverse backgrounds together but it ended up becoming a “battle of the races” - that’s how I like to put it anyway…
You had misunderstandings flying left and right. People getting offended that they were being left out of discussions. I won’t get too much into the details because it’s all kinda fuzzy to me now. But in short, the entire thing was complete mess with Asians, Europeans, North American, South Americans and Middle Easterners all forming cliques among themselves. If you think you’ve ever been in a WTF! moment or at least know what I’m talking about, this was definitely my most unforgettable pupil-dilating, jaw-dropping one. Keep in mind that this was a week-long conference. That’s a hell of a lot of WTFs. And many of the organizers talked about soon bringing in the African countries to this circus. *Shakes head*
The world as I knew it was completely changed after that experience. It affected me in a way I couldn’t understand, and strangely enough, I actually remember feeling all my thoughts of innocent naivety fading away and slowly being replaced with this unusual curiosity. My parents also noticed it right after I got back from that conference. It started with me learning more about the Ku Klux Klan and their history with blacks. Website and website of all the crap they did. The Civil Rights era and the whole Black Movement soon after started to grab my attention. This continued as a mere curiosity until I entered college. Nothing much more than spending a few hours every now and then reading about different racial tensions within the United States. It was only during my first semester when I had to write a paper for my English class that I took my curiosity a step further. I started asking myself, “what about Asians? where do we come into the picture?”
It all started with me posting discussions on some Asian-related sites on Facebook for advice on how I can potentially make the paper I had to write related to Asian Americans. I got a good number of responds including one that essentially changed my general interest in race-related issues into a strong passion towards finding more about Asian America. I got a private message from someone talking to me about this Facebook group and how it can potentially help with my paper. That group did a lot more than just help me write my paper, it put me in contact with people who were very passionate about Asian American issues and other people like me who were also curious about finding more about it. Many other people can testify that actively posting in that group has also made them more aware of the issues that affect Asian America and gives them a place to informally talk about it. Several people from that group have actually taken it a step further and met up with each other in real life, whether it be at AA conferences, movie premieres, or just to shoot the breeze - people who would have otherwise not known each other. It’s become so much more than just a simple Facebook group. It’s hard to not get pulled into the hustle of bustle that constantly gets updated there and now, two years later, I’m still an active member of it.
Whatever your opinion may be of that group, it is the reason I’ve become more interested in finding out more about what it means to be Asian in this day and age and passionate towards spreading awareness about issues that affect the community. It’s also the reason I found out about this place and am now blogging on it. You should check it out when you have the chance.
As for my story, I’m still finding out what exactly Asian America means to me. The rest is history
Thank you guys again for the opportunity to write here. I’m looking forward to making more entries. Right now though, I’m hoping that I survive the one more week I have of summer school. This is just a small introduction I wanted to make to say hello and introduce myself to everyone.
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A week ago this past Tuesday, June 3rd, was the direct primary election in the State of California, where there were many local races and a few state-wide initiatives were on the ballot. If you live in California, I hope you voted… when it comes to voting, Asian Americans are NOT the “Model Minority” and are the least likely of any ethnic group to vote. But we are definitely blessed with an embarrassment of riches with so many active Asian Americans.
Mike Honda, U.S. House of Representatives,California 15th District (includes part of Santa Clara County), ran unopposed for the Democratic Party primary for re-election for his current seat.
Raymound Chui ran un-apposed, winning the U.S. House of Representatives13th District (part of Alameda County), Republican Party nomination.
In the California State Assembly District 12, San Francisco Democratic incumbent Fiona Ma won her Democratic primary, which is no surprise since she ran unopposed. And since San Francisco is a pretty reliable Democratic region, Ma will no doubt win her seat in November.
College professor and Democratic party stalwart Paul Fong won the Democratic primary for 22nd Assembly District for California State Assembly, defeating Taiwanese-American Sunnyvale Councilman Kris Wang and Korean-American Anna Song, a Santa Clara County board of education trustee ; and Santa Clara Councilman Dominic Caserta. I blogged about Fong being the ‘Godfather’ of Silicon Valley’s Asian-American political community earlier.
Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Hayward, won the Democratic Party’s nomination for a second two-year term in the 18th District (Ashland, Cherryland, Dublin, Hayward, San Leandro and San Lorenzo, and portions of Castro Valley, Oakland, Pleasanton and Sunol), defeating challenger Jason Teramoto.
Former state assemblywoman Wilma Chan was defeated in the Democratic primary, by Assemblywoman Berkeley’s Loni Hancock for State Senate representative, District 9, seat. Considering how Democratic the 9th District is (61 percent registered Democrats to 13 percent registered Republicans), Hancock will most likely be elected in November.
In Alameda County, Dennis Hayashi won his primary seat for Superior Court judge. Anna May won the two-term seat for Hayward, California City Council. I met May a few years ago through a mutual friend. I was pleasantly surprised to discover she was running while flipping the television channels a week ago and seeing her interviewed by local Chinese television station KTSF.
In Santa Clara County, George Shirakawa won his race for Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, 2nd District. In a tight race that was decided by mail-in ballots, Sunnyvale City Council member Otto Lee defeated Milpitas Mayor Jose Esteves in the race for the Santa Clara County Supervisor and will be challenging current San Jose Vice Mayor David Cortese in November for the seat now held by termed-out Pete McHugh. I’ve had the chance to meet Lee a few times as well as see him in action at a city council meeting.
In San Jose, there wee four Vietnamese-American candidates who hoped to follow Madison Nguyen to the San Jose City council - Van Le, Lan Nguyen, Minh Duong and Bui Thang - all of them lost and failed to make it into the November election. 8Asians covers this in “The San Jose Little Saigon controversy and its impact on Vietnamese American politics”
Kansen Chu ran unopposed for San Jose City Council, 4th District. Former Vice Mayor of Cupertino Patrick Kwok ran unopposed for Santa Clara County Water District, District 5. To be honest, I really don’t know what Water District position does…
If I had left anybody out, please let me know!
3 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Observations, Politics, Uncategorized
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In today’s San Jose Mercury News, the newspaper does a very nice profile on Paul Fong, in “‘Godfather’ of Silicon Valley’s Asian-American political community steps into spotlight.” Fong won his Democratic primary for State Assembly (District 22) this past Tuesday, June 3rd and most likely will win in November, given how Democratic the district (44% registered Democrats vs. 30% registered Republicans) . I’ve met Fong a few times, most recently last Friday night at a fundraiser. Fong is a real low-key, behind-the-scenes kind of guy:
“Paul Fong is the godfather,” said Stone, Santa Clara County’s assessor. “I don’t know if there’s an Asian-American candidate in Silicon Valley who doesn’t owe his or her political existence to Paul.” Now, at age 55, Fong, who is accustomed to working his political magic behind the scenes, has stepped onto the main stage…With the blessing of local Asian-American political leaders Norm Mineta and Mike Honda, Fong has successfully mentored about three dozen successful Asian-American candidates as they’ve gained seats on South Bay school boards, city councils and water boards. His successes have included Margaret Abe-Koga, vice mayor of Mountain View, and former Cupertino Mayor Michael Chang. Fong, a former Marine reservist, likes to compare the club he formed in 1996 - the Silicon Valley Asian Pacific American Democratic Club - to the Army’s Delta Force. Like commandos, he said, the club’s members swoop into the campaigns of Asian-Americans “to help out, or even rescue those” that seem to be failing.”
I found the term “Godfather” amusing to describe an Asian American since that Italian-American stereotype has been around ever since The Godfather movie came. I guess the non-religious term of Godfather has always been used to describe people of power of all ethnicities.
Fong grew up in Sunnyvale, and was a star quarterback for Sunnyvale High School when U.S. House of Representative Mike Honda was then a teacher there, when Asian Americans in Santa Clara made up only 3 percent of the population. From someone who did not grow up from around here, it’s funny to think that Silicon Valley (comprised of primarily San Mateo, Santa Clara and San Jose County) , not a long time ago, did not have that many Asian Americans and used to be “all orchards.” Now, Silicon Valley is approximately 30% Asian. Asian Americans throughout the United States need more ‘Godfather’s’ to help nurture budding Asian American politicians, not only here in California and the West Coast, but everywhere.
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Why was I not surprised to read this morning that Vin Di Bona Productions, who brought us our beloved America’s Funniest Home Videos, has bought the rights to the famous Japanese television show, Masquerade?
The competish, which has been on the air since 1979, features contestants using props and costumes to perform visual illusions.
My first thought was, here we go again. First, FOX announced that they were bringing Human Tetris to our shores (and they’re casting now! Who wants to join me??) so it would only make sense that the rest of Hollywood would start dabbling in the pool of available (and pretty crazy) formats from Japan.
My second thought was, they better not ruin this awesome show. Actually, my real second thought was, what the heck is Masquerade? It’s always weird to think about Japanese shows in American terms, especially because it’s always incredibly hard to translate or explain in English.
Like this morning, where an email newsletter described Masquerade as,
Competitors perform live acts with the help of “invisible” people dressed to blend into the background or act as props all in the effort to trick the eye.
What? OH. This is Kasou Taisho, the semi-annual competition that would air on NTV. In other words, one of my favorite game shows EVER that I would watch with my cousins, where groups of people reenact clever scenes by using their bodies as props…or something like that. Dammit, even I can’t explain it.
Some really awesome clips can be watched here.
Overall, I think this acquisition reveals how the television industry is developing–we’re not only reinventing formats from overseas (are we really running out of original ideas??) but we’re also acknowledging the creativity available abroad. That could just be my naive everyone-can-get-along attitude, but it makes Fox’s old show, Banzai, look pretty stupid now, doesn’t it? First you mock our television shows, and now you remake them. Yeah, that’s right! I said it! We Asians are always there first!
1 Comment | Posted in: Entertainment, Uncategorized
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Here’s a list of frequently challenged books in 1990-2000 by authors of color. Names of the writers whose books have been banned in the past decade: Isabel Allende, Rudolfo Anaya, Maya Angelou, Mark Mathabane, Toni Morrison, Walter D. Myers, Luis Rodriquez, Alice Walker, and Richard Wright. Here’s the Top 100 list of books banned or challenged in general. This provides a nutshell summary of book banning in the West. In 2007, Walker’s The Color Purple, Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and even my personal favorite, Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower were all challenged as inappropriate reading material for high school students.
The Asian Diaspora has been firmly rooted in the West for centuries. And yet not a single APA writer appears on any of the aformentioned listings of banned books. No one is going to ban Amy Tan, Maxine Hong Kingston, David Henry Hwang, Gish Jen, Chang-rae Lee, or the new arrival Min Jin Lee. If put to the task, I’d figure Alexander Chee
If political change is what you’re after, the first thing you need to get done is have a book written by an APA writer be banned in schools. Until we’ve been banned by high schoools across middle America, we haven’t really made our mark yet in American letters.
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We’ve been called the “model minority blog,” not to be confused with the Forum at ModelMinority.com, a different beast. As a result of our “news reel”-esque format and emphasis on current events and pop culture over critical race theory (though we’ve tackled that, too), we’re seen as passive, even disloyal to the so-called APA socio-political cause.
Our bloggers keep getting head-bumped by affiliates of other APA sites, such as the Fighting 44s and the aforementioned MM. The head bumping come in the form of dissenting, arguably truculent comments to postings on our site, igniting flame wars we’d rather not feed. Then when we stamp out the little fireballs of “You whoriental white-loving submissive [insert your favorite profanities here],” we get accused of censoring opinions we disagree with. No, we don’t do that. Trust me if we did that, there wouldn’t be 50-some-odd comments to a thread containing the keyword “bi-racial.” We just censor opinions that if posted, would put our website in the NC-17 ratings.
The accusation of “model minority blog” implies that people think we as a whole group turn a blind eye to racial marginalization, to its unsettling, enduring legacy, its passive-aggressive manifestations in modern society, and its application to Gen-X and Gen-Y APAs. Wrong. We cried foul to the Mister Wong controversy when a German social bookmarking website tried to export their slanty-eyed Chinaman logo into the U.S. along with the ever catchy slogan “ping pong, King Kong, Mister Wong.” Our objections resonated loud enough to catch the attention of Germany’s Newsweek, which cited one individual APA blogger’s opinion as the voice of Asian America. Talk about feeling “uh…no, that wasn’t what I meant…” In any regard, the efforts prompted by our site caused Mister Wong to change its logo. 8A, the model minority? Between “INCREDIBLY FUCKING ANGRY” Asian and “model minority” Asian, I would NOT have picked “model minority” Asian to describe our dear Ernie there.
We handled flack from incensed white people for some of the content on our blog with a nod and tacit understanding, but what we don’t make heads or tails of at all is the flack we get from other APAs. I’d like to see open dialogue between our bloggers and those at MM, Fighting 44s, and any other APA-interest websites out there.
Heck, I call for a cyber-conference involving representative members from all interested APA-interest blogsites and discussion forums to address head-on an agenda listing of issues we’d all like to once and for all hash out in real-time and make public the transcript to that cyber-conference. It’d be a phenomenal resource to offer on the world wide web and might better help us understand each other and work toward a semblance of Asian unity. So, MM, Fighting 44s, any others: what say you?
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