A bunch of people sent this video to me saying that I’d find it funny, but I just watched this in horror. Basically this video is of a cute little bear cub being scared out of its wits by a baby lion, monkey and monkey’s shadow. Ok, so maybe that shadow thing was kind of funny. But overall, I thought it was pretty cruel what they were doing to the bear. Adding in the facial reactions of the Japanese variety show folks and the soundtrack of the audiences saying “Kawaii!!!” didn’t change that, but maybe I need to see the full version of this, which evidently shows the bear cub exacting its revenge on its (previous) terrorizers. What do you think?

By Kristina Wong

Kristina Wong delves deep into the sky high rates of depression and suicide among Asian American Women to make ‘Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.’

“I’m Definitely Not Crazy. But I Probably am Lying.”

My earliest memories of even thinking I might be depressed were met with warnings by my mother that if I ever dare seek professional help for depression, even as a kid, my employers would one day find out and fire me. It did bother me that being depressed-but-employed versus happy-and-unemployed was the better of the two (and only two) options, but I heeded her advice and never sought professional help. God forbid anyone know I was once a crazy 12-year old kid.

So I hid it for years. And not very well. Even into my college years, I managed to turn club meetings, sleepovers, friendships and intimate relationships into my own impromptu therapy sessions. Anything to avoid the stigma of actually seeking professional help! When I introduced myself to a circle of new friends, somehow unsolicited emotional clutter would always spill out with it. Sometimes my friends were halfway decent at playing Freud, but very often, they were so mired in their own messy lives that my problems just exhausted them.

In high school, my best friend was a white girl named Siobhan. She told me about her therapist. How much her therapist listened to her. How much her therapist loved her. I wanted a therapist to listen to me and love me too. But I didn’t have $50 an hour to pay for that kind of love. Instead, I settled for casually asking for help from friends who would jokingly dismiss me with: “You’re a crazy weirdo, Kristina Wong.”

Being called a “crazy weirdo” was enough for me to not show signs of weakness again. So I’d call out other people as “crazy.” I decided that as long as I could call somebody else crazy, I was doing just fine. Siobhan didn’t seem to care that one day she would be found out as crazy and never get hired for a job. Somehow, she passed off her crazy as cool. In fact, she relished in being “the bad girl with the shrink.” I think Siobhan fed off the energy of everyone thinking she was the so bad she needed help. Being handed the brand of “bad girl” was easier than trying to carve out her own identity.

In retrospect, it may not have even been that I was actually clinically depressed. I think I was just very isolated in a predominantly Chinese American community that shunned ever talking about anything that might be going wrong. My family was so insistent that I project only the best that during car rides en route to family engagements, my parents prepped me with which highlights of my life to talk about with the rest of our family. It was as if I was a political candidate being prepped for a campaign speech. Except, the people voting for me were from my own family.

I was constantly being introduced by my accomplishments (“This is Kristina, she wins trophies and has a perfect GPA”). This confirmed that the only value I had to the world was my net worth. I was never introduced as who I was… because who was I but my accomplishments? I was living in a fictitious world where the only life worth living seemed to be the one that moved along a specific storyline of success. Simply, I was a living cliché of Asian American teenhood: Get good grades, go to the best college, go to the best med school, marry a Chinese doctor, buy the biggest house on the block, and then have Chinese doctor babies.

Supposedly, after that storyline was complete, I would be successful. And successful would equate happiness. Nevermind how unhappy the whole journey was because how could a six figure income and a Chinese doctor husband not make anyone happy? Right? Right?! Nobody talked about what would happen if I diverged from this storyline, but I could only imagine the worst…. Poverty! Obscurity! A single woman surrounded by cats! I lived in so much fear of failure and struggled to both meet an unrealistic prescription of success. I’d break down crying over the unwritten fate that lay ahead if I failed my parents’ expectations. The misery was becoming undeniable even in high school. I went to a Catholic all-girls school in San Francisco. At the start of religion class, we could go around and set an intention for prayer. Girls would pray for relatives dying of cancer or the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing. I’d pray for God to bring me the same thing in rain or shine: “Please God, help the babies dying of cancer and whatever, but especially help me ace that Trig test!”

Photo credit: Corky Lee

Now I’m a grown woman and I’ve learned that having a liberal arts degree does not cause you to self-destruct the moment you graduate. And as evidenced by many of my fellow Asian Americans thriving in a whole range of professions, there is indeed, life outside of medical school. And no, you won’t get fired from your job for having gone to therapy at 12, 32 or 65. In fact, I’ve learned you can actually make a career out of addressing the crazy that nobody will talk about in graphic detail. I am now gainfully self-employed as a solo performer and writer. I tour the country and make a living talking about all the things I never got to talk about as a kid, in front of packed audiences.

It is no cake life to make a living as a performer and writer. I keep late hours, often wonder where my next paycheck is coming from, and I have an extremely difficult time assuring the people I am dating that they will not be part of my shows.

I implode… on stage, and people pay to see it. For the most part, unlike implosions in real life, I can put myself back together again. My show Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest addresses the stigma and shame around depression and suicide among Asian American women. Asian American women have some of the highest rates of depression and suicide in this country. It’s the kind of factoid that simultaneously shocks some and seems intimately right to others.

In the show, I critique the insanely unrealistic pressures some Asian American women have to please everyone and the dangerous cultural pressure to hide that anything is going wrong. In the show I use the “Dramatic arc of Fiction” to critique the fictitious lives women like me were expected to live out. It’s been a wonderful poetic justice to take a whole lifetime of angst and confusion and find a way to channel it into something creative.

In my talking to women about their depression and getting audience feedback after my shows, I didn’t anticipate how many women would “out” themselves as depressed and suicidal. Nor did I anticipate that so many of these women would be the women I thought least likely to show their vulnerability. They were professors, professionals, and community leaders. Where were these emotionally open women in high school? Would our lives have been less depressing if we knew we each other more honestly? What if we could have been so vulnerable with each other? Would this problem even persist?

Kristina Wong is a solo writer and performer who will never write a show about suicide and depression ever again. She is still however, touring Wong Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which four years later, she loves as much as the therapist she never had. The concert film version of the show is available on DVD for schools and libraries. Purchase inquiries on that are available at http://www.flyingwong.com

Filipinos, rejoice! World famous DJ Qbert, he of Invisibl Skratch Piklz and Scratch, the synonymous documentary on turntablism, will be converted into CGI-generated goodness and will appear in Activision’s music based video game, DJ Hero 2.  Which makes sense, right?  The game is essentially Guitar Hero with turntables and fader switches and sampler buttons rather than an electric guitar, and what better way to showcase a turntable than, oh, the three-time DMC World Champion?  I mean, I love Daft Punk — the stars of the original DJ Hero video game — but if we were really had a video game where we tried to emulate how they perform for crowds of tens of thousands, there’d just be a Mac laptop and all you would have to do is press the PLAY button on the one-beat.  (Oh, snap!  I went there.)

(Hat tip: Eric I.)

I just came across this hilarious commercial for Huggies after watching a fascinating segment on Nightline about the diaper industry, which is apparently a $7 billion industry annually in the United States. I watch a lot of TV, so I’m surprised I haven’t seen this ad, but then again, I’m not exactly the target audience. The commercial is for a limited edition ‘Jean Diapers‘ from Huggies with the tagline, “The coolest you’ll look pooping your pants.” I have no idea why Huggies decided to have an Asian dude on a scooter watching a baby walk on the street in his jean diapers, especially since the commercial looks like its supposed to be in Western Europe.

If you haven’t seen Inception yet, then I advise you to stop reading this blog, put some pants on, go outside and check out its next screening at the local theater. If you have seen Inception, then you’ll probably enjoy this 30 second summary done by actor and YouTube filmmaker, Shyaporn Theerakulstit. It explains everything so perfectly.

Needless to say but I’ll still say it, SPOILER ALERT!

Apply by Friday, August 13th for UCLA scholarship for AAWW (Asian American Writer’s Workshop) members in Southern California!

AAWW participates in the Community Access Scholarship Program offered through the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program. Each year, AAWW nominates one aspiring writer from a diverse background and/or culture to receive three complimentary creative writing or screenwriting workshops. This writer is able to choose any three courses at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program to be taken at any time during the UCLA 2010-2011 academic year (e.g. Fall Quarter 2010 to Summer Quarter 2011).

Application deadline is Friday, August 13, 2010, but sooner the better because applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. The application process includes committee review of submitted materials as well as phone interview of all applicants. Email cover letter, cv / resume, digital headshot photo (high quality / resolution) and as many writing samples of any and all genres that you desire to scholarship@aaww.org The more writing samples you submit, the better. In the past, most applicants submitted at least three writing samples.

Open only to members of the AAWW who reside in the greater Los Angeles area, obviously who can attend the UCLA courses. AAWW membership status will be verified of all applicants. If you are unsure if you are an AAWW member, then most likely your membership has expired. Contact AAWW directly regarding membership.

Questions? Email us at scholarship@aaww.org.

We’ve been giving a ton of love to Tuesday Night Cafe recently for good reason– it’s awesome! TN Project is so awesome that they’re giving some lucky 8Asians reader a free pair of tickets away to their biggest event of the year– the TN Party!

I mean, the TN Party is a fundraiser, and considering how many amazing performers will be there — not to mention the fact that all the cool kids will be there — everyone should be willing to shell out the few bucks ($15-20) it costs to go! Remember: today (Tuesday @11:59pm) is last day for presale tickets for $15! So be an early-bird and buy your tickets now or just show up at the door with your Andrew Jackson in hand. (Students/seniors can show up and pay $15 at the door. Kids 12 and under are free!)

The TN Party will support the Tuesday Night Project — a hidden L.A. gem celebrating its 12th year of free multidisciplinary arts programming in Downtown Los Angeles. Since 1999, their flagship series, the “1st & 3rd Tuesday Night Cafe,” has presented a variety of Asian American and Los Angeles artists performing music, poetry, visual art, comedy improv, short films, and performance art.

Here are the logistical deets, but check out the program at the TN Party page:
TN PARTY
Date: Saturday, July 31st
Time: 5pm-11pm
Location: JACCC Plaza in Little Tokyo — 244 South San Pedro Street (Between 2nd and 3rd street) Los Angeles, CA 90012

So do you think you’re lucky enough to win these tickets?!

What you could win from Tuesday Night Project and 8Asians:
A free pair of tickets for TN Party on July 31, 2010!

How do you enter?
All you have to do is to leave a comment saying why you want to go and ONE lucky winner will be selected to go!

What’s the deadline?
Ha ha! I’m not telling you! So enter now! The giveaway will be over when the winner is picked/announced! This could happen at any time!

Rules for entering:
1) Please be serious about using the tickets– unused free tix suck!
2) Contributors to 8Asians and their immediate family members are not eligible to win.

Prize courtesy of: Tuesday Night Project and 8Asians.

Special thanks to Traci, Mary Rose, and Quincy.