Author Archives: Mitsuru

About Mitsuru

Mitsuru spends his time worrying about writing, worrying about cooking, and admiring cats in his neighbourhood. Mostly, Mitsuru is mysterious and not in that racist Asian-small-eyes-stereotype way, but because he has no last name. He is a Japanese-Canadian Toronto-based writer with aspirations to some day be a poet.

Obama Bows to Emperor Akihito

Posted on November 16, 2009 by Mitsuru

Barack Obama’s bow-at-the-waist to Emperor Akihito has garnered some pretty harsh responses in the US. Namely, it is anti-Obama critics jumping on the President’s gesture with the ferocity of a jock at my high school who’s just been implicated as … Continue reading →

Posted in (featured), Current Events, Politics | 9 Comments

So Why Do Asians Love Stereotypes of Themselves?

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Mitsuru

It was sitting in the middle of a packed theatre in downtown Toronto that I noticed racist jokes aren’t just funny to white people. Fu-gen, Asian Canadian Theatre Company operating out of Toronto has recently produced some plays that are … Continue reading →

Posted in Discrimination, Entertainment, Observations, The Arts | 15 Comments

White Men Making Decisions for Asian Women: Sarkozy and the Burqa

Posted on June 23, 2009 by Mitsuru

“It will not be welcome on the territory of the French republic.” Following a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama in which the two disagreed on the issue, French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a major policy speech condemning the covering. … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Discrimination, Politics | 3 Comments

Reena Virk: 12 Years Later and No Sign of Justice for Hate Crime

Posted on June 13, 2009 by Mitsuru

Friday, June 12, 2009 marks the “conclusion” of the fourth trial for the murder of South Asian youth, Reena Virk. Reena was fourteen years old when she was killed in 1997 by a gang of white youth in Victoria, British … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, Discrimination | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Thomas Beatie: “Pregnant-Again” Man, Once a Filipino

Posted on June 12, 2009 by Mitsuru

So I had heard a while ago that Thomas Beatie — a celebrity transman — is a mixie much like myself. He too has a white mama, an Asian daddy, and originally, an Asian surname. He too was born with … Continue reading →

Posted in Current Events, LGBT, Observations | 4 Comments

What Does Being “Asian” Mean?

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Mitsuru

I tried not to take anything they taught me in grade nine geography class too seriously; it was one of those easy courses where the teacher read a National Geographic to herself while you coloured in maps for an hour … Continue reading →

Posted in Observations | 10 Comments